Samsung has briefed Australian retailers and journalists in South Korea on its next generation of televisions, as the company prepares to take on growing competition from Chinese brands that have made significant inroads into the large-display TV market this year.

ChannelNews journalist Steve May attended the briefing in South Korea, where Samsung unveiled details of its upcoming dynamic HDR format — a next-generation version of HDR10+ — which will be officially launched at CES 2026. The new format is positioned as a major competitor to Dolby Vision 2.

At the briefing attended by Steve May Samsung revealed a new upgraded version of its premium HDR10+ picture format that’s designed to improve the high dynamic range experience across everything from brightness and tone mapping to motion and colour with Amazon’s Prime Video service already backing the new format.

A full report on Samsung’s presentations and upcoming product roadmap will be published tomorrow, offering insights into how the company plans to strengthen its position against rivals LG in the OLED category and Hisense and TCL in the large-screen RGB LCD segment.

One of the key takeaways from the briefing was Samsung’s renewed focus on image quality. The upcoming HDR10+ standard will be backward compatible with the company’s 2025 TV lineup and introduces a major enhancement — HDR10+ Bright. This new HDR mode uses extended metadata to deliver more precise gradations in colour and brightness, providing a richer and more accurate picture.

The latest advancements in TV display technology are being driven by rapid progress in artificial intelligence. Samsung’s new AI-based algorithms enable a wider dynamic brightness range — between 4000 and 5000 nits — and more refined tone mapping, significantly improving contrast and visual depth.

In a recent comparison, the Hisense 116-inch RGB LCD TV showed strong performance, though Samsung’s previous-generation 8K model still demonstrated superior handling of skin tones and facial highlights — areas where image realism is most noticeable.

Currently, HDR10+ technology is available on more than 16,000 certified TVs and across a broad range of compatible devices.

As Samsung, LG, and the major Chinese brands prepare to showcase their next-generation displays, the question remains: which HDR format — HDR10, HDR10+, or Dolby Vision 2 — will deliver the ultimate viewing experience? ChannelNews and SmartHouse will explore this in greater depth in the coming days.