The Samsung Q70C QLED is the mid-range model in Samsung's 2023 QLED lineup and succeeds the Samsung Q70/Q70A QLED and Samsung Q70B QLED. The TV doesn't have local dimming to improve its contrast, but it's fully featured for gaming. It has up to 4k @ 120Hz support on all four of its HDMI 2.1 bandwidth ports and support for every variable refresh rate (VRR) technology for a nearly tear-free gaming experience from any VRR-enabled source. As for advanced format support, the TV supports advanced Dolby audio formats through ARC/eARC. While it doesn't support Dolby Vision HDR, it has Samsung's competing HDR10+ format. It uses Samsung's Quantum Processor 4k for its image processing features. It comes with the 2023 version of Samsung's proprietary Tizen OS, and the TV has microphones in both the remote and the TV for hands-free voice control through the Alexa or Bixby voice assistants. It's available in four sizes: 55, 65, 75, and 85 inches.
Our Verdict
The Samsung Q70C is a decent TV overall, although it's best in situations where its fantastic input lag can be put to good use, like when gaming or when using the TV as a PC monitor. It's also not a great TV if you want to watch it with friends in a wide seating area, as its viewing angle is sub-par. Otherwise, its SDR brightness is very good, and its reflection handling is decent, so it can easily handle rooms with a few lights or windows when watching SDR content, like sports or TV shows. Its HDR brightness is adequate; good enough for dark rooms but not good enough to make HDR highlights pop in movies or games. Its response time is good, so fast-moving objects in sports, movies, or games have a little blur but nothing too noticeable.
- Very good SDR peak brightness.
- Decent reflection handling.
- Sub-par viewing angle.
- Doesn't have local dimming to improve its contrast.
The Samsung Q70C is decent for watching TV shows. It has very good brightness in SDR and decent reflection handling, so it can easily handle a few lights or windows in moderately-lit rooms. The TV has decent image processing, with decent low-resolution upscaling and acceptable low-quality content smoothing. So TV shows look satisfactory overall, whether from DVDs, cable, or streaming platforms. Unfortunately, the TV has a sub-par viewing angle, so this isn't a good choice for a wide seating arrangement, like if the entire family wants to watch shows together.
- Very good SDR peak brightness.
- Decent reflection handling.
- Decent low-resolution upscaling.
- Sub-par viewing angle.
The Samsung Q70C is decent for watching sports, but not with your friends in a wide seating area, as it has a sub-par viewing angle. It has very good brightness in SDR and decent reflection handling, so the TV can easily handle a few lights or some glare. It also has a good response time with most content, so there's a bit of blur behind fast-moving objects, like a ball or a puck zipping around the scene, but it's not annoying. Finally, the TV has decent gray uniformity. However, sports with uniform areas of bright color, like hockey, have noticeable uniformity issues, with regions of the image being visibly darker than others.
- Good response time with most content.
- Very good SDR peak brightness.
- Decent reflection handling.
- Decent low-resolution upscaling.
- Sub-par viewing angle.
The Samsung Q70C is good for gaming. The TV has many gaming-oriented features, like four HDMI 2.1 bandwidth ports, all supporting up to 4k @ 120Hz gaming, and support for every VRR technology for nearly tear-free gaming from any VRR-enabled source. Its input lag is fantastic, so inputs are fast and responsive. It also has a good response time with most content, with a little blur behind fast-moving objects but nothing too annoying. However, this isn't a good TV for fans of horror games or any other games that lean towards a dark color palette, as the TV's response time is significantly worse in dark scene transitions. The TV has good contrast, although games don't look vibrant overall without a local dimming feature. The TV gets bright in SDR and has decent reflection handling, so games look good in a moderately-lit room.
- Good response time with most content.
- Very good SDR peak brightness.
- Extremely low input lag.
- Has four HDMI 2.1 bandwidth ports with VRR.
- Decent reflection handling.
- Decent low-resolution upscaling.
- Slow response time in dark scene transitions.
The Samsung Q70C is a fair TV for movie lovers. It has adequate contrast, but unfortunately, it doesn't have a local dimming feature to make the TV's blacks deep and dark, so they look a bit blue in dark scenes. It has adequate HDR brightness, good enough for a pleasant viewing experience, but highlights don't pop. The TV has acceptable low-quality content smoothing, so low-bitrate content watched from streaming platforms looks fine overall but with noticeable macro-blocking in dark scenes. The TV's color accuracy is also mediocre pre-calibration; you don't need to calibrate it to look good, but it's helpful if you care about accuracy.
- Automatically removes 24p judder from all sources.
- Doesn't have local dimming to improve its contrast.
- Mediocre color accuracy pre-calibration.
The Samsung Q70C is a good choice for gamers wanting to play the latest HDR games. It has four HDMI 2.1 bandwidth ports, all capable of up to 4k @ 120Hz, and supports every VRR technology for a nearly tear-free gaming experience from any VRR-enabled source. It has a good response time with most content, with a bit of blur around fast-moving objects but nothing too noticeable. However, the TV's response time is significantly worse in dark scene transitions, so it's not optimal for dark games, like titles in the horror genre. The TV's HDR brightness is adequate for a dark room, as games look bright enough for a pleasant HDR gaming experience, although highlights don't pop much.
