Samsung QE65Q90R Review

Samsung QE65Q90R Review

Is Samsung's 2019 QLED better than an OLED? It's certainly close Tested at $3500 / £3799?

OUR VERDICT

A QLED that does things only an OLED previously could, the Q90R is an exceptional telly.

FOR

• Natural, authentic colours
• Deep, detailed blacks
• Wide viewing angles

AGAINST

• Motion processing not perfect
• Others sound better

SCORES

Picture: 5

Sound: 4

Features 5

Total Words: 536

Being excellent simply isn’t ok for Samsung. Only the absolute best will do. That’s why, despite its 2018 4K flagship being the simplest TV it had ever produced, with a performance way beyond that of the other backlit set, Samsung fixated on the few flaws that prevented it from winning a What Hi-Fi? Award.

But thankfully, Samsung hasn’t thrown the baby out with the bathwater. The new Q90R is equally the belter that the Q9FN was, but with practically all of its flaws fixed. Not only is it the simplest backlit set we’ve ever tested, it also plays its OLED rivals at their own game.

Here we've reviewed the 65in version of the Q90R (the QE65Q90R to offer it its complete name), but it is also available in 55in (QE55Q90R) and 75in (QE75Q90R) varieties.

Picture

The main criticism of 2018's Q9FN (and QLED as a whole) as compared to OLED rivals, is viewing angles. It’s no surprise, then, that Samsung has prioritised trying to repair this particular problem.

Called Ultra Viewing Angle, Samsung’s new feature involves extra layers on the panel that reduce light leakage and spread light uniformity. The result's near-flawless viewing angles. Even at the widest angles, colours remain vibrant and blacks remain pure. This not appears to be a clear advantage of OLED, and that’s an enormous step for Samsung.

And while the Q9FN was capable of manufacturing deep blacks for a non-OLED, we still sensed that dark detail was being lost. Samsung over-compensated with its Q900R 8K sets, which sacrificed an excessive amount of depth within the pursuit of detail and looked a touch washed-out, but this new Q90R strikes an outstanding balance.

Play the scene in Harry Potter and therefore the Deathly Hallows Part II where Voldemort’s army of wizards amasses on a hill above Hogwarts, and therefore the difference within the delivery of last year's Q9FN and 2019's Q90R is stark. On the newer model you'll see such a lot more of the scenery and therefore the structure of Hogwarts. But there’s no washing-out of the blacks and zip that appears like artificial enhancement.

When the camera closes in on Voldemort, it’s clear that the Q90R has no trouble with bright objects in otherwise dark scenes. Where the Q9FN would occasionally twiddling my thumbs to avoid creating a clear halo round the lit object, Samsung has improved the precision of its backlight (which retains the Q9FN’s peak brightness figure of 2000 units and approximately 500 dimming zones) then can confidently light bright objects with little fear. The result's that while Voldemort looks a touch shadowed on the Q9FN, his white skin is creepily luminescent on the Q90R. Only very tiny, very bright objects on completely black backgrounds (small credits at the beginning of a movie, for instance) cause the Samsung to take care with its light levels.

Having watched umpteen films and television shows, via discs, streaming apps and therefore the Freeview tuner, during our test of the Q90R, we’ve really been struck by the authenticity of its colours. Where the Q9FN was a touch warm in its approach to colour, the Q90R strikes a rather cooler, more neutral balance, with no loss of punch or vibrancy. The Q9FN’s rosy hue occasionally draws the attention away, but with the Q90R you get all of the dynamism of the image and a greater sense of realism.

Play the opening of Guardians of the Galaxy Vol.2 and therefore the Q9FN looks a touch sunburnt within the ploughed fields and a touch pink within the clouds. The Q90’s fields are a touch more natural and organic, and its clouds are purer. because the camera pans in on the occupants of the Ford Mustang, the color balance improvements become clearer, with the slight flushing of faces of the Q9FN being dialled down without skin tones becoming unnaturally pallid.

The shot of the planets is even more convincing. The gold on the surface is simply as bright, but it avoids the slight orange tinge of the Q9FN. There’s greater edge definition, too, and a touch more dynamism to the contrast, with the brilliant and dark elements of the earth being more pronounced and dramatic. The earth looks more solid and three-dimensional.

The new Quantum Processor 4K shares many of the attributes of the Quantum Processor 8K, introduced with the Q900R range, including its AI-based approach to upscaling, which uses a huge and increasing database of images to make a more accurate algorithm. Within the Q90R, it leads to cleaner and sharper images from non-4K content. It’s most blatant when viewing standard-def content, which is surprisingly smooth and freed from artificiality.

Disappointingly, the one aspect of performance that Samsung has seemingly chosen to not improve is motion processing. The Q9FN wasn’t exactly bad, but fell in need of what most premium Sony TVs can manage and it’s an identical story with the Q90R. The Auto mode produces the type of horribly over-processed images that get Tom Cruise all aroused , while the Custom setting, which allows for individual tweaking of Blur Reduction and Judder Reduction, still falls just in need of the artefact-free, sharp and smooth balance that we’re trying to find .

Of course, you'll turn the motion processing off entirely, but we do appreciate the slight smoothing and sharpening of the Custom mode’s default settings, albeit it's occasionally caught out by very tricky movement.

Talking of settings, there’s mercifully little that needs changing so as to urge the Q90R performing its best. For HDR, you would like only select the quality preset, choose your preferred degree of motion processing and switch Digital Clean View off, while for all other content we propose you persist with Standard, switch Local Dimming to High, drop Brightness by one point and Sharpness by five. Samsung suggests using the Movie mode when watching films, but its heavily sepia-tinted softness leaves us cold.

