Samsung QN90A Neo QLED TV Review Review

Samsung QN90A Neo QLED TV Review Review

One minute review

The Samsung QN90A Neo QLED is one of the first displays in 2021 to use the hype Neo QLED panels from the company, which have a higher number of LEDs per square inch than previous generations. The result is a brighter TV than ever before - if that's possible with Samsung - and one that can display a range of colors in deeply satisfying ways. Inside, each and every Neo QLED TV has the high-end 4K Neo Quantum processor that uses a neural network to examine images for better HD upscaling and Motion Xcelerator Turbo+ for better motion management, which it has really paid off for Samsung's flagship screen. Finally, there are the new GameView and Game Bar features. The Game Bar shows each and every key spec that players care about, like the current frames per second (FPS) and what version of VRR is currently enabled. GameView lets you convert the screen ratio. Frankly, it's a fun idea and can help offset the cost if you use the TV as both a monitor and an entertainment screen in your living room. That said, there are a few hiccups coming up this year that we can't ignore, like the slight wobble of the stand or surprisingly mediocre sound quality that doesn't quite measure up to a flagship 4K TV. There's also no support for Dolby Vision, which means it's locked to HDR10 on Netflix (albeit HDR10+ elsewhere). None of these factors are definitive factors, but they should give you a little rest before spending €2,500.

Price and launch date

The Samsung QN90A Neo QLED TV is a part of the Samsung TV line 2021 which also includes the Samsung QN85A, Samsung QN80A, Samsung Q70A and Samsung Q60A 4K QLED TVs, as well as the Samsung QN700A, Samsung QN800A and Samsung QN900A 8K TVs. It was unveiled at the virtual CES 1.499 and became available in the US and UK shortly after. In terms of costs in the UK and US, it runs between €1.799 / €4.999. In the US, there's also an XNUMX-inch model available for €XNUMX if you want a really big screen. Costs in the United States: UK costs:

Integrated

From a purely aesthetic point of view, There is nothing to dislike about the Samsung QN90A. It looks really good with premium materials and looks really good both on the wall and on its stand. In terms of design, however, the stand is somewhat dangerous. When the TV was fully installed on the stand, with the screws as tight as possible, there was still a reasonable amount of wobble in the TV. It wasn't quite as bad as the Sony X950H that we criticized last year for its shake, but it's still a lot less stable than we'd like. Of course, we can only chat about the XNUMX-inch version of the TV we tested; the fifty-five-inch TV could do just fine with its lower weight and center of gravity. One of the reasons why the QN90A is a bit more unstable this year it is therefore a bit thinner. Compared to last year, Samsung reduced the TV's depth by about a half-inch, which meant compromising sound quality and stability. It's not a bad thing if you plan to connect the TV to an external audio system, like one of Samsung's Dolby Atmos soundbars, and mount the TV on the wall, but it's worth noting. The other drawback with the design of the Samsung QN90A is that it only ships with a single full-bandwidth HDMI 1 port. That might be a bit of a downside in the future, but the good news is that all 4 ports can now drive both the PS5 and Xbox Series X at 4K/120Hz, VRR, and ALLM. While all 4 ports work fine for consoles, port 95 is the only port that supports eARC, so you'll want to use it for a soundbar. Unfortunately, all of these ports are located directly on the back of the TV and not on Samsung's OneConnect box, which is only available with the QN800A, Q900A and Q90A models. The QNXNUMXA does have a way of hiding cables by tucking them into slots on the back of the TV, but it's not as elegant a solution as the OneConnect box. What is a very elegant solution, however, is the new eco-friendly remote control that runs on a solar battery. It works just out of the box and then recharges itself each night by sitting on the edge of your windowsill. By the time we wanted to go back to watching TV in the mid-morning or early afternoon, the remote was fully charged again. Samsung QN90A Neo QLED TV (Image credit: Samsung) Aside from being easy to charge, the remote uses Bluetooth, which means it works without a line of sight to the TV, and it comes with a built-in microphone that can be used to interrogate smart assistants. Overall, it's still pretty solid despite being one of the smaller mainstream TV remotes and its eco-friendly nature clearly earns it some points in our book.

Smart TV (Tizen)

At the core of the Samsung QN90A is the Tizen smart platform that Samsung has been using for, well, seems like forever. New this year is the ability to change the smart assistant the TV uses, and your options include Alexa, Google Assistant, and Bixby. We still don't think Bixby is on par with the other 2, but now that's a minor issue considering it's easy to switch to one of the others. What concerns to Tizen's user interfaceIt looks pretty clean. Press the home button to reveal an overlay at the bottom of the screen with the usual apps and sources, like settings and ambient mode. Ambient mode, roughly speaking, is a lower wattage mode that helps the TV blend in with the surrounding environment while retaining some key information, such as past screen time. It's been around for a few years and is still an interior decorator's dream come true. The other cool built-in feature for Tizen is Samsung's proprietary Samsung TV Plus app, which combines traditional TV channels with streaming channels for a more robust app experience for free. Best of all, Samsung TV Plus is like a lot of cable guides, which means finding something to watch is partially intuitive, and you can choose from multiple popular networks like ABC News, MTV, Nickolodeon, and more. All of these channels are ad-supported, so you're going to see an ad sometimes, but otherwise, it's a boon for Tizen. In terms of app support, all the major streaming platforms are there, including Netflix, Amazon Prime Video, Disney Plus, and Hulu. To download apps that aren't built into the TV, you need to sign in with a Samsung account, which is a bit of a pain, admittedly, and some apps are better than others. Amazon Prime Video, for example, with its HDR10+ support, actually looks better than HBO Max which, when we tried to stream Mortal Kombat, incomprehensibly used the appropriate picture settings for the screen and couldn't be changed. In the end, we had to use another streaming device on their site, which was a bit disappointing. Speaking of UI overlays, it's also worth talking a bit more about Tizen's Game Bar and GameView features. While they can indeed be useful for console gamers, as they confirm the refresh rate of the TV, they are much more useful for computer gamers. For example, connecting the QN90A to a computer allows you to control the aspect ratio, but you'll need to manually set the computer's output to 21:3840 (1600x2560 or either (1080x32) or 3840:1080 (5x16). Prefer this format while others will be 90 with XNUMX:XNUMX, but having this option makes a strong case for using the Samsung QNXNUMXA as a monitor. Samsung QN90A Neo QLED TV (Image credit: Samsung) To finish on a positive note, the TV supports screen casting for most major apps and Apple AirPlay XNUMX. Sharing content on the screen is partly simple and exaggeratedly convenient; In addition to this, if you're using a Samsung smartphone or smartwatch, you can sync your biometric data to the TV via the built-in Samsung Health app. It's not worth throwing away your iOS device if it's not already on Samsung's Android platforms, but it's a nice bonus for those of us who are.

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