Samsung Q60A  TV Review

The Samsung Q60A has a simple and minimalist design similar to its predecessor, the Samsung Q60/Q60T QLED. The most notable change is that it's much thinner, which means it doesn't stick out as much when wall-mounted. The feet are now height-adjustable so that you have the option to raise the TV higher if you need room to fit in a soundbar.

The feet are very flat, so the TV sits close to the table in the default position. However, you now have the option to adjust the height of the feet and raise them enough to fit in most soundbars or a thin gaming console like the Xbox Series S. You don't need to screw them in; they are just inserted into the TV.

Footprint of the 55 inch stand: 35.1" x 9.1".

The back is plastic with a brushed horizontal texture. All the inputs are side-facing, except for HDMI 3 and the Digital Optical Audio Out port, which is disappointing, as they're hard to reach if you wall-mount the TV. For cable management, there are tracks to guide the cables towards the feet, where you can secure them with the included clips.

The build quality is decent. Its all-plastic construction doesn't feel premium, but it's relatively sturdy overall and doesn't wobble much. There's a small gap between the border and the screen at the bottom left corner, but this could just be our unit, and it isn't bad enough to be a dealbreaker.

As expected of a VA panel, the Samsung Q60A has excellent contrast, so blacks look black in a dark room. However, it doesn't have a local dimming feature to improve black level further. Note that contrast varies a bit between individual units.

This TV has great peak brightness when displaying SDR content, and it's bright enough to overcome glare in most viewing environments. There's almost no variation in brightness with different scenes, and unlike most Samsung TVs, small windows aren't dimmed by the TV's frame dimming (also known as CE dimming) feature.

We measured the SDR peak brightness after calibration in the 'Movie' Picture Mode with the Color Tone set to 'Warm 2', Gamma set to '2.2', Brightness set to max, and all other processing disabled.

If you want a brighter image and don't mind losing a bit of image accuracy, set the Picture Mode to 'Movie', Color Tone to 'Standard, and Contrast Enhancer to 'High'.

There's no local dimming feature. We still film these videos on the TV to show you how the backlight performs and make it easy to compare it with a TV that has local dimming.

There's no local dimming feature. We still film these videos on the TV to show you how the backlight performs and make it easy to compare it with a TV that has local dimming.

The HDR peak brightness is okay. Like in SDR, it maintains the brightness consistently across different content without any frame dimming in the 2% windows, but it isn't bright enough to deliver a true cinematic HDR experience. The EOTF follows the PQ curve almost perfectly before rolling off gradually near the TV's peak brightness. If you find HDR content too dim, set Contrast Enhancer to 'High' and ST.2084 to max. These settings result in a noticeably brighter image, as you can see in this EOTF plot.

We measured the HDR peak brightness in the 'Movie HDR' Picture Mode with Contrast set to max, Brightness set to max, and all other processing disabled.

We managed to reach 511 cd/m² in the 10% windows using the 'Standard' Picture Mode with Contrast Enhancer set to 'High', but these settings result in a less accurate image.

The HDR peak brightness in Game Mode is almost the same as when it's out of Game Mode, except that there's frame dimming in the 2% windows, similar to the Samsung Q60/Q60T QLED. This means small highlights in dark scenes don't pop as much. The EOTF doesn't follow the target curve very well; most scenes appear darker than the content creator intended. If you want a brighter image when gaming in HDR, set Contrast Enhancer to 'High' and ST.2084 to max.

We measured the HDR peak brightness in Game Mode, with Color Gamut set to 'Auto', Color Tone set to 'Warm 2', Backlight set to max, Contrast set to max, and all other processing disabled.

This TV has good gradient handling. There's some noticeable banding in every color, and it's especially noticeable in dark shades. There's a Noise Reduction feature to improve picture clarity, but we found it to be ineffective with both test patterns and real content.

Gray uniformity is decent, although this varies between individual units. The edges of the screen are noticeably darker on ours, and there's also some dirty screen effect in the center, which is distracting when watching sports or wide panning shots. Uniformity is better in near-dark scenes, but it still looks blotchy, as most of the screen is a lighter shade of gray than at the center.

This TV has excellent black uniformity, but this varies between individual units. There are a few brighter patches throughout the screen on our unit, but they're not very noticeable with regular content.

The viewing angles are sub-par, which is expected of most VA panels. Images look washed out when viewed from the side, so it isn't ideal for wide seating areas. If you want something with wider viewing angles, then check out the Samsung Q80/Q80A QLED.

The Samsung Q60A QLED has decent reflection handling. Glare is still noticeable in bright rooms, but it's bright enough that you can just increase the brightness to overcome it.

The Samsung Q60A that we bought has great accuracy out of the box. The white balance is great, and color accuracy is excellent, with very few noticeable issues. Gamma isn't flat, though, as bright scenes are brighter than they're supposed to be. The color temperature is cold, so pure whites have a bluish tint. If you want even better accuracy, the newer Samsung Q60B QLED is better.

Like most TVs, the Samsung Q60A QLED has exceptional accuracy after calibration. White balance and gamma are nearly perfect, and the remaining color inaccuracies aren't noticeable, except for pure blues, which are still a bit off. The color temperature is closer to our target but still on the cooler side.

You can see our recommended settings here.

There are no issues with the upscaling of 480p content, like DVDs.

This TV upscales 720p content like cable TV well.

This TV displays 1080p content well without any issues, nearly as good as native 4k.

