Samsung announced a dazzling lineup of TVs at CES 2022, including the ultimate MicroLED, which one writer called “110 inches of entertainment insanity,” with a $150,000 price tag to match. The Neo QLED line and Lifestyle TVs also impressed. But one model generating a lot of attention wasn’t introduced as part of the company’s 2022 lineup. Rather, the Samsung Electronics QD-OLED that quietly earned the company a CES 2022 Innovation Award launched speculation as to whether Samsung was about to enter a race with Sony to get the first consumer QD-OLED to market.

Sony formally announced at CES that the Bravia XR Master Series A95K QD-OLED (below) would be released sometime in the first half of the year. The screens are being supplied by Samsung Display, a trade unit that has been producing them for other manufacturers and industrial use.

But Samsung Electronics apparently decided to trick one out and enter the unnamed model in the CES Innovations competition. “Samsung’s 65-inch QD-Display TV is the world’s first true RGB self-emitting Quantum Dot OLED display — revolutionizing TV by combining the contrast levels of RGB OLED with the color and brightness of quantum dots for ultimate visuals,” reads the CES Innovations Award description.

“The QD-Display TV combines a groundbreaking new QD-OLED display with Samsung’s gorgeous Infinity One Design and immersive Object Tracking Sound technology,” the summary continues. “It’s built with our 2022 Neo Quantum Processor for superior image quality, while boasting a 144Hz refresh rate and four HDMI 2.1 inputs — both wins for gamers.”

CNET reached out to Samsung to find out when they might be homesteading that frontier, and was told: “We’ll have more to share about the 2022 TV lineup in the next several weeks.”

CNET writes that while OLED remains “the gold standard among high-end TVs” due to perfect black levels, concise illumination and superior off-angle viewing, QD-OLED promises the best of both worlds, combining organic light-emitting diodes and quantum dots: “With the current version of OLED, yellow and blue OLED materials create ‘white’ light and filters mix in other colors. QD-OLED uses blue OLEDs to create light and quantum dots to convert some of the blue into red and green.” All that and perfect blacks, too.

CNET calls it “good news for big-budget buyers who want the richest colors in their home theaters,” in a deep-dive entitled “Samsung’s QD-OLED TV Tech Explained.”

Meanwhile, Samsung’s CES news announcement offers details on the amazing models the company did announce, including the new MicroLED (above), couched as the company’s state-of-the-art, with 25 million micrometer-sized LEDs that individually produce light and color, and over one million steps of brightness and color levels (for 100 percent of DCI and Adobe RGB color gamut). Models are available in 110-inch, 101-inch and 89-inch versions.

The Neo QLED 8K introduces advanced contrast mapping and quadruples lighting control to 16,384 steps. Samsung also showcased new Lifestyle TV models that promise “the most realistic art viewing experience outside of a museum.”

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