In 2023, I checked out a lot of TVs. From eye-popping OLED TVs to bright QLED TVs, there was more than one that seemed good enough for me to consider paying for myself. But there was one in particular that took me by surprise.

When I say "surprise," you might think of the LG StandByMe Go, a battery-powered TV that pops out of a suitcase. While the contraption certainly caught me by surprise when I saw it in person (in an amusing way, let me clarify), I wouldn't say it was the TV that surprised me the most. [No, that honor goes to Samsung's S95C OLED TV, which earned a rare 5/5-star rating in a review I did based on benchmark testing and my anecdotal viewing experience. [When Samsung broke into the LG and Sony OLED TV party in 2022 and announced the Samsung S95B TV with the company's first QD-OLED technology, I hesitated. First of all, it's hard to get a product completely right the first time. But my real concern was how Samsung would outperform its competitors, or at least be able to justify charging the same price for the unit as its competitors.

In our rated review of the S95B, black levels were not as impressive as one would expect from a premium OLED TV. Brightness was impressive and demonstrated the benefits of adding quantum dots to an OLED panel, but did not convince us that it was worth buying compared to other sets we tested.

In other words, I did not have high hopes for the S95C when it was put on the bench. And that may have ultimately worked in this TV's favor.

Samsung made a clearer distinction between OLED and Neo QLED TVs in 2023. For example, the convenient One Connect box for managing cables was moved to OLED TVs; the S95C was a new 77-inch size with a 144 Hz refresh rate.

Specs aside, the set really impressed in our tests. The Samsung S95C OLED TV tested with a Delta-E accuracy score of 1.4 (closer to 0 is best) in Filmmaker mode, which typically provides the most accurate picture when shipped.

However, HDR brightness is where I found one of the biggest improvements between the Samsung S95B OLED and S95C OLED. Samsung said the S95C was brighter when I first checked it out at CES 2023, but did not specify how much. We recorded a 30% improvement, from 1,010 nits to nearly 1,370 nits, at the same 10% in standard mode with HDR content. This is nothing short of amazing for an OLED TV.

Combine this score with the fact that HDR reproduces perfectly nuanced blacks with minimal crush, and one of my biggest concerns with the previous version is addressed. At least that's what I witnessed while watching films like "Dune" and "James Bond: No Time to Die" in 4K.

We may not have voted this TV the best TV of the year, but it did prove that Samsung is serious about OLEDs. It also gave us reason to believe that the brand's innovation in the OLED space will be noticed, if it hasn't already been noticed by its competitors.