Samsung QN80F 100" vs TCL A400 PRO

When it comes to HDR in Filmmaker mode, the QN80F can make a great first impression. Our laboratory tests have shown that under the best conditions, the television is capable of achieving brightness exceeding 1200–1300 nits. These are truly excellent results, making HDR effects in many films look incredible. The television is simply bright enough not to need to artificially adapt the image – the bright parts of scenes have the right 'power' and actually look like a light source. Of course, the laboratory is one thing, and everyday viewing is another. In practice, in film scenes, brightness generally oscillates in the range of 700–1100 nits. These are still great values that, in most cases, provide a strong sense of realism and make the lights on the screen truly capable of blinding. The problem arises in exceptionally challenging sequences, where, like almost every mini-LED, it reveals its limitations. A good example is Sicario 2: the scenes with the helicopter in the night sky look much weaker, and the lights lose intensity, dropping to around 370 nits, making it hard to speak of serious admiration. To this, we must add the issue of colours. Although we are dealing with a QLED, the coverage of the DCI-P3 colour palette is around 90%. This is a rather average result for a quantum dot television. In practice, this means that some colours may appear less saturated than we would expect, especially in demanding HDR productions.

The TCL A400 Pro is a moderately bright TV. Its peak brightness reaches around 600 nits. That level already allows for a real HDR effect, and in many films it does produce a noticeably more attractive picture than in SDR. However, it is not a level that overwhelms with sheer brightness. The A400 Pro therefore isn’t one of those TVs that ‘attack’ the viewer with a powerful flash in every eye-catching scene. The biggest limitation is seen with small bright elements on a dark background. Because of fairly aggressive local dimming control, the TV can significantly reduce their brightness, in extreme cases even to around 100 nits. This means that small lights, sparks, stars or individual highlights can be much less visible than they should be. It’s worth adding, however, that this isn’t without reason. The A400 Pro does this to maintain as deep a black level as possible and to limit the halo effect around bright objects. So it’s an intentional compromise: the TV more often opts for deeper blacks rather than maximally bright, point-like highlights. On one hand this can be understood, especially given the limited number of dimming zones, but on the other you should be aware that the HDR effect won’t always be as strong as the peak brightness alone might suggest.

On the plus side, the colours are a strength. The PFS LED filter used here, marketed by the manufacturer as QLED, allows for suitably saturated colours. Coverage of the DCI-P3 gamut measured around 94%, and BT.2020 around 74%, which is a solid result for this class.

The Samsung QN80F performs best in Filmmaker mode, which is designed to replicate the creators' intentions as accurately as possible. And indeed – this is the mode in which the television showcases its potential. But let’s not kid ourselves, it is far from perfect. In SDR content, the issue of white balance came to the forefront. Slightly lacking greens and a noticeable excess of reds caused the screen to take on a pinkish hue. You don't even need meters to notice this – in everyday viewing, the subtly shifted colour palette could be quite noticeable, and in colour checker tests, the colours would literally "pop" out of their reference fields. With HDR content, the situation looked a bit better, as the white balance was closer to ideal, but another problem arose – brightness management. The EOTF curve often caused the image to become too bright, which spoiled the sense of contrast, and in dynamic scenes, it led to a slight "flicker" in perception. We had already mentioned this when discussing black levels and HDR. The good news, however, is that Samsung provides a lot of tools for improvement. The QN80F allows for truly detailed calibration, including a 20-point white balance. And since the manufacturer has left us so many options, we decided to check how the television would perform after a thorough adjustment.

As standard, we performed colour measurements in the best‑tuned Filmmaker Mode, the mode that is designed to be closest to the creators' intentions. The A400 Pro of course also offers other picture modes, but in practice these come with considerably larger colour errors and interfere more with the character of the image. Therefore we will not deal with them in detail in this part of the test. So how does the out‑of‑the‑box colour reproduction fare? In short: really very good. Actually, looking at our measurement results, downright excellent. Both the white balance and the luminance response were set surprisingly precisely. The errors were so small that during measurements we genuinely rubbed our eyes in amazement. Such good factory settings do not happen often, even in TVs operating in Filmmaker Mode. All the more credit is due to TCL, because the A400 Pro right out of the box can deliver an image very close to how the source material should look. The results were so good that one could easily think someone had already given this unit extra attention and tried to calibrate it.

