The Samsung Q80/Q80B QLED is a mid-range 4k TV in Samsung's 2022 regular QLED lineup. It replaces the Samsung Q80/Q80A QLED, sitting below the Samsung QN85B QLED in the higher-end Mini LED lineup, and above the Samsung Q70/Q70B QLED. With a quantum dot layer, it displays a wider range of colors compared to traditional LCD TVs. It has gaming features like variable refresh rate (VRR) support and HDMI 2.1 bandwidth on all four ports. It comes with the same user-friendly Tizen platform but with a few new features added, like the ability to choose between Google Assistant, Alexa, and Bixby for the voice assistant, as well as support for Google Duo, allowing you to make video calls with a compatible webcam. It's available in a few different size variants, but some don't perform like the others, as the 50 inch version has fewer features, and both the 50 inch and 85 inch models have a different panel.
Our Verdict
The Samsung Q80B is good for most uses. It's great for watching shows in well-lit rooms as it has decent reflection handling and gets bright enough to fight glare. It also has a wide viewing angle so that everyone sees an accurate image, even when viewing from the side. It's great for gaming because it has HDMI 2.1 bandwidth, variable refresh rate support to reduce screen tearing, and a quick response time with low input lag. It's also decent for watching SDR or HDR movies as it displays 1080p and 4k content without issues, although blacks look gray in the dark, and the local dimming causes some blooming.
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No issues displaying lower-resolution and 4k signals.
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Excellent SDR peak brightness.
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Decent reflection handling.
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Image remains accurate from the sides.
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Low contrast ratio.
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Blooming around bright objects.
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Some uniformity issues.
The Samsung Q80B is decent for watching movies in dark rooms. Its dark room performance is alright because it has a low contrast ratio and even if the local dimming feature helps it display deeper blacks, there's some blooming around bright objects. Luckily, it doesn't have any trouble upscaling lower-resolution content, and it automatically removes 24p judder from any source, which helps with the appearance of motion in movies.
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No issues displaying lower-resolution and 4k signals.
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Automatically removes 24p judder from any source.
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Low contrast ratio.
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Blooming around bright objects.
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Mediocre local dimming.
The Samsung Q80B is great for watching TV shows in a well-lit room. It has excellent SDR peak brightness, enough to fight glare in most bright environments, and it has decent reflection handling. It's also a good choice for watching shows in a wide seating area because it has a wide viewing angle, so the image looks the same from the sides. Lastly, the Tizen smart platform makes it easy to stream your favorite shows, and it upscales lower-resolution content without issues if you use a cable box instead.
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No issues displaying lower-resolution and 4k signals.
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Excellent SDR peak brightness.
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Decent reflection handling.
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Image remains accurate from the sides.
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Some uniformity issues.
The Samsung Q80B is great for watching sports. Fast-moving scenes look great thanks to the quick response time. It also gets bright enough to fight glare in a well-lit room, and it has a wide viewing angle if you want to watch the game with a few friends, meaning everyone sees the same accurate image from the sides. Unfortunately, it has some uniformity issues with dirty screen effect, which can be distracting with large areas of uniform colors, like a basketball court or football field.
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No issues displaying lower-resolution and 4k signals.
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Excellent SDR peak brightness.
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Image remains accurate from the sides.
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Quick response time.
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Some uniformity issues.
The Samsung Q80B is great for gaming. It has advanced gaming features like HDMI 2.1 bandwidth and VRR support to deliver a tear-free gaming experience. It also has low input lag and a 120Hz panel with a quick response time for smooth motion handling. Sadly, it's not the best for dark room gaming because it has a low contrast ratio that makes blacks look gray, and there's some blooming around bright objects.
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Quick response time.
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HDMI 2.1 bandwidth with VRR support.
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Low input lag.
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Low contrast ratio.
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Blooming around bright objects.
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Mediocre local dimming.
The Samsung Q80B is decent for watching HDR movies. It displays a wide range of colors in HDR and gets bright enough to make them look vivid and pop. It supports HDR10+; however, it doesn't support Dolby Vision, a widely-used HDR format for streaming services, meaning you can't take full advantage of the content. Sadly, the contrast ratio is low, making blacks look gray in the dark, and although the local dimming feature isn't bad, it causes blooming around bright objects.
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Automatically removes 24p judder from any source.
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Displays wide color gamut.
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Good HDR brightness.
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Low contrast ratio.
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Blooming around bright objects.
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Mediocre local dimming.
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No Dolby Vision support.
