Samsung QN80H  TV Review

The Samsung QN80H has decent peak brightness in HDR. Most HDR content is bright enough to deliver an impactful HDR experience. Bright specular highlight details don't stand out well, though, and very bright scenes fall a little flat.

The posted results are with the TV in its most accurate picture mode with 'HDR Tone Mapping' set to 'Static.' Below are the results with the setting set to 'Active', which doesn't actually do much to increase the peak brightness on this TV, but it's less accurate.

• Hallway Lights: 487 cd/m²
• Yellow Skyscraper: 541 cd/m²
• Landscape Pool: 258 cd/m²

The TV is a little bit brighter in Game Mode in certain scenes. It delivers good peak brightness when gaming, but small specular highlight details still aren't bright enough to really stand out.

The posted results are with the TV in Game Mode with 'HDR Tone Mapping' set to 'Static.' Below are the results with the setting set to 'Active', which increases the peak brightness slightly in certain scenes but doesn't do much overall.

• Hallway Lights: 563 cd/m²
• Yellow Skyscraper: 602 cd/m²
• Landscape Pool: 334 cd/m²

The Samsung QN80H has great peak brightness in SDR. It can easily overcome glare in most rooms. It dims a bit when more of the screen is bright at once, but it's not very noticeable with most content.

The Samsung QN80H has good contrast. The native contrast of the panel is decent, and the local dimming feature does a good job of dimming darker areas of the screen to improve contrast. You can't disable local dimming on this TV, so its native contrast was measured with an inverted contrast pattern.

The zone precision on this TV is decent. There's noticeable haloing around very bright areas of the scene. Subtitles are displayed well, though, as the TV averages the light across many zones, so the haloing around them isn't as harsh.

The zone transitions on this TV are decent overall. There's no noticeable flicker as bright highlights move across zones. The processing can't quite keep up with fast-moving objects, though, causing the leading edge to appear darker than it should be.

There's no difference in local dimming performance when you switch to Game Mode. Since the TV is a bit brighter in this mode, though, haloing around bright objects is slightly more noticeable.

The TV has great black uniformity. There's no noticeable flashlighting, and black levels are very uniform across the screen.

Local dimming can't be turned off on this TV, so we tested its native black uniformity with Local Dimming set to 'Low' and Shadow Detail to '1,' with a uniformity image with an RGB value of {5,5,5} as black.

The Samsung QN80H has decent color volume in SDR. It has good coverage of the DCI-P3 color space, but can't display the full range of reds. It struggles more with lighter scenes as well, where colors are a bit more washed out. Its coverage of the wider BT.2020 color space is severely limited, though, and it can't display the full range of any color. Again, colors are noticeably washed out in lighter scenes.

The TV has good color volume in HDR. Its limited by the range of colors it displays, but also by its peak brightness. Dark, saturated colors are displayed well, though.

The Samsung QN80H has excellent accuracy in SDR before calibration. Gamma is very close to the 2.2 target for a moderately-lit room, but dim details are slightly darker than they should be. The RGB balance shows a bit too much blue in most content, and color temperature is a bit cool. The white balance and color accuracy are both excellent, though.

This TV is easy to calibrate and delivers nearly perfect results in SDR after a full calibration. The color temperature, RGB balance, white balance, and gamma are all nearly perfect after calibration. Colors improved a bit, and there are no noticeable issues.

See our full calibration settings.

The TV has great accuracy in HDR before calibration. Color accuracy is excellent, with very few mapping errors; most of the issues come from luminance tracking issues. The RGB balance shows a bit too much blue in brighter shades, and the overall color temperature is a bit cool.

This TV has fantastic HDR accuracy after calibration. The RGB balance and color temperature are nearly perfect, with just a few isolated issues remaining in the overall white balance and color accuracy.

The Samsung QN80H has good PQ EOTF tracking. Most content is slightly brighter than it should be, but it's not too bad, and most people won't notice it. Content mastered at 600 or 1,000 nits cuts off sharply at the correct level. Content mastered at 4,000 nits instead rolls off gradually near the TV's peak brightness, which helps maintain gradation in bright parts of the scene but limits how bright highlights can get.

Unfortunately, PQ EOTF tracking in HGIG mode is much worse, and the TV noticeably over-brightens almost everything, before cutting off at the TV's peak.

This TV has mediocre low-quality content smoothing. It does very little to reduce macro blocking and posterization in streaming content, and there's a noticeable loss of fine details.

This TV has good upscaling. Low-resolution content like DVDs are upscaled well.

The Samsung QN80H has excellent HDR gradient handling. There's some noticeable banding in bright shades of green, but very little in every other color.

This TV has excellent low input lag across all supported resolutions and modes. Input lag outside of Game Mode is much higher, though, so you feel a slight delay when navigating menus from external players.

This TV supports most common formats, up to a maximum of 4k @ 144Hz or 240Hz @ 1080p. The higher 240Hz refresh rate is only supported with 1080p signals, it doesn't work with 1440p or 4k inputs. Chroma 4:4:4 signals are displayed properly across all supported formats, which is important for clear text from a PC.

The TV supports FreeSync, HDMI Forum VRR, and G-SYNC Compatible, ensuring a nearly tear-free gaming experience from any VRR-enabled source. It works well across the TV's entire refresh rate range and supports sources with Low Framerate Compensation (LFC), which ensures your games remain nearly tear-free even when your frame rate drops very low.

