Skip to main content

Digital Trends may earn a commission when you buy through links on our site. Why trust us?

Samsung’s new 98-inch DU9000 4K TV is just $4,000. Can it beat TCL and Hisense?

Samsung 98-inch DU9000 4K TV.
Samsung

Samsung’s new 98-inch DU9000 Crystal UHD 4K TV is here and it’s priced at $4,000, making it the company’s most affordable 98-inch TV so far. Until now, if you wanted a Samsung TV in a massive, 98-inch screen size, you’d be looking at a starting price of $8,000 for the 98-inch QLED Q80C 4K TV. You can order the 98-inch DU9000 starting April 15, at samsung.com.

As 4K TVs get bigger, so does the size of the individual pixels, which can decrease perceived sharpness. Samsung says that the DU9000 is equipped with its Supersize Picture Enhancer, a technology that tries to compensate for this tendency.

The result, according to the company, is a 98-inch TV that can be comfortably viewed as close as six feet away and as far awayas 12 feet.

Thought not equipped with a quantum dot-based QLED panel, the DU9000 supports HDR10 and HLG HDR formats, and uses 4K upscaling to help non-4K content look its best when viewed at 4K resolution.

Samsung is also highlighting the DU9000’s gaming-oriented features like Motion Xcelerator, an up to a 120Hz refresh rate, quick screen ratio changes via the built-in Game Bar, AI Auto Game Mode, Mini Map Auto Detection, and Virtual Aim Point. Samsung hasn’t confirmed a full set of specs yet, but according to FlatPanelsHD, the DU9000 series uses a 60Hz native refresh rate panel.

The question for would-be 98-inch TV buyers, however, is how does the DU9000 stack up against similarly big and affordable TVs from Samsung’s rivals TCL and Hisense?

TCL and Hisense introduced affordable 98-inch models in 2023, and both companies are already offering steep discounts. The TCL 98-inch S5 4K TV, for instance, debuted at $5,000. but was then reduced to $3,000. If you keep an eye on sales, you may find it for even less — Best Buy’s price was just $2,000 for most of March 2024.

Like the DU9000, the TCL S5 doesn’t have a quantum dot display, but for the same price as the DU9000, you can grab a 98-inch TCL XL-class QLED TV. And if you’re willing to spend just a bit more than the DU9000’s $4,000 price, both TCL and Hisense have massive QLED models: the 98-inch TCL QM8 ($5,000) — which earned a Digital Trends Editors’ Choice award — and the 100-inch Hisense U8K mini-LED TV ($5,000), which also received our Editors’ Choice.

Editors' Recommendations

Simon Cohen
Contributing Editor, A/V
Simon Cohen covers a variety of consumer technologies, but has a special interest in audio and video products, like spatial…
Hisense teases 110-inch, 10,000-nit TV ahead of CES 2024
The Hisense 110UX ULED X mini-LED 4K TV.

Hisense says its new 110UX TV will do something no other consumer display has ever done: deliver 10,000 nits of peak brightness. The 110UX, which has a 110-inch diagonal screen size and apparently has its own console-style stand and audio system, will get its official debut at the 2024 Consumer Electronics Show (CES) in Las Vegas in January.

In typical fashion for a CES sneak peek, Hisense hasn't released any pricing or availability information for the scorchingly bright 110UX. The new model is based on Hisense's ULED X technology platform which it first announced in 2023 with the debut of the Hisense UX.

Read more
The hidden costs of buying a 4K TV are way higher than you think
Toshiba 55-inch-class C350 series 4K smart Fire TV on a gray shelf and light gray background.

There’s never been a better time to buy a 4K TV. Prices have continued to drop even as screen sizes and smart TV features have continued to grow. But now that 4K TVs are priced within reach of almost anyone who wants one, are you actually going to be able to enjoy all of the extra detail and picture quality that 4K promises? The answer is, sadly, not as often as you expect, and not without some considerable extra investment over and above the cost of the TV.

Modern 4K TVs are packed with a lot of impressive technologies that can make picture quality look amazing, no matter what you’re watching. With upscaling driven by complex algorithms and often aided by AI, even watching an old DVD on a 4K TV will look way better than it did on an HDTV from 10 years ago. But to truly get the best possible results, you need access to native 4K content, preferably with some flavor of HDR, like Dolby Vision, HDR10, or HDR10+.

Read more
Vizio’s new Quantum 4K QLED TVs hit 75 inches for $699
Vizio Quantum 4K QLED Smart TV.

It's been a very quiet year for Vizio so far. The company didn't bring any new TVs to CES 2023, and the welcome announcement that it was updating its aging smart TV software was tempered by the fact that Vizio wouldn't say when its customers would be getting the new experience, simply called Vizio Home Screen.

Our own editor-at-large and resident TV expert, Caleb Denison, penned an op-ed in July outlining his concerns about Vizio's apparent retreat to the TV sidelines and what the company would need to do in order to compete with the onslaught of excellent TVs from TCL and Hisense.

Read more