Samsung Q900TS 8k QLED TV Review

The Samsung Q900TS has a virtually borderless design with extremely thin bezels to make it look as if it's floating in the air. The stand is centered, and the TV is designed to sit at a slight backward angle. Overall, it's a very sleekly-designed TV that should look fantastic in any living room.

After nearly two years on the test, the uniformity issues on this TV are starting to get noticeably worse.

The brightness of this TV increased considerably between our initial measurements and the second-month measurements due to an automatic firmware update.

The stand supports the TV well but there's some slight wobble front to back. Its made of plastic, which feels a bit cheaper than the metal stand on the Samsung Q800T QLED.

Footprint of the stand: 10.4" x 12.6"

The back of the TV is textured plastic. There are tracks along the back and down the stand for cable management.

The Samsung Q900TS has extremely thin borders. Viewed from a distance, the TV gives the impression of having a completely borderless screen.

The TV is very thin and sits at an angle by design.

The Samsung Q900TS feels remarkably well-built. It's made of solid plastic and feels sturdy, with little flex and no obvious gaps or issues. There's some slight wobble back and forth, but it shouldn't be an issue.

The Samsung Q900TS has a decent contrast ratio. Its native contrast is much lower than expected from a VA panel, as a result of the added 'Ultra Viewing Angle' layer meant to improve viewing angles at the expense of contrast. Thankfully, the local dimming feature improves the contrast immensely, so it can still produce deep blacks.

SDR brightness is excellent, although it varies quite a bit with content. It's exceptionally bright with small highlights and gets dimmer with larger areas. It should perform well in bright rooms.

We measured the peak brightness after calibration using the 'Movie' Picture Mode with the Color Tone set to 'Warm2', Brightness set to 'Max', and Local Dimming set to 'High'.

If you want the brightest image possible, we achieved 1323 cd/m² using the 'Dynamic' Picture Mode with default settings and Local Dimming set to 'High'.

Update 08/04/2021: Added the real content local dimming videos.

The Samsung Q900TS uses a full-array local dimming feature. The local dimming is good but has some issues. Most notably, there's quite a bit of black crush, as small details like stars are almost completely crushed and then gradually pop back in. That said, there's not too much blooming around bright objects and subtitles look okay for the most part. However, there's a noticeable ripple as the dimming zones turn on around subtitles. As with the Samsung Q800T QLED, transitions between zones are very visible, creating a 'golf ball effect' that's noticeable with the small circle spinning in our test pattern. That said, these issues are much less noticeable with real content.

We tested local dimming on High.

Update 08/04/2021: Added the real content local dimming videos.

HDR brightness is amazing. It gets bright enough for highlights in HDR content to pop. As with SDR, there's some variation in brightness across content.

We measured the HDR peak brightness before calibration using the 'Movie' Picture Mode with Local Dimming set to ‘High’, Brightness at ‘Max’, Contrast at ‘Max’, and Picture Clarity set to ‘Off’.

If you want the brightest image possible, use 'Dynamic' Picture Mode with default settings and Local Dimming set to 'High'. We were able to get 2740 cd/m² in the 10% window using these settings.

The Samsung Q900TS has good gray uniformity, but this can vary between units. The screen is noticeably darker around the corners, and there's some slight dirty screen effect, which may be noticeable during sports games with large bright areas taking up the screen. Uniformity is much better with darker images.

We experienced a bug while testing, where the backlight bled through noticeably if left on a static screen, most notably on a 5% gray slide but sometimes with actual content as well. You can see that here.

Note: We also experienced an issue with the backlight in the same area we noticed the backlight bleed, where a section of the backlight turned off and left black spots on the screen. This went away on its own, though, and we weren't able to recreate the issue after it happened the first time.

Additionally, note that the backlight on this TV is always visible, similar to the Samsung Q800T QLED, which causes uniformity issues that aren't reflected in our scoring. In particular, the dirty screen effect in real usage looks worse than it appears in our test photo. You can see a photo here that has been edited to replicate the effect as it appears in real life.

Black uniformity is good, although this can vary between units. There's some visible clouding throughout the screen with Local Dimming disabled. When enabled, the black uniformity is significantly improved, though there's still some noticeable blooming around bright objects.

The viewing angles are disappointing, especially considering it has the added 'Ultra Viewing Angle' layer. The color quickly begins to wash out as you move off-center, so it's not suggested for wide seating arrangements. We tested the viewing angle twice, once with Local Dimming set to 'Low' to test for color, and again with Local Dimming disabled to test for lightness, black level, and gamma.

The Samsung Q900TS has excellent reflection handling. The glossy coating does a good job of diffusing direct light reflections, although the 'Ultra Viewing Angle' layer causes intense lighting to scatter and create a rainbow-colored ripple effect.

Before calibration, the accuracy is impressive. There are very few noticeable inaccuracies with colors and shades of gray, but the gamma doesn't really follow the curve, so scenes appear brighter than they should. The color temperature is slightly warmer than the 6,500K target, but it's still very close. Note that out-of-the-box accuracy may vary between units.

After calibration, accuracy is fantastic. The color temperature is slightly warmer, so there may be a bit of red/yellow tint, but colors and shades of gray have improved. Gamma follows the target much more closely. Any remaining accuracies shouldn't be noticeable without a colorimeter.

You can see our recommended settings here.

The Samsung Q900TS upscales 480p content, like DVDs, without any issues.

The TV upscales 720p content, like from cable boxes, well.

The Samsung Q900TS displays 1080p content, like Blu-rays, without issues.

There's some cross-hatching with 4k content, meaning you can see the mesh-like pattern of the pixels, but it's hard to notice.

The Samsung Q900TS shows a bit of dithering with 8k content, most visible in shadows, but it shouldn't be noticeable unless you're sitting really close.

