Samsung QN80F vs Hisense E8Q

QN80F is quite a bright screen – in synthetic tests, it achieved nearly 1000 nits, which allows for justified expectations regarding HDR content. And indeed, in many scenes, the television can truly shine. Sequences with a lot of light – like shots from the film Life of Pi or wide, bright surfaces in The Meg – look impressive. Brightness remains around 700 nits, which provides a solid effect, sufficient to feel the true "HDR magic." Unfortunately, not every scene looks that good. In materials with small, bright details on a dark background, such as in Sicario 2, the television has issues – it can significantly dim certain elements, sometimes to the point where they disappear from the image. This is the result of a limited number of dimming zones, which forces the device to make compromises: either maintain inky blacks or sacrifice some detail. QN80F usually chooses the former. As a consolation, there is quite decent coverage of a wide colour gamut – DCI-P3 at 93%. This is not the highest score on the market, but it is more than adequate for most content on streaming platforms.

Since the E8Q is a twin of the U7Q, it’s no surprise that the quality of the HDR effect is nearly identical. On paper, it looks promising – a peak brightness of 800 nits can impress in many scenes. Moments such as flashes of light in “The Meg” or shots of the sun in “Life of Pi” can indeed evoke a 'wow' effect. But the longer we watch, the more we notice the limitations. The problem arises when small, bright details need to be shown against a dark background. In such situations, the dimming algorithms try to preserve contrast but end up dimming what should shine the most. Instead of dazzling details, we get almost invisible points of light. This is typical for Mini-LEDs in this price segment and is not surprising – but it’s worth knowing that the HDR effect will not always be fully preserved. Fortunately, the colour performance offers reasons to be pleased. Coverage of the DCI-P3 colour gamut at around 94% is a very good result, and the applied layer of quantum dots (more precisely, PFS) does its job – the colours are saturated and vibrant, especially with 4K content.

We test televisions always in the best available factory mode – in the case of the Samsung QN80F, this is the Filmmaker mode, and indeed, it is this mode that offers settings closest to the creators' intentions. However, this does not mean that everything looks perfect. In SDR content, the biggest problem turned out to be an unbalanced white balance – slight deficiencies in green and a noticeable excess of red led to discernible colour errors, one could even say a pinkish tint on the screen. This was well demonstrated in the colour checker test, where the colours 'escaped' beyond their target fields – to the extent that even a sensitive viewer's eye could catch this without the aid of a meter.

In HDR content, the white balance was much better, but another issue arose – brightness management. The EOTF curve resulted in an overly bright image for most of the time, which could affect the perception of contrast and caused the screen to subtly 'flicker' during dynamic light changes. We have already written more about this in the paragraphs on black levels and HDR. Fortunately, Samsung leaves the user with plenty of options. The QN80F offers a rich set of calibration options, including a 20-point white balance – therefore, we decided to check what this television is really capable of after proper calibration.

Testing the Hisense E8Q in Filmmaker mode, we were hoping for a possibly neutral image close to the director's vision. Unfortunately – although it doesn't look bad on paper (the colour reproduction errors are not significant), in practice the image appears not entirely natural. The reason? An overly strong boost in blue colour and a lack of red in the white balance. The effect? Scenes look cool, and the white seems slightly bluish. Alongside the U7Q model, we also noticed a specific approach to brightness management here. The brightness mapping curve for HDR content (EOTF) shows that the television can significantly dim small, bright elements on the screen to maintain contrast – but sometimes it goes too far in this. On the other hand, larger, very bright areas can be excessively brightened, which disrupts tonal balance. This is a compromise that may not suit everyone – especially if you want an as faithful image as possible right out of the box.

After conducting a thorough calibration, it was possible to bring most of the image parameters to a really good level. The white balance in both SDR and HDR is nearly perfect – the picture is natural, neutral and devoid of the previously noticeable redness. The colours have gained depth, and the overall visual reception has become more pleasant and cohesive. It was also possible to partially master the brightness management, which in the factory version could be problematic. The EOTF chart shows that the television performs significantly better with brightness after calibration – there is no longer excessive dimming of certain elements. In films, it can still be noticed that the QN80F has a tendency to slightly brighten the smallest, light details – however, this is the effect of the device's design and the limited number of dimming zones. In short: not everything can be overcome, but what could be has been improved. After calibration, the QN80F makes a really good impression; it simply looks more mature and professional.

The calibration of the Movie mode yielded really good results, especially when it comes to SDR content. We managed to balance the white levels, which made the image look more natural – it appeared almost reference-quality. The colours were well-saturated, and the overall perception of the content improved significantly. Unfortunately, when we switched to HDR materials, familiar issues from the U7Q model returned. The television still likes to "do its own thing," as evident from the analysis of the brightness characteristic EOTF – despite calibration, the E8Q still dimmed fine details in the shadows, while the bright areas of the screen could be excessively boosted. In practice, this means that in darker scenes, some of the smallest details could simply disappear. Although it must be acknowledged that the entire calibration process brought a lot of good, not everything can be circumvented – even with the use of professional tools. The E8Q can impress with its picture, but in HDR content, its design limitations become apparent, and it is worth keeping this in mind.

