Just one month after unveiling their presumably exceptional new 2019 4K UHD TVs, Samsung has already released them for sale, with prices and specs announced. The offerings for this year include the unique twist of both 8K and 4K options and updated editions of Samsung’s entire 2018 QLED lineup. Brand new QLED-powered versions of the company’s designer Serif and “The Frame” 4K UHD TVs are also now going on sale.
As you might expect, none of the premium and ultra-premium offerings among these 4K TVs are exactly retailing for low prices but what they do promise to offer is some truly exceptional display performance. Considering just how sincerely excellent several of Samsung’s 2018 4K UHD TVs were, we’re strongly include to believe the new editions will be outstanding performers, especially on color delivery, which Samsung currently does better than any other brand.
One major modification to the 2019 lineup of Samsung 4K and 8K TVs comes in their size ranges. Samsung is beefing up screen size options almost across the board and every single one of their “Q” QLED TVs will be available in both 75 and 82 inch versions. These giant sizes might be a particularly good fit for consumers who have extra to spend and REALLY want to appreciate the combination of 4K resolution, extraordinary display brightness, extremely strong contrast and outstanding color vibrancy that Samsung’s premium 4K TVs have excelled at, based on our own review metrics for previous models.
Completely unsurprisingly, the biggest Samsung TV release of all the 2019 models will be the monster 8K Q900 edition, which will go even beyond the huge 82 inch screens available for the 4K QLEDs and come in an 85 inch version and one absolutely monstrous (and monstrously expensive) 98 inch model. Since differentiating between 4K and 8K resolution is really hard at normal (read 45 to 65 inch size ranges) going for a TV with over 80 inches of display space makes sense for anyone who wants to show off native 8k resolution in their home theater system.
Another huge development that Samsung is touting for the very best of its 2019 Q Series TV models is something we’ve been waiting to see for some time. The company has installed a new feature called “Ultra Viewing Angle Technology” In the Q90 and Q80 flagship TV editions. What this means, (at least according to Samsung’s claims and what CES display models have shown) is the ability to deliver excellent color, contrast, brightness and overall picture quality even when these TVs are viewed from extreme off-centre angles.
What makes this so remarkable is that up until now, only OLED TVs and 4K LCD TVs with IPS display designs have been able to pull off high quality wide viewing angles. With OLED, this comes at the cost of a premium retail price for any OLED TV and with IPS 4K TVs, it comes at the sacrifice of high contrast and deep black levels because of how IPS display pixels are aligned into a TV screen. All Samsung 4K TVs from previous years (including their best premium models) came with Vertical Alignment (VA) display designs that gave them superbly strong black levels and contrast but also spoiled picture quality at wide angles.
In other words, the new 2019 Q Series display technology promises the best of both worlds in LCD 4K TVs and though for now it’s only available in Samsung’s most expensive editions, the bottom line is that something like this might exist for the first time ever in LCD TVs, and eventually reach cheaper budget 4K TV editions in the coming years.
Yet another design feature of some of the new Q TVs is full-array LED backlighting. This year Samsung decided to include the technology in three of their models, the Q90, Q80 and Q70 editions, as opposed to only two 2018 TVs, the Q9F and Q8F, having it and only one 2017 and 2016 model coming with full-array. We think this is a great thing to see partly because full-array technology dramatically improves picture brightness and local dimming quality and also because at the prices Samsung is selling these TVs for, it would almost be insulting if at least some of them didn’t come with full-array LED backlighting. The fourth-tier Q TV, the Q60 only comes with edge-lit LED backlighting but does at least include local dimming, as do some of the mid-range RU series models.
As for their computer internals, the new Q TVs will come with improvements in their AI, with all of them being able to adjust audio and picture settings on the fly depending on the type of content being played. This even extends to automated audio adjustments, which can be set to change focus for different sounds depending on content (voice sharpening during news for example). The Tizen smart TV platform in the Q Series QLEDs has been refined yet again for even better convenience and usability. It will also include AirPlay 2 and the iTunes movies and TV Shows app as well as a content suggestion algorithm.
While we can’t comment on the picture quality that the 2019 Q TVs actually deliver during live practical use, the features described above for color performance and HDR will probably mean these models perform better than anything we’ve yet seen from this brand, and we’ve been very pleased by what we measured in the performance of almost all previous Samsung QLED TV editions since they emerged. We’re also looking forward to seeing how much Samsung’s touted improvements to game handling, judder control, motion handling for general content and motion interpolation capabilities pan out under review conditions. One thing that all Samsung 4K TVs right down to their cheapest models have excelled at for several years running has been how well they handle gaming input, and we hope this improves even further in 2019.
The Samsung Q90
Now, for the fine details of what’s being released at what price, here are the prices for all models and sizes of the 2019 Q Series televisions that Samsung has revealed on their website. Like we said, they’re certainly not cheap and the Q900 8K model is especially pricey but they’re also not quite as expensive as we’d expected. Bear in mind, for example, that just a couple years ago, an 85 inch 8K TV didn’t exist at all for the consumer market and even 4K TVs that big sold for well over $20,000.
Q900 8K 85-inch: $15,000
- 82-inch: $10,000
- 75-inch: $7,000
- 65-inch: $5,000
Q90R 4K 65-inch: $3,500
Q70R 4K 65-inch: $2,200
Q60R 4K
- 65-inch $1,800
- 55-inch: $1,200
We don’t yet have price information for Samsung’s mid-range RU-Series 2019 4K TV lineup or for the 2019 versions of “The Frame” and Serif designer TVs but we’re expecting to see these revealed very soon.