Samsung’s 65-inch OLED TV: an impressive display of sound and vision

My livingroom is not built for an oversized TV. I had qualms about the size of the 55-inch TV we bought when we upgraded our old one last year, thinking that it was a little on the large size given the space it was crammed into.

But it’s amazing how quickly your perspective can change. I spent some time with Samsung’s 65-inch OLED TV and after a week I was surprisingly okay with a huge screen taking up space.

It helps that the S95B, to give it its proper name, is an excellent TV. That OLED screen is thin. So thin that even setting it up gave me a few wobbly moments; the screen flexed a bit as it was being lifted on to the TV stand, and there was a moment where I thought I’d break it, but it was sturdier than I thought.

In case you aren’t familiar with the various TV technologies, OLED is basically as good as it gets: deep blacks, vivid colours and all in a thin — and large — package. It’s also more expensive than LED or LCD, and you are limited on the sizes; it comes in big, bigger and huge. LG’s 42-inch OLED TV is the smallest I’ve seen.

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There are also a lot of tech terms to deal with. The S95B is 4K, which means it has four times the resolution of your regular full HD TV. Samsung’s Quantum Dot technology is brought into play here too, to boost brightness and colour. The TV supports high dynamic range (HDR), which determines what the pixels on the screen show. That means shades of grey where before it would have been murky, or details being brought out in shadows when areas of the screen are brightly lit. Colours can be more vivid, too. Not all content is HDR compatible, but when you get the right content, the picture quality will be higher than standard dynamic range footage.

So it’s safe to say that the S95B is an impressive display all round.

Once you have the TV set up, you can choose your favoured picture mode. The standard may be a bit too saturated but playing around with the different modes will yield at least one that fits the bill.

The on-board smart TV software has a number of apps pre-installed, covering streaming video services and catch-up services, so you can sign in to your Apple TV account, Disney+ or Netflix, for example. Add in some smart home features, such as the SmartThings system, and there is plenty to look at. It’s a little overwhelming when you see it laid out first, but it’s more manageable once you tweak a little.

With TVs this thin, there can be a question over the sound quality of the built-in speakers. After all, where do you fit them? The speakers in the S95B are reasonably good. It includes Dolby Atmos and Samsung’s Object Tracking Sound technology too. The TV came with a sound bar for the review period, although the speakers were good enough that it wasn’t necessary, unless you are very particular about your home cinema sound.

The good

The top takeaway from the S95B is the picture quality. It is better than anything I’ve seen on non-OLED TVs, especially with darker HDR-compatible content.

The screen is super thin, so you can wall mount it easily — although it’s probably worth getting a professional in given the price tag. The sound is also pretty good, with Dolby Atmos decoding, so you can minimise clutter and skip the sound bar for day-to-day viewing.

The not so good

You pay for all that quality. Like any new technology out there, OLED TVs come with a premium price tag. But they are coming down, so even if they are a little out of your reach now, that may not be the case in the near future.

It doesn’t support Dolby Vision, so if that’s a deal-breaker, this isn’t the TV for you.

The rest

The smart TV interface is ideal for Samsung users, and you can set the TV up with voice commands, with a choice between Google Assistant, Amazon’s Alexa or Bixby.

The verdict

An excellent TV that justifies its price tag.