The Samsung S89C is a high-end 4k TV in Samsung's 2023 lineup and is a variant of the Samsung S90C OLED. It is currently a Best Buy exclusive and is only sold in a 77-inch format. It has the same features as the S90C, like a QD-OLED panel, promising some of the brightest and most vibrant colors available on a TV. It has Samsung's LaserSlim Design, Neural Quantum Processor 4k AI upscaling with Quantum HDR OLED technology, and Motion Xcelerator Turbo Pro for enhanced motion processing. This TV officially supports 4k @ 144Hz, so it's a gaming powerhouse, especially with its full HDMI 2.1 Bandwidth support on all four HDMI ports. Like other Samsung TVs, it uses Samsung's proprietary Tizen OS smart interface, which offers a large selection of apps and games.
Our Verdict
The Samsung S89C is an excellent TV for every type of usage. It has decent SDR peak brightness, so it's excellent for watching TV shows or sports in a bright room, especially with its superb reflection handling. It truly shines for HDR movies and games, especially in a dark room where its OLED panel, with its deep inky blacks, truly performs at its best. The very low input lag makes it fantastic for gamers, as your inputs are translated almost instantaneously to the screen. Its superb response time makes it a great choice for fans of fast-moving content, whether sports or games, as action stays clear and crisp throughout. Sadly it doesn't support any DTS audio formats, making it tricky for a home entertainment center, and it only has adequate low-quality content smoothing, which isn't optimal for streaming services with low bitrates.
- Near-infinite contrast ratio for perfect blacks.
- Superb reflection handling.
- Incredibly bright colors.
- Aggressive ABL can get distracting with large areas of brightness.
The Samsung S89C is excellent for watching TV shows in a bright room. It has decent SDR peak brightness and incredible reflection handling, so it can easily overcome glare in a bright room. It has a truly exceptional viewing angle, which is great for a wide seating area or for moving around your living room while watching the TV, as the image remains consistent. It also upscales lower-resolution content well, and the smart interface has a great selection of streaming apps, so you're sure to find your favorite shows. Unfortunately, its low-quality content smoothing is only adequate, so low-resolution or low-bitrate TV shows will have macro-blocking, even if upscaled well.
- Superb reflection handling.
- Exceptionally wide viewing angle.
- Decent peak brightness in SDR.
- Aggressive ABL can get distracting with large areas of brightness.
The Samsung S89C is an amazing TV for watching sports. It has exceptional reflection handling, which is great when watching shows in a room with glare, and the TV has decent SDR brightness, so it handles bright rooms well. The TV's viewing angle is superb, so the image remains consistent even when viewing the TV from the side, so those sitting off-center will have a pleasant viewing experience. It has an incredible response time, so motion, like fast-moving players, is crisp and sharp, with no blurring. The TV has excellent color uniformity, so when watching sports with large areas of uniform color, like hockey, you won't be distracted by annoying smudges or color variations in the image. Finally, the very good low-resolution upscaling means that sports are upscaled well without any noticeable artifacts.
- Superb reflection handling.
- Exceptionally wide viewing angle.
- Decent peak brightness in SDR.
- Aggressive ABL can get distracting with large areas of brightness.
The Samsung S89C is a fantastic TV for immersing your evenings in virtual gaming worlds. Enabling Game Mode doesn't noticeably affect image quality, so your games look great and feel super responsive due to the TV's incredibly low input lag. The TV has fantastic reflection handling and decent peak brightness in SDR, making it a good choice for bright rooms or rooms with glare. The response time is exceptionally low, so you won't have any blur or ghosting when the action gets hectic. It also officially supports 4k @ 144Hz, making this a standout TV for gamers.
- Superb reflection handling.
- HDMI 2.1 bandwidth on all four ports.
- Decent peak brightness in SDR.
- Incredibly low input lag.
The Samsung S89C is an excellent TV for watching the latest hit movies. Like all OLEDs, it has incredible contrast, with deep inky blacks and no blooming around bright highlights, which get quite bright due to the TV's very good HDR peak brightness. It also has excellent low-resolution upscaling, so your legacy DVD movies will look great. This TV has an incredible color gamut, decent accuracy, and barely any HDR gradient banding, so HDR looks vibrant without any real calibration. Unfortunately, the TV has low-quality content smoothing; it's alright and preserves details well, but content like low-bitrate streaming services have macro blocking in dark scenes. It also doesn't support any DTS audio formats, so Blu-rays and DVDs don't sound their best as they tend to use DTS for their audio tracks.
- Near-infinite contrast ratio for perfect blacks.
- Removes 24p judder from any source.
- Incredibly bright colors.
- Amazing color gamut in HDR.
- Doesn't support DTS passthrough or Dolby Vision.
- Fast response time results in noticeable stutter.
- Aggressive ABL can get distracting with large areas of brightness.
The Samsung S89C is an outstanding TV for playing HDR titles. Enabling Game Mode slightly increases overall HDR brightness, making the TV just a tad less accurate but making games look bright and punchy. The TV has remarkably low input lag with Game Mode on, so games feel super responsive. The TV can handle all commonly used resolutions and officially supports 4k @ 144Hz. It has fantastic reflection handling and excellent HDR brightness in Game Mode, so you'll enjoy gaming on this TV even on a bright, sunny day, although, like most OLEDs, it truly shines in a dark room. The response time is exceptionally low, so you won't have any blur or ghosting even when playing through the most intense scenes.
