The Samsung QN90D/QN90DD QLED is an upper mid-range 4k TV released in 2024. It replaces the Samsung QN90C/QN90CD QLED and sits above the Samsung QN85D/QN85DD QLED and below the Samsung QN95D QLED. It uses Samsung's Neo Quantum 4k AI Gen 2 processor, designed to improve performance and deliver better overall picture quality than its predecessor. The TV has 60W 4.2.2CH speakers built-in, uses the 2024 version of Samsung's Tizen OS, and is available in seven sizes: 43-inch, 50-inch, 55-inch, 65-inch, 75-inch, 85-inch, and a massive 98-inch model. Unlike the QN90C, which only had 144Hz support on the two smallest size options, this TV supports 144Hz on all sizes except for the 98-inch model.
Our Verdict
The Samsung QN90D is great for mixed usage. It's suitable for watching content in a bright room due to its incredible reflection handling and superb SDR brightness, but it also looks great in a dark room due to its ability to display deep blacks. Watching content or playing games in HDR is impactful due to the TV's outstanding HDR brightness and wide color gamut. Whether you're watching sports or playing video games, the TV's excellent response time provides clear motion with minimal blur. It's also a great option to pair with modern consoles and gaming PCs due to its advanced gaming features. Unfortunately, it's not a very good TV for use in a group setting due to its narrow viewing angle.
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Fantastic contrast for deep blacks in a dark room.
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Incredible reflection handling makes it suitable for a bright room.
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Superb SDR brightness.
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Excellent response time for minimal blur behind fast motion.
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Narrow viewing angle means the image degrades when viewed from the sides of the screen.
The Samsung QN90D is very good for watching TV shows. The built-in Tizen OS is loaded with streaming apps, so it's easy to find the newest shows. If you're stuck watching low-resolution streams or still watch shows on DVD, the TV does a very good job at upscaling, so you don't have to watch an overly soft image. Sadly, its low-quality content smoothing is only alright, so you do see macro-blocking in low-bitrate content. If you like to watch shows during the day or in a room with the lights on, the TV's superb SDR brightness and incredible reflection handling means it easily overcomes glare. Unfortunately, the TV has a narrow viewing angle, and the images degrade when viewed from the sides of the screen, so it's not a good option for watching shows with friends.
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Incredible reflection handling makes it suitable for a bright room.
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Superb SDR brightness.
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Very good low-resolution upscaling.
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Narrow viewing angle means the image degrades when viewed from the sides of the screen.
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Low-quality content smoothing isn't good enough to remove macro-blocking.
The Samsung QN90D is great for watching sports. The TV has superb SDR brightness and incredible reflection handling, so it easily overcomes glare when watching football on a sunny Sunday afternoon. It also has an excellent response time, so there's minimal blur behind fast-moving players and objects. Unfortunately, the TV isn't a good option for watching the game with friends due to its narrow viewing angle, as the image degrades when viewed from the sides of the screen. The TV also only has decent gray uniformity, so you do see some dirty screen effect when watching sports with large areas of uniform color, like hockey.
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Incredible reflection handling makes it suitable for a bright room.
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Superb SDR brightness.
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Excellent response time for minimal blur behind fast motion.
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Narrow viewing angle means the image degrades when viewed from the sides of the screen.
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Low-quality content smoothing isn't good enough to remove macro-blocking.
The Samsung QN90D is excellent for playing video games. It supports up to 4k @ 144Hz, has HDMI 2.1 bandwidth on all four of its ports, and supports VRR, so it's a great option to pair with modern consoles or gaming PCs. Fast motion is clear with minimal blur due to the TV's excellent response time, and it provides a responsive gaming experience due to its incredibly low input lag. Using Game Mode has no major impact on the image, so you can enjoy the best possible performance without sacrificing picture quality. Finally, the TV easily overcomes glare due to its superb SDR brightness and incredible reflection handling, so you can game in a bright room without distracting reflections.
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HDMI 2.1 bandwidth on all four ports.
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Incredibly low input lag for a very responsive experience.
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Incredible reflection handling makes it suitable for a bright room.
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Superb SDR brightness.
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Excellent response time for minimal blur behind fast motion.
The Samsung QN90D is very good for watching movies in a dark room. It has fantastic contrast, so blacks are deep in dim and dark scenes, and they stay that way when bright highlights are also on screen. The TV has outstanding HDR brightness, so bright highlights really pop out, and colors are vibrant and lifelike in HDR content thanks to the TV's wide color gamut and outstanding color volume. It also automatically removes 24p judder, so you can enjoy a judder-free experience regardless of the source. Unfortunately, the TV has only okay pre-calibration SDR accuracy, so you need to get it calibrated if you care about accurate colors in SDR.
