Test and review Samsung GQ55Q7FN: equipped with the latest technology

The fact that the Sam­sung GQ55Q7FN “plays in the big leagues” in terms of image qual­i­ty can already be seen from the results of mea­sure­ments of the char­ac­ter­is­tics obtained in our test lab­o­ra­to­ry. The con­trast ratio exceeds 10,000:1, the checker­board con­trast ratio is a good 223:1, and the max­i­mum bright­ness reach­es an amaz­ing 1414 cd/m2. The lat­ter becomes espe­cial­ly notice­able when work­ing in direct sun­light or dur­ing HDR play­back, which fur­ther enhances the TV’s col­or repro­duc­tion. How­ev­er, even with­out HDR, the image qual­i­ty of the 4K QLED pan­el remains excel­lent. It does not mat­ter where the device receives the con­tent from: through the inte­grat­ed Triple Twin Tuner (DVB‑S/C/T2) or from an exter­nal media such as a Blu-ray play­er.

Test results

Pow­er con­sump­tion aside, which is rather high for a mid-range TV, the Sam­sung GQ55Q7FN per­formed admirably in all areas dur­ing our test runs. We par­tic­u­lar­ly liked the pic­ture qual­i­ty of TV and Blu-ray mate­r­i­al. The sound qual­i­ty, equip­ment and func­tion­al­i­ty of the Smart-TV sys­tem are also up to date. The val­ue for mon­ey of the device test­ed, how­ev­er, appears to be only sat­is­fac­to­ry at the time of writ­ing this report.

Samsung GQ55Q7FN test results

Despite excel­lent pic­ture qual­i­ty, cur­rent com­pet­ing mod­els from Philips, LG and Sony have some edge. The rea­son is sim­ple: all three 55-inch TVs use an OLED pan­el, which not only has con­vinc­ing col­or repro­duc­tion, but above all, high view­ing angle sta­bil­i­ty. Accord­ing to this indi­ca­tor, the Sam­sung GW55Q7FN VA-LCD pan­el can­not com­pete with them: the max­i­mum hor­i­zon­tal and ver­ti­cal view­ing angles, at which the TV retains at least half of its max­i­mum con­trast, are with­in 20 degrees.

Smart and well equipped

In terms of equip­ment, there is noth­ing to com­plain about here: the Sam­sung GQ55Q7FN has four HDMI ports, one CI + slot, and a dig­i­tal audio out­put. Three USB inter­faces allow you to play movies from exter­nal hard dri­ves and oth­er media. USB record­ing is also pos­si­ble here.

Espe­cial­ly prac­ti­cal: instead of a direct con­nec­tion to the TV, Sam­sung offers to use a spe­cial hub that will get rid of the bunch of hang­ing wires. One thin cable goes direct­ly to the TV. Two stereo speak­ers with a pow­er of 10 W each, on the con­trary, are built into the case and pro­vide very good sound even at high vol­umes.
As an oper­at­ing sys­tem, as on all cur­rent Sam­sung TVs, OS Tizen is used. Here you will find all the major video-on-demand appli­ca­tions, includ­ing Net­flix, Ama­zon Video, and more.

Although the choice in Tizen-Store can­not com­pete with com­pet­i­tive Android-TV, it should sat­is­fy most requests with­out prob­lems. The Inter­net con­nec­tion required for this is pro­vid­ed via the LAN port or WLAN mod­ule. You can con­trol your TV with a remote con­trol, voice com­mands, or an app on your smart­phone.

High brightness, high power consumption

The pow­er con­sump­tion lev­el of the Sam­sung GQ55Q7FN is rel­a­tive­ly high, which is quite expect­ed with such a high bright­ness. Dur­ing test runs, we mea­sured as much as 133 watts in nor­mal oper­a­tion. And although this indi­ca­tor can be slight­ly reduced with the help of the ener­gy-sav­ing mode, this result is achieved only by reduc­ing the bright­ness. In the Stand­by state, pow­er con­sump­tion is at an accept­able lev­el of 0.2 watts. Over­all, the GQ55Q7FN meets the EU Ener­gy Effi­cien­cy Label “B” and is one of the most pow­er-hun­gry TVs in our respec­tive rat­ing.

Relatively inexpensive alternative: Philips 55POS901F

Any­one who often has to watch TV with­out being direct­ly in front of the screen should take mod­els with OLED tech­nol­o­gy that boasts high­er view­ing angle sta­bil­i­ty, such as the Philips 55POS901F. Dur­ing the test, this UHD TV proved to be con­vinc­ing due to its excel­lent pic­ture qual­i­ty, good sound and lux­u­ri­ous equip­ment. In addi­tion, at a cost of about 100 thou­sand rubles, this mod­el from Philips is one of the most inex­pen­sive High-end TVs in 55-inch for­mat. At the same time, the lev­el of ener­gy con­sump­tion, like that of Sam­sung, is rel­a­tive­ly high.

Less voracious alternative : LG OLED 55E8

The LG OLED 55E8 also fea­tures a high­ly sta­ble view­ing angle OLED pan­el, which shone with remark­able image qual­i­ty dur­ing test­ing. In addi­tion, our leader in the rank­ing offers a com­pre­hen­sive Smart OS, a large num­ber of inter­faces and great sound. Pow­er con­sump­tion, although still high, is far­ing bet­ter than the GQ55Q7FN. The only crit­i­cism worth men­tion­ing is the lack of HDR10-Plus sup­port. Cost: approx­i­mate­ly 165 thou­sand rubles.

Samsung GQ55Q7FN specifications and test results

Samsung GQ55Q7FN test results

Pho­to: Sam­sung