At CES 2015, Samsung announced S'UHD, which “takes picture quality to the next level”. It is Samsung’s variant of quantum dot technology with some marketing on top.
S UHD is a quantum dot TV
Samsung cannot mass-produce OLED displays yet so it is trying to catch up to its home-town rival LG by using quantum dots in LCD TVs - something Sony has been using for two years. Samsung’s plan B is called S'UHD and it is looking to boost images in other areas by using full-array local dimming in its top models.
Samsung says that its S UHD TVs have “rich colors, better than OLED” based on a wider color gamut than conventional HD. The color gamut is around 90 % of DCI and the TVs can output 2.5x brightness compared to regular TVs, allowing Samsung to reproduce HDR content. To benefit from the wider color gamut you also need content coded in the wider-than-HD gamut, which currently does not exist.
Netflix is talking about adding it wide-color gamut content, and the 4K Blu-ray format will also support wider color gamuts up to Rec.2020, which is significantly better than what you see in cinemas.
So what does the S stand for? Samsung gave us some examples at the press conference, including Smart (because Tizen), Stylish (because curved), Superb (because resolution) and Spectacular (because quantum dot). Samsung is also marketing it as “Seductive”. But it seems that S’UHD is mostly “Ultra HD + quantum dot + brighter backlight + marketing”. We will try to dig deeper in the next few days.
Samsung has yet to announce release and pricing details for its new S’UHD TVs but we know that the model names are JS9500, JS9000 and JS8500, and that the TVs will be available in spring in screen sizes from 48 to 88 inches. More information coming soon.
