In the realm of HDTVs and mobile devices Samsung and Microsoft are thick as thieves, and a new announcement from Microsoft (via Xbox Wire) has indicated that this formidable tech team-up is showing no signs of slowing down. Samsung’s QLED line of TVs, encompassing both their QLED and Neo QLED technologies, will continue as the official TV Partner of Xbox Series X/S in the United States and Canada, extending the nearly four-year-long relationship that began when both companies first joined hands to co-promote the Xbox One X and Samsung’s 4K UHD QLED panels.
Naturally, one does not simply become the “Official TV of Xbox” without checking all the next-gen boxes that these new machines demand, and Senior Xbox Global Brand Partnership Lead Chris Munson made sure that not a single buzzword was missed as his post rattled off a laundry list of standard features sure to appease serious Xbox gamers, including “4K gaming at 120hz/120 frames per second”, “5.8ms response time”, “variable refresh rate” and “auto low latency mode”.
Additionally, Samsung’s 2021 Neo QLED and QLED TVs will feature an unprecedented focus on gamer-dedicated features via the new Game Bar accessible in Game Mode, which will allow players to directly tweak elements of their setup, such as adjusting the screen’s aspect ratio, checking input lag, connecting wireless headsets, and more. Munson claims that the new Samsung Neo Quantum Processor built into these sets will “(utilize) AI based deep-learning to elevate your gaming experience”, but the article doesn’t exactly elaborate on how that will be achieved. On Samsung’s own US website however, the manufacturer explains that this processor uses an “upscaling technology that uses data generated from up to 16 neural networks to produce a more detailed resolution, regardless of the image quality of the source”, so at the very least, the new processor promises to make good-looking images appear even sharper.
Finally, select panels within Samsung’s 2021 Neo QLED and QLED lineup are among the first TVs capable of supporting AMD Freesync Premium Pro, “enabling them to synchronize display output and offer variable refresh rates from a console GPU for smooth, stutter free gaming”. With framerates being one of the biggest and most appreciated differentiators between this new generation of consoles and the last, this is a crucial innovation that has been severely lacking in most current televisions, and its inclusion in Samsung’s new panels should help to elevate premium console gaming on a TV closer to the fast and fluid experience that gamers are already accustomed to getting on dedicated gaming monitors.
