Samsung QN90D Neo QLED hands-on review: this full-featured 4K TV is a gaming beast
All the gaming TV features you need and then some
I’ve played God of War Ragnarok and Returnal on the new Samsung QN90D, the latest flagship 4K Neo QLED TV, and I can confidently say it looks like one of the best gaming TVs for 2024. This model hasn’t seen as an extensive redesign as the company’s flagship 8K QLED TV, the Samsung QN900D, but Samsung has upgraded it with a new AI-focused processor and several new software features. The model I tested was the 65-inch model that costs $2,699, but there are also more affordable models including a 43-inch version for $1,499.
Pros:
🗣️ Active Voice Amplifier Pro makes quiet dialogue easier to hear
🔆 Super bright panel with excellent contrast
Cons:
📺 A TV as expensive as the QN90D should have the One Connect Box
✨ Early software causes haloing issues in the menus
🔧 If it ain’t broke. Samsung has made no major changes to the QN90D design when comparing it to last year’s model, the QN90C. In many ways, that’s a good thing because Samsung already struck a great design last year with the shift to a hexagonal-shaped centralized stand. It gives it that extra gaming edge you won’t find on other TVs and it also has a cable routing area built into the back of the TV stand.
🤖 AI brains. Internally the Samsung QN90D comes equipped with a new NQ4 AI Gen2 Processor that features 20 AI neural networks to optimize both picture and sound. The added neural processing power of this chip helps drive the QN90D’s new AI-based image processing for things like upscaling and auto HDR remastering. There’s also the all-new Real Depth Enhancer Pro, which sharpens foreground images and increases the contrast to give content a slightly 2.5D appearance.
⚡Quantum Power! Quantum Matrix technology isn’t completely new, but it’s easy to forget that the Mini LED backlighting system has increased the number of lighting zones by 1.5 times over a traditional QLED TV. All those lighting zones make the QN90D staggeringly bright while allowing the TV to render an incredible level of contrast with little to no haloing. The only issue I encountered with the backlight was that opening any menu would cause horizontal haloing across the whole screen. I chalked it up to early software issues that will be smoothed over with firmware updates as Samsung gets the TV ready for retail release.
🗣️ What did ya say? If you’re tired of quiet, garbled dialogue in movies and shows like everyone else, Samsung’s new Active Voice Amplifier Pro feature could solve that problem. As its name suggests, it amplifies the vocal track of anything you’re watching and it does an amazing job of amplifying dialogue. Switching the feature on and off, Active Voice Amplifier Pro increases the volume by almost a quarter.
🎮 New gaming features. The Samsung QN90D also comes loaded with an all-new Game Bar 4.0, which houses all of the Samsung TV’s game-enhancing and focused picture options. This full-numbered update adds two major features; Auto Game Genre and Mini-Map Auto Detection.
🔮 So you like Suikoden? Once again by utilizing AI, Auto Game Genre can detect what type of game you’re playing (like Psycho Mantis from Metal Gear Solid) and adjust the TV’s picture settings accordingly. The Game Bar already has some preset modes for racing and FPS games, so Auto Game Genre picks one of these presets based on what it thinks you're playing.
🗺️ Mark it on the map. Mini-Map Auto Detection is an extension of the mini-map expansion feature that first debuted on Samsung’s previous 2023 TVs. Previously users had to manually move around an overlay to enlarge their mini-map but now new TVs are smart enough to suss out where it is on your screen all on its own. This update certainly takes one step out of setting up the Mini-Map expansion feature, but I don’t love how it splits the screen and would rather have an option to just position my enlarged mini-map over games displayed in full-screen.
🥃 Almost top shelf. The QN90D might be Samsung’s flagship 4K Neo QLED TV but it doesn’t come with a One Connect Box like the even higher-end QD-OLED S95D or 8K Neo QLED QN900D. Instead, it still has ports built into the back of the TV like you would find from other brands like LG, Sony, TCL, and the like.
🔌 Any port in a game. The QN90D might only have a set of pedestrian built-in ports but the good news is they’re all gaming-ready HDMI 2.1 ports. They also support Auto Low Latency Mode and Variable Refresh Rate so you can take full advantage of the Xbox Series X/S and PS5’s gaming features with any of these ports.
Kevin Lee is The Shortcut’s Creative Director. Follow him on Twitter @baggingspam.