Samsung Q90/Q90R QLED  TV Review

The Samsung Q90R is a high-end QLED TV. It's Samsung's 4k flagship, just under the 8k Samsung Q900R. It's the replacement of last year's Samsung Q9FN. The Q90R is comparable to most other high-end 4k models like the LG C9, the Sony A9G, or the LED Vizio P Series Quantum 2019.

The Samsung Q90R has an outstanding design. It has very thin bezels on all sides and the stand is a simple solid piece of metal that supports the TV well. The TV's inputs are housed in a separate unit called the One Connect box and they're connected through a single cable.

The stand is metallic and very sturdy. It supports the TV well and doesn't allow much wobbling.

The footprint of the stand (65" model): 11.2" x13.4"

Note: The reflection depicted on the above picture is the result of the 'Ultra Viewing Angle' layer, explained here.

The back of the TV is plain. It's made of plastic and has a brushed texture.

Since most of the electronics are housed in the One Connect box, there's only a single cable connecting the box to the TV. There are grooves along the stand and the back of the TV that serves as cable management.

The borders of the Q90 are very thin and look good.

The Samsung Q90 is very thin and won't protrude much if you wall-mount it.

The build quality is exceptional. The TV feels sturdy and the metal stand is very heavy. There are no obvious gaps in the construction and you shouldn't have any issues with it.

The Q90R has a great contrast ratio. It's lower than most TVs with VA panels, mainly due to the TV's 'Ultra Viewing Angle' layer, which improves viewing angles at the expense of contrast ratio. However, it's significantly better when local dimming is enabled. Note that the contrast ratio can vary between units.

The TV's local dimming can't be completely disabled using the normal settings menu. In order to measure the native contrast ratio, we had to disable PC Mode Dimming in the TV's service menu, and then activate PC Mode and Game Mode at the same time.

The Q90 has a great local dimming feature. There's very little blooming, but it tends to dim the edges of bright objects, causing a vignetting effect, and small highlights like stars are crushed. In Game Mode, the local dimming doesn't react as quickly to changes in a scene, leading to more visible blooming.

The local dimming can't be completely disabled. Even when set to 'Low' it can be distracting. This can be an issue if you often watch with subtitles.

We performed our testing with Local Dimming set to 'High'.

Note: There's a 55" variant of the Q90R available only in Europe that's advertised as having a weaker local dimming feature, but we haven't tested it and can't give further details.

Update 08/08/2019:We retested the real scene peak brightness, and it didn't change considerably.

Update 08/02/2019: We've retested the Q90R with the latest firmware, and the SDR peak brightness has increased a bit. We've updated our measurements and scores.

Outstanding SDR peak brightness. Small highlights in dark scenes are very bright and the TV's overall brightness can easily fight glare in a bright rooms.

We performed our measurements after calibration with picture mode set to ‘Movie,’ Local Dimming set to ‘High,’ Auto Motion Plus set to 'off,' and Backlight set to 'Max.' Different settings may produce a brighter picture. The setting that controls the backlight brightness is called Backlight.

Update 08/08/2019:We retested the real scene peak brightness, and it didn't change considerably.

Update 08/02/2019: We've retested the Q90R with the latest firmware, and the HDR peak brightness has increased a bit. We've updated our measurements and scores.

The Samsung Q90R has outstanding HDR peak brightness. This TV can deliver very bright highlights when displaying HDR content.

We performed our measurements without any calibration, picture mode set to ‘Movie,’ Local Dimming set to ‘High,’ and Auto Motion Plus set to 'off,' which are also our recommended settings. Some settings may produce a brighter image. For example, the 'Dynamic' picture mode can get brighter but has much worse picture accuracy.

The Samsung Q90R has decent gray uniformity. There's some vignetting around the corners and at the edges of the screen, but the center is very uniform, with no noticeable dirty screen effect. The uniformity is significantly better in dark scenes. There's a slight blue tint when displaying gray content, such as black and white movies. Note that gray uniformity can vary between units.

