Samsung Q9F QLED TV review

After a barely underwhelming debut, Samsung’s QLED expertise actually wanted to bounce again in model. It did not shock us within the least, then, to find Samsung threw the kitchen sink in with its new Q9F QLED sequence of TVs. In addition to being even brighter and extra vibrant than final yr’s equal mannequin, Samsung’s 2018 flagship screens use a totally completely different lighting system to fight its predecessor’s distinction issues: Full Array Native Dimming fairly than edge-lit LED lighting. This new lighting system works in tandem with Samsung QLED Quantum Dots to provide an image that is brighter and extra vibrant than close to any we have seen come from the South Korean producer. This implies they are often pushed more durable with out shedding the plot/getting old too quick, leading to extra brightness and a wider color vary – or, a minimum of, extra color quantity —  than every other sort of client TV expertise up to now.Do these options alone make Samsung Q9F the most effective TV in the marketplace? No, however throw in expertise like HDR10+, useful options like Ambient Mode (extra on that later) and a 10-year assure towards burn-in, and there is little or no doubt in our thoughts that that is Samsung’s finest TV ever.Worth and availabilityRegarding value, the Samsung Q9F QLED TV goes to be costly at any measurement. Our  75″ assessment mannequin sits at a staggering AED 26,999, so it is not a purchase order you are going to be making on a whim.Alternatively, Samsung’s personal Q8F sequence of QLED televisions is terrific, and whereas they are not fairly as superior by way of distinction and black ranges because the Q9F, they do supply many of the identical options and at a enormously diminished value. DesignThough it is not the thinnest tv round, a minimum of not by trendy requirements, the Q9F does exhibit a way of glossy sophistication, thanks largely by its minimalist design, single-bar stand and clear cabling resolution.This minimalist strategy is very engaging when involves the Q9F’s neatly carried out Ambient Mode, which helps you to change the standard empty black display you’re confronted with while you’re not watching the TV with one in all a pre-loaded set of digitised artworks, or one in all your individual images. In fact, you would at all times select to point out you different data, like the present climate forecast. Or alternatively, simply flip the TV off fully. You possibly can even take of your paintwork or wallpaper that sits behind the TV and have that seem on the show, in order that the one a part of the set that stands out when seen from the entrance is that ultra-slender body.If you happen to’re nervous about large electrical energy payments, concern not: the Ambient Mode is designed to devour a naked minimal of electrical energy. Although you may also enhance the display brightness if the image’s affect issues extra to you than your electrical energy consumption.In fact, all this Ambient Mode cleverness could be significantly much less efficient if the TV had spools of cabling spewing out of it. To get spherical this, the TV makes use of Samsung’s One Invisible Connection which connects the TV to an exterior field that homes your whole connections, together with the facility. Not solely that, the cable it comes with is 5 metres lengthy, that means you’ll be able to place the connection field a good distance from the TV. If that is not lengthy sufficient, you may also buy a 15-metre lengthy cable. Design TL;DR: Whereas the Q9F’s fundamental chassis is fairly straight ahead, its anti-cabling measures and distinctive Ambient Mode actually are leading edge. Good TV featuresWhile the Q9F’s Good TV system is a refined model of what we have seen from the South Korean producer earlier than, that means apps and enter sources are displayed vertically throughout two layers on the backside of the display so as to scroll by them with out leaving your content material, count on just a few tasty new morsels that add to the expertise with out taking something away. This two layer presentation continues to be efficient. The Apple TV-like method the highest layer gives direct content material hyperlinks related to the app you’ve obtained chosen on the underside layer proves a good way to offer fast entry to a lot of content material with out taking on an excessive amount of display actual property. The TV can be capable of detect most supply sorts and label them accordingly, so you will spend much less time making an attempt to recollect if ‘HDMI1’ is your recreation console or set prime field. You may get an accurate label and icon for every supply that is recognized, making it very simple to navigate by completely different units.It is also suitable with Samsung’s SmartThings platform now, which gives an onscreen hub for monitoring and even controlling different sensible units (fridges, washing