Panasonic W85 vs Samsung QN80H

Unfortunately, we do not have good news here. The Panasonic W85B is rather dim – its peak brightness does not exceed 300 nits, so it’s hard to talk about any true HDR effect. In practice, this means that scenes which can “shine” and make an impression on other screens simply look like ordinary SDR with a slight boost in colours here. Our measurements and film tests confirmed this – regardless of the content, the W85B will not extract anything more from HDR. Therefore, if someone is looking for a television specifically for HDR, it is better to look towards other models. As consolation, the fact remains that in terms of colours, the W85B performs quite well. It is a QLED television, so its colour gamut coverage is wide, and most films and series look natural, without a distinct “washed-out” effect. The colours are saturated, so in everyday viewing, there is no sense that something is strongly amiss.

The Samsung QN80H is undoubtedly a bright TV. In synthetic tests it exceeds the 1000-nit mark, which on paper promises a solid HDR effect. In practice the screen really shows its teeth, although it can't fully spread its wings (or its backlight, if you will 🤔) in every condition. Bright, wide scenes make the best impression. Well-lit outdoor shots and brightly lit scenes look really good on it. Brightness then stays around 700 nits, which provides a noticeable step up in quality compared with standard SDR. Problems start in dark scenes with small, pinpoint highlights. The QN80H tends to dim these strongly, in order to protect black depth at all costs. On the one hand this gives better contrast, on the other... you lose dynamics and the brilliance of fine HDR detail. So the TV has considerable potential, but the dimming algorithm can be too restrictive.

Colour gamut coverage

When it comes to colours it's good as well. The QN80H uses quantum dot technology, and in our measurements it covered 93% of the DCI-P3 colour space and about 70% of BT.2020. Today those results aren't exactly jaw-dropping, but in real-world use they're more than sufficient to deliver a vivid, natural image for most films and TV series. Colours are suitably saturated, and after proper calibration they don't look artificial or overly aggressive.

When testing the Panasonic W85B, we obviously started with Filmmaker mode, as this is today’s gold standard when it comes to watching content “as the director intended.” The problem is that this television is quite far from those intentions. The biggest issue turned out to be an excess of red – both in SDR and HDR. The image often appeared too warm because of this, and in some scenes, it was almost “blazing.” Additionally, there is the issue of brightness management. When we looked at the gamma or EOTF charts, it was clear as day that in most scenes, the television brightens the image more than it should. The effect was simply predictable. Details can get lost, there is flattening, and highlights are blown out across the entire screen. We know, of course, how to correct this, but it must be said honestly that it requires a lot of work during calibration. Out of the box, the W85B does not provide a picture close to reference – it is rather a television that will always interpret colours and brightness a little “in its own way” without professional adjustments. Unfortunately, this is to the viewer’s detriment.

The factory settings of the QN80H performed really well, especially compared with the majority of TVs we receive for testing. Of course, our measurements were taken in Filmmaker Mode, and that's the mode we recommend turning on immediately after the initial setup. For SDR material, our sample was set up surprisingly well. The white balance was very even, colours looked natural, and errors were so small they were hard to notice without measurement equipment. The only weaker point was the gamma. In the brighter parts of the image the TV brightened them a little too much, which at times made the picture lose some depth. Still, we'd like most TVs to look this good straight out of the box.

It fared a little worse in HDR. The white balance was still set correctly, so the problem was not with the colours but with the way the QN80H managed image brightness. This was immediately visible on the EOTF chart. The TV brightened large parts of scenes too much, causing the brightest elements to clip. Interestingly, very small points were often dimmed too much at the same time. As a result, some fine details simply disappeared. So the factory Filmmaker mode in HDR is not bad, but it is definitely not as well calibrated as in SDR.

Fortunately, calibration made a significant difference for the Panasonic W85B, particularly in SDR content. Here, the improvement was really noticeable – we managed to balance the whites and somewhat tame the tendency of the television to excessively brighten the entire image. The picture became more coherent, and the colours gained a naturalness that was lacking in the factory settings. Admittedly, the results from the Color Checker are not perfect, as the W85B has visible issues with green saturation, but overall, we evaluate the post-calibration effect in SDR very positively. The situation is a bit different with HDR. Here too, we managed to reduce the tendency to warm up the entire scene, so the image performed significantly better than in the factory settings. However, the same issue we mentioned earlier is still evident – the television interprets the image too much "on its own" and brightens the entire screen. The lack of local dimming only exacerbates this effect. In summary, briefly in SDR content, the W85B performs really well after calibration and is more than suitable for daily viewing. However, in HDR, even after adjustments, it remains difficult to unequivocally recommend it for serious viewing sessions.

We saw the biggest difference after calibration in HDR Filmmaker mode. SDR was already very good out of the box, so we didn't have much work to do there. In HDR, however, we managed to get to grips with the way the QN80H handled brightness, as it had been over-brightening most scenes. After calibration the picture is calmer, more natural and much closer to how a faithful image should look.

