The Samsung QN90A QLED is a flagship 4k LED TV. It's part of Samsung's 2021 Neo QLED lineup, which combines Mini LED backlighting with a quantum dot layer to display a wide range of colors at various luminance levels. The Mini LED backlighting helps the TV display deeper blacks as it has greater control over its local dimming feature, and it also gets very bright, enough to combat glare or bring out highlights. It comes with the Tizen smart platform, which is easy-to-use and has a ton of apps available to download, and the new remote has a solar panel in the back, so it uses sunlight to charge. It comes with a bunch of gaming features like variable refresh rate (VRR) support and HDMI 2.1 bandwidth, but only on one port, which is disappointing as you can't take full advantage of two next-gen gaming consoles at the same time.
Our Verdict
The Samsung QN90A is an excellent TV for any use. It's excellent for movies in dark rooms as its VA panel provides an excellent native contrast ratio and has a great local dimming to display deep blacks. It gets bright enough to combat glare and has fantastic reflection handling if you want to use it in a well-lit room while watching shows and sports. It also displays a wide range of colors for an excellent HDR experience. Also, it's amazing for gaming because it has variable refresh rate (VRR) support, low input lag, and quick response time for smooth motion handling.
- Excellent native contrast ratio.
- Great Mini LED full-array local dimming feature.
- Removes 24p judder from any content.
- Decent viewing angle.
- Incredible HDR peak brightness.
- A bit of blooming noticeable around bright objects.
The Samsung QN90A is excellent for watching TV shows in a bright room. It easily gets bright enough to combat glare in well-lit rooms and has fantastic reflection handling, meaning visibility won't be an issue. It has a wide viewing angle, so the image remains accurate when viewing from the side, which is great for watching shows with the entire family. Lastly, it upscales lower-resolution content like cable TV without any issues.
- Removes 24p judder from any content.
- Gets bright enough to combat glare.
- Fantastic reflection handling.
- Decent viewing angle.
- Some dirty screen effect visible in the center.
The Samsung QN90A is excellent for watching sports. Fast-moving content looks smooth thanks to its very quick response time, and it has a backlight strobing feature to help reduce motion blur. It's great for viewing in bright rooms thanks to its fantastic reflection handling and very high peak brightness. It has a decent viewing angle if you want to watch the big game with a few friends.
- Removes 24p judder from any content.
- Gets bright enough to combat glare.
- Decent viewing angle.
- Very quick response time results in smooth motion.
- Some dirty screen effect visible in the center.
The Samsung QN90A is amazing for gaming. It's packed with gaming features like HDMI 2.1 bandwidth and VRR support. Its 120Hz panel has a very quick response time, resulting in smooth motion, and the input lag is very low. It's great for dark room gaming thanks to its excellent native contrast ratio, but the local dimming feature performs worse in Game Mode than outside of it. Sadly, it only has one HDMI port that supports HDMI 2.1, so you can't take full advantage of both the PS5 and Xbox Series X if you connect them at the same time.
- Excellent native contrast ratio.
- Removes 24p judder from any content.
- Very quick response time results in smooth motion.
- FreeSync VRR support.
- Very low input lag.
- A bit of blooming noticeable around bright objects.
The Samsung QN90A is excellent for watching HDR movies. It displays a wide color gamut, and it supports HDR10+, but not Dolby Vision, so you can't take advantage of the Dolby Vision format in some streaming content. It gets bright enough to make highlights pop, has an excellent native contrast ratio, and its Mini LED local dimming feature helps it display deep blacks. It also has fantastic black uniformity, but there's still some blooming around bright objects.
- Excellent native contrast ratio.
- Great Mini LED full-array local dimming feature.
- Removes 24p judder from any content.
- Incredible HDR peak brightness.
- Displays wide color gamut.
- A bit of blooming noticeable around bright objects.
- No Dolby Vision support.
The Samsung QN90A is amazing for HDR gaming. It's excellent for gaming, thanks to its very quick response time and low input lag. It has native FreeSync support and G-SYNC compatibility to reduce screen tearing. In terms of HDR, it displays a wide color gamut and has incredible HDR brightness in Game Mode. It also has an excellent native contrast ratio to provide a great dark room gaming experience, but its local dimming feature isn't as good in Game Mode.
- Removes 24p judder from any content.
- Very quick response time results in smooth motion.
- FreeSync VRR support.
- Incredible HDR peak brightness.
- Displays wide color gamut.
- A bit of blooming noticeable around bright objects.
The Samsung QN90A is an excellent choice to use as a PC monitor. It has a very low input lag and quick response time to provide a responsive gaming experience. Thanks to its wide viewing angle, the image remains mostly accurate at the edges if you sit too close. You also won't have any issues in a well-lit room either, as it gets bright enough to combat glare and has fantastic reflection handling. Lastly, it displays proper chroma 4:4:4 with most signals, which helps it display clear text.