The Samsung Q80B is great for HDR gaming mainly due to its gaming features. It has a 120Hz panel and HDMI 2.1 bandwidth, allowing you to play high framerate games in 4k. It also has VRR support for a tear-free gaming experience, low input lag, and a quick response time. Although it displays a wide color gamut and has good HDR peak brightness, its HDR performance still isn't the best because blacks look gray in the dark, and there's some blooming in dark scenes.
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Quick response time.
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HDMI 2.1 bandwidth with VRR support.
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Low input lag.
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Good HDR brightness.
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Low contrast ratio.
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Blooming around bright objects.
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Mediocre local dimming.
The Samsung Q80B is excellent for use as a PC monitor. The excellent SDR peak brightness and decent reflection handling make it a great choice for well-lit room as visibility won't be a problem. It also has a wide viewing angle, meaning the image remains accurate at the edges even if you sit up close. Text looks sharp thanks to its RGB subpixel layout and proper chroma 4:4:4 support. However, it has some uniformity issues that can be distracting with large areas of uniform color, like when you have a webpage open.
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Excellent SDR peak brightness.
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Decent reflection handling.
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Image remains accurate from the sides.
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Quick response time.
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Some uniformity issues.
- 7.7 Mixed Usage
- 7.1 Movies
- 8.1 TV Shows
- 8.0 Sports
- 7.9 Video Games
- 7.1 HDR Movies
- 7.9 HDR Gaming
- 8.6 PC Monitor
- Updated Mar 06, 2023: We removed the initial measurements from the Accelerated Longevity Test for this TV, as it was removed from the test.
- Updated Feb 15, 2023: Updated to Test Bench 1.9, modifying our Contrast testing and splitting our local dimming testing into multiple sections covering Blooming, Black Crush, and Lighting Zone Transitions. You can see our full changelog here.
- Updated Dec 16, 2022: Updated to Test Bench 1.8, adding a new box for PQ EOTF tracking and updating our Color Volume and Color Gamut tests to better reflect real world usage. You can see our full changelog here.
- Updated Nov 17, 2022: We uploaded the initial brightness measurements and uniformity photos for the Accelerated Longevity Test.
- Updated Oct 26, 2022: Updated to Test Bench 1.7 with an updated HDR Brightness test that better reflects real world usage. We've also split the console compatibility boxes into separate PS5 Compatibility and Xbox Series X|S Compatibility tests. You can see our full changelog here.
- Updated Oct 13, 2022: We updated the Variable Refresh Rate section, as the 50" model is limited to a 60Hz refresh rate.
- Updated May 24, 2022: Updated text for clarity regarding the variants.
- Updated May 20, 2022: Review published.
- Updated May 17, 2022: Early access published.
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Differences Between Sizes And Variants
We tested the 65 inch Samsung Q80B, and the results are valid for the 55 and 75 inch models. The 50 inch version has a lower refresh rate, and the 85 inch model has a different panel type, so both of those variants perform differently. 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 is different, these results are only valid for the North American Q80A and not the European version because all sizes of that version use a VA panel.
| Size | US Model | Panel Type | Refresh Rate | VRR | HDMI 2.1 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 50" | QN50Q80BAFXZA | VA | 60Hz | No | No |
| 55" | QN55Q80BAFXZA | ADS | 120Hz | Yes | Yes |
| 65" | QN65Q80BAFXZA | ADS | 120Hz | Yes | Yes |
| 75" | QN75Q80BAFXZA | ADS | 120Hz | Yes | Yes |
| 85" | QN85Q80BAFXZA | VA | 120Hz | Yes | Yes |
Our unit was manufactured in March 2022, and you can see the label here.
Compared To Other TVs
The Samsung Q80B is a good overall TV that performs well in bright rooms thanks to its excellent peak brightness. It's a good choice if you need the wide viewing angle for a wide seating arrangement or want to use it as a PC monitor. It also has great gaming features like HDMI 2.1 bandwidth and VRR support. However, its lacking in dark room performance as blacks look gray, and there's blooming around bright objects. The Samsung QN85B QLED is a better TV that costs just a little bit more, and you can get other more budget-friendly TVs with better value.
See our recommendations for the best TVs for sports, the best TVs for bright rooms, and the best TVs to use as a PC monitor.
