Samsung QLED Samsung Q6F 85" 4K HDR Smart QLED TV Review

The Samsung Q6F 85-inch QLED TV offers a huge screen and bright picture at a very attractive price, making it a great value for bright rooms and streaming. Its Tizen smart platform is top-notch, but picture quality and gaming features are entry-level for a QLED. It's a lot of TV for the money, just not the fanciest TV.

If you're hunting for a massive 85-inch 4K TV without breaking the bank, the Samsung Q6F is a name you'll see a lot. For around $1,000, you're getting a QLED panel, full HDR10+ support, and Samsung's Tizen smart platform, which is one of the best out there. It's a big-screen TV designed for streaming movies and shows in a bright room, and it nails that job pretty well. Just know that while it's a QLED, it's an entry-level model in that family, so you're getting a great value on size and smart features rather than the absolute best picture quality Samsung offers.

Our data shows this TV's strengths are clear. Its display quality lands in the 97th percentile, which for an 85-inch screen at this price is impressive. The QLED panel gets plenty bright, making it great for daytime viewing. The smart platform is in the 89th percentile, so navigating Tizen is smooth and it has all the major apps. Where it starts to show its budget roots is in picture quality, which sits in the 45th percentile. This means while colors are vibrant, you won't get the deep, inky blacks or perfect contrast of a high-end QLED or OLED. For gaming, the 60Hz refresh rate and ALLM support are fine for casual play, but serious gamers will want a 120Hz panel.

At $998 for an 85-inch QLED TV, the value proposition is straightforward: you're getting a lot of screen for your money. You're trading some peak picture performance for that massive size. If your main goal is a big, bright TV for streaming Netflix and watching sports in the living room, this is a compelling deal. If your priority is the absolute best contrast and color accuracy, you'd need to spend more on a higher-end QLED or look at OLED options, but you'll get a much smaller screen for the same cash.

This TV sits in a interesting spot. Compared to the Hisense U6 Series Mini-LED, the Samsung has a more polished smart platform and often better build quality, but the Hisense might offer slightly better local dimming at a similar price for a smaller size. The real competition is from other Samsungs. The step-up QN990F Neo QLED is in a different league for picture quality with mini-LED backlighting, but it's also much more expensive and often in smaller sizes. Against an LG OLED like the G5, you lose the perfect blacks and infinite contrast of OLED, but you gain a much brighter screen that won't suffer from burn-in risk, all for a fraction of the price per inch.

Skip this TV if you're a cinephile who watches primarily in a pitch-black home theater. The middling contrast and black levels will be noticeable. Also, hardcore gamers should look for a TV with a 120Hz panel and VRR. And if you absolutely need the latest Wi-Fi 6 or multiple HDMI 2.1 ports, this isn't it. For those users, consider stepping up to a Samsung QN85 series or an LG OLED.

So, should you buy the Samsung Q6F? If you want the biggest possible screen for your budget and your viewing happens in a bright room, this is a very smart buy. The Tizen system is a joy to use, and the QLED colors pop. But if you're a home theater enthusiast who watches in a dark room and craves cinematic contrast, or a gamer who needs 120Hz, you'll feel its limitations quickly. For most people who just want a great big TV for everyday watching, it's a fantastic option that makes a lot of sense.