The Samsung S90C is a high-end 4k TV in Samsung's 2023 lineup, sitting below the Samsung S95C OLED. It has a QD-OLED panel, promising some of the brightest and most vibrant colors available on a TV. It has Samsung's LaserSlim Design, Neural Quantum Processor 4k AI upscaling with Quantum HDR OLED technology, and Motion Xcelerator Turbo Pro for enhanced motion processing. This TV officially supports 4k @ 144Hz, or 4k @ 120Hz on the 83-inch model, so it's a gaming powerhouse, especially with its full HDMI 2.1 Bandwidth support on all four HDMI ports. Like other Samsung TVs, it uses Samsung's proprietary Tizen OS smart interface, which offers a large selection of apps and games. It's available in four sizes: 55-inch, 65-inch, 77-inch, and a WOLED-equipped 83-inch size.
Our Verdict
The Samsung S90C is a fantastic TV for every usage. It has good SDR peak brightness, so it's great for watching TV shows or sports in a bright room, especially with its superb reflection handling. It truly shines for HDR movies and games, especially in a dark room where its OLED panel, with its deep inky blacks, truly performs at its best. The very low input lag makes it fantastic for gamers, as your inputs are translated almost instantaneously to the screen. Its superb response time makes it a great choice for fans of fast-moving content, whether sports or games, as action stays clear and crisp throughout. Sadly it doesn't support any DTS audio formats, making it tricky for a home entertainment center, and it only has adequate low-quality content smoothing, which isn't optimal for streaming services with low bitrates.
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Near-infinite contrast ratio for perfect blacks.
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Superb reflection handling.
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Incredibly bright colors.
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Aggressive ABL can get distracting with large areas of brightness.
The Samsung S90C is excellent for watching TV shows in a bright room. It has good SDR peak brightness and incredible reflection handling, so it can easily overcome glare in a bright room. It has a truly exceptional viewing angle, which is great for a wide seating area or for moving around the TV while watching it, as the image remains consistent. It also upscales lower-resolution content well, and the smart interface has a great selection of streaming apps, so you're sure to find your favorite shows. Unfortunately, its low-quality content smoothing is only adequate, so low-resolution or low-bitrate TV shows will have macro-blocking, even if upscaled well.
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Superb reflection handling.
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Exceptionally wide viewing angle.
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Good peak brightness in SDR.
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Aggressive ABL can get distracting with large areas of brightness.
The Samsung S90C is an incredible TV for watching sports. It has exceptional reflection handling, which is great when watching shows in a room with glare, and the TV has good SDR brightness, so it handles bright rooms well. The TV's viewing angle is superb, so the image remains consistent even when viewing the TV from the side, so those sitting off-center will have a pleasant viewing experience. It has an incredible response time, so motion, like fast-moving players, is crisp and sharp, with no blurring. The TV has spectacular color uniformity, so when watching sports with large areas of uniform color, like hockey, you won't be distracted by annoying smudges or color variations in the image. Finally, the very good low-resolution upscaling means that sports are upscaled well without any weird artifacts.
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Superb reflection handling.
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Exceptionally wide viewing angle.
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Good peak brightness in SDR.
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Aggressive ABL can get distracting with large areas of brightness.
The Samsung S90C is a fantastic TV for immersing your evenings in virtual gaming worlds. Enabling Game Mode doesn't noticeably affect image quality, so your games look great and feel super responsive due to the TV's incredibly low input lag. The TV has fantastic reflection handling and good peak brightness in SDR, making it a good choice for bright rooms or rooms with glare. The response time is exceptionally low, so you won't have any blur or ghosting when the action gets hectic. It also officially supports 4k @ 144Hz (120Hz on the 83-inch model), making this a standout TV for gamers.
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Superb reflection handling.
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HDMI 2.1 bandwidth on all four ports.
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Good peak brightness in SDR.
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Incredibly low input lag.
The Samsung S90C is an excellent TV for watching the latest hit movies. Like all OLEDs, it has incredible contrast, with deep inky blacks and no blooming around bright highlights. And that's good, as its highlights get quite bright due to its very good HDR peak brightness. It also has excellent low-resolution upscaling, so your legacy DVD movies will look great. This TV has an incredible color gamut, truly excellent accuracy, and barely any HDR gradient banding, so HDR looks vibrant without any real calibration. Unfortunately, the TV has low-quality content smoothing; it's alright and preserves details well, but content like low-bitrate streaming services have macro blocking in dark scenes. It also doesn't support any DTS audio formats, so Blu-rays and DVDs don't sound their best as they tend to use DTS for their audio tracks.
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Near-infinite contrast ratio for perfect blacks.
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Removes 24p judder from any source.
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Incredibly bright colors.
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Amazing color gamut in HDR.
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Doesn't support DTS passthrough or Dolby Vision.
