Thinking of picking up a new TV within the next 12 months? You could do a lot worse than to choose one from the most popular television brand. Here’s everything you need to know about Samsung’s 2015 range of TVs and home entertainment gear.
SUHD Is The UHD You Know And Love, But Better
SUHD is a new screen technology that Samsung is pushing in its premium TVs, based on the quantum dots previously used by Sony and other panel-makers that offers a significantly wider colour gamut.
What this means is a TV that can offer brighter outright colours, more detailed and gradated colours over a wider range, and a more realistic image that’s closer to the one you’re meant to be seeing. It’s still not as high-contrast or as deep-blacked as OLED, but it’s easier to manufacture and available over a range of screen sizes.
Screens From Small To Massive, With Price Tags To Suit
Samsung’s HD, Full HD, Ultra HD and SUHD tellies come in anything from the smallest 32-inch screen sizes up to massive 88-inch monsters. You’ll have to pay for the privilege, though; that top-of-the-line 88-inch JS9500 curved SUHD TV will set you back a cool $24,999 at its RRP. Maybe you can get a discount.
If that’s a bit rich, you can down-size to the 85-inch JU7000 and spend only $14,999. It looks like the sweet spot this year, though, will be the 60- and 65-inch range — anything larger starts to get expensive quickly. In Australia, we have big houses and a lot of space to fill, so go large.
Tizen, An Entirely New Smart TV System
All Samsung Smart TVs released this year — and that’s almost all of them — run on a new Tizen operating system, and the top models use a Samsung-built Exynos octa-core processor. The whole thing is a lot smoother and simultaneously a lot cleaner and simpler than previous attempts, and it all just works like you’d expect.
Samsung’s Smart Hub now lives as a bar at the bottom of the screen, a la LG WebOS 2.0, but Samsung has the big step up over its competitor of having a bunch of local video streaming services available out of the box like Stan, Foxtel Play, Presto, as well as Netflix.
Free Netflix For Six Months For UHD Buyers
If you buy a Samsung UHD or SUHD TV between now and June, you’ll get a free six-month subscription to Netflix. That’s not a huge monetary incentive — $90 value on a $5000-plus TV — but it gives you direct unfettered access to a bunch of 4K video to properly show off your new screen’s resolution and detail.
There are caveats, obviously; you’ll need an internet connection capable of 25Mbps downloads, a decent quota for regular streaming, and Netflix’s 4K video still doesn’t compare to a less-compressed higher quality 4K file, but all things told it’s a smart move and a good extra.
New Soundbars And 360-Degree Wireless Speakers
Not content to dominate just TVs, Samsung is also pushing a bunch of new soundbars to suit its 2015 television range, including curved soundbars — smart, since all of Samsung’s premium TVs are curved as well. You’ll pay several hundred dollars or more for these soundbars, but they’ll much improve your TV’s audio.
As well as soundbars, Samsung has two very interesting 360-degree multi-room audio speakers coming to local stores. Stick them in the middle of a room and they’ll radiate sound outwards, throughout an entire living space. The R6 and R7 speakers will be out in Australia soon, but prices and release dates aren’t confirmed just yet.
And Here’s What You’ll Be Paying
Time to open your wallet. Samsung’s new TVs aren’t cheap. If you want Ultra HD, the absolute least that you’ll pay is $3199 for the 55-inch Series 7 JU7000. If you want a more affordable, mainstream TV we’ll have pricing for Samsung’s Full HD and HD range soon too.
SUHD TVs
- Samsung Series 9 JS9500 88-inch SUHD TV – RRP $24,999, available June 2015
- Samsung Series 9 JS9500 78-inch SUHD TV – RRP $19,999, available April 2015
- Samsung Series 9 JS9500 65-inch SUHD TV – RRP $9,999, available April 2015
- Samsung Series 9 JS9000 65-inch SUHD TV – RRP $7,999, available April 2015
- Samsung Series 9 JS9000 55-inch SUHD TV – RRP $5,999, available April 2015
- Samsung Series 8 JS8000 65-inch SUHD TV – RRP $6,999, available April 2015
- Samsung Series 8 JS8000 55-inch SUHD TV – RRP $4,999, available April 2015
UHD TVs
- Samsung Series 7 JU7500 78-inch UHD TV – RRP $10,999, available April 2015
- Samsung Series 7 JU7500 65-inch UHD TV – RRP $5,299, available April 2015
- Samsung Series 7 JU7500 55-inch UHD TV – RRP $3,499, available April 2015
- Samsung Series 7 JU7000 85-inch UHD TV – RRP $14,999, available June 2015
- Samsung Series 7 JU7000 75-inch UHD TV – RRP $9,499, available April 2015
- Samsung Series 7 JU7000 65-inch UHD TV – RRP $4,999, available April 2015
- Samsung Series 7 JU7000 60-inch UHD TV – RRP $3,999, available April 2015
- Samsung Series 7 JU7000 55-inch UHD TV – RRP $3,199, available April 2015
Curved Soundbars
- Samsung Series 6 Curved Soundbar – RRP $999, available April 2015
- Samsung Series 7 Curved Soundbar – RRP $1,399, available April 2015
- Samsung Series 8 Curved Soundbar – RRP $1,699, available April 2015