The Samsung Q70/Q70A QLED and the Samsung Q80/Q80B QLED are both good TVs with different strengths and weaknesses. Although the Q70A doesn't have a local dimming feature like the Q80B, it's still better for dark rooms because it displays deep blacks and has less blooming around bright objects. However, the Q80B gets brighter, especially in HDR, and it's a better choice for wide seating arrangements because it has a wider viewing angle. They each have HDMI 2.1 bandwidth, but the Q80B has it on all four inputs, while it's just limited to one input on the Q70A.
The Samsung QN85B QLED is better overall than the Samsung Q80/Q80B QLED because it uses Mini LED backlighting, which the Q80A doesn't have. This means that the QN85B has a much better local dimming feature for improved dark room performance, and it gets brighter overall. It also has much better reflection handling, making the QN85B a better choice for well-lit rooms. However, the Q80B has better motion handling as there's less motion blur behind fast-moving objects.
The Samsung Q80/Q80A QLED and the Samsung Q80/Q80B QLED are very similar overall, but there are a few differences. The Q80A gets brighter in HDR to deliver a more impactful HDR experience, but the Q80B performs better in dark rooms because there's less blooming around bright objects, although its local dimming feature is still mediocre. However, the local dimming in Game Mode is better on the Q80B than the Q80A. Also, the Q80B has HDMI 2.1 bandwidth on all four of its HDMI ports, as opposed to just one on the Q80A, meaning you can connect multiple HDMI 2.1 devices.
The Samsung Q80/Q80B QLED and the Sony X85K are both good TVs with different uses. The Sony is better in dark rooms as it has improved contrast and better black uniformity. Even if the Samsung TV has a local dimming feature that the Sony model doesn't have, the Sony still looks better in dark rooms. However, the Samsung is the better choice if you have a well-lit room as it gets brighter and has a wider viewing angle if you want to use it in a wide seating arrangement.
The Samsung Q80/Q80B QLED is better overall than the LG QNED80. Although they both have the same panel type with low native contrast, the Samsung has a much better local dimming feature that helps improve the picture quality in dark scenes, and it has less blooming than the LG. The Samsung also gets brighter, making it a better choice for well-lit rooms and making highlights pop more in HDR.
The Sony X90J is better overall than the Samsung Q80/Q80B QLED mainly due to their panels' different strengths and weaknesses. The X90J is a better choice for dark rooms because it has a much higher contrast, the local dimming is better, and there's less blooming around bright objects. On the other hand, the Q80B is better for wide seating areas because it has a wider viewing angle. Although they have many of the same gaming features, like HDMI 2.1 bandwidth, the Q80B is still a better choice for gaming because it has FreeSync support and lower input lag.
Test Results
The Samsung Q80B is a simple-looking TV with a center-mounted stand and thin bezels. It doesn't look as premium as some higher-end models, but it's still nice enough that it'll look good in any room.
Although we initially planned on including this TV in our 100 TV accelerated longevity test, we removed it from the test after taking the initial measurements. This TV wasn't working properly with our control system and the Yodeck streamers we're using for the test. We removed the initial measurements to avoid any confusion.
The center-mounted stand doesn't take up much space, but with a large TV like this 65 inch model, there's wobble front to back and side to side, so it's not the most stable. It raises the screen enough off the table that placing most soundbars in front won't block the screen, but thicker ones might.
Footprint of the 65 inch stand: 15.4" W x 9.4" D x 2.95" H to the bottom bezel
The back panel is textured plastic with horizontal lines, giving it a bit of a pattern. You can route all your cables through the stand for cable management if you keep it on a table. However, the inputs are on the back, meaning they're hard to access if you wall-mount it.
The Samsung Q80B is thicker than some other TVs, but the back is flat and will sit flush if you wall-mount it.
The Samsung Q80B has decent quality, but it's worse than other Samsung TVs because our unit came with some issues. The back panel doesn't connect properly to the borders on the upper left-hand side, exposing the internal electronics. Even putting glue doesn't solve the issue because it melts with the TV on. This is the biggest concern with our unit, so if you experience the same thing, let us know. The back panel is solid with only a bit of flex, but the stand wobbles noticeably.
The Samsung Q80 QLED TV has a mediocre native contrast ratio, even with the local dimming enabled. Blacks look gray in the dark, and it has visibly worse contrast in real content than the Samsung Q80/Q80A QLED. Keep in mind that the 50 and 85 inch models have VA panels with much better contrast. Also, note that you can't easily disable the local dimming on Samsung TVs, as you need to do it through the service menu.
Unlike many Samsung TVs, the local dimming in Game Mode looks nearly the same as outside of it. It's very similar overall, and it's hard to tell any differences. Fast-moving objects transition between zones just a bit slower, especially in brighter scenes, but it's not that much of a difference. Overall, the local dimming is still mediocre, but at least you won't have worse picture quality in Game Mode.
