The Samsung Q80D QLED is the highest-end model in Samsung's QLED range, which sits below their higher-end Neo QLEDs and succeeds the Samsung Q80C. Like its predecessor, the Q80D has Direct Full Array backlighting, with LEDs placed directly behind the LCD panel, allowing for a much tighter control of each dimming zone. It has Samsung's new NQ4 AI Gen2 Processor, which is meant to help with the TV's 4k upscaling, and it supports up to 4k @ 120Hz, with full VRR capabilities, on all four of its HDMI 2.1 ports. As usual with Samsung, the TV supports the HDR10+ format but not Dolby Vision, and it passes through advanced audio formats from Dolby but not from DTS. We bought and tested the 65-inch model, and it's available in five different size variants, although the 50-inch model is limited to 4k @ 60Hz. It was replaced in 2025 by the Samsung QN80F, which, despite the change in naming convention, uses a very similar backlight.
Our Verdict
The Samsung Q80D is decent for mixed usage. It performs well in a bright room thanks to its excellent SDR brightness, but direct reflections are distracting. The TV is a decent option for reference conditions like a home theater, but its unremarkable black levels mean blacks aren't as deep as they could be, and there's visible haloing around highlights and subtitles. The TV supports modern gaming features that make it a pretty good pairing with modern consoles, but since it's limited to 120Hz, PC gamers will likely want to look elsewhere. Finally, the TV has a narrow viewing angle, so it's not suitable for wide seating arrangements.
Black levels and colors are barely affected in a bright room.
Very good upscaling capabilities.
Easily overcomes glare from indirect lights.
Distracting direct mirror-like reflections.
Only okay peak brightness in HDR.
Can't do much to smooth out low-quality content without causing a loss of fine details.
The Samsung Q80D is decent for a home theater. It has local dimming to help deepen blacks, but blacks aren't as deep as they are on many other similar TVs, and there's noticeable haloing around subtitles and highlights. Colors look vibrant enough for a punchy image, and they have good accuracy out of the box. The TV's HDR brightness is okay, so some highlights stand out well, but it's not good enough to make very bright highlights pop like they should. The TV does a very good job upscaling, but only has alright low-quality content smoothing, so artifacts are visible in low-bitrate content. It has decent motion handling and it can remove judder from most sources, but it struggles a bit with 25p content and there's noticeable stutter.
Removes judder from most sources.
Very good PQ EOTF tracking.
Very good upscaling capabilities.
Good color volume in HDR.
Only okay peak brightness in HDR.
Can't do much to smooth out low-quality content without causing a loss of fine details.
Doesn't support Dolby Vision or DTS.
Noticeable color artifacts.
Noticeable stutter in slow panning shots.
The Samsung Q80D is very good for a bright room. Its excellent SDR brightness means the TV easily overcomes glare from indirect light sources in most bright rooms, but it does struggle more with direct mirror-like reflections. The TV's black levels and color saturation are barely affected by light, so you don't have to trade-in image quality when you have your lights on.
Black levels and colors are barely affected in a bright room.
Easily overcomes glare from indirect lights.
Distracting direct mirror-like reflections.
The Samsung Q80D is very good for sports. It easily overcomes glare from indirect light sources, so it's suitable for most bright rooms. However, it doesn't do a good job reducing the intensity of mirror-like reflections, so avoid placing the TV directly opposite a window or lamp. It does a very good job upscaling low-resolution content, but artifacts are still visible in low-quality cable streams. The TV is colorful enough for the image to look vibrant, and colors have solid accuracy out of the box, so jerseys and playing fields mostly look the way they should. Unfortunately, the TV's narrow viewing angle means it's not a good choice for wide seating arrangements. It has decent motion handling overall, but there are noticeable color artifacts as colors change on the screen.
Very good upscaling capabilities.
Easily overcomes glare from indirect lights.
Great SDR color accuracy out of the box.
Distracting direct mirror-like reflections.
Can't do much to smooth out low-quality content without causing a loss of fine details.
Noticeable uniformity issues.
Noticeable color artifacts.
The Samsung Q80D is decent for gaming. It has HDMI 2.1 bandwidth on all four ports, supports up to 4k @ 120Hz, and supports VRR, so it takes advantage of the features offered by modern consoles. Input lag is low enough for gaming to feel responsive, but the TV's slower pixel transitions lead to some noticeable motion blur in quicker titles. The TV offers decent colors overall, not bad black levels, and okay HDR brightness, so most games look pretty good, but the TV doesn't have the overall picture quality to really show games at their best.
Low input lag for a responsive feel.
Supports all VRR technologies.
Four HDMI 2.1 ports, 4k @ 120Hz, and VRR.
Good color volume in HDR.
Noticeable blur in fast motion.
The Samsung Q80D has decent brightness overall. The TV's SDR brightness is excellent, so it easily overcomes glare from indirect light sources in a bright room. The TV's HDR brightness is only okay, so even though some highlights stand out well, it's not good enough to display very bright highlights, and entirely well-lit scenes are noticeably dimmer.
Easily overcomes glare from indirect lights.
Only okay peak brightness in HDR.
The Samsung Q80D has unremarkable black levels. It has local dimming, so blacks remain deep when highlights are also on screen, but blacks aren't as deep or as uniform as they are on many other comparable LED models. Furthermore, there's noticeable haloing around subtitles and highlights, which affects the depth of blacks.
The Samsung Q80D has decent colors overall. The TV is vibrant enough in SDR for most content, but struggles more with the odd SDR content mastered in wider color spaces. Fortunately, the TV's colors are very accurate in SDR out of the box. The TV has good HDR color volume, so most HDR content is vibrant. Out-of-the-box color accuracy is just decent in HDR, so any color enthusiasts will likely want to get the TV calibrated in HDR.
