- Matching (Score) |
- Our verdict |
- Competing TVs |
- TV appearance |
- Where to buy |
- Contrast and black detail |
- HDR effect quality |
- Factory color reproduction |
- Color reproduction after calibration |
- Smoothness of tonal transitions |
- Image scaling and smoothness of tonal transitions |
- Blur and motion smoothness |
- Console compatibility and gaming features |
- Input lag |
- Compatibility with PC |
- Viewing angles |
- Daytime performance |
- TV features |
- Apps |
- Playing files from USB |
- Sound |
- Panel details
Samsung S90H / S92H (QD-OLED) Review
S90HAT / S90HAE / S92HAT
Available screen sizes:
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Panel type: QD-OLED Refresh rate: 165Hz Brand: SAMSUNG Resolution: 3840x2160 System: Tizen Model year: 2026
The S90 series from Samsung is without a doubt one of the most popular and important OLED TV lines on the market. Its commercial success didn't come out of nowhere, because from the very beginning it revolutionized the premium segment by bringing QD-OLED technology to households at a remarkably affordable price. Over time, however, the situation grew more complicated, because under the same designation we began to encounter two completely different panel types. In this review we take a close look at the S90H(AT) 77-inch model, since this particular variant is equipped with Samsung Display's proprietary QD-OLED panel. This year's new feature is the use of a matte screen coating, which is meant to solve once and for all the problem of reflections in sunlit living rooms. Is that enough for the S90H to defend its title as a market bestseller? Let's find out!
This particular unit for testing was provided to us by one of our viewers and readers. Thank you very much!
SAMSUNG S90H - Our verdict
8.6
Overall rating
Samsung, what have you actually done? The S90H is a TV that won us over practically from the first minutes. If you want a short answer to whether it's worth the money, we’ll be blunt: yes, absolutely. The combination of perfect, organic black with very high brightness and the vivid colors of the QD-OLED panel creates an effect that wows you from the first time you turn it on. Choosing a matte finish proved to be a perfect decision. No more constant battles with the blinds or seeing your own reflection on a sunny day. Sure, purists like us will notice that in a heavily sunlit room the blacks can slightly shift toward grayish-maroon tones, but daytime usability here is invaluable. Most importantly, in the evening and at night the picture still delivers everything we love about OLEDs: perfect black, excellent contrast, and amazing depth. Add to that a fast, refined Tizen system and an almost complete package of gaming features led by Game Motion Plus. The result is an exceptionally complete TV where minor software niggles don't change the overall, very positive impression. So does the S90H have any serious downside? As far as the TV itself is concerned, it's hard to point to anything that would really spoil its appeal. The biggest reservation is more about Samsung's policy. To this day it's hard for us to understand why such a great QD-OLED panel is available only in the 77-inch model we tested, with the HAT suffix in the name. Maybe that will change in the future, but for now that's how it stands. So if you're aiming exactly for this variant, there's no need to hesitate. The Samsung S90H in the 77-inch QD-OLED version is one of the most exciting TVs of the year. Once the early-adopter tax drops and stronger promotions arrive, it could become one of the most cost-effective OLEDs on the market, and quite possibly one of 2026's biggest bestsellers.
Advantages
Perfect blacks and infinite contrast
Very high HDR brightness (up to 1700 nits)
Excellent color gamut coverage (QD-OLED)
Reference image accuracy after professional calibration
Excellent motion handling (no motion blur)
Outstanding for gamers (4x HDMI 2.1, VRR, ALLM, low input lag)
High refresh rate (up to 165Hz)
Perfect viewing angles
Effective anti-reflective coating (matte)
Responsive Tizen system
Surprisingly good sound
Disadvantages
In bright light, black can take on a cherry tint (a characteristic of QD-OLED panels)
The matte panel "mutes" colors during the day
No TV features such as USB recording or PIP
No support for DTS:X (a problem for Blu-ray disc fans)
Why can't this type of panel be found in every size?!
