Hi, I’m Carl with Abt, and in this video, we’re gonna be showing you a couple of new
TV series we carry here at the store, the Samsung Q70R and the LG SM9000, side by side.
These TVs are both steps up from what they’re replacing from 2018, and I think they’re
both gonna be really popular. So what are the differences here? We’ll
start with the inputs. If you’ve been following technology at all for the last year or so,
you’ve probably heard the term HDMI 2.1 being used a lot. That’s because it’s
one of the bigger improvements on some of the new sets. You get much higher bandwidth
and with that comes improvements to both sound and picture. Now, these both technically have
HDMI 2.1, however, the LGs are fully functioning where the Samsungs are a bit more limited.
With the LG you get a true eARC channel that’s gonna allow uncompressed audio passthrough,
like Dolby Atmos. Samsung’ll still pass through Atmos, but only if it’s output through
a Dolby Digital plus file, which is lossy, so you’re not gonna get quite the same experience.
If you’re not an audiophile it’s probably not gonna make a huge difference to you, but
it’s something to note. eARC’s also gonna give you lip sync correction,
which means no more delay between what’s happening on screen and what’s coming out
of your sound system.
As far as non-audio features are concerned, you’re gonna have some differences here
as well. The LG can do full 4k at 120 frames per second.
The Samsung’s gonna be limited to 2k at 120 frames.
For gaming, both support variable refresh rate and both have auto low latency mode,
however, Samsung’s the only one of the two that supports actual AMD Freesync specifically.
And both support dynamic metadata, but LGs is through Dolby Vision where Samsung’s
is through HDR10 plus. Both formats look really nice, but currently, more film studios support
Dolby Vision. It doesn’t seem like a blu ray versus HD DVD-type scenario though so
I imagine both formats’ll stick around for a while.
Now, here’s the tough part, the overall picture. I honestly enjoyed both of these.
Both are full array with local dimming, but the LGs an IPS panel and Samsungs panel is
VA, which is gonna create some differences. For off-angle viewing, IPS is gonna be better.
The LG holds it’s colors and black levels a little longer as you move off to the side.
Neither one’s outstanding, really, but LG was better.
Now, for contrast, VA panels are better, but I thought LG did a pretty good job keeping
up with local dimming turned on. The LG was showing some really good black levels and
brightness, although, to me, it made the picture a little inconsistent. Almost like it overcompensated
in the dark spots, which made the areas directly surrounding those look a little unnatural.
I’m not sure how well that’s gonna show up in the video, but you can tell in person
especially if you’re in a dark room. As I mentioned in our review of the SM9000, I actually preferred
watching content with the local dimming turned off. The blacks turned grayer, which hurt
the contrast obviously, but the picture seemed to be more uniform. Samsung, on the other
hand, doesn’t give the option to turn local dimming all the way off, but I didn’t feel
like I needed to with the Q70. It wasn’t having the same effect as it was on the LG
and the picture was nice and uniform from the dark areas to the bright ones.
Color quality was good on both. With LG using nanocells and Samsung using quantum dots you
get a nice boost in the reds and greens which helps balance out the blues to make for natural-looking
images. And both have their own forms of AI-powered processors to help too, LG with their second
generation alpha 7, and Samsung with their quantum processor 4k. So each has its own
way to analyze objects on the screen and adjust settings automatically to make em look good.
And, for anyone not interested in doing a professional calibration, you’ve got several
pre-set options to choose from on each. Here’s some examples of what the four presets they
have in common look like side by side:
And here’s some motion footage so you can
see how these both handle that: They both do a nice job, but I’ll give the
edge here to Samsung. The way objects looked as they moved just seemed a little more natural.
You can always make adjustments to the judder and blur through the menus, but even with
doing that, I was happier with Samsungs motion processing.
So which one should you get? Well, if you like the idea of having fully equipped HDMI
2.1s, the best operating system available, in my opinion, and better viewing angles,
the LGs gonna be a great choice. If you like a more uniform picture, can take advantage
of the Freesync compatibility, or want better motion handling, the Samsungs gonna be the
way to go. If I were buying one myself, I’d go with the LG between these two. I really like WebOS
and having the fully functioning HDMI 2.1s makes it a little more futureproof, plus the
LG generally costs a little less for the same size TV. I like the Samsungs picture better,
but I’d sacrifice a bit in the picture to get the other benefits. So, which one would
you pick? If you want to see our current pricing and
promotions on either of these two, make sure to click the links in the description.
If you liked this video make sure to give a thumbs up and be sure to check out our other
TV comparisons. Thanks for watching, and we’ll see you in the next one.