Samsung Launches Expensive 8K TVs in Kenya

The TV market is a big deal for home electronics makers such as Samsung.

It, still to date, competes with its South Korean rival LG in many other fields and has been selling TVs in the Kenyan market for an extended period.

Today, Samsung unveiled 8K QLED sets for select groups of people who have oils wells in their compounds because boy, aren’t they expensive!

The launch, which was staged earlier in the day (28^th Aug), saw the announcement of the company’s 2019 QLED 8K TV lines in some stores in Nairobi, meaning you can finally play with devices that you have admired on YouTube for so long.

Before we go any further, I know what you are thinking, and that is whether if the world really needs 8K videos. A lot of people have argued that manufacturers are pushing 8K TVs to purposely fuel planned obsolescence of existing, ‘low res’ televisions, among other reasons.

But that is the same argument that was peddled against 1080p and 4K displays, the latter which has become so commonplace and relatively affordable for a lot of people. There is no shortage of 4K content on major streaming services too, and there is a high chance we will be saying the same thing about 8K in the near future.

I get why the notion of 8K is confusing, and to some extent, annoying. I have had countless arguments with friends about the technology, which have allowed me to gain more insights about the benefits and shortcomings of 8K.

In fact, in some instances, I was never really convinced of 8K pros until today. The experience on those Samsung QLED panels is exciting and eye-opening. The future of those pixels is promising as content creators hone their craft to make the experience of using the TVs in the future as satisfying as possible.

And what it 8K again?

An ordinary HDVT has a resolution of 1920 by 1080. A 4K panel pushes the numbers to 3840 by 2160, which is essentially 4x the number of pixels in an HDTV. 8K quadruples 4K to 7860 by 4320, which is also 4x the number of pixels in a 4K screen, or 16x as much as 1080p panel. Substantial pixels, right?

“We are pleased to introduce QLED 4K TVs to consumers in Kenya. 8K is a much more superior type of QLED TV. True 8K resolution will plunge our customers into every scene with 4 times the resolution of 4K. At Samsung, we are omitted to continuous innovation in order to deliver unparallel at-home viewing experiences,” said Samuel Odhiambo, Manager, Consumer Electronics Division, Samsung Electronics.

It is also worth noting that these numbers mean nothing if you cannot look at a panel and discern the difference. I didn’t for 4K and 8K 82” displays that Samsung put on the floor today. Both appeared excellent to me, although some noticed the latter looked so much better. Of course, science says 8K is the point where a TV meets the limitations of the human eye, and not 4K as it has been argued before.