Last year, Samsung achieved a particularly good performance with the Q90R. This year, the Korean manufacturer is putting its 8K models in the spotlight. What about the 4K top model? Can the Samsung QE65Q95T (Q95T series) withstand the comparison with last year’s winner? We test it in this review.
Samsung QE65Q95T Specifications
- What: Ultra HD Full Array LED LCD TV with local dimming (15 × 8 segments)
- Screen size: 65 inches (163 cm), flat
- Connections: 4x HDMI (3x v2.0, 1x v2.1 (40 Gbps), eARC, ALLM, VRR, HFR), 1x optical digital out, 2x USB, 3x antenna, Bluetooth
- Extras: HDR10, HLG, HDR10 +, WiFi (802.11ac) built-in, Tizen 5.5, AirPlay 2, USB / DLNA media player, DVB-T2 / C / S2, CI + slot, Quantum 4K Processor, Invisible Connection / One Connect box
- Dimensions: 1,447 x919 x 286 mm (incl. Base)
- Weight: 33.1 kg (incl. Base)
- Consumption: 213 / 0.5 watt (Energy label B)
- List price: 2,999 euros
Samsung QE65Q95T – Design
The Q95T series received a clever design that worthy of a top model, although in terms of looks it leans a little more towards the Q80T than towards the impressive Q950TS. The silver colored frame is a fine, 3mm thick line around the screen. Including the black border in the image, the frame around the screen is barely 1cm wide.
Its profile is 35mm deep, with a flat back that has a recess for the No Gap wall mount. Unlike the Q950TS, this wall bracket is not included in the box, but is an optional purchase. In any case, that slim profile will make a handsome appearance on the wall.
We already saw the heavy, curved base plate on the Q90R last year. It provides a solid foundation. However, we had two comments about the finish. The base is very solid, but the TV wobbles easily. A firmer connection between the base and the TV would solve that. The back plate of the TV can be pressed lightly at the edges, but you will of course only notice this when setting up.
Samsung QE65Q95T – Connections
The Q95T series is equipped with Samsung’s One Connect Box and Invisible connection. So no connections on the TV itself, they are all on the One Connectbox. On the TV there is only a connection for the Invisible Connection that serves both power and all data traffic. The One Connectbox is smaller and heavier than that of the Q950TS .
The QE65Q95T got four HDMI connections, one HDMI2.1 to provide higher bandwidth (40Gbps on HDMI 4). That is sufficient for 4K120 10 bit 4: 4: 4 signals. The device supports eARC, ALLM, and VRR (HDMI VRR and AMD Freesync). You can find more information about all these functions and whether you need them in our HDMI 2.1 overview . You will also find an optical digital audio output, the network connection and antenna connections. There are two USB connections on the side. There is no headphone jack, but the Q95T does have Bluetooth for wireless headphones.
The One Connect Box with Invisible connection and the optional No Gap-Wallmount are the only differences between the Q95T and the Q90T. If you want to get this 4K top model at home, but do not really aim for wall mounting, you can choose the slightly cheaper Q90T.
Samsung QE65Q95T – Ease of use and smart TV
Samsung uses the same smart TV environment on all its QLED models. , so we retake part of our Q80T review . Installing can be done in the classic way, using the remote control, but those who prefer to use their smartphone install the Samsung Smart Things app. It makes the whole process even simpler.
Samsung’s Smart Hub interface is clear and convenient to use. The interface is very responsive and easy to navigate. This new version seems to only contain cosmetic changes. For example, the tiles on the Home screen are now square so that they take up less space and the background color of the interface is dark. Whether older devices will get the new interface is not yet certain. Samsung does not systematically introduce new features on older models.
Some of the settings such as picture and sound mode, or game mode can be selected from the Home menu. The full settings menu is well organized, with only the simplest settings quickly accessible. For more complex settings, go to the “expert settings”. You can find settings for the game mode under “General, Manage external devices”. The Smart Hub certainly remains one of our favorite smart TV platforms. For a complete overview of the possibilities, please refer to our background article about the Samsung Smart Hub .
Remote control
In the box we find Samsung’s luxurious, metal remote. It is unchanged from the Q90R (2019). The slim remote is made of light metal. It not only looks luxurious, but also feels very pleasant. The keys are easy to operate and you can even find them by touch. The remote works perfectly with the Smart Hub so that you rarely experience the lack of keys as a loss.
Our only complaint: if you still have the habit of keying in channel numbers, you should do that with an “on screen” number pad, because there are no number keys on the remote control itself. There are keyboard shortcuts for Netflix, Amazon Prime Video and Rakuten TV. You can configure the remote to control connected devices. Select the ribbon with all sources, and at the far right choose “Set universal remote control.”
