Samsung QN80H vs Hisense UR8S

Samsung QN80H is without a doubt a bright TV. In synthetic tests it breaks the 1000-nit barrier, which on paper already promises a solid HDR effect. In practice the screen really shows its claws, though it can't fully spread its wings (or its backlight 🤔) in every situation. The best impression comes from bright, expansive shots. Sunlit exteriors or heavily lit scenes look really good on it. Brightness then stays around 700 nits, which gives a noticeable step up in quality over standard SDR. Problems start in dark scenes with small, pinpoint highlights. The QN80H tends to heavily dim them, doing everything it can to protect black levels. On one hand we gain better contrast, on the other... we lose some of the dynamics and the sparkle of fine HDR details. The TV therefore has considerable potential, but the dimming algorithm can be too restrictive.

Color gamut coverage

Colors are good too. The QN80H uses quantum dot technology, and in our measurements it covered 93% of the DCI-P3 space and about 70% of BT.2020. Today those results won't exactly blow anyone away, but in real-world use they're more than enough to deliver vivid, natural-looking images in most movies and TV series. Colors are properly saturated and, after proper tuning, don't look artificial or overly aggressive.

UR8S is a slightly higher-end Mini-LED, so you could expect a lot in terms of brightness. And indeed, on a synthetic test pattern the peak brightness reached around 2200 nits. That's a very good result, but as always what matters more is what the TV does in normal film scenes. Here the results are a bit more uneven. In bright scenes with a lot of light on screen, the UR8S can deliver really strong HDR. Brightness then reaches about 1500 nits, so the image is very intense and has a lot of punch. It's worse with small bright elements on a dark background. The TV noticeably dims them to maintain good blacks and avoid excessive blooming. As a result, things like single stars or tiny specular highlights can be only around 200 nits. And here HDR is no longer as impressive. So the local dimming algorithm works effectively, but it comes at a cost, sometimes it simply sacrifices the brightness of small details too much in favor of contrast.

Colors

With RGB Mini-LED TVs, colors should be evaluated a bit differently than usual. If we look solely at the panel's capabilities, the UR8S performs great. We measured about 94% coverage of BT.2020 and practically full DCI-P3. These are among the highest values currently found in LCD TVs, and this is where the potential of RGB backlighting is most apparent. The problem is that this potential isn't always used in real scenes. When we ran the same measurements on patterns with an overlaid film background, the saturation of some colors dropped noticeably. Individual zones can't always control the three RGB components as precisely when the scene becomes more complex. This is most noticeable with blue and magenta. In simple test patterns they can look very strong, but in tougher scenes samples of those colors clearly shrink. So the UR8S has enormous potential, but the TV can't always make full use of it.

The QN80H's factory settings were really good, especially compared with most TVs that come into our tests. Of course, we performed measurements in Filmmaker Mode, and that's the mode we recommend turning on right after the initial setup. In SDR material our unit was set up surprisingly well. The white balance was very even, colors looked natural, and the errors were so small they were hard to spot without measurement equipment. The only weak point was the gamma. In brighter parts of the image the TV brightened them a bit too much, so the picture sometimes lost a little depth. Even so, we'd like most TVs to look this good straight out of the box.

It was a bit worse in HDR. The white balance itself was still set correctly, so the problem wasn't with the colors but with how the QN80H managed image brightness. You could see that immediately on the EOTF chart. The TV brightened large parts of scenes too much, causing the brightest elements to blow out. Interestingly, at the same time very small points were often dimmed too much. As a result some fine detail simply disappeared. So the factory Filmmaker Mode in HDR isn't bad, but it's definitely not as well calibrated as in SDR.

For evaluating out-of-the-box colors we used Filmmaker mode, which is supposed to show the image as close as possible to how the material was intended. Looking at white balance alone, the UR8S does quite well. There is no strong color cast that immediately jumps out, although as brightness increases a bit too much blue and red appear while green becomes deficient. Color errors therefore show up in measurements, but the image itself does not look bad.

We have far bigger reservations about how the UR8S manages image brightness. In SDR the gamma stays around 1.9 to 2.0 for most of the range instead of the target 2.4. In practice this simply means the image is too bright, especially in the midtones. Shadows are lifted too much, so the image loses some depth. A similar trend is visible in HDR. The EOTF curve sits above the reference value for a large portion of the range, so the UR8S again brightens the image more than it should. This is not a matter of the TV lacking brightness; it has plenty of it. The issue is how it manages that brightness. As a result, HDR material can look very striking, but not always exactly as it should.

The biggest difference after calibration was in HDR Filmmaker mode. SDR was already very good out of the box, so we didn't have much work to do there. In HDR, however, we managed to tame the way the QN80H handled brightness, as it had been over-brightening most scenes. After calibration the picture is calmer, more natural, and much closer to how a faithful picture should look.

