Looking to buy a new Samsung mini-LED TV for the World Cup? I tested two side-by-side and it's an 'opportune time' to pick up 2025's flagship set with Prime Day coming up

Date:
Fri, 05 Jun 2026 01:00:00 +0000

Description:
I compared the Samsung M80H mini-LED and Samsung QN80H Neo QLED TVs 2026 TVs side by side ready for the World Cup: it reminded me of the Samsung QN90F's greatness.

FULL STORY ======================================================================Copy link Facebook X Whatsapp Reddit Pinterest Flipboard Threads Email Share this article 0 Join the conversation Follow us Add us as a preferred source on Google Newsletter Subscribe to our newsletter The 2026 World Cup is imminent, with the first game kicking off on June 11 (next week!) and while it can be difficult to choose what your next TV upgrade should be, we here at TechRadar lean towards mini-LED as the TV tech you should be choosing .

Not only can you get mammoth-sized 100-inch+ screens for reasonable prices, but their big fullscreen brightness helps to display sports in brighter rooms (perfect for daytime World Cup games) without suffering from mirror-like reflections as badly as OLED . Dont get me wrong, the best OLED TVs can still be fantastic for sports viewing: its just mini-LED covers a lot of the bases better. While we often talk about Hisense and TCL s mini-LED TVs, thanks to their price vs performance balance, I cant overlook Samsung , one of the most premium purveyors of mini-LED TV tech on the market. In fact, the Samsung QN90F , last years flagship 4K Neo QLED (mini-LED), is still our pick as the best TV for sports because of its superb motion handling, matte screen for reflections and solid brightness. Latest Videos From Watch full video here:

But what about some new, more affordable mini-LED options from the brand? Fortunately, the Samsung QN80H and Samsung M80H have arrived at our testing rooms. Interestingly, the QN80H is a Neo QLED, which uses mini-LED in its panel, and the M80H is labelled as just mini-LED. So, how do the two compare, and are they a good choice for the World Cup? The right TVs for the World
Cup? (Image credit: No Copyright 4K Zone / Future) I decided to start my testing with some soccer, to see how these affordable Samsungs could handle the fast-paced action. BBC iPlayer is running a classic World Cup channel at the moment with tons of match highlights from previous World Cups so I used that as my test. You may like I'd recommend mini-LED TVs over OLED for your big-screen World Cup watch party here's why The best mini-LED TVs for all budgets, tested by our experts I compared Amazon's Ember QLED and LED TVs side-by-side here's my pick

I set both TVs to Standard mode, as I find it to be the best mode for sports viewing, and set motion settings to Blur reduction 0 and judder reduction to 3, as Ive found these to be effective with Samsungs TVs in the past.

Throughout the various highlights I watched, which included Italy vs France
in the infamous 2006 final, both TVs demonstrated solid motion handling, though the M80H was prone to some judder no matter what settings. As players frantically cleared the ball down the field and the camera followed, both TVs only showed minimal judder with no obvious artifacts. Judder reduction could be turned up to 5 before any artifacts, such as the ghosting of the ball, appeared. Get daily insight, inspiration and deals in your inbox Sign up for breaking news, reviews, opinion, top tech deals, and more. Contact me with news and offers from other Future brands Receive email from us on behalf of our trusted partners or sponsors By submitting your information you agree to the Terms & Conditions and Privacy Policy and are aged 16 or over.

As for actual picture quality, the QN80H was the most impactful. It was much brighter with bolder colors which meant the player's uniforms really popped
on screen. The green of the field was also more eye-catching on the QN80H, again due to its higher perceived brightness. The M80Hs picture did have a natural look to it though, with the green of the field looking more true-to-life. The same was true with the player's skin tones. Still, the
QN80H had the more visually engaging picture.

New for Samsung in 2026 is the AI Football Mode, and while I dont typically use AI picture enhancements, I gave it a shot. Not only did brighten the picture for both TVs, it also sharpened textures and made colors that bit
more vibrant. It was bordering on artificial at times, but it was impressive nonetheless. The most impressive part was what it did for the commentary. The AI Football Mode brought the speech of the commentator to the forefront of
the TV, making it crystal clear and it did so without affecting the quality, as Ive found can happen with some AI Voice modes on various TVs Ive tested.

Throughout my testing though, one thing became very obvious: the M80H was prone to reflections, even during bright scenes. In fact, for a mini-LED, it looked very dim, especially next to the QN80H. What to read next I saw Hisenses new mid-range mini-LED TV, and it has one key upgrade The best Samsung TV for all budgets, tested by our reviewers The best TVs for sport
for all budgets Bright scenes and bright room viewing The Samsung QN80H (right) demonstrates much brighter highlights than the Samsung M80H (left) (Image credit: Future) Measuring both TVs brightness, focusing on SDR and HDR fullscreen brightness as these will be relevant for the World Cup, the QN80H clocked in at 634 nits HDR and 325 nits SDR fullscreen brightness (in
Standard Mode). The M80H on the other hand clocked in at 179 nits SDR and 269 nits HDR fullscreen brightness, also in Standard Mode.

