SAMSUNG QN80F vs Dreame Q100

QN80F is quite a bright screen – in synthetic tests, it reached nearly 1000 nits, which allows for reasonable expectations of HDR content. And indeed, in many scenes, the TV can truly shine. Sequences with a lot of light – like shots from the movie Life of Pi or wide, bright surfaces in The Meg – look impressive. Brightness stays around 700 nits, which provides a solid effect, enough to feel the true "HDR magic." Unfortunately, not every scene looks this good. In content with small, bright details on a dark background, like in Sicario 2, the TV can struggle – it can significantly dim individual elements, sometimes to the point where they disappear from the image. This is a result of the limited number of dimming zones, forcing the device into compromises: either stick to inky blacks or sacrifice some detail. QN80F usually chooses the former. As a consolation, it offers quite decent coverage of a wide color palette – DCI-P3 at 93%. It's not the highest score on the market, but it's more than enough for most content on streaming platforms.

The Dreame Q100 is unfortunately too simple, and above all too dim, to really deliver a true HDR effect. Our measured peak brightness reaches at most around 300 nits, which is definitely too low for bright parts of the image to really "hit" you with light. In fact, this is a level we more often associate with SDR material than with HDR. It therefore lacks the brightness headroom offered by more expensive TVs, which makes highlights, reflections and the sun look noticeably more impressive.

HDR colours

Fortunately the Q100 makes up for some of that elsewhere. The manufacturer markets it as a QLED TV, although in practice a PFS filter is responsible for widening the colour palette. Our measurements show coverage of about 92% of DCI-P3 and around 67% of BT.2020. These are not top-tier numbers, but still clearly better than basic LCD TVs without an extra layer to expand the gamut. That means HDR material can at least offer more saturated and varied colours, even if the brightness alone does not yet allow you to speak of a fully convincing HDR effect.

We always test TVs in the best available factory mode – for the Samsung QN80F, this is the Filmmaker mode, and indeed, it provides the settings closest to the creators' intentions. However, this doesn’t mean everything looks perfect. In SDR content, the biggest issue was an unbalanced white balance – slight deficiencies in green and a noticeable excess of red led to noticeable colour errors, and one could say the screen had a pinkish hue. This was clearly visible in the colour checker test, where colours “escaped” outside their target fields – to such an extent that a sensitive viewer's eye could catch it even without the help of a meter.

In HDR content, the white balance was much better, but another issue arose – brightness management. The EOTF curve caused an overly bright image most of the time, which affected the perception of contrast and made the screen slightly “flicker” during dynamic changes in light. We’ve already discussed this in the paragraphs about black levels and HDR. Fortunately, Samsung offers users plenty of options. The QN80F features a rich set of calibration options, including a 20-point white balance – which is why we decided to check what this TV is really capable of after a proper calibration.

For testing we chose the "Film" mode and we think it’s by far the best of the available presets. There are none of the heavily boosted, unnatural colours you see in Vivid/Dynamic mode. The picture looks quite reasonable straight away, although it falls short of perfect. In SDR material the most noticeable issue was a slight warming of the image. The white balance had too much red, which made whites lean towards a warmer tint, and a similar cast was visible in the greys. In HDR the situation was a little different. Here blue had a slight advantage, making the image a touch cooler. These are not major faults. For such an inexpensive TV the factory settings on our unit were pretty decent, and the "Film" mode already delivers a relatively natural picture without much fiddling with the settings.

After conducting a thorough calibration, it was possible to bring most image parameters to a really good level. The white balance in both SDR and HDR presents itself almost perfectly – the image is natural, neutral, and free from the previously noticeable redness. Colours have gained depth, and the overall visual experience has become more pleasant and cohesive. It was also possible to partially manage brightness, which in the factory version could cause issues. The EOTF chart shows that the television performs much better with brightness after calibration – there is no longer excessive dimming of certain elements. In films, it can still be noticed that the QN80F has a tendency to slightly brighten the smallest bright details – this is already a consequence of the device's construction and the limited number of dimming zones. In short: not everything can be overcome, but what was possible has been improved. After calibration, the QN80F makes a really good impression, looking simply more mature and professional.

Contrary to appearances, the Dreame Q100 is actually quite well prepared for picture calibration. The menu contains plenty of advanced picture settings that allow fairly precise adjustment of its characteristics. In our case the white balance required the most work, both in SDR and HDR. After correction SDR material looked very good. We managed to achieve an almost neutral white balance and natural colours, with the main limitation remaining the black level itself, stemming from the panel design and the lack of local dimming.

In HDR we were also able to improve white balance and colour reproduction, but here the TV’s electronics reveal their limitations more quickly. Even after very precise EOTF curve adjustment, the Q100 doesn't always stick to it properly during real-world scenes. In some content it can also brighten the image, making some parts look brighter than they should, and some detail in bright areas can be lost as a result.

