Samsung’s launch of its new 2018 QLED TV lineup is just around the corner. To that end, the company gave us an early preview of its new Q series TVs with the 65Q9FN. Samsung basically broke down the TV’s new features into three “Q” categories: Q Style, Q Picture, and Q Smart.
The Q Style side of things introduces the Magic Screen which essentially transforms the TV’s black screen into a “living canvas”. With this the 2018 Q series can choose images from three selections: Deco, Info, or Photo.
Both the Deco and Info categories have interactive images; the Gravity option in the Deco category is actually an interactive clock, and was by far one of the more captivating options of the lot. Samsung says that it did this because it felt that having a blank TV in any living space looked off-putting.
The TV also only has the No Gap Wall-mount and Invisible Connection features that were introduced in last year’s QLED tvs. The Invisible Connection is still a single integrated cable that connects directly to a Smart Connect Box that acts as a hub for all other devices, such as a Blu-ray player or game consoles (e.g. PS4, Xbox One).
All 018 Q series models will have a latency of just 15.4ms; a reduction from the 20.2ms response time of the 2017 models. Also, the 2018 Q series TVs will be capable of a achieving refresh rates of 120Hz with its new Fast Frame Rate Conversion (FRC). However, activate Fast FRC will increase the response time of the TVs to 24ms.
The TVs also support AMD’s FreeSync anti-tearing display technology, so if you’ve got a PC system that’s powered by an AMD Radeon GPU, know that you will able to take advantage of this feature on the 2018 Q Series TVs.
However, one of the biggest takeaway from this segment was that all 2018 Q Series TVs is the integration of Steam Link into its TVs. For context: Steam Link was an initiative developed by Valve to allow gamers to stream their games directly from their PC to the TV. Since its announcement in 2015, Valve has since improved the feature and recently released the beta version of the app for Android devices.
One of the last few but equally important features of the 2018 Q series TV is Samsung’s new HDR10+. Compared to the standard HDR10 standard, HDR10+ features a more dynamic tone mapping, which in turn helps to preserve details while maintaining a 99% colour accuracy across all media content. HDR10+ provides the TVs with a better contrast levels, ensuring deeper blacks and preventing any from of bleeding from the edges of the TVs.
Last but not least, the 2018 Q series TVs will also be compatible with Samsung’s Smart Things feature. The feature is effectively allows the TV to act as a hub, allowing you to control the functions of any other Samsung appliance in and around your house. Of course, if goes without saying that the appliances in question must have been made by Samsung, barring which you will not be able to make full use of this feature.
We’ll seeing more of this TV during its launch this coming 31 May 2018, so check back with us then for an update on the what features make it into our market and what doesn’t.
