Samsung’s new OLED TV could make annoying glare a thing of the past

Samsung’s third-generation QD-OLED TV, the new S95D, has a unique trick up its sleeve compared to its predecessor: It has an anti-glare display that the company claims virtually eliminates any noticeable reflections. This should prevent annoying distractions when you’re watching TV on a sunny day and trying to enjoy the content.

Anti-reflective coatings are nothing new for high-end TVs – Samsung, LG and Sony are all pretty good at it – but Samsung seems to have gone beyond that, using a special panel treatment here and insisting This does not negatively affect viewing angles or color distortion.

“Low-reflective technology optimized for OLED uses new proprietary hard-coat and surface-coat patterns to bring out OLED’s beautiful details without glare,” Samsung said in a CES press release. The company claims it’s ” Samsung’s brightest OLED screen yet”, the S95D is available in sizes up to 77 inches like last year. It supports refresh rates up to 144Hz and features Pantone-verified “AI enhanced color accuracy.”

At Samsung’s First Look event at CES 2024, I previewed the glare-free OLED screen. The company set up a torture test with a bright “window” next to the TV. In the photo of the bunny below, you can barely tell that the TV was surrounded by a plethora of other bright screens on the demo floor.

In addition to the new glare-free display, you also get the same quantum dot OLEDs we’ve seen from these Samsung devices over the past few years. Advantages: They can produce more light at higher brightness levels than traditional devices. Rich, more vivid colors WOLED panels, like the ones used by LG, are brighter than the best OLED TVs of just a few years ago. The S95C has earned rave reviews, and there’s no reason to expect it to be any different than this year’s model – especially now that it should be clearly visible in almost any type of viewing environment.

The S95D is less than 11mm thick and comes with Samsung’s One Connect Box. You plug your streaming devices and game consoles into it, and it runs everything to your TV over a clean, single cable.

Like Samsung’s other 2024 TVs, the S95D runs the latest version of the company’s Tizen software, which allows everyone in the home to make personalized content recommendations using their own Samsung ID. Samsung also continues to heavily promote its Samsung TV Plus FAST service, which combines hundreds of free-to-view channels into a single interface.

Samsung also announced a step-down S90D OLED, which lacks the glare-free surface and some other design frills of its flagship model, but you can still rely on top-notch QD-OLED image quality.

Photography: Chris Welch/The Verge