The Samsung QN90C/QN90CD QLED is a high-end 4k TV released in 2023, sitting below the Samsung QN95C QLED. It replaces the Samsung QN90B QLED in Samsung's lineup, but it has more in common with the Samsung QN85B QLED. It's available in a wide range of sizes, from 43 to 85 inches, so there's something for everyone. It's powered by Samsung's Neural Quantum Processor 4k, which was first introduced in 2022 and is designed to deliver better upscaling, optimized on a scene-by-scene basis. Like other Samsung TVs, it uses Samsung's proprietary Tizen OS interface, which offers a large selection of apps and games. It's compatible with the Bixby and Alexa voice assistants, and it supports the Matter smart home standard, so you can control all of your Matter-compatible smart devices from your TV.
Our Verdict
The Samsung QN90C is an impressive TV for most uses. It's excellent for watching movies or gaming in a dark room, thanks to its high contrast ratio. It's also a great choice for a bright room, thanks to its high peak brightness and superb reflection handling, so glare isn't an issue when watching TV shows or sports during the day. It has a decent viewing angle, so you can walk around with the TV on or watch something with a group of people without worrying about the image fading too much when viewed from the sides. Finally, it's amazing for gaming thanks to its low input lag, quick response time, and impressive selection of gaming features.
- Image remains consistent when viewed at a moderate angle.
- Incredibly high peak brightness so glare isn't an issue.
- Easy-to-use smart interface with a great selection of apps.
- Pre-calibration image accuracy is great.
- Some noticeable stutter in slow-panning shots.
The Samsung QN90C is a great TV for watching shows during the day. Its high peak brightness and superb reflection handling let it easily overcome glare in a bright room, and unlike previous high-end Samsung TVs, there's no rainbow smearing. It has a decent viewing angle, so you can walk around the room with the TV on and still enjoy a somewhat consistent image. It has a huge selection of streaming apps and great smart features, so you can quickly and easily find your favorite shows without investing in an external player.
- Image remains consistent when viewed at a moderate angle.
- Incredibly high peak brightness so glare isn't an issue.
- Upscales lower resolution content well.
- Easy-to-use smart interface with a great selection of apps.
- Can't smooth out macro-blocking in low quality content.
The Samsung QN90C is a great TV for watching sports during the day. Its high peak brightness and superb reflection handling make it a great choice for a bright room, as it can easily overcome glare, and there's no distracting rainbow smear on the screen from bright lights. It has a decent viewing angle, so you can watch the game with a large group of friends without having to fight over the best spot, as the image stays somewhat consistent when viewed from the sides. It also has good uniformity, with very little distracting dirty screen effect when watching sports with large areas of uniform color, like hockey. Finally, there's minimal blur thanks to the TV's fast response time, so action is easy to make out.
- Image remains consistent when viewed at a moderate angle.
- Incredibly high peak brightness so glare isn't an issue.
- Easy-to-use smart interface with a great selection of apps.
- Great response time for clear motion.
- Can't smooth out macro-blocking in low quality content.
The Samsung QN90C is an amazing TV for playing video games. Fast-paced games feel smooth and responsive thanks to the TV's 120Hz refresh rate, low input lag, and fast response time. It also supports advanced gaming features like variable refresh rates to reduce screen tearing. It looks great in a dark room thanks to its high contrast ratio, although switching to the more responsive 'Game' mode results in a noticeable, albeit minimal, reduction in picture quality.
- Incredibly low input lag.
- Great selection of gaming features including variable refresh rate support.
- Great response time for clear motion.
The Samsung QN90C is a great TV for watching movies in HDR in a completely dark room. Thanks to its high contrast ratio, bright highlights stand out well in dark scenes, with very little blooming around them. It has a wide color gamut and excellent color volume, so saturated colors in HDR are vibrant and lifelike. It also gets extremely bright, so the brightest highlights stand out well, and it tracks the content creator's intent, ensuring highlights display at the correct brightness level.
- Bright specular highlights in HDR stand out well thanks to its amazing peak brightness.
- Completely judder-free from all sources.
- Easy-to-use smart interface with a great selection of apps.
- Tracks the content creator's intent well in HDR.
- Pre-calibration image accuracy is great.
- Doesn't support Dolby Vision.
- Doesn't support DTS audio formats.
- Some noticeable stutter in slow-panning shots.
The Samsung QN90C is an amazing TV for playing games in HDR. It delivers an amazing gaming experience thanks to its low input lag and fast response time, resulting in a responsive feel with very little blur behind fast-moving objects. HDR games look incredible, with deep blacks, vibrant colors, and highlights that pop, thanks to the TV's excellent contrast ratio, wide color gamut, and high peak brightness. Finally, it's well-equipped for gaming thanks to its variable refresh rate support and HDMI 2.1 bandwidth on all four ports, meaning you can take full advantage of the latest gaming consoles.
- Bright specular highlights in HDR stand out well thanks to its amazing peak brightness.
- Incredibly low input lag.
- Great selection of gaming features including variable refresh rate support.
- Great response time for clear motion.
The Samsung QN90C is an excellent TV for use as a PC monitor. It has a decent viewing angle, so you can sit fairly close to the screen without the sides fading too much and losing uniformity. Overall, the screen has good color uniformity, so websites and any other uniform color look good, with minimal dirty screen effect in the center. It has low input lag, so your cursor movements feel responsive, and fast-moving action is clear thanks to its quick response time. The 43-inch and 50-inch models are even better for PC gamers as they support a higher 144Hz refresh rate for smoother motion but have a worse viewing angle.
- Image remains consistent when viewed at a moderate angle.
- Incredibly low input lag.
- Great response time for clear motion.
Changelog
- Updated Jun 03, 2024: Mentioned the newly reviewed Samsung QN90D/QN90DD QLED in the HDR Brightness section of this review.
