Samsung has announced which of its latest flagship television and projector models are coming to New Zealand this year to compete with the likes of LG, Sony and Panasonic.
The Korean tech giant will soon be selling 8K and 4K versions of its new Neo QLED range to Kiwis along with powerful new 4K projectors and updates to its lifestyle TV range, which includes the Frame, the Serif, the Terrace and the Sero.
The Neo QLED televisons utilise Mini LED technology which Samsung says means a "quantum leap in display" due to its much smaller LED backlights.
"The major improvement in the Neo QLED range is around the LED lights that sit behind the screen. They're one 40th of the size of the lights we had in our QLED range from the previous year," Adam Mcelroy, Samsung NZ's head of marketing consumer electronics, told Newshub.
"That means you can fit more LED lights behind the screen, which means you get a brighter picture, stronger contrast between light and dark portions and it also means the screen is thinner.
"It's actually more than just this year's incremental improvement - that's a big change to the whole experience. But ultimately, seeing is believing and New Zealanders will be able to see the new Neo QLED range in stores by the middle of May."
Neo QLED 4K models will launch in Aotearoa with prices starting at just under $2900, while the 8K models will start at just under $9000.
The new projectors Samsung is bringing to the country are for people who want to spend even more on creating a home cinema experience.
'The Premiere' is a short throw laser projector offering up to HDR10+ certified 4K resolution, a screen size of up to 130-inches and 2800 ANSI lumens of brightness - but it'll cost up to $13,000.
While that may be a huge amount to spend on a home movie-watching upgrade, New Zealanders are said to have been splashing out more on home electronics over the last year amid the restrictions of the COVID-19 pandemic.
Mcelroy says Samsung had a huge year.
"If you look at the current percentage that Samsung has of the television market in New Zealand, at the end of 2020 - according to GfK - Samsung had just up over 40 percent of the value in the market. That was an increase on the 35 percent we finished 2019 with."
All of the 2021 models come with solar-powered remote controls, which means never having to change the batteries and, ultimately, fewer batteries going to landfills. They can be recharged with room lights rather than the sun, too.
As with the likes of LG and Sony, Samsung's latest TVs also offer advancements specifically for gamers like the ability to game in 4K at 120fps. The new 'Game Bar' feature brings up information such as a monitor of the current framerate and input lag.
Earlier this year, Samsung announced a Micro LED television - which is a separate, newer, much more expensive technology than Mini LED - was going to be released in 2021, but it was not included with the other models announced this week as coming to New Zealand.
Samsung hasn't set an exact date for when the Neo QLED TVs will be available in Aotearoa but has said they will be "from early May", while the new projectors are available from this week.