- Near-infinite contrast ratio for perfect blacks.
- HDMI 2.1 bandwidth on all four ports.
- Incredibly bright colors.
- Incredibly low input lag.
- Amazing color gamut in HDR.
- Slightly over brightened in HDR Game Mode.
- Doesn't support DTS passthrough or Dolby Vision.
- Aggressive ABL can get distracting with large areas of brightness.
The Samsung S89C is a fantastic TV for PC gaming. It has a nearly instantaneous response time and incredibly low input lag, so inputs are fluid and responsive, with almost no distracting motion blur behind fast-moving objects. Its viewing angle is amazing, so even if you sit in front of the TV, you won't notice any discoloration or dimming at the edges. It has decent peak brightness in SDR and amazing reflection handling, so it'll look great even if your office setup is in a bright room or in front of some windows. Unfortunately, this TV doesn't use a standard RGB subpixel layout, so text isn't very clear when used as a monitor, and there is color fringing at the edges of bright windows or images due to the subpixel structure of QD-OLED panels. Finally, as with all OLEDs, there's a risk of permanent burn-in when exposed to static elements, like the UI elements of a computer desktop.
- Superb reflection handling.
- Exceptionally wide viewing angle.
- HDMI 2.1 bandwidth on all four ports.
- Incredibly low input lag.
- Noticeable color fringing.
- Risk of permanent burn-in.
- Aggressive ABL can get distracting with large areas of brightness.
Changelog
- Updated Apr 18, 2024: Mentioned the newly reviewed Samsung S90/S90DD OLED in the Pre-Calibration section of this review.
- Updated Apr 03, 2024: Added a link to our Best Soundbars For Movies article in the Compared To Other TVs section of this review.
- Updated Mar 12, 2024: Mentioned the newly reviewed Sharp AQUOS XLED FV1 in the SDR Brightness section of this review.
- Updated Dec 20, 2023: Review published.
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Differences Between Sizes And Variants
We bought and tested the 77-inch Samsung S89C, and it's the only model available. The S89C is a variant of the Samsung S90C OLED, with the only notable difference being that it uses feet instead of a stand. The S89C, also known as the Samsung S89CB in North America, performs the same.
| Size | North American Model | Short Model Code | Display Technology |
|---|---|---|---|
| 77" | QN77S89CBFXZA | QN77S89CB | QD-OLED |
Our unit was manufactured in September 2023; you can see the label here.
Popular TV Comparisons
The Samsung S89C OLED is an incredible OLED TV. It is a variant of the Samsung S90C OLED, but it uses feet instead of a stand. Overall, it performs the same as the S90C, with the slight differences in brightness and accuracy between the two models likely due to panel variance. Just like the S90C, it doesn't get as bright as the Samsung S95C OLED or the LG G3 OLED, but it's still incredibly bright and vibrant, more so than the LG C3 OLED. Overall, it's a very impressive TV and is often sold for an even lower price than the S90C, making it an extremely good value.
See our recommendations for the best OLED TVs, the best 4k TVs, and the best TVs for watching movies. If you're looking for a new soundbar to pair with your TV, check out our picks for the best soundbars for movies.
The Samsung S89C OLED is a variant of the Samsung S90C OLED, and they're identical outside of the S89C coming with feet instead of a stand. There are some minute differences, such as the S89C being a bit brighter in HDR but slightly dimmer in SDR and being significantly less color-accurate, but these differences are likely due to panel variance rather than highlighting a true difference between the two models.
The LG C3 OLED and the Samsung S89C OLED are similar TVs occupying the same market position. The Samsung is better for gaming and a slightly better overall TV, while the LG is better for movie fans. The Samsung has a wider color gamut and gets brighter than the LG, especially in HDR; not only that, but it also maintains its HDR brightness better in Game Mode. It also supports 4k @ 144Hz, while the LG is limited to 4k @ 120Hz. However, the LG supports DTS audio formats and Dolby Vision, making it great for Blu-ray fans. It also has better low-quality content smoothing than the Samsung TV, making it better for watching streaming content, especially in low-bitrate situations.
The Samsung S89C OLED is much better than the Sony A80J OLED. The Samsung has a QD-OLED panel, allowing it to get brighter and display a wider range of colors than the Sony. The Samsung TV also has better gaming performance due to its lower input lag. However, if you use your TV in a bright room, the Sony performs better because blacks still look black in a bright room, whereas ambient lighting causes the black levels to raise and become purple-tinged on the Samsung.
The Sony A95K OLED is better than the Samsung S89C OLED. The Sony TV has significantly better image processing when dealing with low-quality or low-resolution content, so cable TV channels and streaming movies look much better, with less macro-blocking and pixelization. The Sony also includes Dolby Vision support, so it's great if you're a movie buff who wants to try out the format. The Samsung is more versatile, especially for gamers, as it has lower input lag and four high-bandwidth HDMI 2.1 ports, whereas the Sony only has two.
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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