The Samsung Q900TS uses a BGR subpixel layout, which can affect the way text is rendered when using the TV as a PC monitor. You can read more about it here. The pixels look blurry due to the extra 'Ultra Viewing Angle' layer.

The Samsung Q900TS has a great color gamut that's wide enough for HDR content. It has nearly full coverage of the DCI P3 color space used in most HDR content and decent coverage of the wider Rec. 2020 color space.

The EOTF is a bit higher than the target, causing scenes to appear brighter than they should, until it rolls off near the TV's max brightness. In 'Game' mode, the EOTF is slightly farther off the target and rolls off quicker. If you find HDR too dim, set Contrast Enhancer to 'High', ST.2084 to ‘Max’, and Shadow Details to 'Max', which results in a noticeably brighter image, as you can see in this EOTF.

The color volume on the Samsung Q900TS is good. It can display dark colors well, but like many LED TVs, it struggles with bright blues.

The TV has good gradient handling. There's some banding in reds and greens and a little in grays as well, but it's not especially noticeable. Setting Noise Reduction to 'Auto' seems to help smooth out the gradients.

There are no signs of temporary image retention on the TV we tested, although this can vary between individual units.

We don't expect VA panels to experience permanent image retention, as the VA panel in our long-term test appears immune.

The Samsung Q900TS has an excellent response time, though there's some overshoot in the 0-20% transition, causing some motion smearing in dark scenes. Overall, there isn't much blur trail behind moving objects, and motion looks smooth.

This TV uses Pulse-Width Modulation (PWM) to dim its backlight. In 'Movie' mode, it flickers at 960Hz, which shouldn't be noticeable. In all other picture modes, or if you enable Picture Clarity settings, it flickers at 120Hz.

The Samsung Q900TS has a Black Frame Insertion feature to help reduce motion blur. To reduce the flicker to 60Hz, set LED Clear Motion to 'On', and for 120Hz, set Picture Clarity to 'On'. In 'Game' mode, enabling LED Clear Motion with Game Motion Plus reduces the flicker from 120Hz to 60Hz. Note that the BFI score is based on what flicker it's capable of, and not how well it actually performs.

The Samsung Q900TS can interpolate lower frame rate content up to 120fps. To enable motion interpolation (also known as the 'Soap Opera Effect'), you can adjust the Blur Reduction and Judder Reduction settings.

Due to the TV's fast response time, there's some noticeable stuttering with 24fps content, but less so with 60fps content.

The Samsung Q900TS can remove 24p judder from any source, as long as Picture Clarity is set to 'Custom' with sliders set to '0'.

The TV supports FreeSync variable refresh rate (VRR), although the screen flashes intermittently when using FreeSync. Unfortunately, it's not G-SYNC compatible, and 1440p doesn't work with VRR as it defaults to 4k instead of staying in 1440p.

The Samsung Q900TS has a remarkably low input lag. We tried to measure the input lag in 'Game' mode, but it appears that 'Game' mode doesn't work in 8k @ 60Hz or 4k @ 120Hz as the Input Signal Plus setting becomes grayed out. We tested the input lag for these using 'PC' mode and 'Blu-ray' mode, but the results for the 'Blu-ray' mode test in 4k @ 120Hz were unusable since it kept switching between two different input lag speeds. We also couldn't get usable data while testing the input lag at 4k with VRR enabled.

If you have this TV and can overcome these or other issues, let us know in the discussions.

The Samsung Q900TS supports all common resolutions. However, it doesn't support 4k @ 120Hz or 8k @ 60Hz in 'Game' mode, which may be an issue if you plan to use this TV for next-gen consoles. It can display proper chroma 4:4:4, which is important for text clarity. To enable this, set the input label to 'PC' and enable Input Signal Plus.

Update 05/19/2021: After a PS5 software update, Samsung TVs can now display 4k @ 120Hz in HDR.

The Samsung Q900TS supports any signal up to 4k @ 120Hz from either the PS5 or Xbox Series X. However, we don't test for 8k signals from the consoles.

If you want a similar TV with more HDMI 2.1 ports, consider the Samsung QN900A 8k QLED.

This TV supports eARC, allowing you to pass high-quality audio to a receiver over an HDMI connection. To use it, set eARC to 'Auto' and set Output to 'Passthrough'.

The frequency response is not bad. It can't produce a very rumbly bass, but the overall sound profile is fairly balanced, resulting in clear dialogue. It gets quite loud, so volume shouldn't be an issue in most environments. There's also a digital room correction feature.

The Samsung Q900TS has okay distortion performance. There's audible distortion at moderate listening levels, which gets much worse at max volume. However, distortion depends on the content, and some people may not hear it.

The TV runs on Samsung's Tizen OS, which is smooth and user-friendly for the most part.

We did experience a few bugs while testing the TV. For instance, we heard some coil whine and experienced random screen flickering, which you can see here.

There are ads on the home screen and app store, and there's no way to opt-out of them.

Samsung's app store has a wide selection of app available to download.

The Samsung Q900TS comes with Samsung's OneRemote, which automatically detects and controls compatible connected devices. It also has a voice control button that can perform basic commands like changing channels or inputs, and it has quick access buttons for Netflix, Prime Video, and Samsung TV Plus. It comes in a premium-looking metal finish.

The TV's controls are located on the bottom right side. It lets you change channels, volume, inputs, and settings, navigate the home menu, and turn the power On/Off.

• Remote (with batteries)
• User manual

• Power cable

The TV gets hot with use. Note that it can actually surpass the 'max' power consumption shown here, as the TV drew 600 watts when we tested the peak HDR brightness in the 10% window while using the 'Dynamic' Picture Mode.