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Review: Samsung Q70R soundbar – Impressive sound

Samsung Q70R soundbar
Review of Samsung Q70R soundbar: The Samsung Q70R is a very capable soundbar that produces an impressive and non-dominating sound,
4.4/5 - (394 votes)

The Samsung Q70R soundbar has a price of 749 euros. In this review you can read whether the device is worth its price or not. The wide speaker includes WiFi and support for SmartThings, but cannot be controlled via popular voice assistants.

Samsung Q70R – design and specs

The Samsung Q70R is a wide soundbar that would be perfect under a 55 ″ television must fit. In our case, we soon run into a problem when the soundbar is placed: the right-hand side (seen from the front) is exactly in front of the television receiver for the remote control. As a result, the soundbar is not in the middle of us and more to the left. The location of the receiver differs per TV, so your experience may be different. In this case it is a Philips television.

The sleek design covers quite a few aspects. So there are not only speakers at the front, the top is also provided. This allows the sound to be sent into the room in various ways. The total capacity is a maximum of 330 watts and you notice that in practice when you watch action films or listen to loud music. The subwoofer has an 8-inch format. There is also support for Dolby Atmos, DTS-X, high-quality audio, 4k, hdr and common audio files.

There are various connections available. For example, we find HDMI-in and HDMI-out on the back, including support for HDMI-CEC . So you can connect one device to the soundbar, so you don’t have to miss the connection to your TV. You can also operate the bar with the remote of your TV. There is also support for WiFi and Bluetooth. There is no traditional audio cable connection, there are no USB possibilities and there is no Ethernet port. Great features when they are there, but you really don’t miss them.

Samsung Q70R – installation

You can connect the Samsung Q70R to your television in two ways: via HDMI or the optical audio connection. It is nice to see that Samsung has supplied an HDMI cable, so that you do not have to purchase it separately when the cable box in the attic offers no relief. You connect the cable to the soundbar and the TV and everything works immediately. If you decide to use an optical audio cable, do not forget to switch off the television speakers. Otherwise you will hear the sound twice and that really does not help anyone.

However, if you want to use the internet possibilities, you need to download the Samsung SmartThings application. This app makes it possible to link the app to your Wi-Fi network, so that you can quickly play music via, for example, Spotify. After opening the app you will be guided through the installation process. A condition depends on this: you have the best experience with a Samsung smartphone . We tried to install the speaker with a OnePlus phone (the OnePlus 7 Pro ), but unfortunately that didn’t work.

Samsung Q70R – in use

Soundbars are available known for their convenience and in the case of the Samsung Q70R it is no different. After connecting you can get started very quickly. When the TV is switched on, the soundbar also switches on. You can then operate it with your TV remote control or the supplied remote control. The latter offers more functions and allows you to adjust the sound and switch sound modes. The buttons on the remote control take some getting used to, but we are particularly pleased with the volume control.

The volume control buttons are small switches that you can push up and down. This works very intuitively. There is a button for the soundbar and one for the subwoofer. If you want to play music via WiFi, you can do that from an app that offers support, such as Spotify with Spotify Connect . As long as the soundbar is connected, you can switch it on directly from a smartphone, tablet or computer. In addition, you get access to additional settings via the Samsung SmartThings application.

The Samsung SmartThings app is an app for smart home control. If you have multiple, smart Samsung products at home (such as a television, refrigerator or other speaker), you can use this to control the speaker. You also get access to an equalizer, with which you can perfectly match the sound to your own hearing. Unfortunately, there is no support for Google Cast Google Assistant or Amazon Alexa, so you cannot combine the speakers with other products that do support those standards and assistants.

[19659004] Once you have invested in SmartThings, this is not such a big disadvantage. Then you probably have several Samsung products and everything works together seamlessly. That said, it would be nice if Samsung opened itself up to other protocols and standards, so that users can combine what they want. Now the LG WK7 and Google Nest Hub have a little nothing to do here in the house when music is listened through the soundbar and that is really a missed opportunity, if you ask us.

Samsung Q70R – audio quality

Fortunately, the Samsung Q70R makes a lot of good with its audio quality. The regular stereo playback sounds deep and broad and forms the perfect basis for what the soundbar can do even more. There are a total of four sound modes: Standard, Surround, Gamer Pro and Adaptive. The latter function promises to set the optimum sound reproduction per scene, and uses all available speakers for this (it is even possible to purchase an extra set of wireless speakers, which means you can also place a physical rear channel).

It is clear that Samsung has paid much attention to the sound reproduction. The standard display already performs well, but when you use one of the other functions, you only hear what the wide speaker is capable of. In this way, the music in films, series and games is well distributed at the ends, while dialogues are really presented in the middle and the other effects appear in between. Certainly Adaptive steals the show here: in many cases content (normal or interactive) is much easier to understand and to follow.

Moreover, we are also very pleased with the subwoofer. You can set it as hard as you want, of course, but if you keep it at a normal level, it will never sound dominant. And although we are also relatively positive about the surround sound options (and aspects such as DTS: X, it sometimes seems like the sound is coming from somewhere else), we also notice the limitation that not everyone experiences sound as good when it is not positioned properly in front of the TV. But that is a general limitation of these types of sound bars.

What we ultimately used the sound bar most for is listening to music. There is no music mode, which means that not all types of music will probably sound equally good, but the standard stereo mode is generally sufficient. In addition, we also miss other modes, such as film or sports, which sometimes gives you the impression that the soundbar is inadequate. If you still want the sound to sound slightly different, then you are dependent on the SmartThings app and the built-in equalizer (especially for music).

Samsung Q70R – conclusion

To the sound quality in any case it is not. The Samsung Q70R is a very capable soundbar that produces an impressive and non-dominating sound, which is popular with many film and gaming enthusiasts, but let’s not forget the music lovers as well. For this price, however, we expect an additional HDMI port and support for multiple smart home systems or voice assistants; the addition of SmartThings is nice, but also what prevents the soundbar from being fantastic.

Cons

  • No Google Assistant / Alexa
  • Missing sound modes
  • One HDMI-in port

Advantages

  • Nice, wide sound
  • Sleek design
  • Transit 4k and hdr

 

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