Samsung Q6FN/Q6/Q6F QLED 2018 TV Review

The design of the Samsung Q6FN is very good. Some of its features like the stand, the back, and the cable management system resemble the higher-end Q8FN. Just like the Q8FN, the Q6FN does not come with the external One Connect box, so you do not have to plan for it if you decide to wall mount it. The TV is thin with nice borders and operates at a reasonably cool temperature. The build quality is okay but lacks those finishings that premium models have. 

The stand of the Samsung Q6F is metallic, supports the TV well and look very much like the Q8FN only slightly bulkier.

Footprint of the 55" TV stand: 38.3" x 9.8"

The back of the Samsung Q6F 55 is plastic, and nearly identical to the Q8FN and the NU8000.

It has nice cable management planning. There are some grooves for guiding all of the cables either through the legs or through the bottom of the TV when wall-mounted.

The borders are metallic with a silver finish. They are slightly thinner than the Q8FN.

The Samsung Q6 is a thin TV. Although it is slightly thicker than the Q8FN, it will still not protrude when wall mounted.

The Q6FN runs fairly cool and at pretty steady temperature. The warmest area is where the LEDs are hosted, on the lower end of the screen.

The build quality of the Q6 is okay. It does not have any gaps and feels solid. It lacks the premium feeling that the Q8FN has.

The contrast of the Samsung Q6F 55 is excellent. Just like most Samsung TVs, the contrast level is high. Even with local dimming disabled the contrast is excellent and blacks appear black in a dark room.

Note: This TV does not allow the switching off of Local Dimming from the regular menu. To take our measurements of native contrast and black uniformity we had to deactivate it through the service menu.

Local Dimming performance is poor, and it is very conservative. It doesn't dim areas of the screen very much, likely to reduce the amount of visible blooming. If you find that it bothers you, you can set it to low as it cannot be turned off completely from the regular menu.

Superb peak brightness with SDR content. Bright highlights that stand out, and real scenes bright enough for most rooms. This is in-line with other 2018 Samsung QLEDs we have tested so far.

The HDR peak brightness performance of the Q6FN is very good. Just like the rest of the 2018 Samsung QLEDs, it will display small highlights very well, and the screen remains uniformly bright throughout all the test window sizes.

Gray uniformity is decent. At 50% gray, some clouding is visible and the center of the screen is slightly brighter. Dirty screen effect is noticeable when watching sports or playing video games. However, results improve significantly at darker shades of gray and the uniformity is much better, and almost no clouding or DSE can be seen.

The Samsung Q6F has a poor viewing angle, typical for a VA panel. When looking at an angle one notices blacks turning gray and colors shifting, even at small angles. These results are in line with results from other QLEDs. This TV is not a good option if the intended usage involves wide room seating.

Black uniformity is outstanding on the Q6F, surpassing the already good performance of the Q8FN. There is almost no clouding even close to the test cross.

With LD activated the results are slightly worse as we can see some clouding around the test cross area, but in general, they are still very good.

Note: This TV does not allow the switching off of Local Dimming from the regular menu. To take our measurements of native contrast and black uniformity we had to deactivate it through the service menu .

The overall reflection handling is good. The Semi-gloss screen of the Q6FN manages to diffuse well most indirect reflections. It fails, however, to perform as well in the total reflections, therefore you should expect some glare in bright rooms.

The pre-calibration out of the box settings are pretty good for the Q6. Best results are with the picture mode set to Movie.

At low input levels, the image appears slightly dark as white is missing luminosity. Colors, however, are quite accurate, and just a little warmer due to the 6318K color temperature. The gamma is off at 2.45.

Here are the white balance and gamma pictures measured with 100% windows. These perform better, as the local dimming cannot be disabled and affects the calibration results of smaller window sizes.

Update 04/12/2019: This TV was incorrectly measured with Brightness +2, instead of at 0. This only has a small impact on the results (slightly dimmer dark scenes below about 30 IRE) and so we don't plan to retest it.

The post-calibration image is excellent. The color temperature is very close to our target, and gamma follows our target almost exactly.

Calibration is done with a 100% window instead of our standard 18% window, as the local dimming causes inconsistent readings of smaller windows.

You can see our recommended settings here.

Lower resolution 480p content like DVDs is upscaled well, with no obvious artifacts or quality issues.

Upscaling of 720p content such as cable TV or older game consoles looks good.

Upscaling of 1080p content such as Blu-rays or game consoles looks good. The image is sharp and there are no obvious issues.

The Samsung Q6 displays native 4k content without any issues.

The Q6F has a wide color gamut as it covers more than 90% of the DCI P3 color space and just above 67% of the Rec.2020 color space.

It is not as wide as the Q7FN or the Q8FN and it also suffers when it comes to the representation of cyan, green and yellow.

