Review: Samsung 75-Inch Q90 QLED 4K TV

It seems that this was the year for 4K to become more of the standard, leaving 1080p models to slum into second place, hidden in the value or discount sections in stores, near-freebies for doorbusters. Now that 4K is available from so many sources (streaming, Blu-ray, gaming, etc), it’s a sure sell. Especially if you are looking for something big and amazing.

Each year you always have your flagship models that woo customers in stores, showing what the best of the best can get you. The Samsung 75-Inch Q90 QLED 4K TV isn’t the best of the best, but it is on the list of one of the best and it even seems to be on sale right now (at least at the moment of writing this).

We had a moment to get to know the TV during a private demo to see how we felt about it, and “flagship” says it all. Their quantum dot technology and Direct Full Array 16X FALD backlight, as well as a list of equally amusing qualifiers really help to deliver an amazing image that will wow any guest you sit in front of it (most importantly, yourself).

You get a refresh of 120 Hz, leading to smooth crisp images, lacking any blur and fuzzy text (crisp is another great keyword for this model). It even supports FreeSync (about time we’ve started seeing this in TVs), and it’s upscaling does a great job with 1080p content taken to 4K.

We made sure to completely reset the TV to see what it looks like coming out of the box. The result was very good and only required a short amount of changes to improve upon, which were all using the naked eye (no calibration media was used). Of course, with the proper media you could make it look even nicer, but honestly, it looked great with the little effort we took.

Anti-reflection is also a big win for this model, as it seems to fit in with any lighting condition. You can take all of the lights in the room to their brightest and move them around. The image looks fantastic either way. So you don’t have to worry about placement when it comes to things like Windows or downlights.

The image on the screen can really only suffer from compression (the source being fed to the TV). So if you feed it a quality source, the result will be perfect. Of course, it doesn’t compare to some of the top OLED models out there, but for its price range, it seems to fit in quite nicely. Like I mentioned, the upscaling is terrific–making 1080p sources look so much better than it was before. However, a good 4K source is what is going to bring out the best on the screen. We had an Xbox One X connected for a brief time with a few 4K enhanced games. We tested a number of UHD movies like the latest Avengers Endgame movie. Everything looks amazing on the screen and gaming offered low latency and successful FreeSync support.

It makes use of the One Invisible Connection, which means a single thin white cable runs from the TV down to where you have everything connected to the One Connect box. Your inputs are not on the back of the TV (like most of Samsung or LG’s crazy thin options). So this way you can keep the area around the TV clean, without a bunch of cables running to and from the TV. Despite the name of the cable, the cable isn’t really invisible, but it is small enough to disappear on a white wall (for the most part). You just want to be careful with it as it doesn’t feel heavily durable due to its thin profile.

As for the thin part. This TV is absolutely thin. Not thin like the LG Wallpaper OLED TV, but still quite thin. Thin like a nice 50″ model thin. The same thickness across the entire TV (no bulk in the back in any sections). This makes it look great when hung on the wall with just about any mount.

The normal price of the TV falls at around $4,497.99, which can still be quite expensive for a lot of people. Of course, most consumers aren’t looking for a 75-inch monster of a screen. Those that are, might find this to be fitting. To make things better, the price is around $3,497.99 right now on Amazon.

Our Conclusion

I wish we had more time to spend on this TV this round, but there is always a chance of another round down the road. The quality of this TV puts it up with the best. It doesn’t quite live up to that of a high-end OLED, but it wows you all the same. The picture quality is great, and the feature list as well. Having support for FreeSync definitely shows where TVs are headed, providing some of the same options as high-end gaming monitors. The anti-reflection of the screen is perfect for pretty much any room, even those filled with windows and sunlight. The refresh rate is great, the upscaling is great–just about everything is great. The only thing we found was that the cable to run the inputs to the TV with does feel a bit delicate, and it is quite expensive to replace if it got damaged. Beyond that, this is a true flagship if you are looking for something within this price range that is going to cause you say “wow” every time you turn it on.

*Average price is based on the time this article was published

Specifications:

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