Samsung 115-inch Micro RGB TV review – a whole new level of quality, contrast and colour

We’ve seen the future of TV. Tech Guide sat down to watch the Samsung flagship 115-inch Micro RGB TV which presents a major shift in how light and colour is controlled and enhanced to produce truly stunning picture quality.

If you can afford the $41,999 price tag then that future has already arrived.

But for the rest of us who don’t have a lazy $42K lying around for the Samsung 115-inch MR95F this is still an exciting TV to see.

And due later this year is a 130-inch version of this TV and we can only wonder how many zeroes will be on that price tag.

But Samsung plans to release Micro RGB within more customers’ reach with the MR95 range that will be available in 65-inch, 75-inch and 85-inch in the coming weeks.

These won’t be in the same ballpark pricewise as the 115-inch and 130-inch but it won’t be the sort of money where the other option is to buy a car or put a deposit on a unit.

Samsung has the runs on the board as a TV innovator and has enjoyed 20 years as the world’s number one TV brand.

The company is trying to take a leadership position with the new Micro RGB technology and will be competing against other brands like Hisense and LG who will also have the letters RGB – and similar technology – in their new models’ description.

We want to start this review by saying the picture quality and colour depth of the Samsung 115-inch Micro RGB MR95F makes it close to the best TV we have ever seen and the reason is the new technology under the hood.

Samsung has re-invented the TV’s backlight by optimising the LED wavelength and piping it through a narrower spectrum through RGB (red, green and blue) backlights to enhance colour purity.

The Micro RGB’s are half the size of a Mini LED – each is just 100 microns arranged in an ultrafine pattern behind the panel.

Samsung has also created a new Micro RGB AI Engine to control each primary coloured RGB LED independently.

Each primary colour subpixel is processed at 27 bits and can produce 134 million shades per colour. It’s down at this detail level where the micro differences are rendered.

The result is picture quality that has the ultimate fidelity – it’s like real life with most precise and vibrant colour we have ever seen on a Samsung TV.

And at 115-inches that was a lot of realism to take in.

On the design side the TV is a slim 35.7mm from top to bottom and weighs 88kg.

It looks premium from top to bottom with a chamfered bezel to blend into any Australian home.

The width of the legs is also adjustable to give users flexibility if they are resting it on an entertainment unit.

We watched a range of content including the season of Drive to Survive on Netflix, The Empire Strikes Back which was released 46 years ago and the most recent blockbuster Sinners on 4K disc.

But having the technology and hardware is one thing – but the most important thing is how you use it.

The Samsung 115-inch Micro RGB MR95F TV has an onboard processor that acts like the ultimate traffic cop with real time control and optimisation that not only nails the colour but also the detail and the contrast.

The first thing we watched was The Empire Strikes Back – a movie released in 1980 and streamed via Disney+.

On the Samsung TV, you would have thought it was made last year – such was the quality.

Empire is quite a dark movie in parts – both visually and thematically.

But at the start on the ice planet of Hoth we have more whites and brighter colours.

The words that kept popping into our head when describing the colour was “full flavoured” which is the opposite to watered down.

Colours had a new level of boldness and brightness and accuracy.

The contrast was particularly impressive and there was absolutely no colour blooming that we could see – this is when a bright colour is next to a dark colour and the brighter light bleeds into the darker portion of the screen.

No such bleed here – a testament to the light control and the miniscule RGB cells.

And in the dark scenes when Luke is on Dagobah with Yoda, we were impressed by the deep blacks but, with HDR, we were still able to make out a lot of the detail within those areas – details we could have missed on an inferior TV.

We had to remind ourselves that what we were watching was nearly half century old but thanks to the Samsung RGB Boost it can take lower quality, narrow gamut signals and upscale them to a higher colour gamut.

We had never seen The Empire Strikes Back and were picking up finer details we had never seen before. And for the number of times we’ve seen this movie over the years, that’s really saying something.

Another great test of the TV’s HDR capabilities was the film Sinners, which we watched on 4K disc.

The second half of the film is quite dark and yet we were easily able to distinguish colours and objects in all areas of the screen without any blooming or colour bleeds.

This Samsung TV can even fill in missing colours, improve and smooth motion and also optimise sound.

Something a little more recent, Drive to Survive on Netflix, jumped off the screen.

The bright bold colour, the fast motion, and the sound all came together for an amazing experience.

The smoothness of the display was demonstrated when we were still able to read the advertisers and other writing on the fast-moving cars as well as on the advertising hoardings around the track.

The depth of colour we saw on this recently produced content was truly remarkable.

In fact this is the first TV with a VDE certification to confirm it can achieve 100 per cent coverage of the BT.2020 gamut ratio.

This translates to achieving around 75% of colours that the human eye can see, which is up from 45% achieved by mini LED TVs.

What the TV also nails are skin tones, thanks to the Pantone validation, which can accurately express 2,030 Pantone colours, including 110 skin tone shades.

On top of this the TV also has AI optimisation which gives users the choice of offering their preferences for brightness, contrast and colour or you can leave it to the TV.a

Watching live sport and playing the latest games are also ideal scenarios for this television.

The TV can run at up to 144Hz VRR (variable refresh rate) and there is a dedicated Gaming Hub so users can access and play more than 100 of the latest games with Xbox Games Pass and other cloud gaming services.

Not only are you getting remarkable colour and detail, the image is also super smooth with hardly any visible juddering despite the fast motion.

One of the other standout features of the TV is Samsung’s GlareFree technology.

Having a TV of this size makes it a much bigger target for ambient light reflections.

But thanks to an embossed coating material, the reflections are barely noticeable even in a bright room.

The room where we watched the TV has a few overhead lights as well as a large window behind us.

These reflections were diffused to a point where there were not noticeable and didn’t interfere with our viewing.

But what also impressed us on top of the stunning picture quality and colour was the audio quality.

Samsung did provide a soundbar for our review but we wanted to test the TV on its own and we were pleasantly surprised with the results.

In the past we have been critical of the average audio quality from Samsung’s premium TV on its own but with the 115-inch MR95F it was literally playing a different tune.

And we think the size has a lot to do with it.

Out of the box the TV offers Dolby Atmos sound through speakers on the edge of the screen, front speakers and rear panel speakers.

The Object Tracking Sound (OTS) tracks the motion on the screen and because the screen is so large it offers much better separation for those directional sounds to be truly appreciated.

Of course adding a Samsung soundbar would elevate the sound experience even further including combining with the TV’s speakers for Q Symphony.

But on its own, the Samsung 115-inch MR95F, can hold its own offer clear and directional Dolby Atmos sound with clear voices thanks to the Active Voice Amplifier Pro.

The Tizen OS with One UI offers and easy to navigate menu system to get to your content while also offering curated suggestions.

Samsung TV Plus offers more than 100 free internet channels as well.

The Samsung 115-inch Micro RGB MR95F is available now for $41,999. And for those who cannot afford this model there will be more affordable models with the same Micro RGB technology in smaller sizes coming in the coming months.

VERDICT

The Samsung 115-inch Micro RGB MR95F is the best TV the company has ever produced. The Micro RGB technology has been a remarkable breakthrough to create a whole new level of quality, contrast and colour. Your movies, TV shows, sport and gaming will never look better.