When I was in highschool, we used to frequently visit one of our classmate just to see their giant TV set.
Back then you could get a pretty good idea of just how well-off your classmates were just by the size of their TV. The bigger they had, the richer they were.
That was the time when having a Pocketbell or Easycall pager was still the “in thing,” cellphones were still unheard off, not every one had a PCs and the internet was almost non-existent.
Entertainment then was all about having a big-ass TV a VHS or Laserdisc system and a Sega or Nintendo Family Computer.
But now TVs seemed to have taken a backseat to all the other gadgets and smart devices we have right now.
So its up to the brands to make changes, not just in size and picture quality but also when it comes to each TVs special features.
Remember when having a flat screen was enough? Then came the LCD screens and the LED ones shortly followed by the battle of resolutions and frame rates.
The past few months I’ve been invited to several TV launches, this time the brands are boasting of Smarter TVs, some with built in Chromecast so you could stream videos from HOOQ and other VOD providers, and of course the better than the previous best screens.
One of them of course was Samsung, which I think has become the top of mind brand for premium TV even edging out Sony, LG and the top brands.
This year they launched their new QLED TVs which are said to be capable of billions of colors.
Dubbed as “The Next Frontier,” Samsung Electronics Philippines declared a new era of television viewing as they officially launched the QLED TV. With its exclusive Quantum Dot technology, the Samsung QLED TV turns light into perfect color, making a powerful combination that revolutionizes picture quality. The new television line also offers HDR 1500 brightness and 100% color volume expression, enabling viewers to watch scenes just as how the creator intended them to be. It can also reproduce almost any color known to man, making HDR content more vibrant and natural-looking—according to their press release.
I must admit, the QLED was really quite impressive, so when it became available in the market, I went to a few appliance stores to check it out.
The Samsung QLED definitely stood out among the other displays both in image quality and its price!
Although I don’t have that budget (yet!) I was curious to find out if getting a TV that costs almost as much as a second hand car is worth every peso.
So I did a few google searches and came across Rtings.com- it’s a third-party review site, and they have a pretty good reputation as they don’t use test units provided by the brand but rather buy the models that they test, and I found out a few disappointing things about Samsung’s latest TV from their reviews.
The Samsung KS8000 is the predecessor to this year’s Q7F model. But based on their ratings, the KS8000 surprisingly, performed better than the newer QLED TV in a lot of tests.
Both contrast and peak brightness measure well above what the Q7F was able to output, especially in SDR. The Q7 does do better with color volume, and this does help with HDR content—and the clincher they said “it is impossible to justify the expense of the QLED TV over the previous model.” (http://www.rtings.com/tv/reviews/samsung/qled-q7f-q7)
Check out the side-by-side: http://www.rtings.com/tv/tools/compare of the Samsung KS8000 and Samsung Q7F—and see for yourself!
While it praised a lot of the QLEd features, I agree with their comment that basically says that Samsung Q7F is overpriced compared to many other TVs with the same or even better quality! (https://www.pcworld.idg.com.au/review/samsung/2017-qled-q7-tv/616053/?pp=2#cb)
“Samsung has certainly put together an attractive all-round package here and despite fierce competition it’s not to be dismissed. It’s a bit of a Porsche Boxster to the Q9’s 911 though… the only reason you’d buy this is because you couldn’t afford the top model which is likely to fix the image foibles we saw here. And you’ll know that every time you run into them. But price is more of a problem outside of Samsung’s range. The 55-inch Q7 costs a whopping $4,499, the 65-inch model is $6,499 and the 75-inch model is $10,999. A 55-inch LG OLED TV costs $4,199 and offers better everything.
So I guess that just proves that the latest models aren’t always the best.
What about you? Are you planning on getting a new TV? What brand do you have in mind and why? Tell me in the comments section!
