Samsung Neo QLED QN85D / QNX1D vs Haier K85F

Samsung QN85D leaves us with mixed feelings regarding HDR quality. It can shine in synthetic luminance tests, reaching even 1000 nits – which makes scenes like those from 'The Meg' or the start of 'Life of Pi', where the screen is all bright, look truly impressive. However, in practice, the device has its limitations – especially when smaller bright elements appear on the screen. In such moments, brightness noticeably drops, and the HDR effect loses its punch. At brightness levels around 200-300 nits, the magic of HDR simply fades away, not delivering spectacular effects. However, it’s not that the television completely disappoints – coverage of the DCI-P3 colour gamut at 95% is quite decent, although it doesn’t stand out against the best competitors. Colours are well-rendered, but it's clear that HDR could make a bigger impression if brightness could be better controlled.

Let’s now move on to one of the hottest topics in the world of televisions, which is the quality of HDR performance. In the case of the Haier K85F model, we unfortunately have to make it clear: if you’re looking for equipment to watch content in a wide dynamic range, you should steer clear of this model. The main issue is its very low peak brightness, which during our tests barely reached 250 nits. To give you a better idea of what that means – this level is fine for watching standard SDR content, but it’s absolutely insufficient to show any real benefits of HDR. The image simply doesn’t have the "power" to generate bright, striking highlights. All of our measurements and tests on specialised test patterns confirmed this. As if that wasn’t enough, the television also struggles with colour reproduction. In this budget build, there are no technologies that broaden the colour gamut, such as quantum dot layers (marketed as "QLED"). As a result, the coverage of the DCI-P3 colour space, which is crucial for HDR content, is only around 80%. In practice, this means that the image will not only be dark but also devoid of the vibrant, saturated colours that the director wanted to show us.

Samsung QN85D TV has been tested in the best available mode – Filmmaker. While one might expect its name suggests a mode perfectly suited for films, unfortunately, it has several significant issues.

When it comes to white balance for HD content, there is a noticeable dominance of red and blue, which makes the entire image take on pinkish hues – this is also confirmed by Colour Checker tests. This effect disturbs the naturalness of skin tones and many other elements, which is particularly evident in more demanding scenes. Initially, the white balance for 4K HDR content seems correct, but at the end of the graph, there is a significant spike in blue hues, affecting the final image quality and making the colours appear unnatural.

The gamma brightness characteristic is also not ideal – although it generally stays close to the reference value, there is a slight drop below 2.4, which can impact the perceived depth of shadows. The EOTF curve responsible for 4K content does not perform any better. There is a clear boost compared to the reference curve, leading to excessive brightness in some areas, thus losing the cinematic quality that the Filmmaker mode should provide. While it might initially seem that the effect is cinematic, unfortunately, the number of errors in colour and brightness reproduction is too significant to call it flawless.

Alright, how does the television handle colours straight out of the box, without any intervention from our side? The Haier K85F offers a whole range of picture modes, such as Dynamic or Eco, but for anyone wanting to watch films according to the creators' intentions, there's essentially only one that matters: Film mode. This is where we focused our tests, and unfortunately, its name has little to do with reality. The picture on factory settings is very far from what we could call cinematic fidelity and requires many adjustments. Let's start with the white balance, which has a clear deficiency of red colour. In practice, this means the entire image has a cool, bluish tint. Even worse is the issue of brightness management, that is, the gamma curves (for SDR) and EOTF (for HDR). Their graph resembles a true rollercoaster, which terribly impacts the viewing experience. This results in unnatural dimming of SDR content, causing details in the shadows to be lost, and in the case of HDR – an excessive brightening that further exacerbates the problem of clipping. Such a combination, which consists of too cool white combined with chaotic brightness and too much blue colour saturation, leads to enormous errors in colour reproduction. Our measurements on a specialist ColourChecker chart showed errors (Delta E) regularly reaching and exceeding values of 8-9. To put it simply: errors above the threshold of 3 are easily noticeable to the naked eye, so such a result means that the colours on the screen are simply heavily distorted.

After professional calibration of the Filmmaker mode on the Samsung QN85D television, a significant improvement is noticeable, especially for HD/SDR content. The white balance has been completely free of major errors, and the brightness characteristics for this type of content have been significantly adjusted, allowing for a more natural and realistic image. Television, YouTube films, and other HD materials now look much better, with appropriately balanced colours and without the exaggerated hues that previously marred the experience.

However, the biggest issues arise with 4K HDR content. Despite the calibration, it's hard to speak of significant improvement in white balance here – the differences are cosmetic rather than essential. Brightness, governed by the EOTF curve, seems to be set according to the reference level in synthetic tests at first glance, but has its limitations during actual viewing in films. When analysing the EOTF curve in real film scenes, it becomes clear that the television struggles to maintain consistency in brightness. The effect is that mixed scenes still have their darkest elements boosted, leading to exaggerated contrasts, and completely dark scenes remain too dark, which negatively affects the visibility of details.

No good, but can anything be done about this picture? Is professional calibration able to save the situation? The answer is both yes and no. It needs to be said clearly that there are certain things we cannot overcome. The limitations of the construction itself, namely a poor panel and its narrow colour coverage, mean that you can forget about a sensible HDR effect – we won't be pulling the wool over your eyes on that. The biggest beneficiary of our adjustments is undoubtedly the SDR mode, and it is for watching such content, after calibration, that this television starts to make sense. We managed to tame the white balance in our own way. Although the television only offers basic, 2-point adjustment (rather than precise, 20-point), it's not perfect, but we successfully eliminated that unpleasant, cold "chill" in the picture. Above all, though, we noted a huge improvement in brightness management. The gamma curve, which previously resembled a rollercoaster, looks like an almost perfectly straight line after calibration. This is a sign that the television can finally display an image without artificially dimming or brightening it. The conclusion is simple: even with such a cheap television, professional setting correction can achieve a great deal and extract the maximum potential from it.

