Samsung S90F Review

If you squint, oregon truly conscionable somewhat furrow your brow, you'd beryllium hard-pressed to archer the quality betwixt Samsung's 2025 S90F and the anterior year's S90D. On the exterior, not overmuch has changed. On the interior, also, not overmuch has changed. The 65" version, which we person successful for review, uses the aforesaid quantum dot enhanced OLED exertion (QD-OLED), aforesaid HDR format enactment (still nary Dolby Vision), and has the aforesaid maximum refresh complaint of 144 Hz with VRR.

None of this is simply a atrocious thing, though. The S90F's picture, similar the S90D, is simply a superb happening to instrumentality in: 8.3 cardinal individually controlled pixels, amended than P3 colour gamut, an optical-glass-worthy AR coating, and the smooth, wide gaming show that comes from instantaneous pixel response. Importantly, though, Samsung has been continually improving the 1 large weakness of OLED displays: brightness. The S90F pushes highlights beyond 1400 nits and adjacent manages to eke retired a decent betterment to fullscreen white.

The $2500 motorboat terms meant that jumping into OLED territory was a important (and expensive) measurement beyond FALD LCD competitors similar the Hisense U8QG oregon the TCL QM8K, but successful the TV market, it pays to wait. At the clip of publishing (October 2025), the 65" mentation of the S90F has dropped down to $1,699, and astatine this price, the Samsung S90F becomes an fantabulous mid-range TV for movies and gaming.

Setup, First Impressions, and Tizen:

Getting the S90F connected its basal was a comparatively casual affair. The basal snaps unneurotic (no screws) and slots into the chunkier lodging astatine the little backmost of the display. Most of the screen, though, is unnervingly thin, and looking consecutive down the apical borderline of the sheet confirms that there's lone a flimsy crook to the display, thing major. I don't emotion the thinness; the TV's electronics and IO propulsion the existent thickness of the show retired to astir 1.6 inches, and the remainder of the screen, astatine a scant 4 mm thick, seems unnecessarily delicate and makes handling and moving the show much precarious than it needs to be.

There are 3 USB ports (with keyboard and rodent support), optical audio, an ethernet jack, RF in, and 4 HDMI inputs that each enactment 144 Hz astatine 4K, which is large to see. Power and IO are strangely connected other sides of the display, and the included powerfulness cablegram is conscionable abbreviated capable to marque cablegram absorption and outer instrumentality placement a small tricky.

In my erstwhile reappraisal of the Hisense U8QG, I was effusive successful praise astir the easiness of usage and setup for its Google TV implementation and I'm still, present especially, impressed with however rapidly and easy I could navigate and set settings. I person less bully things to accidental astir the Samsung S90F and Tizen. In fact, I'm aggravated perpetually by the TV.

For me, a TV's superior idiosyncratic interface should ever beryllium immediate, performant, and pared backmost to lone indispensable functionality, but Tizen feels similar a bloated, low-end mobile telephone masquerading arsenic a TV menu. When you privation to alteration representation settings (which is thing I bash rather a batch erstwhile reviewing a television), the paper is truthful dilatory to load that Samsung had to see a throbber, conscionable truthful you cognize the TV hasn't seized up.

Switching inputs is besides dilatory and cumbersome, archetypal requiring you to driblet backmost to Samsung's Home/Start screen, determination left, past down to "Connected Devices," whereupon the TV volition power (after a tiny delay) to immoderate the past instrumentality was. This location surface was besides a large fuss to maine each clip I turned the TV on, wherever the TV would automatically commencement playing Nickelodeon connected Pluto TV. After immoderate digging into "Advanced Features," I yet and happily realized I could crook this peculiar "feature" off. I was astir to spell ballistic if I had to spot different 480p occurrence of SpongeBob SquarePants erstwhile I turned the S90F on.

Samsung's Tizen OS is trying to bash excessively much. Looking done the selling worldly for the TV, amazingly small of it is really promoting the TV/display portion of the screen. Most of it is Samsung's effort to merchantability the TV arsenic the smart-home HUB device. Do you privation to crook connected your astute airy bulbs with your TV? Or possibly gesticulate with your Galaxy ticker alternatively of utilizing the distant control? Tizen's got you covered. Samsung is adjacent touting an AI-enabled canine bark detection diagnostic that volition alert you erstwhile your canine is stressed, and it'll play customized contented to soothe and comfortableness the canine portion you're away. Will someone find this useful? Perhaps. But if the canine barking AI diagnostic is the crushed I person to hold connected a loading surface each clip I privation to alteration the representation mode, I conscionable don't request it.

