Samsung Q80A  TV Review

The Samsung Q80A has a sleek yet simple design. It looks very similar to 2020's Samsung Q80/Q80T QLED with its center-mounted stand. The back panel is textured plastic, and there are tracks for cable management. Overall, it looks like a premium TV and will look good in most setups.

The square-based stand is typical of high-end Samsung TVs, and it supports the TV well.

Footprint of the 55 inch stand: 15.4" x 10.3".

The back of the Samsung Q80A looks like other Samsung models. It has textured plastic, and there are tracks for cable management. You can also remove the back of the stand to run cables through it. The inputs are side-facing, so they're easy to access with the TV wall-mounted.

The panel itself is thin, but because the power plug sticks out, you'll need spacers with your mounting bracket so you can mount it properly.

The Samsung Q80A's build quality is excellent. It wobbles a bit, but it's not too noticeable. It's mainly plastic, which still feels solid, and there isn't any noticeable flex. Unfortunately, the unit tested has three pixels that display purple during a dark scene (see Black Uniformity). We've seen other people online experience the same thing, but this is a quality control issue, so your experience will be different.

The Samsung Q80A has a low contrast ratio, which is typical of ADS panels, and it's not anywhere close to the contrast of VA panels. The contrast with local dimming enabled is lower than expected because the local dimming turns on all the zones in the checkerboard pattern, which results in this low contrast ratio. It displays deeper blacks in real content with large areas of dark colors, but if there are a lot of bright areas, like in the checkerboard, blacks won't be as deep. With a full-white and full-black screen, it has a contrast of 12,390:1. The native contrast varies a bit between individual units, but it won't be much higher for an IPS-like panel. Note that the 50 and 85 inch models have VA panels, meaning they have better contrast.

The Samsung Q80A has excellent SDR brightness. Although its brightness varies based on different content, it easily gets bright enough to combat glare.

These results are from after calibration in the 'Movie' Picture Mode with Local Dimming on 'High', Color Tone set to 'Warm 2', and Brightness at its max.

If you want an even brighter image and don't care about image accuracy, then set Contrast Enhancer to 'High' and Color Tone to 'Warm 1'. It reaches 910 cd/m² in the 10% window with these settings.

The Samsung Q80A has a mediocre local dimming feature. There are 50 medium-sized zones, and it crushes blacks, causing a loss of details in scenes with shadows, and small highlights don't pop, like in a starfield. There's also visible blooming around bright objects, and the screen doesn't look uniform as entire horizontal zones light up at times. There's noticeable blooming around subtitles, and it gets worse when viewed at an angle, which is distracting. The dimming zones are slow to turn off when there are fast-moving objects, but it also turns on zones prematurely, so overall, objects don't transition between zones well. Overall, its performance is disappointing compared to the Samsung Q80/Q80T QLED, and it doesn't improve the picture quality in dark scenes.

The local dimming in Game Mode is poor. It's similar to outside of Game Mode, except the entire screen seems to light up more, meaning blacks look even more gray. There's less blooming, but that's because entire zones light up when there's a bright object on the screen. Small highlights are actually over-brightened now, to the point where they lose details. Zone transitions are still visible, although it's better than outside of Game Mode.

The Samsung Q80A has great HDR brightness. Small highlights really stand out, but large areas are less bright due to the Automatic Brightness Limiter (ABL). The EOTF follows the target fairly well, but most scenes are brighter than they should be.

These HDR brightness results are from before calibration in the 'Movie HDR' Picture Mode with Brightness and Contrast at max, Local Dimming set to 'High', Color Tone set to 'Warm 2', and with all other image processing options disabled.

If you want to make HDR even brighter, set Contrast Enhancer to 'High' and ST.2084 to '+3'. This results in a noticeably brighter image, as you can see in this EOTF.

The HDR brightness in Game Mode is very good. It's a bit more dim than outside of Game Mode, and small highlights are significantly less brighter due to its local dimming. The EOTF does a better job at following the target PQ curve, except some bright scenes are still over-brightened.

This was measured with Game Mode enabled, Brightness at its max, Local Dimming on 'High', Color Gamut set to 'Auto', Color Tone to 'Warm 2', and Dynamic Black Equalizer to '2'. Picture Clarity was also left disabled.

