Samsung S90H (QD-OLED) vs TCL RM7L

The Samsung S90H is a genuinely bright TV for the mid-range OLED segment. In synthetic tests its peak brightness reached around 1650 nits. That’s an impressive result in this class, roughly 50% higher than what we have seen from previous models in this price bracket. Most importantly, these tests translate directly to real video material. In four out of five film clips we tested, the S90H’s brightness ranged between 1300 and 1500 nits. That headroom allows it to reproduce most HDR films with very high dynamic range and without obvious compromises, especially in material mastered to 1000–1500 nits. In practice light effects, reflections and explosions have the appropriate punch, and the picture does not appear dimmed. Of course, on full-screen very bright scenes the result is naturally lower and drops to around 900 nits. This is a direct result of the OLED panel’s protection systems working to prevent overload. Even in this scenario there is little to complain about. Those 900 nits across the whole screen is still a very high level, ensuring excellent dynamic range in HDR content.

Colour has always been a major strength of QD-OLED TVs, and the S90H is no exception. The DCI-P3 colour space we measured reached a full 100% (actually 99.9%), while coverage of the much wider BT.2020 gamut hit about 89%. That’s an excellent result, enabling very saturated and vivid colours in HDR content. It’s worth emphasising that QD-OLED’s advantage over WOLED panels is not limited to palette coverage alone. In practice it’s mainly visible in the higher brightness of saturated colours, that is in a greater colour volume. As a result, intense reds, greens and blues in HDR look more vibrant and more striking.

TCL RM7L is a bright TV. In our measurements its peak brightness hovered around 1600 nits. That is clearly less than the C7L, which can approach 2600 nits, but in real film scenes the difference between the models is not that large. In less demanding shots with many bright elements, the RM7L can sustain about 1000 nits, and sometimes even a little more, getting close to 1500 nits. It performs worse in dark scenes with small points of light, where their brightness can fall to around 500 nits. This is not random behaviour. The TV intentionally dims fine details to better control the backlight and preserve higher contrast. That comes at the expense of their intensity, but it is typical behaviour for TVs with local dimming in a similar price bracket.

Colour gamut coverage

In HDR not only brightness matters but also colour. And here the RM7L has plenty to show. Colours are highly saturated and a wide colour gamut is one of its major strengths. In our DCI-P3 measurements it reached about 96%, and BT.2020 around 83%. It is worth remembering that on a TV with this kind of backlight the result can vary depending on the scene. On test patterns colours look best, while in films their saturation is sometimes a little lower than on SQD Mini LED or QD-OLED TVs. The construction of the backlight itself is also interesting. The RM7L does not use the classic red, green and blue LED set. TCL used two green LEDs and one blue, with the red produced by a PFS phosphor. This shows up in spectrometer measurements, but it does not have a major impact on the picture. Colours are still rendered correctly.

The next stage of the test was to check how the S90H handles colour reproduction without any calibration. As always, we carried out the measurements in Filmmaker Mode, the best factory picture preset. And here Samsung really deserves praise. The factory tuning is at a very high level, and a few years ago this was not one of its strong points. The average colour error (Delta E) remained around 3, which is below the level at which most people can notice any inaccuracies. Only in the brightest shades of grey did the values slightly approach 4, but even then it's hard to regard this as a real problem while watching. For out-of-the-box settings, the result is simply excellent.

We checked the out-of-the-box colours in Filmmaker Mode, the best picture setting available to the user. TCL has been using it in its TVs for two years, and its aim is to reproduce the image as faithfully as possible in line with the creators' intent. On the RM7L it was indeed the most accurately set mode, although it was not without flaws. The biggest problem was the white balance. Too much red and blue made the image shift towards slightly pink tones. This was visible in both SDR and HDR. On top of that the brightness response was slightly boosted, making the picture appear a little brighter but at the same time less contrasty than it should be.

All right, but you know we wouldn't be ourselves if we didn't also check how far we could push the S90H after professional calibration. And there was no big surprise. Since the factory settings were already very good, there wasn't much room for improvement. Even so, we managed to refine the picture to near perfection. After calibration the mean colour reproduction errors fell below the threshold of perception, with Delta E values under 2 for both SDR and HDR material. We also improved the brightness response, so the image more faithfully reflects the creators' intent and maintains appropriate tonality across the whole luminance range. After professional calibration the S90H therefore becomes a display very close to reference.

Will the difference be spectacular for everyone? Not necessarily. The factory settings already deliver a very high level, so in everyday viewing some people may not notice a dramatic jump. Much also depends on the individual unit. Our sample was very well tuned straight out of the box, but that doesn't mean every S90H will perform at the same level. Even identical models can differ from each other in terms of factory calibration. That's exactly why professional calibration makes sense: it allows a specific unit to be brought to the highest possible accuracy, rather than relying on a bit of luck when buying.