Elsewhere, the M80H clocked 252 nits HDR peak brightness in Movie mode and
259 nits peak HDR brightness in Filmmaker Mode, which across the board are disappointing results. The QN80H on the other hand clocked in 1,152 nits and 1,149 nits peak HDR brightness in Movie and Filmmaker Mode respectively: more in-line with what I expect.

These brightness measurements go some way to explain why the M80H struggled with reflections in our brightly lit testing rooms. Testing out some brighter scenes with these TVs, the brightness gap really showed. Scenes of snow from the Spears & Munsil HDR footage looked more vibrant and impactful on the QN80H, with whites looking much brighter compared to the M80H.

In another scene, as a lightly-colored tree is hit by the sun, the M80H
showed signs of clipping (where detail is lost in brighter scenes). Any
cracks or marks in the trees bark were impossible to see, whereas the QN80H did a much better job maintaining these details. This was using the 1,000
nits HDR10 footage from Spears & Munsil , my go-to footage for all TVs. While the M80H delivered some bright highlights well, such as a sunset, the QN80H was obviously better. Movie viewing While both TVs demonstrated a clouding effect, the QN80H's (right) local dimming meant darker scenes looked much better on it, including the challenging dimness of The Batman (Image credit: Warner Bros / Future) I next tested both TVs using reference 4K Blu-rays I
use for testing TVs. My first port of call was to effectively torture test them with The Batman , a dark movie with low brightness that Ive found can be a real banana skin for some TVs, particularly cheaper mini-LED and QLED.

One thing I found was that each TV benefitted from different picture modes to the other. The M80H needed to be in Movie mode (Filmmaker mode was too dim) and the QN80H needed to be in its Filmmaker Mode (its movie mode was too bright for some dark scenes). With these settings in place, both TVs demonstrated solid contrast, but the QN80Hs brighter highlights meant high contrast scenes looked more dynamic.

I did find that the M80H had a more natural contrast though, with its lower brightness suiting the dim nature of The Batman . It did however show signs
of black crush, where details in Batmans suit were lost when he was in
shadow.

The M80H did struggle in dark conditions as it doesnt have a local dimming setting, whereas the QN80H does. This meant that during dark scenes, such as Batman in the subway, a clouding effect was present, with the backlight showing in dark areas, indicating poor screen uniformity. The QN80Hs black levels were much more accurate. The QN80H's colors are more vibrant than the M80H's, perfect for animated movies like The Wild Robot (Image credit:
Future) I next moved onto colorful scenes and the QN80H demonstrated more vibrant colors. In The Sound of Music , where Maria and the children are at a market stall, the fruits and vegetables on display were bolder and brighter
on the QN80H. They did look accurate on the M80H and had a nice color depth
to them, but lacked that visual punch Id expect from this scene. Its the same story with The Wild Robot too: more dynamic colors on the QN80H, but a nice authenticity on the M80H. Ultimately though, the animation deserved the much bolder QN80H.

Strangely, for colorful scenes, the picture modes were switched on the two TVs. The M80H suddenly looked much brighter in Filmmaker Mode, whereas the QN80H suited the more vibrant Movie mode. The other modes didnt look bad, but the vibrant colors all needed more vibrancy. An opportune time The Samsung QN90F (pictured) was 2025's 4K mini-LED flagship and it's available for cheap (Image credit: Future) In terms of which TV Id recommend, its the QN80H. The M80H does produce some natural images, but its just not as good for movies as the QN80H and it doesnt have the QN80Hs motion handling or brightness. But, theres a third option to consider: the QN90F I mentioned in the intro.

As the QN90F is a year old, its prices have dropped significantly. In fact, its cheaper than the QN80H. A 55-inch QN80H costs $1,299 / 1,299 / AU$1,795, while a 55-inch QN90F sits at $1,299 / 999 in the US and UK (sadly its out of stock in Australia). And with Prime Day starting partway through the World
Cup (it runs from June 23-26), there's no better time to pick one up.

The M80H is a tempting option at $699 / 799 / AU$1,199, but this is a situation where its worth investing the extra. If you have the option, the QN90F is the obvious choice, but if you dont, the QN80H is easily the better option.

You could also consider TCL and Hisenses TVs I mentioned above, as 2025
models like the TCL QM7K/C7K are still around for cheap prices. If you want a Samsung mini-LED though, go with the choices I listed above. Today's best Samsung QN90F Neo QLED 4K Vision AI Smart TV (2025) deals 629 569 View Deal 599 View Deal 1,199 699 View Deal Show more We check over 250 million
products every day for the best prices Today's best Samsung QN80H Neo QLED 4K Smart TV deals 999 View Deal 999 View Deal 999 View Deal Show more We check over 250 million products every day for the best prices Today's best Samsung M80H Mini LED 4K TV deals 729 View Deal 799 View Deal 799 View Deal Show more We check over 250 million products every day for the best prices Thinking of buying a new TV? Try our TV size and model finder! You tell it how far you
sit from your TV, we'll tell you what size to buy based on viewing angle advice from image quality experts, and we'll recommend our three top TVs at that size for different prices. Follow TechRadar on Google News and add us as a preferred source to get our expert news, reviews, and opinion in your feeds.



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