Note: This article was first published on 14th July 2017.
A picture powered by quantum dots
This year, Samsung's TV division is hell-bent on challenging the notion that OLED TVs are the best TVs money can buy. And the burden of proof has fallen to the company's latest flagship televisions in the new QLED series.
Available in three models, Q9F, Q8C, and Q7F, Samsung's 2017 QLED TVs are still quantum dot-enhanced LED-lit LCD TVs, much like their 2016 SUHD brethren. The difference is that this year's quantum dot material is strengthened by a metal shell and core for improved color stability and purity, which purportedly leads to some significant picture quality gains.
According to the Korean TV maker, the flat Q7F and curved Q8C have a peak luminance of 1,500 nits, while the flagship flat Q9F that I'm focusing on here is able to hit a blinding 2,000 nits! All this is up from the 1,000 nits mustered by last year's SUHD flagship TV. Additionally, Samsung is brandishing another world's first for TVs: 100% color volume.
In short, know that traditionally, a TV's color reproduction capability is graphed in a 2D representation, with a set luminance level. What Samsung is saying here is that its QLED TVs are able to cover the wide DCI-P3 color gamut across the entire range of brightness levels, and not just at a certain luminance level. This is no doubt a swipe at OLED, which tends to drop the amount of DCI-P3 coverage once you crank up the brightness. The flagship Q9F has a near-perfect (99%) coverage of the DCI-P3 color gamut.
While most TVs can maintain color integrity at a certain (usually low) luminance, they tend to fall apart as brightness goes up. When Samsung says its QLED TVs have 100% color volume, it means that they're able to maintain this color integrity across the whole brightness range.
Image technicalities aside, the QLED TVs also sport several design updates. For example, the new “Invisible Connection” is a new solution to help you tidy up the space where you're going to put the QLED TV. This is basically a thin and transparent fiber optic cable that transports all the signals from the One Connect breakout box that your AV devices now connect to to the TV. For sure, this helps to minimize cable clutter at the back and around the TV, but just know that the you'll still have to mange the cable clutter from the One Connect Box to the corresponding AV devices that it will interface; this is usually not a problem assuming you've a TV console or AV rack in close proximity. All QLED TVs will come with a 5-meter Invisible Connection cable, but there’s a separately sold 15-meter extension, for those who have their AV peripherals housed in a cabinet across the room.
Then there's the S$249 "no-gap" wall-mount (for up to 65-inch sized QLED TVs) that hides most of its parts in the TV's chassis, thus allowing the TV to sit flush against the wall.
For an entirely different look, the QLED TVs can also be propped up by the easel-like "Studio Stand" or the metal "Gravity Stand" that sell for S$999 and S$1,199 respectively. I'm in the agreement that Samsung has priced these stands too high, but I'll also admit that these are some decidedly premium-looking and superbly built stands. In a way, Samsung is trying to pull off a Bang & Olufsen here.
For those interested in the nitty-gritty of the aforementioned, I've written about them in greater detail here:
- Samsung's QLED TV tech is designed to overcome OLED's long-held advantages
- Samsung's gorgeous QLED 4K TVs are now in stores
AV connections, USB devices, wired LAN - they all go to the external One Connect box. The processor that does all the heavy lifting is also housed in this box.
A fiber optic cable carries all the signals to the TV.
The cable is really thin, and you should take care not to bend it too much.
For the couple of cables that do go to the back of the TV, there will be a way to hide them in the stand. Here's how it looks like on the Q9F, but you'll find similar hiding places for the other QLED TVs' stands and even on the optional stands. You can tell that Samsung has mulled a lot over attention to detail.
The smart remote for Samsung's flagship TVs is clad in metal this year.
The separately-sold Studio Stand (left) and Gravity Stand (right) on the curved Q8C.
A smart TV powered by Tizen
On the software end, the QLED TVs run Tizen and feature largely the same Smart Hub user interface as last year, with a row of large icons along the bottom of the home screen that serve as entry points to your live TV programs, games, apps, movies, connected devices, etc.
For example, if you hover over the cog icon, a list of quick settings icons will appear immediately above it, so that you can quickly change TV settings without diving into the full-blown system menu. You can think of it as a smart contextual menu, really. Another example is when you hover over the live TV tile, you've options to open the TV guide and your most watched channels. It's a straightforward interaction model, and one that works well.
