Save 40% off one of our favorite hybrid sweep-mop robot vacuums at Amazon. Includes dynamic navigation and the base for self-emptying. Read Review
The Samsung QN90D (available at Amazon for $2,697.99) is exactly the TV we were hoping it would be, and we couldn’t be happier about it. A follow-up to one of our favorite TVs of 2023, the QN90D is similar to its predecessor in all the ways we wanted it to be, and different in a few ways we weren’t expecting. Led Tv Pcb
Recommendations are independently chosen by Reviewed's editors. Purchases made through the links below may earn us and our publishing partners a commission.
About the Samsung QN90D
What we don’t like
Should you buy the Samsung QN90D?
Less refined SDR year over year
Just like the Samsung QN90C (our current pick for the best TV for bright rooms), the QN90D is one of the brightest TVs you can buy, and one of the best for showcasing HDR movies, shows, and games. It’s also one of the best gaming TVs you can buy, too; it’s checked off nearly every feature a dedicated gamer could ask for.
Although Samsung’s Tizen-based software, Smart Hub, is free of the responsiveness issues that haunted last year’s models, we still find the navigational experience to be cumbersome. Under certain circumstances, the QN90D also has the tendency to push white and various color points toward green when the TV’s local dimming functionality is maxed out—an issue its predecessor didn’t demonstrate.
Despite these shortcomings, the QN90D is exactly what it needs to be: A top-performing mini-LED TV with plenty of upside for everyone, from casual viewers to A/V enthusiasts.
The QN90D is available in seven sizes, including a modest 43 inches and a gargantuan 98 inches.
The Samsung QN90D is available in seven sizes ranging from 43 to 98 inches. Our review unit is a 65-inch model we received on loan from Samsung.
Here’s how the series shakes out in terms of pricing:
Each size variant within a mini-LED TV series features a different amount of dimming zones. A difference in zone count could spell slight differences in how a TV performs. However, while bigger sizes in an mini-LED TV series usually feature a higher number of dimming zones, the number of zones increase proportionally to a TV’s size.
In addition, we were able to confirm that our 65-inch QN90D makes use of a VA-style panel. We can’t confirm whether or not all other sizes in the series use this panel type, too, but our assumption is that the majority of them do. This is a change in approach, as last year, the majority of the sizes in the QN90C series featured ADS-style panels.
Here’s the main takeaway: While there may be some variation, we don’t expect there to be a significant difference in performance between QN90D sizes.
The QN90D ships with the Samsung Solar Cell remote control. This convenient clicker uses light and radio waves to charge its internal battery. There’s also a built-in USB-C charging port for emergency charging, and its battery level can be monitored within the TV’s settings menu.
The QN90D comes equipped with plenty of HDMI 2.1 inputs.
A/V enthusiasts, rejoice: The QN90D is equipped with a full slate of high-bandwidth HDMI 2.1 inputs.
Here’s what you’ll find in a side-facing cutout in the back of the panel:
We perform tests in SDR and HDR to gauge things like peak brightness, color accuracy, and more.
Before testing each TV, we make sure the panel is on and receiving a continuous signal for at least 2 hours. Our 65-inch QN90D received this standard warm-up time before any readings were taken. In addition, the TV received the latest firmware updates at the time of testing. This was software version 1059.3 (otherwise referred to as 1059).
For both SDR and HDR tests, we’re using Samsung’s Filmmaker picture mode. We’ve chosen this setting because of its accuracy, but performance may vary depending on which picture mode is enabled. For example, you might experience a brighter picture with a different mode enabled, but it may negatively affect color temperature and overall color accuracy.
To get a sense of the TV’s average performance, we use a standard ANSI checkerboard pattern for most of our basic contrast tests. We also use white and black windows ranging from 2% to 100% to test how well the contrast holds up while displaying varying degrees of brightness.
Our peak brightness measurements are taken with sustained windows ranging in size from 2% to 100% (full screen) to represent the TV’s peak brightness over a sustained period of time. Specular highlights (like brief flashes of reflected light) might reach higher brightness levels, but not for sustained periods of time.
All of our tests are created with a Murideo Seven 8K signal generator and tabulated via Portrait Displays’ Calman Ultimate color calibration software.
