Samsung Q70/Q70R QLED TV Review

The Samsung Q70R is an upper mid-range TV. In Samsung's 2019 lineup, it sits between the Samsung Q80/Q80R QLED and the Samsung Q60/Q60R QLED. The Samsung Q70R's chief competitors are the Sony X950G, the LG SM9000, and the Vizio P Series Quantum 2019.

The Samsung Q70R has an outstanding design, very similar to the Samsung Q8FN/Q8/Q8F QLED 2018. The back of the TV is made of good quality plastic and has horizontal ridges that run along the entire surface. Similar to older Samsung TVs, it includes guide tracks for cable management, and the back of each leg is hollow to allow for the cable to run down. Unlike the Samsung Q7FN/Q7/Q7F QLED 2018, the Q70R doesn't come with a One Connect Box.

The stand supports the TV well and allows only minimal wobble. It's nearly as wide as the TV, so you'll need a large table for it.

Footprint of the 55" stand: 38.3" x 9.6".

The back of the Samsung Q70R is made of high-quality plastic with a brushed finish. It has a built-in cable management system that guides cables through the legs, keeping the setup clean. The inputs are sideways-facing and well-labeled, but they can be difficult to reach if the TV is wall-mounted.

The borders are very thin and look good.

The TV is fairly thin and shouldn't stick out when wall-mounted; however, it doesn't support no-gap wall mounts, like the one for the Samsung Q90/Q90R QLED.

The Samsung Q70R feels excellently built. It's mostly made of plastic but feels sturdy and solid. There's some flex where the back joins the edges, but this is very slight and you shouldn't have any issues with the TV.

While contrast ratio may vary between units, the Samsung Q70R has one of the highest native contrast ratios that we've measured among LED TVs, allowing it to display deep blacks in a dark room setting. Local dimming improves the contrast even further.

The Samsung Q70R has full-array local dimming, and the performance is decent. While the transitions from one zone to another are smoothly executed, the TV tends to crush some smaller details and has difficulty keeping up when there are fast-moving objects. Subtitles also tend to trigger a change in brightness, which is somewhat distracting.

Unfortunately, the local dimming can't be completely disabled through the normal settings menu. To turn it off, we first disabled PC Mode Dimming within the TV's service menu, and then activated 'PC' Mode.

All our local dimming tests were done with Local Dimming set to 'High'.

Update 08/02/2019: We've retested the Samsung Q70R with the latest firmware, and the SDR peak brightness has increased a bit. We've updated our measurements and scores.

The SDR peak brightness is great. This TV can easily overcome glare in a bright room. It isn't as bright as the Sony X950G or the Samsung Q8FN/Q8/Q8F QLED 2018, but it's brighter than the Samsung Q60/Q60R QLED.

In our real scene testing, the entire scene was dimmed except for the bright parts, which were boosted. This might be due to the local dimming, which behaves differently than the 2018 Samsung QLEDs.

We measured the peak brightness after calibration, using the 'Movie' Picture Mode and 'Warm 2' Color Tone, with Local Dimming set to 'High.' Different picture modes and color temperatures may be brighter.

Update 08/02/2019: We've retested the Samsung Q70R with the latest firmware, and the HDR peak brightness has increased a bit. We've updated our measurements and scores.

The HDR peak brightness is good and similar to the Samsung Q8FN/Q8/Q8F QLED 2018. It isn't as good as the Sony X950G, but the Samsung Q70R still delivers HDR content with highlights that pop.

We measured the peak brightness before calibration, using the 'Movie' Picture Mode and 'Warm 2' Color Tone, with Local Dimming set to 'High.' Different picture modes and color temperatures may be brighter.

The Samsung Q70R has decent gray uniformity, but this may vary between units. The corners are slightly darker than the rest of the screen, causing a 'vignetting' effect. There's also some dirty screen effect in the center, which could be distracting and might disappoint some sports fans. In darker scenes, the uniformity is much better.

The Samsung Q70R has poor viewing angles, which is typical for a TV with a VA panel. The image loses accuracy, and colors start to wash out when viewed from the side, so this isn't the best choice for rooms with a wide seating arrangement.

If you want a TV with wider viewing angles, check out an IPS TV like the LG SK9500.

We took our color measurements after calibration, using the 'Movie' Picture Mode and Local Dimming set to 'Low.' In order to take our lightness measurements, we disabled PC Mode Dimming in the TV's service menu, and then activated PC Mode.

The Samsung Q70R has remarkable black uniformity, although this may vary between units. There's no visible backlight bleed in the native black uniformity picture and almost no blooming around the test cross with local dimming enabled.

Unfortunately, the TV's local dimming can't be completely disabled using the normal settings menu. In order to measure the native black uniformity, we had to disable PC Mode Dimming in the TV's service menu, and then activate PC Mode.

The Samsung Q70R has decent reflection handling. Its semi-gloss coating helps to diminish reflections, but when compared to the Samsung Q8FN/Q8/Q8F QLED 2018, its performance isn't as good. You shouldn't have any issues in most rooms, but if you have a room with lots of bright light, the reflections on the screen might become distracting.

The Samsung Q70R has very good accuracy out-of-the-box, although this may vary between units. There are some inaccuracies in the reds and blues, but these shouldn't be noticeable to most people. The white balance is fairly accurate, and the color temperature is close to the 6500K target. The gamma follows the curve for the most part, but some scenes may appear slightly darker.

Update 10/31/2019: Unfortunately, it would appear that the Q70R isn't compatible with the Auto-Calibration Function.