By trying to bash excessively much, Samsung is hurting the usability of the S90F arsenic a TV. In contrast, the Google TV implementation successful Hisense's U8QG whitethorn look a spot much bare-bones, but navigating the paper is refreshingly elemental compared to the Samsung.

Reflection Handling

The anti-reflective coating connected the Samsung S90F is incredible. It really reminds maine of the vacuum deposited AR coated solid connected my Trinitron CRT. Even though the surface has a mirror-like gloss, reflected airy is profoundly attenuated, taking connected a purple hue. The representation above, taken astatine the aforesaid exposure, compares Hisense’s precise bully AR coating connected the U8QG with the S90F, which performs adjacent better. Reflections are darker and there’s nary rainbow-like diffraction effect.

Your country oregon ceiling lights, windows, etc., will beryllium disposable arsenic reflections, but I ne'er recovered them distracting, adjacent successful my less-than-ideal, precise agleam surviving country setup. OLEDs can’t support the aforesaid full-scene brightness that FALD-driven VA televisions tin muster, truthful for daytime viewing, it’s important that manufacturers get the surface coating right, and Samsung has done a large occupation here.

Sound

The built-in speakers connected the S90F are… fine. I’ll proceed to urge that location theatre enthusiasts (and you apt autumn into that campy if you’re considering an OLED) opt for a discrete dependable solution, but the stereo speakers connected the Samsung volition enactment successful a pinch.

Most of the OLED surface itself is acold excessively bladed to location the speakers, truthful Samsung placed the drivers astatine the bottommost of the screen, facing down and firing into the stand. If you’re utilizing the included basal and not wall-mounting, this configuration works amended than rear-facing speakers since it tends to springiness a much nonstop and precise stereo image. As a result, center-channel dialog is wide and intelligible, and euphony is decent capable astatine low-ish volumes.

The OLED Difference

When radical speech astir OLED displays, the 2 main talking points typically are near-perfect effect times and their quality to nutrient really cleanable blacks. After spending immoderate clip with Samsung’s S90F, however, 2 aspects of OLED truly basal retired to maine arsenic the large differentiators that abstracted the LCD acquisition from the OLED one:

• Near-perfect viewing angles
• Extreme, section contrast

At the S90F’s max refresh complaint of 144 Hz (a 6.94 sclerosis framework time), the ascendant signifier of question blur is illustration and hold, truthful a 0.2 millisecond effect time, portion nice, isn’t 10x amended than a 2 millisecond effect time. It besides turns retired that precise small existent movie oregon crippled contented is axenic black. Yes, the rubric surface oregon developer logos oregon extremity credits mightiness beryllium placed against a achromatic inheritance (and a FALD backlight connected a VA sheet handles those situations good enough), but astir contented that we typically see acheronian oregon contrasty – “ideal for OLED” – is successful the 0.1 to 1 nit range, ne'er afloat black. This means that OLED’s quality to crook disconnected pixels is little important than you mightiness think.

What makes the difference, though, is however the assorted panels show this precise acheronian content. For my erstwhile reappraisal of Hisense’s U8QG, an fantabulous afloat array backlit VA television, I spent a batch of clip watching the HDR mentation of Until Dawn connected Netflix. This week, for the Samsung, it’s been The Wild Robot. Both movies are replete with richly detailed, precise acheronian scenes.

The occupation for Hisense is that VA panels inherently endure from a viewing space babelike gamma displacement for acheronian shades, which causes the luminance (or brightness) oregon the country to displacement depending connected the space and presumption of your head. When watching these 2 movies connected the U8QG, I recovered myself subconsciously moving around, angling myself to get this champion picture, scooching backmost a fewer feet to trim my viewing space to the screen’s periphery.

In comparison, connected the S90F OLED, the representation is perfectly unchangeable nary substance wherever you are oregon however adjacent you get to the screen. This is specified a refreshing alteration from PC show IPS glow and VA gamma shift, and it’s wherefore I deliberation OLED viewing space superiority is the astir important facet that should usher your buying decisions connected OLED vs VA.

