Samsung’s QN90D sits atop the company’s current 4K QLED TV pile, offering strong picture quality and excellent gaming performance. It isn't necessarily the best option in Samsung's lineup, however. After all, Samsung also makes 4K OLED TVs like the S95D (an Editors' Choice winner) and 8K LED TVs like the QN900D. Priced at $2,699 for the 65-inch version we tested, the QN90D costs a bit less than the same-size S95D ($3,399.99) and half as much as the QN900D ($4,999), and it's available in far more screen sizes ranging from 43 to 98 inches. It’s an appealing high-end TV, though if you want to splurge on the best, we recommend the S95D for its better picture quality and more stylish design.
Editors' Note: This review is based on testing performed on the 65-inch model of the QN90D series. Apart from the screen-size difference, the $4,799.99 85-inch QN90D is identical in features, and we expect similar performance.
Design: Simple and Functional
The QN90D looks sleek and simple, with a bezel-free screen bordered by a narrow dark gray metal band around the edge. It sits on a wide hexagonal dark metal base and is held up by a relatively narrow neck on the back that gives the vague impression that the screen is floating. The lower right corner of the screen features a slight rectangular bump that holds the sensor for the remote (though the remote can also connect wirelessly to the TV through Bluetooth).
Unlike last year's flagship QN95C (and the newer 8K QN900D and S95D OLED), the QN90D has a conventional series of ports on the right side of the back of the TV instead of a separate OneConnect box that connects to the screen through a single wire. This is a standard configuration for almost all TVs aside from the aforementioned models, and isn't any less convenient than using a OneConnect box unless you want the elegance of just one wire running from the panel. Facing right on the back of the TV are four HDMI ports (one eARC), two USB ports, one Ethernet port, an optical audio output, an antenna/cable connector, and a 3.5mm EX-Link port for integrating the QN90D into a home theater system.
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The QN90D uses Samsung’s Eco Remote, the same advanced remote included with the QN900D, as well as the company’s flagship TVs from last year. It’s a simple, rectangular wand with a circular navigation pad near the top and volume and channel rockers below, along with dedicated service buttons for Amazon Prime Video, Disney+, Netflix, and Samsung TV Plus. A solar panel is on the underside of the remote, letting you power the built-in rechargeable battery by simply flipping it over and exposing it to light. A USB-C port is also on the bottom end of the remote for charging it with a cable.
Software: Still Tizen OS
Samsung’s Tizen smart TV OS drives the QN90D, like it does for all of the company’s TVs. It’s rich in features, but a bit frustrating in design. The good news is that it supports all major streaming services, including Amazon Prime Video, Apple TV, Crunchyroll, Disney+, Max, Netflix, Twitch, and YouTube. The platform also supports Apple AirPlay for streaming content from your iPad, iPhone, or Mac, and Miracast/WiDi for connecting your Windows PC to use as an external display. Amazon Alexa is also built in, and you can use the voice assistant hands-free thanks to the TV’s far-field microphone array.
Frustrations arise when you try to set different options and switch between sources outside of the smart TV’s apps. Common picture settings are buried under a few more layers of menus than most other TVs, and since the remote doesn’t have an input button, even switching to an HDMI device requires some menu diving until the interface deigns to put the device on the home screen’s recent sources bar.
Performance: Fantastic Contrast and Accurate Colors
The Samsung QN90D is a 4K TV with a 120Hz refresh rate. It supports high dynamic range (HDR) content in HDR10, HDR10+, and hybrid log gamma (HLG). Samsung continues to ignore Dolby Vision while almost every other TV manufacturer supports it. It supports Dolby Atmos for audio, though. It has an ATSC 1.0 tuner for live broadcasts, but not ATSC 3.0 for over-the-air 1080p and 4K.
We test TVs using a Klein K-10A colorimeter, a Murideo SIX-G signal generator, and Portrait Displays’ Calman software. With an SDR signal in Movie mode with all settings on default, the Q90D shows a peak brightness of 247 nits with a full-screen white field and 236 nits with an 18% white field.
