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Over the next few weeks, we have partnered with Samsung South African to test their latest QLED TV range. They dropped off the awesome 65-inch Q8C model last week and I immediately could not wait to unbox this bad boy. The QLED makes use of a new technology known as Quantum Dot whereas the Samsung has mastered the positioning of the LED backlights in the TV to produce gorgeous colours and pure blacks.
Take a look at the video below;
My goal over the next few weeks is to test out the TV across the PS4 Pro, Xbox One X, and the built-in SteamLink chip that lets you stream PC games to the TV without any extra hardware at all. I will be doing a detailed analysis of the HDR and 4K gaming, as well as giving you some advice on the best settings the TV offers depending on how it handles its HDR and gamma.
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I have been a fan of HDR since its initial rollout in gaming and I have done some extensive research on how the tech works and I cannot wait to test it all out on this TV. For now, I decided that it would be cool to unbox the TV and show off just how sleek it is. Most of all, I show you just how great the new Connect Box is that lets you plug everything into the TV through this box that makes use of a fibre optic cable that is fed through the TV stand to the display itself. No more cables dangling at the back of the TV. It is every clean freak's dream.
65-inches is huge and it comes in a massive box. With the TV being so big we were surprised to see just how thin the box actually is. A few things stood out for me during the unboxing. How neat it was packed and easy it was to follow the setup instructions, and how the lack of ports behind the TV makes it even easier to install. Even the awesome Samsung TV remote comes neatly packed ready for use.
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The QLED has two ports at the back, the Connect Box port and the power. Everything that you would normally plug directly into the TV now gets plugged into the Connect Box and a single fibre optic cable runs up the back of the TV into the port. This is the closest we are going to get to wireless TVs right now and the results are stunning.
The Connect Box also comes inside the TV box and in that box you will find the fibre cable, and the Connect box device. As for the stand, it is a heavy stainless steel frame that supports this massive TV quite nicely. It also comes apart for you to run the fibre cable up through the inside of the arm to create a sleek and cable-free look.
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Once we had the TV out of the box and placed on the support pillow, needed for the curved display, it was easy enough to figure out that the fibre cable had to go into the back of the TV, loop around the support ring, and then run through the stand. Samsung really put a lot of attention into creating a sleek and cable-free environment and once the fibre cable was installed, you barely noticed this thin white cable.
We clipped everything back in and then screwed the stand to the back of the TV. Once that was all done, we clipped back on the cover and the TV was ready. No cables, no fuss. Just a stunning TV in all its glory.
As for the Connect Box itself, it comes with four HDMI ports for all your game consoles and entertainment systems. Three USB ports, satellite connection for standard TV, a LAN port, optical out for a sound bar or home theatre system, and the One Connect cable port that runs all the signal into the TV. But we will cover the Connect Box and how to set it up for all your game consoles in the next few days
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For now, just know that the QLED is pretty simple to unbox and setup. We did it in under an hour and considering it was so huge, that is pretty impressive. We do recommend two people to take on this task as you will need to pick the TV out of the box and place it on the pillow. Do not attempt to do this alone, it might just end in disaster.
So far so good. The Samsung QLED is a gorgeous display and I am going to be running all the diagnostics on it. Could it be every gamer's dream display? We will find out in the next few days.
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