This TV displays native 4k content perfectly, with no visible artifacts.

The TV can't display an 8k signal.

This TV uses a BGR subpixel layout. It doesn't affect image quality, but it causes blurry text in Windows applications that don't support ClearType when using the TV as a PC monitor. You can read more about it here.

The Samsung Q60A has a great color gamut in HDR. It can display most of the DCI P3 color space used by most current HDR content, including commercial UHD Blu-rays, but it can't display much of the wider Rec. 2020 color space. It isn't an issue with most current content, but it's not future-proof.

The Samsung Q60A QLED has good color volume. It's limited by its incomplete coverage of the DCI P3 and Rec. 2020 color spaces. Colors are as bright as pure white, and it can display saturated colors at low brightness levels well.

There are no signs of image retention after displaying a high-contrast image for ten minutes. However, this varies between individual units.

We don't expect VA panels to experience burn-in, as the VA panel in our long-term test appears to be immune.

This TV has an okay response time, but it's not ideal for gaming. There's a long blur trail behind fast-moving objects, and like most TVs with VA panels, it's worse behind dark objects. If you want an entry-level TV with better motion handling, then consider the Sony X80K/X80CK.

This TV uses pulse width modulation, also known as PWM, to dim the backlight, and there's noticeable flicker at all backlight levels. It flickers at 480Hz in the 'Movie' Picture Mode, but it drops to 120Hz in the 'Dynamic', 'Standard', and 'Natural' modes. Enabling Picture Clarity also makes it flicker at 120Hz, and the backlight-strobing feature, commonly known as black frame insertion, drops the frequency further to 60Hz. The 480Hz flicker isn't very noticeable, but 120Hz flicker bothers some people, and it causes duplication in motion.

There's an optional backlight strobing feature, commonly known as black frame insertion, to improve motion clarity. When enabled, it causes the backlight to flicker at 60Hz, regardless of which picture mode you're using. Unfortunately, the timing is quite bad, which results in visible crosstalk. Note that the BFI score is based on the flicker frequency, not the BFI's performance.

This TV has a feature that interpolates lower frame rate content to make motion appear smoother, otherwise known as the 'Soap Opera Effect'. It looks okay in quiet scenes, but there are noticeable artifacts when there's a lot of movement, and it stops interpolating altogether if it gets too intense. This causes a sudden change in frame rate, which is distracting in some cases.

Due to the slower response times, the Samsung Q60A doesn't stutter much in low frame rate content. If you notice stuttering and it bothers you, enabling motion interpolation reduces the amount of stutter.

This TV can remove judder from 24p content and native apps, but not from 60p/i sources like a cable box. It's important for smooth motion when watching movies.

This TV doesn't support any variable refresh rate technology. If you want a similar TV with VRR support, check out the Samsung Q70/Q70A QLED.

Input lag is exceptionally low, which results in an incredibly responsive gaming and desktop experience. You can use motion interpolation to make lower frame rate games appear smoother, but it increases latency significantly and isn't recommended. To get the lowest input lag, enable Game Mode. To use motion interpolation, set Game Motion Plus to 'On' and Judder Reduction to max.

This TV supports most common resolutions, but it doesn't support 1440p, natively or forced. It doesn't appear as a native resolution on Windows, and when forced, it results in a 3840 x 1600 ultrawide format. Chroma 4:4:4 is displayed properly in 'PC' mode, which is important for clear text when using it as a PC monitor.

Unfortunately, this TV doesn't support HDMI 2.1 bandwidth and only supports up to 4k @ 60Hz on the Xbox Series X and PS5. It has an 'Auto Low Latency Mode' that enables Game Mode automatically when a game is launched from a compatible device.

This TV supports eARC, which lets you pass high-quality, uncompressed audio like Dolby Atmos via TrueHD to an external sound system over an HDMI connection.

The built-in speakers are mediocre. They're reasonably well-balanced but lack the bass extension to produce a deep, rumbling sound. They get pretty loud, which is good for large or noisy environments; however, there's a fair amount of compression artifacts at higher volume levels.

Distortion performance is bad. The amount of harmonic distortion is already quite high at moderate volume levels, and it gets worse as the volume increases.

The Samsung Q60A runs on a somewhat scaled-down version of Tizen OS that has fewer animations. That said, it still has a good number of features and functionalities, and it feels smoother and more responsive than its predecessor.

Although we couldn't take a photo, there are some ads and suggested content on the home screen and in the app store. There's no way to disable them.

There are plenty of apps in Samsung's app store, and they run relatively smoothly for the most part. The built-in media player supports most common audio and video formats.

The remote has changed from the 2020 Samsung TVs. It no longer uses disposable batteries; instead, it has an internal battery that you can charge via the solar panel on the back of the remote or through the USB-C port at the bottom. The 'Ambient Mode' button has been replaced with the 'Multi View' function, essentially a Picture-in-Picture mode.

There's still a built-in microphone for voice control, and you can choose your preferred digital assistant: Bixby, Alexa, or Google. Most commands work, like starting an app, changing some settings, or asking for general info. However, you can't search for content within a specific app, like Netflix. The OneRemote feature lets you use the remote to control other external devices, even if they don't support CEC.

There's a single button at the bottom right corner of the screen, below the Samsung branding. It lets you power the TV On/Off, change the input and channel, and adjust the volume.

• User guide
• Remote control
• Cable management clips (not shown)