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Fantastic contrast for deep blacks in a dark room.
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Removes 24p judder from any source.
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Outstanding HDR peak brightness that makes highlights pop out.
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Very good low-resolution upscaling.
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Tracks the content creator's intent well in HDR due to its fantastic PQ EOTF tracking
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No Dolby Vision support.
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No DTS audio support.
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Only okay pre-calibration SDR accuracy means the image isn't accurate unless you get it calibrated.
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Low-quality content smoothing isn't good enough to remove macro-blocking.
The Samsung QN90D is excellent for gaming in HDR. The TV provides a responsive gaming experience due to its incredibly low input lag, and fast motion has minimal blur behind it due to the TV's excellent response time. Its fantastic contrast provides deep blacks, and its outstanding HDR brightness means highlights really pop out in HDR games, leading to an impactful HDR experience. Using Game Mode doesn't negatively affect the picture, so you can enjoy the best possible performance without trading in image quality. Finally, the TV has HDMI 2.1 bandwidth on all four ports, supports up to 4k @ 144Hz, and supports VRR for a nearly tear-free gaming experience, so it's a great option to pair with modern gaming PCs and consoles.
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Fantastic contrast for deep blacks in a dark room.
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HDMI 2.1 bandwidth on all four ports.
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Incredibly low input lag for a very responsive experience.
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Excellent response time for minimal blur behind fast motion.
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Outstanding HDR peak brightness that makes highlights pop out.
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No Dolby Vision support.
The Samsung QN90D is amazing for use as a PC monitor. Its incredibly low input lag means you get a responsive desktop experience, and its excellent response time means there's no noticeable blur behind quick cursor movements or when quickly scrolling through pages. If you use your PC during the day or in a room with lights on, you don't see distracting reflections on the screen due to the TV's superb SDR brightness and incredible reflection handling. The TV displays chroma 4:4:4 properly, but the TV uses a BGR subpixel layout that impacts the text clarity, although not everyone is bothered by this. Unfortunately, the TV has a narrow viewing angle, so the sides of the screen aren't uniform with the center when you sit close.
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HDMI 2.1 bandwidth on all four ports.
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Incredibly low input lag for a very responsive experience.
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Incredible reflection handling makes it suitable for a bright room.
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Superb SDR brightness.
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Excellent response time for minimal blur behind fast motion.
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Narrow viewing angle means the image degrades when viewed from the sides of the screen.
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BGR subpixel layout impacts text clarity.
- 8.4 Mixed Usage
- 8.2 TV Shows
- 8.4 Sports
- 8.9 Video Games
- 8.2 HDR Movies
- 8.7 HDR Gaming
- 8.9 PC Monitor
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Updated Oct 16, 2024:
We changed the TV's Native Refresh Rate to match its maximum refresh rate at its native resolution in the Variable Refresh Rate section of this review.
- Updated Sep 11, 2024: Mentioned the newly-reviewed Samsung QN900D 8k QLED in the Contrast section of this review.
- Updated Aug 13, 2024: Mentioned the newly reviewed LG QNED90T in the HDR Native Gradient section of this review.
- Updated Jul 16, 2024: Mentioned the newly reviewed TCL QM8/QM851G QLED in the HDR Brightness In Game Mode section of this review.
- Updated Jun 28, 2024: Mentioned the newly-reviewed Samsung S85D OLED in the Contrast section of this review.
- Updated Jun 10, 2024: We updated the Stand section of this review to include more information. We also refreshed the text in the Flicker-Free section for clarity.
- Updated Jun 03, 2024: Review published.
- Updated May 29, 2024: Early access published.
- Updated May 22, 2024: Our testers have started testing this product.
- Updated May 06, 2024: The product has arrived in our lab, and our testers will start evaluating it soon.
- Updated May 03, 2024: We've purchased the product and are waiting for it to arrive in our lab.
Differences Between Sizes And Variants
We bought and tested the 65-inch Samsung QN90D, and these results are also valid for the 43-inch, 50-inch, 55-inch, 75-inch, and 85-inch models. The 98-inch model is limited to a 120Hz refresh rate, but all other results should be the same. It's also sold as the Samsung QN90DD at some warehouse retailers, including Costco. The DD variant has slightly better speakers (70W vs. 60W on the QN90D) 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.
