Samsung QN80F 100" vs Sony BRAVIA 7 II

When it comes to HDR in Filmmaker mode, the QN80F can make a great first impression. Our lab tests showed that under the best conditions, the TV can achieve brightness exceeding 1200–1300 nits. These are truly remarkable results that make HDR effects in many films look incredible. The TV is simply bright enough that it doesn't have to artificially adapt the image – the bright parts of the scene have the right 'power' and actually look like a light source. Of course, the lab is one thing, and everyday viewing is another. In practice, during film scenes, brightness typically hovers around 700–1100 nits. These are still excellent values that, in most cases, provide a strong sense of realism and make the lights on the screen truly blinding. The problem arises in exceptionally difficult sequences, where, like almost every mini-LED, it reveals its limitations. A good example is Sicario 2: scenes with the helicopter in the night sky look much weaker, and the lights lose intensity, dropping to around 370 nits, making it hard to speak of serious awe. Additionally, there's the issue of colours. Although we are dealing with a QLED, the coverage of the DCI-P3 colour gamut is about 90%. This is a rather average result for a quantum dot TV. In practice, this means that some colours may appear less saturated than we would expect, especially in demanding HDR productions.

Sony Bravia 7 II handles HDR very well and, above all, is simply a bright television. In the correct viewing mode for watching, Professional, we measured about 2,000 nits of peak brightness, so the panel’s capabilities are truly large. Of course, in Mini-LED sets a test-pattern result is only part of the story, because much still depends on how the TV controls the backlight in real scenes. Here Sony’s algorithms perform really well. Depending on the scene, the brightness we measured in films ranged from about 1,100 to as much as 1,700 nits. That’s a level at which HDR has proper punch and bright highlights can be genuinely impressive. It’s not perfect in every situation. With small bright elements on a very dark background, the Bravia 7 II clearly prioritises maintaining good black levels, so their brightness can fall to around 500 nits. It still looks good, but it’s clear the TV doesn’t always manage this without compromise.

Colours

The second thing that has a huge impact on HDR is, of course, colour. And this is where True RGB was meant to deliver one of the biggest changes. Looking at the panel’s capabilities alone, the Bravia 7 II performs very well. We measured roughly 98% DCI-P3 coverage and 88% BT.2020, so the potential for showing highly saturated colours is substantial. In RGB TVs the matter is a bit more complex. When we repeated the same measurements with a film-like background applied, gamut coverage dropped to about 92% DCI-P3 and 78% BT.2020. Those are still good numbers, especially for an RGB Mini-LED TV, but they show that the final result largely depends on how the algorithms drive the three backlight colours. In most scenes the Bravia 7 II handles this well and colours retain strong saturation. The biggest differences are visible in blue shades, where samples start to deviate more noticeably from the reference values and coverage is weaker than for the other primaries. True RGB therefore offers genuinely greater potential, but, as with brightness, a lot depends on what’s actually happening on screen.

Samsung QN80F performs best in Filmmaker mode, which is designed to faithfully reproduce the creators' intentions. And indeed – this is the mode where the TV shows its potential. But let's not fool ourselves, it’s far from perfect. In SDR content, a significant issue emerged with white balance. Slight deficiencies in green and a clear excess of red caused the screen to take on a pinkish hue. You don't even need measuring tools to notice this – in everyday viewing, the subtly shifted colour palette could be quite noticeable, and in colour checker tests, the colours nearly "jumped" outside their reference fields. With HDR content, the situation looked a bit better, as the white balance was closer to ideal, but another problem emerged – brightness management. The EOTF curve often caused the image to become too bright, which spoiled the impression of contrast, and in dynamic scenes, it led to a slight "flicker" in perception. We've actually mentioned this before in the sections about black levels and HDR. The good news, however, is that Samsung provides plenty of tools for improvement. The QN80F allows for very detailed calibration, including a 20-point white balance. And since the manufacturer has left us with so many options, we decided to see how the TV would perform after a solid correction.

To evaluate the factory colours we chose the Professional mode, because it performs best among the available presets. It's not perfect. In SDR the white balance is slightly biased toward magenta, so some scenes look a little warmer and less neutral than they should. A bigger issue is the gamma, which sits closer to 2.5 than 2.4. As a result the image is a bit too dark in places, especially in the mid-tones. In HDR the situation is better. As brightness increases there's a little too much red, but it isn't something that really jumps out while watching. Overall the Professional mode is a good starting point, though you can get a bit more out of it with calibration.

After calibrating the QN80F, it immediately showed that it has much more to offer. The pink hue that used to spoil the viewing experience has disappeared, and the white balance finally looks as it should – natural and without excessive deviations. The colours have gained depth, and the image has become more saturated and coherent, making movies simply more enjoyable to watch. It's a bit like taking a light mist off the screen – suddenly everything appears sharper and clearer. Brightness management has also improved. The TV no longer gets lost so easily in dynamic changes, and the EOTF graph shows that the curve tracking is significantly more stable. Of course, there are no miracles – the limited number of zones still means that small, bright elements can be slightly washed out, but that's just a result of the design rather than the settings. After this adjustment, the QN80F feels like a more mature piece of equipment, and watching movies finally provides the satisfaction expected from even a higher-end television.

After calibration the Bravia 7 II can look significantly better. First and foremost, we managed to set the white balance very well in both SDR and HDR. Gamma can also be improved, and after correction it runs very close to the reference value. For most users those changes will have the biggest impact on the picture. There is, however, a limitation with the colours themselves. On the Bravia 7 II Sony does not provide access to a traditional CMS that would let us adjust individual hues separately. Much is left to the algorithms controlling the True RGB backlight. If the TV reproduces a specific colour inaccurately, we are not always able to do anything about it. In our measurements this is most apparent in parts of the reds and blues, where errors can still be quite large. That does not, however, undermine the value of calibration. Correctly setting the white point and gamma strongly affects the whole picture, so even without the ability to precisely correct every colour the difference from the factory settings is noticeable.