After calibration, the accuracy is superb. The white balance dE improves and you won't be able to spot any color inaccuracies without the aid of a colorimeter. The gamma continues to track the curve well, but some scenes continue to look slightly darker. Finally, the color temperature is a bit warmer than the target of 6500K, but it's hard to notice.

You can see our recommended settings here.

480p content, like DVDs, is handled well, with no obvious upscaling artifacts.

720p content, like content from a cable box, is upscaled well on the Samsung Q70R. There's no obvious over-softening or upscaling artifacts.

1080p content, like from a Blu-ray player or a non-4k game console, looks good.

Native 4k content is displayed perfectly with no issues.

This TV doesn't support an 8k signal.

The Samsung Q70R uses a BGR subpixel layout, which can affect the way text is rendered when using the TV as a PC monitor. You can read about it here.

The Samsung Q70R can display a wide color gamut, which is great for HDR content but it isn't as good as the Samsung Q8FN/Q8/Q8F QLED 2018. It's still slightly better than that of the Samsung Q60/Q60R QLED.

The 'Movie' EOTF follows the input stimulus very closely until it starts to roll off near the TV's peak brightness. In 'Game' mode, HDR scenes are a little darker as we can see here.

If you find HDR too dim, check out our recommendations here. With these settings, the Q70R is noticeably brighter in HDR, as shown in this EOTF.

As noted in the review of the Samsung Q9FN/Q9/Q9F QLED 2018, some Samsung TVs produce scenes that are brighter than intended for lower brightness HDR infoframes (such as 1000 nits). This is the 1000 nits infoframe for this TV where you can see that the image is slightly brighter.

Decent color volume on the Samsung Q70R. Like most LED TVs, the Q70R can't produce very bright blues, but otherwise, it can produce bright and dark colors across most of its gamut.

This TV has good overall gradient handling. Some slight banding is noticeable in all dark shades, especially in the dark green and blue shades. If banding is bothering you, set Digital Clean View to 'Auto,' which eliminates most of it but can cause the loss of some fine details in some scenes. Setting Digital Clean View to 'Low' doesn't do much.

There are no signs of temporary image retention, which is typical of VA panels. Note that this can vary between units.

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

The Samsung Q70R has a great response time, just slightly slower than the Samsung Q90/Q90R QLED, and very similar to the Samsung Q8FN/Q8/Q8F QLED 2018. There's only a very small blur trail behind fast-moving objects. The 0-20% transition has some overshoot, which can cause some haloing in really dark scenes, but otherwise, it shouldn't be very noticeable.

The Samsung Q70R uses Pulse Width Modulation (PWM) to dim its backlight. Although flicker is always present, it shouldn't be noticeable since the flicker frequency is very high at 960Hz.

In 'Movie' mode with Auto Motion Plus disabled, the TV has a flicker frequency of 960Hz, but it changes to 120Hz as soon as you set Auto Motion Plus to 'Custom' or 'Auto,' even if you remain in 'Movie' mode. In 'Standard' and 'Game' modes, the flicker is always at 120Hz.

The TV includes a Black Frame Insertion feature that can help reduce motion blur. Enabling Auto Motion Plus automatically changes the flicker to 120Hz, and setting LED Clear Motion to 'On' further reduces the flicker frequency to 60Hz.

When you're in 'Game' mode, the flicker frequency is always 120Hz. If you want to make the image even crisper, then enable LED Clear Motion in Game Motion Plus, which changes the flicker frequency to 60Hz.

The Samsung Q70R has a motion interpolation feature that can interpolate lower frame rate content up to 120Hz. To enable motion interpolation, you have to enable Auto Motion Plus and adjust the available sliders.

See here for more information about the Q70R's motion interpolation settings.

Note that, like many Samsung TVs, simply setting Auto Motion Plus to 'Custom' changes the backlight flicker to 120Hz.

Because of the Samsung Q70R's fast response time, there's a bit of stutter with lower frame rate content. Enabling motion interpolation or BFI can help reduce the perceived stutter.

The Samsung Q70R removes judder from 24p content, regardless of the source.

See our recommended settings on how to remove judder here.

Update 12/17/2019: A flaw was discovered in the way we were testing for G-SYNC compatibility with TVs. We've corrected the flaw, and have retested the 2019 Samsung and LG TVs, and found that the Samsung Q70R doesn't work properly with NVIDIA's current Adaptive Sync drivers.

The TV has a native refresh rate of 120Hz. It supports FreeSync variable refresh rate technology to reduce screen tearing while gaming, provided you have a compatible AMD card or Xbox console. The VRR has a wide range at 1080p and 1440p. At 4k however, the range is narrower, as the TV only supports up to 4k @ 60Hz.

We tested the TV on 'Game' mode, and we used FreeSync set to 'Ultimate' to obtain the widest possible range.

Note: The 49" model doesn't support FreeSync and has a 60Hz panel.

Update 08/02/2019: We've retested the TV with the latest firmware, and the input lag has decreased slightly across the board. The TV is no longer skipping frames when sent a 1080p or 1440p @ 120Hz signal. We've updated our numbers and scores.

The Samsung Q70R has an excellent low input lag, which is great for gaming. To get the lowest input lag, you need to set the TV to Game Mode. However, when in 'PC' Mode, input lag is low without the need to set the TV to Game Mode.

In Game Mode, you can enable motion interpolation through the Game Motion Plus menu.

To find out more about what settings to use for the best gaming experience, and about the 'Auto Low Latency Mode', see our recommended settings for Gaming.