Samsung QN90B Neo QLED TV Review - Tough Competition

**Full Article Based on Video Transcription:**

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### [Caleb Denison’s Review of the Samsung QN90B 4K HDR Mini LED TV]

#### **Introduction**

Welcome back to another in-depth TV review! My name is Caleb Denison, and today I’m excited to dive into the Samsung QN90B 4K HDR Mini LED TV. If you’ve been following my channel, you know that I’ve always had mixed feelings about LED backlighting, especially in its early iterations. However, as technology has evolved, so have my expectations—and it seems like this year might be different. The QN90B is a standout model, and I’m here to unpack why.

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#### **Setup and Testing**

Before diving into the details, I want to set the scene. Normally, I conduct my reviews in my dedicated TV studio, but for this one, I made some serious moves: I flew across the country to Samsung’s facilities in New Jersey. Why? Because of an interesting shift in the review process—instead of companies shipping review samples to us, we’re now shipping our gear to them! It’s a bit unconventional, but it allowed me to get hands-on with both the QN90B and the QN900B 8K TV.

Samsung provided me with a fresh, unboxed QN90B for testing. I spent time measuring its performance, watching content, and exploring its features. While I couldn’t spend as much time as usual due to logistical constraints, I’m confident in my initial impressions and findings.

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#### **Firmware Update Drama**

Before we dive into the technical aspects, let’s address some firmware-related news. The QN90B, along with its 8K cousin the QN900B, is currently running Firmware 1204 as of this recording. Importantly, the backlight local dimming system—something I’ve always been cautious about—is working flawlessly. If you’ve followed any firmware update drama surrounding this model, rest assured: everything is in order now.

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#### **Performance Breakdown**

Now, onto the fun stuff: performance metrics. Let’s get into the nitty-gritty details for those of you who love your numbers (and yes, I’ll follow it up with a disclaimer that numbers don’t tell the whole story).

##### **Brightness and HDR Performance**

In both SDR (Standard Dynamic Range) and HDR (High Dynamic Range), the QN90B delivered impressive brightness levels. I conducted most of my measurements using the *Filmmaker Mode* picture preset, which is typically a great starting point for color accuracy. However, I also tested the *Movie Preset* to compare peak brightness numbers.

- **Peak Brightness:** Regardless of the preset, I clocked the TV at around **1200 nits** sustainably.

- **Local Dimming Control:** The QN90B held up well even in smaller window sizes, maintaining **640 nits** for a 1-10% window. That’s excellent off-angle performance.

While this brightness level is more than enough to label the QN90B as a “bright room” TV, it doesn’t quite reach the heights of Samsung’s own 8K QLEDs, Sony’s X95K, or Vizio’s PQX series. However, you’re not paying a premium for that extra brightness either.

##### **Color Accuracy and Gamma Tracking**

Here’s where things get a bit more complex. The white balance in SDR was spot-on right out of the box—my go-to *Filmmaker Mode* had a perfect D65 white point. In HDR, there was a slight imbalance, but it wasn’t difficult to dial in with some calibration.

However, I noticed something unusual when testing gamma and EOTF (Electro-Optical Transfer Function) tracking. The TV’s behavior didn’t align consistently across different window sizes—it just… acted oddly. While I was told to expect some panel-to-panel variance, this level of inconsistency is new territory for me, even with Samsung TVs.

That said, when watching actual content, these odd readings didn’t translate into visible issues. Color accuracy and volume were top-notch, rivaling expectations for a TV in this price class. Sony’s X95K edges it out slightly in terms of color tracking, but the difference is negligible to most viewers.

##### **Motion Handling**

Moving on to motion performance: stutter was noticeable in slow panning shots when I didn’t enable motion smoothing (which I rarely do). This isn’t a knock on the TV itself—it’s more about the pixel response time. The QN90B’s fast refresh rate can cause this effect, but it’s something to be aware of if you’re picky about smooth motion.

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#### **Gaming Features**

For gamers, there’s plenty to love here. While I didn’t get to test gaming directly (this review is focused on general performance), the stats speak for themselves:

- **HDR Performance:** Strong and consistent.

- **Black Levels in Game Mode:** A slight hit compared to the 8K QN900B, but still solid.

