The LG QNED90T is an upper mid-range TV released in 2024 and replaces the LG QNED90. It's part of LG's QNED lineup, sitting above the LG QNED85T and the LG QNED80T. The TV is LG's highest-tier offering in their 4k Mini LED lineup and only sits below the 8k LG QNED99T. It's packed with modern gaming features like HDMI 2.1 bandwidth on all four ports, 4k @ 120Hz, and VRR. It also supports Dolby Vision and DTS audio formats and has Multi View. It uses LG's α8 AI Processor 4K, which can automatically adjust picture settings based on the type of content you're watching. The TV uses the 2024 version of LG's webOS interface, which is loaded with apps and offers smart features like voice control, and it comes with LG's popular Magic Remote. It has a built-in 40W 2.2 channel speaker system. We bought and tested the 65-inch model, but it's available in three sizes total: 65-inch, 75-inch, and 86-inch.
Our Verdict
The LG QNED90T is very good for mixed usage. It looks great in a dark room thanks to its excellent contrast, but it also overcomes glare in a room with the lights on since it's a bright TV. HDR movies and games have impact thanks to the TV's vibrant colors and HDR brightness. It's packed with gaming features, so it's a great choice if you need a TV to take advantage of your modern gaming consoles or PC. Unfortunately, the TV isn't well-suited for use in a group setting since it has a narrow viewing angle.
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Fantastic contrast delivers deep blacks in a dark room.
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Very good HDR brightness for bright highlights.
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Excellent SDR brightness makes it suitable for bright rooms.
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Very good response time with only some blur behind fast motion.
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Image degrades when viewed from the sides.
The LG QNED90T is good for watching TV shows. The webOS interface has all the popular streaming apps and more, so finding your favorite shows is easy. The TV has excellent SDR brightness and good reflection handling, so it overcomes glare in a bright room. It has good upscaling capabilities, meaning low-resolution content doesn't look too soft. However, its low-quality content smoothing is only okay, so you still see artifacts in low-bitrate content. Unfortunately, the TV has a narrow viewing angle, so the image quickly degrades when viewed from the sides of the screen.
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Excellent SDR brightness makes it suitable for bright rooms.
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Very good response time with only some blur behind fast motion.
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Image degrades when viewed from the sides.
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Low-quality content smoothing doesn't remove all artifacts.
The LG QNED90T is good for watching sports. It has excellent SDR brightness and good reflection handling, so it overcomes glare in a bright room. The TV has a very good response time, meaning fast-moving players and objects have minimal blur behind them. Unfortunately, the TV's gray uniformity is only satisfactory, so you do see some dirty screen effect when watching sports with large areas of uniform color, like hockey. It also has a narrow viewing angle, so it's not the best choice if you need a TV to watch the game with a large group of friends since the image degrades when viewed from the sides of the screen.
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Excellent SDR brightness makes it suitable for bright rooms.
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Very good response time with only some blur behind fast motion.
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Image degrades when viewed from the sides.
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Only satisfactory gray uniformity.
The LG QNED90T is great for playing video games. The TV has HDMI 2.1 bandwidth, 4k @ 120Hz, and VRR support, so it pairs excellently with modern gaming consoles and gaming PCs. It also has exceptionally low input lag for a responsive gaming experience, and its very good response time means there's only some blur behind fast motion. Unfortunately, there's more blooming when using Game Optimizer than there is in some other picture modes, although it's not too bad and doesn't drastically impact picture quality.
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Excellent SDR brightness makes it suitable for bright rooms.
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HDMI 2.1 bandwidth, 4k @ 120Hz, and VRR support.
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Very good response time with only some blur behind fast motion.
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Exceptionally low input lag for a very responsive experience.
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Game Optimizer has more blooming than other picture modes.