Functions
The Q95T has a dual TV tuner for digital TV (DVB-T2 / C / S2) and one CI + slot. . Watching and simultaneously recording another channel is only possible if one of the two channels is unencrypted. You can cast YouTube and Netflix to the TV via Google Cast, and for iOS users there is support for Airplay2. The media player is good, but cannot handle older Divx or Xvid and he does not play DTS soundtracks. Subtitles and HDR were no problem, and the audio player is complete.
The remote is equipped with a microphone, so you can give a lot of commands or say searches. Unfortunately, there is no support for Dutch yet, although you can use Bixby in English.
With Ambient Mode, Samsung also has a nice asset to give the TV a function if you are not actively watch TV. Choose a nice pattern, a work of art, or your own photos and the TV becomes part of your interior.
Samsung QE65Q95T – Image processing
The Samsung Quantum Processor 4K was already found in the Q80T that we tested earlier. The results are therefore perfectly comparable in this area. The upscaling provides very nice detail with all sources. It is best to activate the noise filter for less good quality sources. It is now under “Sharpness settings, Noise reduction”. It does very well with random and compression noise (visible blocks in the image), but unfortunately only has an “Auto” mode. In some cases it also hides some detail. We would appreciate the option to set “Noise Reduction” to “low” for a somewhat softer approach. It works well with unwanted color bands in gradients, provided they are relatively soft. But even in our very difficult Game of Thrones test scene, the processor succeeded very well, or at the expense of a little detail.
The motion sharpness is excellent, as long as you keep the ‘Sharpness settings’ activated. . In the “Auto” mode we see all the detail in fast moving images, but there is still a visible double border around moving objects. In addition, the motion interpolation causes slightly too many artifacts such as broken edges or blurry halos of fast moving objects against a complex background. We had a better result with the “Custom” setting with “Haze reduction” at 10 for maximum detail in fast moving images and “Vibration reduction” around 6. This gives you relatively smooth images without too many visible problems. Avoid ‘LED Clear Motion’, it activates Black Frame Insertion (which is BFI ) for some extra detail, but causes visible flickering which is very tiring.
Main Settings
| General | Expert Settings | Picture Sharpness Settings |
| Picture Mode: Movie Picture Format Settings: 16: 9 Default Adjust on screen: On |
Brightness: 20 Contrast: 45 Sharpness: 5 Color: 25 Tint (G / R): 0 Local Dimming: Standard Contrast Enhancement : Off or Low Movie Mode: Auto Color Tone: Warm 2 Gamma: BT.1886 / 0 Shadow Detail: 0 RGB Mode: Off Color Space: Auto |
Adjusted:
Blur. : 10 Noise Reduction: Auto or Off |
Samsung QE65Q95T – Image Quality
The VA panel is equipped with Samsung’s Ultra Viewing Angle film. This has been adjusted compared to last year, but is still visible in the photo of the pixels, which are therefore slightly unclear. We cannot completely disable local dimming, but in the lowest position we measure an excellent ANSI contrast of approximately 4,300: 1. If we leave local dimming in the standard mode (as in the film image mode), the contrast increases to 6,500: 1. In our other test patterns it goes well above 10,000: 1 or even tends to perfect black.
The Q95T series is the 4K top model, with a Full Array backlight with local dimming of 15 × 8 (120) segments. That is significantly less than the 480 segments that we found on the Q90R (2019), although we also see that the Q95T is priced considerably cheaper than the Q90R. You see it better as a successor of the Q85R . More segments are now only available in Samsung’s 8K models.
The performance of the local dimming is excellent. Images have excellent contrast, and a lot of black detail is visible. But choosing a smaller number of segments also results in a few limitations. To keep segment boundaries as invisible as possible, small bright details may lose intensity. Presumably for the same reason, the processor also controls relatively many segments. As a result, you sometimes see a bit more deep dark gray where you expect black anyway, although of course you only see that in a pitch dark room. By putting “Contrast Enhancement” in the lowest position, that effect seemed to diminish somewhat
Subtitles manage the TV very well. They are dimmed (sometimes quite strong) to avoid lighting up the image in dark scenes. The Q95T delivers a solid performance for contrast that should only give the thumbs up for OLED models. The screen also scores very well for uniformity, the uniformity is almost perfect in both dark and very bright test images. We saw a slightly dark and cool border around the screen (as on the other QLEDs this year), but it never disturbs in practice.
For best results, choose the ‘Film’ image mode . It is excellently calibrated, with a neutral gray scale and excellent color rendering. The brightness is a little too low for a well-lit living room. We prefer to set brightness to 20. There is still a lot of room to set them higher, and to activate the light sensor if necessary. With local dimming in the highest position you can even achieve HDR brightnesses.
Samsung QE65Q95T – HDR
Samsung still supports HDR10 + in addition to HDR10 and HLG, the lack of Dolby Vision remains a flaw.