I'll expand on our test results throughout the review, but for now, here are some key takeaways:
Before testing, I disabled the QN90D’s power-saving settings (including Brightness Optimization) to ensure that the picture was not affected by ambient light conditions. The related submenu, Power and Energy Saving, can be found in the TV’s General settings menu.
Next, I ensured that the QN90D’s Intelligent Mode settings (including Adaptive Picture) were disabled.
During testing, the TV’s Picture Clarity Settings were disabled, along with Contrast Enhancer and Film Mode. Color Tone was kept at its default setting of Warm2.
In HDR, Local Dimming and Peak Brightness were set to High. HDR Tone Mapping setting was set to Static.
For SDR tests, we conducted two rounds of testing: One round with Local Dimming kept at its default of Standard, and another round with Local Dimming set to High. Gamma was kept at BT.1886, Auto HDR Remastering was disabled, and Brightness was held at 24.
The QN90D's dazzlingly bright specular highlights is one of the biggest reasons why HDR content looks so good on it.
I’ve always associated Samsung’s Neo QLED lineup with one thing: top-level HDR performance. The format is all about taking advantage of bright, high-contrast displays in order to render a picture as close as possible to the creator’s intent. In recent years, Samsung’s top-shelf LED TVs have been among the brightest—a big part of why they’ve excelled at showcasing HDR content. I’m happy to report that the QN90D lives up to its namesake.
The QN90D is about as bright as the QN90C: HDR highlights top out at just over 2,000 nits in Filmmaker mode. It’s easy to see the appeal of HDR when small pockets of the picture are able to get this bright, as everything from a shimmer of a sunbeam to the twinkle of a streetlight pops off the screen. Save for a bit of over brightening as the TV approaches peak white, the QN90D tracks EOTF brilliantly in Filmmaker mode, allowing for finer details in the brightest regions (cloud coverage in front of a beaming sun, for example).
Average picture brightness in HDR is fantastic, too, for those days where a weekend matinee sounds better than a nighttime movie date. Between the scintillating highlights and the ample full-field brightness, the QN90D is a safe pick if you’re concerned about the amount of sunlight in your living space.
The QN90D pairs these highlights with deep, inky black levels. There’s a touch of black level lifting when dark areas of the picture share space with bright elements, but the QN90D’s mini-LED array and local dimming software do a remarkable job keeping the dark stuff dark. Besides, in HDR, the TV’s bright enough that a slightly lifted black level usually doesn’t even register to the eye.
Its local dimming is an improvement over the QN90C, but not a major improvement. There are moments where the backlight is noticeable, but these moments are the result of extreme circumstances. For instance, the QN90D does an incredible job keeping cinematic black bars appropriately dark, but subtitles are liable to introduce light bloom below the frame. As with all mini-LED TVs, you’re more likely to notice bright-on-dark light bloom from an off-axis viewing position. In general, though, the QN90D has a tighter, faster control of its mini-LED zones than the QN90C, though I’m not sure it’s quite as surgical as last year’s TCL QM8.
Lastly, I’d be remiss if I didn’t talk about the QN90D’s gobsmackingly good quantum-dot color. The gamut isn’t as voluminous as the brand’s QD-OLED flagship, but for its class, there’s so much to appreciate. The out-of-the-box presentation in Filmmaker is excellent, and even though I measured some drifting towards green in white, yellow, and cyan, I fully expect just about everyone to find the QN90D’s color to be one of its best qualities.
There’s no doubt about it: Folks who are chasing the brightest, purest color (and the fullest DCI-P3 gamut) are better off spending on a QD-OLED. But as far as flagship LEDs go, the QN90D paints with one of the prettiest palettes.
Samsung Gaming Hub is just one of many features that are sure to please casual and dedicated gamers alike.
The QN90D is one of the best gaming TVs you can buy this year. It’s an especially good choice for dedicated gamers who plan on connecting several devices to their next TV, as all four of its inputs are high-bandwidth HDMI 2.1. If you own an Xbox Series X, a PlayStation 5, and another gaming or streaming device, you’ll be able to connect them all without having to pick and choose which ones get the fully optimized ports.
What does “fully optimized” mean for gamers? The QN90D supports 4K console gaming at 120Hz, and if you happen to link up a gaming PC, the QN90D can dish out 144Hz, too. You’re getting Auto Low Latency Mode (ALLM) and Variable Refresh Rate (VRR) with AMD FreeSync Premium Pro. While in game, you can quickly access picture- and performance-related settings by calling up a quick menu called Game Bar. These days, this style of gaming menu is standard on most high-end TVs, but I dig Samsung’s take on it. From Game Bar, you can monitor the current state of the frame rate, VRR and HDR, as well as make adjustments to the game’s presentation.
