Samsung’s 8K News at CES 2023
In November 2022, Insight Media received a confidential briefing in Korea on their TV plans for 2023, with reporting only allowed as of January 4th. Here, we summarize the main 8K news from Samsung. You can read the full report here. Note that some details may change with CES announcements and demos.
Access to content through your TV is a trend Samsung is expanding on. New 8K content will now be available to 8K TV owners thanks to a partnership with Savage Stock. There are currently 28 8K game titles, and new NVIDIA and AMD GPUs can support native 8K gameplay at decent frame rates with multiple features enabled. More 8K content is also expected to become available later in the year. Owning NFT content is becoming a thing, so Samsung has partnered with Nifty to offer a gateway to three prominent providers for consumers to own artwork. 8K versions will also be available for display on the TV.
For 2023, Samsung has organized TVs into four technology-based categories: microLED, 8K, 4K, and QD-OLED. The Flagship is the NeoQLED 8K TVs. Samsung plans to continue to develop the 8K ecosystem in collaboration with the 8K Association, with a strong focus on creating more 8K content. Three product lines will be offered: the QN900, QN800, and QN700 ranges. These TVs will use 12 K miniLEDs in the backlight with control of 1300 zones (up from 700 in 2022 models). That will mean less blooming, of course.
In gaming monitors, Samsung will introduce a new QD-OLED monitor. It will be a 49” 8Kx2K 32:9 device with a 240 Hz refresh rate, 1800R curvature, and VESA HDR400 certification. It will sell for around $2,199. (See Insight Media report on Samsung Display Plant Tour).
Also new is a 32:9 miniLED monitor with a 57” screen size, 8Kx2K resolution, 240 Hz refresh, 1 ms GtG latency, a matte screen finish plus FreeSync and VESA HDR1000 certifications. It is the first Smasung monitor to support a DislayPort 2.1 interface . The Odessey Neo G9 will ship in May for around $2,500.
The Premier projector line also gets a new 8K model this year based on a DLP chipset from Texas Instruments. This will not feature a native 8K imager but a 4K imager and a 4X pixel shifting mechanism to project 8K pixels on the screen. This can be very effective. A 150” version should launch in the second half of 2023 and include auto-focus, auto-keystone correction and leveling, and Atmos audio support.
We will have more after CES after additional discussions.