If you notice strange colour transitions or unwanted artefacts while watching lower quality materials – for example from YouTube – it's worth checking the settings and enabling the noise reduction feature. In our opinion, the best setting is at the 'medium' level – it effectively smooths out problematic colour transitions without overly blurring the entire image. However, it's important to know one thing: this option tends to remove film grain. If someone values preserving that effect (e.g., in older films), it's better to simply turn it off – regardless of the level, the grain always disappears.

Regarding resolution scaling (also known as upscaling), Samsung – as usual – performs very well in this area. The QN80F doesn't quite match the top models costing tens of thousands, but for its price class, it performs impressively. Materials of very poor quality (e.g., from SD television or older video files) are noticeably improved and look surprisingly decent. The only noticeable downside is the typical Samsung issue with overscan – which is a slight cropping of the image edges at very low resolutions, such as 576p.

The weakest point of the Dreame Q100 is its digital image processing. The processor used does a fairly average job of improving weaker material, and the menu offers no function that effectively smooths ugly tonal transitions or reduces visible posterisation. The upscaling itself is also unimpressive. With low-resolution material the image is rather soft and lacks better reproduction of fine detail. Additionally, the Q100 tends to overscan, meaning it slightly crops the edges of the image with very poor sources, for example 480p material. In everyday viewing of HD or 4K content this won’t be a major issue, but with older recordings the processor’s limitations are clearly visible.

QN80F is truly a “fast” TV. The panel used offers a refresh rate of up to 144 Hz, which in practice means that the screen keeps up with the action – whether we’re watching a movie, playing games, or browsing dynamic content online. The image doesn’t stutter, isn’t overly blurred, and everything simply looks smooth and pleasing to the eye. Of course, the manufacturer hasn’t forgotten about cinema fans – in the settings, we find an option to adjust motion smoothness, allowing us to tailor the effect to our own preferences. You can leave a more “frame-y” look (for those who enjoy the classic film vibe) or crank up the smoothness to a higher level to achieve a theatrical smoothing effect. Importantly, the choice is ours. Watching movies and playing on the QN80F is just plain fun.

The VA panel in the Dreame Q100 has a native refresh rate of 60 Hz, so right from the start it's not a television built for the most demanding sports fans or gamers. The manufacturer does note the option to run at 120 Hz and that mode is indeed available, but it's primarily intended for a gaming mode. In everyday use the Q100 should therefore be treated as a standard 60 Hz TV. That means less smooth motion during fast sports broadcasts or quick gameplay than in models with 120 Hz or higher panels. One positive is the panel's response time. The VA panel doesn't smear excessively, so motion stays fairly clear and doesn't leave strong, blurred trails behind objects. For films we can also use a simple motion smoothing system. The manufacturer has prepared several presets that help reduce the characteristic judder in material shot at 24 frames per second.

Samsung QN80F is a television that delivers on almost every front when it comes to gaming. It features a 144 Hz panel, four fully-fledged HDMI 2.1 ports, support for gamers with variable refresh rate (VRR), automatic game mode (ALLM), and even one of the best-designed gamebars on the market. The icing on the cake is the motion smoother which – uniquely in the world – works in games without significantly increasing input lag. Sounds like an almost perfect gaming TV? And indeed, it is almost that.

[UPDATE] We have updated our Samsung TV tests from the 2025 model year due to the release of firmware version 1131, which restored the crucial gaming feature HGiG.

As usual, Samsung doesn’t support Dolby Vision in games, but that’s no longer surprising. However, what is much more surprising is that... the HGIG feature has disappeared – meaning the system that allows the console (e.g., PlayStation 5 or Xbox Series X) to accurately match HDR tone mapping to the capabilities of the television. In the latest firmware update for the 2025 models, this option simply vanished. It looks more like a bug than a deliberate move, but it must be honestly noted that at the time of writing the review, the HGIG feature is simply absent.

And it’s precisely because of this one absence that the QN80F goes from being an almost perfect gaming television to a “nearly” perfect device. What a shame – because everything else indicated that Samsung could once again set the bar very high in this generation.

Dreame Q100 is not strictly a gaming device, but for console use it offers a pretty sensible package. You get VRR to eliminate screen tearing and ALLM, which automatically switches the TV to a low-latency mode when it detects a console signal. An interesting compromise is support for 120 Hz. The panel won't reach that refresh rate in 4K, but drop to 1080p and you can play at 120 frames per second. If a title prioritises smoothness over resolution (and the game offers such a mode), it's worth using. It also includes a handy Game Bar that lets you quickly change screen settings, switch the refresh mode or add a virtual crosshair. The HGiG implementation is a bit weak, but credit is due for Dolby Vision Gaming support on Xbox Series X and S. This isn't a panel for tech purists, but for casual console gaming, especially when trading 4K for smoother Full HD, it performs very well.