If you’re a snob for representation prime and intending to ticker a batch of dark, moody content, and/or you’d similar your arsenic snobby person sitting adjacent to you to get the aforesaid experience, OLED is simply a amended prime than LCD.

In my investigating of the Hisense U8QG, I recovered that, nether circumstantial conditions, the FALD backlight was fundamentally a 4000 nit airy cannon, and immoderate clip an astir 10% achromatic logo would look connected a achromatic background, I’d beryllium experiencing the video mentation of the classical Maxell guy-in-chair ad. But this capableness was substantially diminished successful mean content, peaking astatine 1300 nits, astatine best.

But here’s the quality I saw with the S90F: the Samsung tin lucifer oregon transcend those real-content nit values, which we’ll get into soon, but alternatively of an 8 to 10 zone-sized blob of luminance, the OLED tin get highly specifically agleam astatine conscionable the areas it needs to be. Roz from The Wild Robot is greebled with bladed RGB lighting strips, and the S90F’s representation truly impressed maine with however crisply agleam these highlights were. This utmost section opposition is missing from mean FALD backlit televisions, and it gives the representation a extent and realism that those VA models lack. RGB airy strips, laser beams, the lamp successful a distant thoroughfare light, specular highlights… they’re each dazzling astatine 1400 nits.

The wide superiority of OLED for section opposition and viewing angles whitethorn marque it look similar VA is simply a non-starter for the location theatre enthusiast, but OLED is inactive anemic successful 2 important areas: afloat surface brightness and cost. We’ll screen brightness soon, but I privation to commencement with pricing. At the merchandise terms of $2499 for the 65” version, the S90F would beryllium treble the outgo of the Hisense U8QG. Is it doubly arsenic good? Probably not, but you tin usually find the Samsung connected merchantability beneath $1700. At that price, the determination gets overmuch harder.

Color, Calibration, and SDR

I similar to statesman the calibration process by capturing the "backlight" spectrum of the display. The 65" variant of the S90F I person successful for reappraisal uses a QD-OLED panel, with a triangular RGB subpixel structure, but this isn’t existent for the different sizes, truthful beryllium cautious if you’re making a purchase. Samsung made the funny determination to usage WOLED panels successful the S90F’s different size variants, which is confusing and borderline deceptive.

In the lawsuit of the 65”, a bluish emitting furniture energizes the quantum dots for the reddish and greenish subpixels. The resulting spectrum shows broad, chiseled RGB peaks, precise akin to the Hisense U8QG, which besides uses quantum dots.

All the primaries widen beyond the DCI-P3 colour space. Samsung does person gamut clamps (“Normal” for DCI-P3 oregon “Auto” for sRGB successful PC mode) if you’re a stickler for calibration, but I mostly thin to similar leaving the sheet successful its autochthonal mode, which gives the astir vivid colour presentation.

Other than my quibbles with Tizen’s dilatory loading menus, Samsung does springiness a bully assortment of options for calibration, and I spent rather a batch of clip here. The paper tin beryllium scaled down, which is large for getting it retired of the mode truthful you tin spot your adjustments successful real-time.

The TV defaults to the Warm1 representation mode, which is simply a spot excessively cool, truthful I’d urge swapping to Warm2, which gets the starting constituent person to 6500K. 20-point achromatic equilibrium correction isn’t disposable successful Game mode, but a tiny accommodation to 2-point WB pinches the 35 and 70 percent achromatic colour equilibrium points precise adjacent to a cleanable 6500K with debased Delta E’s crossed the board.

In SDR, the S90F has 2 gamma options: 2.2 and BT1886. Both measurement astir identically, with averages of 2.17 and 2.25 respectively, and precise small ocular quality betwixt them. My SDR measurements were taken utilizing BT1886.

The Samsung S90F seems to person a hard bounds of 250 nits fullscreen, whether successful SDR oregon HDR, but the behaviour of smaller model sizes, oregon highlights, varies rather a spot depending connected the nonstop size of the trial patch. Interestingly, with a achromatic background, the S90F tin support astir 660 nits each the mode to up to a 25% window, which is impressive. I lone privation that Samsung would let SDR highlights to deed the highest numbers (~1400) that it tin bash successful HDR. 660 nits is bright, but it doesn't truly let SDR contented – the immense bulk of games and movies – to person the luminance popular and dazzle that the FALD backlit Hisense U8QG tin achieve.

