Samsung Electronics’ upcoming The Premiere 8K projector has just become the first device of its kind to be certified by the 8K Association.
The device, which is not currently on sale but is expected to become available soon, is not the only 8K projector in the world, but it’s the first to receive official certification from the 8KA organisation.
As you might expect, the 8KA is an industry association that’s tasked with setting the standards for 8K resolution technologies. It was the body that established the performance specification for 8K televisions several years ago, and back then, Samsung became one of the first companies whose 8K TVs to officially meet that standard.
The same is happening with 8K projectors, and that’s not really surprising as Samsung is one of the key contributors to the 8KA, alongside the likes of TCL, Panasonic, Intel, Hisense, Mediatek and others.
We don’t know yet what the 8KA’s full list of requirements are in terms of projectors, for the specification has not been officially published. But obviously, the main one is that projectors must be able to deliver native 8K resolution, or 7,680 x 4,320 pixels.
We also expect the standards to require support for 8K upscaling, so lower-resolution content can be displayed in higher quality, and there will likely be a high bar in terms of requirements for HDR, brightness, contrast and colour gamut coverage, and possibly some specific standards around audio. The standards, when officially made public, will apply to any projector that wants to be certified.
Samsung first unveiled the Samsung Premiere 8K at CES 2024 in January, but despite that, it hasn’t yet been released for sale. However, some reports suggest that it will finally be launched in stores and online during CES 2025, which is next month, and it will likely come with a very hefty, five-figure price tag.
