Samsung Q60/Q60T QLED TV Review

This TV looks more like a premium TV than an entry-level model. It has a borderless design with a thicker bottom bezel. The stand has been redesigned compared to the Samsung Q60/Q60R QLED. The overall look is sleek and minimalist, and it comes with clips for cable management.

The Samsung Q60T features a new stand inserted into the body of the TV instead of being screwed on. It makes the setup process easier, but the feet aren't reversible. The stand supports the TV well, though there's still a bit of wobble.

Footprint of the 55 inch stand: 40.2" x 9.6".

The back of the TV is plastic with a textured finish. It comes with clips for cable management that attach to the feet, but we lost ours. The most commonly-used inputs face to the side and are easy to access, but some face to the back and are difficult to access.

The borders are very thin and aren't distracting.

The build quality is decent. It's well-built, and there are no obvious gaps in the construction. The stand supports the TV well, but it still wobbles a bit when nudged.

The Samsung Q60T has an outstanding contrast ratio, so blacks look black in a dark room. Unfortunately, there's no local dimming feature to improve contrast.

This TV has a great SDR peak brightness. It's bright enough to combat glare in well-lit environments. There's very little variation in brightness with different scenes, but it's noticeably dimmer when displaying small highlights in dark scenes. The cause of this is the TV's frame dimming feature (also known as CE dimming or global dimming).

These measurements are from after calibration in the 'Movie' Picture Mode with Gamma set to '2.2', Contrast Enhancer off, and Brightness at its max. These are the brightest possible settings, as well as the most accurate.

This TV doesn't have a local dimming feature. We still film these videos on the TV, so you can see how the backlight performs and compare it with a TV that has local dimming.

There's no local dimming feature on this TV. We still film these videos on the TV, though, so you can see how the backlight performs and compare it with a TV that has local dimming.

The Samsung Q60T has mediocre peak brightness in HDR, and it doesn't get much brighter than in SDR. Once again, small highlights in an otherwise dark scene, like a street lamp in a dark alley, are significantly dimmer than other scenes. The peak brightness tracks the EOTF very well, so most scenes are displayed at the brightness level the content creator intended. There's a smooth roll-off near the TV's peak brightness, preserving fine details in bright scenes.

These measurements are from the 'Movie' Picture Mode with Contrast and Brightness at their max and ST.2084 set to '0'. These are the brightest and the most accurate settings.

The peak brightness in HDR in 'Game' mode is slightly worse than out of it. The peak brightness is slightly lower, and small bright scenes are even dimmer than before. The EOTF doesn't track correctly in 'Game' mode, as all scenes are dimmer than the content creator intended. The roll-off isn't as smooth as before, and fine details in bright scenes are washed out.

This TV has just good gray uniformity overall. The sides of the screen are darker than the center. There's very little dirty screen effect in the center of the screen, which is great for watching sports or using it as a PC monitor. It's a bit better in near-dark scenes, but there are still some distracting uniformity issues.

This TV has fantastic black uniformity. There's very little clouding and no noticeable backlight bleed. Since there's no local dimming feature, there's no blooming around bright objects, either.

Unfortunately, the Samsung Q60/Q60T QLED has a disappointing viewing angle. The image fades, and colors shift noticeably as you move off-center, so this isn't a good TV for a wide seating arrangement or if you like to move around with the TV on.

This TV has decent reflection handling. The semi-gloss finish reduces the intensity of direct reflections a bit, but it can still overcome glare in well-lit rooms thanks to its relatively high peak brightness.

Out of the box, the Samsung Q60T has impressive accuracy. There are some inaccuracies with shades of gray and some colors, though they're difficult to spot. Gamma doesn't follow the curve, and most scenes appear brighter than they should. With Color Temperature set to 'Warm 2', it's a bit warmer than the calibration target of 6500K, resulting in a slightly reddish tint, but this isn't very noticeable.

After calibration, color accuracy is incredible. Any remaining inaccuracies aren't noticeable to the naked eye. White balance is virtually perfect, and gamma follows the curve well, so most scenes appear at the correct brightness. There are still some inaccuracies with blue, though that's typical of LED TVs.

You can see the recommended settings here.

480p content like DVDs upscales without any issues or artifacts.

720p content like cable TV is displayed properly, with no signs of artifacts.

1080p content looks almost as good as native 4k content.

Native 4k content displays without any obvious issues.

This TV doesn't support an 8k signal.

This TV uses a BGR sub-pixel layout, which negatively affects the way text renders when using the TV as a PC monitor. You can read more about it here.

The Samsung Q60T has a good color gamut, with excellent coverage of the commonly-used DCI P3 color space. Colors look vivid and life-like with the majority of current HDR content. Its limited coverage of Rec. 2020 means it's not very future-proof, as more and more content will eventually switch to that color space.

The Samsung Q60T has an okay color volume. It displays dark, saturated colors well due to its high contrast ratio. It struggles a bit with brighter colors, which aren't as bright as pure white.

