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Samsung QN90F TV Ultimate Review: The Mini-LED TV That Just Might Make You Forget OLED

Samsung’s 2025 TV lineup is mighty impressive, including its high-end mini-LED option the QN90F. Which I’ve been living with for almost the past month. Samsung was kind enough to send over their 75-inch QN90F, and I have absolutely loved using this TV.

There’s a lot to love with this TV, but one thing you might not love is the price. The particular model that I have is priced at $2,999. But you can get the QN90F starting at 43″ for $1,299. Or go all the way up to a 98″ TV for $14,999.

This is Samsung’s flagship mini-LED TV for 2025, and it definitely checks all of the boxes. It has an anti-glare coating, the NQ4 AI Gen3 processor, Samsung Vision AI, and much more. Now, let’s get that elephant out of the room, that is Dolby. There’s no Dolby Vision here, as expected since Samsung prefers using its own HDR standard. There is Dolby Atmos over Dolby Digital Plus here, which will soon be replaced by Eclipsa on future Samsung TVs.

After spending almost a month with the QN90F, how does it stack up? And should you spend your hard-earned money on this TV? Let’s find out.

Samsung QN90F Specs

Samsung QN90F Specs

Screen type
QLED and MiniLED

Display sizes
43, 50, 55, 65, 75, 85, and 98″

Refresh Rate
120Hz (up to 165Hz)

HDR Support
Neo Quantum HDR+, HDR 10+, HLG

Audio Support
Dolby Atmos, OTS+, Q-Symphony, 4.2.2-channel

Software
Tizen Smart TV

Smart Features
Apple AirPlay 2, Click to Search, Live Translate, Generative Wallpaper, Karoake Mic

Game Features
ALLM, VRR, Game Motion Plus, AMD FreeSync Premium Pro, Hue Sync, Gaming Hub

HDMI Ports
4 HDMI 2.1 ports

View Device Specs

Samsung QN90F Review: Design and Build Quality

The QN90F is a stunning TV, of course, at this size, it does really make those bezels look tiny, and I absolutely love that. Keep in mind that I do have the 75-inch model here. Much like the Hisense U8QG that I reviewed a few months ago, it also has a pedestal stand. And it’s very sturdy, actually. I didn’t think it would be strong enough to hold up such a large TV, but I was wrong. It was also incredibly easy to put together, out of the box.

The side profile of the QN90F is pretty thin too, not the thinnest we’ve seen, but it’s also not boxy like some others on the market. It is flat, though, which makes mounting it on a wall much easier. The backside of the TV does have a 4.2.2-channel 60W speaker array, which we’ll talk more about later, but it sounds really good.

On the left side of the back is going to be all of your ports, with power being on the right. This includes four HDMI 2.1 ports, which is really great to see, especially at this price. This means that you won’t have to worry about which HDMI cable goes where, especially if you have a PlayStation 5 and an Xbox Series X, both of which can do 4K120 over HDMI 2.1.

The remote is also a pretty good one, if I’m being honest. It doesn’t have a ton of buttons, but it has all of the ones you need – including a dedicated AI button. Other TVs, like the TCL and Hisense ones I reviewed recently, have a ton of buttons, making it a lot tougher to use. Additionally, there is a solar panel on the back that will keep the remote charged up for you. Now, I haven’t used this TV long enough to see if I need to charge it often from light in the room. Since I’ve only had this TV for around a month. But it is a pretty cool feature to have.

When it comes to design, there’s really not a ton that we can talk about with TVs. It’s mostly a black rectangle with a mostly screen. And that’s the case here too. It does not feel cheap like some other TVs on the market, either. For the price, you’re getting a well-built TV.

Samsung QN90F Review: Picture Quality

My favorite feature of this TV is actually the anti-reflective display. This seems to be a new trend on TVs this year, because Hisense also added it (Sony didn’t, however), and because my TV sits in my living room with a ton of sunlight, that anti-reflective display really comes in handy. And the best part is, it doesn’t affect the picture quality at all.

Watching content on this TV has been incredible. Samsung does have a number of picture modes available to choose from, including one that is optimized with AI. I tried that out first to see how bad (or good) AI was at picture quality. It was actually quite good. Though I did notice with some TV Shows on Samsung TV Plus that were filmed in the 2000s or earlier, this picture mode did make it quite a bit darker than it should be. This forced me to change the mode. But thankfully, Tizen makes it very simple to swap to a different picture mode without leaving the app you’re in.

The mode that I used the most was the Movie preset, because it gives you a nice brightness boost. This is really nice to have for watching shows that are taking place at night or have lots of dark scenes. Paired with the anti-reflective coating, this makes this a great TV for watching those darker scenes.

For a QLED TV with mini-LED for backlighting, I was pretty impressed with the picture quality. But I have to say it’s not the best picture quality I’ve seen. This is going to be personal preference, but I do prefer the much higher brightness that Hisense has on its U8QG model (it has peak brightness of 5,000nits!), without destroying the picture quality. I’d like to see Samsung boost the brightness a bit for next year. Yes, you can boost brightness now, but it does affect the picture quality.

Samsung QN90F Review: Sound

Over the past few years, TV makers have started to pay more attention to the sound quality of their TVs. For a long time, it was all about making it as thin as possible, which means that sound usually suffers. Samsung has also jumped on that trend of improving sound quality. The QN90F does have a 4.2.2-channel, 60W speaker array included. Not the top-of-the-line audio experience, of course, since Samsung does still want you to buy its soundbars like the HW-Q990D.

