New TV lineups hands-on
The Frame: A High Reliability 1080c Frame with One Connect Box for the 2023 Full-K Ultra-Low-Size Galaxy
Samsung is taking full advantage of the newest and most hyped 8K technology — adding an even bigger screen size to the 2023 lineup, up from 2022’s 75-inch. The flagship QN900C starts at 5,000 and the less expensive QN800C starts at $3,500, with models in 65-inch, 75-inch and 85-inch sizes.
If you don’t have a budget or room to spare, the M8 is a fine compromise for handling both purposes. Read our review.
The Frame has a 120Hz refresh rate, as well as a couple of ports in addition to the HDMI 2.1. It is also worth mentioning that the TV comes with a OneConnect box which makes it easier to manage your cables. While The Frame doesn’t stack up spec by spec to, say, the similarly priced LG C2 OLED, the Frame is a more eye-catching option.
Getting Your Paperwhite Before You Buy It: Comparing Amazon and Woot with Amazon for a Low-Price Robot Vacuum
The latest ad-supported model of the Kindle Paperwhite is being sold at a 40 percent lower price than the current model. This is $10 cheaper than Amazon’s refurbished model. The one on sale is listed as being in very good condition and comes with a 90-day warranty, whereas the one on sale on Amazon has a one-year warranty.
The 2021 Paperwhite is a great improvement over the generation that came before it, with a larger 6.8-inch display, adjustable color temperature, USB-C port, and a battery that lasts for weeks, even with frequent use. Here’s another reminder that this e-reader includes ads, which, thankfully, you have the option to remove later for $20 if you find yourself hating them. The upcoming Kindle Scribe, with its included stylus and much higher price, seems intriguing, but the Paperwhite is a great reading experience that doesn’t break the bank. Read the entire review.
There are all kinds of robot vacuums out there, but not all of them feature lidar, which is helpful in preventing your bot from bumping into your furniture and leaving marks over time. The Shark AI Ultra XL is on sale for $369.99 ($280 off) from Woot, sold through Amazon (Amazon owns Woot, so it’s safe to say this third-party seller isn’t sketchy, like some others). This discount is just $20 away from the Shark’s all-time low price, which we saw during the recent Amazon Prime Early Access Sale.
QLED Gaming Monitors: Bright, Low Brightness, and Up to 65W Charging Support for the ViewFinity S9 and LGTs
At the Consumer Electronics Show in Vegas, there are a lot of gaming monitors that are powered by organic light emitting devices. The company revealed the Odyssey G95SC monitor today, a 49-inch model that it claims is the world’s first 32:9 aspect ratio OLED gaming monitor. It was noted that the Odyssey 34 inch QD-OLED monitor that was launched in the fall will be releasing very soon.
The company continues to make its lightest, most vibrant Mini LED TVs with the 2023 Neo QLED line of TVs, which come in 4K and 8K. On the other side, QLED is a feature which uses quantum dots to emit light all on their own. A standard panel does not use a backlight, but it does use its own light. Got it? Good.
QD-OLED changes this up by emitting blue light through quantum dots to convert some of that blue into red and green without any need for the color filter. Blue has the strongest light energy. This leads to greater light energy efficiency; since you’re not losing any light to the color filters, QD-OLED TVs should offer brightness gains compared to past-generation OLEDs.
Both of the monitors support the VESA spec that means they can reach 400 nits of peak brightness. However, it’s possible that they’ll deliver lower brightness in reality, depending on what you watch on them. During HDTVTest’s review of the Alienware QD-OLED monitor, which has the same True Black spec as these new Samsung monitors, it delivered closer to 280 nits while displaying an all-white screen (the most brutal challenge for an OLED).
These monitors are meant to connect to powerful consoles and PCs, but they also support Samsung’s Gaming Hub, which lets you wirelessly connect a controller to play on cloud streaming services like Xbox Cloud Gaming and Nvidia GeForce Now. They have a Smart Hub that allows them to access a variety of smart TV apps. Both of them feature Micro HDMI 2.1, Mini DisplayPort, and up to 65W of charging in addition to the usual ports.
The ViewFinity S9 will be compatible with a wide variety of I/O. It can charge laptops at up to 96 watts. The metal enclosure of the S9 is in keeping with both Apple and LG’s higher end displays. Unfortunately, I couldn’t get an answer at press time as to whether Samsung’s latest monitor includes local dimming. I guess they would be highlighting that feature if it did. Black levels and contrast might not compare to Mini LED andOLED screens. The claim by Samsung is that they can improve image shadow and highlight details.
Even though it is geared towards the prosumer crowd, this monitor doesn’t preventSamsung from building its Tizen TV OS into the View Frame S9. So you’ll be able to access all the usual streaming apps even when the display isn’t connected to any external devices. It ships with a slim 4K webcam in the box that you can attach as needed for video calls, and Samsung says the software will automatically zoom and intelligently track the subject.
The latest addition to the Monitor lineup has been easier to calibrate with an app on your phone. “The built-in color calibration engine ensures precise screen color and brightness, allowing users to adjust white balance, gamma, and RGB color balance for perfect accuracy with their smartphones through the Samsung Smart Calibration application,” the company wrote in its press release. How well that works in practice, we’ll need to see for ourselves.