In Canada, there's also the QN92D. It has 70W speakers instead of 60W, but outside of that, the TV performs the same.
| Size | US Model | Short Model Code | Costco Variant | Max Refresh Rate |
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| 43" | QN43QN90DAFXZA | QN43QN90D | - | 144Hz |
| 50" | QN50QN90DAFXZA | QN50QN90D | - | 144Hz |
| 55" | QN55QN90DAFXZA | QN55QN90D | - | 144Hz |
| 65" | QN65QN90DAFXZA | QN65QN90D | QN65QN90DDFXZA | 144Hz |
| 75" | QN75QN90DAFXZA | QN75QN90D | QN75QN90DDFXZA | 144Hz |
| 85" | QN85QN90DAFXZA | QN85QN90D | QN85QN90DDFXZA | 144Hz |
| 98" | QN98QN90DAFXZA | QN98QN90D | - | 120Hz |
Our unit was manufactured in February 2024; you can see the label here.
Compared To Other TVs
The Samsung QN90D is a great TV overall. It delivers excellent picture quality and is loaded with modern features. It's a good option for gamers with modern consoles or gaming PCs due to its HDMI 2.1 bandwidth, VRR support, and up to 4k @ 144Hz. It's also quite pricey, and there are other similar TVs that perform similarly or better for less money. You can get the fully-featured Hisense U8/U8N for cheaper. The U8N has better contrast, gets brighter in HDR, has a wider color gamut, supports Dolby Vision and DTS audio, and does a better job smoothing out low-quality content. Like the QN90D, the U8N has a narrow viewing angle. If you need a TV that's more suitable for a wide seating arrangement and doesn't need all the brightness the QN90D offers, you can get the better overall Samsung S90D/S90DD OLED for around the same price.
For more options, check out our recommendations for the best QLED TVs, the best 4k gaming TVs, and the best TVs.
The Samsung QN90D/QN90D QLED is a bit better than the Samsung QN85D/QN85DD QLED. The QN90D has a faster response time for less blur behind quick motion, supports up to 4k @ 144Hz for PC gamers, and has a wider viewing angle. The QN90D is brighter in SDR and has better reflection handling, so it overcomes more glare in a bright room. It's also brighter in HDR, so bright highlights stand out more on it in HDR content. However, the QN85D has better pre-calibration accuracy and PQ EOTF tracking, so it displays an image that is closer to the content creator's intent. The QN85D also has less banding in color gradients.
The Samsung QN90D/QN90DD QLED is a bit better than the Samsung QN90C/QN90CD QLED 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.
The Samsung S90D/S90DD OLED (QD-OLED) is better than the Samsung QN90D/QN90DD QLED. The S90D displays deeper blacks in a dark room due to its nearly infinite contrast ratio, and there's no blooming. The S90D also has a much wider viewing angle, so no matter where you or your friends sit, you'll see a consistent image. The S90D really shines when it comes to colors, and its much wider color gamut displays incredibly vibrant and lifelike colors with no noticeable banding in color gradients. The S90D also has a faster response time, so there's no noticeable blur behind quick motion. The QN90D is the brighter TV overall, so it fights more glare in very bright rooms, but the S90D is also no slouch in that regard.
The Samsung QN90D/QN90DD QLED and the Sony BRAVIA 7 QLED are similar TVs overall, but there are some differences. The Samsung has HDMI 2.1 bandwidth on all four ports as opposed to the two on the Sony, so it's more versatile if you own multiple high-bandwidth devices. The Samsung also supports up to 4k @ 144Hz, whereas the Sony is limited to 4k @ 120Hz, so it's better if you have a PC with a high-end graphics card. However, the Sony is more accurate in both SDR and HDR, so it's the better option if you care about the content creator's intent. The Sony also has the edge when it comes to image processing, so low-resolution and low-quality content looks better on it. Finally, the Sony supports Dolby Vision and DTS audio, so it's better for those looking to get the most out of their 4k Blu-ray collection.
The Hisense U8/U8N is better than the Samsung QN90D/QN90DD QLED in most ways. The Hisense has one of the best contrast ratios for a non-OLED TV, so it displays even deeper blacks than the Samsung. The U8N gets brighter than the Samsung in HDR, so it displays brighter highlights in some HDR content, and it maintains its brightness much better while in 'Game Mode,' so you don't have to see a dimmer image if you want the best possible gaming performance. The Hisense's wider color gamut means colors are more vibrant and lifelike in HDR content, and its better pre-calibration accuracy means colors are more accurate in SDR content. The Samsung does have a wider viewing angle, so the image doesn't degrade as quickly from the sides of the screen, but it's still not wide enough to be suitable for a group setting.
