Samsung Q70C [Q70, Q70CD] QLED Review (QN55Q70CAFXZA, QN65Q70CAFXZA, QN75Q70CAFXZA, QN85Q70CAFXZA) (2024)

Curved No

The Samsung Q70C has a clean and simple look. The stand is center-mounted, so the TV fits well on smaller tables.

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Uniformity Pictures N/A

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Wall Mount VESA 400x300

The back of the TV is plastic with fine horizontal etchings, and it feels solid overall, without excessive flex around the VESA holes or inputs. There are grooves on the back of the TV and the stand for cable management. The inputs are recessed in an inlet on the side of the TV, and they're hard to reach if the TV is wall-mounted.

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Borders 0.47" (1.2 cm)

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Max Thickness 1.11" (2.8 cm)

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Overall, the Samsung Q70C has good build quality. The TV has an all-plastic build, but it still feels solid. The stand holds the TV well, and there's minimal wobbling when pushing or moving the TV. The back panel exhibits minimal flex, although there's more of it around the VESA holes or the inputs, but it isn't excessive and won't cause any issues.

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Contrast

Native Contrast

The Samsung Q70C has a very good native contrast ratio, but there's no local dimming to improve it further. This means that blacks look good in a dark room but look a bit blue when bright highlights are on the screen, as the TV can't emphasize bright highlights without impacting dark areas.

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As this TV doesn't have a local dimming feature, there's no blooming around bright objects in dark scenes. The entire backlight is always on at the same intensity, so blacks look blue when bright highlights are present.

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Local Dimming

Backlight

Dimming Zones Count Of Tested TV

This TV doesn't have a local dimming feature; as bright highlights don't move from zone to zone, there's no distracting flicker or brightness changes as they move across the screen.

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Switching to Game Mode makes no noticeable difference in dark scene performance.

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Hallway Lights (~1950 cd/m²)

Yellow Skyscraper (~700 cd/m²)

Landscape Pool (~300 cd/m²)

Peak 2% Window

Peak 10% Window

Peak 25% Window

Peak 50% Window

Peak 100% Window

Sustained 2% Window

Sustained 10% Window

Sustained 25% Window

Sustained 50% Window

Sustained 100% Window

Automatic Brightness Limiting (ABL)

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Hallway Lights (~1950 cd/m²)

Yellow Skyscraper (~700 cd/m²)

Landscape Pool (~300 cd/m²)

Peak 2% Window

Peak 10% Window

Peak 25% Window

Peak 50% Window

Peak 100% Window

Sustained 2% Window

Sustained 10% Window

Sustained 25% Window

Sustained 50% Window

Sustained 100% Window

Automatic Brightness Limiting (ABL)

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600 Nit Tracking Delta

1000 Nit Tracking Delta

4000 Nit Tracking Delta

The PQ EOTF tracking is excellent on this TV. Dark scenes and midtones are displayed close to the content creator's intent. Near-blacks are raised, however, but this is typical of LED TVs. Besides that, the TV tracks the content creator's intent very well. There's a sharp cutoff near the TV's peak brightness, though, which causes a loss of fine details in bright highlights.

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Real Scene Peak Brightness

Peak 2% Window

Peak 10% Window

Peak 25% Window

Peak 50% Window

Peak 100% Window

Sustained 2% Window

Sustained 10% Window

Sustained 25% Window

Sustained 50% Window

Sustained 100% Window

Automatic Brightness Limiting (ABL)

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Wide Color Gamut

DCI P3 xy

DCI P3 uv

Rec 2020 xy

Rec 2020 uv

The Samsung Q70CD has a good color gamut. It has excellent coverage of the common DCI-P3 color space, which is used in most HDR content. Unfortunately, most of its color range is undersaturated, even more so in greens and yellows. Its coverage of the less widely used Rec. 2020 color space is passable, but it's even more undersaturated here than in the DCI-P3 space.

