Samsung announces first TV innovations for 2022 Without OLED

In the run-up to CES 2022, Samsung is giving the first glimpse of its upcoming televisions, which promise innovations in the areas of micro-LED and mini-LED. The focus is on streaming games and Dolby Atmos, among other things. But where are the OLED TVs? The South Korean manufacturer is using the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas, which is about to start, to present its smart TV lineup for the new year 2022. Above all, the flagships with micro-LED technology and mini-LED televisions with high 8K resolution should be among the flagships, which Samsung has already announced in advance.

While the new micro-LED models are described as “state of the art”, the OLED competitor is likely to be only a marginal topic for average consumers this year due to high prices. Last year the starting price was around 90,000 euros. The 110, 101, and 89-inch televisions should have a 20-bit grayscale depth and offer a “real HDR experience” with over a million levels of brightness and color. The manufacturer also specifies 100 percent coverage of the DCI and Adobe RGB color space, 4K resolutions at 120 FPS, and Dolby Atmos.

Neo QLED TVs with HDR10 Plus, OTS Pro and Dolby Atmos

The mini-LED lineup, which is aimed at the mass market, is also getting an upgrade this year. For the new Neo QLED televisions, an improved 14-bit contrast mapping is promised for a finer adjustment of the brightness levels, which increase from 4096 to 16,384 levels. In conjunction with various AI features (e.g. Shape Adaptive Light), the advantage should be particularly visible in HDR mode and ensure a realistic image. Adjustments are also made using a light sensor that is supposed to adjust the brightness and color tone to the ambient light in the room.

Building on the Object Tracking Sound (OTS), Samsung is introducing the OTS Pro technology for its Neo QLED TVs 2022, which will benefit from internal speakers pointing upwards and will also support Dolby Atmos for the first time. However, the Dolby Vision technology used by many TV manufacturers is still not used. HDR10 + will therefore also be the focus this year – possibly even with refresh rates of up to 144 Hz. On the software side, Samsung is announcing a new smart and gaming hub that will, among other things, include game streaming services such as Google Stadia and Nvidia GeForce Now integrated, offers a “Watch Together” function and so-called Non-Fungible Tokens (NFT) in the form of digital art for sale. Finally, the manufacturer announced that it will also update the lifestyle TV lineup in the form of models from The Frame, The Serif, and The Sero families. Samsung has not yet commented on the hotly debated topic of possible OLED TVs. Further details, exact model specifications, and prices are expected later this week.