Our nitpicking really comes down to just one thing. In SDR content the image was slightly brighter than the dark‑room reference intends, because the factory gamma was set closer to 2.3 than to 2.4. This is not a large error and most viewers will probably not even notice it.

It should, however, be noted that we are talking about our specific test sample. With factory colours there can always be some variation between units, production batches or screen sizes. We do not assume, therefore, that every A400 Pro will look identical straight out of the box.

After calibrating the QN80F, it immediately showed that it was capable of much more. The previous pinkish tint disappeared, and the white balance finally looks like it should – natural and without excessive deviations. The colours gained depth, and the image became more saturated and cohesive, making watching films simply more enjoyable. It's a bit like removing a light haze from the screen – suddenly everything appears sharper and clearer. The management of brightness has also improved. The television no longer gets easily lost in dynamic shifts, and the EOTF graph shows that the curve tracking is significantly more stable. Of course, there are no miracles – the limited number of zones still means that small bright elements can be slightly washed out, but that's a result of the design itself, not the settings. After this correction, the QN80F feels like a more mature piece of equipment, and watching films finally provides the satisfaction expected from a television even in a higher class.

Despite its superb factory calibration, we couldn't resist checking how the TCL A400 Pro would respond to professional calibration. Since the starting point was so good, we were all the more curious whether there was anything more to be had from the TV. And here we must boast: we managed to reduce our unit's colour errors to absurdly low levels. Measurements below a value of 1 are not something you see every day, even in very good TVs. Such results are more commonly associated with professional reference monitors than with a lifestyle TV for the living room. In terms of white balance and colour reproduction the A400 Pro therefore simply performed exceptionally well after calibration. The only gripe we have after closer analysis relates to the luminance behaviour. The TV adjusts luminance depending on the content being displayed and quite often the picture is slightly darker than the reference calls for. This is most likely due to the way the Mini-LED backlight and local dimming algorithms operate in this model. However, this does not spoil the overall impression, because in terms of colour accuracy alone the calibrated A400 Pro showed a level that was really hard to expect.

With lower quality materials, such as films from YouTube or older television recordings, the QN80F can display its strengths and weaknesses. If strange colour transitions or artefacts start to appear on the screen, it is worth using the noise reduction function. The best setting is at "medium" – it smooths out problematic sections while not blurring the entire image. However, one compromise must be remembered: this function always removes film grain. If someone enjoys its presence in older productions, it is better to keep the reduction turned off, as the grain simply disappears regardless of the setting.

Resolution scaling, or upscaling, is another strong point of Samsung. The QN80F may not be the best television on the market in this regard, but it performs very well in its price range, which is very important for such a large size as a 100-inch screen. Even lower quality materials can gain a second life – the image becomes sharper, more readable, and overall much more pleasant to perceive. A weak point remains overscan, which is the slight cropping of edges in very low resolutions (e.g., 576p), something that has been a longstanding issue for Samsung. Fortunately, this is practically of no consequence when watching HD and 4K content on a daily basis.

Digital image processing is, unfortunately, one of the weaker points of the TCL A400 Pro. That does not mean the TV performs badly, but it is hard to call it anything clearly above average. The upscaling itself is adequate: edges are smoothed fairly well, the picture does not look overly sharp or "pixelated", and lower-quality content can be watched without much discomfort. At the same time, the overall image is slightly soft and lacks the precision offered by the best image processors in more expensive TVs.