The LG QNED90T is great for watching movies in a dark room. It has fantastic contrast, so it displays deep blacks in a dark room that stay deep when highlights are also on screen. It also has very good HDR brightness, so bright highlights stand out well in HDR movies. The TV has a wide color gamut and impressive color volume, so colors in HDR movies are vibrant, lifelike, and bright. The TV automatically removes 24p judder from any source, so you get a judder-free experience no matter how you watch movies. It also has excellent pre-calibration SDR accuracy and great PQ EOTF tracking, so movies in SDR and HDR are accurate.
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Fantastic contrast delivers deep blacks in a dark room.
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Very good HDR brightness for bright highlights.
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Automatically removes 24p judder from any source.
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Wide color gamut and impressive color volume for vibrant, lifelike, and bright colors.
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Dolby Vision and DTS audio support.
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Excellent pre-calibration SDR accuracy.
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Image degrades when viewed from the sides.
The LG QNED90T is great for playing video games in HDR. The TV has very good HDR brightness and fantastic contrast, so highlights in HDR games really stand out. Unfortunately, the TV is a bit dimmer, and there's slightly more blooming when set to Game Optimizer, although it's still bright enough for an impactful HDR gaming experience. Its very good response time delivers fast motion with minimal blur, and its exceptionally low input lag means you get a responsive gaming experience. Finally, the TV has HDMI 2.1 bandwidth, 4k @ 120Hz, and VRR support, so it pairs well with the Xbox Series X|S, the PS5, and gaming PCs.
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Fantastic contrast delivers deep blacks in a dark room.
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Very good HDR brightness for bright highlights.
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Wide color gamut and impressive color volume for vibrant, lifelike, and bright colors.
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HDMI 2.1 bandwidth, 4k @ 120Hz, and VRR support.
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Very good response time with only some blur behind fast motion.
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Exceptionally low input lag for a very responsive experience.
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Game Optimizer has more blooming and isn't as bright in HDR as other picture modes.
The LG QNED90T is impressive for use as a PC monitor. It overcomes glare in a bright room thanks to its excellent SDR brightness and good reflection handling. You also get a responsive desktop experience thanks to its exceptionally low input lag, and its excellent response time means there's minimal blur behind fast motion. The TV displays chroma 4:4:4 properly, but since it uses a BGR subpixel layout, there are some minor text clarity issues that will bother some people. Unfortunately, the TV's narrow viewing angle means the sides of the screen aren't uniform with the center when you sit up close. It also has only satisfactory gray uniformity, so you do see some dirty screen effect when looking at large areas of uniform colors, like when browsing the web.
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Excellent SDR brightness makes it suitable for bright rooms.
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Very good response time with only some blur behind fast motion.
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Exceptionally low input lag for a very responsive experience.
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Image degrades when viewed from the sides.
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Only satisfactory gray uniformity.
- 8.1 Mixed Usage
- 7.5 TV Shows
- 7.6 Sports
- 8.4 Video Games
- 8.4 HDR Movies
- 8.4 HDR Gaming
- 8.3 PC Monitor
- Updated Oct 16, 2024: Mentioned the newly-reviewed Panasonic Z85A OLED in the Blooming section of this review.
- Updated Oct 03, 2024: Updated the information on panel technology in the Pixels section of this review.
- Updated Sep 25, 2024: Added a link to the TV's spectral power distribution chart and included some information on the panel technology in the Pixels section of this review.
- Updated Aug 13, 2024: Review published.
- Updated Aug 08, 2024: Early access published.
- Updated Jul 29, 2024: Our testers have started testing this product.
- Updated Jun 06, 2024: The product has arrived in our lab, and our testers will start evaluating it soon.
- Updated May 21, 2024: We've purchased the product and are waiting for it to arrive in our lab.
- Updated May 17, 2024: The product has won our suggestion poll, so we'll buy and test it soon.
