Samsung launches its range of 2023 televisions with great news. In addition to consolidating the Neo QLED 8K line with greater image processing power, OLED technology returns to its catalog for the second year with a new 77-inch size that is added to the 55 and 65-inch ones that already made their debut on last year. In addition, for those looking for the technology of the future, the Korean company offers a catalog of advanced and spectacular Micro LED televisions, which combine all the advantages of the other two technologies. Nacho Monge, director of the consumer electronics business at Samsung Iberia, points out that this year’s catalog offers all the possible technologies on the market so that customers can choose.
Define This Year’s Samsung TV Lineup
This year, 2023, Samsung will be the only global television manufacturer that will be able to develop and make available to consumers the three most premium technologies available. I mean Micro LED, Neo QLED 8K and OLED. All this in a wide variety of inches that will allow us to offer consumers many options, all with the best image quality. Linked to this is our SmartThings platform, which allows us to connect to devices that communicate and work with each other, but not only that. It allows us to save energy and reduce our carbon footprint. As? With the ability to turn a device on and off remotely, or regulate the power of the air conditioning. All this in our home from the television.
Samsung has insisted a lot that the main screen in the house is a home automation center. Do you expect more use of this feature?
I have always talked about the television as the center of family entertainment and I think we are ready to go one step further and talk about the television as the center of the connected home, with which we will be able to communicate, transform, move all the options, through the screen. Not only Samsung devices, but we are open to all kinds of brands and functions, from opening the door to turning on the car heater.
Has the 8K market been consolidated?
When I presented 8K televisions in 2018, the question that everyone asked me was: “But Nacho, do we really need it, is there content about this?” I always stressed that there is a world of content and now much more. To make it more accessible, we’ve partnered with YouTube. Now, when new models are turned on, 8K content from YouTube appears right out of the box, in a way that’s accessible right out of the box. But if you don’t have native 8K content, our TVs, thanks to the Neural Quantum Processor 8K with AI, will upscale and HDR images without HDR, with unparalleled quality.
The AI ​​also reaches the sound, not only the image.
Thanks to artificial intelligence, our televisions will be able with Sound Adaptive Pro to know what types of content are being played, such as sports or a movie, and it will also adapt the sound to the room, according to its dimensions and the height of the ceilings. . For content, our 2023 technology is going to go into much more detail in terms of contrasts and brightness, object by object, in the image. In such a way, that we will have the impression of enjoying 3D without glasses.
They also insist on suitability as a video game screen.
With gamers we are placing special emphasis. Our TVs come with a refresh rate of up to 144 hertz, so they’re perfect for them. There is nothing like an 8K with that impressive refresh rate, which makes them get inside the image. We’ve also updated our collection of NFTs so they can be used by 8K TV customers.
What stands out in the new 8K?
We have gained in the processor, which is capable of much more precise scaling than in previous years. Apart from that, we have improved all the software in Smar Things and in gaming.
What would you tell people about the difference between 4K and 8K?
4K looks great, but when you experience 8K you enjoy every level of detail. It is much more noticeable in large inches. On a 65, 75 and 85-inch television, it is where 8K gives its maximum performance and where the difference with 4K begins to be much more palpable.
Does it matter that much that there is no 8K content? Isn’t that a bit of a bogus debate since smart upscaling sets up a true 8K image?
I can’t agree more with that. The Neo QLED 8K TV is capable of reproducing the best image quality regardless of whether the source is 4K, SD or HD.
How does the OLED line inaugurated last year grow?
We have entered this technology later and we are going to expand the range. We went from one to two sets. From two sizes, 55 and 66 inches, to also 77 inches. We are in this market to offer the best quality. OLEDs are famous for reproducing those blacks that are so dark, so deep, so pure. Thanks to our Neural Quantum Processor 4K processor, we are capable of reproducing vivid, sharper and more precise colours. Very similar to what is reality. In such a way that Samsung OLEDs are the first HDR certified by Pantone. The sound system is super powerful, with Dolby Atmos and OTS Plus technology, a three-dimensional sound and an immersive experience. All three technologies in a wide variety of inches and we have a wide variety of models for each type of consumer. From 24 inches to 110 Micro LEDs, from less than 200 euros to around 150,000 euros.
How has Samsung solved the reliability of OLED technology to now trust a line that is growing in its catalog?
It is a technology that until a few years ago, we did not consider sufficiently mature. Being organic, it has a higher degradation rate than inorganic. Samsung decides to enter OLED when it sees that the technology is mature and adding value through our strength, which is brightness and colours, through the Neural Quantum Processor 4K.
Why only three sizes in OLED?
We have started with the inches that had the highest sales. Initially, we had a more limited production and that’s why we concentrated on 55 and 65 inches. That’s why we launched only one series. This year, our production capacity has increased and we have gone to two series and three sizes in each series. In the coming years, our variety of televisions with this technology will increase.
Can we continue to say that NEO QLED is Samsung’s flagship technology?
The reality is that Samsung makes all three technologies. If you ask me which one I think is the best, I have no doubts, I think it is the Micro LED, but it is not accessible to everyone because the cheapest is worth more than 100,000 euros. We believe that Neo QLED 8K is our flagship technology, but there is also development in OLED that can lead us to expand further, not only in premium, but also in other segments.
Last year was atypical, post-pandemic, World Cup in December. How did we get there?
The Spanish market always sells around three million televisions. With the pandemic, four million were sold and last year we already experienced a drop compared to the previous year. It will take us a couple of years for the market to normalize. Despite the World Cup, inflation and the macroeconomic situation had a negative influence. It has been spreading in the first part of the year, but we are optimistic about the second part of the year, with a somewhat more favorable situation.
How did the atypical year 2022 close?
Despite 2022, and how the year was, we finished leaders, thanks to the technology we offered, expanding our market share and, above all, with leadership in segments such as the 55-inch one, in which we sell one out of every two televisions , since we have a share of more than 50%, and also in audio, in which we have been leaders for almost ten years.
Define the 2023 collection of televisions with one sentence.
It is the most premium and complete range that Samsung has ever created. It is the first time that we put the three technologies on the table, but we really put them. We teach what Samsung is capable of developing.
