Sony X850E 65" (XBR65X850E) vs Samsung Q8FN

The X850E is an excellent option for those who watch content from an antenna/satellite box, DVD/Blu-ray player or Apple TV. It can detect eliminate jerky playback that is common in content from these sources.

The X850E has the largest screen size at 65” for the cheapest when compared to its direct competitors. Similarly-sized models from its direct competitors cost much more.

The X850E has a wide color gamut that allows it to reproduce the colors necessary for true HDR, and it has an average peak brightness level of ~400 nits that allows it to light up these colors properly. Thanks to that, HDR pictures look decent and highlights will look fairly good.

However, the HDR performance can’t get better than that, due to the average peak brightness of ~400 nits which isn’t really enough for details to truly stand out, and it lacks local dimming.

The X850E runs on Android TV that has access to the Google Play Store. The Play Store has a nice selection of apps, but normal Android apps won't work unless they support Android TV.

The X850E looks fluid thanks to its excellent color uniformity and decent handling of motion.

It can display large, same-color objects like football fields really well - they will look natural and uniform.

Fast-moving objects, like football, will also look smooth. The panel only requires ~14ms to fully change the pixels color, resulting in fast-moving objects not leaving any trails on the screen, eliminating virtually all motion blur.

The X850E looks really good in dark scenes, thanks to its decent contrast ratio of 4500:1 and excellent black uniformity.

It can produce blacks that are 4500 times darker than the brightest white, and the black uniformity is especially good - there’s barely visible flashlighting, where edges of the screen has light on them when displaying a black image, and the screen is evenly bright. This makes it perform really well in dark scenes.

Colors look vibrant because of the panel’s high peak brightness levels of ~350 nits for SDR & ~400 nits for HDR. With these brightness levels, it can get bright enough to fight glare. Along with its great handling of reflections, pictures will still look good in decently-lit environments without dull colors.

The X850 has a relatively low input lag of ~35ms that makes it a decent pick for gaming. Most players will feel in sync, however, it might be a little unresponsive for competitive or demanding gamers.

It’s also acceptable for HDR gaming because the input lag does not increase in HDR mode.

There are no ads on the X850E’s interface.

The X850E can increase the framerate of content to either 60Hz or 120Hz.

It guesses which frames are missing based on the previous and next frame, and inserts the missing frame in between them. This produces a really strong soap opera effect, where images look really smooth.

This might look weird to some people that doesn't like it, but the X850E can do this really well for those who enjoy it.

The Q8 has a 100% response time at 12.9ms, meaning you won't see much in the way of input lag. This puts it in a great position for a gaming television.

The Q8 has a very good response time and supports up to 120fps motion interpolation, even in game mode. The screen is good at lessening, or removing altogether, 24p jitter.

The Q8FN's high brightness means that even in a bright room you'll still be receiving a good picture quality that fights through the glare.

The Q8FN comes in three sizes: 55 inch (QN55QFN), 65 inch (QN65QFN), and a 75 inch (QN75QFN). The price, of course, varies with screen size.

The Samsung Bixby assistant is integrated with the TV, meaning you can control it with the same app you would any other Bixby enable service.

Samsung's FALD (full array local dimming) can be thought of as an array of LEDs behind the screen. The local dimming can do a better job of increasing contrast and color brightness in specific areas of the screen compared to Samsung's older models which used edge lighting and some slight local dimming.

The Q8 has an excellent contrast ratio with incredibly deep blacks. The FALD (full array local dimming) feature accents the already good black performance by diminishing bloom and haze around bright objects, lending an excellent overall dark room experience. The HDR works well and is handily able to exceed the 1000 cd/m target for HDR content. The color management is also decent and, while the management system is a little lackluster, with the right settings you can hit a very accurate color palette.