The TV's CAD at its maximum 4k refresh rate of 144Hz is mediocre. Most transitions are very slow, especially in darker areas of the scene, leading to very blurry motion in general. Bright scenes look quite a bit better, though, and there's no noticeable overshoot that would cause inverse ghosting.

Oddly, this TV has a considerably better CAD when you drop down to 120Hz. While there's still noticeable motion blur, it's not as bad, especially in very dark parts of the scene.

The TV's CAD at 60Hz is poor. Motion is incredibly blurry as most transitions are very slow to complete. It's especially bad in darker parts of the scene, and brighter areas are quite a bit clearer.

The TV is fully compatible with everything the PS5 offers, like 1440p @ 120Hz and 4k @ 120Hz, as well as HDMI Forum VRR. It also supports Auto Low Latency Mode, so you don't have to worry about manually switching to Game Mode to get the lowest input lag.

The TV is fully compatible with almost everything the Xbox Series X|S offers, including 1440p @ 120Hz, 4k @ 120Hz, HDMI Forum VRR, and FreeSync Premium Pro. It also supports Auto Low Latency Mode, so you don't have to manually switch to Game Mode to get the lowest input lag. Unfortunately, Dolby Vision isn't supported on the TV, so gaming in Dolby Vision isn't possible.

There's noticeable stutter when watching movies or shows. It's not too bad, but it's somewhat noticeable in slow panning shots.

The motion interpolation feature does a mediocre job of improving the smoothness of motion. It reduces the frame hold time a bit, which helps with stutter, but it's not very consistent. It doesn't always create the same number of intermediate frames, which causes motion to appear jittery due to the inconsistent frame pacing.

The TV removes judder automatically from the vast majority of content and sources. There's a very minor frame pacing issue with 25p content sent from a 60p source like an older cable TV box or a streaming device that can't match the content frame rate.

There's no micro judder.

This TV has a good response time outside of Game Mode. It struggles more in shadow details and in long transitions, as if part of the screen is going from very bright to very dark. Everything else is fairly quick, and there's no noticeable overshoot.

Unfortunately, there are unwanted intermediate colors. It's not too bad, though, and most people won't notice it with most real content.

The TV uses a combination of pulse-width modulation (PWM) and direct dimming to adjust the backlight intensity. The TV flickers at 120Hz in most picture modes, except in the 'Movie' and 'FILMMAKER' modes, where it flickers at 960Hz at all brightness levels.

The TV has an optional backlight strobing feature, commonly known as black frame insertion. Unlike the Samsung QN80F, it can flicker at either 60Hz or 120Hz (pursuit photo), depending on the content frame rate. The pulse timing isn't perfect, though, causing a noticeable double image.

The Samsung QN80H has okay direct reflection handling. Its glossy screen coating doesn't do much to reduce the intensity of direct, mirror-like reflections. They're somewhat dimmer, but still noticeable.

Ambient light has barely any impact on the TV's black levels.

The total amount of reflected light off of this TV is good. Reflections are still noticeable and they're partially diffused across the screen, but it's not too bad.

Ambient light has only a slight impact on the perceived color volume on this TV.

Unfortunately, this TV has a mediocre viewing angle, so it's not well-suited for a wide seating arrangement as the image degrades when you move to the sides. Colors wash out very quickly as move away from the center, and black levels rise very quickly.

The Samsung QN80H has just okay gray uniformity. The center of the screen is relatively clean, which is great for watching sports, but the sides of the screen are noticeably darker. This isn't nearly as noticeable in dark scenes.

This TV uses a new VA panel structure with an RGB subpixel layout, which helps with text clarity when used with a PC.

All four HDMI inputs support the maximum HDMI 2.1 bandwidth of 48Gbps, so you don't need to worry about connecting high-bandwidth devices to specific ports.

This TV supports many audio formats, including all Dolby Digital options. Unfortunately, it doesn't support DTS formats, which is disappointing, as many Blu-rays use DTS for their lossless audio tracks.

Like all Samsung TVs, this TV doesn't support Dolby Vision, but it does support the similar HDR10+.

The Samsung QN80H has a premium design, with thin bezels on three sides and a slightly thicker bottom bezel.

The TV uses two blade-style feet to support it. They can be placed in either a wide or narrow position to match the size of your media cabinet, and both positions also have a high and low position. The feet support the TV well in the wide position, but it wobbles easily in the narrow one.

The low position lifts the TV about 2.4 inches above the table, and the high position lifts it 3.3 inches.

Footprint of the 65-inch stand in the wide position: 47.6" x 10"

Footprint of the 65-inch stand in the narrow position: 11.9" x 10"

The back of the TV is plain. The inputs are housed in a recessed cutout, and can be difficult to access if the TV is mounted close to the wall. There are grooves along the back and a clip on the stand to help with cable management.

The Samsung QN80H has good build quality. It's well-built, with no obvious quality issues, but it's most made of plastic.

The TV ships with the 2026 version of Samsung's proprietary Tizen OS, which is very quick and easy to use. Samsung promises up to seven years of firmware updates after launch, so it will eventually receive new versions of the OS.

Like most TVs on the market, it has ads throughout its interface, and although you can disable targeted ads, there's no option to disable them completely.

The remote has a built-in rechargeable battery and a solar panel on its back. You can also recharge it via USB-C if it dies unexpectedly.

• Power cable
• Remote control
• Cable management clips
• Alternate stand covers
• User guides

This TV was initially tested on firmware 1106.

The Samsung QN80H has an okay frequency response. It gets decently loud and there's not much compression at max volume. Its sound profile is well-balanced, so dialogue is clear and easy to understand. Like most TVs, it lacks any deep bass.