- **Input Lag:** Minimal at **6ms** (120Hz) and **11ms** (60Hz).

- **HDMI 2.1 Support:** Four ports available.

- **Gaming Hub:** Expected to launch soon, this feature promises to be a game-changer for Samsung users.

If you have a gaming PC capable of running at higher refresh rates, the QN90B can handle up to **144Hz**. That’s another point in its favor for serious gamers.

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#### **Sound Quality**

Now, let’s talk about sound. While I’m blown away by Samsung’s S95B OLED TV and the QN900B 8K model, the QN90B’s audio isn’t on that level. However, it’s far from bad—it’s decent enough to hold its own against most TV soundbars.

If you’re looking for top-tier audio, I’d still recommend investing in a separate soundbar. But for general use, the built-in speakers are more than adequate.

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#### **User Interface and Usability**

Finally, let’s touch on usability—something that often gets overlooked but is crucial to overall satisfaction.

##### **Remote Control:**

I loved the remote, especially the *solar charging* and *radio wave charging* features. It’s a nifty addition, even if it feels a bit gimmicky at first.

##### **Tizen OS:**

The new Tizen interface has improved over time, but I still find myself navigating through too many clicks to get to basic settings like input selection. While the *Smart Calibration* feature (which uses your phone’s camera for calibration) is innovative and does a decent job, it doesn’t make up for the clunky layout.

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#### **Conclusion**

Overall, the Samsung QN90B 4K HDR Mini LED TV is an excellent choice if you’re looking for a premium LED TV that delivers on its promises. It’s bright, has solid local dimming control, impressive off-angle performance, and is a top-tier gaming option with low input lag. While it doesn’t quite match the brightness levels of more expensive models like Sony’s X95K or Samsung’s 8K QLEDs, it’s more than capable for most users—and at a price point that feels fair.

With tight competition this year, the QN90B is definitely on my shortlist. I’ll be comparing it to the best in its class (like the Sony X95K) in an upcoming video, so stay tuned!

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#### **Final Thoughts**

As someone who’s been cautious about LED backlighting in the past, I’m impressed by how far Samsung has come with the QN90B. It’s a strong contender in the 4K HDR space and offers features that make it a great choice for both general viewing and gaming.

What do you think of the QN90B? Are you looking forward to seeing how it stacks up against the Sony X95K? Let me know your thoughts in the comments below!

