Samsung has unveiled a giant 4K OLED TV, a new 98-inch S9 model, at the IFA electronics show. There is no doubt that Samsung is pushing to make the industry dream of 4K TVs a market reality, and the company hopes to compete with the arrival of its giant 4K OLED TV.
At the IFA show in Berlin, the electronics giant shows the fruits of its work to improve TV resolution and marry Ultra HD with the rich tones of OLED displays.
TV makers, eager to find a new selling point for TVs now that flat panels are no longer a novelty, are hoping that quadrupling the number of pixels to the 4K range — 4,096×2,160 is one option – called Ultra HD or UHD.
That’s a notable change, as long as you are sitting close enough to your TV, but the OLED (organic light-emitting diode) shift is potentially bigger since it uses a higher-contrast technology with much deeper blacks than today’s LCD panels.
OLED has proved hard to bring to market in large sizes, though, which is why it’s significant that Samsung showed the OLED UHD TV. Like the Sony and Panasonic OLED UHD TVs shown at CES in January, it’s only a proof of concept, not a real product, but it indicates Samsung is getting a grasp on manufacturing.
It “demonstrates our technology leadership,” said Michael Zoeller, Samsung’s European marketing director for TV and audiovisual products.
The company said the technology “represents an unprecedented leap forward for picture quality and sharp contrast with its self-emitting pixels and natural motion,” but the real proof of its merits will come when somebody can buy it, and buy it in a large enough size that the 4K resolution isn’t just pixel overkill.
