Samsung Q70R (QE55Q70R) QLED TV Review & Comments

Phil Hinton

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£1700 is considered mid range nowadays?
I need a second job!

£1700 and no DV, no hdmi 2.1 and bang average peak brightness. Oh and if your quick you could nab a Q9FN or any of the LG 8 series OLEDS for anything up to 700 quid less!
Hmmm...
Not a hard choice imo.
 
another cracking review and video, cant see anyone going for the Sony based on this review, picture looks horrible with the blooming and grey bars.
 
Has the 75" got the same 50 local dimming zones or more?
 
£1700 is considered mid range nowadays?
I need a second job!

£1700 and no DV, no hdmi 2.1 and bang average peak brightness. Oh and if your quick you could nab a Q9FN or any of the LG 8 series OLEDS for anything up to 700 quid less!
Hmmm...
Not a hard choice imo.
It is in the middle of the 2019 QLED range, it has nothing to do with price. Actually, the price has changed recently and is now £1499.
As I say quite clearly in the video and review it is up to you what you find important as Samsung does some things really well and is not as good at others.
It doesn't have HDMI 2.1 but again, is that really important as it has all the gaming features and will likely add eARC later this year, so what else do you need right now?
OLED doesn't suit everyone out there and the Q70R is a good choice for gamers. If you can find a Q9FN then, yes, that would be a good choice if you can get one for less.
 
Has the 75" got the same 50 local dimming zones or more?
I believe the larger sizes have more zones, but Samsung will not divulge the exact number and I haven't had one in to count myself.
 
Phil - great review, appreciate the measurements being added in to the written review.

Pity the 49” is hobbled by a 60hz screen. Think I’ll save for the 48” oled due next year to replace my Q7C.
 
it is better noted that the Sony XG9505, weird !
Sorry, I know English is not your first language, but I'm not sure what it is you're asking here.
If you are asking if the Samsung Q70R scored 1 mark higher than the Sony XG95, for the same 55-inch screen size and in full-on comparison testing, then yes, that is correct. The Samsung is a better all-round TV with superb Smart TV and OS performance, excellent and accurate SDR images once calibrated and very good HDR. It is also a very good gaming TV for those looking for a stable platform to use. This was worth the mark up on the Sony which has issues with its Android TV system, crashes, wi-fi connection issues, slowness, double the lag time and HDR scope blooming that lights up the entire black bars. It is all explained in both my reviews and evidenced in the videos, where what you see is very close to how things look in person with regards the blooming. There is no brand bias within our reviews and we try to be fair and honest with what we find, so not sure why you would think that is weird. I could obviously have misread what you meant.
 
Great review as always but I'm waiting for hdmi 2.1 before my next big purchase. I'm interested in what the make up of the cable from the one connect box to the screen is as it provides picture/sound and also power. Just that we're always advised to keep our power cables away from our hdmi cables, yet the cable manages both in one cable with seemingly no detriment to either picture or sound!
 
Sorry, I know English is not your first language, but I'm not sure what it is you're asking here.
If you are asking if the Samsung Q70R scored 1 mark higher than the Sony XG95, for the same 55-inch screen size and in full-on comparison testing, then yes, that is correct. The Samsung is a better all-round TV with superb Smart TV and OS performance, excellent and accurate SDR images once calibrated and very good HDR. It is also a very good gaming TV for those looking for a stable platform to use. This was worth the mark up on the Sony which has issues with its Android TV system, crashes, wi-fi connection issues, slowness, double the lag time and HDR scope blooming that lights up the entire black bars. It is all explained in both my reviews and evidenced in the videos, where what you see is very close to how things look in person with regards the blooming. There is no brand bias within our reviews and we try to be fair and honest with what we find, so not sure why you would think that is weird. I could obviously have misread what you meant.
for my english it is sure that it is not my mother tongue it is seen anyway I use the translation of google
if not for the note of the Q70R I admit that I find a little strange compared to the XG9505 which I think better than the Q70R if it was the Q85R can understand but an entry ...?
PS: I have nothing against you Phil Hinton it's just a remark and I have no Sony TV at home and I do not work at this manufacturer no longer.
 
No matter how good the tv may be, that out of the box picture quality is appalling.
 
No matter how good the tv may be, that out of the box picture quality is appalling.
I don't think I would go that far. Graphs only tell you some of the story. The fact that errors were in the green/ cyan range is not as severe for onscreen images with actual viewing material as we are less likely to see such errors. It's why projector manufacturers have always pushed the green spectrum as it introduces brightness without any obvious tint to most eyes. Even though the errors here in the graph look high, with actual content viewing it's not as much of a standout and is harder to see for most normal viewers. It should, however, be far better out of the box and this retail set was supplied by Samsung, so kinda blows the golden sample conspiracies ;)
 
It’s not so much the effect, though I’m sure that much over green will be visible on at least some programming.

But to send out such an off the mark picture when say, Panasonic, do so much better, is a bit of a mess for Samsung.
 
Really comprehensive and thorough review - exactly what you want when considering purchasing a new TV as they don't come cheap nowadays.
Although I don't see anything performance-wise that would make me choose this over a Panasonic FZ802 which at £200 quid cheaper is an absolute steal in my opinion.
 
Really comprehensive and thorough review - exactly what you want when considering purchasing a new TV as they don't come cheap nowadays.
Although I don't see anything performance-wise that would make me choose this over a Panasonic FZ802 which at £200 quid cheaper is an absolute steal in my opinion.

