Philips OLED820 vs Samsung QN80H

When it comes to HDR quality, the Philips OLED820 uses the same class of WOLED panel found in its biggest rivals – the LG C5 and the Samsung S90F. This means we can expect really solid results. This year, mid-range OLED panels can exceed the threshold of a thousand nits, and the tested model reaches around 1300 nits in some films. This is an outstanding result, allowing the director's vision to be conveyed with incredible precision, as this is the brightness range in which modern productions are mastered. Of course, there are situations where even the OLED820 has to compromise. Full-screen scenes flooded with white, like those in the film The Meg, can drop brightness to 400–500 nits, which clearly diminishes the effect. This is a characteristic of OLED technology that has not yet been fully eliminated. Despite this limitation, it's hard not to appreciate the HDR in this model – high luminance and a wide coverage of the DCI-P3 colour palette at 99% make the image look simply fantastic.

The Samsung QN80H is undoubtedly a bright TV. In synthetic tests it exceeds the 1000‑nit mark, which on paper already promises a solid HDR effect. In practice the screen really shows its stuff, although it can't always fully spread its wings (or its backlight 🤔). The best impression comes from bright, wide shots. Sunlit landscapes or heavily lit scenes look really good on it. Brightness then sits around 700 nits, which delivers a noticeable step up compared with standard SDR. Problems start in dark scenes with small, pinpoint highlights. The QN80H tends to dim those aggressively to protect black depth at all costs. On one hand you get better contrast, on the other... you lose dynamics and the sparkle of fine HDR detail. The TV therefore has plenty of potential, but the local‑dimming algorithm can be too restrictive.

Colour‑gamut coverage

Colour-wise it’s also good. The QN80H uses quantum‑dot technology, and in our measurements it covered 93% of the DCI‑P3 colour space and about 70% of BT.2020. Those results won't drop anyone's jaw today, but in real‑world use they’re more than enough to deliver a vivid and natural picture for most films and series. Colours are suitably saturated and, after proper tuning, they don't look artificial or overly aggressive.

The colour reproduction in the factory settings really surprised us, and in a positive way. The Philips OLED820, switched to Filmmaker mode, immediately showed that it was quite well tuned in terms of colour. The white balance was relatively accurate, although there was a slight deficiency in the blue hue, which sometimes gave the image a slightly yellowish tint. However, this is not a drawback that particularly interferes with everyday viewing. A bigger problem arose with the brightness characteristics. The gamma chart clearly deviated from the ideal, as the line was below the expected values, causing the image to be excessively brightened, and the colours looked as if they were covered with a light milky filter. This effect was also noticeable in tests using the Colour Checker pattern, where more pronounced errors appeared.

The QN80H’s factory settings performed really well, especially compared with most TVs that come through our tests. Of course we took measurements in Filmmaker Mode, and that’s the mode we recommend switching on right after the initial setup. For SDR content our sample was set up surprisingly well. The white balance was very even, colours looked natural, and errors were so small they were hard to spot without test equipment. The only weaker point was the gamma. In brighter parts of the picture the TV brightened them a little too much, so the image sometimes lost some depth. Even so, we wish most TVs looked this good straight out of the box.

It was a bit worse in HDR. The white balance was still set correctly, so the issue wasn’t colour but the way the QN80H managed image brightness. You could see that straight away on the EOTF chart. The TV brightened large parts of scenes too much, causing the brightest elements to blow out. Interestingly, very small highlights were often dimmed too much at the same time. As a result some fine details simply disappeared. The factory Filmmaker mode in HDR isn’t bad, but it’s definitely not as well tuned as it is in SDR.

After calibration, both the Filmmaker mode and the gaming mode improved quite a bit. A slight adjustment of the white balance and enhancement of the brightness characteristics yielded excellent results with SDR content – the image looked nearly perfect, natural, and very close to the reference. For HDR material, the situation was similar; the colours looked fantastic, and it was hard to find fault with anything. However, we did notice a certain characteristic, which we had already pointed out when comparing scenes from the film Billy Lynn. The analysis of the EOTF curve showed that the TV has a slight tendency to dim details in the blacks, meaning that the darkest parts are not always displayed exactly as the director intended. Nevertheless, the effect after calibration is superb, and the OLED820 is emerging as one of the more interesting screens in its class. A little bit of fine-tuning is all that’s needed, and there’s really nothing to worry about.

The biggest difference after calibration was in HDR Filmmaker mode. SDR was already very good out of the box, so we didn't have much work to do there. In HDR, however, we were able to rein in how the QN80H handled brightness; it had been making most scenes too bright. After calibration the picture is calmer, more natural and much closer to a faithful reproduction.

