Samsung Premiere 9

The Samsung Premiere 9 is the latest ultra short-throw (UST) projector from the Korean brand, and builds on the success of its earlier namesake to deliver big and bright images that are designed to offer an alternative to large screen TVs.

As with the original Premiere, this new beamer is based around a single-chip DLP design with a triple-laser light source that uses red, green and blue to generate increased brightness, incredibly wide colour gamut, and a longer lifespan.

The Premiere 9 also includes a built-in spatial audio sound system with Dolby Atmos, and a fully-functioning and comprehensive smart platform, along with voice assistants, and a number of useful gaming features.

The Samsung may seem expensive at first glance but it costs less than TVs with screens around 100 inches, and when you consider it’s capable of producing an image up 130 inches, not only are there no TVs with screen sizes that big, but if there were you’d never get them into the house anyway!

Picture quality

The Samsung Premiere 9’s headline feature is its triple-laser light source composed of individual red, green and blue lasers, resulting in serious brightness with a claimed increased output of 3,450 ISO lumens. In addition, there’s a 20,000-hour lifespan, improved stability and instant on and off, which allows this beamer to genuinely compete with large screen TVs.

This triple-laser is seriously bright, which is good news if you plan on using this beamer in a room with light coloured walls, but also delivers punchy HDR. Also, it generates a much wider colour gamut that not only covers 100% of the DCI-P3 standard used for HDR, but also 92% of the even larger BT.2020 standard – meaning the Premiere 9 enjoys a degree of future proofing.

The projector’s big-screen images support 4K, although the DLP chipset isn’t native 3,840x2,160 and instead uses a 2,716x1,528-pixel micro-mirror that rapidly combines two separate off-set images to create the perception of a single 4K frame. It’s highly effective, with this optical sleight of hand that was only really exposed when I put up a bunch of specialised 4K test patterns.

Samsung applies some cutting-edge tech to bring the DLP chipset and triple-laser together, with 16-bit colour mapping and state-of-the-art upscaling for lower resolution content. There are also a couple of features not currently found on many other projectors – specifically support for dynamic metadata HDR10+, and a dedicated Filmmaker Mode to watch films as the director intended.

This beamer also supports HDR10 and HLG, and uses the brightness of its three lasers combined with exceptional tone-mapping to produce punchy HDR images. However, despite the Premiere 9’s inherent brightness, this remains one area where a TV will always trump a projector.

Watching Aquaman reveals a crisp and razor-sharp image, in part thanks to DLP’s single-chip nature avoiding any alignment issues. This allows all the fine detail to shine through – whether its facial close-ups, clothing textures or the layered undersea production design. The colours in particular are spectacularly vibrant, while the tone mapping ensures highlights don’t lose detail.

The Crow is a dark film that reveals the Premiere’s one major weakness – black levels. To be fair this is simply a limitation of DLP, but it does mean the nighttime scenes aren’t quite as inky as they should be. However the tone mapping brings out details in the shadows, and the frenetic action demonstrates one of DLP’s other strengths, which is very smooth motion handling.

Finally, The Shining allows the Premiere 9 to bring all of its imaging prowess together, from the sharply detailed picture to the natural and realistic colours of the Filmmaker mode. The HDR10+ provides additional metadata for the tone mapping, ensuring the projector gets the most out of the content with dark scenes free of crush and bright scenes that avoid clipping in highlights.

It’s probably worth pointing out that while this projector’s triple-laser light source means it doesn’t require a colour wheel, you may still experience colour flashes or fringing, sometimes referred to as ‘rainbows’. If this is something you either suffer from, or think might afflict you, then I’d strongly recommend a demo before parting with your hard-earned readies.

To test the Samsung Premiere 9 I used Portrait Displays’ Calman colour calibration software.

Living with

The Samsung Premiere 9 boasts lifestyle-friendly styling, with an elegantly curved chassis and neutral white finish. The front is completely covered in grey fabric, and there are cooling vents on either side. Despite being relatively large, this projector is surprisingly discreet, and from the front it looks more like a soundbar.

This isn’t far from the truth, because inside the Premiere 9 is a 2.2.2-channel speaker system with 40W of amplification and support for Dolby Atmos spatial audio. While I wouldn’t normally recommend using a projector as an audio source, the Samsung is the exception to the rule and creates a better soundstage than most TVs. 

The front two channels deliver width while keeping dialogue clear, and the two upfiring speakers bounce sounds off the ceiling to create overhead channels for Samsung’s Object Tracking Sound (OTS) processing or with Dolby Atmos soundtracks. There’s definitely a sense of dimensionality to the audio, while the two built-in woofers add lower frequencies for improved bass response.

There’s also support for music casting, as well as various proprietary audio features such as AI-powered Adaptive Sound Pro enhancements, Adaptive Voice Amplifier Pro for making dialogue clearer, and Q Symphony for synching the Premiere 9 with a compatible Samsung soundbar. The latter would definitely provide benefits, especially when using a separate sub for deeper bass.

The connections are all located on the side that faces towards the wall, allowing for tidier cable management. It’s an impressive selection with three HDMI 2.0 inputs (one with eARC); a USB port for multimedia playback and powering dongle-style streaming devices; an optical digital output; and an Ethernet port. There’s also built-in Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, and support for Apple’s AirPlay 2.