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1,000 cd/m² DCI P3 Coverage ITP

10,000 cd/m² Rec 2020 Coverage ITP

White Luminance

Red Luminance

Green Luminance

Blue Luminance

Cyan Luminance

Magenta Luminance

Yellow Luminance

The TV has a decent color volume. However, it struggles with both dark saturated colors and very bright colors; in particular, the TV has a really hard time with greens, as they're not nearly as bright and saturated as they'd be on an ideal TV. Yellow and reds also deviate from the ideal, as they are undersaturated.

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White Balance dE

Color dE

Gamma

Color Temperature

Picture Mode

Color Temp Setting

Gamma Setting

The Samsung Q70C has mediocre pre-calibration accuracy. Its color temperature is very cold, leading to an exaggerated blue tint in all scenes. Its white balance is also off, with dark grays being too red and brighter whites being too blue. Gamma doesn't follow our 2.2 target for moderately-lit rooms, and all scenes end up being darker than they should be, especially very dark scenes.

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White Balance dE

Color dE

Gamma

Color Temperature

White Balance Calibration

Color Calibration

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50% Std. Dev.

50% DSE

5% Std. Dev.

5% DSE

The TV has satisfactory gray uniformity. There are some visible uniformity issues, with noticeable vignetting. There's some banding in parts of the screen and a bit of dirty screen effect. These uniformity issues are noticeable if you want to use the TV as a PC monitor or watch content with large areas of bright uniform color, like hockey. On darker colors, there's noticeable backlight bleeding, with the corners and sides of the image being blueish compared to the center.

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Std. Dev.

Native Std. Dev.

The TV has good black uniformity. There's noticeable backlight bleeding, but the blooming around bright objects is minimal.

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Color Washout

Color Shift

Brightness Loss

Black Level Raise

Gamma Shift

The Samsung 75Q70C has a sub-par viewing angle. The image shifts significantly when viewed at an angle, so this isn't a good TV for a wide seating arrangement or if you like to move around the TV while watching it.

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Screen Finish

Total Reflections

Indirect Reflections

Calculated Direct Reflections

The TV's reflection handling is decent. It does very well with glare from ambient lights, but it has a harder time with glare from lights or windows directly facing the TV.

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100% Black to 50% Gray

50% Gray to 100% White

100% Black to 50% Red

50% Red to 100% Red

100% Black to 50% Green

50% Green to 100% Green

100% Black to 50% Blue

50% Blue to 100% Blue

The Samsung Q70C has okay HDR gradient handling. There's noticeable, but not egregious, banding in every color gradient except light grays/whites and bright reds.

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Smoothing

Detail Preservation

The TV has mediocre low-quality content smoothing. There's significant macro-blocking in dark scenes when watching low-bitrate or low-quality content, and some fine details are lost.

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Subpixel Layout

Type LED

Sub-Type

The Samsung Q70C uses a BGR subpixel layout. This doesn't affect the image quality, but non-RGB subpixel layouts cause issues when used as PC monitors, as they reduce text clarity. There are workarounds, however, and you can read more about it here.

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80% Response Time

100% Response Time

The TV has a good response time. There's still some blur around fast-moving objects, but this isn't annoying in practice. However, the TV is very slow, with transitions occurring in very dark scenes, resulting in black smearing.

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Flicker-Free

PWM Dimming Frequency

The Samsung Q70C uses pulse width modulation (PWM) to dim the backlight at all brightness levels. It flickers at 960Hz in the 'Movie' Picture Mode, which is fast enough that most people won't notice it. It does, however, drop down to 120Hz if any form of motion interpolation is enabled. The TV flickers at 120Hz in all other modes and at 60Hz with LED Clear Motion enabled in the 'Movie' or 'Game' Picture Modes.