machines, lights and so on) in your community. The distant management additionally labored flawlessly with our Apple TV, which meant we may conveniently simply use one distant to manage each it and the TV settings. Samsung has delivered enhanced interactivity along with your smartphones and tablets too, in addition to some critically cool new gaming associated options. Already up and operating is an Auto Sport mode which might detect while you’re taking part in a console or PC recreation and routinely swap the display into its fast-responding Sport image mode. This mode may even inform if you happen to’re utilizing your console to play a recreation or a video app, and modify itself accordingly.On account of roll out later within the yr is a Variable Refresh Charge characteristic that can permit the TV to repeatedly modify its body charge to match that being output by no matter recreation you’re taking part in. It will take away the difficulty of display ‘tearing’ related to video games operating at completely different body charges to your display, in addition to apparently decreasing enter lag (the time the display takes to render photographs) to a remarkably low 7ms. Even utilizing the Sport Mode in its present incarnation delivers a perfectly low enter lag measurement of round 15ms on common. Even if you happen to select to have interaction a brand new Sport Movement Plus choice (which helpfully enables you to retain a few of the TV’s movement processing whereas gaming), the enter lag solely creeps as much as a still-very-respectable 34ms. Samsung continues to impress, too, with the amount of apps it affords. The 4K and HDR variations of Netflix, Amazon Prime and YouTube are current and accounted for, in addition to different apps for native streaming companies.It’s value including, lastly, that Samsung’s voice recognition and management performance continues to be extraordinarily spectacular and useful — even when rivals like LG and Panasonic are set to meet up with their very own Google-powered voice management options. Voice management would not prolong to apps equivalent to Netflix sadly, however for navigating round the remainder of the system, it is a full breeze.Good TV TL;DR: A slick, simple to make use of and helpfully customisable interface belies the spectacular sophistication and comprehensiveness of Samsung’s newest sensible TV engine.  HD/SDR performanceThe Q9F seems to be nothing wanting sensational with the HD/SDR content material most individuals nonetheless should spend most of their time watching.Samsung’s upscaling processing does a terrifically convincing job of changing HD to the display’s native 4K display, including element with out introducing new noise or exaggerating any nasties that may be contained within the supply. It additionally goes past most upscaling engines within the accuracy with which it calculates the color tones of all these thousands and thousands of additional pixels it’s producing. This ensures the upscaling course of doesn’t create any plasticky pores and skin tones, and underlines the sense that your HD supply has miraculously became 4K.Try to resist the temptation to show the sharpness setting too excessive, although. Creep a lot above the setting’s 20-25 degree and the picture can begin to look noisy. Screens able to dealing with HDR effectively often deal with the rather more restricted calls for of SDR just about effortlessly — and the Q9F isn’t any exception. Stunningly wealthy black ranges share display house with superbly wealthy, balanced and finely graded colours, and the display’s mild controls are exact sufficient to ship stunning ranges of element and finesse at nearly all luminance ranges.We are saying ‘nearly’ as we did really feel the necessity to enhance the brightness or gamma setting by some extent or two to cease the darkest components of the image from beginning to look a bit hole.Whereas AV aficionados will seemingly wish to stick with watching SDR content material at its native brightness and color values, the Q9F does carry an HDR+ mode designed to transform SDR to HDR. And truly, both due to enhancements within the upgrading algorithms or the enhancements made to the TV’s core image high quality (or each), HDR+ yields rather more participating outcomes than it has on any earlier Samsung TVs. It nonetheless tends to be a bit extra aggressive than we’d like, however colours look extra balanced than with earlier iterations, pores and skin tones look much less ‘peaky’, there’s now not a yellowy undertone to every part, and noise in darkish scenes is much less exaggerated. HD/SDR efficiency TL;DR: Other than having to take care with a few settings, the Q9F’s SDR/HD efficiency is just about flawless.4K/HDR efficiency The Q9F’s mixture of utmost brightness, large color response, peerless colour ‘quantity’ and (due to its new backlight engine) excellent distinction helps it ship HDR footage