Samsung 65-inch Q9F QLED TV (2018) review: Closing the gap

Overview

Available in four series - Q6F, Q7F, Q8C, and Q9F - Samsung's 2018 QLED TVs are still quantum dot-enhanced LED-lit 4K LCD TVs. Looks-wise, the most obvious difference between them is that the Q9F, Q7F, and Q6F are flatscreen TVs, while the Q8C is a curved TV.

Now, I've covered Samsung's QLED tech quite extensively in the past; but since Samsung is re-using the model names for its 2017 TVs this year, it'd be remiss of me not to point out what's really changed in the 2018 Q series.

(Pro-tip: The way to know if you're looking at the 2017 or 2018 model is to look for the TV's longer model name. For example, the 2017 Q9F's product name starts with Q9FA (followed by a few more letters), whereas the 2018 Q9F's has Q9FN. In short: if you see the letter "A" after the name (e.g., Q9FA, Q8CA), that means it's the 2017 model. If you see the letter "N" after the name (e.g., Q9FN, Q8CN), it's the 2018 model.)

Similarities between 2017 and 2018 QLED TVs

1.) 100% color volume

Thanks to their use of metal-coated quantum dots, Samsung’s QLED TVs offer 100% color volume measured to the DCI-P3 standard certified by VDE Germany. This basically means the colors are able to maintain their accuracy under different conditions, such as across different levels of brightness.

2.) Ultra HD Premium certification

The 2017 and 2018 Q9F, Q8C, and Q7F TVs are certified by the UHD Alliance as Ultra HD Premium, which means they support a 10-bit color depth signal, wide color gamut with at least 90% coverage for DCI-P3, and more than 1,000 nits peak brightness and less than 0.05 nits black level.

3.) HDR10+ support

The 2017 and 2018 QLED TVs support HDR10+ (the 2017 models after a firmware update), so with compatible HDR content, it can do dynamic tone-mapping (i.e., adjust color and contrast levels scene by scene) to get even better picture quality than the baseline HDR10 format.

4.) One Remote Control

The QLED TVs also come with a One Remote Control, which is able to automatically detect, connect, and label other connected devices. Yes, this means you can navigate the TV, search content, and control multiple peripherals in your A/V setup (e.g., set-top boxes, game consoles, speakers) with just one remote. If you use Samsung SmartThings, you can also use this remote to control your smart devices.

5.) No-gap wall mount

For users who want to mount their TVs, the Q9F, Q8C, and Q7F offer a no-gap wall mount that enables the TVs to be hung flush with the wall.

Samsung also sells two designer stands - Gravity Stand and Studio Stand - for its 65 and 55-inch QLED TVs.

Key improvements on 2018 QLED models

1.) FreeSync support

The 2018 QLED TVs have a native refresh rate of 100Hz (the exception is the 49-inch Q6F at 50Hz). More importantly, since firmware update 1103, they (again, except the 49-inch Q6F) now support FreeSync (the setting is found under Game mode), an adaptive synchronization technology designed to eliminate screen stuttering and tearing during gaming. And this variable refresh rate (VRR) tech works in 4K too. In short, if you've a PC with a compatible AMD/Radeon GPU or a gaming console such as the Xbox One X to take advantage of VRR, you'd get a smoother gaming experience.

2.) Improved One Invisible Connection + One Connect Box

To further reduce cable clutter, the 2018 Q9F, Q8C, and Q7F have merged the power cable and optical cable into a single cable. Called One Invisible Connection 2.0, this cable is all that’s needed to carry video and audio signals and power from the One Connect Box (which is the external box you connect your A/V devices to) to the TV.

Also, since this cable can be extended up to 15 meters, you now have the freedom to place the TV far away from the power source or from the rest of your peripherals.

3.) Magic Screen

The 2018 QLED TVs have this Magic Screen feature that lets you put other content (e.g., your own photos, time and weather) on the screen when you aren’t actively watching movies and TV. You can also apply your own interactive background so that the TV can blend with your environment.

Notably, Samsung says the TVs can operate in this ambient mode 24/7 without suffering from burn-in. Connect Testlab from Germany recently conducted a test on the 2018 QLED TVs, and found that they didn’t exhibit any undesirable visual effects after stress-testing them for 72 hours straight.

What's the difference between the 2018 Q9F and the other 2018 QLED models?