Great SDR color accuracy out of the box.
Good color volume in HDR.
The Samsung Q80D has decent motion handling when watching content. It removes judder from most sources and there's no micro judder with 24p sources. It struggles a bit more with 25p content, as there's noticeable micro judder with all external sources and it can't remove judder from 25p content sent over a 60p signal. Unfortunately, there's noticeable stutter that even the motion interpolation feature can't overcome, and there are noticeable color artifacts as colors change.
Removes judder from most sources.
Noticeable color artifacts.
Noticeable stutter in slow panning shots.
The Samsung Q80D has good responsiveness in its dedicated gaming mode. The TV has HDMI 2.1 bandwidth and supports 4k @ 120Hz gaming. Furthermore, it supports VRR, so screen tearing is kept to a bare minimum. The TV's input lag is low, so gaming feels responsive. However, it has slow pixel transitions, so there's visible motion blur in fast-paced games.
Low input lag for a responsive feel.
Four HDMI 2.1 ports, 4k @ 120Hz, and VRR.
Noticeable blur in fast motion.
Note: We're in the process of improving our tests related to image processing, but this score should give you a general idea of how a TV performs overall with its image processing capabilities.
The Samsung Q80D has good processing. It does a very good job following the EOTF, so most scenes in HDR are displayed at the proper brightness level. The TV's gradient handling is excellent, with only very minor banding in some colors that's barely noticeable in real content. It does a very good job upscaling low-resolution content, but it's only alright low-quality content smoothing means heavily compressed streams have visible artifacts.
Very good PQ EOTF tracking.
Very good upscaling capabilities.
Very little banding in HDR.
Can't do much to smooth out low-quality content without causing a loss of fine details.
Performance Usages
Changelog
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Updated Mar 12, 2026:
We added text to our new Cinematic Motion Handling performance usage and our new Transition Artifacts and Stutter Reduction Via Interpolation test sections after converting the review to TV 2.2.
- Updated Mar 10, 2026: This review has been updated to TV 2.2. We've added new sections for Transition Artifacts and Stutter Reduction Via Interpolation, and updated the way we test Stutter. Additionally, we removed the 'Broken' disclaimer from our Motion Handling usage.
- Updated Feb 05, 2026: We added text to the new Micro-Judder section and refreshed the text in the updated Judder and Response Time Stutter sections after converting the review to TV 2.1.
- Updated Sep 24, 2025: Converted to Test Bench 2.0.1. We did this to fix an issue with our scoring in the Supported Resolutions section, since TVs with a refresh rate higher than 144Hz were being penalized for not supporting 144Hz.
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Differences Between Sizes And Variants
We tested the 65-inch Samsung Q80D, and the results are valid for the 55, 75, and 85-inch models. The 50-inch model is limited to a 60Hz refresh rate and lacks features like VRR, Quantum HDR+, and Motion Xcelerator 120Hz. Otherwise, as usual, 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 Q80D.
Costco and Sam's Club sell a variant of the TV with a slightly different model code. It comes with an extended warranty and some other store-specific perks, but it performs the same.
| Size | US Model | Refresh Rate | VRR | HDMI 2.1 | Costco/Sam's Club Variant |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 50" | QN50Q80DAFXZA | 60Hz | Yes | No | - |
| 55" | QN55Q80DAFXZA | 120Hz | Yes | Yes | - |
| 65" | QN65Q80DAFXZA | 120Hz | Yes | Yes | QN65Q80DDFXZA |
| 75" | QN75Q80DAFXZA | 120Hz | Yes | Yes | QN75Q80DDFXZA |
| 85" | QN85Q80DAFXZA | 120Hz | Yes | Yes | QN85Q80DDFXZA |
Our unit was manufactured in March 2024.
Popular TV Comparisons
The Samsung Q80D is a decent mid-range TV that's especially good in bright rooms when watching SDR content, as its SDR peak brightness is excellent. Its HDR brightness and black levels, while not exceptional, are good enough to provide a satisfactory viewing experience in controlled lighting environments. It also comes with a full suite of gaming features, although its response time is not good enough to please gamers looking for the clearest motion. Overall, this TV is a good purchase, but it's unfortunately overshadowed by models such as the TCL QM7K and the Hisense U75QG, both of which are sold for about the same price, or even cheaper, while offering better image quality in all content, as well as better overall gaming performance.
If you're still shopping, 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. To learn more about the tests we do that inform our scores and recommendations, check out our article on how we test TVs.
The Samsung Q80D is a lot better than the Samsung Q8F 2025. The Q80D delivers much better picture quality, with higher peak brightness, a (limited) local dimming feature, and slightly better colors. The Q80D also has better motion handling, with a much faster pixel response time so there's less blur behind fast-moving objects.
Samsung has renamed the Q80 series this year, adding an 'N' to denote that it's part of their more premium Neo QLED Mini LED series. Sadly, the change in naming doesn't translate to performance, and the new Samsung QN80F isn't much different from the Samsung Q80D it replaces. Although they use the same processor, there are some minor changes in image processing, but everything else is pretty similar overall.
The Samsung Q80D is better than the Samsung Q70D, as it offers a noticeable upgrade in every way. The Q80D has a local dimming feature, giving it way better contrast than the Q70D. The Q80D is also brighter in HDR and SDR, and has better color volume, so all content is more impactful on that model.
The Sony X90L/X90CL is slightly better than the Samsung Q80D. The Sony is a bit brighter overall and offers better color volume. The Samsung, however, delivers higher native contrast and superior black uniformity—although the Sony shows noticeably less blooming around bright elements against a dark background. As is typical for Sony, it also provides more advanced image processing. Gamers might lean toward the Samsung thanks to its lower input lag. The two TVs are closely matched, but the Sony holds a slight edge.
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
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