- Updated May 14, 2024: We mention the newly-reviewed Samsung QN85D/QN85DD QLED in the Contrast section of this review.
- Updated Apr 23, 2024: Mentioned the newly reviewed Samsung S95D OLED in the Color Gamut section of this review.
- Updated Apr 19, 2024: We've updated this review's text to keep it up to date and accurate.
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Differences Between Sizes And Variants
We bought and tested the 65-inch Samsung QN65QN90C, and these results are also valid for the 55-inch, 75-inch, and 85-inch models. The 43-inch and 50-inch models are different, as they use VA panels, have a slightly higher refresh rate, and aren't as bright. It's also sold as the Samsung QN90CD at warehouse retailers, including Costco. The CD variant has slightly better speakers and a longer warranty but otherwise performs the same. Note that the last five letters in the model number (AFXZA in this case) vary between retailers and individual regions, but there's no difference in performance.
There are also variants of this TV with a different model code. The QN91C, QN92C, QN93C, and QN94C are available in a few different regions, each with small variations from the QN90C. For example, the manufacturer markets the QN92C and QN94C as having Ultimate UHD Dimming Pro Micro Dimming, theoretically providing them with slightly better local dimming than the QN90C. The QN92C also has 70W speakers versus 60W for the QN90C and QN94C. Ultimately, this won't impact your purchasing options much, as these differences are regional, but note that there are some minute differences.
| Size | US Model | Short Model Code | Costco Variant | Max Refresh Rate | Panel Type |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 43" | QN43QN90CAFXZA | QN43QN90C | QN43QN90CDF | 144Hz | VA |
| 50" | QN50QN90CAFXZA | QN50QN90C | QN50QN90CDF | 144Hz | VA |
| 55" | QN55QN90CAFXZA | QN55QN90C | QN55QN90CDF | 120Hz | ADS (IPS-like) |
| 65" | QN65QN90CAFXZA | QN65QN90C | QN65QN90CDF | 120Hz | ADS (IPS-like) |
| 75" | QN75QN90CAFXZA | QN75QN90C | QN75QN90CDF | 120Hz | ADS (IPS-like) |
| 85" | QN85QN90CAFXZA | QN85QN90C | QN85QN90CDF | 120Hz | ADS (IPS-like) |
Our unit was manufactured in March 2023; you can see the label here.
Popular TV Comparisons
The Samsung QN90C is a great TV that delivers excellent picture quality overall. It's pricey, but very few TVs on the market even come close to offering the same combination of picture quality and extra features. It's particularly interesting to gamers due to its fast response time and low input lag, four full HDMI 2.1 ports with up to 4k @ 120Hz support (144Hz on the smaller sizes), and problem-free VRR feature. Still, some models, like the Hisense U8K, are slightly better overall. The Hisense is cheaper, supports DTS audio formats and Dolby Vision HDR, has better contrast, a wider color gamut, better low-quality content smoothing, and is brighter than the QN90C. If you're specifically looking for a TV from one of the big popular brands, then the Sony X93L is also a bit better than the Samsung due to its superior image processing, as well as supporting DTS audio passthrough and Dolby Vision HDR.
For more options, check out our recommendations for the best TVs, the best QLED TVs, and the best 4k gaming TVs.
The Samsung QN90D is a bit better than the Samsung QN90C in most ways. The QN90D has better contrast for deeper blacks in a dark room, it gets brighter in HDR for brighter highlights, and it has a faster response time for less blur behind quick motion. However, the QN90C has a slightly wider viewing angle due to its IPS panel, and it uses an RGB subpixel layout as opposed to the BGR layout on the QN90D, so there are no text clarity issues if you use the TV has a PC monitor. The QN90C also has much better pre-calibration SDR accuracy, so if you care about an accurate image and don't want to pay to have the TV calibrated, it's the better choice.
In most ways, the Samsung QN90C is better than the Sony X90L/X90CL. The Samsung has better reflection handling and SDR brightness, so it's better suited for a bright room. It gets brighter in HDR, so highlights pop more in HDR content. The Samsung TV also has lower input lag, so it's the better option for gamers looking for the most responsive gaming experience. However, the Sony model has the edge in image processing, so low-quality and low-resolution content looks better on it.
The Samsung QN90A performs better than the Samsung QN90C on a few tests, but overall, the QN90C looks a bit better, especially with HDR content. The QN90C has better tone mapping and tracks the PQ EOTF better, so HDR content looks better and is more accurate. The QN90C also uses a different panel type that natively has a wide viewing angle without needing additional filters, so there's no Ultra Wide Viewing Angle layer. It results in a slightly smaller viewing angle on the QN90C, but there's no distracting rainbow smearing from overhead lights.
The Samsung QN90C is the replacement model for the Samsung QN90B, and they each have their strengths and weaknesses. The QN90C has better tone mapping and tracks the PQ EOTF better, so HDR content looks much better, despite the QN90B's better measurements on some aspects of picture quality. The QN90C also uses a different panel type that natively has a wider viewing angle without needing additional filters, so there's no Ultra Wide Viewing Angle layer. It results in a slightly smaller viewing angle on the QN90C, but there's no distracting rainbow smearing from overhead lights.
We buy and test dozens of TVs yearly, taking an objective, data-driven approach to deliver results you can trust. Our testing process is complex, with hundreds of individual tests that take over a week to complete. Most of our tests use specially designed test patterns that mimic real content, but we also use the same sources you have at home to ensure our results match the real-world experience. We use two main tools for our testing: a Colorimetry Research CR-100 colorimeter and a CR-250 spectroradiometer.
Test Results
Older Test Bench: This product has been tested using an older TV test methodology, before a major update. Some of the test results below aren't directly comparable with other TVs. Learn more
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