Panasonic Z85A vs SAMSUNG QN80F

The Panasonic Z85A is an OLED television, so you can expect great effects in movies right away. And indeed – our tests show that the WOLED panel can achieve around 800 nits of peak brightness in optimal conditions. This is a solid result that performs well in most demanding HDR scenes, allowing you to enjoy a dynamic and detailed image. However, like every OLED, the Z85A has its limits. In very bright scenes that cover the entire screen – like the final sequence from the movie The Meg – the television reduces brightness to about 400 nits. This is standard behavior for this technology, so if someone plans to watch movies in a brightly lit living room, it's worth keeping this in mind. The coverage of the DCI-P3 color gamut at 98% also deserves a big plus. As a result, the television delivers a wide range of colors that stand out with vibrancy and depth, and details in HDR scenes are sharp and precise. In short – the Panasonic Z85A provides a solid HDR effect that will satisfy any movie enthusiast.

QN80F is quite a bright screen – in synthetic tests, it achieved nearly 1000 nits, which allows for reasonable expectations with HDR content. And indeed, in many scenes, the television truly shines. Sequences with a lot of light – such as shots from the movie Life of Pi or wide, bright surfaces in The Meg – look spectacular. Brightness maintains 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, like in Sicario 2, the television has problems – it can dim certain elements significantly, 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 stick to inky blacks or sacrifice some details. QN80F usually chooses the former. As a consolation, it has quite decent coverage of a wide color gamut – DCI-P3 at 93%. This is not the highest score on the market, but it is more than enough for most content on streaming platforms.

The Panasonic Z85A offers many picture modes, but the Filmmaker mode definitely stands out from the rest. It is rare for a television to be so well-tuned straight out of the box, and the unit we had the opportunity to test really impressed us positively.

However, there were some minor shortcomings. In the SDR signal, we noticed a slight deficiency in red and blue colors, which made the image have a cooler shade than it should. This is particularly evident in the comparative photo. Conversely, in 4K HDR materials, the situation was the opposite – the excess of red made the image seem warmer than the creators intended. In terms of brightness characteristics (gamma) and maintaining the appropriate EOTF curve, it is hard to find fault. There are some minor deviations, but they are so minimal that the average viewer is unlikely to notice them.

It is also worth emphasizing that our observations pertain to a specific unit of the television. Two identical models can differ from each other due to natural production variations. Nevertheless, the unit we had in hand is really solid and deserves praise. Now it's time for our calibration – we'll see if we can squeeze even more from this screen!

We always test televisions in the best available factory mode – for the Samsung QN80F, this is the Filmmaker mode, and indeed, it offers the settings closest to the creators' intentions. However, this doesn't mean that everything looks perfect. In SDR content, the biggest issue turned out to be an unbalanced white balance – slight deficiencies in green and a noticeable excess of red led to noticeable color errors, and one could almost say there was a pinkish tint to the screen. This was clearly visible in the color checker test, where colors would "escape" their target fields – to the extent that a sensitive viewer's eye could catch it even without the help of a meter.

In HDR content, the white balance was much better, but another problem emerged – brightness management. The EOTF curve caused an overly bright image most of the time, which could affect the perception of contrast and made the screen slightly "flicker" during dynamic light changes. We have already discussed this in the paragraphs about black 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 – that's why we decided to check what this television is really capable of after proper calibration.

The Panasonic Z85A offers truly wide possibilities when it comes to image settings, so we enthusiastically set about calibration. Although we mainly focused on white balance correction, the final effect exceeded our expectations. Both HD and 4K HDR content now present nearly perfect color reproduction, with minimal errors that are difficult to catch with the naked eye. Well-calibrated televisions are rare, and we must admit – it is truly gratifying. Although gamma and EOTF curve did not require drastic adjustments, we managed to further stabilize their characteristics across the entire brightness scale. After calibration, the Panasonic Z85A is a true gem for home cinema enthusiasts. The image is precise, colors are natural, and every scene looks exactly as the director intended.

After conducting a thorough calibration, it was possible to bring most image parameters to a really good level. The white balance in both SDR and HDR appears nearly perfect – the image is natural, neutral, and free of the previously noticeable reddening. The colors have gained depth, and the overall visual reception has become more pleasant and cohesive. It was also possible to partially master 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's no longer excessive dimming of certain elements. In films, it can still be observed that the QN80F has a tendency to slightly brighten the smallest, bright details – this is already a result of the device's construction and the limited number of dimming zones. In short: not everything can be overcome, but what could be improved has been addressed. After calibration, the QN80F makes a really good impression; it simply looks more mature and professional.