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"WEBVTTKind: captionsLanguage: enwhat we have here is a really solid 4k hdr mini led tv from samsung was there really any question that would be the case welcome back everyone i'm caleb dennison and today i'll be reviewing the samsung qn 90b 4k hdr mini led backlit tv now as i've said in the past i wasn't really blown away by many led backlighting at least when it first came out but to be fair i think that's because i had some unfair expectations and i applied those expectations to first gen technology hopefully things have changed a little bit anyway i want to take a good look at the qn 90b and how it handles its backlighting yes but there is so much more going on with this tv that needs to be talked about so let's not waste any time before i dig into it and while the cute little graphic reminder to like and subscribe is going on down there you may notice i'm not in my usual tv review studio that's because i flew across the country to visit samsung's facilities in new jersey in order to review this tv as well as the qn 900b 8k tv the reason why is a little inside baseball but the short version is that there are no review samples shipping out to reviewers so the reviewers are shipping to the tvs right now kind of backward but it's what we've got going on to give credit where it's due samsung gave me a reset tv just like it comes out of the box and left me alone in here to do what i needed to do i was able to take some measurements and spend some time watching the tv but not nearly as much time as i usually take now i feel pretty confident with my takeaway here but there's some deep dive stuff i won't be able to get into this time since time is limited just wanted to set the scene okay now let's talk about the qn 90b first off for any of you who may have stumbled upon some of the firmware update drama that's been going on with this particular tv model everything is fine now this tv along with the qn 900b are running firmware 1204 as i record this and more importantly the backlight local dimming system all of it appears to be working just fine indeed good news for everyone and since i'm already treading into tv enthusiast territory that must mean it's time for numbers for knit nerds where i discuss some of the data i got when measuring the tv then immediately follow that with a disclaimer about how it doesn't tell the whole story if you want to skip this part you can do that using the time codes down in the description so in my testing the tv got nice and bright in both sdr and hdr i did most of my measuring using the filmmaker mode picture preset but i also used the movie preset to check some peak brightness numbers and such just to kind of compare them and pretty much no matter what picture preset i was in i was able to clock this tv at right around 1200 nits peak sustained testing with anywhere from a one to ten percent window full field it held up to about 640 nits which is also impressive now whether watching sdr or hdr i was quite satisfied with the brightness definitely good enough to be called a bright room tv but not like blow you away with brightness like the samsung 8k q leds can do or sony z9k or even vizio's pqx all of them can like really blow you away so it's not quite that ridiculous but then again you aren't paying ridiculous level prices for this tv now obviously it's tempting to compare the qn 90b to the sony x95k and i will be doing that soon but where peak brightness is concerned the q90b came in just a little bit lower than the almost 1500 nit sony x95k did however that is hardly a meaningful difference in brightness again i'll talk about that more in the comparison back to the qn 90b it balances its peak brightness potential with very good local dimming control of its mini led backlights again it's not on the same level as its 8k neoqled cousins in terms of approaching oled like black levels and absence of blooming but it is still very strong and quite competitive with other led tvs in its class especially when you consider its off angle performance that my friends is where the qn90b really cinches it for me i see a lot of tvs where the performance dead on is super strong but the performance off angle is like atrocious and the qn 90b avoids that nasty mistake quite well more people in your home will get that awesome picture quality not just the one or two people who look out with the best seats in the house and that counts for a lot with me so right there i feel like the qn90b is already in a really strong position in terms of accuracy there's good news and then confusing news so the white balance in sdr right out of the box was stupid good in filmmaker mode and yeah i get it it's supposed to be good in filmmaker mode right but it so rarely is and here the white point was right at d65 right out of the box no need to touch anything which is a great start in hdr the white balance was a little bit off but it always is on an led tv and it didn't take a whole lot to dial it in now as for the gamma and the eotf tracking that's where we measure whether the tv tracks brightness as it should according to the instructions it gets well that was a little more inconsistent it didn't just change based on the changing window sizes it just behaved oddly now i was told to expect some variants panel to panel but this isn't something i've seen before when measuring especially not in a samsung tv and i'm kind of still over here shrugging my shoulders i'm gonna have to get into that in the deep dive review but as you'll soon see here those odd readings weren't really apparent when i watched the tv with normal content color accuracy and color volume were impressive and right in line with what i would expect from a tv in this price class a great showing but if you want better you can get better you'll just have to pay through the nose to get it i will say that the sony x95k tracks color a little bit more accurately on balance but would you ever know it wasn't accurate just watching the tv most of you wouldn't because the errors are so slight the color looks great on this tv that's the takeaway motion for the most part it's fine good even but you will see stutter in slow panning shots if you don't turn on motion smoothing which i never do now it's due to the tv super fast pixel response time which is kind of hard to fault it for but stutter is a thing that bothers folks so know that