If, while watching lower quality materials – for example from YouTube – we notice strange colour transitions or unwanted artefacts, it's worth checking the settings and turning on the noise reduction feature. In our opinion, the best setting is at “medium” – it effectively smooths out problematic colour transitions while not blurring the entire image too much. However, one must know this: this option tends to remove film grain. If someone cares about preserving this effect (e.g. in older films), it’s better to simply turn it off – regardless of the level, the grain always disappears.

When it comes to resolution scaling (or so-called upscaling), Samsung – as usual – performs very well in this area. The QN80F may not compete with top models costing tens of thousands, but for its price class, it really does impress. Materials of very low quality (e.g. from SD television or older video files) are noticeably improved and look surprisingly decent. The only noticeable drawback is the typical Samsung issue with overscan – that is, slight cropping of the image edges in very low resolutions, e.g. 576p.

In the case of older materials with lower quality, a gentle smoothing of tonal transitions often comes in handy. The Hisense E8Q, like the U7Q, features an "Smoothing and Gradient Image" function, but unfortunately – its effectiveness leaves much to be desired. The "Low" mode is almost imperceptible in operation, and the higher settings do not improve transitions but simply blur the details. The good news is that the function does not compromise film grain, meaning it does not worsen the structure of the image. On the plus side, scaling is commendable. The television is able to sensibly upscale older content to a higher resolution – without artificially accentuating contours or excessive sharpening. Although it does not match the best models in this category, it performs quite well for its class.

QN80F is truly a "fast" television. The applied panel offers a refresh rate of up to 144 Hz, which in practice means that the screen keeps up with the action – whether we're watching a film, playing games, or browsing dynamic content online. The image doesn’t stutter, isn’t excessively smeared, and overall looks simply smooth and pleasing to the eye. Of course, the manufacturer hasn’t forgotten about cinema fans – in the settings, we’ll find an option to adjust motion smoothness, allowing us to tailor the effect to our personal preferences. We can maintain a more "framey" appearance (for those who enjoy the classic cinematic vibe) or ramp up the smoothness to a higher level for a theatrical smoothing effect. Importantly, the choice is ours. Watching films and playing on the QN80F is simply a delight.

Similar to the U7Q, the E8Q model is a fast television designed for dynamic content. It supports a refresh rate of 144 Hz at 4K resolution, and if, for some reason, someone is still gaming in Full HD – it can even reach 240 Hz. This is a significant advantage, especially for PC users looking for maximum smoothness. In everyday use, the television performs very well. The "Ultra Motion Smoothness" mode offers two sliders that allow you to customise the picture to your preference – whether more cinematic with the film frame preserved or highly smoothed, almost "series-like". It's good that the manufacturer provides a choice here instead of imposing one style. On sports material, live broadcasts, or in games – movement looks clean and stable. Of course, it is not at the OLED level, but for this price range, the E8Q performs really well.

The Samsung QN80F is a television that delivers on almost every front when it comes to gaming. We have a 144 Hz panel, four full-fledged HDMI 2.1 ports, support for gamers in the form of variable refresh rate (VRR), automatic game mode (ALLM), and even one of the best-designed game bars on the market. The cherry on top is the motion smoother, which – uniquely in the world – works in games without significantly increasing input lag. Sounds like an almost perfect television for gamers? And indeed, it is almost that.

As usual, Samsung does not support Dolby Vision in games, but that no longer surprises anyone. However, it is considerably more surprising that... the HGIG function has disappeared – that is, the system that allows the console (e.g., PlayStation 5 or Xbox Series X) to precisely match HDR tone mapping to the television’s capabilities. In the latest firmware update for the 2025 models, this option has simply vanished. This looks more like a mistake than a deliberate move, but it must be noted fairly that as of the date of writing this review, the HGIG function is simply not available.

And it is precisely because of this one missing feature that the QN80F transforms from an almost perfect gaming television into a “nearly” perfect device. It’s a shame – because everything else suggested that Samsung could once again set the bar very high in this generation.

Hisense E8Q does not hide its gaming heritage. Even the specifications reveal that we are dealing with a television that will perform excellently as a gaming screen. Variable Refresh Rate (VRR)? It's there. Automatic switching to game mode (ALLM)? That's there too. Additionally, there is impressive refresh rate – 120 Hz in 4K or even 240 Hz in Full HD. Such a set is rare in this price segment. Everything works smoothly and without major surprises. The only missing element – similar to the U7Q – is support for HGiG. It’s a shame, as this feature facilitates adjusting the brightness curve to the capabilities of a specific television, improving visual compatibility with the intentions of HDR game creators. Without it, one has to manually fiddle with the settings, which does not always yield a satisfactory result.