Samsung continues to delight its users with the incredibly high technical characteristics of its TVs. In 2023, they updated their 4K Neo QLED series with the new QN95C model. It replaces last year’s QN95B, which had the near-perfect contrast ratio that Samsung achieved with MiniLED backlighting.
Just like its predecessor, the Samsung QN95C has high brightness and color fidelity, advanced smart features, and performs great when playing video games. The lineup this year is represented by four models with diagonals of 55, 65, 75 and 85 inches. The main purpose of this review is to determine how good Samsung’s new Neo QLED 4K TV turned out to be and understand its capabilities.
Samsung QN95C review
The appearance of the new device is difficult to somehow distinguish from other premium segment TVs. Its screen is still surrounded by four very narrow brushed metal bezels around the perimeter. Even though Samsung decided not to put the connectors into the external OneConnect box, the QN95C TV’s body is still very thin by today’s standards.
Mounting the device on the wall with the appropriate VESA 400×300 bracket will not be a problem.
Changes in terms of design have affected the remote control to a large extent. Despite the fact that it is still a small rectangular bar with buttons and a solar panel on the back for charging, its appearance has undergone several changes. The corners are now more rounded, and dark gray matte plastic was used in the manufacture.
In the hand, the remote control now feels much thinner, which adds to the comfort of use. The location of the buttons on it has not changed. The top part is occupied by a round panel for navigation. Above it is a microphone hole, to the left and right of which are the settings and microphone activation buttons.
The rest of the buttons are below. Right below the navigation bar are Playback, Back, and Home. A little lower is the channel and volume switch, and below it are special buttons for accessing popular media services. In addition to the solar panel, a USB Type-C connector is provided for charging the remote control.
OPERATING SYSTEM
Invariably, Samsung uses its own Tizen OS in its SmartTVs. It’s very usable and user friendly, offering a huge amount of features, but suffers from some of the company’s UI decisions. Most popular streaming media services are available on this operating system, including Apple TV+, Disney+, Amazon Prime Video, and Netflix.
To broadcast content from Apple devices, the QN95C TV supports AirPlay 2. To do this, the TV has a long-range microphone.
The main disadvantage of the system interface can be called the difficulty of accessing the settings. This greatly complicates the process of manually switching video sources, for example. In the picture settings, you can find a new option that allows you to choose between dynamic and static tone mapping for HDR content. This setting controls the different color and light values on the TV screen.
Using the static setting allows you to keep a pre-set fixed tone value. Dynamic, as the name suggests, works differently and changes values in real time. By enabling the last option of the option, you will be able to make the image on the screen brighter and more colorful.
SOUND
Realizing that there is no way to place an advanced audio system in the body of a modern thin TV, Samsung has focused on introducing Q-Symphony 3.0 technology. It allows you to sync your QN95C TV’s own speakers with a compatible external soundbar. There is no DTS support, but everyone has already forgotten about it for a long time. The total power of the TV sound system is 60 watts.
IMAGE QUALITY
The Samsung QN95C TV features a 144Hz refresh rate panel with VRR (Variable Refresh Rate) support. Of course, Samsung hasn’t forgotten about HDR either. It supports high dynamic range in popular HDR10, HDR10+ and HLG formats. To watch terrestrial television in 4K, the TV is equipped with an ATSC 3.0 tuner. DolbyVision, like most modern Samsungs, is not provided.
The high contrast of the image of the Samsung QN95C TV is provided by the use of MiniLED backlighting. This technology is capable of delivering incredibly deep blacks with superb detail on the screen.
When playing content in SDR quality mode, the peak brightness of the device in a full screen white window is approximately 320 nits. As expected, during the HDR display, the brightness rises and reaches 810 nits under the same conditions.
The mini-LED backlight has enough local dimming zones to compare the Samsung QN95C to competing OLED models in terms of black depth. The color reproduction of the novelty is slightly higher than that of last year’s QN90B.
Color accuracy when displaying SDR content is excellent, although this is no longer surprising for modern devices. The color range of the TV in question is a little short of DCI-P3, but it is better than the QN90B. The colors of the device are well balanced. This is one of the best Samsung TVs of 2023 in terms of color reproduction. Better only OLED-device Samsung S95C.
With the help of the dynamic tone mapping function, the picture on the screen looks as natural as possible. Sunlight is really bright and dark areas are really dark with excellent detail. Enabling Filmmaker mode uses static tone mapping, causing the image to lose a bit of color. However, this mode makes the image more accurate in terms of displaying colors. Let the picture lose its color, but at the same time it acquires even more naturalness with sufficiently saturated colors.
For the most immersive movie experience and cinematic experience, the Samsung QN95C TV should be viewed in an unlit or dimly lit room. To obtain this effect, two modes are available to the user: “Cinema” and “Filmmaker”. It is best to choose between them based on your own preferences.
Not without some shortcomings. For example, with the QN95C, Samsung chose to forgo adding Nvidia’s G-Sync feature. Gamers can only be content with similar technology from AMD (FreeSync). But the manufacturer did not forget to add VRR to his new TV. The refresh rate of the QN95C panel is 144 Hz, which will also have a very positive effect on the perception of video games.