Sony is making headlines at CES 2022 with its announcement of the Bravia XR A95K television, the first TV to use a QD-OLED panel. It’s essentially a better version of a traditional OLED panel with more consistent color, accuracy, and increased brightness. Obviously, you’ll be paying a hefty price for it, but there’s no denying it’s an impressive panel.
QD-OLED, which stands for Quantum Dot Organic Light Emitting Diode, isn’t a fundamentally different display technology compared to regular OLED like Micro LED is, but it’s certainly a lot better. OLED panels use yellow and blue compound to generate “white” pixels, while color filters provide the rest of the visuals. With QD-OLED, there’s a blue base layer and an array of red and blue quantum dots to even out color distribution and the entire viewing experience more consistent. Sony is promising a noticeable quality difference with the A95K compared to previous OLED TVs its offered, and it should be interesting to see whether the upgrades pay off.
Interestingly, it appears Samsung is the manufacturer of the display for the TV. This isn’t surprising given how there were rumors the company would be first to market with a QD-OLED television. Alas, it’s decided to give Sony that title.
The design of the A95K is unique, with a special stand that can present the TV in a forward-facing position or one where the TV lies flat against the wall. The back of the unit features a strange grid-patterned cover of sorts to help improve cable management, and the two 65-inch and 55-inch sizes will provide some versatility for those looking for the perfect fit for a specific room.
Sony says the A95K will support 4K 120Hz gameplay, as well as variable refresh rates out of the box and auto HDR tone mapping with PlayStation5. The TV runs Google TV so you’ll be good app-wise, and the speakers are powered by Sony’s Acoustic Surface Audio Plus processing system. You’ll find four HDMI ports on the television with two supporting HDMI 2.1.
In addition, Sony is announcing the Bravia XR A90K and A80K as cheaper alternatives to the flagship A95K which stick with traditional OLED panels (made by LG). It isn’t clear how much cheaper they’ll be since Sony has yet to announce pricing for any of the TVs, but they’ll share a lot of the same features as the A95K minus the more impressive screen technology.
These new televisions are expected to go on sale in the coming months.
2 Comments
You must log in to post a comment.