Differences Between Sizes And Variants
We bought and tested the 65-inch LG QNED90T, and the results are also valid for the 75-inch model. The 86-inch model uses an IPS panel, so it performs a bit differently than the other sizes, with worse contrast but a better viewing angle. Internationally, the TV is known as the LG QNED91T, and we expect most of our results to be valid for that model as well. The Costco variant carries the suffix 'AUS,' supports Wi-Fi 6E (the TUA variant has Wi-fi 5), and comes with store-specific perks, like extended warranties.
| Size | US Model | Panel Type | Costco Variant |
|---|---|---|---|
| 65" | 65QNED90TUA | VA | - |
| 75" | 75QNED90TUA | VA | 75QNED90TAA.AUS |
| 86" | 86QNED90TUA | IPS | 86QNED90TAA.AUS |
Our unit was manufactured in March 2024, and you can see the label here.
Compared To Other TVs
The LG QNED90T is a very good TV overall. It doesn't have any glaring issues or major cons against it, although its local dimming feature can be a bit annoying since the ideal setting is different in SDR and HDR. Still, it provides great picture quality overall and is loaded with modern features, so whether you're watching content or playing video games, it looks good and performs well. On the other hand, it doesn't really excel in any way and doesn't do anything that separates it from the crowd of Mini LEDs. For less money, you can get better overall Mini LED TVs like the Hisense U8/U8N and the TCL QM8/QM851G QLED. For around the same cost, you can even get an LG OLED TV like the LG B4 OLED. For those reasons, it's a hard TV to recommend.
For more options, check out our recommendations for the best TVs for bright rooms, the best TVs for gaming, and the best TVs.
The LG C4 OLED is better than the LG QNED90T. The C4 is an OLED, so it displays deeper blacks with no blooming at all. The C4 follows the PQ EOTF curve closer and has better SDR pre-calibration accuracy, so it's the more accurate TV overall. The C4 also has a faster response time for less blur behind fast motion, a wider viewing angle, and better image processing. However, the QNED90T is the brighter TV, so it overcomes more glare in a well-lit room.
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 Sony BRAVIA 7 QLED is a better TV than the LG QNED90T. The Sony is brighter overall, so it overcomes more glare in a well-lit room and displays brighter highlights in HDR content. The Sony also has a wider color gamut and better color volume, so it can display more vibrant, lifelike, and bright colors. Additionally, the Sony has better image processing and is the more accurate TV in both SDR and HDR. Both TVs have a similar contrast ratio, but the Sony’s is slightly better, and it has less blooming and less noticeable zone transitions.
The Hisense U8/U8N is better than the LG QNED90T. The Hisense has better contrast, so it displays deeper blacks that are approaching what you get from an OLED. The Hisense is the brighter TV overall, so it displays brighter highlights in HDR and overcomes more glare in a bright room. When it comes to colors, the Hisense has the edge due to its wider color gamut and better color volume. The Hisense also has a faster response time and supports 144Hz, so it's the better option for most gamers.
The LG B4 OLED provides better picture quality than the LG QNED90T. The B4 has better pre-calibration SDR accuracy and PQ EOTF tracking, so it's the more accurate TV overall. The B4 also has a quicker response time for less blur behind fast motion and lower input lag, so it's the better TV for gaming. Additionally, the B4 has better contrast that provides inky blacks, and its wide viewing angle makes it more suitable for use in a group setting. On the other hand, the QNED90T is the brighter TV, so it fights more glare in a bright room.
The LG QNED90T is better than its predecessor, the LG QNED90, in almost every way. The QNED90T is brighter in HDR, so it displays brighter highlights in HDR content. The QNED90T has better pre-calibration SDR accuracy and PQ EOTF tracking, so it's the more accurate TV overall. The QNED90T also has better upscaling, less banding in colors, and better contrast. However, the QNED90 has the wider viewing angle due to its IPS panel, and it does a better job of smoothing out low-quality content.
The TCL QM8/QM851G QLED is mostly better than the LG QNED90T. The TCL is the brighter TV overall, so it fights more glare in a bright room and displays brighter highlights in HDR. The TCL displays more vibrant and lifelike colors due to its wider color gamut, and it can display those colors brighter due to its better color volume. The TCL also displays deeper blacks with less blooming, and it does a better job smoothing out low-quality content. However, the LG is the more accurate TV in SDR and HDR due to its better pre-calibration SDR accuracy and PQ EOTF tracking.