- Removes 24p judder from any content.
- Gets bright enough to combat glare.
- Decent viewing angle.
- Very quick response time results in smooth motion.
- Very low input lag.
- Some dirty screen effect visible in the center.
Changelog
- Updated Sep 26, 2025: We uploaded the latest brightness measurements and uniformity photos for the Accelerated Longevity Test.
- Updated Jul 08, 2025: We uploaded the latest brightness measurements and uniformity photos for the Accelerated Longevity Test.
- Updated Apr 17, 2025: We uploaded the latest brightness measurements and uniformity photos for the Accelerated Longevity Test.
- Updated Feb 11, 2025: We uploaded the latest brightness measurements and uniformity photos for the Accelerated Longevity Test.
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Differences Between Sizes And Variants
We tested the 55 inch Samsung QN90A, and for the most part, the review is valid for the 65 inch, 75 inch, 85 inch, and 98 inch variants available in North America. There's a 43 inch variant, but it has a lower refresh rate and doesn't support HDMI 2.1 bandwidth, so it performs differently than the other models. Also, the 50 inch model has the same features but doesn't use the 'Ultra Viewing Angle' technology.
You'll also see it as the Samsung QN9, QN9D, or QN9DA at warehouse retailers like Costco or Sam's Club. Samsung's lineup is different in Europe, so this review isn't valid for the European QN90A, as the European equivalent is the QN94A, while the QN95A in Europe is similar but uses the One Connect Box. Below you can see the full model codes of each model, but keep in mind that the last six letters vary between countries and even different retailers.
| Size | US Model | Short Model Code | Refresh Rate | Variable Refresh Rate | Ultra Viewing Angle |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 43" | QN43QN90AAFXZA | QN43QN90A | 60Hz | No | No |
| 50" | QN50QN90AAFXZA | QN50QN90A | 120Hz | Yes | No |
| 55" | QN55QN90AAFXZA | QN55QN90A | 120Hz | Yes | Yes |
| 65" | QN65QN90AAFXZA | QN65QN90A | 120Hz | Yes | Yes |
| 75" | QN75QN90AAFXZA | QN75QN90A | 120Hz | Yes | Yes |
| 85" | QN85QN90AAFXZA | QN85QN90A | 120Hz | Yes | Yes |
| 98" | QN98QN90AAFXZA | QN98QN90A | 120Hz | Yes | Yes |
If someone comes across a different type of panel or if their Samsung QN90A doesn't correspond to the review, let us know and we'll update the review. Note that some tests, like gray uniformity, may vary between units.
Our unit of the QN90A was manufactured in February 2021; you can see the label here. You can also see a picture of our service menu here.
Popular TV Comparisons
The Samsung QN90A is an excellent all-around TV with exceptional picture quality. It's an improvement over its predecessor, the Samsung Q90/Q90T QLED, mainly because the Mini LED backlighting provides brighter highlights. It's one of the best TVs we tested in 2021, but keep in mind that it's on the costly side, so only get this if you want the best picture quality possible, regardless of the price.
Also see our recommendations for the best Samsung TVs, the best QLED TVs, and the best 4k TVs.
The Samsung QN90A performs better than the Samsung QN90C on a few tests, but overall, the QN90C looks a bit better, especially with HDR content. The QN90C has better tone mapping and tracks the PQ EOTF better, so HDR content looks better and is more accurate. The QN90C also uses a different panel type that natively has a wide viewing angle without needing additional filters, so there's no Ultra Wide Viewing Angle layer. It results in a slightly smaller viewing angle on the QN90C, but there's no distracting rainbow smearing from overhead lights.
Overall, the Samsung QN90A is better than the Sony X90J. The Samsung has a much wider color gamut, and it gets a lot brighter, more than enough to deliver a true cinematic HDR experience. It has better viewing angles because it has Samsung's 'Ultra Viewing Angle' layer, but this layer also causes a drop in the contrast ratio. That said, the Samsung's local dimming is significantly more effective at improving the black level. The Samsung has better response times, and unlike the Sony, its Black Frame Insertion feature can flicker at 60Hz in 60 fps content. It has FreeSync VRR support to reduce screen tearing when gaming, and it supports 1440p @ 120Hz on the Xbox Series X, while the Sony can't.
The Samsung QN90A is better than the Sony X95J, but if you really care about an accurate movie experience, some people might prefer the Sony. The Samsung has much better black uniformity and better contrast, but the Sony has a better local dimming feature, despite the Mini LED backlight on the Samsung. On the other hand, some people might prefer the Sony for watching HDR movies, as it tracks the EOTF more accurately, and many people prefer the processing on Sony TVs.
The Samsung QN90B is very similar to its predecessor, the Samsung QN90A. The QN90B has a wider viewing angle but worse black uniformity and more noticeable blooming in dark scenes. Small highlights in HDR content in dark scenes are significantly brighter on the QN90B, so they pop more.
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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