Hisense U8NQ vs Samsung QN85F

Hisense U8NQ demonstrates its capabilities in terms of HDR, achieving a luminance chart score exceeding 2000 nits. In the first, third, and fifth scenes where the screen is bathed in light, the television displayed very high brightness that impresses and allows one to fully enjoy the HDR effect. Unfortunately, in the second and fourth scenes, such as those from the film "Sicario 2", the television encounters difficulties in maintaining brightness, resulting in disappointing scores around 250 nits. Although the large number of dimming zones should theoretically help, the algorithm responsible for their control does not always work perfectly — bright, small elements like the moon or helicopter lights are too dim, which detracts from the typical HDR effect. Instead of dazzling brightness, we get a more subdued light that does not realise the full potential of HDR. Nevertheless, the television deserves praise for its very good coverage of the DCI-P3 colour gamut at 97%. This results in vibrant colours, and most film scenes look really good, significantly enhancing the viewing quality.

Although more than twice the number of dimming zones compared to its predecessor did not translate into a spectacular jump in black levels and contrast, we definitely felt it in the HDR effect itself. The QN85F is up to 50% brighter than last year's model, making a huge impression in dynamic scenes. The peak brightness can reach almost 1700–1800 nits, which is truly impressive for Mini-LED in this class. The best part is that almost regardless of the scene being watched, the HDR effect remains strong and vibrant. In four out of five test scenes, brightness was maintained around 1000 nits, a level that in most cases allows the viewer to experience the true magic of this format. Of course, in scene number 4 from the film Sicario 2, the limitations of Mini-LED technology become apparent – the brightness of the helicopter’s small light drops to around 500 nits. This result is not stellar, but it is still much more acceptable than last year's model. Samsung therefore deserves applause, as the improvement in brightness in the QN85F is drastic compared to its predecessor. However, it is a shame about a certain trend visible in this year's televisions – the manufacturer has worsened the colour gamut coverage. Although the QN85F has a QLED panel, its score of around 90% DCI-P3 is average, and in the most demanding films, it can lead to less vibrant colours than its predecessor. Despite this shortcoming, the overall HDR effect stands at an excellent level and truly makes a big impression in this class of devices.

The Filmmaker mode on the Hisense U8NQ television can be described as the most accurate mode available on this model. Despite its accuracy, it has significant errors in reproducing reference images, which we will now describe. In the case of HD content, the white balance shows a clear dominance of red, making the image overly pink and warm. The comparative photo below illustrates how this effect impacts content presentation. The brightness characteristics also leave much to be desired — too low a gamma results in an excessively bright screen, and blacks appear elevated, making the overall image seem cooler than it should be.

In the case of 4K HDR content, the problem is the opposite — the white balance shows too great a dominance of blue, resulting in an artificial appearance and an unnaturally sharp image. All of these deviations for both HD and 4K HDR content can be confirmed using the Colour Checker test, which clearly demonstrates how colours deviate from correct standards.

Samsung QN85F offers several preset picture modes, but by default, when the television is turned on, it starts in "Eco" mode. And we could actually end the discussion here, because for such a model, using this setting makes no sense – the picture is washed out, unpleasant, and far from what we expect from a television of this class. We therefore carried out our tests in the best of the available modes, which is the Filmmaker mode. Its purpose is to faithfully reproduce what the directors saw during the filming of the movies, and indeed this is the setting that performs best among all factory options. However, this does not mean that it is without flaws.

Both in SDR and HDR, the QN85F quite strongly emphasised warm colours. This resulted from deficiencies in white balance, where there was a distinct lack of blue. Additionally, the picture was sometimes overexposed – as indicated by both the gamma brightness characteristic and the EOTF curve, which showed that the television tends to blow out scenes. In SDR, the colour reproduction errors (Delta E levels of 4-5) were still acceptable, but in HDR the discrepancies became quite large and clearly deviated from what the creators intended to show us. Fortunately, Samsung provides a wide range of calibration tools in its televisions, so – as always – we proceeded with professional calibration to see how much could be improved.

The white balance for both 4K and HD content has been significantly adjusted, which has greatly improved the picture quality. Although some errors are still visible, they are not large enough to heavily affect the perception of the image. A significant improvement can also be noticed in the gamma brightness characteristic — the picture is no longer excessively bright, translating into more natural blacks and better contrast.

However, as with many other Hisense models, there are visible issues with the EOTF curve, which is responsible for managing brightness in high-quality materials. Although at first glance it may seem correct, when the filter is applied to the "EOTF in films" chart, it is evident that the television somewhat "manipulates" 4K content. It is clear that the EOTF curve is significantly below the reference level, leading to an overall dimming of the image compared to the reference. We noticed this effect in previously tested scenes from the films "Pan" and "Billy Lynn." While it is not a serious issue, it is worth noting. It may be of great importance to those seeking a display with the most faithful reproduction of the image. Despite this error, for most, the picture will be more enjoyable. Colours are better represented, and the overall picture quality is significantly improved.

After calibrating the film mode, we managed to tame the colours in both modes to near perfection – most of them did not exceed an error value of 3, which is the threshold of perception by the human eye. The image became more natural, fuller, and at the same time free from bloom, which was noticeable right after taking the television out of the box. This shows the great potential of the QN85F and how well it responds to precise settings. However, this does not change the fact that certain technological barriers cannot be overcome. Despite the enormous benefits of calibration, there are still limitations of the panel itself. Although the number of dimming zones has doubled compared to its predecessor, the algorithms controlling the backlighting can manipulate brightness in their own way. Sometimes this leads to slight colour inaccuracies or gently visible halo effects around bright objects. Nevertheless, the experience after calibration is truly pleasant and demonstrates how good a screen the QN85F can be if we just take a moment for proper settings.

