SAMSUNG

8K brand TV arrives later this month

$ 15,000. That's what it will cost you to buy Samsung's first 8K TV in the US later this month. If only there was something in 8K you could watch it.The Samsung Q900R 8K TV will arrive the week of October 28, according to a recent announcement from Samsung. It measures 85 inches, although smaller versions (65 and 75 inches, at least) are expected as well. In some respects, the QLED set resembles the company's current 4K flagship, the positively reviewed Q9F. It has the big-ticket Samsung bells and whistles, like "Ambient Mode," which lets you input a photo to make your TV show an image that makes it blend into the wall behind it.The Samsung Q900R 8K TV will arrive the week of October 28, according to a recent announcement from Samsung. It measures 85 inches, although smaller versions (65 and 75 inches, at least) are expected as well. In some respects, the QLED set resembles the company's current 4K flagship, the positively reviewed Q9F. It has the big-ticket Samsung bells and whistles, like "Ambient Mode," which lets you input a photo to make your TV show an image that makes it blend into the wall behind it.There are other limitations. The TV is not certified for HDMI 2.1, and the 8K mode is limited to 30 frames per second. eARC is also not supported, and it will not work with YouTube's 8K content, which is almost the only 8K content out there.The TV is huge because there's no point in having a smaller 8K TV; people would not be able to see the difference between 4K and 8K on a 50-inch set. Never mind the fact that most US households still do not even have 4K TVs. The percentage was around 25 percent in January and could hit 50 percent sometime in 2019, according to a report by the Consumer Technology Association published earlier this year.This TV is not the only 8K TV coming up, nor is it Samsung's craziest TV. But it's probably not worth it for most people. FlatpanelsHD has a good deep-dive on the TV from Samsung's IFA 2018 presentation if you need help deciding whether to take this very costly plunge.



S. Axon