The Samsung Q90R has okay viewing angles. As you move off center, the image remains accurate for wider angles. The contrast stays relatively constant and this prevents the image from looking washed out.

VA panels normally have poor viewing angles, but the Q90 has an optical layer that Samsung calls 'Ultra Viewing Angle', which greatly improves the viewing angles at the expense of a lower native contrast ratio.

The TV's local dimming can't be completely disabled using the normal settings menu. So in order to measure the lightness viewing angle we had to disable PC Mode Dimming in the TV's service menu, and then activate PC Mode and Game Mode at the same time, which finally allowed us to measure with local dimming 'off'.

Black uniformity is excellent. The little blooming that you can spot in our overexposed image isn't really noticeable in normal content unless you watch a very dark scene in a dark room. Local dimming makes black uniformity nearly perfect in some very dark scenes. Note that black uniformity can vary between units.

The TV's local dimming can't be completely disabled using the normal settings menu. Just like in other measurements, in order to measure the native black uniformity, we had to disable PC Mode Dimming in the TV's service menu, and then activate PC Mode and Game Mode at the same time, which allowed us to turn local dimming off.

Reflection handling is outstanding. The glossy finish diffuses light well, but it has a relatively high 'Indirect Reflections' as a result of the 'Ultra Viewing Angle' layer, which scatters light across its surface, producing rainbow reflections across the screen. We'll revisit this scoring in the next test bench update.

Before calibration, the color accuracy is decent. The 'Movie' Picture Mode gives the best result, although there are still inaccuracies with several colors and shades of gray. With color temperature set to 'Warm 2', it's a much warmer color temperature than our target of 6500k, resulting in a slightly red-yellowish tint. The gamma follows the target curve fairly well, so most scenes appear at the correct brightness. Note that color accuracy can vary between units.

Color accuracy is outstanding after calibration. White balance and gamma are nearly perfect, and the remaining inaccuracies shouldn't be noticeable to the naked eye. The TV has an auto-calibration function, but it still requires a colorimeter and specialized software.

You can see our recommended settings here.

Older, 480p digital content looks good, with no obvious upscaling artifacts or oversharpening.

Upscaling of 720p content such as cable TV or older game consoles looks good.

Upscaling of 1080p content such as Blu-rays or game consoles looks good. The image is sharp and there are no obvious issues.

Native 4k content looks great and is displayed perfectly.

The Samsung Q90R can't display an 8k signal.

Unfortunately the TV's 'Ultra Viewing Angle' optical layer makes the pixels hard to see clearly. We observed the same issue on the Q900R pixel photo.

The Samsung Q90R has an impressive wide color gamut; however, it's possible that the TV's 'Ultra Viewing Angle' layer is reducing its coverage. The 'Movie' EOTF is a little brighter than the input stimulus until it starts to roll off near the TV's peak brightness. In Game Mode, the PQ curve remains relatively similar to the 'Movie' mode, but at lower input stimulus, some scenes may appear too dim.

If you find HDR too dim, you can make it brighter by setting Brightness to '5,' and Contrast Enhancer to 'High.' This will produce a much brighter image, as you can see here.

Update: 04/23/2019 In the review of the Q9FN we observed that for lower brightness HDR infoframes (such as 1000 nits), the TV produces scenes which are brighter than intended. You can read more about it here. We haven't measured the 1000 nits infoframe for this TV but we expect it to be similar to the Q9FN.

The Samsung Q90 has very good color volume with good coverage of the DCI P3 color space and decent coverage of the wider Rec 2020. Like most LED TVs, it can produce bright and dark colors across most of its gamut, but can't produce very bright blues.

This performance is close but not as good as last year's high-end QLEDs. This is most likely the result of the not so wide color gamut when compared to last year's Q9FN and Q8FN.

