SAMSUNG S90F (WOLED) vs Samsung Q7F

Does the S90F handle not only blacks but also bright parts of the image? Definitely. The stories about OLEDs as "dark screens" can slowly be regarded as myth. The Samsung S90F, like the LG C5 based on a very similar panel, achieves brightness exceeding 1000 nits. This is a value more than enough to enjoy impressive and dynamic HDR images – both in movies and series. Most of the scenes we tested look stunning, with well-defined highlights and high contrast. Of course, OLED technology still has its limitations – in very bright, full-screen sequences, such as the test card from the movie The Meg (photo 5), the television may noticeably dim the image. However, it should be emphasized that such scenes are rare. It can be said that the HDR effect is good enough that even mid-range OLED models like the S90F can provide a cinematic experience in the home living room.

Unfortunately, the Samsung Q7F is not one of the bright televisions, which directly impacts the quality of HDR films. The peak brightness of the panel is only around 250 nits, which is definitely insufficient for claiming a true cinematic experience. In practice, the HDR content does not differ significantly from classic SDR, making it difficult to talk about any "wow effect" that usually accompanies us when watching such films. During testing of film scenes, the image simply looked dark, and the brightness almost always hovered around the aforementioned 250 nits. The worst performance came from shots with small, intensely glowing elements – the global dimming technique used reacted very aggressively in those cases, dimming the entire screen to maintain the black effect. However, it is worth noting the presence of a QLED coating that broadens the colour spectrum. For a budget QLED model, the Q7F performs quite decently here: the DCI-P3 colour gamut coverage is around 93%, and BT.2020 reaches 70%. This means that despite the low brightness, the colours can still look quite vivid and attractive.

Samsung S90F, like most modern televisions, offers many picture modes, but – following our testing tradition – we checked it out in the best one, which is the Filmmaker mode. Thanks to this, the image looks much more natural than in the default, often oversaturated settings. It was neither overly saturated nor artificially dimmed – simply closer to what one should see. Of course, “more accurate” doesn’t mean “perfect”. Unfortunately, our S90F had significant issues with white balance, particularly in the blue color range, resulting in a slightly yellowish filter being applied to most scenes. Someone might say it looks more “filmic” – because it’s warmer – but let’s not kid ourselves, George Lucas didn’t film Star Wars in sepia 😉 (you’ll find a comparison with the scene below as always).

Additionally, in HDR materials, there was an issue with brightness management. The EOTF curve showed a clear “spike” in brightness – the television brightened the image more than it should have, causing some effects to look too intense and deviating from the reference. Fortunately, some of these problems can be eliminated through professional calibration – you’ll read about its effects later in the review.

The reproduction of factory colours in the Samsung Q7F is definitely not one of its strong points. In Filmmaker mode, which theoretically should be closest to neutral, the white balance issue is immediately noticeable. There’s too much red on the screen, while blue is lacking. The effects are very easy to notice – white, instead of being neutral, takes on warm, almost slightly orange tones. In the long run, this makes the entire image appear a bit unnatural, while bright areas of the scene can seem unrealistic. The problems are even more evident in HDR content. The charts show that the TV has significant errors in the Color Checker palette, which results in visible inaccuracies in the real image. In practice, this means that colours are not presented as they should be. The Q7F also heavily manipulates brightness; darker elements are overly boosted, causing them to lose their cinematic feel, while bright parts can be dimmed. This makes the image seem flattened, and contrast, instead of helping to bring out details, only highlights its own limitations. In HDR materials, this is particularly frustrating because every detail matters. In scenes where a subtle play of light and shadow should be felt, the Q7F either overdoes the lighting or, conversely, suppresses elements that should attract the eye. This causes the image to lose its depth, and instead of cinematic realism, we have a rather simplified effect.

After calibration, we managed to eliminate practically all the previously mentioned errors. Older movies in SDR quality finally look like they should – without the sepia effect or artificial aging of the image. The atmosphere of the classics is back in place (no thanks needed, Star Wars fans), and the colours no longer resemble an Instagram filter.

One of the key changes was also the improvement of brightness characteristics in HDR content. We managed to control the EOTF curve in almost a reference manner. Admittedly, the most demanding users may detect minimal deviations in brightness, but honestly – most viewers won't even notice that. And it's no surprise because the vast majority of errors fall below the ΔE 3 value, which is below the threshold of visibility. After calibration, the S90F (WOLED) becomes a truly excellent display – one on which you can enjoy nearly perfect image quality.

After professional calibration, we managed to bring the Q7F to order – at least in terms of SDR content. The image in this mode looks really good: the white balance has been set correctly, the colours appear natural, and the errors in the colour palette have dropped to levels practically invisible to the eye. Gamma behaves exemplary, and the only minor flaw remains a slight lightening of smaller elements, which stems from the lack of local dimming. For everyday watching of television or films in standard quality, the Q7F performs surprisingly well.

It was significantly more challenging to tame HDR content. Despite adjusting the white balance, the television still heavily manipulates brightness, causing scenes to appear unnatural – what was meant to be subtly darker can sometimes be overly bright, and the bright parts of the image can occasionally be dimmed. The final effect is better than in factory settings, but it’s clear that the construction limitations of the Q7F do not allow for fully utilising the potential of HDR materials.

