Samsung QN90D/QN90DD QLED Review (QN43QN90DAFXZA, QN50QN90DAFXZA, QN55QN90DAFXZA, QN65QN90DAFXZA, QN75QN90DAFXZA, QN85QN90DAFXZA, QN98QN90DAFXZA) (2024)

Curved No

The Samsung QN90D is identical style-wise to last year's Samsung QN90C/QN90CD QLED. It has a simplistic design with thin bezels and uses a centrally mounted stand. It looks like a premium TV overall.

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Uniformity Pictures N/A

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The hexagonal central stand is made of metal and doesn't take up much space, so you don't need a large table to place the TV on. The TV wobbles quite a bit when pushed and takes a while to recover, but the stand doesn't cause any major problems.

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Wall Mount VESA 400x300

The back of the TV has a nice textured design. There are grooves that can be used to guide wires into the TV's stand to help with cable management. Unfortunately, the inputs are housed in a recessed cutout, making them hard to access when the TV is mounted flush to the wall.

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Borders 0.31" (0.8 cm)

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Max Thickness 1.02" (2.6 cm)

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The Samsung QN90D has great build quality. The border and stand are made of metal, and the rest of the TV is plastic. However, the TV has some weight to it, making it feel solidly built. Unfortunately, the back panel has a lot of flex, and the area around the VESA mounting points bulges out enough that you have to press it in to make the body flush with the mounting points.

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Contrast

Native Contrast

The Samsung QN90D has fantastic contrast with local dimming on 'High.' The TV's native contrast ratio is mediocre, but its effective local dimming feature provides very deep blacks in a dark room, and they stay deep when bright highlights are also on screen.

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The TV has very good blooming performance, but there's some noticeable blooming around bright objects and subtitles when displayed against a black background.

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Local Dimming

Backlight

Dimming Zones Count Of Tested TV

The TV has decent lighting zone transitions. Unfortunately, the leading edge of bright highlights when they quickly move across the screen is visibly dimmer, and there's very noticeable haloing.

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Due to the TV's higher refresh rate in Game Mode, its zone transitions are a bit better than in other picture modes. Unfortunately, there's a bit more blooming when the TV is set to Game Mode.

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Hallway Lights (~1950 cd/m²)

Yellow Skyscraper (~700 cd/m²)

Landscape Pool (~300 cd/m²)

Peak 2% Window

Peak 10% Window

Peak 25% Window

Peak 50% Window

Peak 100% Window

Sustained 2% Window

Sustained 10% Window

Sustained 25% Window

Sustained 50% Window

Sustained 100% Window

Automatic Brightness Limiting (ABL)

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Hallway Lights (~1950 cd/m²)

Yellow Skyscraper (~700 cd/m²)

Landscape Pool (~300 cd/m²)

Peak 2% Window

Peak 10% Window

Peak 25% Window

Peak 50% Window

Peak 100% Window

Sustained 2% Window

Sustained 10% Window

Sustained 25% Window

Sustained 50% Window

Sustained 100% Window

Automatic Brightness Limiting (ABL)

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600 Nit Tracking Delta

1000 Nit Tracking Delta

4000 Nit Tracking Delta

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Real Scene Peak Brightness

Peak 2% Window

Peak 10% Window

Peak 25% Window

Peak 50% Window

Peak 100% Window

Sustained 2% Window

Sustained 10% Window

Sustained 25% Window

Sustained 50% Window

Sustained 100% Window

Automatic Brightness Limiting (ABL)

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Wide Color Gamut

DCI P3 xy

DCI P3 uv

Rec 2020 xy

Rec 2020 uv

The Samsung QN90D has a great color gamut. It has fantastic coverage of the commonly used DCI-P3 color space, but some colors are a bit undersaturated and off the mark. The TV has decent coverage of the wider Rec. 2020 color space used in some films and nature documentaries, but highly saturated greens and cyans are inaccurate and very undersaturated; other colors are also off the mark.

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1,000 cd/m² DCI P3 Coverage ITP

10,000 cd/m² Rec 2020 Coverage ITP

White Luminance

Red Luminance

Green Luminance

Blue Luminance

Cyan Luminance

Magenta Luminance

Yellow Luminance

The TV has outstanding color volume. It displays a wide range of colors at high luminance levels, and dark, saturated colors are displayed well due to its fantastic contrast.

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White Balance dE

Color dE

Gamma

Color Temperature

Picture Mode

Color Temp Setting

Gamma Setting

The Samsung QN90D has okay pre-calibration accuracy. Gamma is close to our target of 2.2, but bright scenes are too bright, and dark scenes are a bit too dark. The TV's white balance is mediocre, with blues underrepresented in all shades of gray and reds overrepresented in brighter grays. The color temperature is much warmer than our target of 6500K, and most colors are inaccurate across the board.

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White Balance dE

Color dE

Gamma

Color Temperature

White Balance Calibration

Color Calibration

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50% Std. Dev.

50% DSE

5% Std. Dev.