When checking the fluidity of tonal transitions in low-resolution materials on the Samsung QN85D television, it’s worth noting the noise reduction feature, which significantly improves problematic tonal transitions. On the other hand, this feature also has its downsides – it removes film grain, which is an important element of many productions, giving them authenticity, and it can also soften the image. This may appeal to those who prefer a smoother picture; however, for lovers of the authentic look of films, using this feature should be considered carefully.

Regarding image scaling, the television performs very well. The model's figure is presented correctly, without noticeable distortions, and the branches in the background do not have excessive artificial sharpness, which is often a problem when scaling lower resolution materials. The high capabilities of the image processor are evident here, which can effectively process lower quality materials, ensuring good final quality.

Let’s move on to digital processing and image scaling, specifically how the Haier K85F handles lower resolution signals, such as from regular television. Right off the bat, we encounter an incredibly annoying and completely incomprehensible issue – the overscan is enabled by default. This means the television artificially enlarges the image, cutting off its edges on every source, even 1080p. To see the full frame, you have to dig into the screen settings each time and manually switch the format to "stretch to 16:9." It's a minor detail, but devilishly frustrating. The scaling of content to 4K resolution can be described in one word: acceptable. And that's about it. The image processor doesn't strip detail from the image, nor does it generate jagged edges or other artifacts. It simply does its job, without any bells and whistles. It’s alright, but nothing more. The most significant and noticeable shortcoming in the digital processing section is, however, the absence of a tone transition smoothing feature. This is an algorithm that could significantly reduce the annoying banding effect we mentioned earlier. Unfortunately, the manufacturer did not foresee such a solution, condemning us to watch the imperfections of the panel and low-quality material in all their glory.

Samsung QN85D TV is equipped with a 120 Hz refresh rate panel, which should satisfy both gamers and sports enthusiasts by offering a smooth and dynamic image. There are options to enhance fluidity, such as the blur and judder reduction feature, which allows precise motion fluidity adjustments on a 10-point scale. The blur reduction increases the sharpness of fast-moving objects, making action scenes more readable, while judder reduction smooths out motion, eliminating the “judder” effect. Ghosting is generally well controlled, though minor imperfections can be visible in more demanding scenes, especially when an object moves against a dark background. Additionally, the TV offers a BFI (Black Frame Insertion) feature at a 60 Hz refresh rate, which can significantly improve motion fluidity experience, although at the cost of image flicker, which might be bothersome for some users.

The panel in the K85F model operates at a native refresh rate of 60 Hz, which sets certain expectations for image smoothness right from the start. However, we must admit that we were very positively surprised when we found two separate motion control sliders in the settings menu: one labelled "Motion Blur Reduction" and the other "De-Judder." Such generosity in this price segment is an absolute rarity, as manufacturers usually offer at most one shared option. Unfortunately, our enthusiasm faded as quickly as it appeared. It soon became clear why Haier was so "generous" – the slider responsible for reducing motion blur is simply a decoy. Sliding it makes absolutely no visible difference on the screen, so only one of the two options works.

The Samsung QN85D television is an excellent choice for gamers, offering a wide range of features that enhance the gaming experience and make it even more exciting. With a 120 Hz refresh rate panel, the image is incredibly smooth, which is crucial during dynamic scenes in action games. The television also boasts low input lag, allowing for nearly instant reactions to player commands, which translates into better control over characters and events on the screen.

In addition, the QN85D Samsung supports VRR (Variable Refresh Rate) and ALLM (Auto Low Latency Mode) technologies, which optimise image smoothness and reduce delays by automatically adjusting the television to the needs of gamers. Moreover, the Xbox app allows for cloud gaming without the need for a console, which is a big plus for those who want to enjoy their favourite titles without additional hardware – a feature that sets Samsung televisions apart.

The Auto Motion Plus Game feature is another aspect worth highlighting. This motion smoothing technology creates the illusion of more frames per second – as a result, games at 30 fps appear smoother, resembling gameplay at 45 fps, while games at 60 Hz come closer to 90 Hz. Most importantly, this feature does not introduce significant lag, ensuring that gaming comfort is not compromised. This allows gamers to enjoy a smoother image without compromising responsiveness.

Let’s move on to the features for gamers, although we must point out straight away that this is more of a proposal for the "occasional" ones. The manufacturer does boast in the specifications about having HDMI 2.1 ports, which looks impressive on paper, but in reality, it’s largely a marketing ploy. What good is a modern port when the heart of the television is a panel with a refresh rate of 60 Hz? It physically cannot display a signal at 120 frames per second, even at lower resolutions, which takes away HDMI 2.1’s key advantage. What a shame. (That’s why in our tests we note this as HDMI 2.0 ports). Another odd issue is the TV's response to an attempt to calibrate HDR from the console. Changes to brightness settings result in very unnatural image behaviour, which could suggest incorrect implementation of the HGiG standard. To be honest, one shouldn’t worry too much about this, as we have repeatedly mentioned, we simply do not recommend using any HDR content on this screen. However, to counterbalance the negatives, the Haier K85F does have two big and unexpected advantages. The first is the presence of ALLM, or automatic game mode, which switches the TV to low latency mode as soon as it detects a connected console. The second, even bigger surprise, is support for VRR, or variable refresh rate. While it operates within a very modest range of 48-60 Hz, its mere presence is commendable. Thanks to this, the image in games can “tear” less, which realistically improves the gaming experience.