PerfectRec’s gaming score measures a TV's performance when it comes to playing video games. It is based on several factors that can significantly impact the quality of the gaming experience, including screen response time, input lag, and refresh rate. Screen response time is a critical factor that determines how quickly the TV can transition from one color to the next, while input lag measures the delay between the gaming console output and the TV display. Refresh rate refers to the number of times per second that the TV displays a new frame, which can impact the smoothness of the gaming experience. The gaming score also takes into account two other features: local dimming in gaming mode, which can enhance contrast and picture quality, and black frame insertion, which can reduce screen brightness and create a smoother gaming experience.

The Samsung Q80C excels in upscaling lower resolution content, making it suitable for news and talk shows that might not be in high definition. Its SDR brightness is also very good, ensuring that typical TV programs are displayed with clarity and appropriate brightness, even in most lighting conditions.

The Samsung Q80C boasts vibrant colors straight out of the box, making the varied and rich palettes typically found in cartoons and animations pop without the need for adjustment. Its wide color gamut ensures that the full spectrum of colors in animation is well-represented, enhancing the viewing experience with bright and true-to-life colors.

PerfectRec’s bright room score is a proprietary score of a television's performance in a bright environment, taking into account the following factors: screen brightness, reflections, and color volume. A higher score indicates better TV performance in bright conditions, minimizing glare and producing a more pleasant viewing experience. Brightness is crucial in how well the image displays in direct sunlight, and low reflections reduce glare. Color volume contributes to color vibrancy and depth, which are vital in a bright environment.

The Samsung Q80C offers good picture quality primarily because it has a high contrast ratio and effective local dimming, which enable it to display deep blacks, and its HDR brightness is sufficiently high to make HDR content look impactful. Furthermore, the TV's out-of-the-box colors are rated fair, indicating that colors will appear natural without much adjustment, and it has a good color volume, ensuring a wide range of colors can be displayed at different luminance levels.

The Samsung Q80C may be considered fair for watching sports due to its good response time, which is important for clear motion, but it has a poor reflections score, meaning it might not handle reflections well, making it less suitable for bright rooms. Gray uniformity is only somewhat important, but it's worth mentioning since any imperfections in uniformity could become noticeable during sports with large areas of uniform color, like a soccer field.

The Samsung Q80C (LCD) shows weaker performance in contrast and local dimming, which are crucial for deep blacks and shadow details in movies, and while it has good color accuracy out of the box and a wide color volume, its viewing angles are limited, affecting the picture quality when viewed from the side.