Samsung QE55Q85R

Samsung’s second-tier 2019 4K QLED is worth considering for its picture quality, but how does it compare with the flagship model?

In the battle of QLED versus OLED, Samsung’s campaign got off to a rip-roaring start in 2019, with the company’s flagship 4K model receiving a five-star review and praise for improving QLED performance across the board.

But not everyone can afford or justify forking out for a top-of-the-range model, which is why the QE55Q85R looks mighty appealing. It sacrifices a little of the Q90R’S brightness and a good number of its backlight dimming zones, but also shaves £500 off the price.

All good things

Straight out of the box, we have only good things to say about the Q85R. Like most modern TVS, it’s designed to be as unobtrusive as possible, and its 4mm bezel certainly helps. The effect is a virtual edge-to-edge experience that makes the front seem almost all screen. Its profile is a respectable 6cm, which would look relatively chunky only when placed next to a wafer-thin OLED.

That sleekness is partly down to the inclusion of Samsung’s One Connect solution, with all the connections (four HDMIS, three USBS, optical, aerial and ethernet) housed in a separate box rather than plugged directly into the back of the TV. The display doesn’t even need to be connected to a power socket, so you can hide all the wires in a cupboard and have just one thin cable running from the One Connect box to the screen.

From the initial set-up to the everyday menus, navigating around the operating system is made easier by Samsung's minimalistic smart remote control. It doesn’t support gesture controls in the way LG’S Magic Remote does, but the interface is so clean that they aren't necessary. There’s also Samsung’s Bixby voice assistant, if you’d prefer.

In case that isn’t impressive enough, you can also program the smart remote as a universal controller for your 4K Blu-ray player, amp, soundbar or other peripherals. It covers a range of devices, automatically setting them up as part of the first-time installation.

The Q85R supports HDR10, HLG and, of course, Samsung’s Dolby Visionrivalling HDR10+ format. But while there’s a smattering of HDR10+ encoded material around now, the swing is towards Dolby Vision for the time being.

The system comes pre-loaded with apps, such as iplayer, Youtube and Google Play Movies & TV, with access to Apple itunes and its peerless library of 4K films coming soon via a software update. It is also fitted with Samsung’s Smartthings platform, so you can integrate your TV with your smart home.

The Ambient 2.0 feature, which appears across the 2019 4K range, is a great way of making your TV less visible when not in use. There are 50 preset images to choose from, but you can also use Ambient to display your photo albums or even a picture of the wall behind the TV to make it blend in. It all works surprisingly well and is worth playing around with.

Performance drop

The Q90R set a high bar for this year’s QLEDS but, given the Q85R’S specs, we’d expect a drop-off in performance. The Q85R’S backlight doesn’t go as bright (up to 1500 nits – the Q90R is 2000) and has fewer independently dimmable zones (about a fifth of the Q90R’S). In many ways, though, the picture produced by the two models is very similar.

But whether you’re playing native 4K content, or upscaling from HD or SD, the Q85R produces astonishing detail. The AI upscaling is particularly impressive, thanks, presumably, to its Quantum Processor 4K chip.

Fire up Mel Gibson’s Apocalypto in 576p and the tribal tattoos, scars and chiselled obsidian daggers of the Mesoamerican tribesmen are well rendered, given the quality of the source material. Skin tones are carefully crafted, the dappled lighting of the village attack scene is clear and easy to follow, and even scenes with rapid movement go well beyond expectations.

While there’s plenty of 4K content around, much of terrestrial TV is still broadcast at lower definitions, so a standard home set is going to have plenty of SD content to contend with.

Intelligent upscaling

Samsung’s Ai-based upscaler, which uses advanced machine learning to identify and intelligently upscale low-resolution images, is clearly capable, but the Digital Clean View feature is also worth experimenting with, as it reduces noise without over-softening the image.

It is good at reducing picture noise when upscaling the 1080p Blu-ray of Fargo: the film has a slight grain to it, but without Clear View, that grain dances around distractingly. But it manages to smooth out the cigarette smoke in the hitmen’s car without taking the edge off its lustre. It is best switched off for some other 1080p content and all 4K, though. Make the step up to 4K HDR content and there are striking similarities between the Q85R and Q90R. The depth of blacks is excellent, not far off Oled-deep, and the amount of dark detail is exemplary – vital for the almost perma-noir of John Wick 2. Wick’s black Mustang is a joy, with the texture of its tyre tread enough to convince you that you’re smelling rubber.

But in some scenes, such as the opening pans across the night-time cityscape, there’s a noticeable step down in the dynamism of the picture. The mix of bright skyscraper window lights scattered against the black sky is just too much work for the Q85R’S comparatively limited number of dimming zones.

The Q85R is a touch less sharp than the Q90R and misses the super-elite contrast and ultra-fine colour nuance to

make those pictures pop as well as the very best – but we’re talking slim margins.

Stick with Colour Temperature on Standard and motion processing settings with de-blur up high and de-judder on low and you can’t fail but be delighted by this TV’S quality of performance.

There is an Intelligent Picture mode, which tries to adjust the screen according to your environment, but we’re not overly enamoured with its approach. If it’s an easy life you’re after, simply turn off the Eco-mode and leave all other picture settings as they are.

One of the best features of Samsung’s 2019 QLED range is the Ultra Viewing Angle. It ensures the picture loses little brightness and colour no matter where you sit — important in terms of keeping up with OLED, which boasts more or less perfect viewing angles.

Good sense of space to sound

In many respects, Samsung has done a decent job with the audio of the Q85R. The speakers produce a good sense of space – bullets zip accurately across a wide soundstage, bones crunch roughly where they should and there’s broadly good tonal balance – but this is not a market-leader for sound quality and you’d be wise to budget for a separate sound system.

While the bottom-end is generally decent by TV speaker standards, in the big hits – bodies thumping the ground, bursts of flame from Marvel monsters – it lacks the oomph necessary to really get the heart thumping.

The 55in Q85R is a very worthy 4K TV. Viewed in its own right, the picture is impressive indeed, and across all sources. From epic vistas to gritty backstreet violence, its performance is rock solid. It’s a delight to use, too.

The problem for the Q85R is how much better the Q90R is. In our view, it’s worth paying the extra £500 for the greater dynamism to the picture and sophistication to the audio. There’s also the LG C9 OLED, which in 55in guise is just £200 more expensive than the Q85R.

All of these prices will fluctuate wildly over the next year of course, but at present, the Q85R just misses out on that fifth star and our full recommendation.

“The depth of blacks is excellent, not far off Oled-deep, and the amount of dark detail is exemplary”