Samsung Q7F vs Sony BRAVIA 7 II

Unfortunately, the Samsung Q7F is not one of the bright televisions, and this directly affects the quality of HDR movies. The peak brightness of the panel is only about 250 nits, which is definitely too low to speak of true cinematic experiences. In practice, the image in HDR content does not differ significantly from classic SDR, making it hard to talk about any "wow effect" that usually accompanies us while watching such films. During testing movie scenes, the image simply looked dim, and brightness almost invariably hovered around the mentioned 250 nits. The worst performance was observed in shots with small, intensely glowing elements – the applied global dimming technique reacted very aggressively, dimming the entire screen to maintain the black effect. On the plus side, it is worth noting the presence of a QLED coating that expands the color palette. As a budget QLED model, the Q7F performs quite decently here: its DCI-P3 color coverage is about 93%, and BT.2020 reaches 70%. This means that colors, despite the low brightness, can look quite vivid and attractive.

The Sony Bravia 7 II handles HDR very well and, above all, is simply a bright TV. In the proper "Professional" viewing mode we measured about 2000 nits of peak brightness, so the panel's capabilities are really substantial. Of course, with Mini-LEDs the result on a test pattern is only part of the story, because a lot depends on how the TV controls the backlight in real scenes. And here Sony's algorithms perform really well. Depending on the scene, the brightness we measured in movies ranged from around 1100 up to 1700 nits. That's already a level at which HDR has the proper punch and bright effects can really impress. It's not perfect in every situation, though. With small bright elements on a very dark background the Bravia 7 II clearly prioritizes maintaining good black levels, which can cause their brightness to drop to around 500 nits. It still looks good, but you can see the TV doesn't always operate without compromises.

Colors

The second thing that has a huge impact on the HDR effect is, of course, color. And this is where True RGB technology was supposed to bring one of the biggest changes. Looking at the panel's raw capabilities, the Bravia 7 II performs very well. We measured about 98% DCI‑P3 coverage and 88% BT.2020, so the potential to display highly saturated colors is really large. However, in RGB TVs the situation is a bit more complex. When we performed the same measurements with a movie background applied, the gamut coverage dropped to about 92% DCI‑P3 and 78% BT.2020. Those are still good figures, especially for an RGB Mini-LED TV, but they clearly show that the final result largely depends on how the algorithms control the three backlight colors. In most scenes the Bravia 7 II handles this well and colors retain high saturation. The biggest differences are seen in shades of blue, where samples start to deviate more noticeably from the reference values and coverage is weaker than for the other primary colors. So True RGB does offer real additional possibilities here, but like with brightness, much depends on what is actually happening on the screen.

The factory color reproduction in the Samsung Q7F definitely isn't one of its strong points. In Filmmaker mode, which theoretically should be closest to neutral, the white balance issue is immediately noticeable. There's too much red on the screen, while blue is noticeably lacking. The effects of this are very easy to see – white, instead of being neutral, takes on warm, almost slightly orange tones. Over time, this makes the entire image look somewhat unnatural, and bright areas of the scene can seem unrealistic. The problems become even more apparent in HDR content. The graphs show that the TV has significant errors in the Color Checker palette, which translates to visible inaccuracies in the real image. In practice, this means that colors are not presented as they should be. The Q7F also heavily manipulates brightness; darker elements are overly boosted, causing them to lose their cinematic feel, while bright parts can appear dimmed. As a result, the image seems flattened, and instead of helping to bring out details, contrast only highlights its own limitations. This is particularly frustrating in HDR materials, as every detail matters there. In scenes where a subtle play of light and shadow should be felt, the Q7F either overdoes the brightening or, conversely, suppresses elements that were meant to draw the eye. This causes the image to lose its depth, and instead of cinematic realism, we get more of a simplification effect.

To evaluate the out-of-the-box colors we chose Professional mode, because it performs best among the available settings. It's not perfect, though. In SDR the white balance leans slightly toward magenta, so some scenes look a bit warmer and less neutral than they should. A bigger issue is the gamma, which sits closer to 2.5 than 2.4. That makes the image a bit too dark in places, especially in the midtones. In HDR the situation is better. As brightness increases there is a bit too much red, but it's not a fault that stands out during viewing. Overall, Professional mode is a good starting point, although you can get a little more out of it with calibration.

After professional calibration, we managed to bring the Q7F in order – at least in terms of SDR content. The picture in this mode looks really good: the white balance has been set correctly, the colors appear natural, and errors in the color palette have dropped to values that are practically invisible to the eye. The gamma behaves excellently, and the only minor drawback is a slight brightening of smaller elements, which results from the lack of local dimming. For everyday TV watching or standard quality films, the Q7F performs surprisingly well.

It was much more difficult to tame HDR content. Despite adjusting the white balance, the television continues to manipulate brightness significantly, causing scenes to sometimes look unnatural – what was meant to be subtly darker can end up being overly brightened, and bright parts of the image sometimes appear dull. The final effect is better than in the factory settings, but it is evident that the design limitations of the Q7F do not allow for fully utilizing the potential of HDR materials.

After calibration the Bravia 7 II can look significantly better. First of all, we managed to set the white balance very well, both in SDR and HDR. Gamma can also be improved, and after correction it runs very close to the reference value. For most users, those changes will have the biggest impact on the picture. There is, however, a limitation when it comes to colors. On the Bravia 7 II Sony does not provide access to a classic CMS that would let us adjust individual hues separately. A lot is therefore left in the hands of the algorithms controlling the True RGB backlight. If the TV reproduces a specific color inaccurately, we are not always able to do anything about it. In our measurements this is most evident with some reds and blues, where errors can still be quite large. That does not, however, diminish the value of calibration. Correctly setting the white point and gamma strongly affects the overall image, so even without the ability to precisely tweak every color the difference compared with the factory settings is noticeable.