Hisense offers quite a few calibration options, and in SDR you can achieve a really good result with them. After calibration, the white balance is practically uniform across the entire range, and color errors drop to very low values. The UR8S can be adjusted very precisely here. HDR looks a bit different. The white balance itself can also be noticeably improved, although at the highest brightness levels larger deviations start to appear. What's most interesting, however, is the behavior of the EOTF curve. Even after it is properly set on test patterns, the UR8S can still interpret brightness its own way during movie playback. Depending on the scene, parts of the image are slightly brightened while others are darkened compared to how they should look. This shows that the algorithms responsible for backlight control have a fairly large impact on the final image. So calibration can greatly improve colors, but we can't completely "turn off" the way the UR8S manages brightness in HDR.

Digital image processing in the Samsung QN80H is handled by the second-generation NQ4 AI processor. It's a chip we already know from earlier models and it still performs very well, especially with lower-resolution material. The image is effectively upscaled to 4K, but without excessive sharpening and without the feeling that the TV is forcing improvements on the source material.

The "Noise Reduction" feature also proves useful. It can noticeably reduce posterization and visible banding in poorer-quality material, particularly in low-bitrate streaming. However, it's important to remember that it doesn't work without side effects. It can remove some film grain and slightly smooth the image. So with a good-quality source we'd leave this feature off. If, however, banding and uneven tonal transitions bother you more than losing some grain, "Noise Reduction" can be a really useful addition.

A major advantage of the UR8S is its MediaTek Pentonic 800 processor, and digital image processing is one of this model’s strengths. The TV handles smoothing tonal transitions very well, especially with lower-quality sources. The feature responsible for this effect works effectively without overly interfering with the picture. Even at the medium setting it can noticeably reduce visible banding and unevenness without heavily blurring details. Upscaling also performs very well. Lower-resolution content is displayed cleanly, edges look natural, and the image isn’t overly sharpened. The UR8S simply copes very well with weaker signals, and in that respect it’s one of its clear strengths.

Motion blur and motion handling on the QN80H are really good, mainly thanks to the fast panel. In 4K the screen refreshes at up to 144 Hz, and when switched to Full HD and connected to a PC it can reach as high as 240 Hz. That's new for Samsung TVs and a nice bonus for people who want to use the TV for PC gaming as well. We were more interested, however, in how the QN80H performs at 120 Hz, since consoles use that refresh rate. Here it's really good. The panel doesn't have a big problem with the smearing typical of VA panels, and slight trails behind moving objects are mostly visible on dark backgrounds. This is nothing that would interfere with normal sports viewing or gaming. The TV also includes a motion smoothing system that Samsung calls "Image Clarity." You can adjust judder reduction and blur reduction separately, so it's easy to tailor its operation to movies, sports, or your own preferences.

The UR8S is equipped with a panel that has a native 180 Hz refresh rate, so it already offers great potential for smooth motion. The panel itself performs really well, though some limitations typical of VA panels are still visible. Smearing is relatively low for this type of screen, but with faster motion (especially on darker backgrounds) it can still be noticed, particularly when compared with the same image on OLED TVs.

Samsung QN80H is a TV that scores very well on gamer-oriented features. The biggest new addition for 2026 is DLG mode, which allows refresh rates up to 240 Hz when the image is switched to Full HD resolution. This option is aimed mainly at PC users, but it also shows that Samsung is still heavily developing the gaming side of its TVs. That’s not the end of the list of advantages. The QN80H has four full-featured HDMI 2.1 ports, which in this price range still isn’t standard. You can therefore connect multiple consoles, a PC, or a soundbar at the same time without worrying which input supports the full picture capabilities. The TV also supports VRR, ALLM, and HGiG, so it’s hard to fault its basic feature set. One downside remains the lack of Dolby Vision, which may matter especially to Xbox Series X owners. That said, it’s not a flaw that rules out the QN80H as a gaming TV. Samsung includes a feature still missing from most manufacturers: its proprietary motion interpolator, Game Motion Plus. It’s a motion interpolator that also works in game mode, allowing you to improve the smoothness of titles running at 30 or 60 frames per second without a drastic increase in input lag. In practice, Game Motion Plus can make a much bigger difference than Dolby’s processing, especially in more demanding games that don’t offer a 60 FPS mode. The image becomes noticeably smoother while controls remain responsive enough. So despite the lack of Dolby Vision, the QN80H is still one of the best-equipped TVs for gamers in its class.

In terms of gamer features the UR8S performs really well. The TV supports practically everything you’d expect from a modern console or PC display. It offers ALLM, VRR, and 4K at 120 Hz. It also supports Dolby Vision in game mode, so when using an Xbox Series X you don’t have to give up that HDR format. PC gamers get even more options. The panel can run at 4K/180 Hz, and dropping to Full HD can raise the refresh rate up to 330 Hz. There’s also a Game Bar that lets you quickly view key information and change gaming-related settings. The only clear shortcoming is a proper implementation of HGiG. With it enabled the TV still interferes with HDR brightness mapping, so we don’t get the effect intended by that standard. Aside from that, the UR8S is very well prepared for both consoles and a powerful PC.