Movies and series in UHD quality9.0
Classic TV, YouTube9.3
Sports broadcasts (TV and apps)9.0
Gaming on console9.7
TV as a computer monitor8.6
Watching in bright light6.4
Utility functions7.3
Apps9.3
Sound quality8.4
Complete the survey to find out what fits your preferences
SAMSUNG S90H - Competing TVs in this price range
SAMSUNG S90H - TV appearance
HDMI inputs: 0 x HDMI 2.0, 4 x HDMI 2.1 (48Gbps) Outputs: Toslink (Optical audio), eARC (HDMI), ARC (HDMI) Network Interfaces: Wi-Fi 2.4GHz, Wi-Fi 5GHz, Ethernet (LAN) 100Mbps, Ethernet (LAN) 1Gbit
Build quality: Premium
Stand type: Central
Bezel color: Graphite
Stand: Fixed
Flat design: No
Accessories: Stand
If you're hoping for a redesign with the S90H, this isn't the place. For the fourth year in a row Samsung serves almost the exact same design in this series. But does that bother anyone? Not at all. It's still a slim, good-looking TV that feels like a premium product. As is traditional for this line, the bezels around the screen are minimalist and metal, and the panel is joined to a lower housing that contains the electronics. A distinctive feature of this particular variant is the lower edge of the panel, which lets you recognize the QD-OLED. Up close you'll notice an attached strip of film that stems directly from the panel's construction. In other sizes of this model that use WOLED panels, that element doesn't appear.
Back to the TV's construction. That "OLED" build has its charm, since the screen profile at the top and sides is extremely thin, but it also has a downside. Because of the protruding rear housing with components, there's no chance to mount the TV perfectly flat against the wall. And what if the living room requires placing it on a TV cabinet? Samsung traditionally includes a center stand with the set. Unfortunately, that's probably the weakest point in terms of looks. The construction consists of two feet and a plastic shroud, which look fairly average. It's not a serious flaw, of course, but we feel the plastic stand simply doesn't match the rest of the hardware. Other than that? It's a stunning-looking TV.
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SAMSUNG S90H - Contrast and black detail
10/10
Result
∞:1
Result
∞:1
Result
∞:1
Result
∞:1
Result
∞:1
Visibility of details in the lights:
Because the Samsung S90H uses an OLED panel, it deserves the highest rating for contrast and black levels. Importantly, this applies to both the WOLED panel version and the QD-OLED variant we tested. Each pixel emits light independently and can be turned off completely, so the TV delivers perfect blacks and virtually infinite contrast. This translates into excellent image depth and very clear separation of bright elements from a dark background, without the halo effect (blooming) that still appears even in the best LCD TVs. The effect is especially impressive when watching in a dark room, where dark scenes look incredibly realistic and the picture gains in three-dimensionality and detail.
Halo effect and black detail visibility:
SAMSUNG S90H - HDR effect quality
7.8/10
Supported formats: HDR10, HDR10+, HLG
Luminance measurements in HDR:
Result
1464 nit
Result
1470 nit
Result
1269 nit
Result
1505 nit
Result
902 nit
The Samsung S90H is a truly bright TV for the midrange among OLEDs. In synthetic measurements its peak brightness reached about 1650 nits. That's an outstanding result in this class, roughly 50% higher than what we’ve seen from previous models at this price point. Crucially, these tests translate directly to real video material. In 4 out of 5 film shots we tested the S90H’s brightness hovered around 1300–1500 nits. That headroom lets the TV reproduce most HDR movies with the same dynamics and expression the creators intended in post-production. Of course, on full-screen, very bright scenes the result is naturally lower and drops to around 900 nits. That’s a direct result of the protection systems that prevent the OLED panel from being overloaded. Even in that scenario there’s no reason to complain. Those 900 nits across the entire screen is still a very high level, ensuring excellent dynamics in HDR content.
A major advantage of QD-OLED TVs has always been color, and the S90H is no exception. The DCI-P3 gamut we measured reached a full 100% (exactly 99.9%), while coverage of the much wider BT.2020 gamut hit roughly 89%. That’s a great result, allowing you to enjoy extremely saturated, vivid colors in HDR content. It’s worth noting these figures are better than WOLED panels, which is especially noticeable in very demanding film scenes.
