Samsung QN900F vs Samsung Q7F

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.

Unfortunately, the Samsung Q7F is not one of the bright televisions, which directly impacts the quality of HDR films. The peak brightness of the panel is only around 250 nits, which is definitely insufficient for claiming a true cinematic experience. In practice, the HDR content does not differ significantly from classic SDR, making it difficult to talk about any "wow effect" that usually accompanies us when watching such films. During testing of film scenes, the image simply looked dark, and the brightness almost always hovered around the aforementioned 250 nits. The worst performance came from shots with small, intensely glowing elements – the global dimming technique used reacted very aggressively in those cases, dimming the entire screen to maintain the black effect. However, it is worth noting the presence of a QLED coating that broadens the colour spectrum. For a budget QLED model, the Q7F performs quite decently here: the DCI-P3 colour gamut coverage is around 93%, and BT.2020 reaches 70%. This means that despite the low brightness, the colours can still look quite vivid and attractive.

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.

The reproduction of factory colours in the Samsung Q7F is definitely not one of its strong points. In Filmmaker mode, which theoretically should be closest to neutral, the white balance issue is immediately noticeable. There’s too much red on the screen, while blue is lacking. The effects are very easy to notice – white, instead of being neutral, takes on warm, almost slightly orange tones. In the long run, this makes the entire image appear a bit unnatural, while bright areas of the scene can seem unrealistic. The problems are even more evident in HDR content. The charts show that the TV has significant errors in the Color Checker palette, which results in visible inaccuracies in the real image. In practice, this means that colours are not presented as they should be. The Q7F also heavily manipulates brightness; darker elements are overly boosted, causing them to lose their cinematic feel, while bright parts can be dimmed. This makes the image seem flattened, and contrast, instead of helping to bring out details, only highlights its own limitations. In HDR materials, this is particularly frustrating because every detail matters. In scenes where a subtle play of light and shadow should be felt, the Q7F either overdoes the lighting or, conversely, suppresses elements that should attract the eye. This causes the image to lose its depth, and instead of cinematic realism, we have a rather simplified effect.

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.

After professional calibration, we managed to bring the Q7F to order – at least in terms of SDR content. The image in this mode looks really good: the white balance has been set correctly, the colours appear natural, and the errors in the colour palette have dropped to levels practically invisible to the eye. Gamma behaves exemplary, and the only minor flaw remains a slight lightening of smaller elements, which stems from the lack of local dimming. For everyday watching of television or films in standard quality, the Q7F performs surprisingly well.

It was significantly more challenging to tame HDR content. Despite adjusting the white balance, the television still heavily manipulates brightness, causing scenes to appear unnatural – what was meant to be subtly darker can sometimes be overly bright, and the bright parts of the image can occasionally be dimmed. The final effect is better than in factory settings, but it’s clear that the construction limitations of the Q7F do not allow for fully utilising the potential of HDR materials.

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.

Upscaling and digital image processing in the Q7F is a bit of a rollercoaster. On one hand, we have really nice upscaling – weaker sources look better than you might expect. The image becomes clearer, sharper, and even older films or free-to-air TV hold up well. Samsung has been strong in this area for years, and the Q7F confirms that. On the other hand… things start to get tricky. The TV has a problem with overscan – part of the image is simply cut off, and it doesn't look very elegant. Additionally, we were let down by a feature called "noise reduction," which should improve the smoothness of tonal transitions in weaker materials. In other Samsungs, it works relatively well, but here it practically makes no difference – the banding in gradients is still there. It's a bit of a shame because we expected more from a model that is aimed at users looking for a display for SDR content.

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.

Motion blur and motion fluidity in the Q7F is probably the most budget-friendly aspect of this television. The 60 Hz panel makes the motion blur quite noticeable, especially in dynamic scenes, and it's rather hard to consider this model as equipment designed for watching sports or playing fast-paced games. In tests with the little green man, there was a long trail, similarly, the ball in a football match would leave behind streaks.

On the positive side, the presence of motion smoothing is worth noting. In films, it really makes a difference – especially since most materials are recorded in 24 frames. Here we can decide whether we prefer a more "cinematic" image, with a slight judder typically found in cinema, or a smoother, more “TV-like” one. This actually works quite well and helps improve the viewing comfort for series or movies.

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.

The features for gamers on the Samsung Q7F is a topic that stirs up quite a few mixed emotions. On one hand – no reasonable person was expecting miracles here, after all, it’s a 60 Hz television and it was clear from the get-go that this wouldn’t be equipment to squeeze the maximum from a console or PC. On the other hand, since the manufacturer promised specific solutions in promotional materials, it is only natural that we wanted to see them in practice. At the start, it’s looking pretty good. The automatic game mode (ALLM) works, so there’s no need to manually fiddle with the settings; the console switches the TV to low latency mode by itself. Plus, we have the Game Bar, which looks impressive and allows you to check a few basic parameters without leaving the game. And this is where the good news ends.

The biggest problem with the Q7F is VRR, or rather its absence. Indeed, the appropriate icon appears in the menu, you can even see it in the Game Bar, but throughout the entire test, the function remained dead and could not be activated in any way. Even more disappointing is the matter of HGiG; this option was actually available in the beginning, but after a software update, it disappeared completely, which is just unprofessional. Therefore, the Q7F is only suitable for absolute basics. Sure, you can turn on the console, play calmer titles, and enjoy low input lag, but if someone is counting on more advanced features that the manufacturer promised, they will be disappointed. This is not a television one buys with gaming in mind, and it’s better to be aware of this before purchasing.