Samsung Q60/Q60B QLED TV Review

The Samsung Q60 is a simple TV and looks nice, especially for an entry-level QLED TV. It's entirely plastic, which has a gray tone, and it has thin borders, so it'll look nice in any setup.

The stand is wide-set plastic feet that support the TV well, but there's still a bit of wobble from front to back. Because the stand is so wide, you'll need a big table to place it on. You can adjust the height if you need to put a soundbar in front, but some thicker soundbars still block the screen.

Footprint of the 65 inch TV: 42.5" x 10.8".

• Height in lower position: 1.45" (to the bezel) and 1.92" (to the screen)
• Height in raised position: 2.44" (to the bezel) and 2.91" (to the screen)

The back of the TV is brushed gray-tone plastic. There are tracks along the back to help route the cables to the inputs for cable management, and the feet have clips. Sadly, the inputs are set into the TV, so they're hard to reach if you wall-mount the TV with a fixed bracket.

This TV has decent build quality. It's fairly stable on the stand, and even if there's a bit of wobble from front to back, it's not an issue once you place your TV on a table. The TV is entirely plastic, and while there's nothing wrong with it, there's nothing special about the materials either. Sadly, the back panel flexes easily near the inputs.

The Samsung Q60 has a fantastic native contrast ratio for deep blacks. There's no local dimming feature to further improve the contrast, but it still looks good in dark rooms.

The Samsung Q60 QLED TV has great SDR peak brightness. It's enough to fight glare in most well-lit rooms and there's no variation in brightness between different scenes.

These results are from after calibration in the 'Movie' Picture Mode with the Backlight at its max, Gamma at '2.2', and the Color Tone set to 'Warm2'. You can get a slightly brighter image of 497 cd/m² in the 10% window by setting the Contrast to its max, Color Tone to 'Standard', and Contrast Enhancer to 'High'. However, the difference is minor, and the image is less accurate with these settings.

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 alright. Highlights don't stand out and it doesn't have a local dimming feature to help make small objects pop. The EOTF follows the target well until there's a slow roll-off at the peak brightness, meaning you don't lose details in bright scenes.

The results are from before calibration in the 'Movie' Picture Mode with the Brightness and Contrast at their max, and the Color Tone set to 'Warm2'. If you find the image too dim, try setting the ST.2084 to its max and Contrast Enhancer to 'High'. This makes the image appear brighter, as you can see in this EOTF, but it doesn't change the peak brightness.

The HDR peak brightness in Game Mode looks the same as outside of Game Mode. The difference in results are due to margin of error, and you can't see any visible difference in the image. The results are from the 'Game' Picture Mode with the same settings as outside of Game Mode, and with the Color Gamut set to 'Auto'.

The Samsung Q60 TV has good gray uniformity. The edges of the screen are a bit darker than the rest, which you'll notice when using it as a PC monitor, but besides that, the screen looks uniform. There's a bit of dirty screen effect in the center, but it's not too distracting while watching sports.

The black uniformity is incredible. There's only a bit of clouding towards the edges of the screen, and there's minimal blooming around the center cross. Sadly, it doesn't have a local dimming feature to improve it.

The Samsung Q60 has a narrow viewing angle. This means the image looks inaccurate as you move off-center, and it's not a good choice for wide seating areas. If you want something with a wider viewing angle, look into the Sony X80K.

The Samsung Q60 QLED has decent reflection handling. Combined with its great peak brightness, you won't have issues using it in rooms with a few lamps and pot lights around, but it struggles when there's a bright window.

This TV has incredible out-of-the-box accuracy. Nearly all colors are spot-on with their target, and the color temperature is close to the 6500K target, but bright whites are a bit off. Sadly, gamma doesn't follow the 2.2 target, as most scenes are too bright, especially really bright ones.

The accuracy after calibration is fantastic. It doesn't improve the color accuracy or temperature all that much, but the white balance is better, and gamma is significantly improved. It has basic support of the new Smart Calibration feature, but it doesn't seem to actually improve the color accuracy, so you still need a full calibration for the best results.

You can see our recommended settings here.

The Samsung Q60 upscales 480p content from DVDs and SD cable channels without issue.

There aren't any noticeable problems with 720p content, like from HD cable channels.

1080p content from Blu-rays looks almost as good as native 4k content.

This TV doesn't have problems displaying native 4k content.

The Samsung Q60 is a 4k TV that can't display an 8k signal.

This TV uses a BGR subpixel layout, which doesn't impact the image quality, but it makes text look blurry in some applications that don't support the BGR layout if you want to use it as a PC monitor. You can read more about it here.

The HDR color gamut is very good. It has excellent coverage of the DCI-P3 color space used in most HDR content, and the tone mapping is good too. However, it's not future-proof because it has limited coverage of the Rec. 2020 color space, which more content will start to use, and the tone mapping with green and cyan is off.

