Samsung is kicking off CES 2022 by doing what Samsung does best – take its lineup of plenty of TVs, already excellent in themselves, and give things a new boost. Smarter, brighter, better, easier to use – all that makes a TV more than a TV in an age where we spend more time watching TV than ever before.
On the front of things is a new home screen, “a testament to our vision for the future of televisions.” Samsung narrows things down to three main hubs: a media display, a gaming hub, and ambient mode. They are mostly self-explanatory. If it’s something you’re going to watch (through Samsung’s built-in apps, anyway), you’ll access it from the media screen. The Gaming Hub gives you access to your cloud-based gaming services and consoles and works with existing third-party controllers and headsets. And Ambient Mode makes it easier than ever to have something nice on the screen when you’re not actively watching or gaming. That includes art, or photos, or even NFTs, because it’s 2022 and these are apparently non-fungible tokens, apparently.
The Frame remains Samsung’s flagship TV, designed to look just as good when you’re not watching a movie or show as it does when displaying art. It benefits from a new “Art Store” user experience that is exactly what it looks like, making it easy to regularly showcase all kinds of art on The Frame. It has a new anti-glare display that the company says makes art even more realistic than ever before, and the new sizes let you go from 32 inches to 85 inches, whatever your wall and wallet.
The 2022 Neo QLED model lineup packs all kinds of mini-LED tech into 4K and 8K packages, along with an all-new shape adaptive light control. Brightness is now more precise and revealing of detail, having been increased from 12-bit to 14-bit (more is better), and there’s a new Object Depth Enhancer feature that uses the CPU to analyze what’s up. screen and help make the subject more distinguishable than the background. We’ll have to get closer to see if it’s the equivalent of portrait mode on a phone, or if it’s something more subtle.
The Neo QLEDs also speed things up in the audio department with features like Active Voice Amplifier, Object Tracking Sound, and SpaceFit Sound. And if you’re using a Samsung Q950B soundbar, it will pair with the TV speakers for an even better surround sound experience.
On the MicroLED front, expect a bezel-less experience at massive, customizable sizes up to 178 inches, in which case we’d probably be better off measuring the screen in terms of acres. Prefabricated models include 99 and 110-inch options, as well as a new 89-inch model. There’s a 10% larger color space on paper, thanks to 24.9 million micro-sized LEDs. And MicroLED sets feature Dolby Atmos and Samsung’s Object Tracking Sound Pro feature, which projects audio based on what’s on screen.
And in the hand we have a new remote control. The ‘Eco Remote’ update uses a ‘recycled material design’ and includes solar and RF harvesting for a ‘battery-free experience’. It doesn’t matter that there’s almost certainly a battery in there, it’s just that you never have to think about it. If there is light, the solar side of things goes to work. Otherwise, the RF converter takes over. And it will now be available in white and black. It’s also light on the buttons, if you’re the type to wonder why a digital set still exists in the 21st century.
Finally, back to the NFT thing. Samsung built what it says is the world’s first on-screen TV NFT explorer and aggregator, so you can preview, purchase, and then view artistic NFT right on your TV. If that’s your kind of thing.