In HDR Movie image mode we achieve a peak brightness of 1,349 nits on a 10% window, which stabilized fairly quickly at 1,240 nits. On a completely white image, the maximum was 560 nits. Those figures are clearly more in line with the Q85R (2019) than those of the Q90R (2019). The latter reached a peak brightness of 1,640 nits. It remains more than enough to put very intense HDR images on the screen. All white detail is also well preserved, and the Samsung respects the HDR metadata up to 10,000 nits. The local dimming setting is set to Standard in the Movie picture mode, the difference to the High setting seemed relatively small to us, but High provides slightly more contrast.
The color range on the Q95T series is clocked at 85% DCI-P3 and 63% Rec. 2020. We have already seen this fall back slightly to the other 2020 models, but the Q95T is even clearly below the 90% DCI-P3 limit that we would like to see achieved. It is impossible to say what the cause is. The color calibration may also be a bit better considering this is a top model, but the end result remains to be enjoyed perfectly.
Like all Samsung QLED models, the Q95 is calibrated too bright, albeit less pronounced than on models from last year. It is an advantage in a well-lit environment, but we preferred to see a correctly calibrated Film image mode. The TV shows sufficient black detail, dark scenes come out well. This Samsung shows how beautiful intense HDR images can be.
Samsung QE65Q95T – Gaming, Reflections and Viewing Angles
The Q90T, Q95T and the 8K models are equipped with a very good anti-reflection film and wide viewing angle. The new viewing angle film is a bit less compared to last year but still delivers a good result. The viewing angle is now closer to that of Sony’s X-Wide Angle. From 20-30 ° you can see the gamma value drop, making midtones a bit brighter. In extreme HDR images, the zone boundaries become more visible. The color reproduction remains very good. The screen damps reflections well, but they do get a somewhat wider smeared effect.
In the Movie Picture mode, the input lag is 80.6 ms, which is quite a high result. In game mode it drops to 11.8 which is definitely excellent. Gamers can also use ALLM, and VRR (HDMI VRR and AMD Freesync) with a range of 48 to 120 Hz (more information about all features can be found here ). For this you use HDMI input 4. In game mode you can also adjust Motion plus settings to make more detail visible, although the input lag goes to 22.6ms. You will also find the ‘Dynamic Black Equalizer’ with which you can make black detail more visible.
Samsung QE65Q95T – Sound quality
We were already very satisfied with the sound of other 2020 QLED models, so the good results of the Q95T series don’t come as a surprise. The 60W audio system uses speakers on the bottom and top of the screen. Samsung uses this for their own OTS (Object Tracking Sound) technique, where the sound seems to come out of the screen more and surround sources get better positioning. Dolby Atmos support is unfortunately absent.
We turned up the volume well, and noticed a strong, pleasant sound, with clear highs, and some solid bass work. Distortion is kept to a minimum, even in our toughest music test samples. You can tune the sound based on the room acoustics using “General, Intelligent Settings” “Adjustable Sound +”. You no longer have to take the measurement in advance, Samsung performs it in real time.
Review equipment
For the lag measurement, we use a Leo Bodnar Display lag meter. For all other measurements, we rely on a Spectracal C6 HDR2000 Colorimeter, Xrite i1 Pro spectrophotometer, a VideoForge Pro pattern generator, and the Spectracal Calman for Business software. To analyze any HDR problems, we use an HDFury Vertex.
Samsung QE65Q95T – Conclusion
The QE65Q95T (Q95T series) rightly takes its place at the top of Samsung’s 4K offering. But it is not a direct upgrade from the Q90R. The TV has to make do with 120 dimming zones compared to 480 on the Q90R (2019). A higher number of zones is reserved for the 8K models, an understandable move, yet disappointing nonetheless. Samsung also stays away from Dolby Vision / Atmos. While support for Dolby Vision is less important on models with ample light output, such as the Q95T, supporting it would really complete the TV. It is noteworthy that the HDR color range is smaller than on previous models, but it is still spacious in HDR range and its impact is very small. We just wonder why this is the case.
This Samsung delivers excellent performance if you are looking for an LCD TV with clear images, powerful contrast, good motion sharpness and excellent viewing angle. The dimming algorithm makes the best of the available zones. It avoids fluctuating brightness while still providing excellent black reproduction and good black detail. The most visible compromise is that the small clear accents lose some impact. The Quantum Processor 4K delivers excellent upscaling and good noise reduction so that all your sources look peak fine. The spacious peak brightness gives HDR images a powerful character, even in a well-lit living room. For gamers there is an HDMI 2.1 connections with a spacious gaming feature set. Complemented by the solid audio performance, the handy Tizen smart TV system and the One Connect box / Invisible Connection, this is a beautiful, modern television.
The QE65Q95T (Q95T series) is markedly lower than the Q90R when it was introduced in 2019, and for a top model, that price is correct. You can also get the same performance for 300 euros less if you choose the Q90T, which, as the only difference, is not equipped with the One Connect box / Invisible Connection and optional No Gap wallmount.
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