Samsung QN95A Neo QLED 05/2021

In addition to some positive features in picture quality, the new Mini LED backlight technology also brings the advantage of being significantly smaller than ordinary LEDs. This makes the overall depth even smaller, making the QN95A even slimmer than its 2020 predecessor, the Q95T, already was.

The overall design is really elegant, which is further emphasized by the TV’s narrow frame. When paired with a suitable wall mount, VESAThe Video Electronics Standards Association (VESA) defines standards for the TVs wall mounting measurements. or Samsung’s Slim Fit wall mount, it cuts a prime figure when mounted on the wall. This is where the Slim One Connect Box really comes into its own. Because it ensures that only one cable leads to the QN95A and all connections such as HDMI, cable or USB are connected to the separate box. Thus, you could not wish for a cleaner cable management!

But the center-mounted pedestal stand also makes a high-quality impression and is reminiscent of the stand of the Q90T or Q95T. In these models, the stand is made of metal and is quite heavy, which supports the TV well. Both models have a firm stand that wobbles only slightly when bumped – but that can’t be completely avoided with a center-mounted stand.

In addition, the One Connect Box will have 4 HDMI 2.1 interfaces, which avoids annoying plugging of devices.

Like its QLED ancestors, the Neo QLED Q95A also uses a VAVertical Alignment, type of LCD Panel panel, which is known for its deep and even blacks. Normally, this type of panel has quite a narrow viewing angle, but Samsung’s Ultra-Viewing-Angle layer should extend this enormously in the QN95A, so that even slanted viewing angles should not cause any problems. In addition, reflections are supposed to be minimized by an anti-reflective coating, which gives the TV a big advantage in brighter environments or with light sources.

Not much can be said about contrast and peak brightness yet, but the small mini LEDs have the advantage that considerably more LEDs can be used for backlighting, which can bring some benefits compared to normal LED LCDLCD = Liquid Crystal Display – a type of screen using liquid crystals for creating the image TVs. On the one hand, the contrast ratio can theoretically be improved considerably and on the other hand, disturbing effects such as bleeding are greatly minimized, since a misbehavior of individual LEDs is no longer as noticeable when they only have to illuminate a smaller area.

In addition, more LEDs can also be divided into more dimming zones. Thus, the Neo QLED models are supposed to have 576 zones in 55 inches and 792 zones in 65 inches, which can theoretically cause a more precise local dimming – but how good this is in the end remains to be seen, since the dimming algorithm plays a not quite insignificant role in this.

Oh, and Samsung still does not have Dolby VisionDynamic HDR-format with a color depth of up to 12 Bits and Mastering of up to 10,000 Nits in 2021. The rival format HDR10+ is supported instead. However, since new content that supports HDR10+ is becoming less and less, the lack of Dolby Vision is slowly becoming problematic. HDR10+ Adaptive, which is the Dolby Vision IQ of the HDR10+ format, will probably only be available for the 8K models.

On paper, the Neo QLED QN95A sounds like an almost perfect TV. The four HDMI 2.1 interfaces support almost all specifications you could wish for. Of course, there is an Auto Low Latency Mode, which automatically detects a connected console and switches the TV to gaming mode to keep the input lag as low as possible. However, it is not yet possible to estimate exactly how high the input lag is in the respective resolutions with the different refresh rates.

Either FreeSync Premium Pro or HDMI Forum VRRVariable Refresh Rate – synchronizes the display’s refresh rate with the output refresh rate of the graphics card is available as a variable refresh rateHertz is the derived SI-unit of frequency with 1Hz=1/s – When talking about TVs this means how many different pictures a TV can display in one second.; G-Sync is unfortunately not available. However, screen tearing should be avoided as far as possible since HDMI Forum VRR also supports Nvidia graphics cards.

Furthermore, Samsung has come up with some interesting new features for gamers, which might be of interest to some. Among other things, PC gamers are offered a panorama mode with a resolution of 32:9 and a game bar has been implemented, which provides an overview of gaming-relevant values like input lag or refresh rate.

Admittedly, not too much changes with the new iteration of the Tizen operating system with Tizen 6.0, but some smart little things are still added. First of all, Smart OS comes with some great features and has a huge selection of apps and all the popular streaming services are also available.

So the TV can be seamlessly integrated into a smart home. With Samsung Smart Things, the QN95A becomes a sort of control center for other smart home applications and conveniently displays them on a dashboard where they can also be controlled with the remote.

And speaking of the new remote control. This one comes with an integrated solar panel, so the remote charges with light, so you don’t have to change batteries anymore – it doesn’t matter if it’s sunlight or artificial light. It’s only a small thing, but it’s still quite a nice feature.

However, those who find the remote control too complicated can also use Amazon Alexa or Google Assistant as voice assistants. However, you will need to connect a third-party device to the TV for Google Assistant. For data exchange with Apple devices, the Neo QLED is Airplay 2 compatible, so you can quickly and easily display videos or photos on the QN95A.

The twin tuner allows recording and saving content on USB storage devices, the timeshift function and the Multiview function. The name Multiview is somewhat misleading. It is about splitting the picture into the current TV program and content streamed from a compatible smartphone.