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Optional BFI

Min Flicker For 60 fps

60Hz For 60 fps

120Hz For 120 fps

Min Flicker for 60 fps in Game Mode

The TV has an optional backlight strobing feature, commonly known as black frame insertion. It can only flicker at 60Hz on this TV, which is slow enough to be noticeable. It's meant to reduce persistence blur, but it duplicates images and reduces the panel's brightness, so it's distracting to use.

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Motion Interpolation (30 fps)

Motion Interpolation (60 fps)

This TV has an optional motion interpolation feature to improve the appearance of motion. It can increase the frame rate of content up to 120fps. Unfortunately, it doesn't work well on this TV, resulting in image duplications and artifacts, especially during fast action scenes.

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Frame Hold Time @ 24 fps

Frame Hold Time @ 60 fps

The TV's performance regarding stutter is decent; there's visible stutter with low-frame rate content, like when watching movies, but 60fps content looks fantastic.

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Judder-Free 24p

Judder-Free 24p via 60p

Judder-Free 24p via 60i

Judder-Free 24p via Native Apps

The TV removes 24p judder from any source, ensuring a smooth movie-watching experience. Picture Clarity must be set to 'Custom' with the sliders set to 0 to remove 24p judder from 60Hz sources.

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Native Refresh Rate

Variable Refresh Rate

HDMI Forum VRR

FreeSync

G-SYNC Compatible

4k VRR Maximum

4k VRR Minimum

1080p VRR Maximum

1080p VRR Minimum

1440p VRR Maximum

1440p VRR Minimum

VRR + Local Dimming No Local Dimming

The Samsung Q70C supports every variable refresh rate (VRR) technology, so you can get a nearly tear-free gaming experience no matter your gaming system.

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1080p @ 60Hz

1080p @ 60Hz Outside Game Mode

1080p @ 120Hz

1080p @ 144Hz

1440p @ 60Hz

1440p @ 120Hz

1440p @ 144Hz

4k @ 60Hz

4k @ 60Hz + 10-Bit HDR

4k @ 60Hz @ 4:4:4

4k @ 60Hz Outside Game Mode

4k @ 60Hz With Interpolation

4k @ 120Hz

4k @ 144Hz

8k @ 60Hz

The TV has superbly low input lag in Game Mode, ensuring a responsive gaming and desktop experience.

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Resolution 4k

480p @ 59.94Hz (Widescreen)

720p @ 59.94Hz

1080p @ 60Hz @ 4:4:4

1080p @ 120Hz

1080p @ 144Hz

1440p @ 60Hz

1440p @ 120Hz

1440p @ 144Hz

4k @ 60Hz

4k @ 60Hz @ 4:4:4

4k @ 120Hz

4k @ 120Hz @ 4:4:4

4k @ 144Hz

8k @ 30Hz or 24Hz

8k @ 60Hz

The TV supports all common resolutions up to 4k @ 120Hz. It also displays clear text with proper chroma 4:4:4, as long as you set the input to PC and have Input Signal Plus enabled on the HDMI port that your PC is connected to.

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Auto Low Latency Mode (ALLM)

4k @ 120Hz

1440p @ 120Hz

1080p @ 120Hz

HDR

VRR

This TV can take full advantage of the PlayStation 5, with full 4k @ 120Hz and HDMI Forum VRR support. The Auto Low Latency Mode automatically switches the TV into Game Mode when you play a game from a compatible device.

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Auto Low Latency Mode (ALLM)

4k @ 120Hz

1440p @ 120Hz

1080p @ 120Hz

HDR

VRR

This TV can take full advantage of the Xbox Series X or S, with full 4k @ 120Hz, HDMI Forum VRR, and FreeSync support. The Auto Low Latency Mode automatically switches the TV into Game Mode when you play a game from a compatible device.

