Samsung QN80F 100" vs Hisense U7S / U77SE

When it comes to HDR in Filmmaker mode, the QN80F can make a great first impression on you. Our lab tests showed that under the best conditions, the TV can achieve brightness exceeding 1200–1300 nits. These are truly remarkable results, which make HDR effects in many films look incredible. The TV is simply bright enough that it doesn’t need to artificially adapt the picture – bright parts of scenes have the right "power" and actually look like a light source. Of course, the lab is one thing, and everyday viewing is another. In practice, during movie scenes, brightness usually oscillates between 700–1100 nits. These are still great values that, in most cases, give a strong sense of realism and make the lights on screen really capable of dazzling you. The problem arises in exceptionally challenging sequences, where, like almost every mini-LED, it reveals its limitations. A good example is Sicario 2: scenes with helicopters in the night sky look much weaker, and the lights lose intensity, dropping to around 370 nits, making it hard to speak of serious admiration. This leads us to the topic of colors. Although we are dealing with a QLED, the coverage of the DCI-P3 color palette is about 90%. This is fairly average for a quantum dot TV. In practice, this means that some colors may appear less saturated than we would expect, especially in demanding HDR productions.

The Hisense U7S has considerable HDR potential, but it can't use it in every scene. On a test pattern it reaches around 1,100 nits, so the backlight itself is very strong. In our brighter film scenes we measured about 640 to 745 nits. That's still enough for the sun or bright highlights to have a noticeable glow and to show an advantage over SDR material. When the TV needs to illuminate a larger portion of the image, it does quite well.

The problem appears with small lights on a dark background. Each of the 192 zones covers an area much larger than a tiny point on the screen. If the TV were to strongly light such a zone, it would also brighten the surrounding area along with the light. Hisense tries to avoid that and dims the entire zone. Black levels therefore look better, but a small bright object that should draw the eye also loses intensity. That's why in two tougher scenes we recorded only 297 and 154 nits. The difference is large: in one shot HDR can impress, and in the next small lights are noticeably muted. The U7S therefore prioritizes maintaining deep blacks, even at the expense of bright details. With this number of zones that's an understandable compromise, but it's worth remembering — the 1,100-nit peak tells us about the backlight's capability, not how brightly the TV will render every element of a film.

Colors

Hisense calls the U7S ULED, but that's a marketing name; the wider color gamut here comes from a PFS phosphor backlight. In our measurements the TV covered about 91% of DCI-P3 and 71% of BT.2020. Those are good results, although it falls short of the best screens on the market. The biggest shortfall is in green — the TV doesn't even reach the DCI-P3 target there, so the most saturated shades will be less intense than they should be. Most colors in HDR films and series, however, still look suitably rich. A positive is the repeatability of the results. Gamut coverage on test patterns and in film scenes is practically identical.

Samsung QN80F performs best in Filmmaker mode, which is designed to faithfully convey the creators' intentions. And indeed – it is a mode in which the TV showcases its potential. But let’s not deceive ourselves, it is far from perfect. In SDR content, a problem with white balance became apparent. Slight deficiencies in green and a clear excess of red caused the screen to take on a pinkish hue. You don’t even need measuring tools to notice this – in everyday viewing, the slightly shifted color palette could be quite noticeable, and in color checker tests, colors were even "jumping" out of their reference fields. With HDR content, the situation was a bit better, as the white balance was closer to ideal, but another problem emerged – brightness management. The EOTF curve often caused the image to become too bright, which spoiled the perception of contrast, and in dynamic scenes led to a slight "flickering" in the reception. We actually already mentioned this in the sections about black levels and HDR. The good news, however, is that Samsung provides a lot of tools for improvement. The QN80F allows for really detailed calibration, including a 20-point white balance. And since the manufacturer left us so many options, we decided to see how the TV would perform after solid corrections.

