Samsung QN 94A vs LG C1

[nick9one1]

I'm in the market for a new TV and not sure if I should go OLED or not. My budget is 2k
I have an employer discount scheme which includes TV's direct from Samsung. I can get a 75" QN94A for £1700.
I read a few reviews that the QN94A has "OLED Blacks" so was very hopeful this was the right TV for me.

I dropped into Currys today and can definitely say the QN94A is best looking LED on display, but (to me) it had nothing on the OLEDS - the blacks are so much deeper.
So now I'm second guessing myself. I know the OLEDs have much lower brightness but I mostly watch TV in the evenings, so maybe this isn't an issue?
I've just measured the wall to sofa and its 2.6m. A chart I found suggests I dont need any bigger than 60" for 4k. So maybe I should be looking at a higher end 65" OLED?

75" QN94A - £1700
65" LG C1 - £1600

 

[Sloppy Bob]

If you buy direct from Samsung you'll only get a one year warranty IIRC.

If you buy from a good retailer you'll get 5/6 years. So I'd definitely take that into consideration as well.

If the room the TV is going in either isn't that bright or you're willing to control the light with blinds then the LG C1 will have a better picture.

Your topic says B1, your text says C1, there is a difference in brightness between the 2 with the C1 being the better TV.

 

[nick9one1]

Well spotted - amended.
To me the room isn't particularly bright, but I suppose its subjective. I wont really know until I get the TV in the room.
The room does have a south-west facing bay window, which I suppose is the worst direction!

 

[Sloppy Bob]

It's not like a projector, it doesn't need to be a black hole, as long as you can shade the room with blinds/curtains it will be fine.

 

[nick9one1]

Thanks. I just had the idea of looking up my current LED TV and comparing to the LG C1.

They're pretty close

 

[Sloppy Bob]

I went from a high end LCD (1000+ Nits with FALD) to an OLED.

Very rarely do I miss the brightness of the LCD, the OLED can get more than bright enough and due to the deep blacks the contrast is amazing, the blacks are almost 3D.

Don't set your TV to "Vivid", look on here at the owners thread and you'll see there's a "movie" or "cinema" mode to get the best picture, not the brightest picture.

 

[dion 6]

I'd definitely go oled and wouldn't buy a Samsung tv that doesn't support dolby vision

 

[Dodgexander]

If you noticed already poorer blacks in a well-lit shop floor you're only going to notice them more at home. Yes the Samsung is as good as you'll get from an LCD TV at the moment, but its not a groundbreaking difference compared to LCD TVs of the past.

Samsung want you to believe miniLED tech is a big deal, but in truth its only a small development, microLED is a much better tech, but as yet mostly prototype. Samsung themselves are moving to OLED production so that really tells you all you want to know.

If you're after those blacks, OLED is the way to go.

Don't worry about peak brightness figures being low full screen on an OLED, it's the highlights that matter in small windows (2%, 10%) for those highlights in HDR.

 

[conizme]

Do not buy a QN90A in the UK, go for the QN94A (it's the same price on the discount portal). The 94A has a much higher contrast VA panel and the Ultra Wide Viewing Angle filter. The 90A has an ADS (IPS) screen which results in blotchy blacks and bad black uniformity (despite slightly better colours).

Saying this, I had a QN94A that I returned for an LG CX (77).

The QN94A was undoubtedly brighter in bright, high APL scenes, but the backlight was too slow in darker scenes with bright highlights and any fast panning or movement would cause highlights on faces and hands to glow unnaturally.

Also fast panning during gaming resulted in significant dimming of highlights in dark scenes and really reduced the HDR impact.

I did come from an OLED previous to that though so I was probably biased. The QN94A was a great TV for bright scenes (better than OLED if you're after impact and the "wow" factor) but let me down in dark scenes too much. It also aggressively dims highlights in dark scenes meaning it was really no brighter than the CX in this scenario.

As an aside, the "blooming" to me was unnoticeable or so minor I didn't care, even coming from OLED. Still images look fantastic and blacks are really black, but it's really a shame it can't keep this performance up in motion as its so close to being perfect.

As you're coming from another LCD, you'll absolutely be impressed with either one. I wouldn't go as far as saying the OLED is superior as it completely depends on your use case and ambient lighting. If you have a window directly in front of the TV for instance and you watch mostly in the day, OLED will be mostly useless in bright sunshine and it may also damage the pixels.

For reference, here's a photo of my CX in a "bright" room, showing LOTR in Dolby Vision via Apple TV 4K

Hope this helps!

 

[nick9one1]

Thanks!

I've just ordered the C1 though John Lewis. will be delivered on Friday.

 

[LazyDonkey]

Do not buy a QN90A in the UK, go for the QN94A (it's the same price on the discount portal). The 94A has a much higher contrast VA panel and the Ultra Wide Viewing Angle filter. The 90A has an ADS (IPS) screen which results in blotchy blacks and bad black uniformity (despite slightly better colours).

Saying this, I had a QN94A that I returned for an LG CX (77).

The QN94A was undoubtedly brighter in bright, high APL scenes, but the backlight was too slow in darker scenes with bright highlights and any fast panning or movement would cause highlights on faces and hands to glow unnaturally.

Also fast panning during gaming resulted in significant dimming of highlights in dark scenes and really reduced the HDR impact.

I did come from an OLED previous to that though so I was probably biased. The QN94A was a great TV for bright scenes (better than OLED if you're after impact and the "wow" factor) but let me down in dark scenes too much. It also aggressively dims highlights in dark scenes meaning it was really no brighter than the CX in this scenario.

As an aside, the "blooming" to me was unnoticeable or so minor I didn't care, even coming from OLED. Still images look fantastic and blacks are really black, but it's really a shame it can't keep this performance up in motion as its so close to being perfect.

As you're coming from another LCD, you'll absolutely be impressed with either one. I wouldn't go as far as saying the OLED is superior as it completely depends on your use case and ambient lighting. If you have a window directly in front of the TV for instance and you watch mostly in the day, OLED will be mostly useless in bright sunshine and it may also damage the pixels.

For reference, here's a photo of my CX in a "bright" room, showing LOTR in Dolby Vision via Apple TV 4K

Hope this helps!

The reflections look awful on your CX - how does this compare to the QLED?
Do you game - do you find during dark scenes it’s impossible to see any detail on your OLED?

 

[conizme]

The reflections look awful on your CX - how does this compare to the QLED?
Do you game - do you find during dark scenes it’s impossible to see any detail on your OLED?

Reflections are definitely a talking point for LG OLEDs, this photo was taken off axis with the curtains open in bright sunshine.

The only time I feel it’s an issue is in very dark scenes in bright sunlight, but I can just close the curtains if needed, and it’s not often at all (from experience with my C7)

I won’t say the QLED was necessarily better, just different. It had an “anti-reflection” filter which got rid of direct reflections but left long rainbow streaks across the screen from lamps and sunlight.

Which you’d find more annoying is down to your setup and preference.

I’ve attached a photo of the QLED (note also the unnatural glowing highlights and over bright picture)

Regarding gaming, yes I do and I found the dark scene performance better on the OLED by quite a way, highlights pop way more but there is slight black crush, The QLED would dim in dark scenes to avoid blooming and wouldn’t really feel any brighter than OLED unless I put contrast enhancer on which has its own issues.

Dark scene gaming in bright sunlight would probably be slightly preferable on QLED just by being able to see a bit more, (if you don’t mind the blooming from Game mode) but as soon as ambient light drops slightly the odds shoot back the other way to OLEDs favour.