The Samsung Q60 has a decent color volume. Colors get as bright as pure white, and it displays dark colors well, but it's limited by the incomplete color gamut.

The gradient handling is good, but there's noticeable banding with darker shades. Sadly, the Noise Reduction doesn't do much to reduce the banding.

The Samsung Q60 QLED TV doesn't show any signs of temporary image retention after displaying a high-contrast static image.

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

The Samsung Q60 has a disappointing response time. Motion looks blurry, and because it has a slow response time with dark transitions, there's noticeable black smearing with dark objects.

The Samsung Q60 TV uses pulse width modulation (PWM) to dim the backlight at all brightness levels. It flickers at 480Hz in the 'Movie' Picture Mode which can be distracting if you're sensitive to the flicker, and it drops down to 120Hz in the 'Dynamic', 'Standard', 'Filmmaker', and 'Game' modes, or with Picture Clarity enabled. This lower flicker causes image duplication with 60 fps content and can cause headaches if you're sensitive to flicker.

There's an optional feature to introduce backlight strobing to reduce persistence blur, and this feature is also known as black frame insertion. It flickers at 60Hz when enabled, but the timing is off, resulting in noticeable image duplication, and the screen gets dimmer. Keep in mind that the BFI scored is based on the frequency at which it flickers, and not the performance.

There's a motion interpolation feature to bring lower-frame-rate content up to 60 fps. It doesn't look the best as even slight movement causes artifacts, and there's a ton of haloing around fast-moving objects. When there's too much on-screen movement, the interpolation stops altogether, so content suddenly drops back down to a lower frame rate.

Due to the slow response time, there isn't much stutter with low-frame-rate content because each frame isn't held on for a long time.

The Samsung Q60 QLED removes judder from native 24p sources like native apps and Blu-ray players. It partially removes judder from 60p sources like cable boxes, but it doesn't get rid of it completely.

This TV doesn't have variable refresh rate support.

The Samsung Q60 has low input lag for a responsive gaming experience. All these results are in Game Mode where applicable, except for 1440p @ 60Hz, which was done in PC Mode because 1440p doesn't scale properly in Game Mode. You can enable the motion interpolation feature in Game Mode, and while it increases the input lag, it's still fine enough for casual gamers.

The Samsung Q60 supports all common resolutions up to 4k @ 60Hz. It displays proper chroma 4:4:4 with any signal, which is important for reading clear text, but you need to make sure you're in PC Mode with 1440p signals since the image doesn't properly scale in Game Mode because it doesn't fill the entire screen.

As the Samsung Q60 QLED TV has HDMI 2.0 bandwidth and no VRR support, it has limited capabilities with the advanced gaming features on the PS5 and Xbox Series X. The Auto Low Latency Mode automatically switches the TV into Game Mode when you play a game from a compatible device, and you don't need to change any settings.

The Samsung Q60 doesn't support ATSC 3.0, meaning you can't use it to watch over-the-air 4k channels in the US. Although some retailers advertise it as having HDMI 2.1 bandwidth, it's limited to HDMI 2.0.

The Samsung Q60 QLED has eARC support, allowing you to pass lossless Dolby Atmos audio to a compatible receiver. However, because it doesn't support any DTS or DTS:X signals, and many Blu-rays use this audio format, you'll need to connect your Blu-ray directly to your receiver to get the best sound experience.

The Samsung Q60 has mediocre speakers. It's well-balanced at moderate listening levels, which is great for listening to dialogue, but it doesn't get loud and doesn't produce any bass. Like most TVs, get a soundbar or a dedicated surround sound setup for the best sound possible.

The distortion handling is disappointing. It has more distortion at moderate levels than at its max level, but it doesn't get loud anyways, and the difference isn't that audible.

The Samsung Q60 TV comes with the same Tizen smart interface as higher-end models, but it has fewer features. It doesn't have a room correction feature or Intelligent Mode settings, but it's still user-friendly and navigating through the menus feels smooth.

Sadly, there are ads throughout the interface, and there's no way to disable them.

The Samsung app store has a ton of apps you can download. It's also compatible with Google Duo, allowing you to make video calls if you connect a compatible webcam.

The included remote is slightly redesigned compared to the 2021 model that came with the Samsung Q60/Q60A QLED. It's flat and has an extra quick-access button to open popular streaming apps. The manufacturer advertises it as not having a battery, but there's still an internal power supply that you can recharge via the solar panel on the back or with a USB-C cable, but it doesn't come with one. The built-in mic is compatible with Bixby, Alexa, and Google Assistant, and you can ask it to open apps, switch inputs, and change certain settings like the peak brightness.

There's a single button underneath the Samsung branding on the bottom right side that lets you turn the TV on/off, adjust the channel and volume, and change inputs.

• Remote control
• Power cable
• Cable management clips (not shown)
• User guides