[This review was collected as part of a promotion.] After fitting out a new media wall it was time for the Qled to take centre stage in our living room, setting up the TV for first time use was a breeze, and clearly the processor is snappy as it never felt laggy.
Setting up the picture tends to be a bit of a chore, coming from OLED it feels you need to spend a little longer in the menus to get the best out of the Qled, Samsung seems to have made it far more complicated than needed to access sub menus, as making a decision in a settings menu can "wall off" sub menus in the picture setting, once you do get it dialled in, it's worth it, the panel achieves blacks I was convinced only oled could achieve, but it's the brightness the panel can achieve that gives it the edge over oled, I have a sunny living room and this TV performs day and night.
The sound of the TV and placement of speakers is very clever, I also purchased a Samsung soundbar to take advantage of the Q-Symphony function, it works brilliantly, this segues nicely to the frustrations. Setting up the TV on a WiFi/network is a straightforward as any, however I wanted to set up on a 2.4ghz network but as it detected I had a 5ghz band it prompts you to make a choice between the two, and no matter what option you choose it selects the 5ghz, where this wouldn't be a bad thing for those wanting the fastest speeds, my house is smart integrated and IoT works better on 2.4ghz, proven when trying to select the soundbar over WiFi, long story short, several Factory resets, and reconfiguring a stable network, finally we had fully WiFi connected TV and sound bar and another home app (smart things). This may seem trivial but less tech savvy wouldn't get the best out of all the great TV features without some frustrating moments.
That all said, you set it all up and the experience is fantastic, the quality on SDR and HDR content is sublime, I was worried coming away from a very new oled I'd switch back, but honestly this trumps it in most "normal" use scenarios, in which I mean, not watching everything in total darkness, the blacks are black, no light bloom unless you a inches away from the screen, but being able to see details and no reflections in day time viewing is fantastic. The panel is fast, blur non existent and again the sound, all go to make a genuine viewing experience and not just for movies.
If your dilemma is not knowing whether to go OLED or Qled, then go Qled blackest blacks is no longer clear cut, but brightness (HDR & SDR)...Qled by a mile!