Samsung QN85F vs Haier K85F

Although the more than double number of dimming zones compared to its predecessor has not translated into a spectacular jump in black levels and contrast, we definitely felt it in the HDR effect itself. The QN85F is up to 50% brighter than last year's model, making a huge impression in dynamic scenes. The peak brightness can reach nearly 1700–1800 nits, which is truly impressive in this Mini-LED class. The best part is that almost regardless of the scene being viewed, the HDR effect remains strong and vibrant. In four out of five test scenes, the brightness was around 1000 nits, a level that in most cases allows viewers to feel the true magic of this format. Of course, in scene number 4 from the movie Sicario 2, the limitations of Mini-LED technology become apparent – the brightness of the helicopter's spotlight drops to around 500 nits. It's not an outstanding result, but it's still much more acceptable than in last year's model. Samsung deserves applause, as the improvement in brightness in the QN85F is substantial compared to its predecessor. However, it's a pity about a certain trend seen in this year’s televisions – the manufacturer has worsened the color gamut coverage. Although the QN85F has a QLED panel, its result of around 90% DCI-P3 is average, and in the most demanding films, it can lead to less vibrant colors than in the predecessor. Despite this shortcoming, the overall HDR effect is at an excellent level and really makes a big impression in this class of devices.

Now let's move on to one of the hottest topics in the world of televisions, which is the quality of HDR effect. In the case of the Haier K85F model, we must unfortunately make it clear: if you are looking for equipment to watch content in a wide dynamic range, you should steer clear of this model. The main issue is its very low peak brightness, which during our tests barely reached 250 nits. To give you a better idea of what this means – such a value is okay for watching standard SDR materials, but it is absolutely insufficient to show any real benefits of HDR. The image simply lacks the "power" to generate bright, striking bursts. All our measurements and tests on specialist patterns only confirmed this. As if that weren't enough, the television also struggles with color reproduction. In this budget model, we won't find any technologies that expand the color palette, such as quantum dot layers (known in marketing as "QLED"). As a result, the coverage of the DCI-P3 color space, which is crucial for HDR materials, is only about 80%. In practice, this means that the image will not only be dark but also devoid of vibrant, saturated colors that the director wanted to show us.

The Samsung QN85F offers several preset picture modes, but out of the box, the television starts in "Eco" mode. We could actually end the discussion here, because for such a model, using this setting makes no sense – the picture is washed out, unpleasant, and far from what we expect from a television of this class. Therefore, we conducted our tests in the best available mode, which is the Filmmaker mode. Its purpose is to faithfully reproduce what the directors saw while filming, and indeed, this setting performs best among all the factory options. However, this does not mean it is free of flaws.

Both in SDR and HDR, the QN85F strongly highlighted warm colors. This stemmed from a lack of white balance, with a noticeable absence of blue. Additionally, the picture sometimes appeared overexposed – both the gamma brightness characteristic and the EOTF curve indicated that the television has a tendency to blow out scenes. In SDR, the color reproduction errors (Delta E at levels of 4–5) were still acceptable, but in HDR, the inaccuracies became really significant and clearly deviated from what the creators intended to show us. Fortunately, Samsung provides a wide range of calibration tools in its televisions, so – as always – we proceeded with professional calibration to see how much could be improved.

Well, how does the television perform with colors straight from the factory, without any intervention from our side? The Haier K85F offers a full range of picture modes, such as Dynamic or Eco, but for anyone who wants to watch movies according to the creators' intentions, only one really matters: Film mode. This is the mode we focused our tests on, and unfortunately, its name has little to do with reality. The picture in the factory settings is far from what we could call cinematic fidelity and requires many adjustments. Let's start with the white balance, which has a clear lack of red color. In practice, this means that the whole picture has a cool, bluish tint. The situation is even worse when it comes to brightness management, specifically gamma curves (for SDR) and EOTF (for HDR). Their graph resembles a real rollercoaster, which has a disastrous effect on the viewing experience. This results in unnatural dimming of SDR content, causing details in the shadows to get lost, and in the case of HDR – excessive brightness, which further exacerbates the issue of highlights. This combination, meaning too cool white combined with chaotic brightness and excessive blue color saturation, causes enormous errors in color reproduction. Our measurements on a specialized ColorChecker chart showed errors (Delta E) regularly reaching and exceeding values of 8-9. In simpler terms: errors above the threshold of 3 are easily noticeable to the naked eye, so such a result means that the colors on the screen are simply heavily distorted.

