Samsung S85D vs Haier K85F

Brightness is a key parameter in televisions, and the S85D Samsung model offers levels comparable to other OLEDs from a few years ago. Although it does not impress in this regard, its enormous advantage is the very competitive price. A peak brightness of 600 nits ensures good image quality in HDR conditions, giving users a taste of cinematic experiences in the comfort of their home. However, as with many budget OLED models, the biggest issue is very bright, full-screen scenes – in such moments, like the final scene from the film “The Meg,” the television can lose even half of its brightness, which is noticeable compared to more expensive OLED models. Despite this, the television offers impressive coverage of the DCI-P3 colour palette at 99%, allowing for vibrant and accurate colours to be displayed.

Let’s now turn to one of the hottest topics in the world of televisions, namely the quality of HDR effect. In the case of the Haier K85F model, we must unfortunately make it clear: if you are looking for equipment to watch content in a wide dynamic range, you should avoid this model at all costs. The main problem is its very low peak brightness, which during our tests barely reached 250 nits. To give you a better idea of what that means – such a value is fine for watching standard SDR content, but it is absolutely insufficient to showcase any real benefits of HDR. The image simply lacks the "power" to generate bright, striking highlights. All our measurements and tests on specialist patterns only confirmed this. As if that weren't enough, the television also struggles with colour reproduction. In this budget build, we won't find any technologies to expand the colour palette, such as quantum dot layers (marketed as "QLED"). As a result, the coverage of the DCI-P3 colour space, which is crucial for HDR materials, is only around 80%. In practice, this means that the image will not only be dark but also devoid of the vibrant, saturated colours that the director wanted to show us.

The Filmmaker mode on the Samsung S85D does offer quite good factory settings, but it is not free from errors, particularly evident in colour reproduction. The white balance chart for HD and HDR content shows clear issues – both red and blue colours are significantly weakened, leading to a dominance of green. The result is an unnatural yellowish hue that can affect the perception of realistic scenes. The Color Checker test clearly shows that the colour samples deviate from expected values – for HD material, the colours can be overly saturated, with a noticeable shift towards green, which is also evident in the white balance chart. Conversely, for 4K HDR content, the colours appear too dull, lacking depth, making the image less appealing and natural. This effect is particularly noticeable in delicate scenes where colour precision plays a key role, which can be disappointing for discerning viewers who expect faithful reproduction of details and colour intensity.

As for brightness, the gamma chart for HD content looks quite good; however, there is a noticeable jump at the end, exceeding a value of 2.4. While this is not a major issue in most scenes, in more demanding sequences it may affect the clarity of bright details. For 4K content, the EOTF curve, responsible for delivering brightness, turns out to be problematic. The initial part of the chart shows a small jump. This phenomenon can result in excessive boosting of brightness in the brightest areas of the image, leading to loss of detail in very bright scenes.

Although Samsung S85D offers quite decent factory settings, especially in Filmmaker mode, it is worth considering manual adjustment of settings to improve some imperfections, particularly in colour reproduction.

Well, how does the television perform with colours straight out of the box, without any interference from our side? The Haier K85F offers a full range of picture modes, such as Dynamic and Eco, but for anyone who wants to watch films according to the creators' intentions, only one really matters: Film mode. That is where we focused our tests, and unfortunately, its name has little to do with reality. The picture in the factory settings is very far from what we could call cinematic fidelity and requires numerous adjustments. Let's start with the white balance, which has a noticeable deficiency of red. In practice, this means that the entire image has a cool, bluish tint. The situation is even worse regarding brightness management, namely the gamma curve (for SDR) and EOTF (for HDR). Their graph resembles a real rollercoaster, which has a disastrous impact on the viewing experience. This results in unnatural dimming of SDR content, causing details in shadows to be lost, and in the case of HDR – excessive brightness, which further exacerbates the issue of clipping. Such a combination, namely too cool white combined with chaotic brightness and excessive blue saturation, results in significant errors in colour reproduction. Our measurements on the specialist ColorChecker chart revealed errors (Delta E) regularly reaching and exceeding values of 8-9. Put simply, errors above the threshold of 3 are already easily noticeable to the naked eye, so such a result means that the colours on the screen are simply heavily distorted.

