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 excellent for watching content in a bright room, like sports, due to its superb SDR brightness, very good color volume, and decent direct reflection handling, and it also looks amazing in a dark room due to its ability to display deep blacks. Watching content in HDR is impactful due to the TV's outstanding HDR brightness, although, unfortunately for gamers, the TV loses quite a bit of its vibrancy in Game Mode; it's still decent, but it's definitely dimmer. Its pixel transitions are also quite slow, so it doesn't deliver a truly motion blur-free experience when gaming, although it's still responsive enough due to its low input lag and VRR support. Finally, its image processing excels when upscaling SD content, making it a great choice to pair with your old DVDs or when watching SD feeds on cable.
Excellent black levels with little blooming.
Excellent HDR brightness for impactful highlights.
Decent enough direct reflections handling for a bright room.
Truly superb SDR brightness.
Colors are bright and vibrant, especially in HDR.
Loses a lot of its HDR brightness in Game Mode.
Slow pixel transitions in Game Mode leads to blurry motion.
The Samsung QN90D is great for a home theater setup. It has excellent black levels, so blacks are deep in dim and dark scenes, and they stay that way when bright highlights are present. It performs admirably well when upscaling SD content, leaving you with a clean-looking image. It also respects the content creator's intent well. It doesn't perform quite as well in low-bitrate situations, so movies streamed from online platforms have some visible macro-blocking, but it's not excessive. There's also some stutter due to the TV's fast response time, but it's not egregious enough to bother everyone. Unfortunately the TV doesn't support the popular Dolby Vision HDR format, instead opting for the less widely used HDR10+, and it also doesn't pass through advanced DTS audio formats through eARC.
Excellent black levels with little blooming.
Excellent HDR brightness for impactful highlights.
Impressive low-resolution upscaling.
Tracks the content creator's intent well in HDR due to its good PQ EOTF tracking
Colors are bright and vibrant, especially in HDR.
No Dolby Vision or DTS audio support.
Only passable pre-calibration SDR accuracy.
Okay low-quality content smoothing, but it does leave some compression artifacts in the feed.
Visible stutter in slow panning shots.
The Samsung QN90D is excellent for use in a bright room. It has superb SDR brightness and decent handling of direct reflections, although lamps or windows opposite the TV are visible on the screen. On the other hand, it does a good job of retaining color vibrancy in a bright room, and although black levels do rise in a bright room, blacks remain deep enough that the image doesn't look too washed out.
Decent enough direct reflections handling for a bright room.
Truly superb SDR brightness.
Colors are bright and vibrant, especially in HDR.
Black levels are not quite as deep in brighter rooms.
The Samsung QN90D is great for watching sports. This TV is extremely bright in SDR, and its direct reflection handling is decent enough to overcome some glare in a bright room. Colors in your favorite sports are nice and colorful thanks to the TV's good color volume in SDR, although their accuracy is only passable. You get a clean-looking image when watching SD content due to the TV's impressive low-resolution upscaling. The TV's viewing angle is satisfactory; the image degrades when viewed from more aggressive angles, but overall, it's a decent choice for a large gathering. Unfortunately, the TV's gray uniformity isn't the best, so you do see some dirty screen effect when watching sports with large areas of uniform color, but it's not excessive. Finally, the TV's quick response time means there's only some minor motion blur, but there are color artifacts around the edges of objects and player in fast-paced sports.
Impressive low-resolution upscaling.
Decent enough direct reflections handling for a bright room.
Truly superb SDR brightness.
Colors are bright and vibrant, especially in HDR.
Minimal motion blur.
Some noticeable dirty screen effect towards the center of the screen.
Only passable pre-calibration SDR accuracy.
Okay low-quality content smoothing, but it does leave some compression artifacts in the feed.
The Samsung QN90D is good for gaming. It has excellent black levels with little visible blooming, with vibrant colors that pop in HDR. The TV has HDMI 2.1 bandwidth on all four ports for up to 4k @ 144Hz gaming, with VRR. However, its pixel transitions are quite slow overall, so fast motion in games is blurry; stick to 120Hz for the best performance, as its response time is slower at 60Hz and 144Hz. It's also not nearly as bright in Game Mode as in its other picture modes; it's still bright enough for a decent visual experience, but it's a noticeable drop in visual fidelity.
HDMI 2.1 bandwidth on all four ports, all capable of up to 4k @ 144Hz with VRR support.
Very low input lag for a very responsive experience.
Colors are bright and vibrant, especially in HDR.
Loses a lot of its HDR brightness in Game Mode.
Slow pixel transitions in Game Mode leads to blurry motion.
The Samsung QN90D has outstanding brightness overall. It has superb SDR brightness, so it's more than capable of overcoming glare from indirect sources of light. It also has excellent HDR brightness, which makes highlights really pop in HDR content.
Excellent HDR brightness for impactful highlights.
Truly superb SDR brightness.
The Samsung QN90D has excellent black levels. It has incredibly effective local dimming, giving it amazing contrast and black uniformity with little blooming.
Excellent black levels with little blooming.
Black levels are not quite as deep in brighter rooms.