In terms of customization, you can rearrange or remove apps from the launch bar. If you don't like to see the home screen whenever you turn on the TV, you can have the TV default to always open the last app that you used.
Visually, the most obvious change is this white frosted glass effect that permeated the whole UI, from the home screen right down to the system menus.
The whole point of this design is to get to your whatever you want (a picture setting, another channel, another source, etc.) without leaving the current view.
While it's no Google Play store, there are still plenty of apps and games on Samsung's proprietary app store.
No kidding, you can scan the QLED TVs for viruses.
"One Remote Control"
The bundled smart remote control can double as a universal remote, letting you control compatible HDMI-connected devices, such as third-party set-top boxes, Blu-ray players, and home theater systems. It's similar to last year's implementation, just that Samsung has expanded its list of compatible devices and supported remote functions this year. If you've an external Samsung device that supports Anynet+ (HDMI-CEC), you can also control it with the smart remote without any additional setup.
This smart remote also has a microphone, so you can speak into it to access common menu options and TV functions; basically, voice control. For example, you can say things like "play", "stop", and "fast forward" to control media playback, "channel up" to go to the next channel, and "search Taylor Swift" to search for Taylor Swift (including in YouTube). If you need help with the TV, just say "help" or "user guide". Remember though, to use this voice interaction feature, you need to register for a Samsung account and the TV must be connected to the internet.
Last but not least, the updated Smart View mobile app can now show content that’s available for the TV, complete with a row of icons at the top of the app that mimics the TV’s launcher bar. It’s a small touch no doubt, but I quite like the idea that I can just select what I want to watch next right on my phone, which is always with me.
The smart remote's batteries pop out from the front.
TV control and search using voice works surprisingly well.
With the Smart View mobile app, the idea is that you don't need to put down your phone to pick up the remote just to select new stuff to watch.
Performance
For 4K test content, I used various clips I’ve amassed through time, played through either a PC or media player. Samsung's UBD-K8500 was the player used for UHD and HDR Blu-ray movies, which included the The Lego Movie, The Revenant, and Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice. I also spent some time watching digital TV, and some 1080p and 480p content, mainly to observe the upscaling performance (spoiler: it's excellent). I also tried streaming content from services such as Netflix, and console games whenever possible, primarily to look out for HEVC and input lag issues.
TV settings
Once again, the Movie preset continues to be the best picture preset on the Q9F (the Q8C and Q7F too), and the one I used as the starting point for my calibration. Even if you aren't going do any calibration, I'd still recommend this picture mode for most content, such as live TV and Blu-ray movies. Dynamic mode will net you the brightest image and thus is best suited for bright viewing environments. I typically shun this mode because the resulting color scheme always deviates from the director's intention. I also selected the Warm2 option for the Color Tone setting. I eventually settled for a Backlight setting of 6, but when watching HDR content, it should be cranked all the way up.
Advanced users with the tools will want to calibrate the color space and white balance, both of which can be done at a pretty granular level. For example, in addition to 2-point white balance controls, the QLED TVs also have 20-point controls for some serious grayscale optimization. For most people, it's perfectly fine to leave the Color Space setting to Auto, which will have the TV automatically adjust the palette to suit the content. Gamma can also be left alone; the TV will automatically switch between the BT.1886, ST.2084, and HLG settings when it senses SDR, HDR10, and Hybrid Log-Gamma signals respectively.
At first glance, it doesn't look like there's a lot of settings you can adjust. But that's because they are all buried under the Expert Settings page.
Additionally, I engaged the Custom option for Auto Motion Plus and turned the Blur Reduction and Judder Reduction values all the way down to minimize the soap opera effect that I saw for 24p content when Auto was used. LED Clear Motion didn't seem to meaningfully result in clearer motion when I was watching sports on the Q9F, so I left it disabled.
Lastly, I set the Local Dimming setting to High, as I found it to draw out details in highlights very effectively, especially in darker scenes. If you don't like the the automatic brightness fluctuations, you can set it to Low. This applies to all the three QLED TV models.