After calibration, the Filmmaker mode on the Samsung S85D truly impressed. The white balance, regardless of the type of content, has significantly improved, resulting in more natural colours. The Color Checker test shows that colour reproduction errors are now minimal and rarely exceed acceptable values, which indicates accurate colour rendering. The factory colour reproduction left much to be desired, but the situation has now significantly improved – the colours are natural, precise, and look as if they were rendered exactly according to the creators' intentions. This is a huge step forward compared to previous generations, where colours were often distorted or too intense.

The brightness characteristics also benefited from the calibration – it is now more vivid and precise. The gamma, although fairly good previously, has become even more stable, providing a deeper, more natural image. The EOTF curve has been aligned, allowing details in dark areas to be more visible and the contrast more balanced. With all these improvements, the television delivers an image close to reference quality, greatly enhancing the enjoyment of watching films and HDR content.

Well, is there anything that can be done about this picture? Can professional calibration save the situation? The answer is both yes and no. It must be clearly stated that there are certain limitations we cannot overcome. The constraints of the design itself, meaning simply a poor panel and its narrow colour coverage, make it impossible to expect a reasonable HDR effect – we won't mislead you on that. The biggest beneficiary of our adjustments is undoubtedly the SDR mode, and it is indeed for watching such content, after calibration, that this television starts to make sense. We managed to somewhat tame the white balance. Although the television only offers basic 2-point adjustment (rather than precise 20-point), so it's not perfect, we successfully eliminated that unpleasant, cold "chill" in the picture. Above all, however, we noted a significant improvement in brightness management. The gamma curve, which previously resembled a rollercoaster, looks like an almost perfectly straight line after calibration. This is a sign that the television can finally display images without artificially dimming or brightening them. The conclusion is simple: even with such a cheap television, professional adjustment of the settings can achieve a lot and extract the maximum potential from it.

Samsung S85D performs excellently in scaling images and smoothing tonal transitions. Like in other Samsung models, the television offers three noise reduction modes: off, standard, and high. Although it effectively improves gradations, it unfortunately also removes film grain, which many viewers desire to give the image a cinematic character. This grain often adds authenticity and a certain rawness to films, which is lost after smoothing. Removing the grain can make the image look too sterile and smooth, which detracts from the charm of the original film material. When it comes to scaling images, the Samsung S85D handles lower resolution content beautifully – the model in the picture and the branches in the background were displayed correctly, with no major issues with edge aliasing. The only noticeable drawback is the presence of overscan, which can sometimes cut off parts of the image, which may not please everyone.

Let's move on to digital processing and image scaling, specifically how the Haier K85F handles lower resolution signals, such as those from standard television. Right from the start, we encounter an extremely annoying and completely incomprehensible issue – overscan that is enabled by default. This means that the television artificially enlarges the image, cropping its edges, and this happens on every source, even 1080p. To see the full frame, you have to dig through the screen settings each time and manually switch the format to "expand to 16:9". It's a detail, but it's devilishly frustrating. The very act of scaling content to 4K resolution can be summed up in one word: acceptable. And that's about it. The image processor does not strip details from the picture, nor does it generate jagged edges or other artifacts. It simply does its job, without any fireworks. It's alright, but nothing more. However, the biggest and most noticeable shortcoming in the digital processing section is the absence of a smooth tonal transition feature. This is an algorithm that could significantly reduce the annoying banding effect we mentioned earlier. Unfortunately, the manufacturer did not provide such a solution, condemning us to watch the imperfections of the panel and low-quality materials in full view.