The gradient handling is great. There's a bit of banding, but it's limited to dark grays and greens, so not everyone will notice it in scenes with gradients, like sunsets. Setting Noise Reduction to 'Auto' does a good job at removing any banding, but that comes at the cost of losing details with high-quality content, but it smooths out gradients with low-quality content.

The Samsung Q80A has okay uniformity. The edges are visibly darker, and there's dirty screen effect in the center. It can get distracting with large areas of bright colors, like while watching sports or using it as a PC monitor. Uniformity is much improved in near-dark scenes, but as mentioned in the Build Quality section, you can see the dead pixels on an all-black screen. However, it's just an issue when displaying black, as you don't see it with the 50% gray image. Uniformity varies between units, but it's unlikely it will be significantly better than this.

The Samsung Q80A has bad black uniformity. With local dimming disabled, the entire screen looks blue, there's backlight bleed along the edges, and there's noticeable clouding throughout. With local dimming enabled, entire horizontal zones are lit up around the center cross, meaning the screen is actually less uniform. This varies a bit between units, but not significantly.

You can visibly see the dead pixels in these photos. There are two below the center cross on the right side, and the other one, while less visible, is directly below the left arm of the cross. It's a quality control issue, so your experience will be different. If you notice the same thing, let us know.

This TV has wide viewing angles, which is normal from an ADS panel. Although you may notice the screen is darker when viewing at an angle, the image remains accurate, and it's good for wide seating arrangements. Note that the 50 and 85 inch models have VA panels, so they have worse viewing angles.

The Samsung Q80A has good reflection handling. Unlike other high-end Samsung TVs, it has a semi-gloss finish. It results in more reflected light; it's good enough for a room with a few light sources, but you shouldn't put it opposite a window with direct sunlight.

The out-of-the-box accuracy is unremarkable. White balance and most colors are inaccurate, but it's hard to notice for most people. Color temperature is on the cold side, resulting in a blue tint. Sadly, gamma does a bad job at following the target as most bright scenes are too bright.

After calibration, accuracy is incredible. Any remaining inaccuracies aren't noticeable to the naked eye. Color temperature is extremely close to the 6500K target, and gamma does a much better job at following the 2.2 target.

You can see the recommended settings here.

480p content like DVDs is upscaled without any issues.

The Samsung Q80A upscales 720p content like cable TV well.

This TV displays 1080p content almost as good as native 4k.

The Samsung Q80A displays native 4k content perfectly and without any issues.

This is a 4k TV that can't display an 8k signal. If you want an 8k TV, then check out the Samsung QN800A 8k QLED.

Like the Samsung QN85A QLED, this TV uses an Advanced Super Dimension Switch (ADS) panel. It's an IPS-type panel with many of the same characteristics, but it's technically different. It has an RGB subpixel layout, which is different from the BGR layout on most VA panels like the Samsung Q70/Q70A QLED. Although this doesn't affect picture quality, it renders text more clearly when using it as a PC monitor.

The Samsung Q80A has a very good color gamut. It has excellent coverage of the commonly-used DCI P3 color space, but it has more limited coverage of the wider Rec. 2020. This means it's not very future-proof as more content is produced in the Rec. 2020 color space instead of DCI P3 because Rec. 2020 can display a wider range of colors.

The color volume is decent. Due to its low contrast ratio, it can't display dark colors, but it displays bright colors well, thanks to its high peak brightness.

There are no signs of temporary image retention. This may vary between units, but it's rarely an issue on modern TVs.

Although some IPS-like panels can suffer from temporary image retention, this doesn't appear to be permanent as seen in the long-term test.

The Samsung Q80A has a great response time. For the most part, motion looks smooth, but there's some motion blur in dark transitions due to overshoot. This is very similar to the Samsung QN85A QLED.

The Samsung Q80A uses Pulse Width Modulation (PWM) to dim the backlight, but it flickers at such a high frequency of 960Hz in 'Movie' mode that most people won't notice it. However, it flickers at 120Hz in the 'Dynamic', 'Standard', 'Filmmaker', and 'Natural' Picture Modes. It also flickers at 120Hz with Picture Clarity set to 'Auto', and it can go down to 60Hz with LED Clear Motion enabled. Normally, it flickers at 120Hz with Game Mode enabled, but it still flickers at 960Hz on this TV. It's likely a bug that may be fixed in a firmware update, and it flickers at 120Hz with Game Motion Plus enabled.

