Since its introduction in 2021, Samsung’s Neo QLED series of televisions has ranked high in its class, setting the benchmark for display quality and features. And with this year’s offering, the QN90Cmaybe it’s just upstairs.
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The set is available in 43 to 85 inches, but I tested the 55″ for the purposes of this review. The retail price of that version is $1,999although you can buy one for $500 off during the Labor Day weekend.
Recommended by ZDNET
Samsung QN90C TV
The company’s latest 4K TV features mini LEDs, a Neural Quantum Processor for 4K upscaling, and a unique Anti-Glare panel.
Out of the box, this is a great looking TV. It has a very thin design and a super-thin bezel that really makes the picture stand out. When I unboxed it, the stand also caught my eye. Instead of two legs like almost all other TVs, the QN90C is supported by one leg in the middle, similar to a computer monitor.
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Although I have to admit, setting up that stand was a bit of a hassle, so after I read the manual and started putting it together, I had to repeat the instructions because I couldn’t understand them. I consider that a bit of an inconvenience, although it’s a “one and done” kind of thing, I feel that the beautiful, premium look is ultimately worth it. The stand does wobble a bit, especially when my kids are running around the living room, but I’m never worried about the set falling over.
If inputs are a concern, the QN90C carries four HDMI ports (one eARC), all of them supporting HDMI 2.1.
Here’s a closer look at the rear ports. Artie Beaty/ZDNET
For an operating system, the set uses Samsung’s own Tizen software. This was my first experience with Tizen, and although it wasn’t as user-friendly as Roku or Google TV, I was able to navigate where I wanted to go without too much trouble.
On the display side, it is a Quantum Mini-LED, which was first introduced by Samsung in 2021. As the name implies, the LEDs here are smaller than usual, which leads to better control of the backlight. Samsung claims to take that a step further though, with microlayers inside the LEDs, which eliminate noise.
There’s support for HDR10 and HDR10+, and online reports put the brightness at around 2,000 nits – meaning it’s bright enough for most home and office environments.
My living room has a fair amount of natural light shining through where my TV sits, and I can definitely say that this display set thrives in that environment – largely due to its anti-reflection film. There are times in my daily television viewing that I have to close my blinds because of the glare, but the QN90C is bright enough to make that unnecessary. I fired up a personal favorite, Netflix stranger things, to test the display, and it was actually the one I most enjoyed seeing displayed.
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The QN90C also uses local dimming control, which takes unused power from dark areas of the screen and transfers it to brighter areas. I was impressed with how that worked here, as the dark scenes were dark as intended, but the black levels still had a contrast where things were clearly visible. Bright colors pop up beautifully, and scenes with fast action show no signs of blur.
As far as upscaling content goes Samsung has the Neural Quantum Processor on board, which uses AI to increase the depth and sharpness of content regardless of the original resolution – essentially making everything 4K. I tried it on Day Off by Ferris Bueller and absolutely loved how things turned out. I’ve had televisions where upscaling produced unnatural-looking results, but the QN90C does it well.
When it comes to sound, this set is more than enough. It supports Dolby Atmos, but even without a sound bar, I could clearly hear the dialogue of my two kids and dog. I keep closed captions on my daily TV for this reason, even when using a sound bar, and it’s nice to be able to turn that off for a while.
Like other Samsung televisions, it supports what they call object tracking, which sends sounds to the appropriate part of the screen. For example, if you are watching a movie with a racing scene, you will hear the sound of the engine roaring from left to right along with the car.
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When I started digging into the gaming parts though, I found where this television is Granted shining It has a very low input lag (less than 10ms), a 120Hz display, support for variable refresh rate, and above average Samsung’s Game Bar feature.
Holding down the pause/play button while a video game console is on brings up the menu overlay, and from there you can dig into settings like Game Picture Mode (there are six to choose from, plus two custom options), Game Motion Plus (which reduces motion blur and improves image quality), and the on-screen crosshair (with three color options).
From that bar, there’s a deeper option in game mode settings, allowing you to tune the black equalizer, choose “basic” or “advanced” for HDR, and even select on the level of judder reduction and blur reduction.
Most casual gamers won’t go into it that deep at these settings, but for serious gamers, it’s a wonderful thing to have. This is the deepest level of customization I’ve ever seen from a gaming menu. In fact, I can easily call it one of the best TV shows I’ve ever seen.
ZDNET’s buying advice
the Samsung QN90C TV there are a few minor annoyances — I’m hesitant to call it jitters and inadequacies in the installation process — but its picture quality every time and gaming features more than make up for those. If you’re looking for a premium-level TV that’s great in any environment with any type of content, keep this high on your list.
