Samsung's latest Neo QLED (2023), QD-OLED, and lifestyle TVs got announced in Europe earlier this week. And Samsung had to go through a few hoops and loops to make its latest 8K TVs compliant with the European Union's latest regulations on TV energy efficiency.
Samsung's 8K Neo QLED TVs are not among the most energy efficient on the market, and as some of you may know, the EU's latest energy regulations for 4K and 8K TVs went into effect on March 1, 2023, setting a maximum energy consumption limit of 112W for 65-inch models and 141W for 75-inch variants.
You may want to avoid the default preset on Samsung's 2023 TVs
Downgrading its Neo QLED TV panels at a hardware level to meet EU regulations wasn't a feasible option for Samsung, so the company came up with a software-based solution for its 2023 Neo QLED models to meet the European Union's new energy standards.
Samsung is shipping the latest TV models with a new Eco preset, which lowers the panel's brightness and disallows users from increasing it. According to Forbes (via FlatpanelsHD), some of Samsung's 2023 8K models need to go one step further and also set their local dimming systems to “low” instead of “standard.”
If you want to save energy, these new Eco presets should serve the purpose. However, image quality and brightness will suffer. Thankfully, customers aren't locked into these default settings. Although the new Eco preset can't be changed, Samsung TV users can use a different one that has more flexible in regard to picture and brightness settings.
All in all, if you buy a 2023 Samsung TV, you may want to check what preset is enabled out-of-the-box, and for a better viewing experience, you may want to change to a different one rather than using the settings Samsung created specifically to meet the European Union's energy regulations.
