Samsung QN90D 98-inch evaluate: solid and stylish, but worth the price tag?

The TV is constructed properly. It’s heavy, but it’s solid. Any 98-inch TV is probably going going to be heavy and really feel solid, but this one feels further sturdy for a 98-incher.

It comes with a pedestal stand, which is spectacular. The TV’s appreciable heft makes it candidate to be mounted on a wall — the place I feel it seems its finest — and well-suited for a devoted leisure area as it could be too huge for a typical space. Samsung might have simply outfitted the TV with a few toes, but they included a horny pedestal stand that’s constructed like a tank, and I admire that.

There is a few flex to the TV when mounted on the stand, which is unavoidable on a TV this measurement, shy of getting a 300-pound steel chassis. Even so, this TV isn’t going to topple except there’s a serious earthquake otherwise you’re doing parkour in your lounge with reckless abandon.

It’s shocking to not see an array of bass transducers — or little mini subwoofers — lining the again of the TV. That’s traditional high-end Samsung lately. The 8Ks have it. Samsung’s OLEDs get it. Why not right here? If there’s a purpose, it eludes me.

Samsung’s newest distant may be very small, rechargeable by way of photo voltaic and USB-C, and shy on buttons. Navigation occurs by way of Samsung’s Tizen interface, which is due for a facelift quickly, as Samsung goes to place a model of its One UI, ported over from its cell units, over its present Tizen working system. It will nonetheless be Tizen — and Bixby will nonetheless be round — but you’ll have Alexa as an choice, too.

For the numbers geeks, right here’s what the measurements say.

I used a Calibrate HL Plus colorimeter, Video Forge Pro sample generator, and Calman Ultimate calibration software program to run it by a collection of assessments. I additionally modified up the window measurement a number of occasions to attempt to thwart any dishonest on behalf of the TV.

In SDR Filmmaker mode, the 98-inch QN90D got here in at 120 nits, which is textbook for this image mode. Juicing up the brightness resulted in a 700-nit studying.

The two-point white stability and grayscale in SDR Filmmaker appeared fairly good till it reached the brightest whites. At that time the crimson channel falls off a bit, which is bizarre for an image mode with a heat coloration temperature setting. That mentioned, the error was simply barely in the perceivable territory with a max Delta E round 4. I’ve seen a lot, a lot worse from most of the 98-inch TVs I’ve examined, so respect to Samsung.

The coloration accuracy in SDR and HDR is outstandingly good — I obtained top-tier OLED numbers on the coloration accuracy. The TV didn’t cowl fairly as a lot of the BT.2020 coloration area as I’d hoped, but the colours produced in Filmmaker Mode have been exceptionally good. Again, respect to Samsung’s engineers.

I examined Movie mode, too, and it had related outcomes with coloration accuracy and grayscale. The actual distinction between Filmmaker Mode and Movie mode is that Filmmaker adopted the EOTF curve completely, and Movie mode was deliberately and considerably over-brightened, which, whereas not correct, is what most folk appear to love.

Peak brightness numbers weren’t as intense as I used to be anticipating: about 1,700 nits with all the things maxed out (in Filmmaker and Movie modes). Generally the different modes gained’t really be brighter, they’ll simply look brighter as a result of the cooler coloration temperature.

A 1,700-nit peak is respectable, but the TCL and Hisense TVs are in 3,000-nit territory. I by no means felt like this TV wasn’t vivid sufficient in HDR, but in SDR I used to be shocked that I needed to max out the brightness to be actually pleased with the image.

In the finish, the QN90D gives some beautiful HDR photographs — and SDR, too. I simply wouldn’t name it the finest bright-room TV you should purchase. TCL and Hisense win gold and silver in that race as a result of they get extra intense in SDR.

When it involves measurements, the QN90D is a solid TV — positively a flagship.

I put lots of hours in on this TV: some 18 episodes of Mythbusters, 5 episodes of Suits, 4 episodes of Bosch: Legacy, three episodes of CHiPs, eight hours of YouTuber Golf, in addition to watching Interstellar two and a half occasions — as soon as on YouTube and as soon as on 4K Blu-ray, and about half of it on every platform once more. This is along with all the traditional content material I exploit to judge TVs.

For the overwhelming majority of the time, I loved watching the QN90D very a lot. It does lots of issues very well.