This TV has good gradient handling. There's some banding in almost all colors, but blues aren't as bad. It's especially noticeable in large areas of similar color, like shots of the sky. Setting Noise Reduction to 'Auto' helps a bit with low-quality content, but it can't completely smooth out banding.

Like most VA panels, there are no signs of temporary image retention.

We don't expect VA panels to experience permanent image retention, as the VA panel in our long-term test appears immune.

Unfortunately, this TV has a mediocre response time. There's some blur trail in fast-moving scenes, and there's some overshoot in the 0-20% transition, which causes some artifacts in dark scenes. The TV's flicker causes duplications in motion as well. If you're looking for a TV with a faster response time, check out the Samsung TU8000.

This TV uses pulse-width modulation (PWM) to dim the backlight, and there's flicker at all brightness levels. However, the frequency drops to 120Hz if the Picture Mode is set to Game, Dynamic, Standard, or Natural. Enabling Picture Clarity also changes the flicker frequency to 120Hz, even if you don't adjust the Judder Reduction slider. This low flicker frequency causes noticeable duplications in motion, and it can cause headaches and eye strain if you're sensitive to flicker.

There's an optional backlight strobing feature, commonly known as black frame insertion, designed to reduce the appearance of persistence blur. Unfortunately, with this feature enabled, it always flickers at 60Hz, and its timing is off, resulting in image duplication, similar to the Samsung RU7100.

There's a motion interpolation feature on this TV to make lower frame rate content look smoother. When enabled, it causes the backlight's flicker frequency to drop to 120Hz, which results in noticeable image duplication. Like most TVs, it sometimes struggles to keep up and stops interpolating altogether in busy scenes, and in medium-to-fast scenes, there are visible artifacts.

Due to the slow response time, there's barely any stutter in lower frame rate content.

This TV removes judder from native 24p sources, like Blu-ray players, as long as Picture Clarity is disabled. It can't remove judder from 60Hz sources, like a cable box.

Unlike its predecessor, the Samsung Q60/Q60R QLED, the Samsung Q60T doesn't support any variable refresh rate technology. If you want a 2020 TV with VRR support, check out the Samsung Q70/Q70T QLED.

This TV has remarkably low input lag at all resolutions as long as you're in 'Game' mode. It's too high for competitive gaming when using Game Motion Plus, but it's low enough for games that don't require fast reflexes, like turn-based RPGs or strategy games.

This TV supports most common resolutions at 60Hz. It displays proper chroma 4:4:4, which is important for reading text if you want to use it as a PC. To do so, change the icon for the HDMI input you're using to 'PC'.

This TV is a bit limited for PS5 or Xbox Series X gaming. It doesn't support high-frame-rate gaming, and it doesn't support any advanced gaming features, like variable refresh rate technology. There's an Auto Low Latency Mode; this turns on 'Game' mode automatically when the TV detects a game launching from a compatible gaming console like the Xbox Series X.

This TV has eARC support, allowing you to send high-quality audio, like Dolby Atmos via TrueHD, to a compatible receiver over an HDMI connection. Set HDMI eARC to 'Auto' and Digital Output Audio to 'Auto' or 'Passthrough'. Sadly, it doesn't support any DTS formats, which is disappointing, as many UHD Blu-rays use DTS for their lossless audio tracks.

This TV has an okay frequency response. It has a fairly well-balanced sound profile, so dialogue sounds good at moderate listening levels. It's decently loud, but it doesn't produce enough bass to get especially rumbly. There's no room correction feature to adjust the sound to your room's configuration.

The Samsung Q60T's distortion performance is mediocre. It's most significant in the bass range, but this is hardly noticeable as the TV can't produce much bass. It's not really noticeable in the vocal range, either, even at max volume. There's a bit more distortion at max volume, but it's not noticeable unless you have a well-trained ear.

Like all Samsung TVs, the Samsung Q60T runs on Tizen OS. It has been slightly redesigned with reduced features compared to the 2019 version, as the interface is now simpler and has a 'Dark Mode' instead of a white background.

There are ads and suggested content on the home page and the app store, and they can't be disabled.

Samsung's app store has a large number of apps, and they run smoothly for the most part. The built-in media player supports most common audio and video formats from a USB drive.

The remote for the Samsung Q60T remains relatively unchanged from the Samsung Q60/Q60R QLED. The Hulu button is now Samsung's TV Plus shortcut, and it also has the OneRemote feature, which lets you use the remote as a universal remote for other devices, even if they don't support CEC. There's a built-in microphone for voice control, which you can use to change inputs, launch apps, ask for information like the weather or time, or change certain settings; however, it can't search for specific content within an app like Netflix.

There's a single button located beneath the Samsung branding on the front of the TV. It allows you to turn the TV On/Off and change channels, volume, and inputs.

• Remote control
• 2x AA batteries
• User guide
• Cable management clips (not shown)