Samsung Q80B [Q80, Q80BD] QLED TV Review

The Samsung 65Q80B 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 to look good in any room.

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 isn't 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 features textured plastic with horizontal lines. You can route all your cables through the stand for cable management, but that means there's nothing for the cables if you wall-mount it. The inputs are set into the back, so they're hard to access if you wall-mount it.

The build quality is decent, 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, but it doesn't mean that all units come like this, either.

This TV has a disappointing contrast ratio, even with local dimming enabled. Blacks look gray in the dark next to bright highlights, but 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, and the contrast is much worse without it. The Q80B's successor, the Samsung Q80C QLED, has better contrast, so check that one out if you're shopping for this TV.

Unfortunately, there's blooming around bright objects in dark scenes. This is because the local dimming feature isn't effective at reducing blooming, and you can easily notice it.

The TV handles transitions between dimming zones poorly. The local dimming algorithm is slow to keep up with fast-moving objects. These small objects also cause many surrounding dimming zones to turn in, resulting in blooming.

While the local dimming performs similarly in Game Mode than outside of it, it's still poor, and the picture quality in dark scenes is disappointing. The same issues with raised black levels, blooming, and slow zone transitions occur, which is distracting if you play a lot of games with dark scenes.

The Samsung Q80B has decent HDR peak brightness. Small highlights stand out against the rest of the image, 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.

These results are from after calibrating the HDR white point, with the following settings:

• Picture Mode: Movie
• Brightness: Max
• Contrast: Max
• Local Dimming: High
• Color Tone: Warm2

The HDR brightness in Game Mode is also decent. Like other Samsung TVs, it overbrightens most images in Game Mode as it doesn't follow the target EOTF well, even if the peak brightness isn't that much different. If that bothers you, you can set ST.2084 to '-3' to get a more realistic image, as you can see in this EOTF. Also, small highlights don't pop as much due to frame dimming.

The results are from after calibrating the HDR white point with the following settings:

• Picture Mode: Game
• Brightness: Max
• Contrast: Max
• Local Dimming: High
• Color Tone: Warm2
• Color Space: Auto

The PQ EOTF tracking is decent, but it overbrightens content mastered at 600 and 1,000 nits, which is the majority of content. It's better with 4,000-nit content, though. No matter the content, there's a slow roll-off at the peak brightness, meaning it preserves details well. The EOTF in 'Filmmaker' mode looks better than 'Movie' mode, but there's a sharper cut-off. Unlike the Samsung S95B OLED, the EOTF doesn't change depending on the content.

If you find the image too dim, you can set Contrast Enhancer to 'High' and ST.2084 to its max. It results in a much brighter image, as you can see in this EOTF, but it doesn't change the peak brightness.

The SDR peak brightness is excellent. It gets bright enough to fight glare in most well-lit rooms. It maintains its brightness fairly consistently between different content, but larger areas are dimmer. This can be noticeable when watching sports, but it isn't overly distracting.

These results are from after calibration with the following settings:

• Picture Mode: Movie
• Brightness: Max
• Local Dimming: High
• Color Tone: Warm2

The Samsung Q80BD has a great HDR color gamut. It has amazing coverage of the commonly-used DCI-P3 color space, but it has more limited coverage of the Rec. 2020 color space. Unlike some other Samsung TVs, setting Color Space to 'Auto' works as intended and uses the correct color space.

The color volume is great. While it's limited by its incomplete color gamut, it still displays some bright colors well.

The Samsung QN65Q80B has great accuracy before calibration. Most colors are accurate; the color temperature is close to the 6500K target, and gamma follows the 2.2 target well. However, the white balance is slightly off, meaning brighter shades of gray are 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 in the white balance and colors, but it's a bit difficult to calibrate the TV.

You can see our full calibration settings here.

The gray uniformity is decent, 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.

This TV has poor black uniformity. Blacks look blue due to the low contrast, and there's a ton of blooming around bright objects with local dimming enabled. The 50 and 85-inch versions have a different panel with better dark room performance. 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 viewing angle is good. The image remains consistent from the sides, so it's a good choice for watching content in a wide seating area.

The reflection handling is decent. Reflections from strong light sources like windows are a bit more distracting, but the TV gets bright enough to fight glare.

This TV has excellent gradient handling. There's minimal banding throughout, but darker colors, especially dark greens, have some banding.

The TV isn't bad at smoothing out content from low-quality sources. There's macro blocking, which is disappointing for watching content from sources that use compression, like streaming sources, but it's decent at keeping details.

The Samsung Q80B QLED is good at upscaling lower-resolution content. Text looks blurry, and the image isn't perfectly sharp, but it still preserves details well, and it's good enough for watching content from DVDs and cable boxes. The recommended settings are with Picture Clarity off and Sharpness at '5'.

This TV 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.

This TV 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.

This TV 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, but a 120Hz flicker is noticeable, and it also causes image duplication. Below, you can see which combination of settings results in flicker.

This TV 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, but it creates image duplication.

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.

This TV automatically removes 24p judder from any source, which helps with the appearance of motion in movies.

This TV works with all of the common variable refresh rate formats without any issue, and it has Low Framerate Compensation to continue working with lower frame rates. The 50-inch model doesn't support VRR and is limited to a 60Hz refresh rate.

The Samsung Q80BD 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.

This TV 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.

This TV works without issue with the PS5 thanks to its HDMI 2.1 bandwidth, and with Auto Low Latency Mode, it automatically switches the TV into Game Mode when you launch a game.

This TV has no compatibility issues with the Xbox Series X|S, and with HDMI 2.1 bandwidth, it supports 4k signals up to 120Hz.

All four HDMI ports support the full 48Gbps bandwidth of HDMI 2.1, but the 50-inch model supports HDMI 2.0 bandwidth. It doesn't support Dolby Vision, a common HDR format for streaming services, so you'll be limited to HDR10 with content that's mastered in Dolby Vision. 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.

This TV 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 frequency response is decent. 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 distortion handling is good. Although there's a bit more distortion at max volume, it isn't that noticeable with most content.

The Samsung Q80BD comes with the easy-to-use Tizen interface, which has a full-page menu instead of the banner seen in past versions. It works well, but it feels slower for a bit when you turn the TV back on 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. It 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 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.

There's a single button underneath the center of the TV that allows you to change channels, adjust the volume, switch inputs, or turn the TV On/Off.

• Remote
• Power cable
• User guides and manuals