Samsung - Samsung QE55Q6F 2018 (QE55Q6FNAT)

Samsung

Samsung 55Q6F 2018: the cheapest of Samsung QLED TVs does not deserve

Aprox. 729€

See specifications

The Samsung 55Q6FN is the most affordable Qled TV from the Korean manufacturer. To reach this flat price, Samsung had to make some concessions and say goodbye to the One Connect remote box. The connection is placed here in a classic way, behind the TV. It also abandons the Full Led backlight in favor of a simple Edge Led. Will this be enough to maintain good display quality?

Positive points

Image very well calibrated in SDR.

Successful design.

Contrast.

Fluid and pleasant interface.

Excellent delay on display.

FreeSync compatibility.

Simplified remote control.

Consumption.

Bad points

Perfectible HDR calibration.

Limited viewing angles.

Blooming visible.

Recurring pumping effect.

Our review

Presentation

The Samsung QE55Q6FNAT has a 55-inch 10/1 100/120 Hz VA panel (≈140 cm) displaying an Ultra HD definition of 3,840 x 2,160 px. This model is compatible with HLG, HDR10 and HDR10 + (competitor of Dolby Vision worn by Samsung), but the manufacturer does not specify the peak of brightness - as for its high-end model, the QE65Q9FN which we tested. This television is not equipped with the Ultra Black Elite filter of high-end models and it also ignores the One Connect box. On the other hand, it retains some subtleties of the Qled models such as the Ambient mode, the simplified remote control, the Q Engine processor and the Tizen system. In the audio part, the TV has a 2.1 system delivering 40 W.

Sold for around € 1,700, this Samsung QE55Q6FNAT TV is quite expensive, especially compared to the same size 2017 Oled TVs. It is also available in 49 inch (≈140 cm / QE55Q9FNAT), 65 inch (≈165 cm / QE65Q6FNAT) and 75 inch (≈190 cm / QE75Q6FNAT) versions at the respective rates of € 1,500, € 2,500 and € 3,500. Samsung also offers an 82-inch (≈208 cm) model, the QE82Q6FNAT, for around € 5,000.

All the brightness and colorimetric measurements mentioned in this article were carried out with a SpectraCal C6-HDR probe and the CalMAN Ultimate software.

Samsung has unveiled its new range of QLED televisions whose high prices have nothing to envy those of Oled televisions. Yet the ...


Presentation

Image quality

The Samsung QE55Q6FNAT makes good use of a VA panel whose sub-pixels are slightly different from those found on the Samsung 65Q9FN and even models from last year. The viewing angles are slightly improved, but remain much lower than those of an Oled panel. We have thus measured a loss of brightness of up to 47% at 45 ° on the sides, and between -51 and -61% of brightness at 45 ° above and below. The treatment of the slab is effective against reflections, it is not the best on the market, but it still allows to filter some of the reflections.

In Cinema mode, this television offers colors which can be considered as faithful, since the average delta E is established at 2.3, a value below the threshold (3) below which the human eye no longer perceives any difference between colors displayed and expected colors. However, some nuances exceed a Delta E of 4, but overall the color rendering remains very good.

The average gamma measured at 2.35 is excellent and, with the exception of a slight drop in the very light gray, the curve is perfectly stable over the entire spectrum. The overall rendering is very good and the gray levels are very well respected.

The temperature is simply perfect. It locks onto the reference curve and the average measured at 6,740 K is very close to the 6,500 K reference.

The Edge Led backlight system does not completely extinguish the screen in order to obtain perfect black. However, VA technology provides very good native contrast measured at 5,080: 1. As with all Samsung TVs, dynamic backlight cannot be turned off. This contrast value is obtained with a white at 153 cd / m² on the target at 35% and at 95 cd / m² on the target at 1% white, which results in an average of 124 cd / m² on the white and 0.02 cd / m² on black.

