The Samsung S90D OLED (QD-OLED) is a high-end TV in Samsung's 2024 OLED lineup and only sits below the flagship Samsung S95D OLED. The TV features Samsung's new Neo Quantum 4k AI Gen 2 processor, designed to improve performance and deliver better overall picture quality than its predecessor. It has the same features as its predecessor, the Samsung S90C OLED, but it adds a new one called Auto AI mode, which uses AI technology to automatically adjust the picture settings based on the game genre it detects. The TV has 40W 2.1 channel speakers built-in, uses the 2024 Tizen OS, and is available in six sizes: 42-inch, 48-inch, 55-inch, 65-inch, 77-inch, and 83-inch. The 42-inch, 48-inch, and 83-inch models use WOLED panels.
It's important to note that Samsung's 2024 OLED lineup is confusing. They're releasing S90Ds with both WOLED and QD-OLED panels, and the type of panel you get varies by the TV's size and what region you're in. A QD-OLED panel's performance and overall picture quality is typically better than a traditional WOLED panel, so this decision will surely lead to some disappointed customers. Our review is based on the QD-OLED version of the TV. You can find more information on the S90D's different panel types.
Our Verdict
The Samsung S90D is great for a variety of usages. If you need a TV for your home theater, it's an excellent choice due to its perfect black levels, top-notch colors, impressive HDR brightness, and solid image processing. Despite having only okay SDR brightness, the TV's capable in a room with some lights on thanks to its great overall reflection handling, but it does struggle a bit in very bright rooms. Its nearly instantaneous pixel transitions, low input lag, and modern gaming features also make it a great choice for console and PC gamers. Finally, the TV excels in group settings since it has a very wide viewing angle.
Perfect blacks in a dark room with no blooming around bright highlights.
Incredibly wide viewing angle for a consistent image from the sides.
Great reflection handling means it handles glare in a well-lit room.
The Samsung S90D is excellent for use in a home theater. The TV looks spectacular in reference conditions thanks to its deep and inky blacks without any blooming, and it has incredibly vibrant, bright, and accurate colors with virtually no banding. It also has impressive HDR brightness, so highlights really pop off the screen. Its image processing is solid when it comes to HDR brightness accuracy and upscaling, but its low-quality content smoothing doesn't completely eliminate artifacts from highly compressed content. Sadly, due to the TV's almost instant response time, there's noticeable stutter in movies and TV shows.
Perfect blacks in a dark room with no blooming around bright highlights.
Colors are very vibrant, bright, lifelike, and mostly accurate.
Impressive HDR peak brightness means highlights really pop.
No Dolby Vision or DTS audio support.
Noticeable stutter due to the TV's fast response time.
The Samsung S90D is decent for use in a bright room. It only has okay SDR brightness, but it partially makes up for that with its great reflection handling, so it's suitable for use in a room with some lights on. The TV does a very good job of maintaining saturated colors in a bright room, so colors still look vibrant in a bright room. However, ambient light causes black levels to rise significantly, which makes them look grayish and leads to an image that looks washed out, making you lose some of the visual impact an OLED usually has.
Great reflection handling means it handles glare in a well-lit room.
Colors are very vibrant, bright, lifelike, and mostly accurate.
Black levels are drastically raised in rooms with the lights on.
Only okay SDR brightness means it struggles to overcome glare in very bright rooms.
The Samsung S90D is good for watching sports. Colors are bright and vibrant, so your favorite team's jersey really stands out. Fast-moving players and objects are crisp due to the TV's nearly instantaneous response time, and there are no distracting transition artifacts or unwanted colors. It's not the brightest TV in SDR, but it does have great overall reflection handling, so it handles glare in a room with some lighting. It does a very good job upscaling SD and HD broadcasts and streams, but there are still some artifacts present when those feeds are heavily compressed. Finally, this is a great option for watching the game with a group of friends since its image quality doesn't degrade when viewed from the sides of the screen.
Incredibly wide viewing angle for a consistent image from the sides.
Very good gray uniformity with no noticeable dirty screen effect.
Great reflection handling means it handles glare in a well-lit room.
