I was recently invited to the “Samsung Unbox and Discover” event that showed the new lineup of 2025 TV and audio devices. I’ve been using Samsung TVs for as long as I can remember, so when I got the invite, I was really excited to see what the offering was on these upcoming TVs and soundbars. I got to spend a few hours with select displays, do a really good deep dive, and test out all of their new features.
Leading into the event, I was trying to figure out the best ways to go about testing these displays. My approach behind these impressions was to come at it with the mindset of a consumer who walked into a retail store looking to purchase a new TV. There were several rooms with different displays in each of them, which were set up in the ideal listening and watching situation. With that being said, they had Blu-ray players hooked up to each TV, but sadly, there were no physical consoles on site. All gaming had to be done via the cloud through Xbox Game Pass and NVIDIA’s GeForce now.
I checked out a couple of displays within the same SKU. The first was the 85-inch Neo QLED 8K (QN990F), and upon entering the room and seeing the size of the display, I was truly at a loss for words. A continuous video loop was shown on this TV as I entered the room. It started with two women playing tennis, then went to a boxing match, followed up by someone climbing a mountain, then ended up a mountainscape with a beautiful clear lakefront in the foreground.
This was the first time that I’ve seen an 8K TV before. Though I knew that the quality would be better than your average 4K, I was still very much in disbelief at what I was looking at. The lineup of Samsung TVs that will be released in 2025 will all include the award-winning glare-free technology, which has been proven to help you enjoy the highest possible resolution, no matter what environment you’re in.
“The first was the 85-inch Neo QLED 8K (QN990F), and upon entering the room and seeing the size of the display, I was truly at a loss for words.”
This room was very brightly lit, and I didn’t need to adjust anything to balance out the brightness or contrast of the TV in order to bring comfort to my viewing session. I also tested this out in the dark as well and kept a light on near the back of the room facing the TV and I can comfortably say that the glare-free tech did the job.
The colours on the Samsung 85-inch Neo QLED 8K were bright and vibrant, both in a fully illuminated and pitch-dark room. I had to see how in-depth I could take this, so I had no choice but to turn on one of my favourite movies, Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse. The movie has such a clever way of displaying a vast array of colours to depict various emotions, and sometimes, it often feels like another character is on screen. That being said, I didn’t have time to watch the entire movie, so I wanted to watch two particular scenes to see how well this TV would bring the vibrant colour palette of this movie to life.
The intro scene, where we are introduced to Spider-Woman and Spider-Man 2099, felt very appropriate as it uses a good mix of bright and dark colours in varying hues throughout the duration of the scene. Watching this scene truly felt like I was watching the movie again for the very first time. Light, bright, vibrant colours mixed with very dark blacks brought something to this film on the Neo QLED 8K, it almost felt like I was watching an Imax movie in a home viewing situation.
Another really great thing that is included with Samsung’s 2025 Displays is the addition to the Art Store, which you would traditionally find on the Frame model TV. There have been a few newer additions to the Art Store, like a large slate of art from Art Basel, which I was sorting through for no less than one hour during my session.
After I was done in this room, I made my way over to check out the Samsung 65-inch Neo QLED 4K that also included the Samsung Q-Series Soundbar (HW-Q990F). It was surreal to see the immediate difference between the 8K display and the 4K display. I had to temper my expectations, knowing that I was no longer dealing with a higher resolution display, but saying this, I was still very much impressed with the 4K model.
“I knew this unit was optimized for the room I was in, but man, I was so happy with what I was hearing on the Samsung Q-Series Soundbar.”
I sat down, got comfy and booted up Across The Spider-verse, and once again, I was still very impressed. I mentioned that this room had the Q-Series Soundbar setup for testing. This soundbar had a very nice, sleek design that matched the entertainment unit it was sitting on. This soundbar also comes with a subwoofer that is truly phenomenal. The demo that was on a loop in this room really showcased the heights that this soundbar could go, so again, I had to test its limits.
