Samsung QN80F vs TCL C7K / QM7K

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.

TCL C7K is one of the brightest MiniLED televisions in its price range. Under the best testing conditions, the screen managed to achieve over 1200 nits, resulting in impressive, at times almost blindingly bright scenes. And most importantly – this is not just a theory based on measurements. In practice, the brightest parts of films can shine with true cinematic grandeur. Fans of home HDR cinema should be truly satisfied.

The impression is excellent, especially in scenes with large areas of brightness – a white sky, explosions, sun reflections, or magical sunsets can surprise with an intensity of light that is rarely seen in this price range.

However, it gets a bit worse when more challenging scenarios appear on the screen, as described when discussing contrast – that is, images full of details, with small, bright elements on a dark background. In such cases, the C7K often decides to preserve black levels at the expense of brightness. An example? Scenes from the films Sicario 2 or Life of Pi, where small light sources (like a distant lantern) can become less visible, and details in the lights are simply dimmed or blend into the background.

For many viewers, this may be an acceptable compromise – as we achieve deep black levels and a pleasing plasticity of the image. Nevertheless, it is worth being aware that the visibility of small details in bright areas is not this model's strongest suit. It is simply a technological limitation that still exists – even with over 300 zones.

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.

A new feature in TCL televisions for 2025 is the long-awaited Filmmaker mode, which until now has been found in most competing brands. This is great news, as this mode is considered to be the truest to the original vision of the creators and is often recommended by enthusiasts of good picture quality. Unfortunately, as is often the case, the mere presence of this mode does not guarantee perfection. The Filmmaker mode in the TCL C7K is not without its flaws. There can be criticism of the incorrect white balance, particularly a slight dominance of blue, which resulted in cool, somewhat greyish skin tones. But that was not the biggest issue. The main complaint was the excessive brightness exposure, which is clearly visible on the gamma and EOTF graphs. The image was simply too bright, at times even blown out, which affected not only the texture of scenes but also the overall viewing experience. Some details were simply lost, and the entire image looked as if someone had slightly overcooked the brightness slider. As always, we decided to check what could be extracted from this after calibration. And that’s where it started to get really interesting…

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.

After calibration, the TCL C7K showcased itself in a really good light, especially when it comes to SDR content. We managed to precisely tune the white balance, colour gamut, and brightness characteristics to the point that colour errors on the ColorChecker palette dropped below a value of 2. For the uninitiated – this is nearly a perfect result, which means that the image is very close to what the creators intended. Unfortunately, the situation was worse with 4K HDR content. Although we managed to gently stabilize the white balance and correct its previous errors, it was still evident that the television has certain "MiniLED traits," especially in brightness management. When we checked how the C7K handled the EOTF curve on actual film scenes, rather than just on synthetic test patterns, it turned out that the screen still tends to slightly brighten the entire image. This impacts the overall experience – blacks lose some depth, and the image becomes less contrasty than it should be. Despite these minor shortcomings in HDR content, the overall reception of materials – especially in SDR – is truly very good. After calibration, the C7K can display an image that can compete successfully with much more expensive models. Good colour tuning, natural skin tones, and pleasant brightness make movie sessions and everyday viewing of content more than satisfactory.

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.

TCL C7K is equipped with a feature that, according to the manufacturer, is meant to smooth out unwanted colour transitions – a sort of rescue for less successful tonal shifts. It is called "Gradual Smoothing" and… well, it sounds ambitious, but in practice it works very poorly. Regardless of whether we set it to a low or high level, the difference is minimal. Worst of all, the feature can cut out elements from the picture that should be there. Fortunately, film grain remains untouched, so at least it doesn’t smooth everything indiscriminately, but still – it’s better to simply turn this option off.

When it comes to scaling lower resolution content, it is somewhat better. SD and HD materials look quite decent, although at times we had the impression that the image loses sharpness and becomes too soft – as if something took away its definition. Fortunately, with very low sources (e.g. 576p), there was no overscan effect, meaning the picture was not artificially cropped – everything fit on the screen as it should.

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.

The TCL C7K handles motion fluidity really very well. The matrix used in it offers a refresh rate of 144 Hz, which in itself suggests that this television is more than just a regular "60 Hz" panel. Furthermore – if we connect the C7K to a computer and set the resolution to Full HD. But we'll write more about this in the paragraph about gamers and PC collaboration. Returning to everyday use – both sports and films look very good here. Thanks to the fast panel and well-functioning motion smoothing, the C7K is great for watching matches, but also for movie screenings. In the menu, we find two sliders – motion blur reduction and flicker reduction – which allow us to adjust the fluidity effect to our own preferences. At lower settings, we get a more cinematic effect, with slight stuttering motion. At higher settings – the picture becomes more theatrical, fluid to the point of excess. Everyone has their own preferences – anyone can set it to their liking.

Samsung QN80F is a television that delivers on almost every front when it comes to gaming. We have a 144 Hz panel, four fully-fledged HDMI 2.1 ports, support for gamers in the form of Variable Refresh Rate (VRR), Auto Low Latency 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.

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

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

And it is precisely because of this one absence that the QN80F shifts from being nearly perfect for gamers to being 'almost' perfect. It's a shame – because everything else suggested that Samsung could raise the bar very high again in this generation.

The TCL C7K is a television that on paper appears to be the dream equipment for gamers – and most importantly, it holds up in practice too. To start with good news: there are two full-bandwidth HDMI 2.1 ports, so we can easily connect both a console and a computer, taking advantage of all their capabilities. The panel itself supports a refresh rate of 144 Hz, which gives a significant advantage in dynamic games. There is also a complete set of gaming features: VRR (variable refresh rate), ALLM (automatic low-latency mode), and support for Dolby Vision in games. There is also the HGiG mode, which allows for HDR effects consistent with the creators' intentions. GameBar, an information bar for gamers. It works quickly, looks clear (like a Nintendo console👌), and shows what matters most: the current frame rate, VRR status, and even HDR parameters.