Samsung QN900F vs Haier Q80FUX

QN900F is a seriously bright TV – it can generate nearly 2000 nits, which is a level that remains unattainable for most models on the market. But the ability to achieve such brightness isn’t everything – it also matters whether the TV can make good use of it. And here it’s not always perfect. Our tests on cinematic scenes showed that in scenes like those from Life of Pi or The Meg, the QN900F can really shine – both literally and figuratively. In such moments, its greatest advantage, which is brightness, makes a huge impression. However, in more demanding scenes, things start to get tricky – similar to assessing contrast. When smaller, bright elements appear on the screen, the TV often struggles with the decision of whether to highlight them at the cost of black levels or perhaps maintain deep blacks but tone down the brightness. The result is situations where, for example, in the movie Sicario 2, the brightness dropped to just 200 nits, making details barely visible. The dimming algorithms could definitely be better, considering the class of this television.

Alright, let's move on to the topic that really sparks discussions, which is the capabilities of the TV in HDR mode. Let's be clear from the start: the Haier Q80FUX is certainly not a brightness demon. The panel of this set can generate about 350 nits at peak, which in today's reality is an absolute minimum to even talk about the presence of HDR expanded dynamic range. On the plus side, this brightness is at least stable – regardless of the test pattern or film scene we used, measurements consistently hovered around 300-350 nits. These are at best adequate results, definitely far from the dazzling display of capabilities that we know from more expensive models. Fortunately, there is one aspect where the Q80FUX makes up for these shortcomings and does so considerably. We are talking about a QLED TV (or more precisely PFS LED), which means that thanks to the quantum dot filter used on the panel, it can generate truly juicy, vibrant colours. These are not empty promises – covering nearly 95% of the DCI-P3 colour gamut is an impressive result and directly translates into very pleasant, saturated colours for the eye.

Testing the QN900F in Filmmaker mode, the distinct characteristics of the image quickly became apparent, despite this mode being designed to reflect the director's vision. The white balance was not perfect – the television had noticeable deficits in blue. This caused the entire scene to take on a warmer tone, as if someone had applied a subtle filter in shades of yellow and orange to the image. In films where bright shots dominate – for example, scenes in the snow or under strong daylight – this gave an impression of a slight warmth that does not always convey the director's intention. The second noticeable element was the management of brightness. The QN900F sometimes brightened the image more than necessary. It looked as if the exposure had been slightly "pushed up," which caused the scene to lose some naturalness. Shadows could be too shallow, and contrast slightly weakened. These are not disqualifying errors, but for a television in this price range, it is clear that the Filmmaker mode has not been perfected one hundred percent. This is particularly noticeable when we compare its image to what was visible after the screen calibration.

Factory settings for movie mode are seldom perfect, but in the case of the Q80FUX, we encountered a noticeable imbalance. In SDR content, the image was definitely too warm, due to an excessive amount of red in the white balance, giving the overall picture a slight sepia tone. Conversely, in HDR materials, the television fell into the other extreme – an excess of blue caused an unnatural, cool effect in perception. However, it wasn't the fickle white balance that was the biggest issue with this TV. The real culprit, responsible for the previously described problems, was hiding deeper. It turned out that the Q80FUX has completely miscalibrated gamma values and, crucial for HDR, a poorly executed EOTF curve. It was these erroneous factory settings that caused the notorious clipping of the brightest parts of the image, imposing that characteristic milky filter over them. Thus, we found the source of the problem. This situation led to general, significant colour inaccuracies that were easy to catch even for an untrained eye. Like every television we tested, we decided to calibrate this model as well, and you can find the results of these adjustments in the next paragraph.

After calibration, we managed to reduce the errors in white balance and adjust them to a level that can be considered acceptable. It's not perfect, but definitely better than the factory settings. Most colour errors now fall within the deltaE 2–3 range, so in practice, they shouldn't be noticeable during everyday viewing. The biggest improvement is evident in how the television handles brightness in SDR content. Shadows and details are no longer flattened, giving the image depth and naturalness. As for 4K HDR materials – colours themselves are no longer an issue, but one can still notice some imperfections in Mini-LED technology. The QN900F tends to excessively dim the smallest bright elements, causing them to sometimes disappear from view. However, it's worth noting that this is a much better solution than boosting the entire screen, which would ruin the contrast. This is more of a characteristic of the technology rather than a typical flaw, but it's worth keeping in mind. The effects of the calibration are really very good.

The results of our calibration procedures must, unfortunately, be regarded as twofold. Generally speaking, the picture is undeniably better than before the adjustments; however, the biggest winner of this process has been SDR content. It is precisely here, after correcting the gamma curves and white balance, that we achieved results that can safely be called very good. Once set up, the Q80FUX truly shines in standard dynamic range, displaying only slight errors in the most challenging skin tones. Unfortunately, the weakest link remains HDR content. And here's the paradox: even though we managed to calibrate the white balance to near perfection, the overall colour errors still remain at quite a high level. The reason is that the television still interprets the static HDR10 metadata "in its own way," stubbornly enforcing that unfortunate image clipping effect, which inevitably leads to significant distortions. Although we successfully eliminated the factory excess of blue, due to this electronic interference, the screen can still veer into somewhat too cool tones. That’s just how this television is.