With an HDR signal, peak brightness jumps to 618 nits with a full-screen white field and 1,253 nits with an 18% white field. This is actually a bit less bright than the QN95C’s levels (805 nits full-screen, 1,372 nits 18%), which itself is a little dimmer than the previous year’s QN90B (1,700 nits 18%) and much dimmer than the Hisense U8K (2,114 nits 18%, but more prone to light bloom). Regardless, it’s still quite bright, pushing well past the 1,000-nit level at which a great deal of HDR content is mastered.
Black levels are effectively perfect, which we’re seeing more often on LED TVs thanks to local dimming backlight arrays and mini-LEDs. These technologies let hundreds or even thousands of individual lights behind the LCD panel brighten, dim, and even turn off to fit the picture. The number of backlight LEDs is still far less than the total number of pixels by a magnitude of at least three, though, so some light bloom can still occur on the edges of high-contrast objects. This isn’t an issue for OLED TVs like the S95D, since OLED panel technology individually controls both color and light on a pixel-by-pixel level. The trade-off is that OLED panels aren't as bright, but the S95D still puts out plenty of light at 1,060 nits for a full-screen white field.
The above chart shows the QN90D’s color levels in Movie mode with an SDR signal compared against Rec.709 broadcast standards and with an HDR signal compared against DCI-P3 digital cinema standards. In both cases whites are spot-on, and colors are balanced even if cyans run just slightly blue. The TV covers most of the DCI-P3 color space, but not quite all of it. The S95D has a wider color gamut, exceeding DCI-P3, though its whites run just a touch cooler.
The "Lions" episode of BBC's Dynasties looks great on the QN90D. Grass on the sunny savanna looks crisp and natural, and the texture of both light, tawny fur and dark, near-black fur can be clearly seen. In a scene of a stormy evening, trees silhouetted against a dark, cloudy sky retain strong shadow and even a bit of green color among the leaves. They aren't quite as dark as they are on the S95D OLED, but it's still a striking scene as lightning flashes.
The QN90D's bright panel and strong contrast come through in the party scenes in The Great Gatsby. The cuts and textures of black suits can be clearly seen and they don't look remotely washed out, though they also don't reach quite the inky but still detailed blacks of the S95D OLED. The whites of lights and shirts really pop, and highlights are also very clear. Between the two extremes, skin tones are nicely balanced.
Gaming: Fast, With Loads of Helpful Features
The QN90D is a good TV for gaming, with a 120Hz panel that supports up to 144Hz with variable refresh rate (VRR) and AMD FreeSync Premium Pro. Using an HDFury Diva HDMI Matrix, we measured an input lag of 2.9 milliseconds in game mode. That’s well below our 10ms threshold to consider a TV to be good for gaming, though not quite as low as the QN900D’s 2ms or the S95D's sub-1ms.
The Tizen OS offers some benefits with its gaming features. Game mode provides a useful Game Bar menu that lets you quickly check game settings and confirm refresh rate and frame rate, and toggle helpful features like an on-screen crosshair. The Gaming Hub also provides access to most major game streaming services, including Amazon Luna, Nvidia GeForce Now, and Xbox Game Pass.
The QN90D has Bluetooth for pairing a gamepad with the TV, but only supports Wi-Fi 5 and not the newer Wi-Fi 6 or 6E standards, so you won’t get the absolute best streaming experience with a high-end router.
An Appealing QLED TV in Many Sizes
The Samsung QN90D is a solid TV with a wide range of screen sizes and a reasonable price (except perhaps the $15,000 98-inch model). It has excellent contrast, strong color performance, and plenty of features that will appeal to gamers. It's brighter, but not quite as visually impressive, as the S95D with its wider color gamut. But it’s a good alternative if you want a bigger (or smaller, or less-expensive-for-the-same-size) model. That said, if you're willing to spend more for a truly premium experience, we recommend an OLED TV like Samsung's S95D, our Editors' Choice. Or you can save some money and get an even brighter picture with the Hisense U8K, which isn’t as sleek and is more prone to light bloom, but has wider colors for less than half the price.
Samsung's flagship QN90D 4K QLED TV is an excellent all-around performer with loads of features and a much more appealing price than 4K OLED or 8K LED alternatives of the same size.
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