LG OLED G4 vs Samsung Q7F

LG G4 guarantees an incredibly vivid HDR effect, placing the television among the very best. The equipment of the highest model in the producer's 2024 portfolio with the second generation of micro-lens technology (MLA) has achieved a maximum brightness level of 1474 nits in real scenes. The only area where the product from the Korean manufacturer may lag behind LCD televisions with Mini LED backlighting is during the full-screen scenes featuring a lot of white. If we disregard the latter type of scene, the average result would be even higher. It is also worth mentioning scenes with very fine details, where each one shines at full intensity, which is not as evident in non-OLED televisions. The combination of such brightness and wide coverage of the DCI-P3 palette makes HDR materials more engaging than ever before.

Unfortunately, the Samsung Q7F is not one of the brighter televisions, and this has a direct impact on the quality of HDR films. The peak brightness of the panel is just around 250 nits, which is definitely too low to speak of true cinematic experiences. In practice, the image in 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 tests of film scenes, the image simply looked dark, and the brightness almost always hovered around the aforementioned 250 nits. The worst performances were with shots that included small, intensely shining elements – the global dimming technique used reacted very aggressively in these cases, dimming the entire screen to maintain the effect of black. However, it is worth noting the presence of the QLED coating that expands the colour palette. For a budget QLED model, the Q7F performs quite decently here: the coverage of the DCI-P3 palette is about 93%, and BT.2020 reaches 70%. This means that, despite the low brightness, the colours can still look quite vivid and attractive.

The best factory mode in terms of colour reproduction was "Filmmaker". This was the one we used during our tests. Let's check how its characteristics looked before the calibration process. Looking closely at the white balance first, we can notice a significant dominance of red and green. As a result, the image had a warm yellowish hue. Such characteristics are typically observed in "Cinema", "Filmmaker" or similarly named modes. The effect of this colour balance was clearly visible in both SDR and HDR content, which after switching from "Standard" mode appeared distinctly yellow. Now, let's move on to two graphs that are responsible for the brightness characteristics and consequently the contrast of the image. The first one (Gamma), representing materials with a standard colour palette, performed decently. For most of the time, midtones and bright whites were reproduced very accurately; however, it noticeably lost the darkest details, which merged into a black blob. Conversely, HDR materials, represented by the EOTF curve graph, exhibited a significant drop in contrast due to a strong boost in brightness. The colours themselves also posed a problem, as can be seen on the "ColorChecker" graph, since they were noticeably under-saturated.

The factory colour accuracy of the Samsung Q7F is certainly not one of its strong points. In Filmmaker mode, which theoretically should be the closest to neutral, the issue with white balance immediately stands out. There is too much red on the screen, while blue is lacking. The consequences of this 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 look somewhat unnatural, and bright areas of the scene may seem unrealistic. The problems become even more evident in HDR content. The graphs show that the television has significant errors in the Color Checker palette, which translates to visible inaccuracies in the actual image. Practically, this means that the colours are not presented as they should be. The Q7F also heavily manipulates brightness; darker elements are overly boosted, losing their cinematic quality, while bright parts may appear dimmed. As a result, the image seems flattened, and contrast, instead of helping to bring out details, only highlights its own limitations. This is particularly frustrating in HDR material, where every detail matters. In scenes where there should be a subtle play of light and shadow, the Q7F either oversteps by brightening too much or conversely – suppresses elements that should draw the eye. This causes the image to lose its depth, and instead of cinematic realism, we have a rather simplified effect.

The manufacturer has implemented extensive support for the calibration process in its LG televisions for many years. We therefore used 2- and 20-point greyscale adjustments, as well as an advanced CMS (Colour Management System), and got to work. As you can see, thanks to the procedure carried out, each parameter has significantly improved. The use of tools allowed for the achievement of extremely beneficial effects, which include: studio colour reproduction, recovery of details in dark areas of the image, appropriate brightness characteristics, and suitable colour saturation. This brings us as close as possible to the reference image, which is what the film director saw on the preview monitor. It is worth noting that the LG G4 televisions alone allow for even deeper intervention in image quality thanks to the ability to calibrate with 3D LUTs. However, this is a solution recommended only for post-production or graphic studios.

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

It was significantly harder to tame HDR content. Despite adjusting the white balance, the television still heavily manipulates brightness, causing scenes to sometimes look unnatural – what should be subtly darker can be overly brightened, and bright areas of the picture can occasionally appear dimmed. The end result is better than in factory settings, but it is evident that the structural limitations of the Q7F do not allow for the full potential of HDR materials to be fully realised.

The tested television did not perform particularly well with materials rich in tonal transitions, as a result of which we could observe a strong posterisation effect. However, there is a partial remedy for this issue. The manufacturer has equipped the LG G4 with a smoothing system called "Gentle Gradation," which we can apply at three levels: Low, Medium, and High. Each of these options guarantees quite a high effectiveness of smoothing on light colours, although it is low on darker ones. We recommend primarily using the first one, as the other two interfere with the director's intentions by removing film grain.

