Samsung Q7F Review (QN55Q7F and QN65Q7F) – A Flat Screen Option to Save Money

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Samsung Q7F

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The Samsung Q7F is among the lowest priced models of Samsung’s 2017 QLED TV lineup. The Q7F comes with 3 screen size options including 55 Inch (QN55Q7F), 65 Inch (QN65Q7F), and 75 Inch (QN75Q7F), while the Q7C comes with only 2 screen size options available, a 55 inch (QN55Q7C) and a 65 Inch (QN65Q7C). When I was writing this comparison the Samsung Q7C is about $100-$200 more expensive than the Q7F, depending on the screen size. Of course their prices are not fixed and could change at any time. So how is the performance and picture quality offered by them and which is a better choice between them?

If you need an owner’s manual for the Samsung Q7F, click here.

The Samsung Q7F

The Similarities

The Samsung Q7F has VA panel technology with Edge Lit Backlight and local dimming called Precision Black Pro. For producing a strong native contrast ratio, it’s powered by a number of Samsung’s advanced technologies including Supreme UHD Dimming, Ultra Black and Q 4K Elite Black Technology. 

For improving peak luminance and performance in a bright room, the Samsung Q7F is supported by Peak Illuminator Pro and Ultra Clear Panel. One of the main technologies behind this television is the quantum dot panel. Driven by Q 4K Color Drive Elite, this makes the color rendition of the picture displayed on it’s screen look awesome. The picture displayed on screen looks absolutely amazing, especially when you consider the price range. With HDR technology, the Samsung Q7F is powered by Q 4K HDR Elite Engine. The one thing lacking on this television is support for Dolby Vision, as the Q7F only supports HDR 10 format and HLG (with an upcoming software update).

In addition to amazing picture quality, the Samsung Q7F offers excellent performance for the features that you get. Supporting Motion Rate 240 based on the native 120 Hz refresh rate panel, you’ll see a smooth and clear picture with almost no perceptible motion blur. This is great for watching fast paced action videos and for live sports. Additionally, input lag with the game mode is low, which makes it great to use for playing any kind of game.  The Q7F has 4 HDMI ports and 3 USB ports for connectivity. Like many Samsung televisions, the inputs and outputs are located on a separate box called the “One Connect Box”. You also get the Tizen Operating System powered by a quad core processor, featuring a simple, responsive and attractive smart TV experience.

Like other Samsung televisions, the VA panel technology means there is a limited side viewing angle coverage. When you’re watching TV from a side angle, the picture doesn’t look as good as when you view it from the front and center. Since limited side viewing angle is the native drawback of any VA panel, all TVs with a VA panel will have this same issue with side viewing angle coverage.

The Samsung Q7F comes with a flat panel screen and Contrast Enhancer technology. This is useful for maximizing the contrast produced. The Q7F uses a T-Type Real Stainless Stand.

>> Please click here to see today’s price for the Q7F <<

 

The Samsung Q7F Key Specs

Specs and FeaturesQ7F 
Resolution4K (2160×3840) 
Sizes Available55 Inch (QN55Q7F), 65 Inch (QN65Q7F), 75 Inch (QN65Q7F) 
Panel TechnologyVA Panel 
Screen TypeFlat 
Backlighting TechnologyEdge Lit LED 
Local DimmingYes (Precision Black Pro) 
UHD DimmingSupreme UHD Dimming 
Picture EngineQ Engine 
HDR EngineQ 4K HDR Elite 
Color TechnologyQuantum Dot with Q 4K Color Drive Elite 
Support 10 BitYes 
Blacks TechnologyQ 4K Elite Black 
Peak IlluminatorYes (Pro) 
Ultra Clear PanelYes 
Depth Enhancing TechnologyContrast Enhancer 
Ultra BlackYes 
UHD Up-scaling EngineYes 
Motion Rate240 (native 120 Hz) 
Smart TVTizen 2017 
ProcessorQuad Core 
RemoteSamsung Smart Remote (TM1790A) 
HDMI4 
USB3 
Audio Channel4.2 
Speaker TypeFront Firing 
Sound Output40 Watts 
PriceSee today’s price
 