In the context of smoothing tonal transitions, the television Hisense U8NQ unfortunately struggles. The “Smooth and Gradient Picture” function does not yield noticeable effects — there is no improvement in any setting, which is disappointing, especially for demanding scenes with a lot of subtle tonal transitions.

Regarding digital processing, or so-called upscaling, the scene with the model is presented correctly — her outline is clear, without significant cropping. Similarly, thin lines, such as tree branches, exhibit slight jaggedness, but overall it looks plastic and soft, which creates a good impression. Unfortunately, there is also an issue with so-called overscan, which causes cropping of the image at the edges. This can be frustrating when watching content like news, where lower information bars may be partially invisible.

Although the native tonal transitions on the QN85F with 4K material perform excellently, we do not always deal with content in the highest resolution. At that point, it becomes crucial how the television handles upscaling and digital image processing. This process is managed by Samsung's proprietary processor – AI NQ4 Gen2. In practice, it operates very efficiently. If visible colour banding or other undesirable phenomena occur on the screen, for instance, in materials from YouTube, they can easily be smoothed out using the "noise reduction" feature. Set to a medium level, it improves tonal transitions without excessively blurring desired details. However, it is important to remember that – as with most Samsung televisions – this function heavily interferes with the film grain. Therefore, during cinematic screenings, it is wise to use it cautiously to avoid losing the natural character of the image.

The upscaling itself looks very good. Test materials in lower resolutions were displayed sharply and clearly, with a great deal of detail. The only downside remains the issue of overscan, which is the trimming of the edges of the screen. In most situations, this is not noticeable, but with very old materials below HD quality, there may be cases where a fragment of the image from the left side gets slightly cut off.

Hisense U8NQ is equipped with a 144 Hz panel, making it an excellent choice for both sports and gaming. The television will also easily satisfy film enthusiasts, as it features a built-in "Ultra Motion Smoothness" processor that allows you to control the smoothness of the image — you can decide whether you prefer a more "framey" picture or a smoother, theatrical effect. This provides great flexibility in adjusting motion quality to the viewer’s individual preferences.

Motion smoothing and fluidity in the QN85F is a topic worth discussing in more detail, as the television is equipped not with a standard 120 Hz panel, but with a 144 Hz one. The extra hertz will mainly be appreciated by PC gamers, but the mere presence of such an option can be seen as a nice addition and a sign of the times – it’s hard to complain about the trend towards faster panels, as in practice, each of us would prefer the image to be as smooth as possible. However, the most important thing is how the television handles typical 120 Hz refresh rates – in the case of consoles, sports, or films recorded at 24 or 30 frames per second. Here, the QN85F performs really well. In films, one can easily adjust the character of the image thanks to the "image clarity" function, where we find two adjustable sliders. Key for screenings is the one responsible for reducing judder. Lower values give the image a more cinematic character with preserved "frame rate," while higher values lead to strong smoothing reminiscent of television theatre.

Hisense U8NQ offers everything a gamer may need for comfortable gameplay. The television supports a refresh rate of 144 Hz, ensuring an extremely smooth image, particularly in dynamic action games. The VRR (Variable Refresh Rate) feature allows the image to adjust to varying frames per second, eliminating stuttering and tearing, resulting in exceptionally fluid gameplay. Additionally, the television is equipped with an ALLM (Automatic Low Latency Mode) feature, which automatically switches the television to gaming mode, minimising input lag. This allows players to enjoy responsive gameplay without the need to manually adjust settings.

Hisense U8NQ also supports Dolby Vision, which is important for gamers who value high image quality, high contrast, and deep colours in games that support this format. The television also has a “Game Bar” — a feature that provides quick access to key settings during gameplay, significantly enhancing user convenience.

However, it is worth noting that despite its rich set of features, the Hisense U8NQ does not offer support for the HGiG standard, which is a popular HDR format in games. This may be disappointing for gamers expecting optimal detail reproduction in HDR scenes. Nevertheless, the other features of the television make the Hisense U8NQ a solid choice for console gaming enthusiasts, offering fluidity, high contrast, and user convenience.

The Samsung QN85F makes a really great impression in terms of gaming features. It has four HDMI 2.1 ports, so we can easily connect multiple devices simultaneously. There is also variable refresh rate (VRR) which prevents screen tearing, as well as an automatic game mode (ALLM) that allows the television to switch to the appropriate settings when we start the console. Additionally, it supports refresh rates of up to 144 Hz – something that PC gamers will particularly appreciate, but the mere fact that such an option is available shows that Samsung is fully committed to supporting gamers. The Game Bar panel also deserves praise. It provides a quick overview of the most important parameters – from frame rate to refresh mode, even including shortcuts to picture settings. Instead of navigating through the entire menu, everything is at hand, which proves to be very convenient in practice. However, the most interesting addition is the Motion Plus gaming feature. It's effectively a motion smoother adapted for the gaming world. When enabled, the image becomes smoother, sometimes looking as if we've gained several extra frames, and importantly – the response time doesn’t increase enough to hinder gameplay. This solution truly sets Samsung's 120Hz televisions apart from competitors.

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

The only major downside remains the lack of proper HGiG support. This is a standard responsible for correct tone mapping in HDR games, meaning that brightness and contrast are displayed as intended by the creators. Without HGiG, we have to adjust brightness manually, which doesn’t always yield perfect results. The feature was available in previous models, but it vanished from the QN85F after one of the updates. We hope that Samsung will quickly resolve this issue, and we will keep checking to see if it has been fixed.