The Samsung Q80A has an optional backlight strobing feature to try to reduce motion blur, known as black frame insertion. It flickers at 120Hz or 60Hz, depending on the setting you're using. Unfortunately, it creates image duplication that can get distracting. Keep in mind that the BFI score is based on its flickering abilities and not its actual performance.

There's a motion interpolation feature known as the 'Soap Opera Effect'. It doesn't look that good overall as there are artifacts in fast-moving scenes, which is distracting.

Due to the quick response time, lower-frame rate content can appear to stutter as each frame is held on longer. You can try enabling the motion interpolation feature if it bothers you.

The Samsung Q80A automatically removes judder from all sources, and there aren't any settings you need to enable.

The Samsung Q80A has native FreeSync support to reduce screen tearing. It automatically works with a compatible device when in Game Mode. However, the G-SYNC doesn't work as there's constant tearing, and if you need something with G-SYNC compatibility, then look into the LG NANO90 2021.

Note: The 50 inch model is limited to a 60Hz refresh rate, so it has a narrow VRR range, and you won't be able to play high-frame-rate games.

The Samsung Q80A's input lag is incredibly low. It stays low no matter the resolution and refresh rate you're gaming at, which is great. It increases with Game Motion Plus enabled, but it's still low enough for most people. If you're using the TV as a PC monitor and want the lowest input lag, simply enable Game Mode.

We couldn't properly measure the input lag with VRR enabled, which we experienced with other TVs, and we're looking into the issue. That said, we don't expect the input lag to significantly increase with VRR enabled.

The Samsung Q80A displays all common resolutions up to 4k @ 120Hz. If you're using it as a monitor, it displays chroma 4:4:4 at 1080p and 4k, but it can't with 1440p content. This helps it display clear and legible text while you're using it as a PC monitor. If you want it to display chroma 4:4:4, use HDMI 4, which supports HDMI 2.1 bandwidth, and label the input as 'PC'.

The Samsung Q80A doesn't have any issues displaying games from either the PS5 or Xbox Series X. It supports Auto Low Latency Mode, which means it automatically switches into Game Mode to provide the lowest input lag possible when a game from a compatible device is launched.

New to Samsung TVs in 2021 is a 'Game Bar' feature that lets you see useful information like the current frame rate and VRR status. You need to hold the Play/Pause button on your remote for a few seconds. You can see what it looks like here.

HDMI 4 is the only input that supports HDMI 2.1 bandwidth. This is disappointing if you need to connect more than one HDMI 2.1 device, but luckily, HDMI 3 still supports eARC, meaning you can connect your console and receiver to different inputs.

The Samsung Q80A supports Dolby audio formats, including Dolby Atmos via TrueHD through eARC, but you can't use it to pass DTS:X and DTS audio formats to a receiver. You'll need to ensure your content's audio is Dolby for the best sound experience possible.

The Samsung Q80A has a decent frequency response. It has a fairly well-balanced sound profile and gets pretty loud. It has better bass than some other TVs, but it doesn't deliver the true rumbling sound a dedicated subwoofer would.

The distortion performance is decent. The total harmonic distortion is a bit audible when playing at its max volume, but it depends on the content, and not everyone will hear it.

The updated 2021 Tizen OS interface is easy-to-use and feels smoother than previous versions. The TV didn't provide any bugs during testing.

There are ads on the home page and app store, and there's no way to disable them. They're not always present, so it's difficult to get a photo of them. You can see the ads on the Samsung QN90A QLED here.

Samsung's app store has a large number of streaming apps available, and they run smoothly.

Samsung's 2021 QLED models have a redesigned remote compared to the one from 2020. It has a different physical design with new brushed plastic, but the layout and quick-access buttons remain the same. It also doesn't require disposable batteries as you can either charge it through a USB-C cable, which isn't included, or with its solar panel on the back. The built-in voice control allows you to open apps, change inputs and settings, but you can't search for specific content in apps.

There's one button underneath the Samsung branding in the center to change volume, channels, source, and turn the TV On/Off.

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