TV Reviews

Performance
Features
Ergonomics
Value

AT A GLANCE
Plus
High peak brightness for HDR
Wide viewing angle for an LCD TV
Extended color
Minus
No Dolby Vision support
Some visible “blooming”

THE VERDICT
Samsung's 65-inch Q90T series model offers impressive overall performance at a far lower price than the company's previous flagship 4K TVs.

While most buyers might view two grand as a high price to pay for a new TV, longtime readers here will recall the days when that amount would barely get you a small, flat-panel HD set with few features—and certainly not 4K with HDR. But intense competition in the TV world has resulted in bigger and more sophisticated displays at lower prices. Samsung's Q90T series, including the 65-inch model reviewed here, is actually derived from the company's 2019 Q80R series.

Performance
Features
Ergonomics
Value

AT A GLANCE
Plus
One of the brightest TVs you can buy
Deep gaming functionality
Relatively wide viewing angles
Mounts flat on a wall
Excellent cable management
Minus
65" model is pricey
Still no Dolby Vision
Quantum-dot OLED has its own charms

THE VERDICT
This sublime ultra-premium multi-use 4K TV has a modern minimalist design and delivers impressive imagery thanks to the use of mini-LED, quantum dots and advanced picture processing. Its premium performance comes at a price but it delivers the goods when it comes to image fidelity.

For the past ten years we've watched 4K LCD and OLED TVs compete in the wake of plasma's demise. There was the death of 3D. And for a while, we even had curved screens to contend with. At first OLED had a distinct picture quality advantage over LCDs, thanks to its use of emissive pixels that can fully shut off individually and deliver true blacks. However LED-lit LCD keeps evolving and keeping pace while offering a different set of benefits.

Samsung's name for mini-LED FALD LCD panels featuring quantum dots is Neo QLED. And the QN95C is king of the 4K Neo QLEDs.

Performance
Features
Ergonomics
Value

AT A GLANCE
Plus
Superb HDR
Outstanding contrast
Wide viewing angle
Minus
No Dolby Vision
Frustrating menus

THE VERDICT
An appealing price for what is essentially a new and ground-breaking application of OLED is almost as much of a surprise as how much Samsung has upped the ante on what we can expect from an OLED HDTV.

We've become so accustomed to what an OLED TV can do that we risk reciting its benefits in our sleep. Great black levels, check. Viewable with little picture change from as far off center as you might want to sit, double check. Bright enough for modestly lit to very dark rooms (but not a sun porch!), check. High prices? That too. But in the past few years, nothing dramatic has muscled its way into the OLED world, though prices have slowly become less intimidating—until now. Samsung, which for years resisted joining the OLED TV parade, has developed a relatively radical way to build an OLED display with Quantum Dot Technology.

The LEDing Edge

Samsung appears to be producing so many LED-backlit LCD sets these days that it risks a “been there, done that” reaction from the flat-panel peanut gallery. But with the coming of 3D, plus some twisty new technology that produces an outstanding picture, the company is challenging other set makers to a game of catch-up.

Thin, Dark, and Handsome

Thin was in last year, and the trend continues without an end in sight. Manufacturers aren’t likely to quit the race until they have HDTVs you can use for wallpaper.

2D Performance
3D Performance
Features
Ergonomics
Value

AT A GLANCE
Plus
Excellent picture quality for an LCD HDTV Innovative remote control
Minus
Overly wide Arc Stand base

THE VERDICT
Samsung’s F8000 Series represents an evolutionary leap in the company’s LCD TV offerings.

My last experience with a Samsung TV (aside from the company’s KN55S9C OLED, reviewed in the November issue) was a memorable one. The company had just endowed its Smart Hub interface with voice control, and, consequently, it was the first TV I ever found myself talking at. Or screaming at, rather, since that feature proved useless in practice. Another reason was its performance: The Samsung was one of the best sets I’d tested in recent memory.

Performance
Features
Ergonomics
Value

AT A GLANCE
Plus
Excellent blacks and shadow detail
First-rate resolution
Compelling high dynamic range
Minus
HDR limited to HDR10
No 3D

THE VERDICT
In some important respects, Samsung’s new top-of-the-line TV improves upon the company’s previous flagship, and at a lower price.

When we last reviewed one of Samsung’s so-called SUHD sets, Ultra HD with high dynamic range (HDR) was not yet available on Blu-ray. But the arrival of such discs—together with UHD Bluray players like Samsung’s own UBD-K8500—has changed the game.

The 4K resolution of Ultra HD sets is all well and good, but HDR is the most eye-popping feature of UHD. Not all 4K sets, however, incorporate HDR, and those that do don’t necessarily perform at the same level. HDR still can’t be done well cheaply; at present, the displays that do it best are their respective makers’ premier offerings. The Samsung KS9800 series definitely belongs in that company—and among the three models within that family, the 65-incher we’re discussing here is the smallest.