The LG C4 OLED is better than the Samsung QN90D/QN90DD QLED. The LG displays deeper blacks thanks to its nearly infinite contrast ratio, so it looks better in a dark room and has a much wider viewing angle, making it much more suitable for watching TV with a group. The LG also has a nearly instantaneous response time, so there is even less blur behind quick motion. On top of that, the LG is more accurate in both SDR and HDR. However, the QN90D is much brighter overall, so it overcomes more glare in very bright rooms.
The Sony BRAVIA 9 is generally better than the Samsung QN90D/QN90DD QLED. In most content, they're nearly equally matched regarding HDR brightness, although the Samsung loses much of its brightness in Game Mode while the Sony doesn't. The Sony has slightly better contrast and is more accurate in HDR and SDR out-of-the-box, giving it an edge in image quality. Sony also has the edge in processing, as it has better HDR native gradient handling, low-quality content smoothing, and upscaling than the Samsung model. Still, the Samsung is the better option for high-end PC gamers due to its four 4k @ 144Hz HDMI 2.1 ports, while the Sony is limited to two 4k @ 120Hz ports, one of which doubles as the eARC port. Home theater fans will also appreciate the Sony TV's Dolby Vision support and its ability to pass through DTS audio formats, both of which the Samsung model doesn't support.
The Samsung QN90D/QN90DD QLED is better than the Sony X90L/X90CL. The Samsung has noticeably deeper contrast and is the brighter TV of the two in most HDR content. It is, however, a bit dimmer than the Sony is in their respective Game Modes, as the Samsung loses a lot of its brightness in that mode. If you care about accuracy, then the Sony model has the edge there and has the better image processing of the two, so it's the better product if you care about the content creator's intent. The Sony also supports Dolby Vision and passes through DTS audio formats, making it the better choice for home theater purists. Gamers, however, will appreciate the Samsung model's four 4k @ 144Hz HDMI ports, while the Sony is limited to two 4k @ 120Hz ports, which is a bit tight if you have multiple HDMI 2.1 devices.
The Samsung QN90D/QN90DD QLED is better overall than the LG QNED90T. With local dimming enabled, the Samsung has better contrast for deeper blacks in a dark room, with less noticeable blooming. The Samsung has better reflection handling and gets a lot brighter in SDR, so it overcomes more glare in very bright rooms. It also gets brighter in HDR and has better PQ EOTF tracking, so it displays brighter highlights and is more accurate in HDR. Finally, the Samsung has a maximum refresh rate of 144Hz (120Hz on the LG), so it's better for PC gamers with high-end graphics cards, and its quicker response time means there's less blur behind fast motion.
The Samsung QN90D/QN90DD QLED is superior to the Panasonic W95A in most ways. The Samsung has better reflection handling and brightness, meaning it overcomes more glare in a bright room, and it displays deeper blacks in a dark room. The Samsung also has better accuracy in SDR and HDR, so it sticks closer to the content creator's intent. Regarding gaming, the Samsung is the better option simply due to its local dimming working with VRR enabled.
Video
Test Results
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.
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 stand lifts the TV about 3.07 inches, so most soundbars fit underneath without blocking the screen. The stand sticks out quite a bit from the front, so you need enough table space to accommodate a soundbar in front of it. The TV wobbles quite a bit when pushed and takes a while to recover, but the stand doesn't cause any major problems.
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.
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.
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. If you want a Samsung TV with even better contrast, check out the 2024 Samsung S85D OLED, or, if you're in the market for an 8k TV, the Samsung QN900D 8k QLED.
The TV has very good blooming performance, but there's some noticeable blooming around bright objects and subtitles when displayed against a black background.
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.
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.
The Samsung QN90D has outstanding HDR brightness. Highlights really pop out during darker scenes, and the TV is bright enough that very bright specular highlights even stand out in well-lit scenes. Combined with its fantastic contrast, this TV provides a very impactful HDR viewing experience.
These measurements are after calibrating the HDR white point with the following settings:
- HDR Picture Mode: Filmmaker
- Brightness: 50
- Contrast: 50
- Contrast Enhancer: Off
- HDR Tone Mapping: Static
- Color Tone: Warm 2
- Color Space: Auto
- Peak Brightness: High
Results with HDR Tone Mapping set to 'Active':
- Hallway Lights: 1223 cd/m²
- Yellow Skyscraper: 1041 cd/m²
- Landscape Pool: 501 cd/m²
The Samsung QN90D is visibly dimmer when set to Game Mode. It's still bright enough for highlights to stand out during darker scenes and to provide an impactful HDR experience while gaming.