Nearly instantaneous pixel transitions for no noticeable blur behind fast motion.
Colors are very vibrant, bright, lifelike, and mostly accurate.
No transition artifacts.
Only okay SDR brightness means it struggles to overcome glare in very bright rooms.
The Samsung S90D is superb for playing video games. It supports up to 4k @ 144Hz, so it's an excellent choice to pair with modern consoles or gaming PCs. The TV delivers clear motion thanks to its nearly instantaneous pixel transitions, has incredibly low input lag, and supports VRR for almost tear-free gaming, all of which add up to a very responsive gaming TV. HDR games really pop off the screen thanks to its very vibrant, lifelike colors and impressive HDR brightness. It's also no slouch when it comes to impactful colors in SDR games.
Incredibly low input lag for a very responsive experience.
Nearly instantaneous pixel transitions for no noticeable blur behind fast motion.
Colors are very vibrant, bright, lifelike, and mostly accurate.
Impressive HDR peak brightness means highlights really pop.
The Samsung S90D has very good brightness overall. Its HDR peak brightness delivers impressive highlights in HDR movies, shows, and games. Although its SDR brightness is only adequate, it's still bright enough to fight glare in a room with the lights on, but it does struggle more in very bright rooms.
Impressive HDR peak brightness means highlights really pop.
Only okay SDR brightness means it struggles to overcome glare in very bright rooms.
The Samsung S90D is an OLED, so it has outstanding black levels. Blacks are deep and inky when viewed in a dark room, with no blooming around bright highlights.
Perfect blacks in a dark room with no blooming around bright highlights.
The Samsung S90D has incredibly bright, vibrant, and lifelike colors in both SDR and HDR. It has great overall color accuracy in both SDR and HDR, so most people will be pleased with its colors without needing a professional calibration.
Colors are very vibrant, bright, lifelike, and mostly accurate.
The Samsung S90D OLED has good motion handling when watching content. Colors are consistent and edges of fast-moving objects are sharp, with no trace of transition artifacts. Its nearly instantaneous response time helps deliver crystal-clear motion, but there's noticeable stutter that its motion interpolation feature can't reduce significantly without adding significant soap opera effect. On the other hand, it can't remove judder from 25p sources sent over a 60p signal. This exact combination is quite rare, though, and you'll only encounter it if you're using an older cable box or streaming stick.
No transition artifacts.
Removes judder from most content.
No micro-judder except when using an older cable box.
Noticeable stutter due to the TV's fast response time.
The Samsung S90D has outstanding responsiveness in Game Mode. Fast motion is sharp thanks to its nearly instantaneous pixel transitions, so you aren't distracted by a blurry image, and you get a snappy gaming experience thanks to its incredibly low input lag. You also get a nearly tear-free gaming experience thanks to its VRR support.
Incredibly low input lag for a very responsive experience.
Nearly instantaneous pixel transitions for no noticeable blur behind fast 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 S90D has very good image processing. It does a great job upscaling SD and HD content, so low-resolution content doesn't look too soft. The brightness of HDR content is mostly accurate overall, and there's essentially no banding in color gradients. However, its low-quality content smoothing is only decent, so low bitrate content has noticeable artifacts present.
Almost no banding at all in color gradients.
Great upscaling.
Performance Usages
Changelog
-
Updated Mar 11, 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.
-
Updated Jun 02, 2025:
We mentioned the newly reviewed Samsung S90F OLED in the Variable Refresh Rate section of this review.
Check Price
Differences Between Sizes And Variants
We bought and tested the 65-inch Samsung S90D/S90DD (QD-OLED), and these results are also valid for the 55-inch and 77-inch models that use QD-OLED panels. In North America, the 42-inch, 48-inch, and 83-inch models use a WOLED panel (EXZA), and the 55-inch, 65-inch, and 77-inch models use a QD-OLED panel (FXZA). Our results don't apply to any WOLED version of the TV.