It’s also worth mentioning the Intelligent Mode, designed to tweak the image and sound supported your room and therefore the content you’re playing. We’d recommend you delve into the menus and switch the image element (Adaptive Brightness) off.

Sound

The sound portion of the Intelligent Mode is split into two parts; Adaptive Sound, which optimises sound supported your room size, the position of your TV, and therefore the characteristics of every scene; and Adaptive Volume, which automatically adjusts the quantity supported your usage patterns and audio input.

We switch the Adaptive Volume off, but find Adaptive Sound to be worthwhile. It’s almost like last year’s Optimised Sound mode, which added extra punch, openness and dynamics, but goes further by adapting in real-time to what’s being played and analysing the acoustics of your room. The top result's a clean and open sound, particularly for a TV with more or less invisible speakers.

But last year’s Q9FN sounded a touch more direct and immediate, and neither TV is up there with the present wave of audio-enhanced TVs, like Sony’s vibrating AF9, Philips’ B&W-fettled OLED903 or Panasonic’s Technics-tuned FZ952.

Samsung’s case against the likes of the Philips and Panasonic, which have full, integrated soundbars, is that if you would like better sound from the Q90R you'll add one among its own soundbars, space that is incorporated within the design. It’s an inexpensive argument, but there are many people that need a telly that both looks and sounds great, without the effort of a separate box.

The chassis of the TV itself is essentially unchanged from last year’s Q9FN. The metal bezel may be a little less matte, but otherwise the sharp, angular aesthetic and pointy corners remain, as do the straight chunky edges. At 4cm, it’s a reasonably thick TV, particularly in comparison to backlight-less OLEDs, but the Q90R looks snazzy in its title.

The key design difference between it and therefore the Q9FN is that the stand: the old, spindly pedestal has been replaced by one, curved metal stand that provides the TV the air of an outsized Apple iMac. The new pedestal, which raises the TV a couple of centimetres above last year’s model, looks slightly awkward but has practical advantages – namely a smaller footprint which space for a soundbar.

As is that the Samsung way, there’s only one input on the rear of the TV for the skinny , largely transparent cable that runs between it and therefore the OneConect box, which handles not only all of the inputs and outputs, but also the facility . Like last year’s Q9FN, the screen section of the Q90R doesn't got to be plugged into the wall. Connect the OneConnect to power, run all of your sources into that and there’s only one optical cable running from it to the screen. It’s such a neat solution that we’re amazed other manufacturers haven’t copied it.

Features

In terms of physical connections, the Q90R features a typical selection of 4 HDMIs, three USBs, ethernet, aerial, satellite and optical out. The HDMIs aren’t officially 2.1 certified, but Samsung says the hardware is more or less there and a couple of .1-style features like Variable Refresh Rate are already enabled.

Samsung’s TV OS is already one among the simplest around – fast, fluid and intuitive, and majoring on getting you to what you would like to observe as quickly as possible. The app selection is second-to-none. Netflix and Amazon are in fact present in their full 4K HDR forms (the latter in HDR10+), as is Rakuten. BBC iPlayer, ITV Hub, All 4 and Demand 5 are all on board, too, as are Now TV and Google Play Movies & TV.

The big news is that Apple’s TV app is additionally now on board, bringing the most important and best selection of streamable 4K HDR films around.

The Q90R also features the second-generation version of Samsung’s ambient mode, designed to form use of the TV when it’s not getting used for viewing. The TV blends in to the wall upon which it’s mounted, requiring only one photo from your phone to repeat the pattern and hues. Alternatively you'll choose between the choice of fifty ambient modes, including petals falling across the display or silhouettes of leaves blowing within the wind. You furthermore may now have more control over the colors utilized in the patterns, choosing to match the shade of your curtains or sofa, for instance.

It’s even possible to use the new QLED TVs as a light-weight source, with variety of customisable light grid patterns available. You’ll choose romantic lighting, for instance, or a celebration mode pattern, but we expect you’re much more likely to use Ambient 2.0 to display your own photos or the pre-installed professional shots, that there are now lots more layouts and designs.

Back to the intense stuff of HDR formats, and therefore the Q90R supports HDR10, HLG and, of course, HDR10+. Samsung insists that we take HDR10+ as a significant rival to Dolby Vision, but while we are finally seeing content (Jack Ryan and a good bit besides on Amazon Video, and Bohemian Rhapsody on 4K Blu-ray, for example), the implementation remains patchy at the best .

The TV now tells you (via the house menu) when you’re watching HDR10+ on Amazon Video, but not when HDR10+ is being sent by a Blu-ray player, and Amazon's app doesn't flag content as having HDR10+. There’s no dedicated HDR10+ picture mode on the Q90R, either, therefore the Dolby Vision-style sense that you’re seeing the content exactly as intended isn’t there. Instead, you’re getting a rather tweaked version of the prevailing HDR10 picture. Or are you? It are often hard to inform.

Verdict

But getting hung abreast of the inconsistent implementation of HDR10+ is to not see the wood for the trees. The Samsung Q90R QLED is an exceptional TV that does things previously considered inherent advantages of OLED.

The Q90R may be a backlit TV that goes almost as black as an OLED and has OLED-like viewing angles, while retaining its own advantage of greater brightness. It also boasts brilliantly judged colours and excellent dark detail, to not mention a superb OS full of apps.

Let there be no doubt; the Q90R is one among 2019's best 65in TVs and remains a contender in 2020, particularly because of some significant discounting. And if you are looking for its successor, inspect our QE65Q95T review.