These measurements are after calibrating the HDR white point with the following settings:
- HDR Picture Mode: Game Mode
- Game HDR: Basic
- Brightness: 50
- Contrast: 50
- Contrast Enhancer: Off
- HDR Tone Mapping: Static
- Color Tone: Warm 2
- Color Space: Auto
- Peak Brightness: High
Results with 'HDR Tone Mapping' set to 'Active':
- Hallway Lights: 515 cd/m²
- Yellow Skyscraper: 644 cd/m²
- Landscape Pool: 136 cd/m²
Results with 'Game HDR Advanced' turned on:
- Hallway Lights: 748 cd/m²
- Yellow Skyscraper: 749 cd/m²
- Landscape Pool: 332 cd/m²
Look at the TCL QM8/QM851G QLED if you want a similar TV that doesn't lose HDR brightness while using Game Mode.
The TV has fantastic PQ EOTF tracking on the low end of the curve, but it's less accurate with the top end. Some shadows and mid-tones are displayed a bit brighter than intended, but the TV sticks very close to the curve with those. Unfortunately, brighter mid-tones and highlights are displayed noticeably dimmer than intended, but the TV starts to closely follow the curve with very bright highlights until they reach the TV's peak luminance.
There's a gradual roll-off near the TV's peak brightness to maintain details in very bright highlights. This is important for content mastered at 4000 nits since the TV doesn't get that bright, but the TV is bright enough to fully display content mastered in 600 or 1000 nits, so the roll-off isn't necessary for content mastered at those levels.
The Samsung QN90D has superb SDR brightness and easily overcomes glare in even the brightest of rooms.
These measurements are after calibration with the following settings:
- Picture Mode: Movie
- Brightness: 50
- Color Tone: Warm 2
- Color Space: Auto
- Peak Brightness: High
- Gamma: 2.2
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.
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.
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.
The TV has fantastic SDR accuracy after calibration. Gamma, white balance, and color temperature are all nearly perfect. Color accuracy is much better now, but all colors are still a little bit off the mark.
You can see our full calibration settings here.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
If you need a Mini LED TV with less banding, check out the LG QNED90T.
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.
The Samsung QN90D does a very good job at upscaling low-resolution content like DVDs or lower-resolution streams. Details are clear enough, but finer details are hard to make out.
Sharpness processing was calibrated with no over-sharpening for low-resolution content, with the following setting:
- Sharpness: 5
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.
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.
The TV uses pulse-width modulation (PWM) to dim its backlight, which introduces flicker that can bother people who are sensitive to it. The amount of flicker varies depending on what picture mode the TV is set to and what settings you're using.
- In the 'Standard,' 'Eco,' and 'Dynamic' picture modes, it flickers at 120Hz at all brightness levels.
- In 'Filmmaker Mode,' it has unperceivable flicker at maximum brightness, but the flicker is perceivable with the brightness below maximum.
- In 'Movie' mode, the TV flickers at 120Hz at maximum brightness, but it's not perceivable. With the brightness below maximum, it flickers at a very fast 960Hz.
- In 'Game Mode,' the TV flickers at 120Hz at maximum brightness, but it's not perceivable. Below maximum brightness, it flickers at a perceivable 120Hz. With VRR enabled, it flickers at 960Hz below maximum brightness.
Even though the TV has non-perceivable flicker in certain picture modes, it can still bother people sensitive to PWM dimming.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
The Samsung QN90D supports the full 48Gbps bandwidth of HDMI 2.1 on all four HDMI ports. This allows you to take full advantage of multiple high-bandwidth devices, like if you own both current-gen consoles and a high-end gaming PC. Unfortunately, Samsung still doesn't support Dolby Vision and supports HDR10+ instead, which is similar but not as widely supported.
Unlike the Samsung QN90C/QN90CD QLED, the QN90D doesn't support ATSC 3.0 for 4k over-the-air, as Samsung has dropped that feature on their 2024 4k models. ATSC 3.0 is only found on Samsung's 2024 8k models.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
The remote is identical to the one included with the Samsung QN90C/QN90CD QLED. It's slim and compact, has quick access buttons for the most popular streaming apps, and is easy to use. The remote has a built-in rechargeable battery with a solar panel on the back of the remote. You can also recharge it via USB-C if it dies unexpectedly.
The TV is compatible with the Bixby and Alexa voice assistants, and its remote has an integrated microphone for voice commands. You can use your voice to launch apps, switch inputs, ask for the weather and time, and adjust certain settings like the TV's brightness.
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.