The sound is pretty good on this TV. I’m not an audiophile, so I’m not as picky as some others might be with the sound. But bass is nice and deep, with the mids and highs being crystal clear, even at higher volume levels. This TV does also get quite loud, I’ve rarely pushed it past 30-35. And that’s without a soundbar. So I can only imagine how loud it would get with one of Samsung’s soundbars.

Samsung does also have its Object Tracking Sound Pro+ feature here, which optimizes dialogue and sound effects placement. It’s Active Voice Amplifier Pro is able to use AI to analyze, seperate and amplify dialogue in sound mixes. And there’s two preset modes here Standard and Amplify.

Though my favorite sound feature is Q-Symphony. This combines the TV’s speaker output with a Samsung soundbar for enhanced and expanded sound. Instead of muting the TVs speakers and using the soundbar only for sound. It does make quite the difference, which I was able to check out when I went hands-on with this TV and the rest of Samsung’s 2025 lineup earlier this year.

Samsung QN90F Review: Software

The Samsung QN90F is actually the first TV I’ve used that did not have Roku, Fire TV or Android TV built-in. So this was quite the learning curve for me. But after spending almost a month with this TV, I have to say, I think Samsung has the best TV software. This largely comes down to the ease of use, with this TV.

Like pretty much any other platform, this TV does have a “For you” tab, which will show what’s now playing, whether that’s an app or something from one of the HDMI ports. Along with top streaming TV, and apps that you might want to jump into. There are more recommendations the further down you go, as well.

The Live tab is pretty self-explanatory; it shows what’s live right now, from different apps on your TV. Of course, Samsung TV Plus is front-and-center, which is Samsung’s own FAST service. Then you have your Apps tab, which is where all of your apps live.

Samsung has made it easy to find something to watch on the QN90F, and also to find new apps to install. I honestly spent very little time on the home screen, which tells you just how easy it is to find something to watch.

Lastly, Samsung is promising 7 years of updates for the QN90F as well as the rest of the 2025 lineup. That means it will continue to get updates into 2032.

Gaming is on a whole other level

Gaming modes are not new with TVs, especially for Samsung. But they do continue to improve the Game Mode and Game Bar. Samsung also has some cloud streaming game services pre-installed on the QN90F, like Amazon Luna, NVIDIA GeForce Now, and more.

Now, when you open one of those apps or switch to an HDMI port that has a console connected, the Game Mode automatically starts up, with the Game Bar. The Game Bar does make it easy to access different game-related settings and information like resolution, frame rate, HDR statu,s and more. It also allows users to switch to an ultrawide GameView, even on a 16:9 TV, as well as Mini Map Zoom.

I did spend quite a bit of time playing College Football 26 on my PlayStation 5 while testing out the QN90F, and I was really impressed with how well it performed. Of course, the bigger thing for me was the glare-free display on this TV. Since the TV sits in my living room which gets a lot of natural light, the glare-free layer is really useful, especially when playing games.

Samsung’s TV Gesture Controls aren’t just gimmicks

Samsung first showed me these new TV Gesture Controls that you can do with the Galaxy Watch, earlier this year when I got hands-on time with the entire lineup. And I was pretty impressed with it. Not only because it worked (even though this was pre-release software) but because it was somewhat easy to do.

Of course, Samsung already had the remote app on your wrist, but in addition to that now you can do gestures to play or pause, change the channel and more. It does take some getting used too. But once you are used to it, it’s really handy to have. And a big feature for those who are invested in Samsung’s ecosystem.

AI features that are actually useful

Samsung has added a few Galaxy AI features to its TVs this year, namely Live Translate and Click to Search. This is similar to Circle to Search, but since it’s not a touchscreen, it’s called “Click”. This only works in a few apps, unfortunately, like Samsung TV Plus.

Then there’s Live Translate. This is super easy to turn on and will then translate what you’re watching into captions on the screen. This is a very useful feature to have, especially if you watch content from other countries, or you’re English as good.

The final AI feature is AI Mode. This is a picture feature that will automatically adjust the picture on the screen, based on what you’re watching. Whether that’s a movie, TV show, or you’re playing a game. There’s also CoPilot included here, which is also available on Samsung’s laptops, tablets, and phones.

Should you buy the Samsung QN90F?

While all of the hype is around OLED, we can’t forget about Samsung’s QLED and MiniLED backlit TVs like the QN90F, and Samsung has done an outstanding job with this TV. This is one of the easiest TVs to recommend, that I’ve reviewed so far. A big reason for that is the glare-free layer on the screen here. It really makes a bigger difference than you might expect.

Of course, this TV is nowhere near as bright as the Hisense U8QG, I honestly didn’t really miss the brightness of that TV. Though it does cost much less, and also has Dolby Vision support.

Samsung knocked it out with sound quality, picture quality including the glare-free layer, and its gaming features. Right now, I think Samsung is second-to-none when it comes to TVs and their gaming features.

As mentioned already, the QN90F does start at $1,299 for the 43-inch model, so this is not a cheap TV, but it will last quite a long time. Particularly with Samsung promising 7 years of updates.
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Source: ndroidheadlines.com