- Good response time with most content.
- Extremely low input lag.
- Has four HDMI 2.1 bandwidth ports with VRR.
- Slow response time in dark scene transitions.
- Doesn't have local dimming to improve its contrast.
- Mediocre color accuracy pre-calibration.
The Samsung Q70C is very good to use as a PC monitor. It has a good response time, so there's a little blur when moving windows around, but it's not annoying in practice. However, make sure not to set your operating system to 'dark' mode, as the TV's response time performs significantly worse in dark scene transitions, leading to black smearing. Otherwise, the TV's input lag is fantastic, so your mouse or controller inputs are super responsive. It displays chroma 4:4:4 signals properly, which is essential for clear text from a PC. It has good SDR brightness and decent reflection handling, so the TV easily handles moderately-lit offices. Unfortunately, the TV's viewing angle is sub-par, so the sides of the screen fade and look washed out if you're sitting too close.
- Good response time with most content.
- Very good SDR peak brightness.
- Extremely low input lag.
- Has four HDMI 2.1 bandwidth ports with VRR.
- Decent reflection handling.
- Slow response time in dark scene transitions.
- Sub-par viewing angle.
- Mediocre color accuracy pre-calibration.
Changelog
- Updated Sep 24, 2024: Mentioned the newly-reviewed Samsung Q70D QLED in the HDR Brightness section of this review.
- Updated Aug 08, 2024: We retested support for DTS Audio Passthrough and updated our results to clarify that the TV doesn't support DTS audio formats.
- Updated May 27, 2024: Clarified that the TV uses the Quantum Processor 4k and not the Neural Quantum Processor 4k in the Introduction section.
- Updated Aug 21, 2023: Review published.
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Differences Between Sizes And Variants
We tested the 65-inch Samsung Q70C, and the results are valid for the 55, 75, and 85-inch models. The last four letters of the model code (in this case, FXZA) vary between regions and even retailers, and not all regions carry all the variants. As Samsung's European lineup differs, these results are only valid for the North American Q70C.
| Size | US Model | Short Model Code |
|---|---|---|
| 55" | QN55Q70CAFXZA | QN55Q70C |
| 65" | QN65Q70CAFXZA | QN65Q70C |
| 75" | QN75Q70CAFXZA | QN75Q70C |
| 85" | QN85Q70CAFXZA | QN85Q70C |
Our unit was manufactured in February 2023; you can see the label here.
Popular TV Comparisons
The Samsung Q70C is a decent TV overall, more so for gamers, as it's a fully featured gaming TV with four HDMI 2.1 bandwidth ports. But as with other models in Samsung's QLED range, it comes up short compared to other products in the same market position or price range. There are superior models available from budget manufacturers, like the TCL Q7/Q750G QLED, but especially the much better Hisense U8/U8H. The cheaper Sony X85K is also better than the Samsung Q70C overall, except for PC monitor usage, and you can even find the much better Sony X90K/X90CK for about the same price as the Samsung. Other TVs have better value overall unless you find the TV for a great price.
For more options, check out our recommendations for the best 4k TVs, the best 4k gaming TVs, and the best QLED TVs.
The Samsung Q70D is a bit better than the 2023 Samsung Q70C. The Q70D is brighter overall, so it overcomes more glare in a bright room and displays brighter highlights in HDR content. It also has a slightly better contrast ratio for deeper blacks during dark scenes and is the more accurate TV.
The Samsung Q70C is better than the Samsung Q60C. The Q60C has slightly better contrast and vastly better black uniformity but is worse in every other category. The Q70C is also a fully featured gaming TV, with four HDMI 2.1 bandwidth ports for up to 4k @ 120Hz gaming and support for every VRR technology, while the Q60C is limited to up to 4k @ 60Hz on its four HDMI 2.0 ports, and has no VRR support.
The Samsung Q70A and the Samsung Q70C are extremely similar TVs, although the Q70A has a small edge in most categories. The older model has better image quality, with better contrast, is slightly brighter in both HDR and SDR, is significantly more accurate pre-calibration, and has better black uniformity. However, the Q70C does have better image processing, with better low-quality content smoothing and better upscaling capabilities. Finally, it has four HDMI 2.1 bandwidth ports versus only one for the Q70A, which is great if you have multiple HDMI 2.1 devices.
The Samsung Q80C is a bit better than the Samsung Q70C. The Q80C has a much wider viewing angle than the Q70C, great for watching with friends in a wide seating area. The Q80C also has local dimming to slightly improve its contrast, although its local dimming feature is mediocre. It gets a bit brighter than the Q70C in both SDR and HDR, has better color volume, and has a faster response time with much better dark scene transitions. Otherwise, they both have the same set of gaming features.
We buy and test dozens of TVs yearly, taking an objective, data-driven approach to deliver results you can trust. Our testing process is complex, with hundreds of individual tests that take over a week to complete. Most of our tests use specially designed test patterns that mimic real content, but we also use the same sources you have at home to ensure our results match the real-world experience. We use two main tools for our testing: a Colorimetry Research CR-100 colorimeter and a CR-250 spectroradiometer.
Test Results
Older Test Bench: This product has been tested using an older TV test methodology, before a major update. Some of the test results below aren't directly comparable with other TVs. Learn more
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