Samsung S90F OLED TV Review: Great Picture for Gaming, Movies and More

CNET

7 days ago

CNET's expert staff reviews and rates dozens of new products and services each month, building on more than a quarter century of expertise.
8.6
/ 10
SCORE Samsung S90F OLED TV $2,498 at Amazon $2,200 at Samsung $2,498 at B&H Photo-Video Pros The Samsung S90F boasts excellent image quality
Fast motion for gamers Cons It's expensive
It lacks the step-up model's glare free coating
Is it QD or not?
Samsung S90F OLED TV
8.6/10 CNET Score
$2,498 at Amazon
If you're a gamer or a dyed-in-the-wool film nut, then the TV technology you should be looking at is OLED. It offers excellent contrast for that cinematic look, saturated colors and excellent gaming performance. Though cheaper models like the Philips OLED exist, most OLED TVs are priced at the higher end, including the Samsung S95F, LG G5 and C5, and this one, the Samsung S90F.
In many ways, the Samsung S90F is a slight update to the 2024 model, but it does pack in enough of the company's tech to make it worth considering. Furthermore, the S90F performed in a similar way to the S95F in my tests -- though it's worth noting it lacks the more expensive model's high brightness, anti-reflective coating and connection box. For those things alone, the flagship is worth the upgrade for many high-end shoppers, but the S90F is no slouch either. It's capable of a dynamic picture and is great for gamers as well.
Meanwhile, the Samsung S90F and its closest competitor, the LG C5, have had some aggressive price reductions of late, and both were down to $1,800 for Prime Day. I'd expect similar discounts to recur leading up to Black Friday and the holidays this fall. Between the C5 and S90F, Samsung has a slight edge in my tests, but given the similarities between the two, my advice is simple: just buy whichever is cheaper.
Samsung S90F OLED TV sizes, series comparison
The Samsung S90F OLED TV is available in sizes between 42 inches and 83 inches.
Ty Pendlebury/CNET
I performed a hands-on evaluation of the 65-inch S90F, yet it's unclear if the testing is applicable to other screen sizes in the series, as I note further below.
In the UK, only the 65-inch S90F uses QD-OLED technology while every other size uses WOLED. When I spoke with a Samsung representative in the US, however, they were unable to confirm if the 65-inch was also the sole QD-OLED model or even which tech it involved at all: "Samsung TVs are designed to consistently offer excellent performance, regardless of the specific panels used," they said. The Samsung website also doesn't mention any other technology beyond "OLED HDR Plus."
Why does this matter? It's very likely that color reproduction differs between the many sizes of S90F and the one I tested, and so measurements aren't directly transferable.
All-in-one design
Ty Pendlebury/CNET
While some might like the sleek look of Samsung's S95F flagship, it also necessitates an umbilical cable and a large plastic box you need to put somewhere. The S90F likes to keep it simple by comparison. Design-wise, the S90F is similar to both the S90D that preceded it and the LG C5, too, with an ultra-slim screen and a chunkier "inputs" section at the bottom. If you're wall mounting, the overall depth is still only 1.6 inches on the 65-inch model, while those sitting the TV on a stand will appreciate the slender and easy-to-install legs.
Over the years, Samsung has pared down its remote to the bare minimum -- a wafer-shaped clicker powered by a solar panel on the back. I preferred the chunky and colorful remotes of old, but you did have to put batteries in those. If you use your TV as a switch, the lack of an input button is also an inconvenience. You can navigate to the Connected Devices menu option, but having a dedicated button makes the process a lot easier.
All the streaming you need
For 2025, the company has updated its menu system with some slick new screens, including the volume bar. However, it may need some quick relearning to find the options you need. Helpfully, the new menu highlights the last setting used, and so you may be able to access an often-used setting without deep-diving menus.
Meanwhile, the Samsung S90F home page is back to familiar territory, and it lists a number of categories on the left -- Samsung Account, Search, Ambient, Samsung Daily Plus, Gaming Hub and Home. Home is the default, and when displaying streaming services, the TV features a series of relevant thumbnails across the screen. Thanks to the sheer number of Samsung TVs out there, this is also one of the most popular smart TV platforms, and it therefore enjoys a large range of streaming services. It also caters to gamers with apps such as Steam Link and Xbox Cloud Gaming.
Like most modern TVs, the S90F features a Gaming Hub with its own dashboard. The S90F includes VRR support up to 144Hz on all HDMI ports, so you can be indiscriminate about which port you plug your PC/gaming console into.
Unlike most higher-end TVs, the S90F doesn't have Dolby Vision HDR, and while I don't think this is a big deal, completists may look to LG, Sony or even Panasonic instead.
In terms of onboard connectivity, the S90F includes:
Four HDMI 2.1 inputs 4K (144Hz max)
3x USB-A, 1x USB-C
Optical digital audio output
Wi-Fi 5
Bluetooth 5.3
Ethernet