5% DSE

The Samsung QN90D has decent gray uniformity. The corners of the screen are darker than the center, and there's some very noticeable dirty screen effect towards the middle of the screen with large areas of uniform color. On a very dark or near-black screen, its uniformity is excellent, but the edges are a bit brighter than the center.

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Std. Dev.

Native Std. Dev.

The TV has superb black uniformity with local dimming enabled. Blacks are deep and uniform across the screen, with only a bit of blooming around bright objects on a dark background.

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Color Washout

Color Shift

Brightness Loss

Black Level Raise

Gamma Shift

The Samsung QN90D has an okay viewing angle. The image is consistent when viewed from a slight angle, but there's color shifting, color washout, and brightness loss the more you move off-center. This makes it a poor choice for a wide seating arrangement.

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Screen Finish

Total Reflections

Indirect Reflections

Calculated Direct Reflections

The TV has incredible reflection handling. Its semi-gloss screen finish significantly reduces the intensity of direct reflections and does a great job of reducing the intensity of indirect reflections.

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100% Black to 50% Gray

50% Gray to 100% White

100% Black to 50% Red

50% Red to 100% Red

100% Black to 50% Green

50% Green to 100% Green

100% Black to 50% Blue

50% Blue to 100% Blue

The Samsung QN90D has decent HDR native gradient handling. Most colors have minimal banding, but dark grays and brighter greens do have some noticeable banding in them, and brighter blues have very visible banding.

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Smoothing

Detail Preservation

The TV has alright low-quality content smoothing. It does a good job with preserving detail, but it only does an okay job at actually smoothing out artifacts, so there's still visible macro blocking present in low-bitrate content.

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Subpixel Layout

Type LED

Sub-Type

The TV uses a BGR (Blue-Green-Red) subpixel layout instead of the traditional RGB layout. For video or gaming content, this doesn't cause any issues, but for PC monitor use, it can be a problem as it impacts the text clarity, although not everyone notices this.

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80% Response Time

100% Response Time

The Samsung QN90D has an excellent response time for minimal blur behind fast-moving objects. Unfortunately, the response time is slower when coming out of dark states, so there's some noticeable black smearing in dark transitions.

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Flicker-Free

PWM Dimming Frequency

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Optional BFI

Min Flicker For 60 fps

60Hz For 60 fps

120Hz For 120 fps

Min Flicker for 60 fps in Game Mode

This TV has an optional backlight strobing feature, commonly known as black frame insertion (BFI). This feature reduces blur caused by the TV's fast response time, otherwise known as persistence blur. It works at both 60Hz and 120Hz, but the timing is a bit off, causing a slightly duplicated image.

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Motion Interpolation (30 fps)

Motion Interpolation (60 fps)

This TV has an optional motion interpolation feature to improve the clarity of motion. It does a good job at smoothing out slower scenes, with only some minor artifacts present. In faster-moving scenes, it can't keep up, and there are distracting artifacts and haloing.

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Frame Hold Time @ 24 fps

Frame Hold Time @ 60 fps

Due to the TV's quick response time, there's some noticeable stutter when watching movies or TV shows, and it's most apparent in slow panning shots.

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Judder-Free 24p

Judder-Free 24p via 60p

Judder-Free 24p via 60i

Judder-Free 24p via Native Apps

The TV automatically removes judder from all sources when watching movies or shows that are in 24p, even if they're in a 60Hz signal, like from a cable box.

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Native Refresh Rate

Variable Refresh Rate

HDMI Forum VRR

FreeSync

G-SYNC Compatible

4k VRR Maximum

4k VRR Minimum

1080p VRR Maximum

1080p VRR Minimum

1440p VRR Maximum

1440p VRR Minimum

VRR + Local Dimming Yes

The Samsung QN90D supports all three types of variable refresh rate (VRR) technology to reduce screen tearing. It works well across a wide refresh rate range and supports sources with Low-Frame-Compensation (LFC), which ensures your games remain nearly tear-free even when your frame rate drops very low.

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1080p @ 60Hz

1080p @ 60Hz Outside Game Mode

1080p @ 120Hz

1080p @ 144Hz

1440p @ 60Hz

1440p @ 120Hz

1440p @ 144Hz

4k @ 60Hz

4k @ 60Hz + 10-Bit HDR

4k @ 60Hz @ 4:4:4

4k @ 60Hz Outside Game Mode

4k @ 60Hz With Interpolation

4k @ 120Hz

4k @ 144Hz

8k @ 60Hz

This TV has incredibly low input lag when set into Game Mode, which ensures a very responsive gaming experience with very little delay between your actions with your controller or mouse and the action on-screen.