Now that we know how the Panasonic Z85A handles tonal transitions in 4K materials, it's time to look at its "Gradation Smoothing" feature. It works, but unfortunately not entirely effectively. Regardless of the selected value – whether low, medium, or high – we were unable to achieve perfectly smooth tonal transitions in our test sequence. We recommend setting this feature to an intermediate level. While it may slightly blur fine details, it at least avoids the problem of losing film grain, which can be crucial for many viewers when watching classic productions.

When it comes to image scaling, the television performs quite well. It is evident that the image is slightly sharpened, and thin lines can sometimes appear somewhat jagged. However, this is standard in most televisions and fortunately, it can be adjusted using the sharpness slider. This gives us full control – we can achieve a more plastic, blurred image or a clearer one, though more "harsh" and artificially sharp. It all depends on the user’s preferences and the type of content we are watching. Overall, the scaling is at a solid level and should satisfy most users who are using lower resolution materials.

If, while watching lower-quality materials – for example from YouTube – we notice strange color transitions or unwanted artifacts, it’s worth checking the settings and enabling the noise reduction function. In our opinion, the best setting is at the "medium" level – it effectively smooths out problematic color transitions while not excessively blurring the entire image. 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 just turn it off – regardless of the level, the grain always disappears.

When it comes to scaling resolution (i.e., the so-called upscaling), Samsung – as always – performs very well in this area. The QN80F may not compare to the top models worth several thousand, but for its price class, it really performs impressively. Very low-quality materials (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, slightly cropping the edges of the image at very low resolutions, e.g., 576p.

The Panasonic Z85A has a 120 Hz panel, which will surely please both gamers and sports fans. Sure, it's not 144 Hz like some gaming TVs, but in practice, the difference is really hard to notice. In games, the image is stable and clear, and during fast action, there's no sign of any motion blur. The same goes for sports – a quick run by a soccer player or a dynamic car maneuver looks smooth and natural. The TV also has an "Intelligent Frame Creation" feature, which is a motion smoother. There are two sliders – one for reducing motion blur and the other for motion smoothness. With these, you can adjust the picture to your personal preferences – whether you prefer a more cinematic effect with gentle transitions between frames or a maximally smooth image perfect for watching sports.

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 movie, playing games, or browsing dynamic content on the internet. The image doesn't tear, it doesn't excessively blur, and everything simply looks smooth and pleasant to the eye. Of course, the manufacturer hasn't forgotten about movie fans – in the settings, we find an option for motion smoothness adjustment, allowing us to tailor the effect to our personal preferences. You can leave a more "cinematic" look (for those who enjoy a classic film vibe) or crank up the smoothness to a higher level for a theatrical smoothing effect. Importantly, the choice is ours. Watching movies and playing on the QN80F is simply a joy.

Panasonic is mainly associated with home cinema televisions, but the Z85A shows that it can also enter the gaming world with a really strong punch. This is equipment that can easily be called a gaming beast - it has everything needed for comfortable gameplay.

Even though we only have two HDMI 2.1 ports, both operate at full bandwidth, so we can easily connect both a next-gen console and a gaming PC. All key features are supported: ALLM automatically switches the TV to game mode, VRR ensures smooth images without stuttering and tearing, and with properly implemented HGIG and Dolby Vision, HDR games look really good - colors are vivid, details clear, and dark scenes readable. There is also a Game Bar in the form of a clear, circular menu. It may not look as impressive as with the competition, but it is intuitive and contains all the most important settings that we would like to have at hand during gaming.

In summary - the Panasonic Z85A is equipment that really surprises with its gaming capabilities. It is a television where both console gamers and PC gamers will feel at home. It's smooth, dynamic, and simply good.

The Samsung QN80F is a television that delivers on almost every front when it comes to gaming. It features a 144 Hz panel, four full-fledged HDMI 2.1 ports, support for gamers in the form of variable refresh rate (VRR), automatic 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 TV for gamers? And indeed, it is almost that way.

[UPDATE] We have updated our reviews of Samsung TVs from 2025 due to the release of software version 1131, which restored the crucial gaming feature HGiG.

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

And it is precisely because of this one absence that the QN80F turns from an almost perfect gaming TV into a "nearly" perfect device. It's a shame – because everything else indicated that Samsung could set the bar very high again in this generation.