The engine for scaling HD content to Ultra HD is fine, nothing more. It just smooths out certain details, which generates solid visible effects. The final result is very soft, with some blurring effects. Fortunately, they do not distort the original source and do not produce artifacts. The AutoMotion Plus motion compensation system offered by Samsung works perfectly. The 100/120 Hz panel displays a clear moving image. The rendering with setting AutoMotion Plus to "Automatic" is good, but it is preferable to use the custom settings in order to limit the camcorder effect. In Cinema mode, the default custom setting produces a more natural result. The TV also offers a scanning of the Clear Motion Led backlight, but this unfortunately causes a clearly visible and rather annoying flickering of the image.


Image quality

HDR

With a maximum HDR signal of 10,000 cd / m², Samsung's Display Tone Mapping is doing quite well. The curve is smoothed from 60% brightness to avoid the phenomenon of clipping (loss of details in very bright areas). The curve is slightly below the reference one, which results in a brightness slightly below that recommended. In cinema mode, the maximum brightness is disappointing for an LCD model; it is limited to 749 cd / m², roughly the same as that found on Oled TVs (LG 55C8 and Panasonic 55FZ950). In game mode, we measured a light peak at 1285 cd / m², but the color temperature is much higher and the image turns blue.

We also measure the color accuracy in HDR mode. We chose HDR Cinema mode, which offers the best colorimetric rendering. The average delta E is measured at 3.8, fairly close to the recommended threshold of 3. No other mode allows better colorimetry.

Regarding the coverage of Rec.2020, the Samsung 55Q6FN does worse than the high-end Qled models. It is content with 66% of the BT.2020 space while the Q9FN reaches 75%. Same observation regarding the DCI-P3 coverage, the 55Q6FN is limited to 88% when the Q9FN and the Oled models exceed 95% of the DCI-P3 space.


HDR

Video games

With a remanence time of 15 ms, the Samsung QE55Q6FN does not do better than its big brother, the Samsung 65Q9FN which goes down to 12 ms, and no better either than the Sony 65XE9005 with its 11.5 ms. Obviously, it cannot compete with the Oled televisions which go below the millisecond. However, it has one of the best display delays on the market. It cannot go down to 15 ms - which the Q9FN does - but it still displays a display delay of less than 20 ms. The Samsung Q6FN remains an excellent companion for the game, especially since Samsung has also added a Motion Plus Games option, to activate the fairly efficient motion compensation engine in racing games and that this TV is also compatible with the FreeSync. The latter will delight owners of Xbox One S and Xbox One X by providing perfect fluidity - the FreeSync allows you to adapt the refresh rate of the TV to the number of frames per second sent by the console to avoid tearing of the image (tearing) and micro-slowdowns (stuttering).

Samsung Qled TVs of 2018 introduce a Motion Plus game mode which activates a new compensation engine with an impact ...

We are now evaluating the color fidelity in Game mode. By default, the rendering of the Samsung TV is rather poor (average Delta E of 8.6). To find a faithful display, you must go to the expert parameters to deactivate the enhancement of the contrasts, set the color nuance to "Warm2" and the local attenuation to "Low", then choose the automatic color space. Once these adjustments have been made, we obtain a delta E at 2.7 and a color temperature of around 6,800 K, closer to the recommended 6,500 K.


Video games

Clouding

Unlike the Samsung QE65Q9FN which uses a Full Led backlighting system composed of 480 zones, the QE55Q6FN is content with a single bar located at the base of the panel. If we did not find a clouding problem on the model we tested, the risk is present, because the filter can be damaged during transport. Finally, we did not notice any light leakage on our test model; on the other hand, vertical blooming is sometimes annoying, especially on the subtitles and more generally on all light objects on a black background.

The average difference in white homogeneity over the entire slab is measured at only 12% - the eye detects nothing below 20%; a very good figure, especially for a 55 inch LCD Edge Led model.


