Samsung Electronics new flagship OLED TV, the Samsung S95C, promises to dazzle consumers with some of the most realistic images ever to make their way into a living room, but there is one unfortunate issue that could upset a small segment of buyers.
In his review of the Samsung S95C QD-OLED TV, HDTVTest’s Vincent Teoh was startled to discover that its HDMI 2.1 ports are not able to support the full 48Gbps bandwidth they should be capable of, meaning some users could come unstuck with connectivity problems.
In his review, Teoh found that the S95C’s HDMI 2.1 ports are only able to support up to 40Gbps bandwidth, which could be problematic for PC gamers that were hoping to take advantage of its 4K 144Hz capabilities. According to Teoh, the likely culprit behind this issue is Samsung’s One Connect box, which is a feature unique to the S95C TV that houses all of the TVs connections and cables, hiding them away. It’s a great addition for anyone who despises having a mass of tangled cables trailing out the back of their TV, but that nice little bit of housekeeping appears to come at a cost.
At this stage we should point out that the lack of 48Gbps HDMI 2.1 ports won’t be a deal breaker for the vast majority of buyers. If you’re only planning to watch TV shows and movies, the issue is neither here nor there. Not even the most premium of media streaming boxes or 4K Blu-ray players require the full 48Gbps connection, for example. The PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series X and Series S consoles cannot output more than 40Gbps either, even when delivering content in 4K120Hz in HDR, meaning the S95C is a perfectly fine option for console gaming.
The only people who might have problems are the small number of buyers who were envisioning connecting a state-of-the-art PC to the S95C TV. A PC connection with high frame rates and expanded colour depth sometimes requires the full 48Gbps bandwidth. It’s not the case for every PC setup, but those who use one of the latest graphics cards from Nvidia, for example, coud have problems trying to achieve the S95C’s full 144Hz refresh rate at 4K resolution. According to Teoh, if your PC tries to push the TV beyond its 40Gbps limits, then you might come across some strange connectivity issues.
Buyers certainly need to be aware of this surprising limitation, but let it take nothing away from the overall quality of the TV itself, which is likely to be one of the best that money can buy in 2023. For the vast majority of users the TV will work perfectly and the pictures should look stunning. That said, if you were planning to hook up a PC to take advantage of that beautiful QD-OLED panel, you may want to check out the Samsung S90C, which doesn’t have a One Connect box and therefore supports 48Gbps without problems.
