Samsung OLED TV = Wow

Move over, plasma, there's a new TV picture-quality sheriff in town.

His name is OLED. He may have arrived a few years later and quite a bit curvier than expected, but he's finally here. And he kicks ass.

Having spent a few quality hours with Samsung's first production OLED (organic light-emitting diode) TV, the KN55S9C, I can say OLED lives up to the hype. Its picture surpasses plasma and LED LCD in the most important ways, with no major gotchas or downsides.

Simply put, the Samsung KN55S9C produces the best picture I've seen on any TV, ever. Even with the unnecessary and distorting curved screen, I liked its picture better than that of the theZT60, the Kuro, or anything else I've seen. But yes, I'd like a flat one even better.

Of course there's another contender for the badge already, LG's 55EM9800. I can't say how it compares to the Samsung because I haven't tested one in person yet, and I'll hold off on declaring a "best picture of 2013" until I do. In the meantime there are plenty of other differences between the two, including about $6000.

I'm also not placing the Samsung among CNET's list of Best TVs for picture quality because this isn't a formal review. I only got a few hours with a production sample, at Samsung's New Jersey QA lab, so I wasn't able to give it the full Monty. I hope that changes at some point in the future, ideally alongside LG's set and the rest of the current best, but for now the sheriff is only taking limited engagements.

Before I dive into the fun part, here are a few facts to get newcomers up to speed.

• The KN55S9C costs $9,000, compared with $15,000 for the rival LG 55EM9800.
• They're the only two big-screen OLED TVs anyone can buy in the U.S. today, and likely for the rest of the year.
• They're both 55 inches, curved and 1080p. The lack of 4K resolution really doesn't matterat this size.
• They have different subpixel structures and ways of handling 3D, but on paper seem very similar otherwise.
• Changes in the picture over time, as well as image retention similar to plasma, are potential OLED disadvantages compared with LED LCD. But we don't know for sure.

If you want to know more about OLED in general, check out our primer. In the meantime, say hello to the KN55S9C.