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Fast response time results in noticeable stutter.
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Aggressive ABL can get distracting with large areas of brightness.
The Samsung S90C is an outstanding TV for playing HDR titles. Enabling Game Mode slightly increases overall HDR brightness, making the TV less accurate but making games look bright and punchy. The TV has remarkably low input lag with Game Mode on, so games feel super responsive. The TV can handle all commonly used resolutions and officially supports 4k @ 144Hz (120Hz on the 83-inch model). It has fantastic reflection handling and great HDR brightness in Game Mode, so you'll enjoy gaming on this TV even on a bright, sunny day, although, like most OLEDs, it truly shines in a dark room. The response time is exceptionally low, so you won't have any blur or ghosting even when playing through the most intense scenes.
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Near-infinite contrast ratio for perfect blacks.
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HDMI 2.1 bandwidth on all four ports.
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Incredibly bright colors.
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Incredibly low input lag.
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Amazing color gamut in HDR.
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Over brightened in HDR Game Mode.
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Doesn't support DTS passthrough or Dolby Vision.
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Aggressive ABL can get distracting with large areas of brightness.
The Samsung S90C is a fantastic TV for PC gaming. It has a nearly-instantaneous response time and incredibly low input lag, so inputs are fluid and responsive, with almost no distracting motion blur behind fast-moving objects. Its viewing angle is amazing, so even if you sit in front of the TV, you won't notice any discoloration or dimming at the edges. It has good peak brightness in SDR and amazing reflection handling, so it'll look great even if your office setup is in a bright room or in front of some windows. Unfortunately, this TV doesn't use a standard RGB subpixel layout, so text isn't very clear when used as a monitor, and there is color fringing at the edges of bright windows or images due to the subpixel structure of QD-OLED panels. Finally, as with all OLEDs, there's a risk of permanent burn-in when exposed to static elements, like the UI elements of a computer desktop.
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Superb reflection handling.
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Exceptionally wide viewing angle.
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HDMI 2.1 bandwidth on all four ports.
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Incredibly low input lag.
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Noticeable color fringing.
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Risk of permanent burn-in.
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Aggressive ABL can get distracting with large areas of brightness.
- 9.0 Mixed Usage
- 8.6 TV Shows
- 8.9 Sports
- 9.4 Video Games
- 8.9 HDR Movies
- 9.3 HDR Gaming
- 9.5 PC Monitor
- Updated May 02, 2024: Changed the score and updated the text in the Upscaling: Sharpness Processing section of this review for consistency with our other reviews.
- Updated Apr 25, 2024: Mentioned the newly-reviewed LG G4 OLED in the SDR Brightness section of this review.
- Updated Apr 18, 2024: Mentioned the newly reviewed Samsung S90D/S90DD OLED in the HDR Brightness section of this review.
- Updated Feb 29, 2024: Added information about the Samsung S92C Canadian variant in the Differences Between Sizes and Variants section of this review.
- Updated Dec 20, 2023: Specified that the TV's maximum refresh rate is 120Hz on the 83-inch model in the Introduction, usage boxes, Differences Between Sizes and Variants, Compared to Other TVs and Supported Resolutions text boxes. Also specified that the 83-inch model's subpixel structure is different due to it using a WOLED panel in the Pixels text box.
- Updated Nov 24, 2023: We added information about the Samsung S89C OLED to the Differences Between Sizes And Variants section.
- Updated Oct 06, 2023: Confirmed that the TV has Variable Analog Audio Out in Inputs Specifications. Also retested the TV's brightness in HDR Brightness and HDR Brightness in Game Mode with the now working 'Auto' Color Space setting. Also updated Color Gamut, Color Volume and the Settings page.
- Updated Sep 21, 2023: Measured the TV's input lag when running at a 4:3 aspect ratio and posted the results in the Input Lag text box. We've also updated the input lag measurement with Game Motion Plus enabled and when running at 1440p @ 60Hz.
- Updated Sep 06, 2023: Added the warehouse variant Samsung S90CD to the Differences Between Sizes And Variants section.
- Updated Aug 23, 2023: Updated the HDR Brightness and HDR Brightness in Game Mode results following Samsung's 1212.7 firmware update.
- Updated Jul 18, 2023: Added mention of the new 83" model size to Differences Between Sizes and Variants, as well as to the Settings page.
- Updated Jun 08, 2023: Review published.
- Updated May 24, 2023: Early access published.
- Updated May 09, 2023: Our testers have started testing this product.
- Updated May 03, 2023: The product has arrived in our lab, and our testers will start evaluating it soon.
- Updated Apr 18, 2023: We've purchased the product and are waiting for it to arrive in our lab.