The SDR peak brightness is excellent. It gets bright enough to fight glare in most well-lit rooms, and it gets brighter with real content than the Samsung Q80/Q80A QLED. It doesn't have frame dimming with small highlights, but larger areas of bright colors get dimmer due to the Automatic Brightness Limiter. This is noticeable when watching sports with large areas of bright colors, like hockey or basketball.
These results are from after calibration in the 'Movie' Picture Mode with the Local Dimming on 'High' and Color Tone set to 'Warm2'. If you want a brighter image, change the Picture Mode to 'Dynamic', with Brightness and Contrast at their max, and Contrast Enhancer on 'High'. This results in a brightness of 915 cd/m² in the 10% window, but the image is less accurate.
The Samsung Q80B has good HDR peak brightness. Small highlights really stand out, but it doesn't get as bright in real content as the Samsung Q80/Q80A QLED. You can see the difference between the Q80B (top) and the Q80A (bottom) in this photo.
It displays scenes at their correct brightness until the slow roll-off, so there isn't a loss of fine details with bright scenes. The EOTF in 'Filmmaker Mode' looks similar to 'Movie' mode, and unlike the Samsung S95B OLED, the EOTF doesn't change depending on the window size.
These results are in the 'Movie' Picture Mode with Contrast and Brightness at their max, Local Dimming on 'High', and Color Tone set to 'Warm2'. If you find the image too dim, you can set Contrast Enhancer to 'High' and ST.2084 to its max. It results in a brighter image, as you can see in this EOTF, but it doesn't change the peak brightness.
The Samsung Q80B's HDR brightness in Game Mode is good. It's similar to outside of Game Mode with real content, but small highlights are dimmer due to frame dimming. The EOTF doesn't follow the target as well, meaning all scenes are brighter than they should be. If that bothers you, you can set ST.2084 to '-3' to get a more realistic image, as you can see in this EOTF.
The results are with the same settings as outside of Game Mode, but with the Game Mode setting enabled and Color Gamut set to 'Auto'.
The Samsung Q80B has excellent gradient handling. There's some banding in darker grays and greens, but otherwise, it looks great. There's a Noise Reduction setting that reduces banding with real content, but it also causes a loss of fine details with high-quality content.
The Samsung Q80B has decent gray uniformity, but there are some issues. The edges are noticeably darker throughout, and there's dirty screen effect in the center. This is distracting when watching sports with large areas of uniform colors, or when using the TV as a PC monitor.
The Samsung Q80B has disappointing black uniformity. Blacks look blue due to the low contrast, and there's a ton of blooming around bright objects with local dimming enabled. Keep in mind that the 50 and 85 inch versions have a different panel and should have better black uniformity. Also, note that you can't easily disable the local dimming on Samsung TVs, as you need to do it through the service menu.
The Samsung Q80B has a good viewing angle. The image remains accurate from the sides, so it's a good choice for watching content in a wide seating area.
The Samsung Q80B has decent reflection handling. Reflections from strong light sources like windows are a bit more distracting, but the TV gets bright enough to fight glare.
The Samsung Q80B has great out-of-the-box accuracy. Most colors are accurate, the color temperature is close to the 6500K target, and gamma follows the 2.2 target well, so the image looks accurate and life-like. However, the white balance is a bit off, meaning brighter colors close to white are a bit off.
The 'Filmmaker' Picture Mode looks very similar to 'Movie', with nearly identical accuracy:
- White Balance dE: 2.25
- Color dE: 2.17
- Gamma: 2.22
- Color Temperature: 6378 K
The accuracy after calibration is fantastic. You won't be able to spot any inaccuracies to the white balance and colors.
You can see the recommended settings here.
The Samsung Q80B displays 1080p content almost as good as native 4k content.
The Samsung Q80B displays native 4k content perfectly and without any issues.
Like the Samsung QN85B QLED, the Samsung Q80B has an ADS panel, which is a type of IPS panel that shares many of the same characteristics. It uses an RGB subpixel layout that provides better text clarity than TVs with a BGR subpixel layout when using it as a PC monitor.
The Samsung Q80B has a great HDR color gamut as it displays a wide range of colors thanks to its quantum dot layer. It has amazing coverage of the commonly-used DCI-P3 color space, but it has more limited coverage of the Rec. 2020 color space. This means it's not future-proof because more content will start to use that color space. Unlike the Samsung S95B OLED, setting Color Space to 'Auto' works as intended and uses the correct color space.