Test Results
The LG QNED90T has a very similar design to the LG QNED90. It has thin bezels on three sides, which are barely noticeable when watching TV, and a thicker bottom bezel. It's not quite as nice looking as LG's OLED TVs, but it still looks premium overall.
The TV comes with two metal feet that can be adjusted into two different positions. The narrow position (pictured above) brings the feet close together, which is great if you have limited space on your table for the TV. The wide position has more stability and works well if you need to fit a soundbar in between the two feet. The feet lift the TV about 3.35 inches above the table, so pretty much any soundbar fits underneath without blocking the screen.
Footprint of the 65-inch stand in the narrow position: 16.6" x 11.77".
Footprint of the 65-inch stand in the wide position: 45.9" x 11.77".
The back of the TV is mostly made of metal. Most of the inputs are on the far left side of the TV when facing the front, so they're accessible if you have the TV wall-mounted. There are plastic clips on each side of the back, and the feet each have a slot that can be used to help with cable management. Unfortunately, the top of the back of our unit is warped near the VESA mounting points.
The LG QNED90T is well-built overall. It's mostly made of metal materials that feel solid, and the two feet hold the TV well with minimal wobble when pushed on. Unfortunately, the back of our unit is warped near the top VESA mounting points.
The LG QNED90T has fantastic contrast. Its native contrast is very good, but with local dimming enabled, the TV displays very deep blacks that mostly stay deep when brighter highlights are also on screen.
The contrast and brightness of the TV are affected by which setting you use for local dimming. For HDR content, the default setting is 'Low' in the accurate picture modes since it tracks the PQ EOTF the best. However, with SDR content, setting local dimming on 'Low' results in a dimmer image than when it is on 'High.' The 'Medium' setting is essentially just a compromise between the other two options. Our results are with local dimming on 'High,' but you can see the contrast ratio with different settings below.
- Low: 89378:1
- Medium: 114971:1
The TV has only okay blooming performance. Unfortunately, there's visible blooming around bright highlights or text when they're against a black background, making blacks look less deep. The blooming performance is different depending on the local dimming setting and the picture mode. You can see the results below.
- Expert (Dark Space, night): LD set to 'Low'
- Expert (Dark Space, night): LD set to 'Medium'
- Game Optimizer: LD set to 'Low'
- Game Optimizer: LD set to 'Medium'
- Game Optimizer: LD set to 'High'
If you want a TV with no blooming at all, check out an OLED like the Panasonic Z85A OLED.
The TV has decent overall lighting zone transitions, but it struggles with fast-moving content. There's noticeable haloing, and the leading edge of bright, quick-moving objects is visibly dimmer. The TV performs differently depending on the local dimming setting and the picture mode. You can see the results below.
- Expert (Dark Space, night): LD set to 'Low'
- Expert (Dark Space, night): LD set to 'Medium'
- Game Optimizer: LD set to 'Low'
- Game Optimizer: LD set to 'Medium'
- Game Optimizer: LD set to 'High'
- Game Optimizer (VRR): LD set to 'Low'
- Game Optimizer (VRR): LD set to 'Medium'
- Game Optimizer (VRR): LD set to 'High'
There's a bit more blooming when the TV is set to Game Optimizer, but outside of that, there's no visible difference in dark scene performance.
The LG QNED90T has very good HDR brightness, so highlights stand out well during darker scenes. Combined with its fantastic contrast, this TV provides an impactful HDR viewing experience.
