Samsung’s RGB LED TVs, known by the company as Micro RGB, are now available to buy globally in regions including the U.K., the U.S. and Europe, the company has announced.
The new models, which include the Samsung R95H and Samsung R85H, have been on pre-order availability since last month and they’re shipping to those lucky customers who have already put their money where their mouth is this week.
The Micro RGB TVs are now the pinnacle of Samsung’s LCD TV technology, surpassing its long-running Neo QLED lineup that’s based on the older Mini-LED technology. The main difference is that they use an RGB LED backlight that sits behind the LCD panel, enabling an expanded colour gamut that almost covers the entirety of the BT.2020, which is the foundation of modern HDR video standards.
The R95H and R85H are not the company’s first Micro RGB models, but they will definitely be the first that most consumers have seen. Samsung launched its original 115-inch Micro RGB TV last year, but it came with an obscene price tag that put it out of reach of the vast majority of most TV buyers. The R95H and R85H TVs, on the other hand, come with very reasonable price tags that are closely in line with Samsung’s flagship OLED models, which are also expected to ship to customers imminently.
The R95H and R85H are identical in many ways, with the biggest difference being the number of local dimming zones in the display. But Samsung did not disclose an exact number for either model. What it did say is that both models are extremely bright, reaching up to several thousand nits, and they also feature its proprietary anti-glare coating to ensure full enjoyment in the most brightly lit rooms. Note that to get full enjoyment out of these TVs, you’ll want to be watching content that’s mastered in a premium HDR format. That means HDR10+ Advanced videos, because Samsung still refuses to touch Dolby Vision content.
HDTVTest’s Vincent Teoh has not yet reviewed Samsung’s new Micro RGB TVs, but he has taken some early measurements, which he talks about in this video:
Both of the Micro RGB TVs comes with Samsung’s Micro RGB AI Engine Pro, a chipset that was developed especially for the Micro RGB TV family, and they feature Micro RGB Color Booster Pro, Micro RGB HDR Pro, and AI Motion Enhancer Pro technology. For the R95H, there’s also Samsung’s Motion Xcelerator 165Hz for gaming, with the R85H models having the same feature, albeit at just 144Hz.
Samsung is also being extremely generous with the TVs’ audio capabilities. Both new models feature Dolby Atmos sound with Object Tracking Sound and Q-Symphony integration, which means they can be hooked up wirelessly to five external Samsung speakers or amps. They run the One UI Tizen platform, and come with Samsung Gaming Hub and Samsung TV Plus.
It has to be pointed out that Samsung is certainly not alone in pushing RGB LED technology this year. Rivals including Sony, LG Electronics, Hisense and TCL are also launching their own flavours, using names such as True RGB, micro RGB and RGB miniLED, but they’re all basically the same tech under the hood. However, TCL does not consider its RGB LED models to be the best among its LCD range, reserving that honour for its new Super Quantum Dot TV models. The Chinese company believes that its use of a single-chip pure white light source, combined with a five-nanometre SQD filter, enables those models to surpass RGB LED in terms of both brightness and colour, but its claims have not yet been scrutinized independently.
Consumers should avoid mistaking Samsung’s Micro RGB TVs for MicroLED, which is a much more expensive display technology that’s widely regarded as being the best of the best, superior to both RGB LED and OLED. MicroLED TVs get rid of the LCD elements altogether, using a screen that’s made up completely of microscopic and self-emissive LEDs that can generate their own red, green and blue light.
The Samsung R95H is available at multiple retailers including Curry’s, John Lewis and Richer Sounds in three sizes: 65-, 75- and 85-inches, with prices starting at £3,239, £4,199 and £5,969 respectively, according to PriceRunner. As for the R85H, there’s also a smaller 55-inch model and a bigger 100-inch version, with prices starting at £1,599 for the smallest model and £11,999 for the largest. The 65-, 75- and 85-inch versions cost £2,399, £3,099 and £3,689, respectively, as per PriceRunner.
Be mindful that those prices will likely tumble within a few months, especially as we get closer to the festive season, so it could be worth waiting a while if budget is a concern. On the other hand, if money is no object, it may still be worth waiting, because Samsung plans to launch a mammoth 130-inch version of the R95H later in the year, and it will almost certainly come with an astronomical price tag.
