Should You Buy OnePlus QLED TV? Samsung QLED TVs Vs OnePlus TV
With the demand soaring for the review of OnePlus TVs, I am here with its in-depth review. Today, we will find out whether buying OnePlus TV in front of Samsung is a prudent decision or not!
OnePlus TV comes in two 55 inches’ variants, one is Q1 and the other one is Q1 Pro. In Q1, you get two full-range 50 Watts speakers and two sub-woofers, whereas, Q1 Pro has four 50 Watts output speakers, two tweeters and two sub-woofers having a power output of 10 Watts. Q1 Pro has much better audio quality than Q1 and it also comes with a table-top stand, which goes missing in the Q1. You need to purchase that separately. The Q1 Pro has an innovative design with an integrated soundbar that slides down from behind, once the TV is switched on. Picture quality and rest specifications are similar in both these variants.
The almost bezel-less design of OnePlus TV is definitely attractive, which would surely catch the attention of all who get to lay their eyes on it. The frame of this TV is metallic, while on the back, plastic has been used. The design of the oval table-top stand, crafted out of glass and metal, is innovative, but balancing such a big screen TV on this stand from the center is definitely a risky feat. A little force from the sides makes the entire TV wobble, which does create a fear of it falling down. If kept on the table-top stand, parents having small children need to be very careful with the safety of this TV. The durability of the motorized soundbar, too, is unpredictable. Its sliding-down mechanism might get worn out with frequent use.
All the ports have been placed inside a concealed compartment box on the back, which certainly is an innovative thought from OnePlus.
In OnePlus TV, you get 4 HDMI and 3 USB ports, out of which one is USB 3.0. You also get HDMI ARC on it, through which you can connect your Home Theatre with this TV. Along with built-in Wi-Fi, you get an optical digital audio port and LAN port on this TV. This TV comes with an A+ grade VA panel and ELED backlighting. The response time is 8 ms and the contrast ratio is 6000:1.
Now, coming to its picture quality; As it is a Dolby Vision certified QLED TV, the picture quality of the 4k videos are excellent on it. This TV has decoders for HDR10, HDR10+, and HLG.
The colours on this TV are bright, punchy and deeply saturated. However, the brightness, on this TV is low in comparision to the QLED TVs from Samsung. FHD videos appear pretty good on this TV, but don't expect to see 720p videos and SD channels in the same quality, as SD channels look really bad on it. In comparision to this TV, SD channels will look way better on a 4k TV. If you mostly watch SD channels or expect a good picture upscaling while playing 720p videos, then you will be utterly disappointed as the picture upscaling capability of this TV is nil.
HD channels look good on this TV, but, a good 4k TV, too, displays HD channels in the same quality. The blacks of this TV are deep, but they cannot be compared with any OLED TV as OLED has the deepest blacks. The brightness and colour saturation of this TV is better than any 4k TV. However, people who dislike more saturated colours might not like this TV as it has wide colour gamut that produces bright saturated colours.
The viewing angle of this TV is not that good as it has a VA panel. The 60 Hz refresh rate fails to stop blur completely during fast action scenes. This TV comes with Gama Color Magic chip which improves colours and makes effort to smoothen out the videos once Ultra-smooth motion is switched on from the advanced settings of this TV. However, this smoothening process makes the video look unrealistic, which might not coincide with the taste of many.
And, because the response time of this TV is more and the refresh rate is low, it cannot be termed as perfect for gaming. But if you are using a PS4 or any other gaming console, you will be able to play games more comfortably as motion blur reduces through it.
I found this OnePlus TV a bit buggy too, as it failed to memorized some settings. The auto volume control also did not seem very effective as the volume kept on fluctuating between some channels and commercials.
This TV has Dolby Atmos in it. The audio of Q1 Pro is pretty good, which is suitable for even a medium-sized hall. However, at low frequency, the dialogues sometimes get muffled and it requires much effort to comprehend them. The audio of Q1 is also good, but it might not appeal to those, who will not compromise with anything short of cinematic audio experience.
This TV comes with Bluetooth, and you can enjoy stereo sound while listening to music on this TV.
You can also wirelessly connect your headphone or gaming controller to it.
The remote of this TV is rechargeable and it comes in a premium brushed Aluminum design. The remote has dedicated buttons for Google Assistant and Amazon Prime on it. On the right-hand side, there are volume up and down buttons. On this TV, you are also provided with a micro USB port through which you can charge this remote. However, this seems a cumbersome process for me! Charging a remote every now and then is definitely not my cup of tea. I would rather prefer a remote with batteries, which last for around a year.
The remote is somewhat too minimalistic. Neither it has any mute button nor there is a dedicated button for switching on/off the TV, which sometimes does irritate you. Though, after pairing it with Alexa, you can switch On/Off the TV, through voice command, in my opinion, these buttons are a must on any remote. You can also operate the Amazon Firestick through this remote.
This TV supports both screen mirroring and Google Chromecast, however, you might face connectivity issues while pairing some phones.
The smartness of this TV is Android-based. It comes with OnePlus own Oxygen Operating System which comes with the latest Android Pie. It has A53 QuadCore Processor and the RAM is 3GB. You get 16GB storage on this TV.
It comes with Google PlayStore from where you can download games and applications. The Oxygen UI of this TV is highly fluid and you will love browsing on it. The voice command feature, too, is highly responsive.
Right now, you will not be able to watch Netflix on it, which prima facie is certainly disappointing as 4k videos play the best on this TV and most of the 4k HDR10 or Dolby Vision contents are found on Netflix only. At present, this is a big drawback for this TV.
During my testing, Amazon Prime did not play smoothly on this TV, and it seemed buggy. The HDR10 videos on YouTube, too, don't play in their optimum clarity as all YouTube videos are compressed ones. Applications play more smoothly through Firestick or Android TV box rather than through the TV itself.
In my opinion, seeing its performance, this TV is a bit costly. At a time, when The Frame, QLED TV from Samsung, is on sale for a lesser price, giving preference to OnePlus does not seem prudent. Samsung is a pioneer in QLED technology, so right now, we cannot expect any new entrant to beat it in this field. I have closely watched The Frame TV from Samsung, I did not observe any bugs in it. And, its brightness too was better than this OnePlus TV. All applications or features that are present on it work pretty smoothly.
And the most important thing is that now Full Array DLED backlit TVs from Samsung have already been launched and their performance is superb. You get to see Local Dimming on these TVs and the blacks in these TVs are excellent. Their brightness too is way better than this OnePlus TV.
Even the ELED backlit QLED TVs from Samsung give you better picture performance than this OnePlus TV.
The overall performance of OnePlus TV seems lackluster if you place it side by side Samsung QLED TV.
The after-sales service of OnePlus is also very poor, on the other hand, we all are aware of the strong after-sales network of Samsung. If the price of this TV was around Rs 50,000 or Rs 60,000, then there would have been a valid reason to consider it in front of Samsung, but with this high cost its purchase is not justified.
OnePlus (55 inches) Q1 Series 4K Certified Android QLED TV 55Q1IN Pro
OnePlus (55 inches) Q1 Series 4K Certified Android QLED TV 55Q1 (Without Stand)
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