Xiaomi S Mini 2025 vs Samsung Q7F

Since the Xiaomi S MiniLED boasts an impressive number of 308 dimming zones, it was time to see how it performs in HDR tests. Starting with luminance, or the ability to display bright scenes, the television achieved nearly 1000 nits of brightness – a result that can be considered outstanding in this class. However, do these numbers translate into real experiences in movie scenes? In the case of less demanding shots, like those from the film The Meg, the television indeed showed excellent results, reaching up to 900 nits. Such values are impressive and can truly convey the strength of HDR effects.

Unfortunately, similar to the contrast situation, there were issues. When smaller, brighter elements appear on the screen – as in challenging scenes from Sicario 2 – the aggressive operation of the dimming zones spoils the whole effect. Brightness during these moments drops to just 100 nits. This is definitely too little to capture the full magic of HDR. Instead of a dynamic and detailed image, the viewer gets a muted, almost flat impression, which diminishes the enjoyment of the viewing experience.

In summary, if we are looking for a television with high brightness for watching movies during the day, the Xiaomi S MiniLED will easily fulfill that task. However, its inability to precisely manage dimming zones means that watching movies in the evening, especially in demanding HDR scenes, can be more frustrating than satisfying.

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.

Xiaomi, like many manufacturers, offers a wide range of picture modes. On the S MiniLED, we can find both IMAX Enhanced and Filmmaker. We conducted our tests in Filmmaker mode, which theoretically is supposed to reference the original image, but the reality turned out to be somewhat different.

Let's start with the test of SDR materials. Here, the television had quite a few problems, especially with white balance. The clearly visible dominance of red made the image appear too warm, and all colors gained a reddish tint. This was particularly noticeable in a comparative scene from the Star Wars movie. The brightness characteristics (gamma) also left much to be desired – instead of a smooth transition, we had a real "rollercoaster," with a visible excessive brightening of the screen.

In 4K materials, the situation looked much better. The white balance, while still not perfect, was much more balanced, with a slight dominance of red and blue, but without excessive influence on the overall perception. The EOTF curve (responsible for brightness in HDR) showed some brightening in the brightest parts of the image, which was noticeable, for example, in the test scene from the Pan movie that we described above. These brightening effects can disrupt image precision, but in 4K, the overall effect was much more acceptable than in SDR.

Although the Xiaomi S MiniLED can positively surprise in 4K materials, its factory settings in SDR require significant adjustments, especially in terms of white balance and brightness. It is definitely a television that would benefit from calibration.

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.

Xiaomi S MiniLED 2025 is a television that gains a whole new life after calibration. The results are truly remarkable and show how much potential this model has.

In SDR mode, the white balance is nearly perfectly aligned. The errors are minimal enough that in many cases they can be considered negligible. This is confirmed by the Colour Checker palette results, where the errors did not exceed 2 ΔE – a result that is indeed quite rare. Gamma also looks very good, although at the beginning of the graph, there are slight brightenings in the darkest elements. However, this is a minor exception that does not significantly affect the image perception.

In 4K HDR materials, calibration also brought visible improvements, especially in white balance. The image looks natural and consistent. However, the brightness characteristic remains a problem. EOTF analysis in film materials shows that the television tends to over-brighten or darken the smallest elements on the screen. This is a result of limitations in the dimming algorithms that we previously discussed concerning HDR and contrast testing. Unfortunately, this is a technical feature of this model that cannot be completely eliminated.

Despite this minor flaw, calibration allowed extracting the maximum capabilities from this television. The image now looks phenomenal, and its quality impresses with every type of material. Xiaomi S MiniLED 2025 demonstrates that with the right settings, it can compete with more expensive models.

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.

When it comes to color transitions in lower quality materials like YouTube or television, the Xiaomi S MiniLED is equipped with the "Color Contour Removal" feature. In the "low" setting, it works quite well, but its effectiveness can be uneven. Sometimes it seems like the TV struggles with smoothing, which creates a certain dissonance. On the plus side, we did not notice any visible side effects, although given the instability of this feature, one might suspect that unexpected issues could arise in some situations.

Image scaling also performs average. There is slight aliasing, especially on thin elements like branches, and subtitles can appear a bit jagged. While it may not be very bothersome, a more discerning eye will certainly catch these shortcomings. Overall, most users should be satisfied with the scaling and smoothing quality, but the TV may not satisfy those who expect perfection in every frame.

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.

Xiaomi S MiniLED 2025 is equipped with a display that refreshes at 4K@120Hz (1080p@240Hz), providing sufficient smoothness for both watching dynamic sports broadcasts and playing the latest games. This level of refresh rate makes the image look smooth, even in the most intense scenes. Additionally, the TV offers a "Motion Smoothing" feature that allows users to adjust the way images are displayed in movies. We can choose a more frame-like effect, typical of cinematic experiences, or a smoother one reminiscent of the so-called "theatrical effect." This way, every user can tailor the settings to their preferences and enjoy smooth images in their favorite content.

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.

Xiaomi S MiniLED 2025 is a television that has a lot to offer gamers. With two HDMI ports with 48 Gbps bandwidth, we can easily connect modern consoles or PCs, utilizing their full potential. Additionally, the ALLM feature automatically switches the television to low latency mode – something we will appreciate during dynamic games without annoying lags. No matter what we connect, it works smoothly, and the television handles various resolutions well. There is also GameBar, which may not look as impressive as the "bars" from the competition, but makes up for it with practicality. It's a simple settings panel that allows us to quickly change the most important options or check statistics – an ideal solution when time is of the essence.

However, we have to admit that operating the television itself – or rather finding the gaming features – was quite a challenge for us. We approached the Xiaomi S MiniLED 2025 test several times to find all the necessary options. The hidden menu allowed us to discover the "GameBoost" feature, which enables switching the television to 240 Hz mode, activating VRR at 120Hz, and turning on the image in HGIG mode.

In summary, the Xiaomi S MiniLED 2025 is a television that definitely deserves praise in the gaming hardware category. Its rich set of features – 240 Hz mode, VRR, HGIG, and "GameBoost" – provides exceptional gaming experiences. Unfortunately, the intuitiveness of the menu itself leaves much to be desired and may pose a certain challenge for the average user.

Features for gamers in the Samsung Q7F is a topic that evokes quite a bit of mixed emotions. On one hand – no sensible person expected miracles here, after all, it's a 60 Hz television, and it was clear from the beginning that it wouldn't be a device to extract the maximum from a console or PC. On the other hand, since the manufacturer promised specific solutions in promotional materials, it's natural that we wanted to see them in practice. At the start, it's quite decent. The automatic game mode (ALLM) works, so there's no need to manually fiddle with the settings; the console switches the TV to low latency mode by itself. Additionally, we have the Game Bar, which looks impressive and allows you to check a few basic parameters without leaving the game. And this is where the good news ends.

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 function remained dead and could not be activated in any way. The issue with HGiG is even more painful; this option was actually available at the beginning, but after a software update, it disappeared completely, which is simply unprofessional. Therefore, the Q7F is only suitable for absolute basics. Sure, you can turn on the console, play more mellow 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 intended for gaming, and it's better to be aware of this before purchasing.