Differences Between Sizes And Variants
We bought and tested the 65-inch Samsung S90C, and these results are also valid for the 55-inch and 77-inch models. The 83-inch model uses a WOLED panel instead of the QD-OLED panel found in the smaller sizes, so our results don't apply to it. Note that the last five letters in the model number (AFXZA in this case) vary between retailers and individual regions, but there's no difference in performance. There are also regional models, like the Samsung S92C and the Samsung S93C, but they're identical to the Samsung S90C.
It's also sold as the Samsung S90CD at warehouse stores like Costco and Sam's Club. The S90CD offers the same features, picture quality, and processing capabilities but has more powerful speakers (60W vs. 40W on the S90C) and a longer warranty.
| Size | US Model | Warehouse Model | Short Model Code | Display Technology | Maximum Refresh Rate |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 55" | QN55S90CAFXZA | QN55S90CDFXZA | QN55S90C | QD-OLED | 144Hz |
| 65" | QN65S90CAFXZA | QN65S90CDFXZA | QN65S90C | QD-OLED | 144Hz |
| 77" | QN77S90CAFXZA | QN77S90CDFXZA | QN77S90C | QD-OLED | 144Hz |
| 83" | QN83S90CAFXZA | QN83S90CDEXZA | QN83S90C | WOLED | 120Hz |
There's also a similar model to this known as the Samsung S89C. There's a lot of confusing information about this model, as it seems to use different panels in different regions. In North America, it's known as the S89CB, and according to user reports, it uses a QD-OLED panel similar to the S90C. In this case, the main difference between that model and the S90C is that the S89CB doesn't support Filmmaker mode. In Europe, it's advertised as the S89C, without the 'B' at the end, and it appears to use a WOLED panel from LG Display, similar to the LG C3 OLED or the Sony A80L/A80CL OLED. It has worse color volume and a slightly narrower color gamut, and like the North American model, it doesn't support Filmmaker mode; otherwise, it performs about the same as the S90C.
The Samsung S92C is a Canadian variant available in-store exclusively at Best Buy, but you can also purchase it online directly from Samsung. It offers the same picture quality and features as the S90C, but it has a 60W 2.1.2 channel speaker setup as opposed to the 40W 2.1 channel setup on the S90C.
Our unit was manufactured in March 2023; you can see the label here.
Compared To Other TVs
The Samsung S90C is an incredible OLED TV. It feels and looks like a repackaged Samsung S95B OLED but with official 4k @ 144Hz support. It doesn't get as bright as the Samsung S95C OLED or the LG G3 OLED, but it's still incredibly bright and vibrant, more so than the LG C3 OLED. Overall, it's a very impressive TV and is a better buy for most people than the more expensive S95C.
See our recommendations for the best OLED TVs, the best 4k TVs, and the best TVs for watching movies.
The LG C3 OLED and Samsung S90C OLED are similar TVs occupying the same market position. Of the two, the Samsung is the better gaming TV and slightly better overall TV, while the LG is the better TV for movie fans. The Samsung has a wider color gamut and gets brighter than the LG, especially in HDR; not only that, but it also maintains its HDR brightness better in Game Mode. It also supports 4k @ 144Hz (120Hz on the 83-inch model), while the LG is limited to 4k @ 120Hz. However, the LG supports DTS audio formats and Dolby Vision, making it great for Blu-ray fans. It also has better low-quality content smoothing than the Samsung TV, making it better for watching streaming content, especially in low-bitrate situations.
The Samsung S90D/S90DD OLED is marginally better than the Samsung S90C OLED. The S90D is a bit brighter in HDR, so highlights in HDR content stand out a little bit more, and it has better color volume, so it can display very bright colors a bit better. The S90D also has slightly better processing, so there's less banding in colors, and it does a better job with smoothing out low-quality content.
The Samsung S95C OLED is a bit better than the Samsung S90C OLED for basically only two reasons. First, the S95C has a sleeker, more uniform design, helped by moving all of its inputs to the external One Connect box. This makes the S95C a better bet for someone who knows they want to wall mount their TV and want it to look the best on their wall. Second, the S95C gets much brighter than the S90C, although this won't be that noticeable in practice except in a few super bright scenes.
The LG G3 OLED and Samsung S90C OLED are comparable OLEDs, each with its strengths. The LG has a flat back and is meant to be wall mounted; it doesn't have a stand to emphasize this. The Samsung TV instead has a more typical side profile with a stand. The LG gets brighter than the Samsung in HDR, but the latter outputs more vibrant colors. The Samsung also supports 4k @ 144Hz (120Hz on the 83-inch model), while the LG is limited to 4k @ 120Hz. The Samsung also has a much wider color gamut and more accurate colors, so it's great for HDR gaming. However, the LG supports DTS audio formats and Dolby Vision making it great for Blu-ray movie fans, and it also has better low-quality content smoothing, making it better for watching streaming content, especially in low-bitrate situations.