Fortunately, the earlier effects of the mentioned posterisation can be quite effectively mitigated. The "distortion reduction" feature set to medium handles unwanted colour banding well, improving the smoothness of tonal transitions. It does sometimes work a bit too aggressively and smooths out some details – such as the minor imperfections of the actors’ skin – but despite that, it can be considered worth using without major compromises. The upscaling in the OLED820 also performs well. The test image with the model is exceptionally soft, sometimes perhaps too much, although this can be remedied with a slight increase in sharpness in the picture menu – that's a matter of individual preference. The absence of overscan issues with very low-resolution content is also commendable, allowing us to not worry about the image being unnecessarily cropped.

The digital image processing in the Samsung QN80H is handled by the second-generation NQ4 AI processor. It's a chip we've already seen in previous Samsung models and it still performs very well, especially with lower-resolution content. The image is effectively upscaled to 4K, but without excessive sharpening and without making it feel like the TV is trying to forcibly enhance the source material.

The "Noise Reduction" feature also proves useful. It can noticeably reduce posterisation and visible banding in lower-quality material, especially in low-bitrate streaming. However, you should remember it doesn't work without side effects. It can remove some film grain and slightly smooth the picture. So with a good-quality source we'd leave this feature turned off. If, however, banding and uneven tonal transitions bother you more than the loss of some grain, "Noise Reduction" can be a really useful addition.

Motion fluidity is an area where OLEDs always shine, and the Philips OLED820 confirms this rule. The panel itself offers a refresh rate of 144 Hz, which will mainly benefit PC gamers, but even with standard TV sources or consoles, where it operates at 120 Hz, motion is fast, sharp, and simultaneously smooth, without any signs of smearing. This is thanks to the remarkable response time between pixels, which ensures the image maintains clarity in every dynamic scene. The manufacturer has also added their own smoothness enhancer called "Motion Style." In the menu, we find two sliders – the first, responsible for smoothness, allows for the adjustment of the number of artificially added frames in films. This way, we can choose a raw, cinematic character with clearly visible film frames or a more theatrical image with smooth motion. The second slider is for motion blur reduction, particularly useful in sports broadcasts. Here, we definitely recommend setting it to the maximum value, as the effect is truly excellent.

Motion blur and motion handling on the QN80H are really good, mainly thanks to the fast panel. In 4K the screen refreshes the image at up to 144 Hz, and when switched to Full HD and connected to a PC it can reach up to 240 Hz. That's new for Samsung TVs and a handy extra for people who want to use the TV for PC gaming. We were more interested, though, in how the QN80H performs at 120 Hz, because consoles use that refresh rate. It does very well. The panel doesn't suffer much from the smearing typical of VA panels; faint trails behind moving objects are mostly visible on dark backgrounds. That's not something that would interfere with normal sports watching or gaming. The TV also has a motion smoothing system that Samsung calls "Picture Clarity". You can set judder reduction and blur reduction separately, so it's easy to tune it for films, sport or your own preferences.

The Philips OLED820 is one of the most comprehensive TVs for gamers. Onboard, we find practically everything one could expect: two HDMI 2.1 ports with full bandwidth of 48 Gbps (shame there aren't four), Variable Refresh Rate (VRR), Auto Low Latency Mode (ALLM), support for Dolby Vision in games, and a good implementation of the HGiG mode. The TV also handles lower resolutions at 120 Hz without issue, so you can count on great flexibility when choosing different picture modes on your console. Philips also adds a Game Bar – a panel that allows you to change picture modes, add a crosshair, or preview parameters. Although it looks a bit clunky and is less refined than its competitors, it gets the job done. In practice, therefore, the OLED820, in addition to a full set of four HDMI 2.1 connections, offers almost everything a gamer could need.

The Samsung QN80H is a TV that performs very strongly when it comes to gamer-focused features. The biggest new feature for 2026 is DLG mode, which allows refresh rates up to 240 Hz when the image is switched to Full HD. It's an option aimed mainly at PC users, but it also shows that Samsung is still investing heavily in the gaming side of its TVs. The list of advantages doesn't end there. The QN80H has four full HDMI 2.1 ports, which at this price point still isn't standard. So you can connect multiple consoles, a PC or a soundbar at once and not worry about which port supports the full video capabilities. The TV also supports VRR, ALLM and HGiG, so it's hard to fault its basic feature set.

A downside is the lack of Dolby Vision, which could matter especially for Xbox Series X owners. However, this isn't a flaw that rules the QN80H out as a gaming TV. Samsung does have a feature that most manufacturers still lack, namely its proprietary motion smoothing, Game Motion Plus. This motion smoother also works in game mode, improving the smoothness of titles running at 30 or 60 frames per second without a drastic increase in input lag. In practice, Game Motion Plus can make a much bigger difference than Dolby's codec, especially in more demanding games that don't offer a 60 fps mode. The image becomes noticeably smoother, while controls remain sufficiently responsive. So despite the lack of Dolby Vision, the QN80H is still one of the best-equipped gaming TVs in its class.