Much worse, however, is how it handles tonal transitions caused by strong signal compression. TCL has equipped the A400 Pro with a "Gradual Smoothing" feature that, in theory, should limit visible colour banding and artifacts in lower-quality material. In practice, though, its effectiveness is very limited. It does not improve tonal transitions in any noticeable way, and at higher settings it can also smooth out image details, giving the picture an artificial, slightly blurred character. For that reason, we think it is best to leave this feature off. The A400 Pro copes decently with basic image scaling, but if you often watch heavily compressed content with noticeable posterisation, this model will not be among the best choices.

The QN80F features a 144 Hz panel, and this is evident in practice – with full refresh, the image is remarkably smooth, and motion blur remains at an acceptable, barely noticeable level. However, this mode is primarily aimed at PC gamers. The most important reference point in everyday use remains the 120 Hz refresh rate, and this is where a certain discrepancy arises. During the UFO test, we noticed a splitting of the contours of rapidly moving objects – it looked as if the television had the BFI (Black Frame Insertion) feature permanently activated, which in practice led to an unpleasant effect of double edges. We do not yet know whether this is a software issue or a characteristic of this model, but in its current form, such behaviour is hard to commend.

The TCL A400 Pro is equipped with a 144 Hz panel, but in practice we are most interested in its behaviour at 120 Hz. That is the frequency most consoles are limited to today, as well as many sports broadcasts and high-frame-rate content. At that rate the TV performs quite well. The sharpness of moving objects is really good, especially after properly configuring the motion smoothing. The "Motion Clarity" function is responsible for improving smoothness. Its settings include two sliders that let you tailor how the motion smoothing operates to your preferences, separately for lower and higher frame-rate material. This makes it possible to achieve both a more cinematic look and a noticeably smoother picture. Those who do not want to fiddle with manual configuration can use presets such as low, medium, high, cinema or nature.

The Samsung QN80F gives the impression of a television designed with gamers in mind. On the list of advantages, we have a 144 Hz panel, four full-featured HDMI 2.1 ports, complete support for VRR and ALLM, as well as one of the best-designed gamebars on the market. Added to this is the Game Motion Plus motion smoother, which also works in games without actually increasing input lag, making the QN80F an absolute standout in this category. In practice, this means you can enjoy smoother images without losing responsiveness, which is a dream for many console gamers!

As is usual with Samsung, there is a lack of Dolby Vision in games, and this is no longer surprising. However, we were much more surprised that in the models from 2025… the HGIG feature has disappeared. This feature allowed consoles such as the PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series X to perfectly adjust HDR tone mapping to the capabilities of the television. In the current firmware of the QN80F, this option is simply missing – it seems more like a mistake than a conscious decision by the manufacturer, but on the day of testing, we must acknowledge that HGIG is not available. Due to this one absence, the QN80F, instead of being an almost ideal television for gamers, becomes a device that is only "almost" ideal. This is quite a shame because, aside from this, Samsung has created a model that truly sets a high standard in the gaming hardware segment.

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

In terms of features for gamers the TCL A400 Pro performs brilliantly. The TV has practically everything you can expect from a gaming TV today: support for 4K at high refresh rates, VRR, ALLM, correct implementation of HDR formats in games including Dolby Vision, and HGiG. That means it works well with both next-generation consoles and a PC. Another plus is the presence of the Game Bar, a special panel with the most important settings for gamers. From it you can quickly check basic information about the signal, refresh rate or active features, and also adjust the appearance and behaviour of some settings to suit your preferences. This solution may not change picture quality by itself, but it greatly improves the convenience of using the TV while gaming.

The only thing to complain about is the number of full HDMI 2.1 ports. The A400 Pro has only two such connectors out of the four available, and one of them also serves as eARC. In practice this means that if someone wants to connect two next-generation consoles and a soundbar, they may run into some limitations. In that scenario you will have to either swap devices or use additional equipment, such as an AV receiver or a soundbar with HDMI inputs. Even so, it is hard not to rate the A400 Pro very highly as a TV for gamers. The gaming feature set here is truly powerful.