that may solely be described as jaw-dropping. We examined the Q9F with essentially the most excessive distinction, excessive colour 4K HDR content material we had entry to, together with Thor: Ragnarok and Netflix’s Misplaced in House reboot, and the outcomes actually reminded us emphatically of the significance of brightness to the HDR expertise: Samsung’s new star delivers such excessive photographs with a degree of dynamism and depth we simply haven’t seen earlier than, unlocking extra of HDR’s beautiful potential than every other TV.Throughout the opening scene of Thor: Ragnarok, we have been handled fiery reds and oranges that exhibited no indicators or bleeding, as a substitute promoting us on the movie’s fireplace and brimstone look in an totally convincing method. Moments later, in a scene which sees Thor, Loki and antagonist Hela journey by the Bifrost to Asgard, a face-melting flurry of colours whizz by that acts as a pure demonstration of what the Q9F is able to by way of colour efficiency and brightness. Likewise, whereas watching Netflix’s new Misplaced in House sequence in 4K HDR, we have been blown away by the degrees of darkness achieved in blacks, and once more by the snowy white environment the Robinson household discover themselves in throughout the present’s opening minutes. It’s not simply that the Q9F’s footage are shiny, although. It’s additionally the way in which the display’s new direct lighting and native dimming can ship its competition-crushing ranges of peak brightness with out compromising darkish components of the image. There’s not one of the mild/darkish compromise often seen with LCD TVs. Nor, much more excitingly, is there any of the backlight ‘striping’ or haloing round stand-out shiny objects that you just’d usually count on to see on an LCD TV when watching contrast-rich HDR photographs. The distinction on this key respect between the Q9F and final yr’s equal mannequin is evening and day, leaving little doubt as to the advantages of utilizing direct lighting with a lot of dimming zones if you happen to’re actually severe about doing HDR on an LED TV. In actual fact, the backlight administration of Samsung’s new flagship TV is so excellent that contrast-rich scenes look nearly OLED-like of their black degree uniformity — besides, after all, that the intense components of such scenes look far brighter on the Samsung than they’ll on any present OLED.Even Sony’s excellent ZD9 LCD TVs aren’t capable of hold backlight blooming all the way down to the tiny quantities the Q9F will get away with.It’s not simply black ranges and backlight clouding that profit from the Q9F’s backlight prowess, both. Colors additionally look richer, extra stable and extra constant, since they’re not being ‘bleached’ by undesirable surplus backlighting each time they seem in shut proximity to a very shiny picture factor. We have been additionally impressed by how effectively the Q9F retained the depth of the lightest colors, even when displaying shiny HDR photographs. That is presumably as a result of (in contrast to OLED TVs) QLED expertise doesn’t should work with white sub-pixels.Samsung’s display has seemingly no bother reaching beautiful ranges of each finesse and visceral affect from the broader HDR color spectrums of at this time’s leading edge sources. There’s nothing compelled in regards to the boldness of the Q9F’s color efficiency, although. Quite the opposite, for the overwhelming majority of the time you merely really feel such as you’re truly seeing HDR trying extra prefer it was initially designed to look. The Q9F’s excessive brightness and seemingly ultra-smart tone-mapping processing additionally signifies that it does a greater job than every other HDR TV up to now of avoiding the clipping downside seen on most rival TVs. In different phrases, it retains element in even the very brightest picture areas, fairly than ‘flaring out’.Add this achievement to the picture’s exceptional color finesse and light-weight management and also you’ve obtained arguably essentially the most pristine, detailed 4K photographs we’ve seen from a client TV up to now. Our solely remark could be that the TV is so nice at producing a shiny picture, that while you convey up the settings or supply menu in a darkened room, it may be nearly blinding to take a look at.4K/HDR TL;DR: A number of smallish (and doubtlessly fixable by way of future firmware updates) considerations do nothing to change the truth that the Q9F delivers the most effective trying 4K HDR footage we’ve seen on a client tv. A be aware on HDR10+ and a few potential weak spotsWe felt we must always add a fast phrase right here on HDR10+. Sadly, on the time of writing solely Amazon Video affords help for this new increased high quality HDR platform — and it received’t allow you to swap between watching HDR10+ and non-HDR10+ streams of the identical exhibits. So meaning we couldn’t do any