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Resolution 4k

480p @ 59.94Hz (Widescreen)

720p @ 59.94Hz

1080p @ 60Hz @ 4:4:4

1080p @ 120Hz

1080p @ 144Hz

1440p @ 60Hz

1440p @ 120Hz

1440p @ 144Hz

4k @ 60Hz

4k @ 60Hz @ 4:4:4

4k @ 120Hz

4k @ 120Hz @ 4:4:4

4k @ 144Hz

8k @ 30Hz or 24Hz

8k @ 60Hz

The Samsung QN90D supports most common resolutions up to 4k @ 144Hz. Chroma 4:4:4 signals are displayed properly with all supported resolutions when the TV's input label is set to 'PC,' which is important for text clarity. Unfortunately, the TV can't display 1440p @ 144Hz natively with both AMD and NVIDIA graphics cards and instead displays a scaled 4k image. 1440p @ 120Hz works without issue on AMD graphics cards, the Series X, and the PS5. On NVIDIA graphics cards, the TV doesn't display a native 1440p @ 120Hz image and instead displays a scaled 4k image.

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Auto Low Latency Mode (ALLM)

4k @ 120Hz

1440p @ 120Hz

1080p @ 120Hz

HDR

VRR

The TV is fully compatible with everything the PS5 offers, like 1440p @ 120Hz and 4k @ 120Hz, as well as HDMI Forum VRR. It also supports Auto Low Latency Mode, so you don't have to worry about manually switching to Game Mode to get the lowest input lag.

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Auto Low Latency Mode (ALLM)

4k @ 120Hz

1440p @ 120Hz

1080p @ 120Hz

HDR

VRR

The TV is fully compatible with almost everything the Xbox Series X|S offers, including 1440p @ 120Hz, 4k @ 120Hz, HDMI Forum VRR, and FreeSync Premium Pro. It also supports Auto Low Latency Mode, so you don't have to worry about manually switching to Game Mode to get the lowest input lag. Unfortunately, Dolby Vision isn't supported on the TV, so gaming in Dolby Vision isn't possible.

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HDR10

HDR10+

Dolby Vision

HLG

HDMI 2.0 Full Bandwidth

HDMI 2.1 Class Bandwidth

CEC Yes

HDCP 2.2 Yes (HDMI 1,2,3,4)

ATSC Tuner

USB 3.0

Variable Analog Audio Out No

Wi-Fi Support Yes (2.4 GHz, 5 GHz)

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HDMI 4

USB 2

Digital Optical Audio Out 1

Analog Audio Out 3.5mm 0

Analog Audio Out RCA 0

Component In 0

Composite In 0

Tuner (Cable/Ant) 1

Ethernet 1

DisplayPort 0

IR In 0

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ARC/eARC Port

eARC: Dolby Atmos Over Dolby Digital Plus

eARC: Dolby Digital Plus 7.1

eARC: LPCM 7.1 Over Dolby MAT

eARC: Dolby TrueHD 7.1

eARC: DTS:X Over DTS-HD MA

eARC: DTS-HD Master Audio 7.1

eARC: LPCM Channels (Bitstream)

ARC: Dolby Digital 5.1

ARC: DTS 5.1

Optical: Dolby Digital 5.1

Optical: DTS 5.1

The TV has eARC support, which allows it to pass uncompressed high-quality audio from a connected source to your home theater system or soundbar. Unfortunately, it doesn't support any DTS formats commonly used on Blu-rays.

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Low-Frequency Extension

Std. Dev. @ 70

Std. Dev. @ 80

Std. Dev. @ Max

Max

Dynamic Range Compression

The TV has a decent frequency response. There isn't much bass at all, but the TV gets quite loud. The sound is well-balanced and dialogue is clear at most listening levels, but the sound does become unbalanced at the TV's maximum volume.

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Weighted THD @ 80

Weighted THD @ Max

IMD @ 80

IMD @ Max

The TV has good distortion performance. There's no audible distortion at moderate volume levels, but the amount of distortion does increase as you raise the volume.

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Smart OS Tizen

Version 2024

Ease of Use

Smoothness

Time Taken to Select YouTube

Time Taken to Change Backlight

Advanced Options

The Samsung QN90D runs the 2024 version of the Tizen OS, and it's fast and easy to use. Unfortunately, there's a problem when frequently switching input labels. The label will change, but the TV remains stuck on the older type of input.To fix this, you can toggle back and forth between labels or turn the TV on/off. The TV also has a rare issue where colors are randomly oversaturated, but this can be fixed by power cycling the TV.

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Ads

Opt-out

Suggested Content in Home

Opt-out of Suggested Content

Like most TVs on the market, it has ads throughout its interface, and although you can disable targeted ads, there's no option to disable them completely.

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App Selection

App Smoothness

Cast Capable

USB Drive Playback

USB Drive HDR Playback

HDR in Netflix

HDR in YouTube

The Samsung QN90D has a great selection of apps, so it's easy to find your favorite content. You can also cast content from your phone onto the TV or play videos from a USB stick.

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Size

Voice Control

CEC Menu Control

Other Smart Features

Remote App Samsung SmartThings

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A single button is located at the bottom right of the TV. You can use it to power the TV on/off, change channels, adjust the volume, and switch inputs. You can control the TV hands-free with your voice using the TV's built-in microphone, but you can also turn the microphone off using a small switch located on the bottom right of the TV.

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Power Consumption 59 W

Power Consumption (Max) 184 W

Firmware 1066

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