Samsung Neo QLED QN90D / QN92D vs LG OLED G5

During synthetic tests, Samsung QN92D showed its incredible capabilities in terms of brightness. The charts clearly indicate that the television can achieve an impressive 2000 nits, giving it a solid power base to compete with the best models on the market. Such a result places it at the forefront, especially in the context of displaying HDR content, where brightness plays a key role. However, what happens when we move the tests to real film scenes? In favourable conditions, such as the first scene from the movie Life of Pi or the last scene, where the image is completely flooded with light, Samsung QN92D can achieve almost laboratory results, impressing with its brightness. The situation looks different when small, bright objects appear on a dark background, as in the fourth scene from the movie Sicario. In such cases, the television doesn't perform as well – brightness drops several times, and maximum values in the best conditions are around 600 NITS. Similar to contrast, these limitations arise from the use of an aggressive local dimming algorithm. This algorithm aims to reduce the 'halo' effect around bright objects on a dark background, but often at the expense of overall brightness. As a result, while the television performs well in bright scenes, its ability to display full brightness is limited when it comes to small, vivid elements.

LG G5 with its new Tandem OLED panel brings the biggest change in terms of TV brightness. And it’s substantial. This is a truly astronomically bright OLED. In every scene tested – whether it's point lights or full-screen whites from the movie The Meg – brightness on the G5 exceeded 2000 nits. Just a year ago, such values on an OLED were simply unimaginable. And here we are – the G5 is approaching, and at times even surpassing, the best Mini-LEDs on the market. A novelty in the Tandem OLED panel is also the expanded colour gamut coverage – and here the LG G5 performs almost perfectly. DCI-P3 achieves a full 100%, while BT.2020 hovers around 83%. These are some of the highest values currently available on the market – it's hard to find any other TV that comes close to such results, unless we're talking about the best displays with QD-OLED panels. The G5 has almost reference-level HDR quality – both in terms of brightness and colour saturation. This is an OLED that can truly shine – and not just metaphorically.

The best mode that reproduces colours best on the Samsung QN92D has consistently been the Filmmaker mode for years. While it generally offers decent colour quality, it is not free from significant issues. Let's start with the analysis of HD/SDR image quality. The biggest challenge here is the white balance – the graphs show considerable instability, with a clear dominance of red making the image too warm. This distortion causes hues to be unnaturally shifted towards warmer tones, which can negatively affect the perception of materials with natural colours. Contrast, based on the gamma chart, although not the worst, remains far from ideal, impacting the overall image quality, especially in darker scenes.

This issue also persists with 4K materials, such as series or films of higher quality. In this case, the white balance also turns out to be faulty, with noticeable deficiencies in blue and red colour, leading to tonal shifts. Tests using the Colour Checker tool confirm these problems – all colours tend to skew towards yellow shades, further distorting the natural appearance of the image. Although the Filmmaker mode is one of the best available modes for watching cinematic content, it still requires improvements, especially in terms of colour accuracy and white balance.

Our test unit LG G5 had some issues in the factory Filmmaker mode. While the picture might have seemed fine to most people, we knew this TV could do much more. This mode had a noticeable excess of blue tint in the white balance, resulting in a strongly cooled image – especially in HDR modes, where there was additionally a lack of red. The image appeared cold, and its sharpness was artificially boosted and unnatural. Another significant problem was the brightness characteristics. In SDR content, the situation wasn't the worst, aside from a slight dimming of the entire image. However, it fared much worse in HDR materials – due to improper brightness management, the smallest details could completely disappear from the image, while larger, bright elements looked overexposed and lacking in gradation. Fortunately, the G5 supports calibration using 3D LUT (a professional tool for colour calibration), so we decided to take advantage of its professional capabilities and see what it was really capable of. Because while it wasn't terrible even before calibration, the potential of this TV definitely deserved more.

After calibration, the Filmmaker mode on the Samsung QN92D television shows significant improvement, particularly in the SDR content range. The white balance has been greatly enhanced – the previous colour misalignment and dominance of red have been eliminated, resulting in a more natural colour reproduction. In terms of brightness, although the gamma chart did not require significant adjustments, it has been stabilised, which affects the overall picture quality.

Regarding high-quality materials, the white balance has also improved in this case. However, it is worth noting the contrast. The EOTF curve, which illustrates the values in this area, appears correct at first glance. However, upon closer inspection, the television struggles to maintain appropriate contrast in film materials. The EOTF curve reveals some discrepancies, suggesting that despite the progress, there are still areas that require improvement in this aspect. The television continues to strive for excellence in contrast reproduction. A strength of this television is the saturation of colours. Skin tones are rendered very well, and although some colours may be slightly oversaturated, the overall effect looks really attractive – the colours appear rich and vibrant.

Despite some shortcomings in contrast, after calibration, the Filmmaker mode on the Samsung QN92D offers excellent image quality, with natural colour reproduction, making it a great choice for watching movies.