When watching lower-quality materials, the efficiency of the television during upscaling is extremely important. The image from the tested television is sharp and clear. However, one should pay attention to the jagged edges of fine details and minor issues around characters, such as the creation of halo effects, which occurs due to the sharpening imposed by LG G4 even when the lowest value on the slider, that is 0, is set. It is worth noting that this represents a certain change compared to the LG G3, which did not impose such strong image sharpening, even when the appropriate slider was set to position 0.

Upscaling and digital image processing on the Q7F is a bit of a sine wave. On one hand, we have really nice upscaling – weaker sources look better than one might expect. The image becomes clearer, sharper, and even older films or terrestrial television perform adequately. Samsung has been strong in this area for years, and the Q7F confirms that. On the other hand… there are some issues. The television 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 makes practically no difference – the banding in gradients is still there. It's a bit of a shame, as one could have expected more from a model that is aimed at users looking for a display for SDR content.

The maximum refresh rate that we can set on the LG G4 is 144 Hz. Naturally, this is only possible when the LG G4 is connected to a very powerful PC. Otherwise, we will operate at a maximum refresh rate of 120 Hz, which is recommended if we primarily want to watch sports or content with high motion dynamics. For those requiring high image fluidity, the manufacturer has implemented a multi-level motion smoother called "TrueMotion". This has been divided into two separate sliders that adjust the sharpness of moving images (De-Blur) and judder (De-Judder). Both sliders can be set in the range from 0 to 10, with each level affecting the degree of smoothness, allowing everyone to find their golden mean.

The LG OLED G4 panel features an average response time of 0.78 ms (as directly derived from our measurements), enabling an incredibly clear image, unattainable by LCD televisions, which can have response times of several milliseconds. This is perfectly illustrated by the images from the "UFO Test", which show no trailing blur behind the object. Moreover, the LG OLED G4 test revealed that the television offers the ability to precisely adjust the motion smoothing function, allowing users to select the ideal level of image interpolation. We particularly appreciated this during fast-paced actions in video games, where the LG G4 performed exceptionally well, minimising any blurring. Thanks to OLED technology, this model eliminates so-called ghosting, ensuring that the image remains sharp even in the most dynamic sporting or cinematic scenes.

Ghosting and motion smoothness in the Q7F are probably the most budget-friendly elements of this television. The 60 Hz panel makes itself known, with noticeable ghosting, especially in dynamic scenes, and it's rather difficult to regard this model as equipment designed for watching sports or playing fast-paced games. In tests with the little green man, a long trail was left behind, similarly to how a ball in a football match would leave streaks.

On the plus side, the presence of motion smoothing must be acknowledged. In films, it actually makes a difference – especially since most material is recorded at 24 frames per second. Here we can decide whether we prefer a more "cinematic" image, with slight judder typical of cinema, or a smoother, more "television" approach. This part works quite well and helps to improve the viewing experience for series and films.

The LG G4 television supports all the features that make up the HDMI 2.1 standard. During testing, each of them activated without the slightest problem, which allows us to consider the television as designed for gaming. Their functionality will surely be appreciated by both console users and those connecting the LG G4 to a computer. It is also worth mentioning the correct implementation of the HGIG (HDR Gaming Interest Group) mode, which ensures that games mastered to brightness levels exceeding the maximum luminance of the LG G4 will correctly map tones, and the game's visuals will remain true to the original.

A nice touch is the existence of a special GameBar, which we can call up at any moment to check game parameters, but most importantly, to change them quickly. More importantly, enabling VRR technology does not degrade contrast, which is very common in televisions that feature local dimming or Mini LED backlighting. Of course, this is thanks to the OLED panel itself, characterised by pixel self-emission. As a matter of editorial obligation, we will only mention a slight grey flicker, which is somewhat normal after enabling VRR.

In summary, the LG G4, like practically all OLED televisions, is an ideal product for all kinds of games and online competitions. With fully-fledged HDMI 2.1 connections with a full bandwidth of 48 Gbit, features such as VRR, ALLM, G-Sync, FreeSync, or gaming in HDR Dolby Vision will bring much joy.

Features for gamers in the Samsung Q7F is a topic that evokes quite a lot of mixed feelings. On the one hand – no sensible person expected miracles here, as it is after all a 60 Hz television and it was clear from the start that it would not be a device for squeezing the maximum out of a console or PC. On the other hand, since the manufacturer promised specific solutions in promotional materials, it is natural that we wanted to see them in practice. At the outset, it’s quite decent. The automatic game mode (ALLM) works, so there’s no need to manually fiddle with the settings; the console automatically switches the television to low-latency mode. Additionally, 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. Yes, an appropriate icon appears in the menu, and you can even see it in the Game Bar, but throughout the entire test, the feature remained inactive and could not be enabled in any way. The situation with HGiG is even more painful; this option was indeed available at the beginning, but after a software update, it completely vanished, which is simply unprofessional. Therefore, the Q7F is only suited for the absolute basics. Of course, you can turn on the console, play some 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 to buy with gaming in mind, and it's better to be aware of that before making a purchase.