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4K Fail: Why I Hate My Samsung QLED HDTV

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QLED Samsung
QLED Samsung

One of the happiest tech days of my life was when I purchased my 2018 Q7F Samsung QLED TV a few years back.

I had been saving for quite some time and scooped up the TV for $1399 at my local Best Buy in Rockville, MD, right outside of Washington, D.C. As I was becoming more and more anti-OLED by the day, I was confident I made the right choice reading countless reviews, blog posts, and expert analysis.

Then, I unboxed the TV and was shocked to learn the TV has what I would consider a fatal flaw: One Connect.

You see, the one thing many of the reviews I read fail to mention how Samsung QLED TVs separate the TV and the connectors for power, sound and audio into a special connector box. This is meant to make connections easier, more streamlined and easier to hide wires when mounting.

But that all creates a very basic question: what the heck do you do with the One Connect box? And let me tell you, the OneConnect box that came with my TV is massive. Like a big brick sort of massive. Yes, they have gotten smaller but they are still a total pain to hide and plan for.

You could, I suppose, hide it in the wall, but that might not be easy for the average do-it-yourself tech geek. You could put it on a shelf, but if you are mounting the TV that sort of defeats the purpose.

The good news is not all Samsung TVs have this. For example, I have a Samsung QLED 43 inch TV from 2019 that does not have this, it has all of the connectors built into the TV. Thank God.

Also, the One Connect box has slimmed down in size, surely a good thing.

I guess in some respects I should not be shocked, as I have a 2018 Samsung 8 series 65 inch 4K TV that has a small OneConnect box. However, Samsung needs to do a better job of making sure consumers are aware of this, as I can see many tech fans getting turned off by this concept. I know I am.

Harry J. Kazianis is a Senior Director at the Center for the National Interest. His work has appeared in Fox News, USA Today, The Week, the American Conservative and many other outlets across the political spectrum. The National Interest, nor Harry, received any compensation or commissions related to the authoring of this piece.

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Harry J. Kazianis (@Grecianformula) is a Senior Editor for 19FortyFive and serves as President and CEO of Rogue States Project, a bipartisan national security think tank. He has held senior positions at the Center for the National Interest, the Heritage Foundation, the Potomac Foundation, and many other think tanks and academic institutions focused on defense issues. He served on the Russia task force for U.S. Presidential Candidate Senator Ted Cruz, and in a similar task force in the John Hay Initiative. His ideas have been published in the New York Times, Washington Post, Wall Street Journal, Newsweek, CNN, CNBC, and many other outlets across the political spectrum. He holds a graduate degree in International Relations from Harvard University and is the author of The Tao of A2/AD, a study of Chinese military modernization. Kazianis also has a background in defense journalism, having served as Editor-In-Chief at The Diplomat and Executive Editor for the National Interest.