At what one journalist aptly termed a soiree, Samsung launched its 2015 lineup of high end TVs, along with a couple of rather interesting audio systems.

The real buzz was about ‘SUHD’. It’s not entirely clear what the ‘S’ means, other than being a tag on Samsung’s premium products. The ‘UHD’ means ultra high definition (i.e. a resolution of 3,940 by 2,160 pixels). But less important than the tags are the underlying technology, styling and the all-important pricing.

As for the tech, the SUHD seems at first glance to include worthwhile advances over previous models, although it was hard to tell with picture quality. Of course all them displayed content unfamiliar, and as is usually the case at these things all the TVs were set to the horrible ‘Dynamic’ picture mode.

The essence of SUHD is that it includes ‘nanocrystal’ display technology for what Samsung says is a marked increase in picture brightness and a wider colour gamut, ‘Precision Black Pro and Peak Illuminator’, which improves the depth of blacks and the brightness of whites, a new operating system and new designs.

There are three new SUHD ranges, and two other ranges of UHD TVs, with both curved and flat screen models available in both ranges.

At the top is the Series 9 9500 range, with curved screens in sizes from 55” to 88” (the last available in a couple of months). This features a LED array backlight, rather than the edge lighting used in the lesser models, for more precise control over brightness in different parts of the screen. It also has a brushed aluminium bevelled bezel, somewhat like a picture frame.

I preferred the flat, but thin, brushed aluminium bezels of the two other SUHD models: the 55/65” 9000 range (which is also curved) and the 55/65” 8000 models (flat).

The new operating system is Linux based and is called Tizen, and rather than full pages of apps that older Smart Samsung TVs offered, it appears as a bar of apps across the bottom of the screen, with ready access to the most commonly used items. Combined with Samsung’s motion sensitive pointer remote control, it appears to be far easier to operate. Two four core CPUs ensure good performance in the 9500 and 9000 models (Samsung calls this Octa-Core, but a Samsung representative at the launch confirmed that the eight cores are provided by two quad core CPUs.)

Some early purchasers of 2015 model Samsung TVs will be eligible for a free six month subscription to Netflix’s new UHD streaming service (you’ll need at least 25Mbps on your internet connection to take advantage of it, far beyond what’s available to the majority of Australians).

The non-S UHD models are the curved 7500 range – 55” to 78”, and the flat 7000 range – 55” to 85”.

One problem with curved TVs is that soundbars have traditionally been straight. So Samsung has launched three curved soundbars to match.

In addition, two new additions to Samsung’s Multiroom speakers were announced: the WAM7500 and 6500 omnidirectional speakers. These bullet-shaped speakers use a dispersion device over an upwards firing tweeter to ensure sound is delivered in all directions. Samsung’s Multiroom control app has also been upgraded.