BT.2020 color gamut coverage and primary color luminance
| Data set | BT.2020 [%] | P3 [%] | R [%] | G [%] | B [%] |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Synthetic patterns | 88.8 | 99.9 | 69.8 | 78.2 | 84.8 |
| Film measurements | 88.9 | 99.9 | 70.2 | 78.0 | 84.1 |
Arithmetic means of BT.2020 and P3 gamut coverage and the luminance of the primary colors (red, green, blue) as a % of target.
Scene from the movie “Pan” (about 2800 nits)
Scene from the movie “Billy Lynn” (about 1100 nits)
So how do movies ultimately look on the S90H? You can safely say they look spectacular. Perfect colors combined with high brightness make explosions and light reflections appear exactly as they should. The image has excellent dynamics and feels truly realistic. Watching movies or series on this TV is simply absorbing. Whether we watched content in HDR1000 or HDR4000 format, everything looked as it should. If there is one flaw to pick at, some of the very darkest shadow details can get slightly lost. However, that’s a detail that for the vast majority of users will be completely unnoticeable during normal viewing.
HDR luminance chart:
Although the S90H can hit high brightness and has really successful out-of-the-box tone mapping, in standard HDR10 it can sometimes lose fine detail in the brightest parts of the image. That's not so much the TV's fault as the technological limits of HDR10, which relies on static metadata, so the algorithms have to compromise across the entire movie. It's completely different when you play HDR10+ content. Here the panel gets precise, per-scene instructions, so the electronics don't have to "guess" and force the frame to adapt. In difficult, very bright shots we suddenly recover details that might previously have been lost. Importantly, the myth that there's no HDR10+ content can be tossed out. Today the format is available on most streaming platforms, so nobody has to scour the web for compatible movies. And finally, the age-old topic: no Dolby Vision. Samsung's decision sparks a lot of heated debate every year, but in practice, given the S90H's high performance, making a big deal out of it doesn't make sense. Standard HDR10 looks great here, and in an HDR10+ vs Dolby Vision matchup the differences are so marginal that no one is likely to notice them while watching.
Static HDR10
Dynamic: HDR10+
Factory color reproduction
8.3/10
The next stage of the test was to check how the S90H handles color reproduction without any calibration. As always, we took measurements in Filmmaker Mode, the best out-of-the-box picture setting. And here Samsung truly deserves praise. The factory tuning is at a very high level, and a few years ago that wasn't one of its strong points. The white balance was set correctly, as was the brightness response. The average color error (Delta E) hovered around 3, which is below the level at which most people can notice inaccuracies. Only in the brightest shades of gray did values slightly approach 4, but it's still hard to consider that a real viewing issue. For settings straight out of the box, the result is simply excellent.
Color reproduction after calibration
9.4/10
Okay, but you know we wouldn’t be ourselves if we didn’t check how much more we could squeeze out of the S90H with professional calibration. And there was no big surprise here: since the out-of-the-box settings were already very good, there wasn’t a huge reserve. Even so, we managed to refine the picture almost to perfection. After calibration the average color reproduction errors fell below the threshold of perception, reaching 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 proper tonality across the full brightness range. Not necessarily, because the factory settings already deliver a very high level. If you want the most accurate image and want to squeeze absolutely everything out of this panel, the S90H offers that potential. After professional calibration it’s simply an almost reference display.
Will the difference be spectacular for everyone? Not necessarily. It depends a lot 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 vary in their factory calibration. That’s exactly why professional calibration makes sense: it lets you bring a specific unit to the highest possible accuracy instead of hoping for a bit of luck when buying.
SAMSUNG S90H - Smoothness of tonal transitions
9/10
The smoothness of tonal transitions here is really high. In most content it's hard to spot any noticeable posterization, and if it does appear, it's only in the most demanding scenes. That's one of the advantages of the QD-OLED panel. These panels simply handle smooth transitions between shades better than traditional WOLEDs. So if you care about the smoothest possible gradients, the QD-OLED variant has a clear advantage here.