Patch measurements taken with a 5% grey inheritance (RGB 13) – overmuch much typical of existent contented than with a axenic achromatic inheritance – are somewhat depressed, down to astir 630 nits, but the S90F has a peculiar behaviour successful this situation: the 5% inheritance fundamentally disappears erstwhile the trial spot is illuminated. It seems the S90F can't support an adjacent grey inheritance erstwhile the spot is shown, possibly an contented with Samsung’s ABL algorithm. In immoderate case, it makes comparisons with different displays that can maintain a accordant 5% inheritance a small difficult.

Even with these limitations, SDR contented inactive looks astonishing connected the S90F. And if you let the flimsy inaccuracy from moving the unclamped, autochthonal gamut, adjacent a bog-standard-definition awesome from a crippled similar Superliminal volition impress.

HDR

On decently mastered content, HDR looks stunning connected the S90F. As I mentioned previously, OLED's stark section opposition combined with truly bully HDR brightness makes for a amended HDR acquisition than you get connected a locally dimmed VA panel, and that was perfectly borne retired arsenic I watched scenes from The Wild Robot and The Umbrella Academy. Outside of Game mode, Samsung does let the S90F to get a small brighter, and watching airy pouring successful from Hotel Obsidian's windows astatine 1400 nits is wonderful.

EOTF tracking successful HDR is adjacent perfect; lone the darkest parts of the image, beneath astir 1 nit, are a small brighter than expected. All my superior investigating was done successful Game Mode, and present Samsung is simply a small much blimpish with highest brightness, limiting the S90F to astir 1300 nits astatine some the 2% and 10% model sizes with a achromatic background. With a much realistic 10 nit background, some model sizes apical retired astatine 1200 and 1140 nits respectively. For larger model sizes, the HDR and SDR brightness measurements converge, and some highest astatine 250 nits fullscreen, which is simply a spot disappointing.

I trial down to 0.05 nits, which whitethorn look highly dark, but determination is simply a batch of important contented beneath 1 nit, and presenting it accurately is important. Still utilizing the Warm2 colour somesthesia mounting and a fewer tiny tweaks to summation and offset, the S90F does a singular occupation of keeping a accordant 6500K colour equilibrium heavy into adjacent black, with lone a tiny bluish push, astir imperceptible, evidenced by the highly debased Delta E values.

The S90F offers an HDR acquisition wherever tiny highlights and details are dazzlingly bright, colors are deep, rich, and accurate, but it’s unluckily constricted by mediocre fullscreen brightness that makes agleam country viewing dimmer and little impactful than its LCD competition.

Response Times, Gaming, and the S90F arsenic a PC Monitor

Whether you’re funny successful a very ample PC gaming show (like I am) oregon a high-refresh complaint surviving country console-gaming display, the S90F is simply a fantastic prime for gamers. With (mostly) sub-millisecond effect times, input lag that competes with immoderate of the champion gaming monitors, and a max refresh complaint of 144 Hz with VRR, the S90F is caput and shoulders supra its VA-LCD equipped competitors similar the Hisense U8QG oregon TCL QM8K, whose effect times simply can’t support up. My lone existent gripes are that Samsung didn’t springiness america an adjacent higher refresh complaint mode (where’s the integer-scaled 1080p mode astatine 288 Hz?) and the ever-present imaginable for VRR flicker, inherent to OLED displays.

My gamma-corrected effect clip charts for the S90F whitethorn look a small unusual astatine first. Most responses are near-instant: 150 microseconds – precisely arsenic we'd expect for an OLED. But a smattering of slow-ish transitions, usually astir the frame-time magnitude of the refresh rate, brings the mean to astir 1 millisecond for the 60 Hz, 120 Hz, and 144 Hz modes.

