Samsung Q800T (QE65Q800T) 8K QLED TV Review & Comments

Not one to bash, but if it's "expected" a TV to have DSE/banding and therefore it's overlooked in critique then it's legitimising the manufacturers to continue to ignore these issues which are important to consumers IMO.

DSE is a major problem and as some TVs don't have it and some are so bad they get panels changed, it should be a priority to refine the technology to reduce this phenomenon. Nobody needs an 8K TV as there's no content, and instead I suspect a lot of people wish Samsung concentrated on manufacturing clean 4K LED panels tv with more dimming zones. For example I've got a 65Q80T and you can see DSE quite easily but as a gaming TV it's fine, and after cashback I only paid £1199 for it, which is obviously a good price, but atm they want about £1799 which is way too much when it has some flaws.
Just to point out it wasn't overlooked at all in my review. You'll also see me mention the same issues on the Q80T review and in most FALD TV reviews. It is a downside of the technology and when you try to make the TV thinner as with the Q800T you amplify the issue, which is again mentioned in full. I 'expect' to see DSE with FALD TVs - that doesn't mean it gets ignored and not mentioned or pointed out to readers. It's a flaw of the technology and it is an issue that needs addressing. We always feedback our finding via reviews.
As for whether 8K TVs are worth it - well worth is a personal thing and it will be up to people to decide what is worthwhile for them and if it is worth the extra outlay over a good quality 4K TV. Some people always want the latest thing and given we are a forum of early adopters I would expect a few readers will be interested in making the jump, whether any of us agree or not that 8K is worth it.
 
Hi,
Just gone through and read every post on this thread and came to the conclusion that
If this had been a boxing match Samsung's corner would have thrown the towel in the
ring by now !!
Gregory
 
Hi,
Just gone through and read every post on this thread and came to the conclusion that
If this had been a boxing match Samsung's corner would have thrown the towel in the
ring by now !!
Gregory
Detony Wilder. Sponsored by the Samsung Q800T. The TV of champions :clown:
 
Hi,
Just gone through and read every post on this thread and came to the conclusion that
If this had been a boxing match Samsung's corner would have thrown the towel in the
ring by now !!
Gregory

Although (to a degree) I admire Samsung for following their own path and not following the herd, unfortunately their decisions to ignore OLED, DV and Atmos, and to pursue QLED, 8K and HDR 10+ instead have all proved to be a monumental b*lls up of the first order.

Perhaps it's time for a rethink Samsung.
 
The one connect box was always, in my opinion, an excellent idea and they now seem to have dumped that also. I wonder if it is the HDMI 2.1 that caused that.
Agreed. It seems a great idea. Did the general public not like it, I wonder. Places like this Forum are not representative of the mainstream, so maybe they just weren't selling.
 
I still cant for the life of me understand why they're pushing 8K tech this early, by the time 8k becomes norm, these tv's will be woefully out of date and look terrible so what's the point, i've personally demo'd them and seen nothing of note, heck i had to be told it was 8k and i was right upto the screen
 
Agreed. It seems a great idea. Did the general public not like it, I wonder. Places like this Forum are not representative of the mainstream, so maybe they just weren't selling.
I wouldn't say the public hated them, after all the One Boxes are probably included in a very small minority of all Samsung screens sold globally, I would say maybe even 0.05%. In the 2020 models it's only included in the Q95T.

No one really understands Samsung and their agenda's.
 
Cable is fibre optic and mentions in the instructions not to bend it less than 10cm arc.

It's possible that the number of faults occurring due to the one connect cable is too high but doesn't show any external signs of fracture so Samsung can't prove neglect and end up replacing under warranty?

The new OCB model appears to have a 'less invisible' cable which I read as we've made it thicker/rigid lol
 
I still cant for the life of me understand why they're pushing 8K tech this early, by the time 8k becomes norm, these tv's will be woefully out of date and look terrible so what's the point, i've personally demo'd them and seen nothing of note, heck i had to be told it was 8k and i was right upto the screen

If blu rays (and 4K blu rays) look worse on an 8K tv than they do on a 4K tv because of the upscaling required, I see zero point in buying one when there's nothing but a few Youtube videos to watch. Even if the upscaling in these 8k sets is excellent, for them to be even remotely worth it, the picture quality would have to be comparable to watching the same content on a 4k screen at native resolution.

Regarding the point about tvs having these visible defects such as banding/dse/backlight bleed etc as inherent to the technology, then one would think they ought to start by getting the tech right first. What's the point in things like 'Smooth Gradation' (Sony) to reduce colour banding when your screen could have lots of vertical banding. What's the point in enhanced shadow detail and deep blacks, when light bleeds through into the black bars etc etc? It makes no sense to me, that a cheap 50 or 65inch set should have similar screen uniformity issues as a high end sets.