Clouding

Ergonomics

With its minimalist feet on each side of the TV, the design of the Samsung 55Q6FN is airy. This 55 inch model is comfortable on our 160 x 40 cm piece of furniture. It is a little raised and the placement of the feet outside makes it possible to put a sound bar without difficulty. The finishes are very good, which is quite normal for a TV at this price.

The borders of the screen are quite thin, especially for a 55-inch model. The imitation metal plastic frame is very well finished.

The TV is 5.5 cm thick. With the foot, it's another story, but the space remains limited for once. The feet of the 55Q6FN are only 24.8 cm deep; enough to place the TV on a piece of furniture only 30 cm (ours is 40 cm deep).

At the back, we find the connectors on the left and the power supply on the right. Samsung uses a matte black plastic striped which gives a premium side to this TV.

The feet contain a fairly basic, but efficient cable passage. It is possible to run one or two cables per foot.

The connection consists of four HDMI 2.0a inputs HDCP 2.2 and HDR compatible, two USB ports, an optical digital audio output, an Ethernet port, a PCMCIA port (Common Interface CI +) and the aerials TNT, cable and satellite. Note that this model has a dual DVB-T / T2 / C / S / S2 tuner. The TV also has Wi-Fi and Bluetooth (proprietary). Samsung has overlooked the component and composite inputs as well as the headphone output. To compensate for the absence of a headphone output, it is possible to use a headset connected to a smartphone to make it play the sound of the television using the SmartThings application (iOS and Android).

The Tizen system developed by Samsung is still as effective as ever. The interface is clear and particularly fluid. The applications launch without slowing down and we find the main players in the world of TV (Netflix, YouTube, myCanal, Prime Video, Rakuten, Google Play Video, SFR Sport, Molotov, etc.). Content doesn't have to be ashamed of Android TV. Like last year, all settings can be changed by voice. For example, just say "Activate Game Mode" to reduce the delay in display. It's much simpler than having to dig through the settings.

It takes about 5 seconds to turn on the TV and less than a second to switch it to standby.

Even if it belongs to the Qled family, the Samsung 55Q6FN does not come with the aluminum remote control of high-end models, but with a plastic version. There are, however, the same features. Although it does not give direct access to all the functions, this remote control is very pleasant to use in everyday life. The Tizen interface is clear enough to easily and quickly access all the features. In addition, it has a microphone for voice searches, especially on YouTube or the Internet, which is always more pleasant to use than a virtual keyboard. The keys are still not backlit, which isn't necessarily a problem since there aren't many. The numeric keypad disappears in favor of a system which memorizes the most watched channels in order to find them more quickly, while the 123 key located at the top left displays a numeric keypad on the screen. Note that the Ambient mode is accessible directly via a dedicated button.

Samsung's Ambient Mode transforms your TV into a giant interactive photo frame. It then displays several types of information ...


Ergonomics

Audio

The 40W audio system consists of two speakers and a subwoofer that do pretty well. They deliver a clear sound and even manage to descend quite low in the spectrum. They perfectly cover frequencies between 50 and 20,000 Hz, which is very good for a TV that does not necessarily highlight its audio capabilities.


Audio

Consumption

We measured consumption at only 51 W on our target with a white set at 150 cd / m². Relative consumption drops to 61 W / m², which is much lower than the average of the televisions tested (around 100 W / m²). It is simply the most energy efficient TV we have tested. It does better than the Sony KD-65XD9305 (measured at 69 W / m²) and than the Samsung UE55KS9000 (72 W / m²). Standby consumption is always less than 1 W.


Conclusion

The Samsung QE55Q6FN is a very good mid-range TV. It delivers a faithful image, deep blacks and high contrast which allow you to fully enjoy the films. The Tizen interface is very pleasant to use, as is the simplified remote control. It is also the most energy efficient television we have tested to date. Finally, its biggest weak point remains its price, which places it in direct competition with Oled TVs of 2017 like the Panasonic 55EZ950 or even the Philips 55POS9002.


Specifications