Sony QD-OLED TV promises better color than its other OLED TVs at CES 2022

This story is part of CES, where CNET covers the latest news on the most incredible tech coming soon.

Sony unveiled a slew of new televisions at CES 2022, most of them high-end, but the most remarkable is the A95K series. That’s because it uses a whole new kind of OLED TV panel. Sony calls it QD-OLED and promises improved color and viewing angle compared to current, conventional OLED TVs — which already deliver the best picture quality on the market.

The A95K is actually the second QD-OLED television to make an appearance at the show. The first was an as-yet unnamed Samsung model revealed in a CES Innovations award Monday. Samsung has yet to disclose many details about its TV but Sony spilled more QD-OLED beans.

Unfortunately counting those beans can get confusing, so bear with me. Sony also sells other OLEDs, including new 2022 models like the A80K and A90K series, that use the conventional OLED display panels, not QD-OLED. They rely on yellow and blue OLED materials to create “white” light and filters to mix in other colors. The new panels in the A95K series, which come in 55- and 65-inch sizes, use a different manufacturing method that combines a blue OLED base layer with red and blue quantum dots, hence the “QD.”

The main benefit, according to Sony, appears on-screen as deeper, more saturated color in bright areas, where Sony says conventional OLED tends to become whiter and less colorful. The company also claims improved viewing angles, so colors appear more vivid from seats to either side of dead center. Sony representatives told CNET not to expect a significant improvement in peak brightness with white, however.

As befits a flagship model the A95K offers the full monte of Sony’s 2022 TV features, including a bundled webcam, a remote finder feature, improved gaming featuring HDMI 2.1 inputs, VRR and auto HDR tone mapping for PlayStation5, and the Google TV operating system with a hands-free mic.

The introduction of QD-OLED brings competition to the big-screen OLED TV market. A company called LG Display currently manufactures all of the OLED TV panels available today, and supplies them not only to LG Electronics but also to Sony, Vizio, Philips, Panasonic and others worldwide. 

Sony said it was unable to disclose information about the panel vendor for the A95K, but rumors point to Samsung Display, which first announced its QD-OLED ambitions in 2019 with an $11 billion investment in a new factory in Korea.

Read more: Samsung’s QD-OLED TV might be here soon. Here’s everything we know

I’m looking forward to reviewing the Sony A95K and comparing it to the field. Current OLEDs already deliver excellent image quality, come in a wide variety of sizes and have gotten more affordable every year. Sony’s cheapest 55-inch OLED TV, the A80J, sold for less than $1,400 during the 2021 holiday season, for example. 

Sony didn’t announce pricing on any of its TVs, including the QD-OLED-powered A95K, but as Sony’s flagship OLED TV for 2022 I expect it to be quite expensive — maybe $5,000 for the 65-inch size. Sony said it would announce further details, including pricing and availability, in the spring.