Samsung S95D: In a sunny country, glare-free OLED just makes sense

The world’s first glare-free OLED TV is quite a sight to behold and probably the best TV we’ve ever used.

The Samsung S95D OLED 4K Smart TV.

The world’s first glare-free OLED TV is quite a sight to behold.

It’s 10am, the sun is shining bright through one 4m-long window and four 1m skylights above, and a picture which would normally be heavily compromised at this point is anything but.

In a mostly sunny country like Australia, movies have often been hard to watch in the peak of daylight, where a nearby window can ruin a movie or at least leave you missing the finer details which really make a movie stick.

But, that’s no longer an issue for those who are happy to fork out a little extra on a TV which might just change your daytime viewing experience.

This all thanks to a specialised hard coating layer which Samsung says will “overcome the trade-off between gloss and reflection”.

The coating isn’t really visible to the human eye, or at least not out ours, and it had no effect on the TV viewing experience at night, which we found to be a lot sharper than last year’s model — which is no easy feat.

The Australian is sat on a sofa in front of the world’s first certified OLED glare-free TV, the manufacturer is Samsung and the model is S95D. And it’s a pretty good view, both from the front and the sides, where the device is just 11.2mm thick, a smidgen thicker than an iPhone.

The Samsung S95D above its predecessor the S95C

Now, this device is by no means cheap, retailing at $9281 for this particular 77-inch model, but nor is the viewing experience.

The S95D is a 4K TV with a 100hz refresh rate. It’s probably the best TV we’ve used, and while the speakers are more than acceptable, the experience has been enhanced by the HW-Q990D Q-Series Soundbar which is filling every last ounce of this loft with sound.

One of the key themes with Samsung TVs this year is they’re using artificial intelligence to make old things new again.

Old films can be a pain for anyone whose is lucky to be exposed to modern TVs. It’s not so much the film itself, but the fact everyone has gotten so used to the sharp quality of modern entertainment the little things really do stand out.

Those issues aren’t present here thanks to its NQ4 AI Gen2 Processor, which is effectively the brains of the device, and can upscale old films using AI to detect what image is being portrayed and to instantly sharpen or enhance it. Its accuracy is pretty high.

Another cool feature is the ‘real depth enhancer’, which is where a screen can portray depth in such a way the background in a frame appears almost genuinely back from its main picture. It does this by using a process which adds contrast, allowing the human eye to focus more on a background object.

The chip is also four times faster than the older chip, the NQ4 Gen1, so real-time advancements are a lot more noticeable.

If you’re like me, screen brightness matters, and the reason is twofold. For one, it’s how you improve a picture, the darker and brighter a black is, the more definition you will see.

The S95D OLED 4K TV can be paired with the HW-Q990D Q-Series Soundbar.

But, also, when you spend all day in front of different screens like most office workers, screen brightness, or rather the ability to dim a screen, is super important.

EyeComfort Mode uses a built-in light sensor which, combined with data around the sunset and sunrise of a viewer’s home area, will adjust image brightness. At night it can really help to reduce strain, and allows you to watch a film or series in a dark room without feeling like a deer in the headlights.

What else is fun? Your indoor pets might take a liking to the TV thanks to a new feature called object tracking sound, in which the device’s processor will detect where an image is on the screen and use the closest speaker to project sound. A plane flying over a screen or a tennis ball across a court becomes just a little bit more exciting.

Ever see your Netflix recommendations ruined from a visiting friend? Those days could be over if you begin to use Samsung’s Netflix-like approach to TV profiles, which you can provide suggestions based on what a person watches so long as each user sticks to using their own profile.

For gamers of the console-free variety, AI gaming mode sounds pretty handy, with the automatically selecting optimal settings. Games aren’t our favourite pastime so we can’t really comment on them.

The verdict? Affordability aside, I think this is the best TV I’ve ever used.