Presumably (I have no idea) when these companies present their latest and greatest sets or prototypes at conferences and industry events, the sets they choose to display don't show banding, dse and bleed....
 
It seems a very odd combination: over-priced and average performance. I actually expected more - better performance - from Samsung. Maybe they're deliberately making the set under-perform so as not to detract from the new technologies waiting in the wings.
 
It seems a very odd combination: over-priced and average performance. I actually expected more - better performance - from Samsung. Maybe they're deliberately making the set under-perform so as not to detract from the new technologies waiting in the wings.
I couldn't see the logic in that for Samsung. It seems that the "faults" that are being focused on here are inherent in the technology. If I read it right, if this were a 4K model, it would be at best a mid range TV. The fact that it is an 8K model pushes up the price & also the expectations.
 
I couldn't see the logic in that for Samsung. It seems that the "faults" that are being focused on here are inherent in the technology.
DSE maybe but ABL, deliberate EOTF manipulation, yellow tint and black crush are not inherent in the technology.
 
DSE maybe but ABL, deliberate EOTF manipulation, yellow tint and black crush are not inherent in the technology.
Ok, agreed - I should have maybe wrote "fault" instead - I was referring to the DSE & Banding, which seem to go together. The other things you mention seem to be a combination of poor out of the box quality, & Samsung not having yet figured out how to make a "Budget" 8K TV with acceptable PQ.
 
Ok, agreed - I should have maybe wrote "fault" instead - I was referring to the DSE & Banding, which seem to go together. The other things you mention seem to be a combination of poor out of the box quality, & Samsung not having yet figured out how to make a "Budget" 8K TV with acceptable PQ.
It's kind of like the early 4k TVs before HDR. Mostly pointless technology demos.
 
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Hmm after reading this review (thanks Phil Hinton) I'm so glad I chose Oled instead of another Samsung 8K offering (three sets all returned due to dse/banding). In my opinion now that John Lewis offer Oled screen uniformity insurance its a no brainer.
 
Hmm after reading this review (thanks Phil Hinton) I'm so glad I chose Oled instead of another Samsung 8K offering (three sets all returned due to dse/banding). In my opinion now that John Lewis offer Oled screen uniformity insurance its a no brainer.
That's amazing! Is that included in their standard 5 year guarantee or is it a separate policy? Does it specifically state this issue as covered?
 
That's amazing! Is that included in their standard 5 year guarantee or is it a separate policy? Does it specifically state this issue as covered?
Yep it says 'screen burn cover' in the TCs, though it will cost an extra £140 - worth it in my opinion.
 
Forgot to also mention that it runs the length of the five year warranty.
 
Utterly pointless (the TV, not the review). Who is going to take an 8K panel with DSE and banding over a 4K OLED with Dolby Vision and Atmos?
Samsung zealots and oled deniers ?
Review reads like a 6 at best to me.
 
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I think the issue is the end consumers simply don't want 8K - most folk by and large are going to do some research on a high cost item like this and see 8K is pretty much pointless. It's not even novelty value at the current prices.

Even Samsung murdering their 4K range to make their 8K TV's look better hasn't worked and hopefully they have sorted that out for 2021 because they will have turned a lot of prospective customers against them with that move.
 
I think the issue is the end consumers simply don't want 8K - most folk by and large are going to do some research on a high cost item like this and see 8K is pretty much pointless. It's not even novelty value at the current prices.

Even Samsung murdering their 4K range to make their 8K TV's look better hasn't worked and hopefully they have sorted that out for 2021 because they will have turned a lot of prospective customers against them with that move.
In the early 4K days, consumers were confident that there would be 4K content coming on stream, both online and on disc. With 8K however, there is no such belief. Even 4K content has been slower to market than expected, so the chances of any 8K content with the logistics and costs involved are just not credible.

I believe that 8K will go the way of 3D, but be even less successful.
 
In the early 4K days, consumers were confident that there would be 4K content coming on stream, both online and on disc. With 8K however, there is no such belief. Even 4K content has been slower to market than expected, so the chances of any 8K content with the logistics and costs involved are just not credible.

I believe that 8K will go the way of 3D, but be even less successful.

The thing is 3D was pretty much bundled free with TV's and failed. For 8K you are paying through the nose for something that technically doesn't make any sense.

It's the job of the reviewers to inform the public that the average consumers are pretty much paying for nothing if you choose 8K and in some instances taking a performance hit.

I think Phil does that quite subtly here.
 
@Phil Hinton I don't know if you are still following this thread, Mr Hinton, but one thought occurred to me, and I see that you hint at an answer in the last section of your review, specifically in the paragraph beginning "The thing I found with spending time with this 8K TV,". My question is, even if this television were perfect, would you notice the benefit of 8K resolution over an equivalent 4K resolution model (and comparing only resolution, not looking at other things like wider colour gamut) on a machine as relatively small as a 65"? Do you not need to go to at least 75" to see the increased resolution?
 

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