Samsung QN80F 100" vs Sony BRAVIA 7 II

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 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.

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.

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 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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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 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.