If we want to get rid of awkward tonal transitions that can be annoying, for example, while watching YouTube, we can use a feature called noise reduction. It works really effectively – it eliminates issues with colour blending when set to Standard level. However, as with most Samsung TVs, this comes with some compromises. Although we didn't notice this feature having a significant impact on the structure of objects in the image, it unfortunately reacts quite aggressively to film grain. Most people will likely appreciate this effect – the noise is simply removed – but if someone is looking for an image as close as possible to reference settings, we definitely recommend turning this option off.

When it comes to upscaling, or dealing with very low-quality content, the QN900F performs really well. On the test pattern with a model, the image looked clear, with only slight jaggedness that shouldn't bother most viewers. However, it’s worth mentioning one issue – the TV sometimes struggles with so-called overscan, which means older content may be slightly cut off. This can manifest, for example, with disappearing subtitles at the bottom of the screen.

If there's one area where Haier clearly shows it still has a lot to catch up on compared to the market leaders, it's digital image processing. The upscaling, well... it's just okay. And that's really all that can be said about it. It does what it's supposed to do: ensures that lower resolution signals don't scare you with harsh pixelation on the screen and don't look like a forcibly enlarged postage stamp. However, it's far from the finesse and "intelligent" sharpening that more experienced players in this market have developed over the years. The biggest issue with the Q80FUX software is the almost complete lack of additional "cleaning" and smoothing features for the image. The receiver offers no noise reduction mechanisms or gradient enhancement. This means that with older or highly compressed materials, we simply have to accept that all the imperfections in tonal transitions or colour blending, which we mentioned earlier, will constantly accompany us during viewing.

There’s really nothing to nitpick here – the QN900F looks great when it comes to motion. Thanks to its 165 Hz panel in 4K, you can confidently say that this TV is suited for both watching sports and gaming. The motion smoother plays a key role here. It works brilliantly – not just with sports broadcasts, where it can eliminate blurring and image judder, but also in games, where animation becomes clearer and more fluid. And of course, if someone likes to experiment with movies – they have that option as well. At lower settings, you can see a slight graininess and a filmic quality, while higher settings introduce a soap opera effect. So everyone can tailor the picture to their preferences, and the TV has the power to handle it.

The issue of motion fluidity and blurring is largely predetermined by the use of a 60Hz panel, which naturally makes it difficult to recommend this receiver to enthusiasts of very dynamic content. Fortunately, in the Q80FUX, we find a few options (although, as will soon become clear, really just one) intended to enhance the experience with older film productions. There is a "De-Judder" slider available, which indeed affects motion fluidity and allows us to adjust it to our preferences: from raw, cinematic frame rates to a more theatrical, smoothed presentation. However, a true surprise awaits us right next to it in the menu. There is also a second slider, supposedly dedicated to removing blur – this is a feature we typically encounter in 120Hz panels, aimed at combating blurring in sports. As we expected, recalling memories from testing the K85F model, here too this slider is merely a façade. Its adjustment contributes absolutely nothing to the picture and simply seems to be an oversight by the product engineers who left a non-functional option in the software for this type of panel.

[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.

It's really good here. The QN900F offers a full set of features that we would expect from a top-notch gaming TV – we have VRR, ALLM, Game Bar, as well as cloud gaming apps. However, the biggest standout is its proprietary motion smoother, which also works in games and – importantly – does not add noticeable input lag. This is something we won't find in other competitors. Unfortunately, there is also something concerning. This year, Samsung has clearly messed up something with its TVs. During the testing of the QN900F before its update, it had the HGIG feature, which allowed for perfect adjustment of HDR settings for consoles. However, according to our procedures, we always update the hardware to the latest version – to give the manufacturer a chance to fix any issues. And here… it went the other way.After the update, the HGIG feature disappeared from the menu, making proper configuration of the console for HDR practically impossible. It was supposed to be complete – 165Hz, four HDMI 2.1 ports, a full gaming package… but unfortunately, it turned out to be a little mishap. What a shame.

Entering the realm of gaming, the Haier Q80FUX proves to be quite a good companion for the "casual gamer." It is equipped with some highly sought-after features today such as VRR (variable refresh rate) and ALLM (automatic low latency mode). However, the biggest surprise is something else. Even though we don't have a 4K@120Hz panel here, the television can accept and display a 120Hz signal at a lower resolution (Full HD). This is a very useful feature, allowing you to consciously switch the console to a lower resolution mode in exchange for significantly higher fluidity, which is a perfectly acceptable compromise in the gaming world.

We won't particularly complain about the lack of additions like the "Game Bar," as it's just a nice extra. However, the most concerning issues arise when we enter the world of HDR in gaming. Due to the fact that the television continuously adapts the signal "in its own way," setting the brightness on the console according to the HGIG standard is almost impossible to accomplish according to the instructions. Worse still, in Dolby Vision mode for gaming, the input lag increases to around 50 ms, which is a high enough value that essentially makes this mode unusable. Generally speaking, we still wouldn't recommend gaming on this television in HDR mode, so these aren't that serious shortcomings. What’s most pleasing is the presence of 120Hz in Full HD, making the Q80FUX quite a cool television for the occasional gamer.