Product Review: Samsung QE65Q8C QLED Curved TV

Samsung’s incredible new QLED sets finally made it to the UK in the form of the very impressive Q7 series. Now we’re looking at the bigger brother, the Samsung QE65Q8C, which is the world’s first QLED TV to feature 100% DCI-P3 colour volume. This basically means you will see every possible shade of colour brighter than ever, which offers you a clearer picture, better viewing angles and a picture so good and so vibrant that after you finish watching it it makes your actual real world life seem like a black and white film.

Television sets tend to over exaggerate certain scenes and certain colours that give an almost “fake” feel to content, and after reading about all the new specifications on the Samsung Q8 I had all but expected the same overpowering cornea-burning image I’ve been used to over the past few years. To my delight however, it is encapsulating – the easiest way to describe it would be that when you watch a film you want to be engrossed, you want to feel like you’re in this fictitious world, and the Samsung Q8C does this. It surrounds you, and engrosses the viewer in whatever it is they’re watching.

This incredible experience is down to a number of factors, the first being that the set is quite obviously Ultra HD, on top of that the set is also a 10 bit Ultra HD certified panel. The Q8 offers a peak brightness of 1500nits and this means that the set can handle HDR1500 – so if you want future proofing then this ticks all the right boxes.

The Q8C is of course curved as well which adds to that feeling of being totally engrossed within the picture. Due to the nature of the QLED screen, the set offers incredible contrast detail and as I mentioned earlier 100% colour volume – that’s a lot of colours (1,099,511,627,776 to be exact!). That works out as 1024 shades of each primary colour. If you’re terrible with numbers, that’s over 1 BILLION colours in comparison to the 16 MILLION a more basic set would have. It goes without saying, but the more colours there are, the more detail can be achieved and the better image quality you will get.

Take the next step up in picture quality, with the sensational QLED technology in the Samsung QE65Q8C.

Next I would like to discuss movement/refresh rate/HZ rate/whatever it is that you want to call it. Now unfortunately I don’t have any solid numbers to give you for this part of the review as Samsung don’t publish any and I don’t have the tools to measure them myself. However I do have a number of years in the industry under my belt and a pretty good set of working eyes, so that will have to do. I’m not going to lie, over the previous years Samsung have had no luck when it comes to handling fast moving objects panning across the screen, they simply haven’t been very good at it. Watching the image judder across the screen meant that Samsung have not been on top of my shopping list for that reason.

Times they are a changin’, however, and I don’t know if its the QLED technology that’s made a difference, or maybe they just fired the bloke who has been in charge of it for the past 5 years. They just seem to have got it right this year. The Samsung QLED televisions are smooth, very smooth, so smooth in fact that its puts a model from last year that we considered to have quite a good motion rate to shame. And I couldn’t be happier, for me that has always been Samsung’s downfall, and to finally have it rectified means this could be Samsung’s year, and as long as that technology gets passed down to their cheaper models, the other manufactures are going to have to do something pretty darn special to keep up.

On to the rest of the features, after all it is a piece of furniture, and the Q8C is just as beautiful from the outside as it is inside. The metal surround gives the Q8 a very high-end feel and it doesn’t have a single unattractive angle. The elegant slim stand is reassuringly heavy, very minimal and not full length, which is always a bonus. When it comes to wall mounting the Samsung No Gap wall mount is just flawless. Easy to set up, you don’t even have to put it on straight, you can adjust the set afterwards (for those less DIY inclined like myself) the No Gap wall mount is sold separately, and for those of you who don’t fancy that, there is of course a 400×400 VESA mount as well.

The unit features a newly designed One connect box with everything from 4 xHDMI 2 x USB digital optical, Freesat and Freeview crammed inside. The unit requires a second mains power lead, and is connected to the tv with an “invisible” (clear) 5m optical cable. It looks fantastic and it works perfectly, after installing ours the “invisible” cable is a god send.

The Samsung Smart user interface has had a much needed overhaul, and is now easier to use than ever, they have trimmed away lots of the unnecessary bits and left us with the important things, (catch up services, Netflix, Amazon, Spotify ETC) and a very straight forward and minimal design, and for the first time it really was a treat to use.

Here at Richer Sounds we offer an unbiased service, however we do of course have our personal favourites, and I’ve always been a Panasonic fan. Now I can feel myself switching sides this year and going Team Samsung. I’ll reserve my judgement until I get my hands on the MU series, but I have very high expectations.

Full marks, not a single fault. Incredible.

If you want a full demonstration on this or any of the new Samsung Televisions, please feel free to pop in to any of our stores for a chat.

Click to find out more about the Samsung QE65Q8C.

Author: Garrett, Plymouth Store