Internationally, it's a bit more complicated. In Australia, for example, the model codes are different, and the 55-inch and 65-inch sizes that use QD-OLED panels end in 'WXXY,' whereas the 77-inch and 83-inch models that use WOLED panels end in 'EXXY.' These last four digits vary between different regions, but if the fourth last digit of the model code is an 'E,' the TV very likely uses a WOLED panel.
The TV is also sold as the Samsung S90DD at warehouse stores like Costco and Sam's Club with a longer warranty. There's also a Canadian variant known as the Samsung S92D. The S90DD and the S92D offer the same features, picture quality, and processing capabilities but have more powerful speakers (60W vs. 40W on the S90D). In Canada, the last digit of the model code in all sizes and variants of the S90D ends with 'C,' but there's no difference in performance.
| Size | US Model | Costco Model | Short Model Code | Display Technology (North America) | Maximum Refresh Rate |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 42" | QN42S90DAEXZA | - | QN42S90D | WOLED | 144Hz |
| 48" | QN48S90DAEXZA | - | QN48S90D | WOLED | 144Hz |
| 55" | QN55S90DAFXZA | QN55S90DDFXZA | QN55S90D | QD-OLED | 144Hz |
| 65" | QN65S90DAFXZA | QN65S90DDFXZA | QN65S90D | QD-OLED | 144Hz |
| 77" | QN77S90DAFXZA | QN77S90DDFXZA | QN77S90D | QD-OLED | 144Hz |
| 83" | QN83S90DAEXZA | QN83S90DDFXZA | QN83S90D | WOLED | 144Hz |
Our unit was manufactured in March 2024, as seen on the label.
Popular TV Comparisons
The Samsung S90D/S90DD (QD-OLED) is an exceptional TV and is one of the best OLEDs you can buy. It's the most affordable QD-OLED on the market, so it outperforms similarly priced WOLED offerings from brands like LG, Panasonic, and Sony when it comes to colors. Although the TV supports HDR10+, some people will be put off by its lack of Dolby Vision, since many 4k Blu-rays and streaming services use it as their top-level HDR format. However, the S90D is a very bright TV in HDR, so the advantages of Dolby Vision aren't as important here. If you want one of the best-performing TVs on the market without spending a ton of money on a TV like the Samsung S95D OLED and the Sony A95L OLED, it's one of the best options there is.
For more options, check out our recommendations for the best OLED TVs, the best 4k TVs, and the best TVs for watching movies.
The Samsung S90F OLED is a slight upgrade over the Samsung S90D OLED. While they're almost identical, the biggest improvement is the S90F's noticeably brighter SDR brightness and much more accurate HDR brightness. Still, not everything is better, as the S90F's HDR colors are less accurate out of the box than the S90D.
The LG C5 OLED and the Samsung S90D OLED trade blows. The LG is brighter in SDR and does a better overall job handling reflections, making it look better in a bright room. The LG also has better image processing, so it's more versatile with different levels of content. On the other hand, the Samsung has the advantage when it comes to colors thanks to its QD-OLED panel.
The Samsung S90D OLED is mostly better than the LG C4 OLED. The Samsung gets brighter in HDR, so bright highlights stand out more on it, and it maintains its HDR brightness better while in Game Mode. The Samsung TV also has a wider color gamut, better color volume, and better HDR gradient handling, so colors in HDR are more vibrant, lifelike, brighter, and have less banding. The Samsung has a wider viewing angle, and the image doesn't have a green tint that worsens as you move off-center, so it's the better choice for watching TV in a group setting. However, the LG supports Dolby Vision and DTS audio formats, so it's the better option for those looking to get the most out of their physical media.
The Samsung S90D OLED (QD-OLED version) is better than the Samsung S85F OLED (QD-OLED version). Although the TVs are similar overall, the S90D is much brighter in HDR, so highlights pop out more to the viewer, and it delivers a more complete HDR experience. The S90D also supports 144Hz, which is great for PC gamers.
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
for pictures & test results
for pictures & test results
for pictures & test results
for pictures & test results
for pictures & test results
for pictures & test results
for videos & test results
for pictures & test results
for pictures & test results
for pictures & test results
for pictures & test results
for pictures & test results
for pictures & test results
for pictures & test results
for pictures & test results
