Philips PUS8079 vs Samsung Q60D / Q67D / Q68D

The maximum brightness in content with a wide tonal range at 202 nits is extremely low and practically prevents watching movies and series on streaming platforms in the highest quality. It's worth mentioning that in this case, using the HDR format equipped with dynamic metadata won't help either. Why won't it help? Because the only such format implemented in the television is HDR10+, which is extremely unpopular, and films recorded in this format are scarce. It’s also worth noting that PUS8079 uses WLED backlighting, which unfortunately is not the best solution, resulting in coverage of only 80% of the wide DCI-P3 colour gamut. The effect of this reality is significantly less intense colours in HDR content.

Television Samsung Q60D, regardless of the tested scene, achieves brightness levels above 500 nits, which is above average for this class of devices. Such a level of brightness allows for a taste of true home cinema, with clearly visible details in bright areas of the image and well-rendered contrast dynamics, especially when watching content from streaming platforms or films played from Blu-ray. This means that movie screenings gain greater depth and realism, particularly in well-lit scenes. Despite the use of quantum dot technology (QLED), the television does not achieve outstanding results in colour reproduction. The coverage of the DCI-P3 colour space is only 90%, which may be noticeable in more demanding scenes, where the richness and saturation of colours play a key role in image quality.

The best factory mode in terms of colour reproduction and fidelity to the director's vision was "Film". While it was the best of the predefined modes, it still had significant discrepancies between what the filmmaker wanted to convey and what the tested television displayed. In both SDR and HDR materials (though to a lesser extent in the latter), the white balance, which is the most fundamental element responsible for image purity, turned out to be somewhat of a repeat of the vibrant mode, with a blue tint reminiscent of what you see in retail displays. Moving directly to the SDR materials and what affects contrast, namely gamma, we see it being severely reduced. This leads to cutting off already minimal contrast resources and brightening the entire image. In the EOTF curve, responsible for the increase in brightness pace in HDR materials, we instead see a strong drop below the reference line, which, given the limited light output of the television, significantly impacted the perception of those contents, which were even more dimmed. We won’t separate the quality assessments of the colours themselves since, in both cases, they achieved astronomical deltaE values, being simply completely different from what they should be.

Samsung has been offering a "Filmmaker" mode in its TVs for several years now, aimed at providing the most faithful picture settings straight from the factory, in line with the vision of filmmakers. This is certainly a big step towards cinematic quality at home, but it is worth noting that this mode is not without its issues.

For example, the white balance in both SDR and HDR modes exhibits an excessive amount of red, which makes the image too warm. As a result, the skin tones of actors and bright scenes can appear unnaturally flushed. The Colour Checker test further confirms this problem – colour samples often shift towards red hues, deviating from the neutral colour representation that would be more desirable in a professional setup.

When it comes to contrast, there is a noticeable strong drop at the beginning of the gamma graph, where values below 2.4 drop all the way down to 2.1. As a result, the image in darker scenes may appear less distinct, losing depth. In the case of HDR content, the EOTF curve (which is responsible for brightness reproduction) shows a strong spike at the beginning of the graph, which can lead to excessive brightness in the lighter parts of the image, disrupting the natural tonal balance.

Luckily, Philips implements advanced image correction tools in all of its TVs. SDR content has benefited the most here, and the huge deltaE errors have been significantly corrected, with both white balance and gamma being substantially reworked. While we can't say it's reference-quality image, it's definitely better, and you can watch a movie or series without causing a headache, especially for your eyes. Naturally, HDR materials, due to the very low luminance of the TV, could not be corrected to the same high degree as those with a standard colour palette, but we managed to roughly straighten out the EOTF curve and the white balance. Unfortunately, that was all we could squeeze out of our unit, although it's worth noting that each unit is different and has entirely different errors, whether minor or major.