These measurements are after calibrating the HDR white point with the following settings:
- HDR Picture Mode: FILMMAKER Mode
- Local Dimming: Low
- Brightness: 100
- Contrast: 100
- Color Temperature: Warm 50
Results with local dimming on 'Medium':
- Hallway Lights: 506 cd/m²
- Yellow Skyscraper: 299 cd/m²
- Landscape Pool: 182 cd/m²
Results with local dimming on 'High':
- Hallway Lights: 512 cd/m²
- Yellow Skyscraper: 216 cd/m²
- Landscape Pool: 169 cd/m²
The TV is dimmer in Game Optimizer, but it's still bright enough for an impactful HDR gaming experience.
These measurements are after calibrating the HDR white point with the following settings:
- HDR Picture Mode: Game Optimizer
- Local Dimming: Low
- Brightness: 100
- Contrast: 100
- Color Temperature: Warm 50
The LG QNED90T has great PQ EOTF tracking. With content mastered at 600 and 1000 nits, some shadows are darker than intended, and some mid-tones and highlights are brighter than intended. With content mastered at 4000 nits, the highlights are more accurate, and there's a gradual roll-off to maintain detail in highlights that are brighter than what the TV is capable of.
The LG QNED90T has excellent SDR brightness, and it overcomes glare in bright rooms.
These measurements are after calibration with the following settings:
- Picture Mode: Expert (Dark Space, night)
- Brightness: 100
- Contrast: 80
- Local Dimming: High
- Color Temperature: Warm 50
The LG QNED90T has an impressive HDR color gamut. It has fantastic coverage of the commonly used DCI-P3 color space, but vibrant colors are undersaturated. The TV has decent coverage of the wider Rec. 2020 color space, but very vibrant colors are undersaturated and inaccurate.
The LG QNED90T has impressive color volume. Dark saturated colors are displayed well due to the TV's amazing contrast. It also displays a wide range of colors at high luminance levels.
The LG QNED90T has excellent pre-calibration SDR accuracy. Blues are underrepresented in darker shades of gray. Gamma is close to 2.2, but very dark and very bright scenes are displayed brighter than intended. The color temperature is very close to 6500K, and colors are mostly accurate across the board, with only some minor inaccuracies with reds, cyans, and whites.
The TV has fantastic SDR accuracy after calibration, and it's easy to calibrate. Gamma, white balance, and color temperature are now all essentially perfect. Color accuracy is outstanding, but there are still some very minor inaccuracies with heavily saturated reds.
You can see our full calibration settings here.
The TV has satisfactory gray uniformity, but there's some dirty screen effect towards the center of the screen and vignetting in the corners. On a very dark or near-black screen, the sides of the screen are lighter than the center.
The TV has outstanding black uniformity. With local dimming disabled, blacks are a bit cloudy and blueish. 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 LG QNED90T has an inadequate viewing angle, so it's not suitable for a wide seating arrangement. As you move off-center, there's significant gamma shifting, color shifting, and brightness loss, and colors look increasingly washed out as you move further away to the sides.
The LG QNED90T has good reflection handling. Its semi-gloss screen finish reduces the intensity of indirect reflections, like when glare from a ceiling light isn't directly facing the screen. Unfortunately, the TV's handling of direct reflections is only decent, so reflections caused by something like a lamp positioned in front of the screen are distracting.
The LG QNED90T has great HDR native gradient handling. There's no banding in brighter reds, and all other colors have very minimal banding that's only noticeable if you're specifically looking for it.
The TV's low-quality content smoothing is okay. It does a good job at preserving detail, but there's still noticeable artifacts in dark scenes.
The TV does a 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 settings:
- Sharpness: 16
- Super Resolution: High
The TV uses a BGR (Blue-Green-Red) subpixel layout instead of the traditional RGB layout. This doesn't cause any issues for video or gaming content, but it can be a problem for PC monitor use as it impacts the text clarity, although not everyone will notice this.
Note that the 86-inch model uses an IPS panel with an RGB subpixel layout.
The TV uses quantum dot color converters to produce red and green light, as confirmed by the TV's spectral power distribution (SPD).
