Samsung QN80H vs LG OLED B6

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.

The LG B6 is a moderately bright OLED. After calibration it reaches around 800 nits, roughly 200 nits more than last year’s B5. That’s down to the new, budget OLED SE panel from LG Display. In practice it simply gives a bit more headroom and makes HDR look fuller in many scenes than on last year’s lower‑end OLEDs. That does not mean the B6 has no limitations. In very bright shots, when a large part of the screen is strongly lit, brightness can fall below 400 nits. This behaviour is typical for OLED TVs, especially in this segment, and that’s where you see the biggest difference compared with more expensive models. Even so, we judge the B6’s results as genuinely solid. It’s still not a TV for breaking brightness records, but the HDR effect is strong enough that films truly feel like a step up from ordinary SDR. Colour gamut Using the OLED SE panel has had a slight impact on wide colour gamut coverage. Compared with last year’s model the results have fallen by a few percentage points. It covers roughly 96% of DCI‑P3 and about 71% of BT.2020. That doesn’t mean the colours on the LG B6 are weak. In most films and series they look lively, well saturated and simply pleasing to the eye. You only notice the difference in very bright, highly colourful scenes. Then colours lose some intensity compared with QD‑OLED panels. This stems from the WOLED panel structure. Besides red, green and blue subpixels it also uses a white subpixel, which helps to boost brightness. However, this comes at a price. At very high luminance some colour is effectively 'diluted' by the white light, so the saturation of certain colours can be slightly lower. In everyday use this isn’t a major issue, but in the most demanding scenes you can notice it.

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.

We tested the LG B6 in Filmmaker Mode, the best picture setting available straight out of the box. ISF modes produce very similar results, but in our tests we always stick to Filmmaker Mode for better comparison with other TVs. Each of them is, in any case, a much better starting point than Vivid or Eco mode, where the picture is heavily boosted and noticeably less natural. On SDR material the factory settings perform really well. Colour errors are small, the gamma response is correct, and the picture during normal viewing looks natural and does not feel overly "pumped up". It's a bit worse with HDR. When such content is played you quickly see that the white balance hasn't been set perfectly. Too much blue and red gives the image a slightly pink tint. This is also confirmed by colour gamut measurements and the ColorChecker, where samples clearly shift in that direction. It's not a flaw that completely spoils the picture, but it is noticeable with HDR films. Therefore anyone who wants the most faithful image should consider calibration, which we cover further on in the review.

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.

During calibration, we concentrated mainly on HDR content, because that's where the factory settings needed the most correction. We did not, however, neglect SDR mode, which after adjustment was brought almost to perfection. Colours are very accurate, and brightness is controlled as it should be. The biggest improvement in HDR came from fixing the white balance. Removing the excess red and blue eliminated the pinkish tint, and the image became much more natural. Skin tones, whites and all colours that had previously shifted towards pink improved. After calibration most errors fell below a Delta E of 2–3, the threshold at which the average viewer stops noticing differences with the naked eye. So the LG B6 can deliver a very accurate picture, particularly for the manufacturer's entry-level OLED model.

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.

The LG B6 handles lower-quality material very well. This is largely thanks to effective digital image processing, which can mask some of the source’s imperfections without overly smoothing the whole scene. The "Smooth Gradation" function proves particularly useful. It noticeably reduces posterisation, especially in dark parts of the image. The safest choice remains the Low or Medium setting. The function still effectively smooths out unsightly tonal banding, but does not yet interfere too much with fine details. Purists can of course leave it switched off. Upscaling to 4K also performs very well. Full HD and 720p material retain a good amount of detail, and the image is neither overly sharpened nor heavily blurred. Some limitations only become apparent with very poor sources below 720p, where the smallest text and fine elements are not always perfectly sharp, but this applies to almost every other TV on the market.

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.

One of the biggest advantages of OLED panels is the very fast pixel response time. This keeps the picture sharp and free of the visible smearing often seen on LCD TVs. However, there is a downside. During slow camera pans motion can look choppier than on LCD screens, where some of that effect is naturally masked by the slower panel. Fortunately, on the LG B6 this can be easily mitigated using the TruMotion system. With the motion smoothing set correctly you can achieve smoother motion without giving the picture an exaggerated soap opera effect.

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.

LG OLED B6 has plenty to offer gamers; it’s simply a complete base for PS5, Xbox Series X/S or a capable PC. It has four full-size HDMI 2.1 ports with 48 Gbps bandwidth, so you can avoid irritating cable swapping when connecting several newer devices at once. It offers a full suite of synchronization technologies, from standard VRR to G-Sync and FreeSync. The screen synchronises the refresh rate seamlessly with the frame output from the console or graphics card. Of course it includes ALLM: the B6 automatically recognises when a game is running and immediately reduces latency to a minimum. HDR support is also excellent. The TV supports Dolby Vision, and a correctly implemented HGiG standard means that, after initial calibration in the console settings, the image won’t suffer from blown-out highlights or lost detail in bright areas. The cherry on the cake is the Game Bar. Instead of digging through the full menu during gameplay, a single click is enough to adjust shadow visibility, tweak selected parameters or simply check the current display mode. All of this makes the LG B6 an excellent choice for gamers.