The flagship Q9F is the only 2018 model with direct full-array LED backlighting (Samsung calls it Direct Full Array Elite); the rest use edge-lit backlights. Versus edge-lit systems, this should make for better local dimming performance. In general, TVs with full-array local dimming backlights exhibit deeper blacks and purer whites, with less ‘blooming’ effects than their edge-lit counterparts. It goes without saying that the Q9F is the brightest QLED TV in the lineup.

While the Q8C and Q7F have an anti-reflective screen, the Q9F is the only one to have an additional anti-reflection technology (Ultra Black Elite) on the film covering the display and panel itself. Samsung says this treatment dramatically reduces glare on the Q9F’s screen and enhances contrast levels.

What about the Q6F? Is that a low-end model?

With a starting price of S$2,699 (for the 49-inch model), the Q6F is the Samsung’s most affordable QLED TV series.

Despite its wallet-friendlier price, the Q6F shares many features with its higher-end and higher-priced siblings. For one, it too is a quantum dot-enhanced 4K TV with 100% color volume. It also supports HDR10+, Magic Screen, and SmartThings.

An edge-lit TV, the Q6F isn’t Ultra HD Premium-certified. While it comes with the One Remote Control, it doesn’t support the One Invisible Connection and One Connect Box. As such, you’ll find all the ports at the back of the TV. Connectivity-wise, it too has four HDMI ports, but it does have one fewer USB port (two) compared to the other QLED models.

Key TV settings

Like the 2017 Q9F, I found the Movie preset to be the best picture preset on the 2018 model. Even if you aren't going do any calibration, I’d still recommend this picture mode for most content, including live TV and Blu-ray movies. I also selected the Warm2 option for the Color Tone setting. I eventually settled for a Backlight setting of 7, 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.

I also left the Local Dimming setting at High, as I found it to draw out details in highlights very effectively, especially in darker scenes.

Performance

For 4K testing, I used various clips I’ve amassed through time, played from either a custom PC or a USB drive connected to the USB port on the One Connect Box. Samsung’s UBD-K8500 was the player used for UHD and HDR Blu-ray movies, which included Planet Earth II, The Revenant, and Life of Pi. I also spent some time with 1080p Blu-ray movies, such as The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King and Casino Royale, mainly to observe the upscaling performance. Finally, a bit of time was reserved for some Xbox gaming and input lag testing to find out how viable it is to use the TV as a gaming display.

1.) Bright vs. dark room

The 2018 Q9F performs well in both bright and dark room settings. The former is especially important if your viewing environment has high ambient lighting that you can’t rein in (such as placement near full height floor to ceiling windows). The anti-reflective treatment on the display is also very effective, and helps to further reduce sharpness, contrast, or color problems in ambient lighting.

Since the Q9F is an LED-lit LCD TV, it can’t switch its pixels off like an OLED TV. Thankfully though, the Q9F’s local dimming performance is very good (albeit aggressive), which translates to not-very-obvious “blooming” and generally very deep blacks even in a dark room. That said, the Q9F’s viewing angles could certainly be better - contrast dips and color shifts were quite apparent when I veered from the center sweet spot.

2.) Colors

Like the LG W8 OLED TV, the Q9F offers excellent wide color gamut performance, and is able to cover nearly the entire DCI-P3 color space.

Also, the Q9F wide gamut didn't suffer much when I cranked up the brightness level. This high color volume at high brightness characteristic bodes well for users who watch a lot of HDR/wide gamut content.

In my review of the LG W8, I mentioned the slight banding I observed on the OLED TV. The Q9F isn’t immune to this problem, but the degree of banding here is even lower, and that’s good.

3.) 4K & HDR

Easily hitting the 1,000 nits target in our HDR test scene, the Q9F is very good at producing realistic and bright specular highlights, even when the overall scene is dark. Coupled with the rather effective local dimming, HDR looks great in a dark room.

The high luminosity also comes in handy for SDR content. If your room is very bright, you’ll like this TV. For those curious, the Q9F is able to pump out at least two times the brightness of the LG W8 OLED TV.

That said, colors in HDR mode on both Samsung and LG TVs looked great. Using just out of the box settings without any tweaking, the W8’s colors looked the richer of the two, and jumped out a bit more due to the contrast advantage. But I’ll give the color accuracy advantage to the Q9F because it’s less affected by brightness changes.

A point to note here is that if you were to view this TV's performance without any comparisons whatsoever, you would be hard pressed to nitpick it. Viewing it for what it is, the Q9F is a really good performer. Alas, its narrower viewing angle will wipe out this advantage if you don’t have the best seat in the house.