After professional calibration of the Samsung Q60D television in film mode, users can enjoy a significant improvement in image quality. Samsung televisions have always offered 2- and 20-point grayscale adjustment and an advanced CMS (Colour Management System), allowing for precise colour and shade adjustments. The white balance for both SDR and HDR has been stripped of strong peaks and tendencies towards colour drifting into red tones, significantly enhancing the naturalness of the image. Although a few larger errors can still be observed in HDR mode, the overall quality of colour reproduction has been excellently improved. Regarding contrast, although drastic changes cannot be said due to the limitations of the television's technology, the improvement is noticeable. Thanks to calibration, details in dark scenes are more visible, and the differences between light and dark elements of the image have been enhanced. This makes the overall perception of the image more satisfying, allowing viewers to enjoy greater depth and realism in the displayed content.

We will return once again to the issue of tonal transitions, but in the context of overall image quality improvement. As we can observe in the photo on the left, the gradation enhancement feature works brilliantly. Furthermore, it offers several settings, and each of them, even the lowest, provides a beneficial effect, and, what’s more, does not soften the film grain effect. We will repeat once again that this feature is the biggest advantage of the tested television.

Secondly, we will look at image scaling. Here, the tested television performed worse. We can notice, above all, the strongly jagged fine details and the characteristic white glow around figures. We must not forget about the significant artificial sharpening of the image.

However, when it comes to processing and scaling lower quality materials, the television performs quite well. The image is rendered without overscan, which ensures full use of the available screen space. Additionally, the outlines of the model or branches of the tree are not overly jagged, resulting in a satisfactory quality of the displayed content. Although noise reduction could be more effective, the overall processing results of lower quality materials are positive and meet expectations.

This paragraph, unlike the others, will be extremely short. The reason for this situation is the lack of implementation of even the most basic motion smoothing function, which was to be expected given the price of the device. We also note that we are dealing with a VA panel, whose sharpness will not be the best under the sun. This type of panel is mainly associated with high contrast, which goes hand in hand with a relatively slow response time, as we can clearly read from the panel analysis results. As you can see, from the images captured in quick motion, the picture is blurred, typical for this type of panel. Although it may not be the ideal option, it can conditionally be used for watching sports, although one must keep in mind the less than optimal sharpness in motion. It's worth mentioning that movies will exhibit stuttering, as the television does not have any, not even the simplest, motion smoother.

Samsung Q60D is equipped with a 60 Hz panel and a feature to enhance movie smoothness, known as "Motion Blur Reduction." This function aims to minimise motion blur and improve overall image fluidity, which will certainly appeal to users who primarily seek a television for watching movies and series. Thanks to this technology, viewers can enjoy a more fluid visual experience, even in dynamic action scenes where details are crucial. However, it is worth noting that while "Motion Blur Reduction" improves image fluidity in films, for gaming, this panel may not be the best choice due to its considerable motion blur effect, which can be seen in the photo below.

Philips PUS8079 offers only the most basic support for gaming in the form of ALLM, VRR, and Game Bar. The most important information is that thanks to the implementation of the feature responsible for dynamic refresh rate adjustment, the image is actually quite smooth for this price range and does not 'tear' the image.

A slightly greater nod towards gamers is the introduction of the Game Bar, allowing for settings adjustments 'on the fly'. This means we won’t have to exit the game to make any changes to the image. Importantly, it hasn’t been stripped of options known from higher models. We can find features such as shadow enhancement for better visibility in shadows and a colour filter for players with visual impairments.

Samsung Q60D has been equipped with features such as ALLM (Auto Low Latency Mode), HGiG (HDR Gaming Interest Group) and Game Bar, which significantly enhance the gaming experience. However, the lack of HDMI 2.1 implementation limits its capabilities, preventing the use of VRR (Variable Refresh Rate), which could further improve smoothness and image quality. Generally, for casual gamers, this TV should perform well in everyday use, providing satisfactory gaming experiences. However, if we are more demanding in terms of gaming, it is worth considering models with a higher refresh rate and HDMI 2.1, which will ensure full functionality and better support for the latest games. In such cases, investing in a more advanced TV will yield significantly better results in terms of smoothness and image quality, which is crucial for gaming enthusiasts.