The main benefit of a UST projector is the ability to produce a massive picture from an incredibly short throw distance. The Premiere 9 is able to project 100 inches from only 11cm, and can fill a 130-inch screen at just 24cm. Importantly the beamer is able to do so without introducing optical aberrations or hot-spotting, and the resulting image is uniformly well-defined right to the edges.

Installation is straightforward: physically move it forwards or backwards to change image size, left or right to centre it, and then level it, if necessary, using the adjustable feet. The focus should be automatic, although there are also manual controls in the menu system if you need to tweak it. There are keystone adjustments as well but, if possible, you should avoid using these.

You can project onto a white wall, although investing in a dedicated screen that rejects ambient light will pay dividends, and while this projector is bright enough to be used in daytime, the darker you can make the room, the better your overall experience. There’s also a Vision Boost feature that uses a built-in light sensor to adjust the image brightness based on the room environment.

The remaining setup is exactly the same as a Samsung TV, with the SmartThings app taking you through the entire process. Simply follow the instructions and, before you know it, you’ll have the Wi-Fi connected and all the streaming apps installed. The fast on/off nature of the laser light source and its 20,000-hour lifespan also help blur the lines between a TV and projector.

The Premiere 9 uses a variation of the Solar Cell remote Samsung includes with its current TVs, with the white styling matching the projector itself. The remote is well-designed, intuitive to use, and comfortable to hold. There’s also a far-field microphone for the built-in voice assistants, although the more privacy-minded can switch this off at the back of the projector if they prefer.

The Premiere 9 sports Samsung’s full Tizen-powered operating system, which is a major feather in its cap. You not only get the same smart features as the company’s TVs, including built-in Bixby and Amazon Alexa, but also a comprehensive choice of video streaming services. These all offer 4K, HDR, HDR10+ and Dolby Atmos where available.

In operation the Premiere 9 proved responsive, and despite its inherent brightness it’s also reasonably quiet, measuring 30dB up close and 26dB at a sensible viewing distance. As a safety feature there are built-in sensors that automatically dim the laser if a child or pet accidentally blocks the light beam.

The Premiere 9 includes support for ALLM (auto low latency mode), although in the game mode the input lag is still a fairly high 53ms, and due to the HDMI 2.0 inputs the maximum frame rate is 4K/60Hz. However, DLP’s motion handling is excellent, resulting in smooth game play that also benefits from immersive big screen images that are bright, detailed and colourful.

The Premiere 9 includes Samsung’s Game Hub, allowing you to enjoy gaming without a console, while the Game Bar curates all the main settings and technical data in one place, and provides access to gaming-related settings for a more personalised experience. Finally, the AI Auto Game Mode allows the projector to automatically optimise settings for specific gaming genres.

The only features that have been dropped from the previous generation are the built-in terrestrial and satellite tuners, although you can still watch TV using the catch-up streaming apps. However, if you really want to watch linear broadcasting you’ll need to buy a set-top box or PVR.

Conclusion

The Samsung Premiere 9 is an impressive ultra short-throw 4K HDR projector that does a superb job of delivering accurate big screen SDR and HDR images thanks to the inclusion of a Filmmaker mode and effective tone mapping. The triple-laser light source has sufficient brightness to handle dark or light rooms, while the huge colour gamut ensures images are vibrant as well as detailed.

The Premiere 9 uses single-chip DLP display technology, which retains the usual strengths of sharply defined images and incredibly smooth motion, but also suffers from weaker black levels. This beamer sports an attractive lifestyle-friendly design, and is very easy to setup, while the Dolby Atmos audio system is genuinely immersive – acting more like a built-in soundbar.

There’s a fully comprehensive smart platform, plus extensive connectivity and control options. In fact, about the only real complaint is the lack of any built-in tuner, but otherwise this capable UST beamer does a commendable job of providing a genuinely viable, possibly more affordable, and definitely more practical alternative to a large screen TV and comes highly recommended.

Viewing Notes

Aquaman (4K Blu-ray)

This bonkers comic book adaptation delivers plenty of underwater action and is a 4K HDR feast for the eyes with its gloriously colourful aquatic environments. The scene where our titular hero is chained up in Atlantis is a great test of the Premiere 9’s ability to render detail in white highlights.

The Shining (4K Blu-ray)

Stanley Kubrick’s terrifying adaptation of Stephen King’s novel benefits from stunningly detailed photography that’s rendered with precision in 4K. The disc includes HDR10+ and the benefits of the format’s added metadata is obvious in the way the snowy maze is tone-mapped at the climax.

The Crow (4K Blu-ray)

This classic 90s supernatural action film takes place almost entirely at night in a city where it’s perpetually raining. The photography is often shrouded in shadows, but the Premiere 9 does an excellent job of picking out the details in the gloom and giving the specular highlights added pop.

The Samsung Premiere 9 is a superb ultra short-throw 4K projector thanks to its triple-laser light source that delivers exceptional brightness and incredibly saturated colours. Once you add in a genuinely good Dolby Atmos sound system, extensive HDR support and a comprehensive smart platform, you’ve got a first-class alternative to a large screen TV.