The out-of-the-box colors on the Hisense U7S are decent, but there are a few things to improve. In SDR there's a red bias in the white balance, which makes the image too warm and in places slightly pink. You can notice this on faces and on bright, neutral surfaces. Gamma also runs below the reference, so the TV brightens the image, especially in darker areas. That makes shadow details easier to see, but the scene loses some of its depth.

In HDR the white balance is a bit more even, but not completely neutral; midtones lack blue, and the brightest areas lack red. A bigger problem is how brightness is reproduced. The EOTF curve shows that a large portion of midtones is being brightened, so the image looks brighter than the source material intends. Color Checker measurements also perform worse than in SDR: many errors are around 3 to 4, and individual ones reach as high as 8. Colors can therefore look attractive, but they are not always faithful to what we should be seeing. There's room for improvement, and we'll check how much can be corrected with calibration.

After calibrating the QN80F, it immediately showed that it is capable of much more. The pink tint that could previously spoil the reception has disappeared, and the white balance finally looks as it should – natural and without excessive deviations. The colors have gained depth, and the image has become more saturated and consistent, making movies simply more enjoyable to watch. It's a bit like removing a light haze from the screen – suddenly everything seems sharper and clearer. Brightness management has also improved. The television no longer gets lost so easily in dynamic changes, and the EOTF graph shows that the curve tracking is much more stable. Of course, there are no miracles – the limited number of zones still means that small, bright elements can be slightly brightened, but that is due to the construction itself, not the settings. After this adjustment, the QN80F feels like a more mature piece of equipment, and watching movies finally provides the satisfaction one expects from a television even in the higher class.

Calibration of the Hisense U7S helped most with SDR content. We managed to even out the white balance, so the previous warm cast is gone and whites and grays look neutral. Gamma is also now very close to the reference, and the TV no longer brightens the image unnecessarily, so darker scenes have regained depth. Color Checker measurements confirm the improvement: most errors fall below 2. That yields a really well-calibrated picture for regular TV and SDR movies. It didn't go as smoothly in HDR. The TV lacks an effective way to correct the EOTF curve, so Hisense still interprets the content's brightness a bit on its own. It brightens parts of the image and can dim the brightest elements depending on the scene and the local dimming behavior. Calibration couldn't eliminate this. It shows up in the Color Checker results as well, where many errors remain around 3–4 and individual ones exceed 7. So in SDR the result is very good, but in HDR we have to accept that the TV adds its own interpretation of brightness to the image.

With lower quality materials, such as YouTube videos or older television recordings, the QN80F can showcase its stronger and weaker points. If strange color transitions or artifacts start appearing on the screen, it's worth using the noise reduction function. The best setting is at the "medium" level – it smooths out the problematic segments without blurring the entire image. However, one compromise must be kept in mind: this function always removes film grain. If someone enjoys its presence in older productions, it's better to leave the reduction turned off because, regardless of the setting, the grain simply disappears.

Resolution scaling, or upscaling, is another strong point of Samsung. The QN80F may not be the best TV on the market, but it performs very well in its price range, which is very important for such a large size as a 100-inch screen. Even low-quality materials can gain a second life – the image becomes sharper, more readable, and overall much more pleasant to view. A weak point remains overscan, or slight trimming of edges in very low resolutions (e.g., 576p), which has been a longstanding issue for Samsung. Fortunately, in everyday viewing of HD and 4K content, this practically doesn’t matter anymore.

The handling of lower-quality material on the Hisense U7S is fairly mediocre. The Pentonic 700 chipset used here doesn't cope well with the effects of heavy compression. The menu includes a "Smooth & Gradient" picture option, but its performance leaves much to be desired. At the low setting it's hard to notice any improvement in tonal transitions, although at least the image isn't degraded. The medium and high settings still don't remove visible banding between shades and begin to smear details; in our test clips even parts of characters' faces disappeared. Interestingly, film grain remains untouched at every level. If you use this feature, we'd stick with the low setting. Its current behavior needs refinement, but that's mainly down to the processor used. Upscaling to 4K performs much better. Lower-resolution footage gains clarity, edges are well reconstructed, and fine elements look crisp. That doesn't mean it can recover details that weren't in the recording, but the TV makes good use of what it gets from the source. Another plus is that it doesn't crop the image edges, even with an SD signal.