Samsung’s cloud gaming platform, Gaming Hub, is back again for this year, too. I hope to get more time with Gaming Hub as I evaluate Samsung’s new TVs throughout the year, but it’s in a better state as we enter its third year as a standard feature in select models than it was when it initially rolled out.
Gaming Hub is a section of the QN90D’s smart platform that serves as a jumping-off point for various cloud gaming services: Xbox and Nvidia GeForce Now, just to name a couple. All you need is a compatible Bluetooth controller. We use a first-party Xbox controller in the lab, but plenty will work. Samsung even sells its own officially licensed Gaming Hub controller.
Most importantly, the QN90D looks and feels fantastic as a gaming TV, thanks to its super-low input lag and bright, responsive display. Newer, HDR-compatible games in particular will look great, day or night.
The panel is slim and free of bulk, but unfortunately, it has the tendency to wobble when jostled.
From a design standpoint, there’s very little that differentiates the QN90D from the QN90C. That’s not a bad thing.
At just over an inch thick, the panel is handsomely narrow. Even more impressive is the lack of a bulky midsection. A heavy plate serves as the TV’s base below the center of the panel. The metallic, polygonal slab connects to the back of the TV by way of a sturdy, plastic neck. Given the height of the neck, there’s plenty of clearance for a soundbar.
Everything about the design approach feels engineered for a clean, precise look. My only complaint lies in the TV’s wobble. Given the size of our review unit and the manner in which the stand is connected, there’s some serious wobbling going on whenever you touch the panel. Just something to keep in mind.
This year's Smart Hub software is responsive but frustrating to use due to its complex menu organization and occasional unpredictable behavior.
First, let’s talk about what works. There’s a wide range of downloadable apps to cover most—if not all—of your streaming needs. Crucially, the software itself is speedy and responsive, so navigation is fluid. This hasn’t always been the case in recent years, even among Samsung’s higher-tier TVs, and it’s a significant improvement over its predecessor.
But responsive controls are only half of the story. The other half is made up of the finer details: how apps and menu options are organized, for example, and the countless design choices that successfully or unsuccessfully communicate information. It’s in these details where you’ll find most of the QN90D’s pain points.
From the moment the initial setup process is complete, Smart Hub is determined to get you to watch live TV—namely, the free, ad-supported channels offered within the Samsung TV Plus app. Within seconds of hitting the home screen for the first time, Samsung TV Plus had already launched itself, an episode of the show Medium beaming loudly into the room. The only way to ensure that this doesn’t happen is to either disable/delete the app entirely, or to change the TV’s settings so that it returns to the last-used input when it’s powered on.
Even if you disable Samsung TV Plus, Smart Hub perpetually redirects you to the last app you used within 30 to 60 seconds of inactivity. Is this the least convenient thing in the world? Not by a long shot. But it contributes to an ever present feeling that Smart Hub is trying to tug you in a direction you didn’t ask to go.
Sponsored content is splayed across the Smart Hub home screen, but that’s the case for most mainstream streaming platforms, Apple TV and Roku notwithstanding. Smart Hub’s shortcomings are by no means a dealbreaker, but were it up to me, I’d dedicate one of the QN90D’s inputs to a daily-driver streaming box.
Thanks to its razor-sharp accuracy in HDR, the QN90D is an incredible TV for showcasing HDR content, like 4K Blu-rays, digital film releases, and popular, high-budget streaming shows. For the most part, it’s fine for casual viewing, too: daytime talk shows, the nightly news, and reruns of Diners, Drive-Ins and Dives.
If you’re anything like me, you’re looking for an accurate picture regardless of whether or not your TV is receiving an HDR signal. For instance, I’ve got a library of Blu-rays that predate HDR and I still want them to look as close as possible to the creator’s intent. If I stream a show on Netflix that’s only available in 1080p—which is most of them—I want it to look as accurate as possible, too.
By default, Filmmaker mode on the QN90D sets the TV’s local dimming to Standard. For the best possible picture, Samsung recommends keeping Local Dimming set to Standard, and it’s right: Filmmaker mode is at its best with the TV’s local dimming reined in. It’s not quite as good as last year’s QN90C with these settings being equal, but it still features an accurate, pleasing expression.
