Is Samsung’s 8K Q900 Series HDTV Really Worth $2,700?
Ethen Kim Lieser
Technology,
Where is the 8K content?
Ticket to 8K Universe:
Being early to the party is an apt description of what 8K HDTVs are currently dealing with.
Yes, the hype surrounding 8K is definitely real and will likely supplant 4K to be the go-to standard several years down the road.
And if you have already guessed that to nab a ticket into the 8K HDTV universe won’t come cheap, you are absolutely correct. But if you can’t wait and you’ve made up your mind to hand over thousands of dollars to get an 8K set, perhaps it’ll calm your anxiety a bit by going with a reputable brand like Samsung.
The Korean tech giant has a great, although pricey, option for you right now—and it’s the 65-inch Q900 Series 8K HDTV, currently retailing for roughly $2,700.
So, if you have decided to purchase this set, now you can start enjoying awesome 8K content? Not so fast.
Side-by-side tests, especially for 55- and 65-inch models, have shown that the pictures on both of Samsung’s 8K and 4K TVs look nearly identical. Until there is more 8K content to work with, this 8K TV appears to be just a more expensive version of a great 4K HDTV.
There is, however, more of a picture-quality difference if you go with an 80-inch-plus 8K TV. If you are willing to dive headfirst into that hefty purchase, you may think that you are future-proofing your TV tech—and no one can fault you for that line of thinking.
What you’ll be receiving with the Q900 Series is a premium TV-viewing experience, thanks largely to its next-generation QLED tech and excellent overall image quality that boasts plenty-deep black levels and outstanding contrast ratios.
Samsung’s highly regarded quantum-dot technology enables you to experience images bursting with a dazzling range of colors, each upscaled to incredible clarity driven by an intelligent 8K quantum processor.
Tapping into one of QLED’s major strengths, the set’s high light output works incredibly well with HDR, and you’ll surely enjoy the accurate colors and robust video processing, which will surely be a boon for lovers of intense action films and hardcore gamers waiting to get their hands on the newest PlayStation and Xbox consoles.
Like Samsung’s other recent 8K TV offerings, the Q900 features 8K AI upscaling technology that can theoretically transform 4K content into 8K. By tapping into that next-generation AI tech, these TVs are adding in the “missing” pixels to make the content 8K. It is surely a fascinating advancement—but know that upscaling will never be a substitute for the real thing.
Ethen Kim Lieser is a Minneapolis-based Science and Tech Editor who has held posts at Google, The Korea Herald, Lincoln Journal Star, AsianWeek and Arirang TV. Follow or contact him on LinkedIn.