Why You Should Avoid Samsung’s Q900 Series 8K HDTV

April 3, 2020 Topic: Technology Blog Brand: The Buzz Tags: Samsung4K8KHDTVTechnologyTelevision

Why You Should Avoid Samsung’s Q900 Series 8K HDTV

Love Samsung? Great. Then save a few hundred bucks and just go with the Samsung Q90R 4K TV.

Yes, the hype is already here: 8K will probably one day dethrone 4K. But today? Most likely, if you do already own an 8K TV, you’re just probably watching most of the content in 4K – this is because there is a dearth of 8K content available right now.

With this in mind, let’s take a gander at Samsung’s Q900 8K TV, for which the 65-inch model can currently be had for $2,700. You might be ready to immerse yourself in that awesome 8K universe, but at least as of today, you can probably save a few hundred bucks and just go with the Samsung Q90R 4K TV.

Side-by-side tests, especially for 55- and 65-inch models, have shown that the pictures on both of Samsung’s 8K and 4K TVs look nearly identical. Until there are more 8K content to work with, this 8K TV is just too early for most consumers. Yes, there is more of a picture quality difference if you decide on an 80-plus-inch 8K TV. If you do decide to splurge, you may think that you are future-proofing your TV tech. Can’t complain about that line of thinking.

Keep in mind that Samsung’s 8K offerings will continue amid the company’s recent decision to halt production of traditional LCD displays by the end of the year. Driven by a supply glut and falling demand, the Korean tech company is now turning its full attention toward its burgeoning portfolio of TVs that utilize quantum dot technology, much like the Q900 Series.

You definitely can’t fault Samsung for this, even though there’s been greater proliferation of OLED TVs in recent years. In short, a QLED TV is just an LCD TV with quantum dots, which are microscopic particles that when hit by light, emit a certain different colored light. The source of this light is the LED backlight, and that light must pass through more layers, such as the LCD layer, to produce the images on the screen.

In improving QLED TVs, Samsung has created a new refined aluminum compound that can make the quantum dots more efficient, and the natural ability to produce more accurate colors. This technology replaces the red, green and blue color filters that many older TVs used.

All told, the Q900 is a great piece of tech and probably won’t disappoint – it’s just a bit early as many are still trying to figure out 4K. It comes with all of Samsung’s perks – better-than-average user interface, the One Connect Box, Bixby voice control and four HDMI 2.1. The TV also boasts a more powerful CPU, which is obviously focused on handling data-intensive 8K videos. The panel has an astounding 33,177,600 pixels, compared to 8,251,200 pixels that 4K UHD offers.

Ethen Kim Lieser is a Tech Editor who has held posts at Google, The Korea Herald, Lincoln Journal Star, AsianWeek and Arirang TV.