The Samsung QN90D has very good overall color performance. It has excellent color volume in HDR and good color volume in SDR, so it's quite colorful. Unfortunately, while its SDR pre-calibration accuracy is passable, purists won't be satisfied. Thankfully, it's more accurate in HDR, although home theater aficionados are still likely to want to calibrate their panel for the best possible experience.
Colors are bright and vibrant, especially in HDR.
Only passable pre-calibration SDR accuracy.
The Samsung QN90D has decent motion handling when watching content. It has no judder or micro-judder from any source except those that send 25p content over a 60p signal, which leads to noticeably choppy motion when watching some European shows and movies on an older streaming device. Like most moderns TVs, there's some visible stutter in scenes with slower camera movements, but not everyone will be bothered by it, and you can reduce the stutter using a light amount of motion interpolation if you choose. Motion blur is kept to a minimum, but there are subtle color artifacts around the edges of people and objects in fast-paced scenes and sports, which can affect the consistency of colors.
Removes judder from almost all sources.
No micro-judder from almost all sources.
Minimal motion blur.
Visible stutter in slow panning shots.
Very choppy motion when watching 25p content via an older device.
The Samsung QN90D is decently responsive in Game Mode, with its low input lag, support for a variety of VRR modes, and a large amount of supported resolutions. Unfortunately, its pixel transitions really aren't fast enough to provide a motion-blur free gaming experience, as there's noticeable motion blur in most scenes, especially at 60Hz and 144Hz; stick to 120Hz for the best performance.
HDMI 2.1 bandwidth on all four ports, all capable of up to 4k @ 144Hz with VRR support.
Very low input lag for a very responsive experience.
Slow pixel transitions in Game Mode leads to blurry motion.
Note: We're in the process of improving our tests related to image processing, but this score should give you a general idea of how a TV performs overall with its image processing capabilities.
The Samsung QN90D's image processing is decent overall, albeit uneven. It upscales low-resolution content impressively well. It also does a good job of respecting the content creator's intent when it comes to HDR brightness. Its low-quality content smoothing is okay; it does clean up some compression artifacts, but there's a fair amount remaining in the feed. There's also some banding in HDR gradients, but it's not excessive.
Impressive low-resolution upscaling.
Tracks the content creator's intent well in HDR due to its good PQ EOTF tracking
Okay low-quality content smoothing, but it does leave some compression artifacts in the feed.
Performance Usages
Changelog
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Updated Mar 17, 2026:
We added text to our new Cinematic Motion Handling performance usage and our new Transition Artifacts and Stutter Reduction Via Interpolation test sections after converting the review to TV 2.2.
- Updated Mar 10, 2026: This review has been updated to TV 2.2. We've added new sections for Transition Artifacts and Stutter Reduction Via Interpolation, and updated the way we test Stutter. Additionally, we removed the 'Broken' disclaimer from our Motion Handling usage.
- Updated Feb 05, 2026: We added text to the new Micro-Judder section and refreshed the text in the updated Judder and Response Time Stutter sections after converting the review to TV 2.1.
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Updated Jun 11, 2025:
We updated the Black Frame Insertion section after confirming that the TV only supports BFI at 60Hz.
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Differences Between Sizes And Variants
We bought and tested the 65-inch Samsung QN90D, and these results are also valid for the 55-inch, 75-inch, and 85-inch models. Although most of our results should be applicable to the 43-inch and 50-inch models, those two sizes aren't as bright as the larger ones, and we don't know exactly how much dimmer they are. 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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 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.
Popular TV Comparisons
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, although its response time isn't quite good enough for a motion blur-free gaming experience. 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 and TCL QM8/QM851G QLED for cheaper. Both TVs offer a more impactful viewing experience, and they both support Dolby Vision alongside advanced DTS audio formats, both of which the Samsung doesn't support. If you instead 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 and Samsung QN90F are extremely similar TVs, but, overall, the older QN90D has a very slight edge over its successor, mostly due to its noticeably better contrast and color vibrancy. For gamers, it's a wash: the QN90D loses a lot of its HDR brightness in Game Mode, and the QN90F doesn't, but inversely, the newer model has noticeably worse zone transitions in Game Mode, giving it worse black levels than its predecessor when gaming. PC gamers will, however, appreciate the QN90F's 165Hz support and slightly faster pixel transitions, although it's a minor improvement. The biggest advantage of the QN90F is its far better direct reflection handling due to its matte coating.
The Samsung QN90D and the Sony BRAVIA 7 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 TCL QM8K delivers a better overall experience than the Samsung QN90D. It delivers brighter highlights in HDR and a better dark room experience, with better native contrast and smoother zone transitions, so dark scenes look better when you're watching in a dark room. The TCL TV also delivers a better gaming experience for PC gamers, as it supports a 288Hz refresh rate with 1080/1440p signals.
The Samsung QN90D is much better than the Samsung QN80F. The QN90D is a lot brighter in HDR, so small specular highlights stand out much better from the background, and very bright scenes are more impressive. The QN90D also has much better contrast and a significantly better local dimming system, so blacks are deeper, more uniform, and there's less haloing around bright lights or subtitles on a dark background.
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
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