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HDR10

HDR10+

Dolby Vision

HLG

HDMI 2.0 Full Bandwidth

HDMI 2.1 Class Bandwidth

CEC Yes

HDCP 2.2 Yes (HDMI 1,2,3,4)

ATSC Tuner

USB 3.0

Variable Analog Audio Out No

Wi-Fi Support Yes (2.4 GHz, 5 GHz)

The Samsung Q70C doesn't support Dolby Vision, but it does support Samsung's less widely used HDR10+ format. Otherwise, the TV has four HDMI 2.1 bandwidth ports, all capable of up to 4k @ 120Hz.

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HDMI 4

USB 2

Digital Optical Audio Out 1

Analog Audio Out 3.5mm 0

Analog Audio Out RCA 0

Component In 0

Composite In 0

Tuner (Cable/Ant) 1

Ethernet 1

DisplayPort 0

IR In 0

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ARC/eARC Port

eARC: Dolby Atmos Over Dolby Digital Plus

eARC: Dolby Digital Plus 7.1

eARC: LPCM 7.1 Over Dolby MAT

eARC: Dolby TrueHD 7.1

eARC: DTS:X Over DTS-HD MA

eARC: DTS-HD Master Audio 7.1

eARC: LPCM Channels (Bitstream)

ARC: Dolby Digital 5.1

ARC: DTS 5.1

Optical: Dolby Digital 5.1

Optical: DTS 5.1

The TV supports advanced Dolby and DTS audio passthrough, which is great if you like to watch movies on DVD or Blu-ray as they tend to use DTS formats for their main audio tracks. DTS 5.1 is only available with ARC/eARC, as it doesn't work with an optical connection.

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Low-Frequency Extension

Std. Dev. @ 70

Std. Dev. @ 80

Std. Dev. @ Max

Max

Dynamic Range Compression

The TV has a mediocre frequency response. It has barely any bass, and its sound reproduction becomes less accurate as you raise the volume. There's also a fair amount of compression artifacts, so it doesn't sound good at max volume. The TV's midtones sound good at a moderate listening volume, so dialogue is easy to understand.

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Weighted THD @ 80

Weighted THD @ Max

IMD @ 80

IMD @ Max

The TV's distortion performance is middling. At or near max volume, the TV's speakers significantly distort the sound. It's better at moderate volumes but still not great. Distortion depends on the content, and not everyone is sensitive to it.

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Smart OS Tizen

Version 2023

Ease of Use

Smoothness

Time Taken to Select YouTube

Time Taken to Change Backlight

Advanced Options

The Samsung Q70C uses the 2023 version of Samsung's Tizen OS. It's a bit slow right after you turn on the TV, but it's smooth and fast afterward. Finding content is easy, and moving between apps and inputs is intuitive.

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Ads

Opt-out

Suggested Content in Home

Opt-out of Suggested Content

Like with most TVs, there are ads in the interface, and you can't fully disable them.

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App Selection

App Smoothness

Cast Capable

USB Drive Playback

USB Drive HDR Playback

HDR in Netflix

HDR in YouTube

The Samsung app store has a ton of apps available, and you're sure to find any popular mainstream streaming app in the list of options.

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Size

Voice Control

CEC Menu Control

Other Smart Features

Remote App Samsung SmartThings

The Samsung Q70C uses the 2023 version of Samsung's remote control. There are buttons dedicated to specific streaming apps, which vary by region. It also has an integrated microphone for voice commands, and the TV comes with Bixby and Amazon's Alexa voice assistants. Aside from the mic in the remote, the TV itself has an integrated microphone for hands-free voice control. Voice commands work well; you can change the input, ask to open specific apps, ask for time or the weather, or even tell the TV to change the intensity of its backlight. The remote has a rechargeable battery, which you can charge through USB-C or with solar energy.

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A single button underneath the Samsung branding on the bottom right side lets you turn the TV on/off, adjust the channel and volume, and change inputs. There's also a switch that lets you turn off the TV's integrated microphone, in case you're worried about privacy.

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Power Consumption 57 W

Power Consumption (Max) 190 W

Firmware 1212

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