After calibrating the movie mode, we managed to tame the colors in both modes to nearly perfection – most of them did not exceed an error value of 3, which is the limit of visibility to the human eye. The image became more natural, fuller, and at the same time devoid of the blooming that was noticeable right after taking the TV out of the box. This shows how much potential lies in the QN85F and how well it responds to precise settings. However, this does not change the fact that certain technological barriers cannot be overcome. Despite the significant benefits of calibration, limitations of the panel itself still remain. Although the number of dimming zones has doubled compared to its predecessor, the algorithms controlling the backlighting can manipulate brightness in their own way. Sometimes this leads to slight color distortions or subtly visible halo effects around bright objects. Nonetheless, the reception after calibration is really pleasant and shows how good a screen the QN85F can be if we just take a moment for the right settings.

Well, is there anything we can do about this image? Can professional calibration save the situation? The answer is: both yes and no. It must be clearly stated that there are certain things we cannot overcome. The limitations of the construction itself, namely a poor panel and its narrow color coverage, mean that you can forget about achieving meaningful HDR – we won’t sugarcoat it for you. The biggest beneficiary of our adjustments is undoubtedly the SDR mode, and it is precisely for watching such content, after calibration, that this television begins to make sense. We managed to tame the white balance in our own way. Although the TV only offers basic 2-point adjustment (instead of precise 20-point), it’s not perfect, but we successfully eliminated that unpleasant, cold "chill" in the image. Above all, however, we recorded a significant improvement in brightness management. The gamma curve, which previously resembled a rollercoaster, looks like an almost perfectly straight line after calibration. This is a sign that the TV can finally display images without artificially dimming or brightening them. The conclusion is simple: even in the case of such a cheap television, professional adjustment of the settings can achieve a lot and draw out its maximum potential.

Although the native tonal transitions on the QN85F perform excellently with 4K materials, we don't always deal with content in the highest resolution. That's when it becomes crucial how the television handles upscaling and digital image processing. This process is managed by Samsung's proprietary processor – AI NQ4 Gen2. In practice, it works very efficiently. If visible color banding or other undesirable phenomena appear on the screen, for example in materials from YouTube, they can be easily smoothed out using the "noise reduction" function. Set to medium, it improves tonal transitions while not excessively blurring desired details. However, it's important to remember that – as with most Samsung televisions – this feature significantly affects the film grain. Therefore, during movie screenings, it's advisable to use it cautiously to maintain the natural character of the image.

The upscaling itself looks very good. Test materials in lower resolutions were displayed sharply and clearly, with a lot of detail. The only drawback remains the issue of overscan, which is cutting off the edges of the screen. In most situations, this is not noticeable, but with very old materials below HD quality, there may be instances where part of the image on the left side is slightly cropped.

Let's move on to digital processing and image scaling, that is, how the Haier K85F handles lower resolution signals, for example, from standard television. Right from the start, we encounter an extremely annoying and completely incomprehensible issue – the overscan feature is enabled by default. This means that the television artificially enlarges the image, cropping its edges, and this occurs on every source, even 1080p. To see the full frame, you have to dig into the screen settings every time and manually switch the format to "stretch to 16:9." It's a detail, but incredibly frustrating. The scaling of content to 4K resolution can be described in one word: acceptable. And that's basically it. The image processor does not strip the image of details, nor does it generate jagged edges or other artifacts. It simply does its job, without any fireworks. It's fine, but nothing more. The biggest and most noticeable shortcoming in the digital processing section is the absence of a banding smoothing function. This is an algorithm that could significantly reduce the annoying banding effect we mentioned earlier. Unfortunately, the manufacturer did not implement such a solution, condemning us to watch the imperfections of the panel and low-quality materials in all their glory.

