Samsung Q8F vs LG OLED G6 (G64LW, G66LS)

In terms of brightness, the Samsung Q8F performs surprisingly well for a TV without local dimming. It measures up to 500 nits, which in practice means that most movie and series scenes look pleasant, and it cannot be faulted for lacking the "HDR effect." In films like Life of Pi or The Meg, the screen can burst with bright light, delivering a level of lighting effect that is satisfying. It struggles more in challenging moments—such as dark scenes with single bright points. The global dimming used causes the TV to darken the image to maintain deep blacks, but at the expense of detail brightness. This is clearly visible in the scene from Sicario 2, where the brightness of the helicopter lights dropped to around 200 nits. This is a deliberate design choice that gives the impression of deeper blacks but takes some shine away from individual elements, and one should simply keep that in mind. Regarding colour reproduction, the Q8F uses quantum dot technology, which expands the colour gamut. A coverage of the DCI-P3 palette at 91% can be considered a decent result, although it is not a record-breaking figure compared to other QLEDs.

The LG G6 is currently one of the brightest OLEDs on the market. Its peak brightness reaches nearly 2500 nits and, best of all, this translates directly to real movie scenes. The TV flawlessly extracts details in the bright areas of the image. And this is regardless of whether we are talking about very small points in the form of stars in the sky or slightly larger elements on the screen. Naturally, with full-screen, uniformly white scenes, the brightness of the G6 drops due to the panel protection system (ABL). However, in real, varied movie shots, this value still hovers around an impressive 2000 nits, which can be considered a remarkable result. The coverage of the color palette also deserves praise. The new 2nd generation Tandem OLED panel has brought about only a cosmetic change, but still an improvement. The coverage of the DCI-P3 color space reaches nearly 99.5%, while the ultra-wide BT.2020 is around 84%. These are very good results, although it's important to remember one thing: at extremely high brightness levels, the volume of colors will be lower than in QD-OLED panels from Samsung Display due to the use of white sub-pixels (WOLED). However, in everyday content and most films, capturing this difference will be very difficult.

We decided to check out the Filmmaker mode because right out of the box it gave us the best picture. However, that doesn't mean it was perfect. The white balance had too much of a blue and red tint, causing the whites to lean towards a slight purple-pink hue. Such imbalance affected the visibility of virtually all colours, which is clearly seen in the comparison photo below. The brightness characteristics in SDR content were quite well calibrated, although in HDR materials we noticed that the TV didn't always handle its global dimming well — at times the screen was too dim, while at other times it could suddenly brighten up. Fortunately, issues related to colours can be effectively corrected with calibration tools, so we decided to get to work.

We tested the LG G6 in the best factory mode for colour fidelity, which is FILMMAKER MODE. In the case of our test unit, this mode was reasonably well tuned straight out of the box. In SDR content, the only issue we noticed was the white balance, which leaned towards warmer tones. This made the image occasionally appear slightly yellowish, but overall, it wasn't a significant problem. The G6 performed a bit worse in HDR content. There, the white balance showed too much blue component. This caused the image to veer towards cooler shades, resulting in quite noticeable errors. As can be seen on our ColorChecker chart, the colours shifted towards these cooler registers. Nevertheless, considering the factory settings, the television presented a perfectly decent level. However, we know that OLED screens – particularly those from LG – respond exceptionally well to professional calibration, so we immediately proceeded to do just that.

After calibration, we managed to correct the white balance to almost perfection. Older SDR content looks fantastic — most errors are within a value of 2, which is definitely below the threshold of human perceptibility. In HDR, we also brought the white balance to an acceptable level, but a different problem arises here. So why are there still relatively large errors in colour reproduction? This is mainly due to the limited colour palette and the way the television manages brightness. The global dimming technique used does not give the user control in the settings, so analysing the EOTF curve in HDR films, it's clear that the Q8F can modify luminance on its own. This can be seen as a limitation, but still, the image after calibration is much more enjoyable to watch than in the factory version.

After completing a professional calibration, we gained complete control over the panel, and we managed to align all parameters to nearly zero. We were able to tune the white balance perfectly, which removed the factory's cool and warm tints from the screen. The effects are visibly clear in the ColorChecker test – the average colour reproduction errors dropped below the critical value of 1-2. And what does this mean? PERFECT colours, without any distortion! However, as a reviewer’s duty, we must point out how the LG G6 arbitrarily manipulates brightness, which is due to the EOTF curve's behavior. When we look at the standard synthetic graph, it might seem that the line is quite straight. However, the situation changes when we turn on the measurement filter, which shows how the television interprets brightness in actual, moving film scenes (EOTF in MOVIES). Then, it is clear as day that some of the smallest fragments on the screen are slightly overly brightened by the algorithm. Of course, for the average viewer, such a deviation will practically go unnoticed, but in the test of such an expensive screen, it’s worth noting – especially since we are talking about a model that has huge aspirations for the title of the best television of the year.