It tracks the EOTF line well almost up to about 700 nits or 65% of the input signal, after which some compression is taking place. This will not be bothersome to most people.

The PC and Game mode EOTFs do not follow our input stimulus as well. This effectively makes shadows in dark scenes look slightly darker, but it shouldn't be an issue for most people.

The Samsung Q6FN has good color volume. It can produce bright colors but fails to do the same with deep, dark ones. The color volume is good, but not up to par with the 2018 Q7FN and Q8FN models, but more comparable to the NU8000.

The Samsung Q6F 2018 has very good gradient performance. There is some slight banding everywhere, especially in gray and green, but hardly noticeable.

Even if you do notice a case of major banding that bothers you, you can set Digital Clean View to Auto to reduce it, but this could result in a loss of some fine details.

There was no temporary image retention on the 2018 Q6.

This is typical of TVs with VA panels.

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

Excellent response time with almost no overshoot. The response time is slightly slower than the Q7FN, but still excellent. There is a very slight motion trail behind fast-moving objects, but most of the blur (as seen in the photo above) is due to persistence.

The Samsung Q6F uses PWM to dim the backlight, and there is visible flicker at all backlight levels. The flicker frequency is quite high at 240 Hz, but the flicker is still noticeable to some, especially at low backlight levels where the backlight is off for longer periods of time.

Like the other 2018 Samsung QLEDs, the backlight flicker varies quite a bit depending on the motion settings used, as shown here.

The Samsung Q6 can reduce the backlight flicker as low as 60 fps, even in Game Mode. This results in some duplications, as seen in the photo above, but there will be less motion blur.

To enable the black frame insertion feature on the Samsung Q6FN, set Auto Motion Plus to Custom, and set LED Clear Motion to On.

Like the other 2018 Samsung QLEDs, the backlight flicker varies quite a bit depending on the motion settings used, as shown here.

The Samsung Q6 can interpolate lower frame rate content up to 120 fps. Performance is similar to the other 2018 Samsung QLEDs. There are some visible artifacts in scenes with fast motion, and in some scenes when the motion gets too intense the Q6FN stops interpolating.

Interpolation is activated by setting 'Auto Motion Plus' to 'Custom'. The 'Judder Reduction' can be adjusted for low frame rate content, and the 'Blur Reduction' slider can be adjusted to help clear up motion on 60 fps content.

Like the other 2018 Samsung QLEDs, the backlight flicker varies quite a bit depending on the motion settings used, as shown here.

Update 06/05/2018: The 49" model has a 60 Hz panel, as such it can only interpolate as high as 60 fps.

Low frame rate content like 24p Blu-rays stutters a bit, this is mostly noticeable in wide spanning landscape scenes. If stutter bothers you, it can be reduced by enabling motion interpolation or the optional black frame insertion feature.

The Samsung Q6F 55 is effective at removing Judder from 24p content from all sources, including when sent in a 60 fps signal from a cable box. This is different from the other Samsung QLED TVs we have reviewed this year like the Q7FN and Q9FN.

To enable the Judder reduction feature, set Auto Motion Plus to Custom, with both sliders set to 0 as shown here.

Like the other 2018 Samsung QLEDs, the backlight flicker varies quite a bit depending on the motion settings used, as shown here.

The Samsung Q6F supports FreeSync from our Xbox One S and Radeon RX 580 GPU, at 4k, 1440p and 1080p resolutions. At 1080p its range is wide enough to support Low Frequency Compensation, thus extending its lower limit below 20 Hz; unfortunately its 4k range is a much smaller 60-48 Hz, but good enough for Xbox One games that target 60 fps.

On the TV, Freesync is enabled by turning on Game Mode and setting FreeSync to On. Game mode must be on for VRR to work. Even when set to 'Auto', the TV will stay in game mode as long as Freesync is enabled. The auto function will not turn off game mode when watching a movie on an Xbox One for example.

Update 11/05/2018: The 49" model has a 60 Hz panel and does not support FreeSync.

1440p @ 120 Hz: 9.3 ms

The Samsung Q6F has excellent low input lag when in PC or Game mode. The Q6 supports a variable refresh rate, and the 1080p input lag is extremely low with VRR enabled, which is great for Xbox One gaming.

Like the other 2018 Samsung TVs, the Q6FN can interpolate lower frame rate games up to 60 or 120 Hz. When interpolating up to 60Hz (Judder Reduction -> 10, Blue Reduction -> 0), there is 21.3 ms of input lag. When interpolating up to 120 Hz (Judder Reduction -> 10, Blur Reduction -> 10), there is 27.6 ms of input. Both of these are still low enough for most gamers and can be enabled to help motion appear smoother.

When the input label is set to 'PC' and Game mode is enabled, Game Motion Plus becomes available and the Q6FN supports a variable refresh rate when connected to a compatible PC.