Samsung Neo QLED 4K TV QN73H

Which size for your room

The most common mistake is buying too small for the room, and the second most common is buying too big for where the sofa actually is. Measure from the sofa to where the television will go, then use Samsung's own guide:

50 inch - sit about 1.5 m (5.0 ft) away. Wall bracket pattern 200x200mm.

55 inch - sit about 1.7 m (5.5 ft) away. Wall bracket pattern 200x200mm.

65 inch - sit about 2.0 m (6.5 ft) away. Wall bracket pattern 400x300mm.

These are starting points, not rules. If the room is bright or the sofa is close, err smaller; if you watch a lot of film, err larger. Ring us and we will talk it through rather than guess.

What Neo QLED actually means

An ordinary LED television lights the whole panel from a few dozen LEDs. Neo QLED uses thousands of far smaller ones, dimmed in zones, so a bright street lamp can sit in a dark scene without lifting the black around it. Samsung call the backlight Quantum Mini LED and the zone control Ultimate Mini LED Dimming.

The picture processing is Samsung's NQ4 AI Processor. Most of what people watch is not actually 4K, so the part that matters day to day is how well it upscales ordinary broadcast television and streaming, and that is what the processor is doing.

How it sounds

20W through a two-channel system with Object Tracking Sound Lite, which moves effects across the screen. There is no Dolby Atmos on this range. It is fine for everyday watching, but if sound is the priority, a soundbar does more for the money than moving up a television does.

Q-Symphony means that if you add a Samsung soundbar later, the television's own speakers keep playing alongside it as extra channels instead of switching off.

QN73H or QN80H?

We sell both, and the honest answer is that the picture technology is the same family. What you are paying the extra for on the QN80H is sound and sockets: Dolby Atmos and 30W instead of 20W, four HDMI inputs instead of three, and the newer NQ4 AI Gen2 Processor. At 55 inches and above it also has a 100Hz panel that accepts 144Hz from a PC, where the QN73H is 50Hz throughout.

If the television is for watching television and film, the QN73H does that just as well and the money is better spent on a bigger screen. If there is a games console in the house, or you want proper sound without a soundbar, the QN80H earns the difference.

Living with it

Tizen puts live television and the apps in one place. Alexa and Bixby are built in, it works with Google Assistant, and Apple AirPlay 2 means an iPhone or Mac throws to it without an adapter. There is Bluetooth for headphones, but no headphone socket on the set itself.

The tuner is DVB-T2CS2, which means an aerial, a cable feed or a satellite dish all plug straight in with nothing extra. Three HDMI inputs, two USB, and eARC on HDMI so a soundbar can take the sound back down the same cable.

If you are wall mounting, check the bracket pattern for your size in the list above. We can supply the bracket and the HDMI cable with it.

What we would want you to know before you buy

No Dolby Vision. Samsung do not support it on any of their televisions, this range included. HDR arrives as HDR10+ instead, which every major streaming service carries, so you are not short of content. But if someone has set their heart on Dolby Vision, say so and we will point you elsewhere.

The panel is 50Hz. For television, film and ordinary console play that is no handicap at all. It is not a set for 120Hz gaming, and we would rather say so now than have you find out later.