Samsung Electronics has debuted two of the four ultra-short throw projectors that it unveiled for the first time at CES 2024 in January. The new models, the Samsung Premiere 7 and Samsung Premiere 9, build on the company’s existing range of UST projectors, ramping up the brightness factor and introducing even more dazzling and realistic colours.
UST projectors are an alternative to traditional models in that they don’t need to be placed several metres away from the wall or screen the user intends to project the image onto. Instead, they can be placed more or less directly under the intended display surface, and they produce a short, sharp laser light beam that vastly increases the overall brightness of the picture. That’s what makes them so good, and also fairly expensive.
The Premiere 7 and Premiere 9 are both said to output 4K images and offer a range of features designed to enhance them, including AI upscaling technology that sharpens the pictures to ensure they stand out more, and its Vision Booster tech that automatically adjusts the brightness. They also support HDR10 to maintain visual clarity.
Both models run Samsung’s familiar Tizen OS platform, which provides access to a range of streaming applications, and there’s also a Gaming Hub on board that enables users to play cloud-streamed video games with big-screen graphics.
Other cool features include a smart speaker mode for those who just want to listen to music, content mirroring, for sharing content from a Samsung smartphone, and integration with the SmartThings platform, in case you want to use your UST projector to control smart home devices.
In terms of the differences between the two models, the Premiere 7 is said to cover 100% of the DCI-P3 colour gamut, while the Premiere 9 expands on this, absolutely saturating things with its 154% coverage. The Premiere 9 is also brighter, rated at 3,450 lumens, compared to 2,500 lumens on the Premiere 7. In addition, the higher-end model features triple-laser technology to enhance visual fidelity, and it comes with a pair of 40-watt speakers with 2.2.2-channel sound. The Premiere 7 only sports a 30-watt, 2.2-channel sound system.
Perhaps the best thing about these projectors is the easy set up. According to Samsung, all you have to do is plug it in and connect to WiFi and you’re good to go. All of the picture settings and adjustments will be taken care of automatically, so there’s no fiddling around at all.
These machines don’t come cheap though. Samsung said the Premiere 7 will cost $3,000 in the U.S., while the Premiere 9 will sell for $6,000. However, the company is offering an incentive for those who purchase one before September 15. Do so, and you’ll also get a free, Samsung Freestyle projector, which is a smaller, less capable but highly-portable battery-powered projector that can be taken almost anywhere.