Image scaling and smoothness of tonal transitions
7.5/10
Smooth transition function
Image without overscan on the SD signal
In this regard Samsung has practically changed nothing compared with last year’s model, which is actually pretty good news. The function responsible for smoothing tonal transitions still very effectively reduces posterization. You should remember, however, that it works quite aggressively, because besides removing artifacts it can also eliminate film grain and slightly soften fine image details. As always, it’s a matter of compromise and personal preference. If you want the most faithful reproduction of the source, we recommend leaving this function turned off.
There’s also no revolution when it comes to upscaling. The S90H uses the same proprietary NQ4 Gen3 image processor as its predecessor, so scaling quality has remained virtually unchanged. The TV handles lower-resolution content well, effectively improving sharpness. The overscan issue still hasn’t been solved, though. With some older material, especially archival footage, parts of the image at the edges may be cropped. It’s a minor flaw, but it’s a shame Samsung left this problem unchanged for another year running.
SAMSUNG S90H - Blur and motion smoothness
8.5/10
Maximum refresh rate of the panel: 165Hz
Film motion smoothing option: Yes
Blur reduction option: Yes
BFI function 60Hz: Yes, 60Hz (image flickers)
BFI function 120Hz: No
Brightness drop with BFI: 50%
In terms of motion smoothness, the S90H delivers a very high level. New here is a panel with a 165 Hz refresh rate. In practice, when watching movies or sports broadcasts it's hard to notice any difference, because that kind of content doesn't use refresh rates higher than 120 Hz. The extra 165 Hz will be appreciated mainly by PC gamers who can generate that many frames per second. Samsung equipped the TV with advanced motion settings. You get two sliders (judder reduction and blur reduction) that make it easy to tailor the picture's character to your preferences. You can easily get very smooth motion for sports, but you can just as easily preserve a more cinematic feel with the typical 24 fps. It all depends on which effect you prefer.
Blur (native resolution, maximum refresh rate):
Blur (BFI function enabled):
Image flickers in this mode
Blur (4K@165HZ):
When it comes to motion blur, OLED once again shows its advantage. The panel's lightning-fast pixel response time keeps even very fast-moving scenes sharp, and the motion blur common to many LCD TVs is virtually absent.
SAMSUNG S90H - Console compatibility and gaming features
9.5/10
- ALLM:
Yes
- VRR:
Yes
- VRR range:
48 - 165Hz
- Dolby Vision Game Mode:
No
- Correct implementation of HGIG:
Yes
- 1080p@120Hz:
Yes
- 1440p@120Hz:
Yes
- 4K@120Hz:
Yes
- Game bar:
Yes
From the start the Samsung S90H feels like a TV designed with gamers in mind, and honestly... it's hard to blame them. The manufacturer equipped it with everything you’d expect from a gaming TV. You get 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 quickly check key picture parameters or change settings without leaving the game. Another very welcome improvement is that HGiG now works properly. Last year it could cause a lot of issues, but on the S90H it behaves exactly as it should.
Samsung’s real ace, however, is its proprietary Game Motion Plus mode. The feature works similarly to the motion smoothing known from movies, improving animation smoothness in games while keeping input lag at a very reasonable level. For titles running at 30/60 fps, with the right settings, input lag did not exceed 40 ms in our tests. That’s a very good result, especially since enabling similar features from many manufacturers can end up increasing lag three to four times. It’s a feature that partly makes up for the lack of Dolby Vision Gaming. A smoother image often provides more noticeable benefits than the HDR format itself, so for many gamers this will be a far more valuable addition.
SAMSUNG S90H - Input lag
10/10
Input lag is another area that's really hard to fault. With a 120 Hz signal we measured just around 5 ms, which is an exceptional result. When switched to even higher refresh rates the delay dropped to almost astronomically low levels, practically imperceptible during gameplay. The Samsung S90H delivers absolutely market-leading results here.