you do get a bit of it on this tv okay so i did not get to do any gaming on this tv but i can tell you that i know based on a few stats and some inside info this tv is going to be highly desirable to gamers first off the hdr performance is very strong the black levels take a bit of a hit in game mode you don't get as good local dimming performance in the game mode but you don't lose local dimming when it goes into vrr mode either it's got super low input lag around six milliseconds at 120 hertz and 11 milliseconds at 60 hertz and you get four hdmi 2.1 inputs also this tv is going to support samsung's gaming hub when it launches while i can't give you specifics about that until details are officially announced i'm here to tell you right now it's going to be a game changer and i don't even mind using that pun seriously get ready for some big announcements that will kick this tv up a few notches with gamers that right there elevates this tv oh and i almost forgot if you've got a gaming pc that can do it this tv will get up to 144 hertz just saying sound quality on this tv is it's fine i'm not as impressed as i am with the samsung s95b oled tv and it's not on the same level as the 85 inch qn 900b i also tested today but it's totally decent as opposed to the horrible sound you get on many other tvs these days i would say probably just get a sound bar some other touch points i wanted to mention i like the remote a lot especially the solar charging and the radio wave charging that's just a trip i can't get over i like that it has a simple layout i just wish i could remap some of those keys and i mostly wish i could remap some of those keys because i am not totally in love with the new tizen layout i don't like how much clicking i have to do just to get to my input list i also felt like i had to do too much clicking to get to the picture settings menu in fact overall just too much clicking around i want a different layout on the other hand tizen remains really powerful and the new smart calibration feature which uses certain phones with great cameras to help calibrate the tv totally does a decent job so in terms of usability it's a bit of a mixed bag for me i wish i had a stronger endorsement there because overall i really like this tv you get great brightness solid backlight control with good black levels a bit of black crush but that wasn't an issue most of the time i watched it the color is totally impressive as a gaming tv goes it's outstanding i mean overall this is just a really solid impressive tv from samsung that delivers what you would expect out of a premium 4k led tv and then some i knew the competition was going to be tight this year but until i saw the qn90b here i didn't have a firm feel for just how tight it would be it's another shortlist tv though no doubt about it i'll have to put it up against the best from the competition and i suspect that in several key areas the qn 90b is going to be coming out on top thanks as always for watching everyone what do you think about the samsung qn90b here and are you looking forward to its comparison to the sony x95k i imagine you are let me know about that down in the comments don't forget to like and subscribe and here's two other videos i think you'll like youwhat we have here is a really solid 4k hdr mini led tv from samsung was there really any question that would be the case welcome back everyone i'm caleb dennison and today i'll be reviewing the samsung qn 90b 4k hdr mini led backlit tv now as i've said in the past i wasn't really blown away by many led backlighting at least when it first came out but to be fair i think that's because i had some unfair expectations and i applied those expectations to first gen technology hopefully things have changed a little bit anyway i want to take a good look at the qn 90b and how it handles its backlighting yes but there is so much more going on with this tv that needs to be talked about so let's not waste any time before i dig into it and while the cute little graphic reminder to like and subscribe is going on down there you may notice i'm not in my usual tv review studio that's because i flew across the country to visit samsung's facilities in new jersey in order to review this tv as well as the qn 900b 8k tv the reason why is a little inside baseball but the short version is that there are no review samples shipping out to reviewers so the reviewers are shipping to the tvs right now kind of backward but it's what we've got going on to give credit where it's due samsung gave me a reset tv just like it comes out of the box and left me alone in here to do what i needed to do i was able to take some measurements and spend some time watching the tv but not nearly as much time as i usually take now i feel pretty confident with my takeaway here but there's some deep dive stuff i won't be able to get into this time since time is limited just wanted to set the scene okay now let's talk about the qn 90b first off for any of you who may have stumbled upon some of the firmware update drama that's been going on with this particular tv model everything is fine now this tv along with the qn 900b are running firmware 1204 as i record this and more importantly the backlight local dimming system all of it appears to be working just fine indeed good news for everyone and since i'm already treading into tv enthusiast territory that must mean it's time for numbers for knit nerds where i discuss some of the data i got when measuring the tv then immediately follow that with a disclaimer about how it doesn't tell the whole story if you want to skip this part you can do that using the time codes down in the description so in my testing the tv got nice and bright in both sdr and hdr i did most of my measuring using the filmmaker mode picture preset but i also used the movie preset to check some peak brightness numbers and such just to kind of compare them and pretty much no matter what picture preset i was in i was able to clock this tv at right around 1200 nits peak sustained testing with anywhere from a one to ten percent window full field it held up to about 640 nits which is also impressive now whether watching sdr or hdr i was quite satisfied with the brightness definitely good enough to be called a bright room tv but not like blow you away with brightness like the samsung 8k q leds can do or sony z9k or even vizio's pqx all of them can like really blow you