Upscaling and digital image processing in the Q7F is a bit of a sine wave. On one hand, we have really nice upscaling – weaker sources look better than one might expect. The image becomes clearer, sharper, and even older movies or terrestrial TV hold up well. Samsung has been strong in this area for years, and the Q7F confirms that. On the other hand… things start to get tricky. The TV has a problem with overscan – part of the image is simply cut off, and it looks rather unrefined. Additionally, we were let down by a feature called "noise reduction," which should improve the smoothness of tonal transitions in weaker materials. In other Samsungs, it works relatively well, but here it practically makes no difference – the banding in gradients remains. It's a bit disappointing because we could have expected more from a model that is aimed at users looking for a display for SDR content.

Upscaling and digital processing are among the Bravia 7 II's strongest assets and one of Sony's biggest advantages over the competition. Sony has handled digital image processing well for years, and it shows here too. Above all, the "Smooth Gradation" function works very well; it can smooth weak tonal transitions in lower-quality content. It's safest to set it to Low, but we'd comfortably recommend Medium as well. The effect is stronger then, and the TV still handles details very delicately. Some fine detail may be slightly smoothed, but Sony does it much more subtly than many other brands. The upscaling itself also performs very well. Lower-resolution sources are well upscaled to 4K; the picture looks clean and retains a lot of detail. Of course the TV won't magically turn native HD material into true 4K, but the Bravia 7 II does a very good job with what can be extracted from such a source.

Motion blur and motion fluidity in the Q7F is probably the most budget-conscious element of this TV. The 60 Hz panel is noticeable, with blur being quite evident, especially in dynamic scenes, and it's rather difficult to consider this model as equipment designed for watching sports or playing fast-paced games. In tests with the little green man, there was a long tail, and the ball in a football match would leave trails behind it.

On the plus side, the presence of motion smoothing is commendable. It really makes a difference in movies - especially since most materials are recorded at 24 frames. Here we can decide for ourselves whether we prefer a more "cinematic" image, with the slight jerkiness characteristic of cinema, or a smoother, more "television-like" one. This actually works quite well and helps improve the viewing comfort for series or movies.

The Bravia 7 II uses a 120 Hz panel, so in terms of motion smoothness it delivers everything you’d expect from a TV in this class. With sports or games at 120 fps the picture is appropriately smooth, and for movies Sony provides an advanced motion smoothing feature. You can adjust the level of interpolation separately and decide whether you want to keep a more cinematic motion or achieve noticeably smoother motion. The issue of motion blur is a bit worse. The VA panel used isn’t among the fastest, and you can notice a slight trail behind moving objects, especially on darker backgrounds. It’s not at a level that will be highly distracting during normal viewing, but last year’s Bravia 7 performed better in this respect and had a noticeably faster panel.

Features for gamers in the Samsung Q7F is a topic that evokes quite a mix of emotions. On one hand, no reasonable person expected miracles here, as this is a 60 Hz television, and it was clear from the start that it wouldn't be equipment for extracting the maximum from consoles or PCs. On the other hand, since the manufacturer promised specific solutions in promotional materials, it is natural that we wanted to see them in practice. At the outset, it’s quite decent. The automatic game mode (ALLM) works, so you don’t have to manually fiddle with the settings, the console itself switches the television to low-latency mode. In addition, we have Game Bar, which looks impressive and allows you to view some basic parameters without leaving the game. And this is where the good news ends.

[UPDATE] We have updated our tests of Samsung televisions from the 2025 model year due to the release of software version 1131, which restored the key feature for gamers, HGiG.

The biggest problem with the Q7F is VRR, or rather its absence. Indeed, a relevant icon appears in the menu, and you can even see it in the Game Bar, but throughout the entire test, the feature remained inactive and could not be activated in any way. It’s even more disappointing regarding HGiG; this option was actually available at the beginning, but after the software update, it completely disappeared, which is just unprofessional. Therefore, the Q7F is suitable only for absolute basics. Sure, you can turn on the console, play calmer titles, and enjoy low input lag, but if someone is counting on more advanced features that the manufacturer promised, they will be disappointed. This is not a television that you buy with gaming in mind, and it’s better to be aware of that before making a purchase.

The Bravia 7 II essentially has everything you'd expect from a good console TV today. It supports 4K at 120 Hz, VRR from 48 to 120 Hz, and ALLM, so when you start a game the TV automatically switches to low-latency mode. There's also a properly working HGiG, which means that after setting up HDR on the console the TV won't try to further brighten the image on its own. Just remember to turn off tone mapping in the TV's menu. Dolby Vision in game mode is another plus, especially for Xbox owners. Sony also includes its own Game Menu. From it you can quickly view key signal information, check VRR, or change gaming settings without digging through the TV's entire menu. The only thing missing from the feature list is support for 1440p at 120 Hz.

Our biggest complaint is not really with the features themselves, but with the connectors. The Bravia 7 II has four HDMI ports, but only two of them support full HDMI 2.1 at 48 Gbps. One of those is also an eARC port. So if you connect a soundbar or AV receiver via HDMI, in practice you have only one full HDMI 2.1 port left for a console or PC. With a single console that's fine, but with a PS5, an Xbox, and an audio setup it starts to get tight. That's hard to justify from Sony. Two HDMI 2.1 ports might be acceptable in cheaper TVs, but in a model of this class, especially in 2026, we'd expect all four ports to be HDMI 2.1.