The QN80F features a 144 Hz panel, and this is evident in practice – with full refresh, the image is exceptionally smooth, and motion blur remains at an acceptable, barely noticeable level. However, this mode is mainly aimed at PC gamers. The most important reference point in everyday use remains a 120 Hz refresh rate, and here a certain discrepancy arises. During the UFO test, we noticed the blurring of contours of quickly moving objects – it looked as if the television had the BFI (Black Frame Insertion) function permanently enabled, which in practice led to an unpleasant double edge effect. We do not yet know if this is a software issue or a characteristic of this model, but in its current form, it is difficult to praise such behavior.

Motion handling on the Hisense U7S is pretty good thanks to the 144 Hz refresh rate. For movies we also have a motion smoothing feature that lets you adjust judder and blur reduction. You can therefore keep a more cinematic motion or increase smoothness if abrupt camera shifts bother you. In sports and games the high refresh rate is also useful, but unfortunately it doesn't solve this panel's biggest problem.

The culprit is pixel response time. Fast-moving objects leave long, noticeable trails, as our UFO test shows. It's worst on dark backgrounds, where the trail behind the object is especially pronounced. So motion can be smooth, but the moving object itself loses sharpness, and that difference on the U7S is fairly easy to notice.

Samsung QN80F gives the impression of a television designed with gamers in mind. On the list of advantages, we have a 144 Hz panel, four full HDMI 2.1 ports, complete support for VRR and ALLM, and one of the best-designed game bars on the market. In addition, there's the Game Motion Plus motion smoother, which works in games without actually increasing input lag, making the QN80F an absolute standout in this category. In practice, this means that you can enjoy a smoother picture without losing responsiveness, which is a dream for many console gamers!

As usual with Samsung, there’s a lack of Dolby Vision in games, and that's not surprising anymore. However, what surprised us much more is that in the 2025 models… the HGIG feature has disappeared. It was the feature that allowed consoles like PlayStation 5 or Xbox Series X to perfectly match HDR tone mapping to the capabilities of the television. In the current firmware of the QN80F, this option is simply not available—it seems more like a mistake than a conscious decision by the manufacturer, but on the day of testing, we have to acknowledge that HGIG is not available. Because of this one missing feature, the QN80F goes from being an almost perfect television for gamers to an "almost" perfect device. It's quite a shame because aside from this, Samsung has created a model that really sets the bar high in the gaming hardware segment.

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

The Hisense U7S has a lot to offer gamers. You get two HDMI 2.1 ports and support for 120 Hz at Full HD, 1440p, and 4K, so modern consoles’ capabilities are well used. When connected to a PC you can use 144 Hz at 4K or switch the resolution to Full HD and run 240 Hz. So there’s a wide choice, although it’s worth remembering the motion smearing mentioned earlier, which the high refresh rate does not eliminate. VRR and ALLM are also present. The first helps prevent tearing when frame rates in a game change. The second automatically switches the TV into game mode, so you don’t have to dig through the menu each time. VRR works from 48 to 240 Hz, with the highest refresh rate available in Full HD. Xbox users can also play in Dolby Vision, including at 120 Hz. Importantly, this format does not introduce significant input lag here. The Game Bar also looks very good. It’s easy to read, visually appealing, and lets you quickly check what signal the TV is receiving. There are also handy gaming settings at your fingertips, including shadow brightening. If it’s hard to spot an opponent in a dark game, you can improve visibility without digging through the entire menu.

Our biggest complaints concern HGiG. Hisense continues to do its own tone mapping, which makes setting HDR on the console confusing. You adjust a checkerboard test pattern and the TV continuously adapts how it looks. As a result, the moment the pattern disappears does not correctly indicate the screen’s brightness limit, and it’s easy to set the value too high. For this model it’s better to set the target HDR peak brightness on the console to about 900 to 1000 nits, rather than relying on the configurator.