With lower quality materials, such as YouTube videos or older television recordings, the QN80F can show both its strengths and weaknesses. If strange colour transitions or artefacts start to appear on the screen, it's worth reaching for the noise reduction feature. The best setting is at the "medium" level – it smooths out problematic segments while not blurring the entire image. However, one compromise must be kept in mind: this feature always removes film grain. If someone enjoys its presence in older productions, it's better to leave the reduction off, as regardless of the setting, the grain simply disappears.

Resolution scaling, or upscaling, is another strong point for Samsung. The QN80F may not be the best television on the market, but it performs very well in its price class, which is crucial for such a large size as a 100-inch screen. Even low-quality materials can gain a second life – the image becomes sharper, more readable, and overall, much more pleasant to view. A weak point remains overscan, which is slight cropping of edges in very low resolutions (e.g., 576p), something that has been a longstanding issue for Samsung. Fortunately, in everyday viewing of HD and 4K content, this is practically of no significance anymore.

Scaling and digital processing are among the strongest points of the Bravia 7 II and one of Sony's biggest advantages over the competition. Sony has for years excelled at digital image processing, and it's clear here too. Above all, the 'Smooth Gradation' function works very well, smoothing weaker tonal transitions in poorer-quality content. The safest setting is low, but we'd comfortably recommend medium as well. The effect is stronger, and the TV still handles fine detail very delicately. Some minor details may be slightly smoothed, but Sony does it much more subtly than many other brands. Upscaling is also very good. Lower-resolution content is nicely upscaled to 4K; the image looks clean and retains a lot of detail. Of course the TV won't magically turn native HD into true 4K, but the Bravia 7 II does very well with what can be pulled from such a source.

QN80F features a 144 Hz panel, and this is evident in practice – with full refresh, the image is incredibly smooth, and motion blur remains at an acceptable, barely noticeable level. However, this mode is mainly aimed at PC gamers. The most important point of reference in everyday use remains the 120 Hz refresh rate, and here a certain crunch arises. During the UFO test, we noticed ghosting of rapidly moving objects – it looked as if the television had the BFI (Black Frame Insertion) feature permanently enabled, which in practice led to an unpleasant effect of double edges. We still don't know if this is a software issue or a peculiarity of this model, but in its current state, it's hard to commend such behaviour.

The Bravia 7 II uses a 120 Hz panel, so in terms of motion handling it delivers everything you'd expect from a TV of this class. With sport or games at 120 fps the picture is suitably smooth, and for films Sony provides an advanced motion interpolation system. You can therefore adjust the level of interpolation separately and choose whether to retain a more cinematic motion or achieve noticeably greater smoothness. Motion blur itself is a bit worse. The VA panel used isn't among the fastest, and moving objects can show a slight trailing, especially against darker backgrounds. It's not at a level that will seriously disturb normal viewing, but last year's Bravia 7 was better in this regard and had a noticeably faster panel.

The Samsung QN80F feels like a TV made with gamers in mind. On the list of advantages, we have a 144 Hz display, four fully-fledged HDMI 2.1 ports, complete support for VRR and ALLM, and one of the best-designed game bars on the market. Added to this is the Game Motion Plus motion smoother, which also works in games without actually increasing input lag, making the QN80F a true standout in this category. In practice, this means you can enjoy smoother visuals without losing responsiveness, which is a dream for any console gamer!

As usual with Samsung, there’s a lack of Dolby Vision in games, and this is no longer surprising. What surprised us much more, however, is that in the models from 2025… the HGIG feature has disappeared. It was this feature that allowed consoles like the PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series X to perfectly match HDR tone mapping to the TV's capabilities. In the current firmware of the QN80F, this option is simply missing – it looks more like a mistake than a conscious decision by the manufacturer, but as of the test day, we have to acknowledge that HGIG is not available. Because of this single omission, the QN80F goes from being an almost perfect gaming TV to just “almost” perfect. It’s a significant shame because, apart from this, Samsung has created a model that truly raises the bar in the gaming equipment segment.

[UPDATE] We have updated our tests of Samsung TVs from the 2025 range due to the release of software version 1131, which has restored the crucial feature HGiG for gamers.

Bravia 7 II has pretty much everything you'd want from a good console TV today. It supports 4K at 120 Hz, VRR from 48 to 120 Hz and ALLM, so when you start a game the TV automatically switches to low-latency mode. HGiG works correctly, so once you configure HDR on the console the TV won't try to brighten the image on its own. Just remember to turn off tone mapping in the TV's menu. Another plus is Dolby Vision in game mode, which will be especially useful for Xbox owners. Sony also includes its own Game Menu, where you can quickly view key signal info, check VRR or change gaming settings without digging through the full TV menu. The only thing missing from the feature list is support for 1440p at 120 Hz. Our biggest complaint is not really about the features but the connectors. The Bravia 7 II has four HDMI ports, but only two of them support full HDMI 2.1 with 48 Gbps bandwidth. One of those is also the eARC port. So if you connect a soundbar or AV receiver via HDMI, in practice you only have one full HDMI 2.1 left for a console or PC. With a single console that's fine, but with a PS5, an Xbox and an audio setup it starts to feel cramped. That's hard to justify from Sony. In cheaper TVs two HDMI 2.1 ports can still be accepted, but in a model of this class, especially in 2026, we'd expect all four ports to be HDMI 2.1.