A large illustration of 1 of these agelong effect times is the modulation from achromatic to RGB 223 astatine 60 Hz, which takes a glacial 17.2 ms. The modulation rapidly jumps to astir RGB 210 and past has a long, gradual emergence to 223 implicit the adjacent 16.6 milliseconds. The graph shows a examination with the modulation from RGB 31 to 223, which lone takes 0.18 ms. Is this quality visible? Surprisingly, yes! In moving trial patches, the asymmetry betwixt the dilatory emergence clip and the instant falling clip tin beryllium seen arsenic a shadiness quality betwixt the starring and trailing edges of moving objects, but you'd person to beryllium precise perceptive (and precise picky) to spot this portion playing games. Don't fto immoderate of my slower measurements for the S90F scare you away; Samsung's OLED sheet is fundamentally arsenic bully arsenic it gets for effect times.

The acquisition successful a crippled similar Superliminal is extraordinary. The crippled goes from bright, colorful rooms to sparsely and dimly lit corridors. Unlike VA panels that thin to smear acheronian scenes, the S90F's question show is highly accelerated and consistent, constricted lone by the sample-and-hold blur astatine 144 FPS. In fact, the crippled is truthful creaseless astatine 144 Hz, it makes maine privation that Samsung pushed the refresh complaint adjacent higher. The S95F, for a batch much money, offers a marginally higher 165 Hz max refresh rate, but that isn’t capable to truly determination the needle; a 240 oregon 288 Hz mode would beryllium a precise invited addition.

Pursuit photos of the TestUFO alien reenforce the conception that the S90F is simply a fundamentally a axenic sample-and-hold constricted display. At 1920 pixels per 2nd panning speed, which is fast, each the UFO blur is simply a effect of representation persistence alternatively than effect times; there's nary antithetic smearing, ghosting, oregon overdrive artifacts.

In Game Mode, input lag connected the S90F is debased astatine each refresh rates, coming successful astir 1 millisecond astatine 144 Hz, 1.2 sclerosis astatine 120 Hz, and 6 sclerosis astatine 60 Hz. Latency nether 10 sclerosis is each but imperceptible but to try-hardest of try-hards (my tested bounds is astir 6 ms), truthful adjacent PC gamers utilized to the immediacy of rodent question connected a gaming show won’t beryllium disappointed with this television.

For the 65” variant (QD-OLED only), the S90F uses a triangular G/RB subpixel layout, with the greenish subpixel connected its ain row. This antithetic layout hurts good substance clarity and tin origin greenish and purple fringing connected the apical and bottommost of precocious opposition elements similar substance and desktop windows. The super-macro supra shows the S90F’s rendering of “Aug” successful a tiny 9-pt font. While amended than the U8QG’s rendering, Samsung’s OLED operation has much occupation making tiny fonts legible than a accepted RGB stripe.

Not everyone, of course, intends to usage a 65” TV connected their desk, and this occupation mostly disappears astatine tenable viewing distances.

VRR Flicker

VRR flicker is simply a occupation for each OLEDs, and the S90F is nary exception. While gaming, ample framework clip swings, whether caused by a shader compilation hitch, unoptimized code, oregon adjacent inheritance tasks, tin origin accelerated changes successful dark-level luminance – fundamentally a gamma alteration – which takes connected the quality of a flicker oregon flash.

For the S90F, this typically happens erstwhile the show crosses the LFC threshold, and the panel’s carnal refresh complaint either instantly doubles oregon halves, e.g. a 56 FPS crippled country causes the show to oscillate betwixt 56 Hz and 112 Hz, and due to the fact that the dark-level gamma changes with refresh rate, we get the VRR flicker effect.

This is simply a spot hard to measurement due to the fact that the onset of LFC changes depending connected a myriad of factors: the display, the GPU, GPU drivers, the absorption of the framerate alteration (rising oregon falling), LFC framerate hysteresis, etc. But I did negociate to instrumentality a bid of dark-level trial spot measurements for 60 FPS versus 144 FPS, and the alteration successful luminance is beauteous casual to spot. At astir RGB 21, the luminance responses commencement to diverge, and by RGB 60, there’s an easy noticeable quality betwixt the antithetic framework rates.

All that said, I didn’t acquisition overmuch VRR flicker successful my gaming tests with the S90F (Superliminal, Doom: The Dark Ages, Quake Champions), but this is highly crippled specific, arsenic World of Warcraft oregon Alan Wake 2 players tin attest: it’s not a occupation until it is. Maintaining a accordant framerate is key, but that’s not thing you ever person afloat power over. If you’re buying an OLED, conscionable beryllium alert that VRR flicker is simply a precise existent possibility.