4.) Motion

The Q9F’s Auto Motion Plus settings control how the TV handles motion images. Like last year’s Q9F, I used the Custom option for AMP 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. You can, of course, adjust these settings to taste if you actually prefer smoother-looking videos or if you notice any stutters and want to get rid of them. Generally speaking, compared to OLED TVs, stuttering in low framerate content is less of a problem on LED-LCD TVs like the Q9F.

The AMP menu also has an option called LED Clear Motion. This strobing of the backlight may increase visible flicker but the upside is that motion will look clearer and the image sharper.

5.) Gaming

I found the Q9F’s response time to be very fast. Along with the improved backlight and motion interpolation, all the Xbox One X games I’ve tried on this TV looked great, with excellent sharpness and nary a trail when things were flying around on-screen.

In addition, the Q9F supports FreeSync, which is something not found on most other TVs. When gaming at 1080p, this enables the QLED TV to match the source’s refresh rate in real time up to 100Hz. For 4K, it varies the refresh rate up to 50Hz.

In a nutshell, for PC and console gamers, the Q9F is technically a better gaming display. Thanks to the adaptive synchronization technology, it’s unlikely that you’d notice any screen stuttering and tearing during gaming. Its 4K input lag is also the lowest I’ve ever encountered on a TV.

6.) Sound

The Q9F’s speakers have a power output of 60W. Bluetooth audio and Dolby Digital Plus formats are supported natively. Thanks to the decent woofer drivers, the TV speakers sounded good across different types of content. However, for a top-tier TV that costs close to S$9k, you would expect far better audio performance as it doesn't necessarily sound any better than a TV costing a third of its price.

If you want better audio, you should be looking at getting external speakers or at least a soundbar. One option is the Samsung Harman Kardon HW-N950, which is 7.1.4-channel soundbar that supports Dolby Atmos and DTS:X. However, this high-end soundbar costs a steep S$2,399.

Conclusion

In a nutshell, the 2018 Q9F QLED TV is a very capable TV that performs well across different types of content - SDR, HDR, TV shows, Blu-ray movies, gaming, sports, you name it.

In the picture department, the Q9F’s greatest strengths are its high luminosity and color volume. Combined, they lead to a couple of meaningful user benefits: the ability to counter strong ambient light for bright room viewing and the ability to maintain color fidelity when said brightness is increased. Especially for HDR and wide gamut content, this high color volume is important.

Versus LG’s W8, the Q9F is without question the brighter of the two. It also handles reflections better. It’s worth noting, too, that the high brightness makes the Q9F the (slightly) better SDR TV, and that’s important because many of us today still watch a lot of SDR TV shows and over-the-air programs.

As far as LED-LCD TVs go, the Q9F definitely ranks up there in terms of movie performance. And credit for this has to go to its full-array backlight system and excellent local dimming algorithms. In many dark scenes, I observed that the Q9F was able to maintain details in the highlights while keeping other parts of the picture black and relatively free of blooming. That being said, OLEDs like the LG W8 still offers deeper blacks and higher contrast, and this is especially apparent when watching movies in a dark room, and more so when they are compared side-by-side. That is to say, the TV performs well until you start drawing comparisons or often view it in a dark room.

My chief complaint with the Q9F is its narrow viewing angle, both horizontal and vertical. Sitting at the center sweet spot, the difference in picture quality between the Q9F and the W8 is slight. In fact, at times, I preferred the Q9F’s colors. Specular highlights also looked more realistic on the Q9F. However, veer off this sweet spot and contrast dips and the Q9F’s non-perfect blacks would start to rear their ugly heads.

One advantage the Q9F has over LG’s OLED models is its support for FreeSync. In theory, the real-time syncing of frame rates between source device and display should result in less tearing during gaming, so if you’re a heavy console or PC gamer on the big screen, the Q9F will make for an excellent large-screen gaming display until Big Format Gaming Displays from NVIDIA and its partners arrive. However, the LG W8 also has a very fast response time and low input lag - which is to say that I don’t see Q9F’s FreeSync support as a key feature that will seal the deal. Suffice to say, if you don’t play games on your TV, this feature doesn't really matter.

In my opinion, the Q9F’s real trump card is its price. Yes, with a suggested retail price of S$8,999, the 65-inch Q9F is expensive. But compared to the LG W8’s S$11,669 or the E8’s S$10,999 price tag, the QLED TV suddenly offers better value for the money. Getting the Q9F and using the money saved to get a good Atmos soundbar is actually not a terrible idea.

Here's the local suggested retail prices for the 2018 Samsung QLED TVs:

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