Great gradient performance. There's very little banding visible in the darker grays and in the medium greens. Setting the Digital Clean View to 'Auto' can effectively remove most of the banding but can lead to a loss of fine detail.

Unfortunately, during testing, the TV's local dimming (that can't be disabled) interfered with our gradient test, tampering with the data and making it score a bit worse than it should. However, while not perfectly accurate, the score is still within the same ballpark as our subjective impression. We had the same issue with the Q900R.

We also compared the Q90R (top) with the Q9FN (bottom) and confirmed this.

There are no risks of temporary image retention; however, this can vary between units.

We don't expect VA panels to experience permanent image retention, as the VA panel in our long-term test appears immune.

The Samsung Q90R has an outstanding response time. There's only a very small blur trail behind fast-moving objects, but there's significant overshoot is the 0-20% transition, causing some artifacts in dark scenes.

This TV uses PWM dimming to dim the backlight. Flicker is always present but becomes more severe at lower brightness. However, since the flicker frequency is 960Hz most people won't see it.

We tested the TV in 'Movie' mode with Auto Motion Plus disabled. However, in 'Movie' mode, the flicker rate changes to 120Hz if you set Auto Motion Plus to 'Custom' or 'Auto.' In 'Standard' and in 'Game' modes the flicker is always at 120Hz.

The Samsung Q90R has an excellent black frame insertion feature that helps make the image crisper. Just setting Auto Motion Plus to 'Custom' changes the flicker to 120Hz, as explained in the Flicker-Free box. If you do not want to add any soap opera effect you should set Blur Reduction and Judder Reduction to '0.' If you enable LED Clear Motion, the flicker changes to 60Hz.

In 'Game' mode, the flicker frequency is always 120Hz, and enabling LED Clear Motion in Game Motion Plus changes the flicker frequency to 60Hz.

The Samsung Q90R can interpolate content up to 120fps. To enable motion interpolation you must set Auto Motion Plus to 'Custom.' The Blur Reduction slider affects only high frame rate content (ex. 60 fps). The Judder Reduction slider affects low frame rate content (ex. 30 fps). To obtain the best possible results you should adjust those sliders to your liking. For our test, we kept both at max. Motion interpolation looks okay although some artifacts can be noticed at times. When the action becomes too intense the TV stops interpolating.

In 'Game' mode, there's a Game Motion Plus option, which, however, doesn't look as good, but adds far less input lag. You can read more about it in the Input Lag box.

Note: When Auto Motion Plus is enabled, the TV's flicker changes to 120Hz, as explained in the Flicker-Free box.

Due to the very fast response time of the Samsung Q90R, low frame rate content is held on screen for longer periods of time, which can cause the image to appear to stutter. If you find this stutter bothersome, you can reduce it by enabling motion interpolation or the optional black frame insertion feature.

The Samsung Q90R can remove judder from any source. To remove judder set Auto Motion Plus to 'Custom,' and Blur Reduction and Judder Reduction to '0' (if you don't want motion interpolation).

Note: When Auto Motion Plus is enabled, the TV's flicker changes to 120Hz, as explained in the Flicker-Free box.

Update 12/17/2019: A flaw was discovered in the way we were testing for G-SYNC compatibility with TVs. We've corrected the flaw, and have retested the 2019 Samsung and LG TVs, and found that the Samsung Q90R doesn't work properly with NVIDIA's current Adaptive Sync drivers.

Update 08/02/2019:4k @ 120Hz is now working properly in 'Game' mode; the TV is no longer skipping frames. We still can't test the 4k VRR range properly though, as our FreeSync PC doesn't support 4k @ 120Hz.

The Q90 supports FreeSync variable refresh rate to reduce screen tearing when gaming on an Xbox One or a PC with an AMD graphics card. Unfortunately, it doesn't work with NVIDIA's Adaptive Sync drivers.

We tested the TV on 'Game' mode, and we used FreeSync set to 'Ultimate' to obtain the widest possible range.