High-end OLED comparison: Samsung S90F vs. LG C5 vs. Samsung S95F vs. Samsung S90D vs. TCL QM8K vs. Hisense U8Q
TV and movies
Starting with the opening scene of the horror movie It, I found that the S90F and the S95F had the best shadow detail of the group. At the 3:06 minute mark, Georgie is descending the stairs into the basement, and there is some shadow detail barely visible at the top of the screen. On the S90F, the beams there had the greatest sharpness, and Georgie's face was also visible against the light coming through the door. The C5 and the S90D had the worst detail in shadows, with less crispness than the other Samsungs, but they were still pretty good. Meanwhile, the LCD-based TCL QM8K did pretty well with this freeze-frame moment, with decent detail and no washed-out blacks, and I could also make out Georgie's face the best.
So many TVs they won't fit in one bright-room testing picture! From left to right: TCL QM8K, Samsung S90D, Samsung S90F, LG C5 and Samsung S95F.
Switching to the brighter scenes of Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse, I found most of the TVs looked very similar -- excellent contrast and saturated, comic book colors. However, the LG C5 stuck out with slightly yellowish-looking skin tones on the unmasked, alternate universe Spider-Man.
When watching the "endless runner" war movie, 1917, I found that both of the 2025 Samsung TVs again had the best shadow detail of all of the models on test. At the 1 hour 07 minute mark, you see Lance Corporal Schofield (George MacKay) awaken in a dark room. The S90F and the S95F were able to amplify the highlights on the soldier's watch, but the TCL looked worse here. This is because the scene is very close to black, and the TCL's backlight makes the scene look strange and ghostly -- as if it's shot through a muslin filter. I've seen this effect on LCD TVs before, including the massive and expensive Hisense 116UX TV.
Lastly, I put all five assembled TVs through the Spears and Munsil 4K HDR10 test disc. I found that the S90F and S95F had the most highly saturated colors and also the best levels of contrast.
Read more: How We Test TVs
Bright room
If you have a bright room with light sources that are directly reflected by the screen -- say a window or overhead bulbs -- then you have two options available. The first is the cheapest: turn the lights off or buy a blackout curtain. The second is to buy the Samsung S95, with its antireflection technology. While the S90F will reduce bright room glare and provide excellent contrast, you will still clearly see any direct light sources.
However, when compared with the older S95D, I did see an improvement in the S90F's in bright room performance, with slightly less of the room behind me visible. Shining a phone flashlight against the screen from my seating position, I found that the light was not visible at all on S95F. The flash was visible on both S90F and S90D, as they appeared to behave similarly with bright, direct lights. Next, came the C5 with special FX-like halos and then even more visibility on the TCL.
Light output in nits TV Brightest mode (HDR) Accurate mode (HDR) Brightest mode (SDR) Accurate mode (SDR) Samsung S90F 1,466 1,466 633 305 Samsung S95F 2,150 2,150 391 297 Hisense U8Q 4,080 4,070 4,107 436 LG G5 2,813 2,297 1,030 412 LG C5 1,434 1,187 480 288 TCL QM851 3,183 3,183 3,084 1,262 Samsung S95D 1,734 1,666 544 265
Gaming
When set to gaming mode, four of the TVs -- the three Samsungs and the Hisense -- had high brightness and were ultra-responsive. When playing Doom, I found that the LG C5 in gaming mode was disappointingly dark and highlights were muted. This is a repeat of last year's C4 and S90D comparison, where the S90D also looked brighter. While consistency is a virtue in LG's case, I think most gamers would prefer to be able to see into the darker areas of the picture -- that's where all the baddies hide!
Given that the C5 and S90F are similar in price and have equivalent lag (around 10ms) -- when tested with the Leo Bodnar lag tester -- the Samsung's brighter picture ultimately makes it better for gamers.
Uniformity and viewing angle
OLED screens tend to offer both excellent uniformity and off-angle performance, and the S90F, like the other OLED TVs that flanked it, had excellent uniformity, and colors stayed vivid while viewing off-axis.
Settings and picture mode notes
As always, I tested every mode for light output, color accuracy and greyscale performance. Two modes in particular stood out -- Movie or Filmmaker mode -- and it was a coin toss as to which was more accurate in SDR mode as they were very similar. However, for HDR, Filmmaker was definitely better.
Samsung S90F test measurements Test Result Score Black luminance (0%) 0.000 Good Peak white luminance (SDR) 633 Good Avg. gamma (10-100%) 2.41 Poor Avg. grayscale error (10-100%) 2.02 Good Dark gray error (30%) 0.98 Good Bright gray error (80%) 3.17 Average Avg. color checker error 1.46 Good Avg. saturation sweeps error 1.33 Good Avg. color error 1.26 Good 1080p/24 Cadence (IAL) Pass Good Input lag (Game mode) 10.00 Good
HDR10
Black luminance (0%) 0.000 Good Peak white luminance (10% win) 1466 Good Gamut % UHDA/P3 (CIE 1976) 99.95 Good ColorMatch HDR error 2.20 Good Avg. color checker error 1.65 Good Input lag (Game mode, 4K HDR) 9.43 Good
Portrait Displays Calman calibration software was used in this review.