The Samsung Q80B has decent color volume. It displays colors as bright as pure white, and it displays dark colors well too, but it's limited by the incomplete color gamut.
The Samsung Q80B has an excellent response time. There's very little ghosting behind fast-moving objects, but because there's significant overshoot in dark transitions, it has some inverse ghosting in dark scenes.
The Samsung Q80B uses pulse width modulation (PWM) to dim its backlight, and the flicker frequency changes depending on the picture modes and settings you use. The flicker-free modes and those with a 960Hz flicker are good if you're sensitive to flicker because a 120Hz flicker can be noticeable, and it also causes image duplication.
| Picture Mode | Brightness Level | Flicker Frequency | Other Settings Enabled |
| Movie | Any | 960Hz | None |
| Game | 30 and below | 960Hz | VRR |
| Game | 31 and above | 120Hz | None |
| Game | Any | 120Hz | Game Motion Plus |
| Dynamic | 47 and below | 120Hz | None |
| Dynamic | 48 and above | 0Hz | None |
| Standard | 47 and below | 120Hz | None |
| Dynamic | 48 and above | 0Hz | None |
| Filmmaker | Any | 120Hz | None |
| Any | Any | 120Hz | Picture Clarity |
The Samsung Q80B has an optional backlight strobing feature to reduce persistence blur, commonly known as black frame insertion. You can make it flicker at either 60Hz or 120Hz, depending on the frame rate of your content, but it creates image duplication. Keep in mind that the BFI score is based on its flicker frequency, not its performance.
The Samsung Q80B has a motion interpolation feature to interpolate low framerate content. Like most TVs, it looks fine during dialogue and slow scenes, but there are artifacts with busier scenes. It doesn't stop interpolating when there's a lot of action on the screen, meaning the artifacts are always present in busy scenes.
Due to the quick response time, lower framerate content appears to stutter as each frame is held longer. Try enabling the motion interpolation feature if it bothers you.
The Samsung Q80B automatically removes 24p judder from any source, which helps with the appearance of motion in movies.
The Samsung Q80B works with all of the common variable refresh rate formats without any issue, and it has Low Framerate Compensation to continue providing a tear-free gaming experience when the frame rate drops below 40 fps. Keep in mind that the 50 inch model doesn't support VRR and is limited to a 60Hz refresh rate.
The Samsung Q80B has an incredibly low input lag for a responsive feel while gaming. You need to be in Game Mode for the lowest input lag possible, and you can still enable the motion interpolation feature and get low enough input lag for casual gaming.
The Samsung Q80B supports all common resolutions up to 4k @ 120Hz. It also displays clear text with proper chroma 4:4:4 in all supported resolutions, except for 1440p @ 120Hz.
The Samsung Q80B works without issue with the PS5 and Xbox Series X. It has an Auto Low Latency Mode that automatically switches the TV into Game Mode when you play a game from either console, with no additional settings required. However, because it doesn't support Dolby Vision, you can't play HDR games in that format from the Xbox.
All four HDMI ports support the full 48Gbps bandwidth of HDMI 2.1. It doesn't support Dolby Vision, a common HDR format for streaming services, so you'll be limited to HDR10 instead. However, keep in mind that the 50 inch model is limited to HDMI 2.0 bandwidth. The tuner supports only ATSC 1.0, not 3.0, meaning you can't use it to watch over-the-air 4k channels in the US.
The Samsung Q80B 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, audio formats that many Blu-rays use, you'll need to connect your Blu-ray directly to your receiver to get the best sound experience.
The Samsung Q80B has a decent frequency response. It actually produces much more bass than most TVs, but it still isn't as good as a dedicated subwoofer. It also gets loud, but there are some artifacts at max volume.
The Samsung Q80B has good distortion handling. Although there's a bit more distortion at max volume, it's not that noticeable with most content.
The Samsung Q80 comes with the easy-to-use Tizen interface, which has a full-page menu instead of the banner seen on past versions. It works well, but it feels slower for a bit after a full shutdown.
Unfortunately, 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. The Samsung Q80B supports Google Duo to make video calls with a compatible webcam. You can also use the SmartThings feature to control other compatible devices in your household.
The Samsung Q80 TV's included remote is the same as other Samsung TVs in 2022. It has an extra quick-access button to open popular streaming apps. 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 brightness. You can recharge the remote via the solar panel on the back or the USB-C port, but it doesn't come with a USB-C cable.