Update 08/02/2019: We've retested the TV with the latest firmware, and the input lag has decreased slightly across the board. We were also able to test the 4k @ 120Hz input lag. 4k @ 120Hz is now working properly in 'Game' mode; the TV is no longer skipping frames. We've updated our numbers and scores.

Outstanding low input lag. To get the lowest input lag you must set the TV to 'Game Mode,' even when you are in 'PC Mode.' Chroma 4:4:4 is properly shown only when in 'PC Mode.'

The Samsung Q90R has low input lag with motion interpolation enabled. In the Game Motion Plus settings menu, when the Blur Reduction slider is increased, the TV interpolates up to 60 fps but also increases the input lag a bit, although it's still very low. If the Blur Reduction slider is increased further, the TV then interpolates up to 120 fps and the input lag increases slightly to 22.7 ms, which is still low enough for casual gaming.

If you want an even lower input lag for gaming, check out the Samsung Q90T.

Update 08/02/2019: We've retested the TV with the latest firmware, and it's now able to display 4k @ 120Hz on HDMI 4 without skipping frames.

The Q90R supports most common resolutions and refresh rates. Most high bandwidth signals require Input Signal Plus to be enabled for the port in use. Input Signal Plus is the new name for HDMI UHD Color.

The TV can display chroma 4:4:4 or RGB content properly in all supported resolutions except in 1440p @ 120Hz. To properly display chroma 4:4:4 you must set the input label to 'PC.'

Unfortunately, we can't test for HDMI 2.1 support as we no longer have this TV.

Sadly, this TV doesn't support DTS or eARC. It likely does support lossy Atmos passthrough from Dolby Digital Plus sources, including the native Netflix app.

The frequency response of the Samsung Q90R is decent. There's a good amount of body and punch to the bass but not enough to produce a rumbling sound. The response above the TV's LFE is well-balanced and can deliver clear dialogues. Also, it can get reasonably loud, but may not be loud enough for large or noisy environments.

We tested the TV with Samsung's room correction feature called 'Adaptive Sound' enabled. However, we left the 'Adaptive Volume' and 'Auto Volume' features disabled, as 'Auto Volume' drastically limits the max volume. This feature can be useful if you find that commercials play at a higher volume than the content you're watching.

Decent distortion performance. The overall amount of harmonic distortion produced is within decent limits. Also, there isn't a big jump in THD under heavier loads either, which is good.

Samsung's Tizen OS is a great platform that's intuitive and user-friendly.

We noticed that sometimes when you change the input from 'PC' to something else the edges of the screen are cut off due to overscan. Just navigating into the Picture Size setting fixes the issue, even if you don't change anything.

Unfortunately, there are ads and suggested content on the home page as well as in the app store, and there's no option to opt out.

Samsung's app store has an abundance of apps to choose from. The apps run well, although they're not always very smooth.

The remote control is simple and very similar to the remote that's included with other premium Samsung QLEDs. There are shortcuts to streaming services like Netflix, Prime Video, and Hulu, but you can access many more through the TV's main menu. There's also an integrated microphone for voice control through Bixby, Samsung's digital assistant. This allows you to control the TV, ask for info like the time or weather, and search for content. However, it isn't clear as to which apps support voice search. It didn't work when we tried to search for content on Netflix, but it did on YouTube. Lastly, Samsung's OneRemote feature allows the remote to control other devices, even if they don't support HDMI CEC.

The TV controls are located on the underside. The keypad allows you to change channel, volume, and input. You can also access the settings menu and the home menu, that means that you can do everything without the remote.

If you need to launch the Home menu while you are in an app, press and hold the center button. Performing the same action also closes the Home menu.

• Manual
• Batteries
• Remote
• Wall-mount spacers
• Cable guide (the blue arch) to help the One Connect cable to go around corners
• Screw to attach the One Connect connector to the TV so that it can't be removed

Not shown:

• One Connect box
• Power cable for One Connect box
• One Connect cable