The LG QNED90T has a very good response time, but there's still some noticeable blur behind fast-moving objects. Unfortunately, it's slower when coming out of dark states, so there's some black smearing in dark scene 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 depends on the picture mode the TV is set to. In 'FILMMAKER' and 'Expert (Dark Space, night)' modes, the TV flickers at a fast 960Hz with the brightness set below maximum, but it flickers at 120Hz in those modes with local dimming on 'High.' All other picture modes flicker at 120Hz below maximum brightness. Fortunately, the TV is flicker-free in all picture modes, with the brightness set to maximum.
The TV has an optional backlight strobing feature, commonly known as black frame insertion. This feature is meant to reduce persistence blur and improve the appearance of motion. It works well at both 60Hz and 120Hz, with only some minor image duplication.
This TV has an optional motion interpolation feature to improve the clarity of motion. With slower moving scenes, it works okay, with only some artifacts around characters and objects. Unfortunately, it really struggles with faster-moving scenes, and there are distracting artifacts and haloing around characters.
Due to the TV's quick response time, there's some stutter when watching movies or TV shows, and it's most apparent in slow panning shots.
The TV removes judder when watching 24p movies or TV shows when the Real Cinema setting is enabled, even from sources that can only send a 60Hz signal, like a cable box.
The TV supports FreeSync and HDMI Forum VRR. It's also G-SYNC compatible, ensuring a nearly tear-free gaming experience from any VRR-enabled source.
The LG QNED90T has exceptionally low input lag when set to Game Optimizer with 'Prevent Input Delay' set to 'Boost,' resulting in a very responsive gaming experience.
The TV supports all common formats. It displays chroma 4:4:4 properly, which is important for clear text from a PC.
There are two settings you can use to passthrough proper chroma 4:4:4. The first is to change the input label to 'PC.' The second is to enable the '4:4:4 Passthrough' setting in the 'HDMI Settings' menu. Both of these options work the same and lock you out from using the 'Noise Reduction,' 'MPEG Noise Reduction,' 'Smooth Gradation,' and 'Real Cinema' settings.
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 switching to Game Optimizer to get the lowest input lag.
The TV is fully compatible with everything the Xbox Series X|S offers, including 1440p @ 120Hz, 4k @ 120Hz, HDMI Forum VRR, FreeSync Premium Pro, and Dolby Vision gaming. It also supports Auto Low Latency Mode, so you don't have to worry about switching to Game Optimizer to get the lowest input lag.
The LG QNED90T supports the full 48 Gbps 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.
The TV supports eARC, which lets you pass high-quality, uncompressed audio to a compatible receiver or soundbar through an HDMI cable. It supports all major audio formats, so you don't have to worry about compatibility with external sources.
The TV has a decent frequency response. It produces a bit of bass. Dialogue is clear and easy to understand at most volume levels. Unfortunately, the sound becomes unbalanced near and at its maximum volume.
The TV's distortion performance is satisfactory. There isn't much audible distortion at moderate volume levels, but it worsens as you raise the volume.
The TV runs the 2024 version of LG's proprietary smart interface, webOS. The interface is fast and easy to use, and it supports user profiles, so you can customize the home page for different users.
Unfortunately, the TV has a bug that sometimes causes it to not properly switch out of the Game Optimizer setting, so you're locked out of settings that should be available in other picture modes. To fix this, you can turn the TV off/on or change the input label a few times. When you do this and switch to a different picture setting, everything works as it should.
There are two settings in the 'Home Settings' menu, namely the 'Home Promotion' and 'Content Recommendation' settings. These settings remove the top banner ads and suggested content from the home screen. This gives your home screen a clean look, but there's no way to remove ads from the apps page.
The LG QNED90T 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 LG QNED90T has the same Magic Remote that comes with many LG models. You can use the remote as a pointer or use the traditional buttons to control the TV. The TV also supports hands-free voice control through microphones on the unit itself. You can use your voice to change inputs, open apps, search for content, adjust settings, and ask for the weather and time.
