As we announced some time ago, the new European regulation on energy consumption would come into force on March 1, 2023. In this way, those televisions that exceed that energy efficiency coefficient stipulated by the regulatory body they could not be sold in European territory. This especially affected 8K and 4K HDR Smart TVs with high brightness.
This new regulation led us to wonder what manufacturers would do as of this year to market new models of 8K televisions. Samsung will launch this year 3 new models with this resolutionand to comply with this law, it has had to significantly modify many aspects of its televisions.
A major change for high-resolution TVs
Since just a couple of days, any television that is marketed in Europe must meet its energy efficiency index (EEIMAX) do not exceed 0.90 on televisions up to 8K resolution and MicroLED. This is difficult for manufacturers, since it is the same limit that exists for 4K and 1080p televisions, and therefore complying with it on 8K televisions will be complex given their higher brightness delivery and pixel density.
For this reason, many manufacturers have jumped ship regarding selling 8K TVs this year. Firms such as TCL have abandoned the sale of these televisions in Europe, and LG only includes an 8K OLED model in its line for this year.
Samsung has managed to continue its commitment to 8K by modifying various aspects of its televisions as they come out of the box. This means that the user you will find specifications well below those expected when you shop for a Samsung 8K TV this year.
A standard Eco mode that significantly decreases brightness and image quality
According to an interview for Forbes, the manufacturer has assured that European users will find an Eco mode that will significantly decrease the brightness of the panel. To give you an idea, out of 50 brightness levels, there will be models that by default only reach level 8 or 15. In addition, Samsung has locked the brightness adjustment to those maximums in Eco mode to comply with the regulation.
The image quality has also been modified in this mode in order to comply with the new energy regulation, greatly reducing several of its aspects. However, the good news is that the user will be able to manually change the image modeso both quality and brightness are not affected and the user can adjust brightness levels as usual.
These settings will come by default when you purchase an 8K or 4K television that exceeds the limit imposed by the new European energy regulation, so you will have to change them from the settings TV if you want to get the most out of your TV.
This new energy regulation has been devised by the European Commission to encourage the development of more efficient panels in the long term by the manufacturers. It remains to be seen if Samsung will continue to support 8K with its Neo QLEDs or if it will end up abandoning the ship as many companies have done.