With native SDR content, the Panasonic W85B performs very well – tonal transitions are smooth and natural, without artificial bands or prominent contours. However, the situation is worse when it comes to lower resolution materials. It is precisely there that the television has the most difficulty with "enhancing" the image. The lack of any option in the menu that would allow for improving gradation means that with older films or materials from YouTube, one can sometimes notice slight issues with colour blending.

Fortunately, upscaling, or raising the quality of lower resolution content, performs much better. This is definitely a strong point of this model – the image is scaled cleanly and in detail, and the television handles this better than one might expect from such an inexpensive piece of equipment. This is thanks to the HCX processor, which Panasonic has been developing for years, and it is noticeable that even in the lower series it can do a good job.

Digital image processing in the Samsung QN80H is handled by the second-generation NQ4 AI processor. It's a chip we already know from the manufacturer's earlier models, and it still performs very well, especially with lower-resolution content. The image is effectively upscaled to 4K, but without excessive sharpening and without giving the impression the TV is aggressively trying to improve the source material.

The "Noise Reduction" function also proves useful. It can noticeably reduce posterisation and visible banding in lower-quality material, particularly in low-bitrate streaming. However, it's important to remember that it does not work without side effects. It can remove some film grain and slightly smooth the image. So with a high-quality source we'd leave this function switched off. If, however, someone is more bothered by banding and uneven tonal transitions than by the loss of some grain, "Noise Reduction" can be a really useful addition.

At first glance, everything looks good – the Panasonic W85B has a 120 Hz panel and even a 144 Hz mode, so it seems that it should cope well with smooth motion. The problem arises when we look into the settings. The options for improving fluidity are supposedly present in the menu, but in practice… they don't change anything. No matter what we choose, the image looks the same. On top of that, there is a lack of BFI, or the black frame insertion mode, which on many televisions helps sharpen motion. And suddenly it turns out that despite the strong panel, the W85B offers us no real tools to adjust motion according to our needs. It’s only good when the source itself operates at a higher frequency – for example, games at 120 Hz. But when it comes to films or sports, we simply have to accept what the television shows us, because nothing more can be done about it.

Motion handling and motion clarity on the QN80H are really good, mainly thanks to the fast panel. In 4K the screen refreshes at up to 144 Hz, and when switched to Full HD and connected to a PC it can reach as much as 240 Hz. That's new for Samsung TVs and a useful addition for people who want to use the TV for PC gaming as well. We were more interested, however, in how the QN80H performs at 120 Hz, because consoles use that refresh rate. Here it performs very well. The panel does not suffer greatly from the smearing typical of VA panels, and light trails behind moving objects are mainly visible on dark backgrounds. That said, it's nothing that would interfere with normal watching of sport or gaming. The TV also has a motion smoothing system that Samsung calls "Wyrazistością obrazu". You can adjust judder reduction and blur reduction separately, so it's easy to tailor its behaviour to films, sport or your own preferences.

On paper, the Panasonic W85B looks really solid. It has two full HDMI 2.1 ports, support for ALLM, variable refresh rates, Dolby Vision in games, and of course, a high refresh rate of the panel itself. Additionally, it features Panasonic's characteristic game tools bar – a "game bar" that allows you to preview key parameters and quickly change them if needed with a single click. This sounds great, but the problem arises when we turn on HDR. Here, the W85B suffers significantly, as there is practically no HGiG implementation – the television poorly manages brightness, and instead of an accurate picture, we get scenes that are too bright, sometimes even blown out. The solution? The simplest one – turn off HDR in the console settings and leave everything in SDR. And this is where it gets really interesting, as in this scenario, the W85B shows its better side. Low input lag, high fluidity thanks to 120 Hz – all of this makes gaming look phenomenal. Indeed, HDR can be forgone, but if the priority is responsiveness and smooth gameplay, the W85B offers a lot of fun.

The Samsung QN80H is a TV that stands out when it comes to gaming features. The biggest new addition for 2026 is DLG mode, which allows refresh rates of up to 240 Hz when the image is switched to Full HD. It's an option aimed mainly at PC users, but it also shows that Samsung is still heavily developing the gaming side of its TVs. However, the list of advantages doesn't end there. The QN80H has four full-fledged HDMI 2.1 ports, which is still not standard at this price point. So you can connect several consoles, a PC or a soundbar at the same time without having to wonder which port supports the full video capabilities. The TV also supports VRR, ALLM and HGiG, so it's hard to fault its basic feature set.

A downside is the lack of Dolby Vision, which may matter primarily to Xbox Series X owners. However, this is not a flaw that disqualifies the QN80H as a gaming TV. Samsung has a feature most manufacturers still lack: its proprietary motion smoothing, Game Motion Plus. It's a motion smoothing system that works in game mode too, allowing you to improve the smoothness of titles running at 30 or 60 frames per second without a drastic increase in input lag. In practice, Game Motion Plus can make a much bigger difference than the Dolby codec, especially in more demanding games that don't offer a 60 FPS mode. The image becomes noticeably smoother, while controls remain sufficiently responsive. So despite the lack of Dolby Vision, the QN80H remains one of the best-equipped gaming TVs in its class.