 

Picture Quality

The contrast ratio is excellent and the black uniformity is good, making for a very good picture in a dark room. The contrast ratio is strong enough to make black color look very dark and makes dark scenes of images look fairly good and natural. When running an HDR signal, the black level is deep enough to reveal details of images for dark scenes, where you can enjoy dark scenes of HDR images as their creator intended. To show dark scenes of HDR images as intended, an HDR TV must have 0.05 nits of black level or darker: the Q7F with about a 4700:1 native contrast ratio can reach 0.021 nits. This means the black level of the Q7F is dark enough to show shadow details of HDR images as intended. 

The local dimming doesn’t work as well as the Full Array Local Dimming to improve contrast ratio. When the Q7F is set in a bright room, the picture displayed on the screen of the Samsung Q7F is fairly good. Its peak brightness might not be able to overcome glare as well as a brighter TV (like the Sony X900E and X930E), it is bright enough that the picture displayed on the screen looks good in a bright room and even does well in a room with bright lights. Local dimming also works to help brighten small areas, where it makes small highlights look very bright. The picture displayed on the screen of the Samsung Q7F looks fairly good even in a bright room

A main advantage of the Samsung QLED TV lineup (including Q7F) is the ability to accurately render colors. With Samsung’s advanced quantum dot technology, the Samsung Q7F can cover a nearly perfect DCI P3 color space. This allows most colors in the DCI P3 for HDR images to be shown well, and makes the color of HDR images displayed on the screen look fairly accurate — even for a deep green where most TVs are challenged to properly show. Additionally the color gamut is reproduced well to show colors of content mastered in the Rec.2020 color space. To reproduce colors of SDR images mastered in Rec.709 where its color gamut coverage is narrower than DCI P3 or Rec.2020, the Samsung Q7F does a perfect job. This also allows the color volume of the Samsung Q7F to be quite good. The Q7F also shows the color gamut at the entire brightness range well. 

Since the black level is not as deep as an OLED TV, the Q7F can’t show very deep colors with full saturation as well as an OLED TV. Overall the color gamut and color volume are very good, and among the best televisions. For color performance, the Samsung Q7F can process 10 bit depth of color for HDR images well. Some little imperfections might still be perceptible on the dark colors, but overall the color gradient is very good and even the difficult representation of gray scale can be presented well. The result is a color gradient of the picture displayed on screen that looks very smooth, particularly when displaying HDR images mastered in 10 bit depth of color and more.

Since there is still a lot of lower resolution content available, the Samsung Q7F has a UHD Up-scaling engine. No matter the resolution of the signal source, even low resolution videos like DVD movies with 480p resolution, all are up-converted to 4K resolution. The result is a final image in 4K that looks sharp and clear with the small details preserved well. And of course, the higher the resolution of the source, like movies from cable TV with 720p resolution or Blu Ray Movies with 1080p resolution, the final image produced in 4K will look sharp and clear. The UHD Up-scaling engine allows you the convenience to enjoy any video with quality close to 4K.

The Samsung Q7F uses a VA panel. This makes side viewing angle coverage limited — and the usable viewing space is not as wide as an IPS TV or an OLED TV. The picture can look degraded if viewed from an angle, starting at around 20 degrees off the center and front. Nevertheless this problem is not limited to the Q7F line, but its also a major problem of all TVs with a VA panel — and as long as you don’t often watch TV from the side, then this may not be a problem for you.

Motion Handling and 24p Movie Playback

The Samsung Q7F does an excellent job of handling motion blur. Pixel response time is very fast, and typically faster than most LED TVs. Combine that with Motion Rate 240 based on a native 120 HZ refresh rate panel, this works well for watching fast moving images like action movies and sports programs. When following a fast moving object, there is only a short trail and most people might not notice it. 

