Podcast #798: Samsung Q9F QLED TV REVIEW (RTINGS.COM)

Samsung Q9F QLED TV REVIEW (RTINGS.COM)

Back in May we introduced you to RTINGS.COM and mentioned that we would feature some of their TV reviews on our site from time to time. This week is the first of such reviews and we start off with the Samsung Q9F QLED (Buy Now 65 inch $4997 75 inch $9997). Read the full detailed review at RTINGS.COM

Features:

• Get perfect color with over a billion shades and 100% color volume with our exclusive new Quantum Dots.
• Q | 4K HDR Elite+ with Infinite Array produces our best contrast and detail in the brightest and darkest areas on the screen at the same time.
• The no-bezel design and clean back finish look gorgeous front to back, whether mounted on the wall or sitting on a stand.
• Q | 4K Elite Black+ with Infinite Array delivers our most stunning shades of black and reveals the secrets hidden in the shadows with elite detail.

The build quality of the Q9F is excellent. Compared to most other Samsung TVs, it really feels like a big step up which is worthy of their flagship TV. All of the parts are well made and feel high quality.

The Samsung Q9F LED TV has a very good picture quality. The excellent contrast ratio, paired with the good black uniformity, make the Q9 a very good choice for a dark home theater setting. It can display very deep blacks and can reproduce dark scenes very well. When set in a bright room, the Q9 is as good as it gets, since it can get very bright to fight glare from a bright lamp of a near sunny window and it can deal with reflections amazingly. Unfortunately, the Q9F's gray uniformity is sub-par and dirty screen effect is visible on wide panning shots or when watching some sports like football or hockey. The viewing angle is also poor and as a result, the Q9's best picture quality is restricted to a narrow zone in front of the TV. Finally, the Q9 can really make HDR content shine with its high HDR peak brightness and large color volume. Small highlights can get very bright and the colors it can reproduce are really a step ahead of the competition. The only downside here is the limitation of the local dimming, which is poorly implemented and can't really help to make black deepers.

The Samsung Q9F sounds quite poor, which is unfortunate for a TV of this status. While it isn't unbearable, it is worth spending on a set of speakers for an upgrade to the audio experience.

The Q9F uses Samsung's 2017 Tizen platform, also called Smart Hub, which is very simple and easy to navigate and has a powerful voice command feature. The TV's remote has a built-in microphone for these voice commands, which can do many things like changing inputs and settings and searching for content. The center of the TV's interface is the Smart Hub itself, which provides access to apps and settings in an easy to navigate fashion. Menu animations sometimes have frame drops and lag, worse than last year's Smart Hub. The remote unfortunately has very few buttons, requiring the user to use voice commands or navigate the Smart Hub to do most things. Smartphones and tablets can cast content to the TV's apps, and content can be played from a USB drive in one of the TV's three USB ports.

Test Results:

• Design 9.5
• Picture Quality 7.9
• Motion 8.9
• Inputs 8.6
• Sound Quality 5.7
• Smart Features 8.0

Usage Ratings:

• Mixed Usage 8.0
• Movies 7.7
• TV Shows 7.8
• Sports 7.8
• Video Games 8.5

• HDR Movies 8.6
• HDR Gaming 8.5
• PC Monitor 7.2

The Samsung Q9F QLED is a great 4k LCD TV with very good picture quality and exceptional rendition of colors. It can display a very wide range of colors and gets bright, making it quite good for HDR. Its input lag is quite low, and fast moving content shows very little blur, making it a good choice for both gaming and sports watching. Unfortunately, though, picture quality steeply declines when the Q9F is viewed from an angle, and its and its screen isn't the most uniform.