Digital Image Processing in S90F:

Fortunately, Samsung, like in most of its models, manages to effectively tackle the unwanted posterisation effect in the S90F. The function responsible for this element is noise reduction, which does a pretty good job of smoothing tonal transitions and eliminating unnatural colour blending – of course, within its capabilities. Unfortunately, it works quite aggressively, so using it comes with trade-offs. In addition to improving gradation, it can also remove film grain or slightly soften facial features. In this case, the choice is yours – do you prefer a more "clean" image, or do you care about preserving the original texture of the material.

Image Scaling in S90F:

In this year's model, Samsung has implemented its proprietary AI processor – NQ4 Gen3, which really handles upscaling quite well. In our test scenes, the TV effectively "pulled up" lower quality towards artificial 4K – the image was more enjoyable to view, and the differences in sharpness between native and scaled content were minimal. Unfortunately, behind all this AI marketing façade lies a certain shortcoming. The S90F struggles with overscan. If you reach for truly archival material – e.g. a VHS tape of your parents' wedding – you have to reckon with the fact that the lower part of the image may get cut off. The function to adapt the image to resolution simply does not work as it should here.

Upscaling and digital image processing in the Q7F is a bit of a rollercoaster. On one hand, we have really nice upscaling – weaker sources look better than you might expect. The image becomes clearer, sharper, and even older films or free-to-air TV hold up well. Samsung has been strong in this area for years, and the Q7F confirms that. On the other hand… things start to get tricky. The TV has a problem with overscan – part of the image is simply cut off, and it doesn't look very elegant. Additionally, we were let down by a feature called "noise reduction," which should improve the smoothness of tonal transitions in weaker materials. In other Samsungs, it works relatively well, but here it practically makes no difference – the banding in gradients is still there. It's a bit of a shame because we expected more from a model that is aimed at users looking for a display for SDR content.

S90F really handles motion excellently – after all, it’s an OLED with a 144 Hz panel, so sports and games look absolutely stunning on it. The image is smooth, clear, and there’s no room for ghosting or blurring, which can sometimes plague cheaper LCDs.

The TV also comes equipped with motion smoothness settings that allow you to customise everything to your liking. We have motion blur reduction and judder reduction – you can set it so that the image is super smooth (even to the point of looking a bit soap opera-like), or more cinematic, with the classic “jumpiness” of 24 frames. The choice is yours, Samsung imposes nothing.

Motion blur and motion fluidity in the Q7F is probably the most budget-friendly aspect of this television. The 60 Hz panel makes the motion blur quite noticeable, especially in dynamic scenes, and it's rather hard to consider this model as equipment designed for watching sports or playing fast-paced games. In tests with the little green man, there was a long trail, similarly, the ball in a football match would leave behind streaks.

On the positive side, the presence of motion smoothing is worth noting. In films, it really makes a difference – especially since most materials are recorded in 24 frames. Here we can decide whether we prefer a more "cinematic" image, with a slight judder typically found in cinema, or a smoother, more “TV-like” one. This actually works quite well and helps improve the viewing comfort for series or movies.

When it comes to gaming features – the S90F has absolutely nothing to complain about. Aside from the lack of Dolby Vision, which is already the norm for Samsung. The television operates at 144 Hz, has four HDMI 2.1 ports, so you can easily connect more than one console or PC. Onboard, we also find Game Bar – a practical tool that allows you to quickly preview picture settings, VRR status, ALLM mode, and other useful options. Game Motion Plus deserves special mention – Samsung's proprietary motion smoother that actually works sensibly in games. The image appears smoother, but without any artificial effects or slowdowns.

It's also worth mentioning the HGiG feature, which – and this may be a slight surprise – works correctly. We bring this up because Samsung clearly messed something up in one of the recent updates, and in some models, the option responsible for HGiG simply... disappears from the menu. Setting it up becomes almost impossible. Fortunately, our S90F unit did not have this issue, but the situation is dynamic, so it's worth keeping this in mind and regularly checking for new software versions and information from the manufacturer.

The features for gamers on the Samsung Q7F is a topic that stirs up quite a few mixed emotions. On one hand – no reasonable person was expecting miracles here, after all, it’s a 60 Hz television and it was clear from the get-go that this wouldn’t be equipment to squeeze the maximum from a console or PC. On the other hand, since the manufacturer promised specific solutions in promotional materials, it is only natural that we wanted to see them in practice. At the start, it’s looking pretty good. The automatic game mode (ALLM) works, so there’s no need to manually fiddle with the settings; the console switches the TV to low latency mode by itself. Plus, we have the Game Bar, which looks impressive and allows you to check a few basic parameters without leaving the game. And this is where the good news ends.

The biggest problem with the Q7F is VRR, or rather its absence. Indeed, the appropriate icon appears in the menu, you can even see it in the Game Bar, but throughout the entire test, the function remained dead and could not be activated in any way. Even more disappointing is the matter of HGiG; this option was actually available in the beginning, but after a software update, it disappeared completely, which is just unprofessional. Therefore, the Q7F is only suitable for absolute basics. Sure, you can turn on the console, play calmer titles, and enjoy low input lag, but if someone is counting on more advanced features that the manufacturer promised, they will be disappointed. This is not a television one buys with gaming in mind, and it’s better to be aware of this before purchasing.