| SDR | HDR | Dolby Vision |
|---|---|---|
| 1080p60: 10 ms | 2160p60: 10 ms | |
| 1080p120: 5 ms | 2160p120: 5 ms | |
| 2160p60: 10 ms | ||
| 2160p120: 5 ms |
SAMSUNG S90H - Compatibility with PC
8.6/10
Chroma 444 (max. resolution and refresh rate): Yes
Font clarity: Very Good
Readability of dark text and shapes: Good
Input lag in PC mode (4K, max. refresh rate): 4ms
Matrix subpixel arrangement: RBG (QD-OLED)
Max refresh rate: 165Hz
G-Sync: Yes
The Samsung S90H works great as a large PC display, and not just because of its gaming feature set. The panel supports refresh rates up to 165 Hz, has very low input lag, and the official NVIDIA G-Sync certification lets you get smooth gameplay without tearing when paired with GeForce cards. If you’re looking for a large screen that will handle demanding PC games well, the S90H is an excellent choice.
And how about everyday work with text or web browsing? That’s good too. Fonts are sharp and readable, though you should keep in mind the specifics of QD-OLED panels. Up close you can notice the characteristic triangular subpixel layout, which can make letter edges look slightly jagged or pick up faint colored fringing. Is that a problem? In practice, it’s minor. After all, we’re talking about a 77-inch screen, so few people will sit just a few dozen centimeters from the panel. At a normal viewing distance the effect becomes practically invisible.
SAMSUNG S90H - Viewing angles
9.9/10
Brightness drop at an angle of 45 degrees: 9%
As expected from an OLED, the viewing angles are excellent, but the QD-OLED panel used here goes a step further and in this regard outclasses anything else on the market. Even if you sit well off to the side of the screen, colors don't lose saturation and the drop in brightness is marginal. There's none of the greenish tint that can be annoying on TVs with panels from LG Display. The image retains its colors regardless of the viewing angle.
SAMSUNG S90H - Daytime performance
6.4/10
Panel finish: Matte
Reflection suppression: Very Good
Black levels during daytime: Average
The biggest new feature in the S90 series is the matte screen coating. Samsung has taken this step for the first time and, in our opinion, it was a good move. In practice you can see the difference immediately. The coating very effectively suppresses light reflections, so even when there's a window opposite the TV or a bright lamp is shining, you won't see the typical mirror-like glare on the screen. Instead, only softly diffused light appears, which is much less distracting while watching. If the TV is going to sit in a bright living room, it's hard to overstate how valuable that is.
Of course, there's a trade-off. QD-OLED with a matte coating has its own characteristic quirk. When bright light hits the screen, black, instead of staying perfectly black, takes on a slightly cherry tint. You can also see that colors lose a bit of their depth. It's nothing you couldn't predict... that's just the nature of this panel. Fortunately, the TV itself is bright enough that there are no problems watching during the day. In SDR it reaches about 500 nits of average brightness, and combined with the matte coating that provides really comfortable viewing conditions.
Panel brightness
Samsung S90H / S92H (QD-OLED): 486 cd/m2
SAMSUNG S90H - TV features
7.3/10
System: Tizen
System performance: Very good
- HDMI inputs: 0 x HDMI 2.0, 4 x HDMI 2.1 48Gbps
- Outputs: Toslink (Optical audio), eARC (HDMI), ARC (HDMI)
- Network Interfaces: Wi-Fi 2.4GHz, Wi-Fi 5GHz, Ethernet (LAN) 100Mbps, Ethernet (LAN) 1Gbit
- TV reception: DVB-T, DVB-T2, DVB-S, DVB-S2, DVB-C
Classic features:
- Recording to USB (terrestrial TV): No
- Recording programming: No
- Picture in Picture (PiP): No
- RF remote control (no need to aim): RF
- Backlit remote control: No
- Teletext: Yes
- Audio only mode: Yes
- Bluetooth headphones support: Yes
- Simultaneous Bluetooth headphones & TV audio: Yes
Smart features:
- AirPlay: Yes
- Screen mirroring (Windows Miracast): Yes
- Voice search: Yes
- Voice search in native language: Yes
- Ability to connect a keyboard and mouse: Yes
Traditional television
When it comes to ordinary cable or an over-the-air antenna, Samsung hasn't reinvented the wheel. Putting the whole AI layer aside, the user mostly gets the same thing as last year. The TV simply does its job: it switches channels smoothly, has a tuner and a CI module slot, so in many cases you can do without an external decoder. Teletext is still available. The compact remote is also worth praising; its biggest advantage is RF connectivity, meaning you don't have to point it directly at the TV to change something. The problem is that practically every competitor offers most of these things today, and the S90H doesn't bring anything particularly special to the table. What's more, the manufacturer took a small step back. The S90 series has lost the PiP function, picture-in-picture. If you were used to glancing at the news in the corner of the screen while watching another program, you can't do that here. A shame.
