Samsung’s 2019 8K TVs go on sale in UK for £5,000 – but experts think 65-inch ‘super screen’ is a waste of money
SAMSUNG has finally confirmed how much its 2019 series of 8K televisions will cost – but not everyone is convinced they're worth the money.
The tech giant wants you to ditch 4K and upgrade, but it'll cost you at least £4,999 for the cheapest model.
All of the new 8K Q950R models are available to pre-order right now on Samsung's official website, and start shipping on March 26.
The 65-inch model will cost you £4,999, while the larger 75-inch set comes in at £6,999.
And if you want the largest 82-inch model, you'll have to pay a ludicrous £9,999.
But gadget boffs appear largely unconvinced that it's worth forking out any extra cash for an 8K telly.
is a haven for tech geeks looking for gadget advice, and it recently published a buyer's guide for televisions in 2019.
And the verdict on 8K televisions wasn't great.
"You can skip 8K TVs (for now): The next jump in resolution isn't a must-have yet," wrote tech expert Brian Westover.
"8K TVs are super expensive, and you can't even get any 8K movies yet.
"It'll be at least a year before 8K TVs are even something you should consider."
And Which?'s Martin Pratt similarly slammed 8K televisions over their lack of 8K-ready content.
"With no 8K content available, programmes and images must be boosted to close to that resolution or there’s literally no point in buying an 8K TV," the expert explained.
Most TV models you see today are Full HD. That’s how we describe the number of pixels on the screen – the “resolution”.
The pixels are tiny dots that light up and create an image. The more pixels you have, the more detailed that image can be.
A Full HD TV has a resolution of 1920 x 1080 pixels. That’s 1920 pixels along the bottom, and 1080 up the side.
So you end up having roughly 2million pixels on the screen in total.
On a 4K TV, you have four times the number – or 8million pixels.
With an 8K TV, you have a screen resolution of 7680 x 4320 pixels – or 33million pixels in total.
However, there's a big question over whether you can actually tell the difference in detail with 8K compared to 4K.
Also, these fancy screens cost extra to build, which is why Samsung charges a premium.
"As with any new technology, it's going to cost an arm and a leg to begin with," said Tom Honeyands, a tech expert who reviews gadgets for hundreds of thousands of subscribers on YouTube, speaking to The Sun.
Tom, better known as , went on: "The first 4K TVs fetched upwards of £4,000 back in 2014. Now they start from £350.
"So you'll always pay a hefty premium for indulging in the cutting edge of tech."
"The other issue is there's nothing to watch in 8K at the moment, aside from a few tech demos and the odd YouTube video," Tom told us.
"Samsung knows this though, which is why its 8K TVs offer AI upscaling, which improves the quality of your 4K, HD and even SD content.
"As with any machine learning, this will get better over time.
"So if you hold off on buying a shiny new 8K TV for a year or two, you'll save a bucket load of money and there will be lots more to watch."
And gadget expert Samuel Axon, of hi-tech electronics site , said 8K TVs are "probably not worth it for most people".
"There's no point in having a smaller 8K TV; people wouldn't be able to see the difference between 4K and 8K on a 50-inch set.
"Unfortunately, though, there's not really any 8K content to show it off with."
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Are you tempted by Samsung's new 8K TVs? Let us know in the comments!
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