Samsung Q800T: Samsung’s mid-range 8K QLED TV is £1,500 cheaper

If you were expecting to have to sell your car and remortgage your home to afford an 8K HDR TV in 2020, then we have some good news for you: you may only have to sell the car. Samsung’s Q800T still isn’t exactly what you’d call affordable but, compared to 8K OLED models from the likes of LG (whose new ZX OLED starts at £24,999), it’s at least somewhat more attainable.

Of course, there is also a newer and cheaper Samsung 8K model, the Q700T, which starts at £1,999 for the 55in model, but that lacks some of the Q800T’s more premium features. The Q800T starts from £3,799 and is available in three sizes. Although it doesn’t have the ‘Infinity Screen’ design or One Connect Box found on the mid-range Q900T (from £4,999) and flagship Q950TS (from £5,999), it is still one of the most luxurious TVs you can buy today.

But is it even worth splashing out on an 8K HDR TV when there are so many fantastic 4K QLED and OLED HDR TVs on the market? In this article, we’ll dive into the key specs of the Samsung Q800T to help you decide.

READ NEXT: Samsung TV model numbers explained 

Buy now from Samsung

Samsung Q800T: What you need to know

There are three models of the Samsung Q800T: the 65in QE65Q800TATXXU, 75in QE75Q800TATXXU and the giant 82in QE82Q800TATXXU. All of Samsung’s Q800T variants are built with a so-called ‘Boundless Design’, which basically means that the bezels are extremely thin, though not completely invisible. Only the Q900T and Q950TS 8K TVs benefit from Samsung’s ‘Infinity Screen’ design, which – when viewed from the front – makes the panel appear as though it doesn’t have any bezel at all.

Being an 8K model, the Q800T has a resolution of 7,680 x 4,320. It uses a QLED panel, which is a shorter way of saying that it’s an LCD LED-backlit panel equipped with quantum dot technology. Rather than switching over to OLED, as many of Samsung’s rivals have done for their flagship models, Samsung continues to assert that QLED is the best television panel technology due to its ability to achieve higher levels of brightness.

Depending on the panel size, though, there are a different number of ‘Direct Full Array’ LED backlighting zones: the Q800T 82in has 32, while the 65in and 75in only get 24 zones. It’s worth noting that the Q800T has dramatically fewer lighting zones than Samsung’s 2019 4K flagship, the Q90R, which had 480. One other limitation is that the Q800T only reaches its maximum refresh rate of 120Hz for 4K content, and drops to 60Hz for native 8K content.

Like its pricier 8K 2020 stablemates, the Samsung Q800T is equipped with Quantum Processor 8K, Samsung’s most advanced picture processor to date. There isn’t a huge amount of native 8K content available, though; apart from the reasonable selection on Vimeo and YouTube, most of the content you’d be watching on the Q800T would not be native 8K.

This is where the Quantum Processor 8K steps in, upscaling all content up to the TVs native 8K resolution. Samsung claims that the processor harnesses the power of ‘Deep Learning algorithms’ to upscale non-8K content and “reduce image noise, restore lost detail, and define edges” in the process.

The Quantum Processor 8K also has an ‘Adaptive Picture’ feature that will automatically adjust the panel’s brightness based on both the content being played and the lighting conditions of the room it’s in. Similarly, the Adaptive Sound+ feature measures background noise to optimise the TV’s audio output. When playing HDR10+ content, the Q800T’s processor can achieve what Samsung calls ‘Quantum HDR 2000’ levels of contrast and brightness. The Samsung Q900T and Q950TS, presumably due to their brighter backlights, can reach up to ‘Quantum HDR 4000’.

In addition to HDR10+, the Q800T supports the standard HDR10 and HLG (Hybrid-Log Gamma) formats. Samsung continues to shun Dolby Vision in favour of HDR10+, a format it developed jointly with Panasonic and 20th Century Fox. As good as HDR10+ is, it’s a shame to see that no 2020 Samsung TVs support Dolby Vision when rivals are producing televisions that support all the major HDR formats. Without Dolby Vision, Q800T owners will be limited to the standard HDR10 format when viewing Netflix, but can still enjoy dynamic HDR with HDR10+ from the likes of Amazon Prime Video and Google Play Movies.

All the major streaming services are supported by Samsung’s Tizen OS. Viewers can watch content from Disney Plus, Netflix, Amazon Prime Video, Now TV, Apple TV and many more. And of course, there will be the usual menu of free-to-watch UK catch-up apps like BBC iPlayer.

Samsung’s 8K 2020 models all have an audio-boosting feature called OTS+ (Object Tracking Sound+). According to Samsung, OTS+ adds new layers of audio immersion “with 3D surround sound that moves with the action on-screen”, without the need for a surround sound system. With eight built-in speakers, the Q800T will fire off audio from specific places around the panel based on the motion tracking of objects on the screen.

Buy now from Samsung

Samsung Q800T: Price and competition

You can pick up the 65in Samsung Q800T for £3,999 from Currys PC World or Samsung today. The larger 75in Q800T will set you back £4,999, while the 82in mammoth (currently preorder only) costs £6,499.

If that sounds insanely expensive, then take a moment to consider the competition. Sony’s latest 8K LED model, the ZH8 Series, starts at £5,999 for the 75in model. Meanwhile, the top-end 85in variant costs £8,999. Fancy an OLED instead? The 77in model of LG’s Signature ZX OLED costs £24,999, and the 88in model costs £39,999. By comparison, Samsung’s 8K Q800T pricing seems pretty fair.

If you’re after a new plus-sized QLED HDR TV, but don’t want to cough up for 8K then you may be better served by the Samsung Q95T, which is Samsung’s flagship 4K model for 2020. Originally £1,799, we’ve seen the 55in model going for as little as £1,499.