After completing the calibration process with professional tools, we can confidently state this – the LG G5 offers almost reference-quality image. Most of the errors related to white balance and the ColorChecker test are below a value of 2, which is a phenomenal result, practically imperceptible to the human eye. And while one could still nitpick that in HDR films the TV still has a tendency to slightly dim the smallest elements of the image, in practice this does not negatively affect the overall reception. Hats off to LG, as once again they provide users with enormous display settings options – and this, combined with very good parameters of the panel itself, results in an image that is truly hard to beat.

Let's check how the Samsung QN92D TV performs with tonal transitions in very poor quality materials. The noise reduction feature shows good effectiveness, improving the fluidity of tonal transitions even in difficult conditions. However, it should be noted that, similar to other Samsung TVs, the effectiveness of this feature can lead to the removal of desirable elements, such as film grain, which can sometimes affect the authenticity of the image.

When it comes to digital processing, the Samsung QN92D TV also performs excellently. During tests, the image looked very good, with the model presented in a natural and correct way. Details, such as branches in the background, were reproduced with great precision, highlighting the TV's ability to enhance the quality of low-resolution materials.

Upscaling and digital image processing in the LG G5 performs very well. The television handles lower quality content excellently, especially when the "Smooth Gradation" feature is set to a low level. In this mode, it effectively removes undesirable artifacts and issues with visible tonal transitions. It may also slightly smooth out some desirable details, like the subtle texture of clothing or skin, but importantly – it does not remove film grain, so it's hard to talk about a serious compromise here. This is one of those options that is actually worth turning on.

The G5 also does well with upscaling, which is improving the quality of older materials. The test image with the model looked really solid – slight jaggedness was visible, but that's an effect that can't be completely avoided. On the plus side, there were no overscan issues, which – contrary to appearances – is not obvious, even in 2025.

The Samsung QN92D television is equipped with a 144 Hz panel; however, when watching content using the smoothness feature, the maximum refresh rate is 120 Hz. As a result, both gamers and sports enthusiasts will be satisfied with the picture quality. It’s also worth mentioning the available options for image enhancement, such as the "motion blur and judder reduction" feature, which allows users to adjust smoothness to their individual preferences on a 10-point scale. Motion blur reduction increases the sharpness of fast-moving objects, while judder reduction smooths out motion, eliminating the "stutter" effect. With these advanced settings, one can achieve optimal visual experiences, making the Samsung QN92D perfect for both dynamic scenes and intense gaming.

In terms of motion blur, the television performs really well, and it’s hard to pick faults. The only note we might have is a slight overshoot effect noticeable on dark backgrounds during our test with "Ufoludkiem." Nevertheless, thanks to the advanced smoothness settings, the Samsung QN92D excels in both dynamic scenes and intense gaming.

The motion smoothness on the LG G5 is simply phenomenal. The television is equipped with a panel featuring a 165 Hz refresh rate, and this combined with the instantaneous response time of the OLED matrix delivers incredible results. The image doesn’t judder or blur like on traditional LCD televisions. Like most LG models, the G5 comes with a motion smoother, which can be handy when watching movies – we’re talking about the TruMotion mode, of course. With the “De-Blur” and “De-Judder” sliders, we can adjust the smoothness of older materials according to our own preferences, whether we want to maintain the characteristic film jitter or lean towards a more fluid, television-like effect.

The television Samsung QN92/QN90 is an excellent choice for avid gamers, deserving of the highest recommendations. This model offers practically all the features available on the market in terms of gaming, making gameplay even more exciting. One of the key differentiators is the 120 Hz panel, which ensures exceptional motion smoothness, crucial during dynamic action games. The television also boasts low input lag, guaranteeing instant reactions to player commands. Additionally, technologies such as VRR (Variable Refresh Rate) and ALLM (Auto Low Latency Mode) adjust the refresh rate and automatically switch the television to game mode, translating to even better gaming experiences. Another advantage is the Xbox app, which allows gaming of favourite titles directly on the television, eliminating the need for a console. This is a typical feature of Samsung televisions, making them exceptional in the gaming world.

Auto Motion Plus Game is a feature that really deserves praise for Samsung. It is a motion smoother that works wonderfully in games, creating the impression of a higher frame rate – a 30 frames per second image looks like 45, and 60 Hz becomes close to 90 Hz. Importantly, this feature does not introduce significant lag (input lag does not exceed 25 ms), so it does not negatively affect gameplay comfort, unlike many other smoothers available on the market. This allows gamers to enjoy a much smoother image without compromising responsiveness.

Features for gamers? Perfect. That should be enough for you to know what level we’re dealing with here. The G5 is a TV designed for gamers, so you'll find literally everything you might expect from a gaming screen. There's Game Bar, support for high resolutions with high refresh rates - that is, 4K at 120 Hz, and even more, as the panel has a refresh rate of 165 Hz (which PC gamers will benefit from). The TV supports variable refresh rate (VRR), automatic low latency mode (ALLM), and also properly handles HDR in games thanks to the HGiG feature. All of this adds up to one of the best gaming feature sets available on the market. Well done, LG.