Motion blur and fluidity of motion in the QN85F is a topic worth discussing in more detail, as the television is equipped not with a standard 120 Hz panel, but with a 144 Hz panel. The additional hertz will primarily be appreciated by PC gamers, but the mere presence of such an option can be seen as a nice addition and a sign of the times – it’s hard to complain about the trend towards faster panels, since in practice, each of us would like the image to be as fluid as possible. However, the most important thing is how the television handles typical 120 Hz refresh rates – in the case of consoles, sports, or films recorded at 24 or 30 frames per second. And here, the QN85F performs really well. In movies, you can easily adjust the character of the image thanks to the “picture clarity” function, where we find two adjustable sliders. Key for viewing sessions is the one responsible for reducing motion blur. Lower values give the image a more cinematic character with preserved “frame rate,” while higher values lead to a strong smoothing that resembles television theater.

The panel in the K85F model operates at a native refresh rate of 60 Hz, which already sets certain expectations for smoothness of the image right from the start. However, we must admit that we were very positively surprised when we found not one, but two separate sliders for motion control in the settings menu: one labeled "Blur Reduction" and the other "De-Judder." Such generosity in this price segment is an absolute rarity, as usually manufacturers offer at most one common option. Unfortunately, our enthusiasm quickly dwindled as fast as it appeared. It soon became clear why Haier was so "generous" – the slider responsible for blur reduction is simply a dummy. Moving it does not produce any visible effect on the screen; thus, only one of the two options actually works.

The Samsung QN85F makes a really great impression from a gaming feature standpoint. We have four HDMI 2.1 ports here, so we can connect multiple devices simultaneously without any problems. It also has variable refresh rate (VRR), which prevents screen tearing, as well as automatic game mode (ALLM), which allows the TV to switch to the appropriate settings by itself when we launch the console. Additionally, it supports refresh rates of up to 144 Hz – something that PC gamers will particularly appreciate, but the fact that such an option is available shows that Samsung is fully committed to supporting gamers. The Game Bar panel also deserves praise. It provides a quick overview of the most important parameters – from frame rates, to refresh modes, and even shortcuts to picture settings. Instead of digging through the entire menu, we have everything at our fingertips, which turns out to be really convenient in practice. However, the most interesting addition is the Game Motion Plus feature. It’s essentially a motion smoother, adapted for the gaming world. When enabled, the image becomes smoother; sometimes it even looks as though we’re getting a few more frames, and importantly – the response delay doesn’t increase enough to hinder gameplay. This is a solution that truly distinguishes Samsung’s 120Hz TVs from the competition.

The only serious drawback remains the lack of proper HGiG support. This is the standard that ensures correct tone mapping in HDR games, meaning that brightness and contrast are displayed according to how the developers intended them. Without HGiG, we have to manually adjust the brightness, which doesn’t always result in an ideal outcome. The feature was available in previous models, but it disappeared in the QN85F after one of the updates. We hope that Samsung will quickly fix this issue, and we will be keeping an eye out to see if they succeed.

Let's move on to the features for gamers, although we must point out right away that this is more of a proposal for "casual" players. The manufacturer boasts in the specifications about the presence of HDMI 2.1 ports, which looks impressive on paper, but in reality, it is largely a marketing gimmick. What good is a modern port when the heart of the television is a panel with a refresh rate of 60 Hz? It physically cannot display a signal at 120 frames per second, even at lower resolutions, which takes away HDMI 2.1's most important advantage. That's a shame. (That’s why we mark it as HDMI 2.0 ports in our tests). Another oddity is the television's response to attempts to calibrate HDR from the console. Changes in brightness settings cause very unnatural behavior of the image, which might suggest an incorrect implementation of the HGiG standard. To be honest, however, you shouldn't worry too much about this, because as we have mentioned multiple times, we simply do not recommend using any HDR content on this screen. However, to make it not so bitter, the Haier K85F also has two significant and unexpected advantages. The first is the presence of ALLM, or Auto Low Latency Mode, which switches the television to low latency mode as soon as it detects a connected console. The second, even bigger surprise is support for VRR, or Variable Refresh Rate. Although it works in a very modest range of 48-60 Hz, its very presence is commendable. Thanks to this, the image in games can stutter less, which truly improves the gaming experience.