We will have our first glimpse of the ViewFinity S9 at the Las Vegas show from this week. The company is also announcing the SmartMonitor M80C, a minor refresh of last year’s display that comes in new colors and adds a SmartThings Hub to the display — plus a feature called My Contents, which “adds photos, schedules, weather, and more to the screen’s ambient display,” according to Samsung. It’ll be available in white, pink, blue, and green.
The S95C is no slouch on the sound front either. It’s outfitted with a 70-watt 4.2.2-channel Dolby Atmos speaker setup. Pricing and availability info should follow over the coming weeks and months. I think the company will maintain the same prices as they did last year. Count me very curious on what that 77-inch model ends up selling for.
It sounds like the S95C will get even brighter than the S95B; the next-generation panel will also come with other benefits like improved overall durability, and it will use less power. HDTVTest’s supremely knowledgeable Vincent Teoh put the new 77-inch display through some tests and came away impressed by the panel’s potential.
With a 0.1- millisecond response time and up to 144Hz refresh rate, S95C eliminates ghosting – on- screen blurs when images fade rather than completely disappearing — and offers calibration and visualization options not found on other televisions. The S95C supports cloud gaming in a variety of ways, from the world’s first 4K support for NVIDIA graphics to availability of Microsoft Xbox, Utomik, and Amazon Luna.
Whether you’re gearing up for the Super Bowl or are just looking for a great QLED TV that doesn’t look like your average TV (we’ll explain), this deal on Samsung’s 65-inch model of 2022 Frame TV is worth checking out. The 65-inch Frame has been discounted by both Best Buy and SAMSUNG to its lowest price in history. The Frame TV has a matt, anti-reflective screen. It can also make paintings look realistic, and it can defeat glare. The art mode cycles between famous pieces when it senses motion, turning this TV into a conversation starter.
The 41mm GPS configuration of the Apple Watch Series 8 is currently discounted to $349 at Walmart and Best Buy (normally $399). The Series 8 isn’t very different from the Apple Watch Series 7, but there are some helpful new features. You don’t need to top off the Series 8 every day, and the low-power mode should keep it running for a bit longer. Sure, $50 off isn’t a massive discount, but if you’re hungry for Apple’s latest and greatest wearable, you aren’t going to find a better price. Read our review.
Roku 2023: Predictions for Home Theater Installations of the Next-Generation QLED-Ordered TV System (QODS)
The Roku Streambar is still matching its all-time low price of $99.99 at Target, Best Buy, and Amazon (normally $129.99). The Streambar is compact, wall-mountable 14-inch soundbar with the unique ability to pipe 4K content via Roku’s streaming platform. Audio can be provided when connected via optical audio, and it can be used with additional Roku speakers to make a more powerful sound.
We were able to see the TVs in January, but were forced to travel to New Jersey to watch them in their final stages of testing. Lucky us.
After messing around with settings, watching streaming TV and sports and even getting some gaming time in on our Xbox Series S, we did notice that the upgrades are generally incremental from last year’s models. Yes, you’ll still get the same Samsung Gaming Hub the company announced last year, which lets you stream games from services like Xbox and Amazon Luna without hooking up a console, as well as the sometimes-buggy Tizen-operated Smart Hub. However, if you’ve been waiting to add the latest and greatest to your home theater setup, you will be rewarded with what we consider a promising 2023 lineup, which, according to Samsung, will be rolling out this week from authorized retailers.
Our biggest learning point? Even better TVs should be even better, with a more compact solar remote controller, a brighter panel for the 77-inch TV, and even more gaming-friendly refresh rates.
A big improvement in picture from last year’s models was not seen during our short-term testing. Of course, we look forward to a more in-depth review when we get them in for testing.
Source: https://www.cnn.com/cnn-underscored/electronics/samsung-qled-oled-tv-2023-hands-on?iid=CNNUnderscoredHPcontainer
Towards a Realistic 8K TV: 4K vs. 8K AI-Powered Video Streaming and Remastering
The nature video that we screened was clear on the 85-inch screen, making it a better choice for viewing on an 8K TV.
Both of the QN900C and the QN800C come with a Game Motion Plus feature that allows them to smooth out stutters in gaming. Games looked nearly identical to how they did on the 4K model, though it’s worth noting that we were using an Xbox Series S that primarily runs titles in 1080p. Unless you can get a souped-up gaming PC with your TV, you won’t benefit from this kind of panel when it comes to games.
Of course, you’ll still get the 8.3 million pixels and a processor, which, like the Neo QLED TVs, uses AI to upscale content to 4K, as well as a sleek design with that handy OneConnect Box to hide those annoying cables. And, though we would expect anyone throwing down the cash for this TV to upgrade to a soundbar, the embedded speakers did just fine.
Artificial enhancements are not included in the new Auto HDR feature, which is optional, meaning that you don’t have to do it. The picture will get brighter and more realistic according to the company. We are looking forward to getting an intimate look at the new feature when we have the chance.
And though we didn’t have a chance to get a fully realized review of the Neo QLED 4K lineup, we are looking forward to spending time playing with the AI-powered HDR remastering feature.