I was very weary because I was told, “Don’t worry about being too loud, folks know you’re testing out the tech.” With that being said, I quickly booted up my go-to for testing audio for soundbars, Mad Max: Fury Road. Put simply, I was blown away; the base was heavy and not too intimidating. The treble and higher tones were very crispy and so clear. I knew this unit was optimized for the room I was in, but man, I was so happy with what I was hearing on the Samsung Q-Series Soundbar.
The Q-Series Soundbar comes with dynamic bass control, which uses nonlinear bass management to deliver a more balanced and distortion-free sound. I also learned about the Q-Symphony, which offers more immersive 3D surround sound by recognizing the position of the wireless speakers, like the music frame, and automatically optimizes the audio effects based on its distance and angle.
Possibly my favourite feature was the active voice amplifier pro. This feature analyzes the audio signal to reduce the background noise and boost dialogue in real-time. Gone are the days of someone using the blender to make a smoothie a room away, and you miss a critical piece of dialogue.
Another really cool thing I got to check out during this trip was the new connectivity of Samsung’s 2025 TVs and the new model of the Galaxy Watch. Samsung, though smart things, has created this really neat feature where you can, more or less, control the TV through the smartwatch. What I mean by this is that you are able to browse, open and close apps as well as navigate the TV menus through the touch screen on the watch.
During the demo, there were a few hiccups, but with tech like this, it’s going to be one of those things that will for sure get better in time. These use universal gestures like pinching your index finger and thumb together and opening and closing your hand from an open palm to a closed fist to go to the main menu of the TV. I do like the idea of what was presented, but at this moment, you are not able to turn off and on the TV from the watch, and honestly, at that point, you’re better off using the remote for ease of convenience.
“Well, the Samsung Wireless One Connect Box works, and it works pretty well to boot.”
One of the things that I was unable to wrap my head around in both rooms was the new Wireless One Connect Box. Essentially, this is a receiver that you can connect your additional devices to, like your video game console, streaming device or Blu-ray player, and the box will wireless transmit the 8K or 4K frequency at 120Hz to the TV from up to 10 feet away.
I saw this and was hesitant to believe that it would work flawlessly because latency still exists, and there’s no way there could be a world we live in where we have made latency redundant. Well, the Samsung Wireless One Connect Box works, and it works pretty well to boot. If you are more of a casual consumer of digital media, like watching TV or movies, or you get most of your videos from Twitch or Youtube, you’re truly not going to notice the latency at all. Gaming, on the other hand, would not be ideal for the Wireless One Connect box.
Let’s continue to talk about gaming. The 2025 Samsung TVs will come with streaming gaming apps like NVIDIA’s GeForce Now as well as Xbox Game Pass. I need to preface this by saying that we were not in the best environment to test cloud gaming, and there weren’t any physical consoles around to truly test how good gaming could be on these new TVs. That being said, I did have a very hard time getting any game to play correctly because of the internet connection.
I tried a handful of games, but ultimately, Overcooked 2 on Xbox Game Pass via the cloud was the game that was actually playable. The gaming session was more frustrating than enjoyable, but I know that these apps work very well once you have a good, solid connection. I use the cloud gaming function on Xbox Game Pass weekly. But in this controlled environment, it wasn’t ideal, and that was very unfortunate.
After spending a few hours with the 2025 Samsung Neo QLED 8K and 4K TVs, I can comfortably say that both of these models are truly best in class. The updated glare-free technology safely eliminates the fear of which room you want to put the TV in. Including the updated Art Store now adds a new means of displaying some of the best art in the world in your home and you can pick what best fits your mood on a weekly, daily, or even hourly basis.
Getting exposed to the Wireless One Connect box just opened up my eyes to the endless possibilities of where I could potentially mount one of these displays without the fear of horrid cable management. Gaming is available through various apps like NVIDIA’s GeForce Now and Xbox Game Pass, but my experience wasn’t great during this test. I know these services very well, and they are both great to have for your traditional living room gaming experience. The 2025 Samsung TVs will be released soon, and if you’re in the market for an upgrade, I would strongly consider either of these displays without hesitation.