Smart TV: Tizen
While there's little excitement in traditional TV, the Tizen system for 2026 is absolutely top-tier. Again putting AI features to one side, the main point is this: the system is simply lightning-fast. Response to remote commands is instantaneous, and when navigating menus there are no slow animations or annoying stutters. Although it doesn't use Google TV, the app library is very broad. It includes virtually all the major VOD streaming platforms, so there's little real cause for complaint in that regard. Fans of gaming without a console will also be happy, because Samsung has significantly expanded the cloud gaming section, offering access to the main streaming services directly from the TV. As a Smart TV, the S90H is simply a very complete and exceptionally fast device.
Sound connection options
HDMI audio:
Other audio outputs:
- Toslink: Yes
Wireless audio:
- Bluetooth: Yes
- Samsung Q-Symphony (Speaker extension): Yes
Supported audio formats (external HDMI eARC audio):
- Dolby Digital Plus 7.1: Yes
- Dolby True HD 7.1: Yes
- Dolby Atmos in Dolby Digital Plus (JOC): Yes
- Dolby Atmos in Dolby True HD: Yes
- DTS:X in DTS-HD MA: No
- DTS-HD Master Audio: No
Senior accessibility
- Numeric keyboard on TV: No
- Font size adjustment: Yes
- Audio description: Yes
SAMSUNG S90H - Apps
9.3/10
SAMSUNG S90H - Playing files from USB
9.1/10
| Maximum photo resolution: | Supported photo formats: |
|---|---|
| 4 Mpix | JPEG |
| 6 Mpix | HEIC |
| 8 Mpix | PNG |
| 10 Mpix | GIF |
| 12 Mpix | WebP |
| 16 Mpix | TIFF |
| 20 Mpix | BMP |
| 24 Mpix | SVG |
| 28 Mpix | |
| 32 Mpix |
The built-in player handles most popular video, audio, and photo formats really well. Its playback capabilities are so complete that you definitely won't miss the option to install external players like VLC. However, we encountered a serious bug when trying to open HEIC photos from an iPhone. The S90H not only failed to display the files but caused the entire system to freeze. The receiver stopped responding to any of our commands, so we had to reset it (unplugging it helped). This appears to be a software flaw that needs an urgent fix in the next firmware release.
SAMSUNG S90H - Sound
8.4/10
89dB
Maximum volume
Supported codecs (TV speakers)
Dolby Digital Plus 7.1
Dolby True HD 7.1
Dolby Atmos in Dolby Digital Plus (JOC)
Dolby Atmos in Dolby True HD
DTS:X in DTS-HD MA
DTS-HD Master Audio
In theory the audio specification in the S90 series has stood still for years. Once again we get a 2.1 speaker system with a total power of 40 W. However, when we powered up the review unit, we were pleasantly surprised. The TV sounded noticeably better than dry specs or memories of previous models' tests would suggest. It's hard to say definitively whether that's thanks to optimizations in the sound-control software or simply the fact that the 77-inch cabinet allows slightly larger drivers and gives them a better enclosure. The facts are that the sound is fuller and more dynamic. That's a big plus for the manufacturer. Our only gripe is that it lacks support for DTS:X, which unfortunately is being offered less and less by manufacturers. Instead, there is support for the most popular format, Dolby Atmos; nevertheless, fans of physical Blu-ray releases may feel slightly let down by the absence of DTS.
Sound Quality Test:
Acoustic Measurements
89dBC (Max)
75dBC
SAMSUNG S90H - Panel details
Software version during testing: 1122
Panel uniformity and thermal imaging:
Backlight Type: QD-OLED
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