On the other hand, when used for playing 24p movies, the Samsung Q7F does an excellent job. No matter the source of the 24p video, whether 24p video like Blu Ray Movies, 24p videos via 60i signals like movies from satellite TV, or even 24p video via 60p signals like a streamed movie, all will display clearly and smoothly and judder-free on the screen. Additionally, the Q7F is able to interpolate lower frame rate video fairly well — whether it is 30 fps video or a 60 fps video.

Inputs/Outputs

The Samsung Q7F is equipped with 4 HDMI ports supporting HDCP 2.2, 3 USB Ports, 1 RF In (Terrestrial), 1 Ethernet, and 1 Digital Audio Out (Optical). The Q7F is not equipped with either Component In and Composite In. The Q7F has most of the inputs snd outputs located on a separate box called the “One Connect Box”. This gives an advantage for future upgrades when there is an update for these types of ports, then you just replace the box without changing the entire television. With a below 25 ms of input lag from any source, this is quite acceptable to play games responsively without lag, even for fast paced games that require quick reflexes. The input lag under PC mode even is better, making it good as a PC monitor.

Smart TV

The Samsung Q7F features the Tizen OS 2017 powered by a quad core processor. The Tizen Operating System is one of the best smart TV platforms available. The performance is quick and responsive and mostly lag free. Once you launch an app it opens quickly. Additionally when switching between opened apps, it feels responsive. 

The user interface is designed to be simple and easy to use, allowing you to quickly find what you’re looking for. You’ll see a “ribbon” across the bottom of the screen containing quick access to most popular and useful apps. This allows you to open an app without leaving the home screen. When considering the amount of apps provided, the Samsung Q7F has a lot of popular apps preinstalled including YouTube, Hulu, Netflix, Amazon Video, Live TV, a Web Browser, and more. There is also an apps store called the “Samsung Apps Store” where you can get additional apps and games that you can directly download to your TV.

The Samsung QLED Smart Controller

For the controller, the Samsung Q7F has a smart remote called the “Samsung Smart Controller”. It’s similar to last year’s version of the smart remote used on the lower series televisions like the MU9000 and the MU8000. The remote is small and has just a few buttons only. It lacks some common settings buttons. Instead it’s equipped with a built-in microphone and excellent voice recognition, so you can quickly do many things like changing the channel, changing between apps and more. It also works as a universal remote — you can control other devices connected to your TV’s HDMI ports. The difference to last year’s model is that this upgraded remote is made of metal — which gives it a feeling of being more sturdy.

>> Please click here to see today’s price for the Q7F <<

 

Summary

Performance Samsung Q7F
Design (4.8/5)
Picture Quality (3.8/5)
HDR Performance (4/5)
Motion Handling (4.5/5)
Inputs (4.4/5)
Sound Quality (3.6/5)
Smart TV (4.1/5)

Conclusion

Except for the difference of a Curved or Flat Viewing Panel, the Samsung Q7F and the Samsung Q7C have very similar performance (although the Q7F typically has a lower price of the two). You can see the head to head comparison here

The picture quality of the Q7F is good, no matter the lighting condition of the room where it’s located. As expected, Samsung’s advanced quantum dot technology has an excellent rendition of color, even when compared to the highest quality televisions. In addition to offering great HDR performance and stunning picture quality,  you get good motion handling, good playback of 24p movies, low input lag for any kind of video game, along with an attractive smart TV platform. The downside was mentioned above about the limited side viewing angle coverage. Many people don’t see that as a significant issue. As long as you don’t often watch television from a side angle, you may like this television for the price too.

So is the Samsung Q7F a good choice? If your main consideration is buying a TV with a really good picture quality, the Samsung Q7F might be a great option for you. 

>> Please click here to see today’s price for the Samsung Q7F <<

 

 

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