Sony QD OLED Wins Value Electronics 2022 TV Shootout

Consumer Tech Sony QD OLED Wins Value Electronics 2022 TV Shootout John Archer Senior Contributor Opinions expressed by Forbes Contributors are their own. New! Follow this author to improve your content experience. Got it! Jul 31, 2022, 07:11am EDT | New! Click on the conversation bubble to join the conversation Got it! Share to Facebook Share to Twitter Share to Linkedin The annual Value Electronics shootout between a selection of the year’s most premium TVs has become one of the most eagerly anticipated events on the AV tech calendar.

Anticipation has been especially high for 2022, given that we have new Quantum Dot OLED screens to throw into the mix alongside the usual OLED and LCD rivals. This year the shootout is actually taking place over two days, with day one focusing on 4K sets, and day 2 focusing on 8K models. The 8K shoot out is happening today (July 31), but the 4K one happened yesterday – and confirmed what TV reviewers have been saying for the past few months by awarding victory to the Sony A95K Quantum Dot OLED.

The shootout is being hosted at Value Electronics’ Company Building on Madison Avenue in New York, marshalled by Caleb Denison of Digital Trends and judged by a panel of Hollywood video colorists, film finishers, TV reviewers and video scientists (though not regular consumers). Among the criteria being judged are contrast, brightness, color fidelity, color saturation and motion resolution, with test material combining test signals developed by the AV experts at Spears & Munsil and real world content. And the winner of the Value Electronics 2022 4K TV shootout is: the QD OLED Sony 65A95K Photo: John Archer The sets assembled for the 4K shootout were LG’s G2 Gallery OLED TV, Samsung’s QN95B miniLED TV, Samsung’s S95B Quantum Dot OLED TV, Sony’s XR-A95K QD OLED TV, and Sony’s X95K miniLED.

And after hours of testing, the podium places from gold to bronze went to the Sony XR65A95K, the Samsung QN65S95B, and the LG OLED65G2PUA, with overall scores (taking an average of scores from multiple test areas) of 8. 9, 8. 3 and 7.

9 respectively. Delving more deeply into the score breakdown, with SDR sources watched in daylight modes the Sony A95K bagged a huge 9. 3 score, with the Samsung S95B second on 8.

3 and the LG G2 coming in with just 6. 7 due to a reported issue with over-bright red sub-pixels. In ‘reference’ SDR conditions, the Sony A95K scored 8.

6, the LG G2 got back in the game with 8. 5, and the Samsung S95B bagged 8. 3.

With HDR, the Sony A95K again won the day with 8. 9, while the Samsung S95B and LG G2 both scored 8. 4.

MORE FOR YOU Google Issues Warning For 2 Billion Chrome Users Forget The MacBook Pro, Apple Has Bigger Plans Google Discounts Pixel 6, Nest & Pixel Buds In Limited-Time Sale Event While I think it’s worth reiterating (even if it gets me into trouble) that I’m not always convinced that what the creative side of the AV industry want from a TV tallies with what mainstream consumers want, these results nonetheless underline just what a success Samsung has on its hands with its QD OLED technology. Even if it’s a bit awkward for Samsung that Sony has seemingly managed to get better results out of it at the first time of asking. While Samsung should be happy to see its new QD OLED tech making such an instant impact, though, it could well be concerned that its miniLED technology – which it actually prices above its Quantum Dot OLED sets – has failed to make the top three.

It’s also got to be a concern for LG that even its best performing regular OLED TV has been pushed into third place when in past years WRGB OLED screens have dominated. That said, LG’s C2 OLED series, along with most other OLED TVs from other brands, remain substantially more affordable than the first QD OLED TVs. Look out tomorrow for an update on the results of the 8K shootout.

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