Eyes-on with Samsung's 55-inch OLED TV, more at CES 2012
updated 07:35 pm EST, Tue January 10, 2012
Samsung Super OLED TV and more given looks
We've had the chance to look at Samsung's 55-inch Super OLED TV as well as the core of its remaining 2012 TV roster. The OLED set is, suffice it to say, one of the best looking you'll find anywhere. By its nature, OLED has 'perfect' blacks (since it doesn't need to light the pixel) and tends to be very saturated with wide viewing angles.
In our experience, it was just on the right side of saturation, being rich without being gaudy. OLED's instant pixel response also gave the movement a slightly surreal effect in how smooth it was; there weren't any of the cues that this was a flat-panel display here. And with that claimed 4mm thick bezel, its' very distraction-free.
The ES8000 (LED) and E8000 (plasma) aren't quite as intensive as the Super OLED set, but they're still vivid and respond quickly. Seeing the larger sets in 8 series is still impressive, helped in part by 20 percent brighter LED backlighting (on LCDs) and the 10 percent darker blacks on the plasmas. We're not so keen on the face recognition and voice search that we tried on a repeat visit; both are at times arbitrary. We'd like to see a rough equivalent to Siri before we'd be completely happy, although the dual-core chip inside does make it fairly responsive.
The UNES7500, or 7 series upgrade, isn't quite as bright, but it's still very good, especially if you tend to watch in a darker area where sheer brightness isn't absolutely imperative. It still looks good and has that exceptionally slim bezel that's defined Samsung's TVs for the past year.
Perhaps the only major downside of the lineup right now is the wait. As with nearly every CES launch, Samsung isn't ready to ship immediately. It won't be long for the conventional TVs, which could start shipping as soon as February. The Super OLED set, though, isn't arriving until the back half of 2012, and it may still be very expensive.
8 series and 7 series