Many people consider a high-end, mini-LED TV like the QN90D not only because of its ability to get brighter than most of its peers, but because it can do so without sacrificing that much in the way of accuracy. We saw this last year with the QN90C: Letting Local Dimming ride on its highest setting during SDR content had no perceptible effect on grayscale tracking and color accuracy, but it allowed the QN90C to top out at over 800 nits of peak brightness in SDR. Yes, this lifted black levels, but the added brightness was enough that, to my eye, toggling it to High was worth it, at least during the day. With Local Dimming kept to Standard, the QN90C peaked around 300 nits—perfectly fine for dim-to-dark environments, but not quite what I’d be looking for in a brighter-than-average room.
This year is a little different. The QN90D’s white point is closer to green than it ought to be, but not distractingly so when the TV’s Local Dimming setting is kept at Standard, its default in Filmmaker mode. With Local Dimming set to High, the green tint is more apparent. When measuring the grayscale, the error worsens as the QN90D approaches peak white, but it has an effect on color, too, as some color points—cyan, for example—drift significantly toward green.
To be perfectly clear: This amount of error is only really noticeable if you know what you’re looking for. I noticed it mostly during darker, blue-tinted scenes, like the opening Voight-Kampff test sequence in Blade Runner: The Final Cut, or the introduction to the cave paintings in the first act of Prometheus.
Samsung doesn’t appear to be changing its tune anytime soon when it comes to Dolby Vision. As has been the case for some time now, even the highest-end Samsung TVs snub Dolby Vision in favor of the royalty-free alternative, HDR10+. Not totally surprising, considering Samsung was one of the three founders of HDR10+ Technologies—alongside Panasonic and 20th Century Fox—who promote the HDR10+ standard.
Would that stop me from buying this TV? No way. While you’re still more likely to come across Dolby Vision content in the wild—that is, on streaming platforms, 4K Blu-rays, and on select Xbox titles—HDR10+ is a growing format, and one that’s nice to have in your back pocket.
I suspect the crowd that would truly miss this format is already aware of its absence. It’s understandable to want it out of your next high-end TV, but it’s also understandable to not care.
The Samsung QN90D has the chops to be one of the best mini-LED TVs of the year.
I certainly have my quibbles: With local dimming at its most aggressive, the SDR performance isn’t as refined as it was on last year’s model. The Smart Hub experience is in big need of a shakeup. The dang thing wobbles every now and again.
But I’m not sure how many of those points truly matter to the average shopper exploring the high-end, mini-LED class, even among A/V enthusiasts. If you want to splash out on a bright, top-performing TV that offers a bounty of features for gaming and beyond, the QN90D is one of the best options available this year. My quibbles—given their nature—can’t really touch that.
The more interesting question isn’t, “should I buy the QN90D,” but rather, “should I buy the QN90D instead of saving a ridiculous amount of money on the year-old QN90C?”
I’m already at work on addressing that very question, and I’ll update this review when I’m ready to report my conclusion. For now, I’m prepared to call the QN90D one of the best LED TVs of the year, and one that’ll serve you well for years to come. You just might want to plug a streaming box into it.
The Samsung QN90D is one of the best TVs of the year for showcasing bright, HDR movies and games.
Prices were accurate at the time this article was published but may change over time. The product experts at Reviewed have all your shopping needs covered. Follow Reviewed on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, TikTok, or Flipboard for the latest deals, product reviews, and more.
Prices were accurate at the time this article was published but may change over time.
The product experts at Reviewed have all your shopping needs covered. Follow Reviewed on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, TikTok, or Flipboard for the latest deals, product reviews, and more.
Michael Desjardin graduated from Emerson College after having studied media production and screenwriting. He specializes in tech for Reviewed, but also loves film criticism, weird ambient music, cooking, and food in general.
Our team is here for one purpose: to help you buy the best stuff and love what you own. Our writers, editors, and lab technicians obsess over the products we cover to make sure you're confident and satisfied. Have a different opinion about something we recommend? Email us and we'll compare notes.
Colour Tv Kit Price ©2024 Reviewed, a division of Gannett Satellite Information Network LLC. All rights reserved. Recommendations are independently chosen by Reviewed's editors. Purchases made through the links below may earn us and our publishing partners a commission.