Samsung has announced that its 2023 flagship 77-inch S95C OLED TV is now available for pre-order in the US, and that shipping is scheduled to start later this month. The TV will cost $4,499.99 (around £3,750) , and customers who pre-order from Samsung.com or participating retailers will receive free in-home installation – normally a $250 extra cost.
Samsung first released OLED TVs using the company’s QD-OLED display technology in 2022, but only in 65- and 55-inch screen sizes. Despite last year’s limited size range, the new Samsung TVs with QD-OLED, a tech that combines a self-emissive OLED panel with a Quantum Dot layer, deeply impressed us, with the 65-inch S95B OLED earning a 5-star rating and a spot on our list of the best 4K TVs.
The new 77-inch version was originally announced at CES 2023, where we declared it to be the best TV we saw at CES (in the “TV you are likely to buy this year” category). Similar to last year, Samsung will have 65- and 55-inch versions shipping this spring, though pricing for those models hasn’t yet been announced in the US or UK. The price has been revealed in Europe, however, it's not all good news.
A key advantage that QD-OLED brings is improved brightness over regular OLED models. Last year’s S95B was the brightest OLED TV TechRadar had yet tested, and the new S95C TVs will increase light output to 2,000 nits peak – a brightness level usually only achieved by top mini-LED-backlit QLED TVs like Samsung’s own QN95B.
A new Quantum HDR OLED Plus feature that uses AI deep learning to fine-tune brightness on a per-pixel level is responsible for the brightness boost on the new TVs. Other picture quality improvements in the S95C lineup will come via a Quantum Neural Processor that upscales images to 4K using AI-based algorithms. That processing is performed on a scene-by-scene basis while the set simultaneously adds dynamic HDR10+ tone mapping.
The new Samsung TVs for 2023 also feature enhancements to the company’s Smart Hub, which combines the set's streaming, ambient, and gaming options, along with Samsung TV Plus, a portal to 250 free ad-supported and on-demand channels. Samsung Gaming Hub provides console-free playback of selections from Xbox, NVIDIA GeForce NOW, Amazon Luna, Utomik, and more. For the S95C, the company is claiming 0.1 millisecond response time with a 4K source and up to 144Hz refresh rate for low input lag gaming.
Analysis: Larger QD-OLED is a welcome addition – but at what price?
The QD-OLED display tech Samsung developed for its OLED TVs is an impressive feat of engineering, and one that ramped up the state of the OLED art by bringing improved brightness and off-axis color saturation. Samsung’s QD-OLED models truly look good from any angle, making them an easy front-runner in the best OLED TV race.
Along with the picture quality improvements for 2023, Samsung’s new S95C series OLED TVs will feature a built-in 4.2.2-channel speaker system for Dolby Atmos. And while we haven’t yet heard movie soundtracks piped through an S95C series set, that feature could presumably allow for the TV to be used without a soundbar. Even so, it will also support the Q-Symphony feature that allows for Samsung models in our list of the best Dolby Atmos soundbars to work with the TV’s built-in speakers for enhanced audio immersion.
With the release of its new 77-inch S95C series OLED, Samsung is starting off the 2023 TV season with a bang. But are US viewers keen to fork over $4,500 for the privilege? That’s a fair amount of cash to be expected to lay out during a time when the economic winds are causing folks to generally pull back on spending.
But say you were shopping for a new TV. For $2,500 you could now buy a 77-inch LG C2 OLED, TechRadar’s top TV for 2022, or a 77-inch LG G2 OLED for around $3,500. If picture brightness was a concern, the G2 uses an OLED Evo panel with Brightness Booster Max technology, a feature that lets it achieve much better-than-average light output for an OLED TV, though it can’t hit the same specs Samsung has cited for its new S95C models.
Like the S95C TVs, the LG G2 also has an ultra-slim Gallery design that uses an external box for all input connections.
With the new, and apparently even brighter, LG G3 models soon arriving, as well as, presumably, a new 77-inch QD-OLED model from Sony, there is going to be plenty of big-screen OLED competition this year. If you're in the market for a premium set, it will be an embarrassment of TV riches.