Or for an extra £500 on the 65" Q70r you could have the Panasonic 65" GZ950. That's the dilemma I have, go for the 65" GZ950 OLED or pay an extra £500 and go for the 75" Q70r or pay another £500 on top of that and go for the 75" Q85R (which I am waiting to see reviewed soon).

My heart says OLED but my head (with a 5yr old) says 75" QLED).... :)
 
Here’s a phone photo of the screen of my QE55Q70R pre-calibration. Judge the green tint for yourself.

This is merely a ‘one-of’ anecdotal example and not an in-depth tech review, but sometimes it helps to see a real life, non-professional screen shot.

And, BTW, what’s the deal on tariffs for EU members on Samsung TVs? It seems to be about 30% higher than in the US.

Here, the non-sale standard retail list price is $1,295.00, and I got a significant discount buying from a large NYC store - well under €1,000.

upload_2019-6-19_7-58-30.jpeg


Mine only came with 1 remote (the simple plastic one), but I’ll take that tradeoff any day of the week.
 
And, BTW, what’s the deal on tariffs for EU members on Samsung TVs? It seems to be about 30% higher than in the US.

Here, the non-sale standard retail list price is $1,295.00, and I got a significant discount buying from a large NYC store - well under €1,000.

That'll be the 20% VAT we have to pay :(

Looks horrendously over saturated but I presume that's the phone? How's the picture look on dark scenes with say stars\subtitles etc...?
 
Good eye. That was an 8 bit color depth photo streamed from an USB stick over DLNA via WiFi. I’m merely using the Quantum processor to interpolate better than a PC (Mac).

I don’t have exactly what you requested (yet), but this is perhaps more realistic as it is YouTu.be video. The background is intentionally green and the phone is not up to the TV, so I’m not sure of the utility. I will try to generate a more proper ‘test’ image in a few days.

upload_2019-6-19_9-17-43.jpeg
 
I managed to get the QN75Q70R for about 60% off the retail price a month or two ago (I'm guessing the QN is the Canadian equivalent of this version?). I'd been planning on buying a 65" OLED for ages and I was dead set on getting the C9, but then this opportunity showed up and I couldn't turn down the bigger screen for even less than the C9 would have been.

I'm super happy with it so far. My last TV was a 55" Samsung TV from back when smart TVs were just becoming a thing, so it's quite an improvement over that! I still haven't tested some of the different options on the TV yet: I haven't seen how well upscaling works, and I haven't tested the HFR stuff at all (nor have I really tried any games on it yet); but the jump to 4K has been pretty great (if only slightly underwhelming).

My biggest complaint with this TV so far is how it handles subtitles. I definitely notice the glow around them, and while it's certainly not the end of the world, I think I've been watching more foreign language films over the past few months than I normally do so it's been more noticeable.
 
Samsung has gone a bit mad with its pricing this year. Just 48 dimmable zones and a cost of £1,499 for a 49 inch. And no Dolby Vision. Back in 2017 i purchased Panasonics flagship DX902 58 inch with 512 dimmable zones and a 6yr guarantee for just £1,499 brand new. The Panasonic runs rings around this Samsung. It even runs rings around Samsungs most expensive 2019 QLED, the Q90R. And that thing costs £5,000!!! Hisense has put out a full array local dimming TV with 60 dimmable zones, the H8F, and its just $500 for a 50 inch. And it's getting good reviews. Shame we can't get them in the UK market though. Later this year TCL will be releasing its new flagship Mini LED technology with 15360 LED's and 768 dimmable zones for around the 2,000 to 2,500 Euro mark for a 65 inch. That's around £1,700 to £2,200. That's what i'm really interested in. Seems like the main names have lost touch with what people want and the cheaper brands are coming in with the big guns.
 
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Con poor SDR accuracy out of the box.
Pro excellent SDR accuracy.
Excellent SDR accuracy, yes but only after calibration. Cannot see many buyers of this TV bothering with that.
 
It is in the middle of the 2019 QLED range, it has nothing to do with price. Actually, the price has changed recently and is now £1499.
As I say quite clearly in the video and review it is up to you what you find important as Samsung does some things really well and is not as good at others.
It doesn't have HDMI 2.1 but again, is that really important as it has all the gaming features and will likely add eARC later this year, so what else do you need right now?
OLED doesn't suit everyone out there and the Q70R is a good choice for gamers. If you can find a Q9FN then, yes, that would be a good choice if you can get one for less.
In my opinion (rightly or wrongly) the range will always be based on price regardless of where it falls in the line up.

And in my humble opinion £1400 is also too much to be considered mid range, Samsung’s mid range is the RU series as far as I’m concerned, I would never pay more than £800 or so for something considered mid range unless it was REALLY good for the money, the 2016 XE90 from Sony being a prime example.

This thing is over priced at £1700 or £1400 in my opinion but that does seem to be the Samsung way, leave out essential features like Dolby vision and yet still charge more than the competition.
 
Hi, Would you like to know your opinion, a Q70R should be replaced with a SonyXF9005? Is this a good choice? What are the pros and cons? Is there a better alternative in this price range? Thanks in advance
 
Hi, Would you like to know your opinion, a Q70R should be replaced with a SonyXF9005? Is this a good choice? What are the pros and cons? Is there a better alternative in this price range? Thanks in advance
Yup I’d take the XF90 over the Q70, pocket the five or so hundred quid difference in price and buy a nice uhd Blu-ray player or something with it.
 

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