As befits an OLED television, Samsung S85D offers excellent motion fluidity. Equipped with a 120 Hz panel and fast response time, the television provides very smooth playback of dynamic scenes without visible ghosting. For movie enthusiasts, there is a feature called "Image Clarity Settings," which allows adjusting the fluidity of the image to individual preferences on a 10-point scale. Motion blur reduction enhances the sharpness of rapidly moving objects, while motion smoothing smooths out movement, eliminating the "judder" effect. This way, every user can set the appropriate level of clarity that best suits their taste, from a more cinematic effect to sharper, smoother movements.

The matrix in the K85F model operates at a native refresh rate of 60 Hz, which right from the start sets certain expectations regarding image fluidity. However, we must admit that we were very positively surprised when we found two separate sliders for motion control in the settings menu: one labelled as "Motion Blur Reduction" and the other "De-Judder". Such generosity in this price segment is an absolute rarity, as typically manufacturers offer at most one shared option. Unfortunately, our enthusiasm waned as quickly as it appeared. It soon became clear why Haier was so "generous" – the slider responsible for motion blur reduction is simply a dummy. Its adjustment brings absolutely no visible effect on the screen, so only one of the two options works.

Samsung S85D OLED is an excellent choice for gamers, thanks to its many modern features that facilitate and enhance gameplay. The television has four full-bandwidth HDMI 2.1 ports, allowing you to connect the latest consoles without worrying about image quality or frame rate limitations. This means support for 4K resolution at 120 Hz, which is ideal for modern titles. Additionally, the Samsung S85D has an ALLM (Auto Low Latency Mode) feature that automatically activates low latency mode when it detects a gaming device. This means you don’t have to manually switch settings – the television takes care of ensuring a fast response time, which is crucial in games where every second counts.

The VRR (Variable Refresh Rate) feature and G-Sync support are additional elements that make gameplay smoother. VRR adjusts the refresh rate to the number of frames generated by the console or computer, eliminating screen tearing and stuttering. This is particularly useful in dynamic games where the frame rate can fluctuate. Auto Motion Plus Game is a feature that Samsung has introduced with gamers in mind, and it is worth appreciating. With it, the image in games becomes smoother – 30 frames per second look like 45, and 60 Hz gains in fluidity, creating an effect close to 90 Hz. At the same time, there is no significant increase in input lag, which remains below 25 ms, making this feature stand out among others available on the market. Gamers can enjoy a smoother image without worrying about a decline in responsiveness.

Samsung has also ensured something extra – the television has a built-in Xbox Game Pass app, which means you can play in the cloud without needing to own a console. This is a great solution for those who want to enjoy gaming without investing in additional hardware. All you need is internet access, and you have a huge library of games at your fingertips. This makes Samsung S85D a fantastic choice for both casual gamers and those who are more advanced.

Let's move on to features for gamers, although we must emphasise at the outset that this is more of a proposal for the "casual" ones. The manufacturer boasts in the specifications about the presence of HDMI 2.1 ports, which looks impressive on paper, but in reality, it is largely a marketing ploy. What good is a modern port if the heart of the television is a panel with a refresh rate of 60 Hz? It physically cannot display a signal at 120 frames per second, even at lower resolutions, which deprives the HDMI 2.1 port of its most significant advantage. It's a shame. (That’s why we mark it as HDMI 2.0 in our tests). Another curious peculiarity is the television's reaction to attempts to calibrate HDR from the console level. Changes to brightness settings cause very unnatural image behaviour, which might suggest an incorrect implementation of the HGiG standard. To be honest, however, one shouldn't worry too much about this, because as we've mentioned numerous times, we simply do not recommend using any HDR content on this screen. However, to avoid being too negative, the Haier K85F also has two significant and unexpected advantages. The first is the presence of ALLM, or Auto Low Latency Mode, which switches the television to low latency mode as soon as it detects a connected console. The second, even bigger surprise, is support for VRR, or Variable Refresh Rate. While it works within a very modest range of 48-60 Hz, its mere presence is commendable. As a result, the image in games can experience less "tearing," which significantly improves the gaming experience.