direct HDR10+ vs HDR10/Dolby Imaginative and prescient comparisons. What we will say is that every one the HDR Amazon streams we performed on the Q9F regarded implausible — the most effective we’ve seen, in truth. However with out having the ability to examine towards the identical content material in different codecs on the identical display, it’s not possible to make certain how a lot of the additional Amazon image high quality is all the way down to the TV’s inherent image skills, and the way a lot is all the way down to HDR10+’s additional layer of scene-by-scene image knowledge. That stated, other than the HDR10+ dilemma and even with a TV as gifted because the Q9F there’s nonetheless a bit room for enchancment. As with SDR photographs, for example, very darkish areas can look barely wanting element except you marginally enhance the set’s brightness or gamma.  Movement suffers with shimmering edge noise utilizing the auto movement processing setting, and whilst you can enhance issues by way of some considered tinkering with the Customized movement choices, we didn’t really feel movement ever regarded fairly as pure as it might probably on the Sony XF9005 Collection TVs.In actual fact, a viewing of Transformers: The Final Knight on 4K Extremely HD Blu-ray had us digging into the Q9F’s settings to modify auto movement off fully, because the shakiness of the movie’s cinematography was having the alternative of the mode’s desired impact, making the movie appears uneven and blurry throughout motion. That stated, the movie seems to be rather more pure as soon as the mode was switched off. Whereas the Q9F gives a slight viewing angle enchancment over 2017’s fashions, colour saturations cut back and also you begin to see extra pronounced backlight blooming round shiny objects if you happen to watch from horizontal angles of greater than round 30 levels. This blooming additionally turns into extra exaggerated if you happen to watch from a vertical viewing angle of greater than round 15 levels. One thing to keep in mind if you happen to’re considering of mounting your subsequent TV on a wall above your eyeline.SoundAlthough the Q9F’s audio will not be as stand-out superior as its footage, it’s nonetheless the most effective sound we’ve heard from a Samsung TV for years. It’s highly effective sufficient, for starters, to mix fairly excessive volumes and a large dynamic vary with out sounding muffled or distorted. It additionally manages to mission its sound away from the TV’s bodywork, making a three-dimensional audio house that has depth, width and peak. Dialogue sounds clear and locked to the display, the place it needs to be, and you may hear loads of refined detailing – although the set’s just about invisible audio system additionally ship extra bass than most in-built TV sound techniques. Effectively value a point out right here, too, is Samsung’s new Good Sound characteristic. This analyses the incoming sound and routinely adjusts the standard of the sound to go well with the kind of content material you’re watching. As an example, it’ll undertake a stadium-style sound tone if you happen to’re watching sports activities, or a movie-friendly tone if you happen to’re watching a movie. The system additionally equalizes sound ranges throughout completely different inputs.Gimmicky although it sounds on paper, Good Sound seems to be an unexpectedly good characteristic, making every part you watch sound palpably higher with out you needing to the touch any sound adjustment menus. Our solely criticism in regards to the Q9F’s audio is that very shrill tones may cause a momentary buzz from the TV’s chassis. When that is the worst you’ll be able to give you on a flat TV’s sound efficiency, although, you recognize you’re usually in fairly optimistic territory! You’ll be able to at all times simply add on any of Samsung’s glorious soundbar choices for a extra room-filling audio expertise. Sound TL;DR: The Q9F sounds impressively highly effective, effectively rounded and dynamic – and its new Good Sound characteristic is a revelation. VerdictAside from not supporting Dolby Imaginative and prescient, with the Q9F Samsung has taken on board just about all of the criticisms levelled at its 2017 QLED debutantes. It’s launched direct lighting with native dimming. It’s remembered that distinction and black degree efficiency is a minimum of as necessary to your viewing expertise as brightness. And it’s remembered that dwell TV remains to be a giant a part of most households’ each day viewing, nevertheless standard streaming might have grow to be. The Q9F additionally makes the QLED color efficiency much more spectacular than it was earlier than, and introduces quite a lot of options that make it uniquely achieved as a gaming monitor. The result’s the all-round most spectacular TV we’ve ever examined. Rumours of LED TVs demise, it appears, have been enormously exaggerated.