Guest blog by Matt,
Whilst unboxing your new Samsung Q80 TV, you’ll find enclosed: the screen, a central stand, the relevant power leads, and two remote controls. It also comes with cable management clips for a tidy set up and the user manual/installation instructions.
Sleek and sophisticated, the design of the Q80 has minimal bezels and gently curved corners that look great regardless of whether you are wall mounting it or standing it on a display unit. It comes with a central pedestal stand to accommodate both options and is far more welcoming than a foot at either end of the panel.
On this years QLED range, you’ll notice one thing missing from previous offerings. The external one connect box has been removed with Samsung instead opting for placing the connections on the back of the set. Talking about connections, it has four HDMI 2.0 sockets, two USB’s, an Ethernet port, two satellite and one aerial connection, as well as dual band Wi-Fi on board too.
When setting up your Samsung Q80 TV, Samsung have made it as simple as possible with clear instructions and a simple step by step process to connect the set to the internet and tuning in to either the Freeview or Freesat tuner. The set comes with a standard remote control and a less button-heavy Bluetooth handset aptly called the ‘One Remote’. This allows you to control all of your connected equipment from the one remote, so no longer do you need all of your remotes lined up on the coffee table. You can also download the stable and clean ‘Smart Things’ app on to a mobile or tablet as an alternative method to control your set. Voice assistant is also supported, whether you’re using Alexa, Bixby or Google Assistant.
The set has a myriad of great features including support for HLG (Hybrid Log Gamma), HDR10 and HDR10+. It has a 4K panel that uses direct full array local dimming zones for its backlight. This enables the LEDs to be dimmed in different regions of the panel to help improve black levels and the overall contrast. The con to this is that the panel is slightly thicker and heavier than an edge lit model. However, this is a small cost to pay for bright whites, intense blacks and all colours in fine detail and with 100% colour volume you can experience perfect contrast levels and captivating colours.
Samsung’s ultra-viewing angle uses an extra panel layer to prevent backlight leakage and focus light more effectively. This creates super wide viewing angles and an impressive resistance to reflections meaning image quality isn’t impacted by where you sit or how bright your room is.
The quantum 4K processor allows the TV to adapt to give you the best 4K picture, targeted sound and personalised TV recommendations saving you time searching with voice assistant and control. It also has 4K AI up scaling with an AI-powered machine learning to reduce image noise, restore lost detail and even sharpen edges around objects and text.
If you’re a gamer, then the Samsung Q80 is the TV for you! With one of the lowest lag times around, it measures an input lag of 16ms in 1080P SDR and 4K HDR mode. This makes it one of the most responsive TVs on the market. The sound is robust and quite dynamic, but it doesn’t need saying that a 55-inch screen at this sort of money really does deserve a soundbar at the very least.
A great feature is the ‘Ambient Mode’, which turns your TV screen into a decorative feature. Choose to display useful information like the time or weather, your own photos or even blend the set into your surroundings. Just take a picture upload it to your TV and blend it into your décor leaving that big blank screen a thing of the past. Rest easy with Samsung’s 10-year screen burn warranty and leave worrying about images burning into the screen as a thing of the past.
Overall, Samsung has found the sweet spot of the entire QLED range this year with a great balance between features, value for money and performance. For more information on the Samsung Q80, take a look at our website here or visit your nearest store for a friendly chat with our team of experts.