Thanks to the fairly extensive calibration menu we were able to correct the vast majority of the previously described issues. The biggest change concerned the white balance. After calibration it now looks very good, so the picture shed its pinkish tint and became much more neutral. The luminance response has also improved. Both the SDR gamma and the HDR EOTF curve are now much closer to the reference values. The picture is no longer unnecessarily brightened, and darker areas look more natural and have greater depth. Better luminance accuracy also affected the colours, which after calibration are noticeably more accurate. Not everything could, however, be set perfectly. With HDR material the RM7L still interprets part of the signal in its own way and does not always follow the reference curve precisely. This is most apparent in some darker scenes, where the TV can either slightly lift the shadows or darken them completely. That is where the earlier impression of a slightly brightened, less contrasty picture came from. Despite this, the calibration delivers a very good result. It removes the most visible errors and, above all, makes the picture much closer to how it should look.

In this respect Samsung has changed practically nothing compared with last year’s model, which is actually quite good news. The feature responsible for smoothing tonal transitions still very effectively limits the posterisation effect. However, you should remember that it works rather aggressively, because besides the artefacts themselves it can also remove film grain and slightly soften fine image detail. As always, this is therefore a matter of compromise and personal preference. If you want the most faithful reproduction of the source material possible, we recommend leaving this function turned off.

There is also little to be said about upscaling in terms of revolution. The S90H uses the same proprietary NQ4 Gen3 image processor as its predecessor, so scaling quality has remained practically unchanged. The TV handles lower-resolution material well, effectively improving its sharpness. However, the overscan problem has still not been solved. With some older material, especially archival recordings, it may happen that a portion of the image at the edges is cropped. It’s a minor flaw, but a shame Samsung has left this issue unchanged for another year running.

Upscaling and digital image processing are not the RM7L's strong suit. TCL has used the MediaTek Pentonic 700 chipset here, designated MT5896, which is not among the best processors when it comes to handling lower-quality source material. The biggest problems appear with heavily compressed content from YouTube or standard broadcast TV. The processor cannot effectively hide posterization and the characteristic banding between tones. The feature intended to smooth these issues does little to help, and can also interfere with the image too much, smoothing, for example, faces or fine textures. For that reason it is best simply not to use it.

Standard upscaling to 4K looks better. Lower-quality content is sufficiently sharp and retains an adequate amount of detail. It is not on a par with the best processors on the market, but for everyday viewing the result is entirely acceptable.

In terms of motion handling the S90H delivers a very high level. A new feature here is a panel with a refresh rate of up to 165 Hz, although in practice that will mainly benefit PC gamers. Films, series and sports broadcasts do not use such high refresh rates, so when watching them the difference compared with the standard 120 Hz will not be noticeable. That said, thanks to the OLED panel's lightning-fast response time motion is very clean and the picture does not suffer from the motion blur typical of many LCDs. Samsung has equipped the television with extensive motion-smoothness settings. You get two sliders: judder reduction and blur reduction, which let you easily tailor the picture's character to your own preferences. You can easily achieve a very smooth image when watching sport, but you can just as well preserve a more cinematic feel at the typical 24 frames per second. It all depends on which effect you prefer.

The RM7L features a 144 Hz VA panel, so from the outset it is well suited to sports, gaming and other fast-paced content. The high refresh rate also gives the motion interpolation more scope, allowing it to generate additional frames. On the RM7L it works well and, with the right settings, can noticeably improve motion smoothness without an excessive soap opera effect.

From the outset the Samsung S90H feels like a TV designed with gamers in mind, and it's easy to see why. The manufacturer has equipped it with almost everything you could expect from a modern gaming screen. You get as many as four full-bandwidth HDMI 2.1 ports, support for ALLM and VRR, and very high refresh rates. There's also a clear Game Bar that lets you instantly check key picture parameters or change settings without leaving the game. Another very welcome improvement is the HGiG behaviour. Last year it could cause quite a few problems, but on the S90H it works exactly as it should.

Samsung's ace up its sleeve remains its proprietary Game Motion Plus mode. The feature works similarly to the motion smoothing used for films: it improves animation smoothness in games while keeping input lag at a very reasonable level. For titles running at 30 or 60 fps, with the right settings input lag did not exceed 40 ms in our tests. That's a very good result, especially since with many manufacturers enabling similar features results in delays several times higher. Game Motion Plus does not, of course, replace Dolby Vision Gaming, as it's a completely different type of feature, but overall it's a gaming addition that many players may find more noticeable. Smoother motion in 30/60 fps games often makes a bigger difference than HDR itself (which, incidentally, is often poorly implemented in games).

The RM7L earns almost nothing but praise when it comes to features for gamers. The TV supports ALLM, VRR and Dolby Vision Gaming and works properly with HGiG, so it’s hard to point to any major omissions in that regard. In practice this means automatic switching to a low-latency mode, smoother motion at variable frame rates and accurate brightness reproduction in HDR games. There’s also a very useful Game Bar. From it you can quickly check frame rate, VRR status, signal format or aspect ratio, and change the key settings without leaving the game. TCL has also added a few extra options, such as a crosshair overlay and brightening of dark image areas, which can be handy in some titles. The biggest drawback stems from the use of the Pentonic 700 processor. Only two of the four HDMI ports support the full HDMI 2.1 standard. That won’t matter much with a single console, but if you connect two consoles and a PC you may run out of ports, especially since one of those ports may be needed for eARC and a soundbar.