The TVs should switch between BT.1886, ST.2084, and HLG automatically.
If you want low FPS content to look smoother, Auto Motion Plus is your answer. I'd say adjust to taste, since different people have different tolerances for soap opera effect.
There's a separate page with a few important settings for connected devices. For example, you'll find Game Mode here. If you need to display 4:4:4 UHD signals, check that HDMI UHD Color is enabled for the relevant port.
Picture quality
Overall, the QLED TVs all have good picture quality, with the Q9F a notch above the Q8C and Q7F in a couple of departments (more on that as we go along). They all exhibited excellent contrast and good black uniformity, and with luminance in excess of 1,000 nits, they deserve to be on your shortlist if you're shopping for a TV that works well whether you watch movies and TV shows in a bright or dark room.
With a peak luminance in excess of 1,700 nits in Dynamic mode, the Q9F is currently the brightest TV I've tested to date. The Q8C and Q7F can both go north of 1,000 nits too (up to 1,500 nits, according to Samsung), but side by side with the Q9F with brightness maxed out, it's evident even for the layperson they aren't as bright as the flagship Q9F, which according to Samsung can hit a blinding 2,000 nits.
Does all this matter? Well, the TVs' high luminance should lend well to HDR content. Overall, I find them capable of reproducing small and mid-size highlights in HDR content with a high level of brightness, things like your glittering morning dew, metallic reflections, and snow-capped mountains. Simply put, scenes with these elements look more convincing. The Q9F is able to peak at a higher brightness (for both HDR and SDR content) across all picture modes than the Q8C and Q7F however, thanks to a better local dimming system. Also worth reminding is that my preferred Movie picture mode will pull down the brightness compared to Dynamic mode; but for more accurate colors, this is a tradeoff I'm willing to make.
In this NASA/Hubble capture, I noticed OLED-like deep blacks. The trick is to sit front and center of the TV.
For colors, the QLED TVs really hit it out of the park. The wide DCI-P3 coverage, especially across the whole brightness range (i.e., color volume), is in my opinion the most significant upgrade the QLED TVs have over its SUHD siblings from last year. And they do so without exhibiting serious color errors. This is an area where the QLED TVs have an edge over typical 4K LCD TVs and OLED TVs. Suffice to say, content mastered to take advantage of a wider color space, such 4K HDR Blu-rays and streaming videos, stand to gain the most from this. For example, I found the colors in The Lego Movie to pop more than Samsung's past flagships. The Revenant looked stunning too, save for a bit of posterization in some scenes that was only noticeable when I was literally a few inches away from the TV.
To recap, the QLED TVs support HDR10 and HLG. HLG can be safely ignored for now, because who knows when (if ever) we'll get broadcast TV in HDR. In April, Samsung also announced that its QLED TVs support something called HDR10+, which is an improvement over the existing HDR10 format because it uses dynamic metadata to do brightness adjustments on a scene-by-scene basis. Amazon Video is the first streaming service provider to announce support for HDR10+, with content coming later this year. I posit HDR10+ is the key reason why Samsung is dragging its feet over Dolby Vision support.
While the three QLED TVs' image quality is largely cut from the same cloth, they've their differences too. I already talked about their brightness differences, so you should know that the Q9F will break less sweat for HDR and counter glare more effectively than the Q8C and Q7F. The local dimming performance on the Q9F is also a hair better than the Q8C and Q7F, and this is in large part contributed by the edge LED lightings that are placed on its sides, as opposed to just along the bottom. So with letterboxed content, the black bars at the top and bottom of the Q9F's screen will appear darker than the ones on the Q8C and Q7F. And while Samsung has made some efforts to minimize contrast and brightness dips during off-axis viewing, it's still not at OLED's level yet. Yes, reflections are much reduced, but halo artifacts introduced by local dimming aren't eradicated on any of the QLED TVs, and I could pick them out faster on the Q8C and Q7F than on the Q9F when I deviated from the central sweet spot.
Plenty of details and colors truly pop on the Q9F. (Video: Beautiful Washington by 4K Relaxation Channel.)
Of the three QLED TVs, the Q9F has the best local dimming performance. (Video: Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice.)