But I used to be not blown away. And if I spend $10K on a TV? I need to be blown away. To be honest, I’ve seen all of the TVs, and I’m jaded. Most of us shall be blown away by this TV. I simply anticipated extra as a result of a lot of Samsung’s TVs commonly blow me away.

With the QN90D, although, one thing simply isn’t sitting proper with me. This TV, on uncommon events, would make me go … wait … what?

Like, the backlight system: 99% of the time it’s superior. When it’s taking part in content material, it’s simply superior. There’s little or no halo or blooming, which is best than the TCL QM8 and Hisense U8N, I feel — neck-and-neck at the very least. And the backlight is speedier, too. Transitions between vivid and dim occur very quick.

But generally, like when pulling up information screens on YouTube or Prime Video, the APL goes manner up. Why?

There’s additionally some weirdness (that may be seen on the wall by the stairs in the clip above), which I feel is a processing challenge — it doesn’t behave like a backlight challenge. I see it most frequently with shifting individuals towards sure coloration backgrounds like inexperienced and darkish yellow amber. It’s worse on low-quality content material, which can be basically tied to upscaling and exacerbated by pixel-level changes to boost distinction.

To be honest, in Interstellar — a three-hour film — it occurred for lower than 15 seconds. I watched this TV for 4 days and didn’t see it as soon as. The share of time that is seen was negligible for me, but this shouldn’t occur on a TV this superior and this costly.

Most of the time the movement decision is excellent. And then generally — particularly on YouTube, and even with comparatively high-quality content material — it’s a stutter fest.

Did I get a dud? I don’t suppose so. Perhaps the processor will not be glad driving this measurement of panel. I’ll work with Samsung on this: They’ve been gracious about taking suggestions and working to make their merchandise higher.

The TV gross sales advert from 1998 reminds us that the price of a top-tier, large-screen premium TV in the present day is in keeping with that it was 26 years in the past. What’s modified is the aggressive panorama. Hisense and TCL have TVs with aggressive image efficiency promoting for unbelievably low costs — so low, I generally marvel in the event that they’re making a lot margin.

The basic query right here is: What is Samsung providing that these guys aren’t? Let’s revisit these and then you possibly can place your personal sense of worth on which premium points are essential to you.

Starting with construct high quality, the QN90D does really feel like a better-built TV than massive screens from TCL and Hisense. The pedestal stand itself — and its inclusion — is premium. You simply don’t appear them with competitors at this measurement. Then there are construct high quality issues occurring inside the TV that aren’t apparent from the exterior. There are selections about how the TV is wired up and the place the energy provide goes, which may make the TV simpler to restore, if mandatory, and additionally makes the TV thinner.

Samsung in the previous has additionally informed me that a part of its design philosophy is to beef up elements round frequent failure factors — little electrical connections or the high quality of the energy provide, for instance. The form of issues that are inclined to fail on less-expensive TVs will hopefully not fail on a Samsung.

Another instance of premium is the distant, which is rechargeable in two totally different manner — one thing you don’t see from comptetitors. Samsung can also be pleased with its Knox security measures constructed into its TVs. I can’t converse to how efficient they’re or how that compares to the competitors, but safety has been a focus.

The sound high quality, although I encourage you to get a soundbar, is considerably higher than competing TVs. Then there’s Samsung’s help of sensible units, which works manner past simply Chromecast, HomeKit, and AirPlay. Additionally there’s Multi View, which lets you put content material side-by-side on the display, the implementation of cloud gaming choices by Samsung’s Gaming Hub, object monitoring sound, and Q-Symphony.

This isn’t an exhaustive listing, as Tizen hides every kind of stuff inside it, but that’s a fairly lengthy listing of premium options. So the query is: How a lot of that’s stuff that you really want, and are you keen to pay much more for it?

For now, right here’s my takeaway. This TV seems glorious 99% of the time. It’s an aesthetic TV. It will blow many people away.

But the price of admission is just too steep. I hardly ever let price get in the manner of a advice after I’m speaking a few premium product, as a result of that is the form of TV that largely rich of us and enterprise homeowners will buy. In this case, although, I can’t let it slide. I feel the TV is just too costly. It pains me to say it. And if it’ll price this a lot, it must blow me away like Samsung’s different glorious TVs do.