Let's see how the Q8F handles older content, which often has poor quality. Starting with the positives: the upscaling works really well. The TV performs nicely with both classic television and materials from YouTube, not giving the impression that we're dealing with something completely unattractive. It struggles more with content in very low resolutions, such as 576p — the image can be cropped, and unfortunately, the overscan phenomenon cannot be disabled. Moreover, the digital processing does not look great either. The noise reduction feature, instead of removing unwanted artefacts, smooths out almost everything: film grain (which many viewers desire) disappears along with the texture of the image, and actors' faces start to resemble characters from cheap Turkish soap operas. It's hard to consider this option useful — it's best left completely off. Perhaps Samsung will refine the function’s performance in updates, but for now, it’s difficult to view it as anything other than an unnecessary addition.

No matter what one might say about the G6's issues with near-black signal, it must be fairly acknowledged that it handles heavily compressed material and lower resolution content extremely well. All unwanted, ugly tonal transitions are effectively reduced here by the "Smooth Gradation" feature. At the "Low" setting, the algorithm works flawlessly – effectively masking the artifacts resulting from strong compression without destroying the sharpness and details in the frame. Higher levels of this feature do further smooth the image, but they start to blur the real texture elements of the objects, so we recommend keeping this slider at a low level. As for the actual upscaling to 4K, the processor does an excellent job – edge sharpness and detail reconstruction are at the highest level, and in this respect, the G6 is on par with the global leaders.

Due to the applied 60 Hz panel, it's hard to call the Q8F a television made for gaming or watching sports. The panel isn't particularly fast, making motion blur clearly visible. If you were expecting a spectacular, almost 'stadium-like' experience during broadcasts, you might feel a bit disappointed. Fortunately, for movies and series, Samsung hasn't given up on the motion smoothing function. It's nothing more than a smoother that allows for improved fluidity of productions recorded at 24 or 30 frames per second. This way, you can decide for yourself whether you prefer a more fluid, 'television-like' image or to retain the cinematic character. It all depends on the viewer's preferences, and the ability to adjust this parameter is undoubtedly a plus.

The LG G6 is an OLED television, so in the category of motion fluidity, it traditionally deserves the highest marks. The TV supports very high refresh rates of up to 165 Hz in 4K resolution, but most importantly – there are absolutely no signs of blurring on the screen. The response time of the matrix is virtually instant, ensuring that dynamic images remain perfectly sharp.

It's not entirely clear what Samsung has messed up this year with its TVs, but the Q8F isn't free from all the confusion with updates and shortcomings. While its older cousin, the Q67D, could still be recommended with a clear conscience to casual gamers, it's hard to find a reason to do so here. Aside from the automatic game mode and the attractively designed Game Bar, we get practically nothing that could appeal to gamers. The lack of proper HGiG implementation is a major issue, especially since the feature simply disappeared after the 1126 update. The situation with VRR is even worse. Even though it appears in the manufacturer's brochures and shows up in the Game Bar, we couldn't get it to work. The Xbox Series X console wouldn't allow it to be activated at all, and the option remained greyed out and inactive. It's difficult to praise such a TV even to casual gamers, which is a shame because Samsung has had a strong selling point in the gaming segment for years.

[UPDATE] We have updated our 2025 Samsung TV reviews following the release of firmware version 1131, which officially restores the essential HGiG (HDR Gaming Interest Group) support.

The LG G6 is a true beast for gamers and one of the best-equipped TVs on the market in this regard. The manufacturer didn't compromise and equipped this model with four full HDMI 2.1 ports with a maximum bandwidth of 48 Gbps. This means that no matter which port you plug in your PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X, or powerful PC, you'll get the absolute maximum performance out of them.

The TV supports a full suite of gaming technologies: from VRR (Variable Refresh Rate), to AMD FreeSync Premium Pro, and Nvidia G-Sync Compatible. Let's add to that a remarkably low, almost imperceptible input lag and an excellently functioning game panel (Game Optimizer), which allows you to constantly monitor signal parameters. Gaming on this screen, with the perfect black of OLED and powerful refresh rates, is pure pleasure.