The Q9F also has the best HDR performance, with small highlights getting very bright but yet keeping detail. (Video: The Revenant.)
Heck, even YouTube videos look great. (Video: Beauty of Nature by LoungeV Films.)
Samsung makes an 88-inch Q9F QLED TV, but this model isn't available here.
Conclusion
So, here comes the multi-thousand-dollar question: should you buy the Samsung Q9F QLED TV? If not, is either the Q8C or Q7F a better buy?
Let’s talk about the good stuff first.
Great design and build quality, smart features that actually work, high brightness for a more realistic HDR picture, high contrast, wide color gamut with accurate colors across most of the brightness range, excellent upscaling of 1080p content, great motion handling, fairly low input lag for PC gaming - all these broadly apply to the 2017 QLED TVs. So yes, overall, these are very good 4K LED-LCD TVs. Being Samsung’s flagship TV lineup for this year, no one should be surprised.
Drilling down a bit further, of the three QLED TVs, the Q9F offers the best overall performance, most notably when it comes to HDR. With a very high peak brightness, HDR scenes with specular highlights simply look more realistic on the Q9F. But the Q9F’s strongest suit also comes in handy in non-HDR cases, which is important for days when you are stuck with live TV and Full HD Blu-ray movies. And while Samsung markets the QLED TVs as excellent TVs for both daytime and nighttime viewing, the Q9F is the one that offers a more meaningful improvement than what I witnessed on the KS9000 SUHD TV from last year.
Samsung has also tweaked the QLED panel's sub-pixel layout to improve viewing angles.
Additionally, the local dimming implementation isn’t the same across the three QLED TVs, which helps to explain some of their other picture quality differences. Again, the Q9F scores better here, with less noticeable and fewer cases of blooming of bright objects in dark scenes than the other two. The Q9F is also marginally better at retaining shadow details. I may sound like a broken record, but all these are traditional weaknesses of edge-lit LCD TVs. To be clear, Samsung’s edge-lit local dimming tech, which is an interplay of hardware and software, remains top-notch here, but at the end of the day, software can’t totally eradicate issues that stem from the backlights’ physical placement.
So in sum, I’ll say the Q9F has a leg up on last year’s KS9000, in both hardware/software feature set and picture quality. The Q8C and Q7F have roughly the same feature set, but if niceties like Invisible Connection, no-gap wall mount, and the ability to swap for another gorgeous stand aren’t important to you, now may actually be a good time to consider the KS9000, assuming you can find it at a good price. Yes, both the Q8C and Q7F offer a wider color gamut coverage and higher color volume, which translate to richer and more accurate colors, but I don’t think most people can readily spot the differences. Last year’s SUHD flagship goes mighty bright too and since it’s promised HDR10+ support via a future firmware update, it should still be included in any premium 4K TV buyer’s shortlist this year.
And this brings me to my final point and biggest complaint about the new QLED TVs: their prices. At a suggested retail price of S$8,999, the 65-inch Q9F is more affordable than LG’s Signature G7T OLED TV of the same size by about S$1,900. Yes, that's quite a big chunk of change, but I tend to think that those who can afford the Q9F are very likely to be able to afford the G7T too. On the flip side, this year's flagship Samsung Q9F TV is significantly more expensive than last year's KS9000 flagship when it launched - by about S$1,800!
More importantly, LG has a 65-inch E7T and C7T OLED TVs from its 2017 lineup going for S$8,888 and S$7,288 respectively, both of which are lower than the Q9F’s sticker price. Never before have I seen two current-gen LG 4K OLED TVs undercutting Samsung' highest-end offering. Now, Samsung has every right to feel that the Q9F is better than the mid and entry-level LG E7T and C7T, but again, lured by OLED’s traditional strengths, such as a super-thin profile, very deep blacks, wide viewing angles, and now, an attractive price, the Q9F and even the Q8C really run the risk of being caught in an uncomfortable position at the shopfront level.
If you must have a curved TV, the only choice is the Q8C that sits in the middle of the trio. There's no curved QLED TV with the Q9F's specs.
The "entry-level" Q7F is also a flat TV. Performance difference between it and the curved Q8C isn't night and day, so if you don't need the curved screen and the Q9F is out of your budget, you can consider this.
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