away so it's not quite that ridiculous but then again you aren't paying ridiculous level prices for this tv now obviously it's tempting to compare the qn 90b to the sony x95k and i will be doing that soon but where peak brightness is concerned the q90b came in just a little bit lower than the almost 1500 nit sony x95k did however that is hardly a meaningful difference in brightness again i'll talk about that more in the comparison back to the qn 90b it balances its peak brightness potential with very good local dimming control of its mini led backlights again it's not on the same level as its 8k neoqled cousins in terms of approaching oled like black levels and absence of blooming but it is still very strong and quite competitive with other led tvs in its class especially when you consider its off angle performance that my friends is where the qn90b really cinches it for me i see a lot of tvs where the performance dead on is super strong but the performance off angle is like atrocious and the qn 90b avoids that nasty mistake quite well more people in your home will get that awesome picture quality not just the one or two people who look out with the best seats in the house and that counts for a lot with me so right there i feel like the qn90b is already in a really strong position in terms of accuracy there's good news and then confusing news so the white balance in sdr right out of the box was stupid good in filmmaker mode and yeah i get it it's supposed to be good in filmmaker mode right but it so rarely is and here the white point was right at d65 right out of the box no need to touch anything which is a great start in hdr the white balance was a little bit off but it always is on an led tv and it didn't take a whole lot to dial it in now as for the gamma and the eotf tracking that's where we measure whether the tv tracks brightness as it should according to the instructions it gets well that was a little more inconsistent it didn't just change based on the changing window sizes it just behaved oddly now i was told to expect some variants panel to panel but this isn't something i've seen before when measuring especially not in a samsung tv and i'm kind of still over here shrugging my shoulders i'm gonna have to get into that in the deep dive review but as you'll soon see here those odd readings weren't really apparent when i watched the tv with normal content color accuracy and color volume were impressive and right in line with what i would expect from a tv in this price class a great showing but if you want better you can get better you'll just have to pay through the nose to get it i will say that the sony x95k tracks color a little bit more accurately on balance but would you ever know it wasn't accurate just watching the tv most of you wouldn't because the errors are so slight the color looks great on this tv that's the takeaway motion for the most part it's fine good even but you will see stutter in slow panning shots if you don't turn on motion smoothing which i never do now it's due to the tv super fast pixel response time which is kind of hard to fault it for but stutter is a thing that bothers folks so know that you do get a bit of it on this tv okay so i did not get to do any gaming on this tv but i can tell you that i know based on a few stats and some inside info this tv is going to be highly desirable to gamers first off the hdr performance is very strong the black levels take a bit of a hit in game mode you don't get as good local dimming performance in the game mode but you don't lose local dimming when it goes into vrr mode either it's got super low input lag around six milliseconds at 120 hertz and 11 milliseconds at 60 hertz and you get four hdmi 2.1 inputs also this tv is going to support samsung's gaming hub when it launches while i can't give you specifics about that until details are officially announced i'm here to tell you right now it's going to be a game changer and i don't even mind using that pun seriously get ready for some big announcements that will kick this tv up a few notches with gamers that right there elevates this tv oh and i almost forgot if you've got a gaming pc that can do it this tv will get up to 144 hertz just saying sound quality on this tv is it's fine i'm not as impressed as i am with the samsung s95b oled tv and it's not on the same level as the 85 inch qn 900b i also tested today but it's totally decent as opposed to the horrible sound you get on many other tvs these days i would say probably just get a sound bar some other touch points i wanted to mention i like the remote a lot especially the solar charging and the radio wave charging that's just a trip i can't get over i like that it has a simple layout i just wish i could remap some of those keys and i mostly wish i could remap some of those keys because i am not totally in love with the new tizen layout i don't like how much clicking i have to do just to get to my input list i also felt like i had to do too much clicking to get to the picture settings menu in fact overall just too much clicking around i want a different layout on the other hand tizen remains really powerful and the new smart calibration feature which uses certain phones with great cameras to help calibrate the tv totally does a decent job so in terms of usability it's a bit of a mixed bag for me i wish i had a stronger endorsement there because overall i really like this tv you get great brightness solid backlight control with good black levels a bit of black crush but that wasn't an issue most of the time i watched it the color is totally impressive as a gaming tv goes it's outstanding i mean overall this is just a really solid impressive tv from samsung that delivers what you would expect out of a premium 4k led tv and then some i knew the competition was going to be tight this year but until i saw the qn90b here i didn't have a firm feel for just how tight it would be it's another shortlist tv though no doubt about it i'll have to put it up against the best from the competition and i suspect that in several key areas the qn 90b is going to be coming out on top thanks as always for watching everyone what do you think about the samsung qn90b here and are you looking forward to its comparison to the sony x95k i imagine you are let me know about that down in the comments don't forget to like and subscribe and here's two other videos i think you'll like you\n"