RedShark News - Video technology news and analysis

8K Samsung TVs in the shops this month and priced way less than the first 4K sets

Written by David Shapton | Oct 3, 2018 11:00:00 PM
Samsung 8K TV at IFA

Samsung's 8K TVs will be in the shops, available to buy, this month - somewhat earlier than expected

Well this has happened sooner than we expected.

Today, we heard that Samsung is launching its range of 8K TVs on Weds, October 3rd. You can order immediately from shop.samsung.com and from various resellers. Sets will be in the shops on 17th October. 

We're still reeling (in a good way) from the price of these 8K sets. We expected them to be around $20,000 and it turns out that they're between a third and a quarter of that. The reason we expected that higher price is that that's what 4K sets cost when they first came out. 

On this basis we're confident that you'll be able to buy an 8K TV for around $2,000 within a couple of years. At the very least they'll be fantastic for looking at your DSLR and Mirrorless camera photos - in one-to-one resolution. 

Clearly there's almost no 8K content around yet, but the Samsungs incorporate an AI-based tech that very skillfully upscales 4K and HD content to "8K flavour". It sounds like it could be horrible but I've seen it working and it is a very credible technique. 

Here's our report from only five years ago about the first 4K sets in the shops. Only five years! And look at that price! ($24,000)