The Samsung S90C OLED is better than the Sony A80L/A80CL OLED. The Samsung is brighter overall, so it can handle more glare when watching SDR content, and highlights in HDR content stand out more. The Samsung also has a wider color gamut and better color volume, so colors are more vibrant and lifelike. On top of that, the Samsung model is the better option for gamers due to its lower input lag, and PC gamers can take advantage of its ability to game in up to 4k @ 144Hz.
The Samsung S89C OLED is a variant of the Samsung S90C OLED, and they're identical outside of the S89C coming with feet instead of a stand. There are some minute differences, such as the S89C being a bit brighter in HDR but slightly dimmer in SDR and being significantly less color-accurate, but these differences are likely due to panel variance rather than highlighting a true difference between the two models.
In most ways, the Samsung S90C OLED is better than the Samsung QN90C/QN90CD QLED. Due to the S90C's nearly infinite contrast ratio, it displays perfect blacks with no blooming around bright objects. The S90C has a much wider viewing angle, so it's the better option for watching TV as a group, and its wider color gamut delivers more lifelike colors. The S90C is also better for PC gamers due to its 4k @ 144Hz support. However, the QN90C has better SDR brightness, so it's better if you primarily watch TV in a very bright room.
The Samsung S90C OLED and LG B3 OLED are both amazing TVs, and while the LG has a few features that the Samsung doesn't have, the S90C is the better TV overall. The Samsung gets much brighter in HDR and SDR, with a wider color gamut and better color volume, so all content looks significantly more vibrant on the Samsung. It also has four full HDMI 2.1 bandwidth ports, all capable of up to 4k @ 144Hz (120Hz on the 83-inch model), making it the better TV for gamers. The B3 does have better image processing, supports Dolby Vision HDR, and passes through DTS audio formats, making it enticing for home entertainment fans.
The Samsung S90C OLED is better than the Sony X90L/X90CL. The Samsung has a nearly infinite contrast ratio, so it displays deep and inky blacks with no blooming. HDR content has more impactful highlights and more vibrant and lifelike colors on the Samsung due to its better HDR brightness, wider color gamut, and better color volume. The Samsung also has a much wider viewing angle, so it’s better suited for watching TV with friends, and its nearly instantaneous response time delivers fast motion with no noticeable blur. Both TVs have modern gaming features, but the Samsung supports up to 4k @ 144Hz (versus 4k @ 120Hz on the Sony), has lower input lag, and it has HDMI 2.1 bandwidth on all four ports.
The Sony A95L OLED is a bit better than the Samsung S90C OLED. The Sony TV has significantly better image processing when dealing with low-quality or low-resolution content, so cable TV channels and streaming movies look much better, with less macro-blocking and pixelization. The Samsung is a bit more versatile, especially for gamers, as it has four high-bandwidth HDMI 2.1 ports, whereas the Sony only has two.
The Samsung S90C OLED is better than the Sony X93L/X93CL except perhaps for two crowds: viewers who mostly watch SDR content in bright rooms and movie purists who want the Sony TV's better image processing, Dolby Vision support, and DTS advanced audio passthrough. Otherwise, the Samsung TV is the better product; it has much better contrast due to its nearly infinite contrast ratio, is almost as bright in HDR, and is the more colorful of the two TVs. The Samsung is also the much better gaming TV due to its nearly instantaneous response time, lower input lag, and four 4k @ 144Hz HDMI ports.
The Samsung S90C OLED is slightly better than the Sony A75L OLED. The Samsung TV uses a different type of OLED panel known as QD-OLED. This panel delivers a similar dark room experience, so both TVs deliver deep, inky blacks with perfect uniformity. The big difference between them is colors, as the Samsung delivers much brighter, purer colors and a wider color gamut. If you care more about creative intent, the Sony is a better choice, but if you enjoy punchy, vibrant colors, go with the Samsung instead.
The Samsung S95B OLED and the Samsung S90C OLED are almost identical. Indeed, the S90C looks like a repackaged S95B but with official 4k @ 144Hz (120Hz on the 83-inch model) support, the 2023 version of their proprietary Tizen OS, and new 77" and 83" (with a WOLED panel) models alongside the existing 55" and 65" ones. The S90C is also a bit brighter than the S95B, but everything else is identical.
The Samsung S90C OLED is better than the Hisense U8/U8K. The Hisense is slightly better for bright rooms due to it being the brightest TV of the two, especially when watching HDR content. The Hisense is also great for movie purists due to its Dolby Vision support and advanced DTS audio passthrough. Still, the Samsung is a bright TV with tremendous reflection handling, so it's no slouch in bright rooms, but it truly excels in dark rooms due to its nearly infinite contrast ratio. The Samsung also has a vastly wider viewing angle, making it better for wide seating arrangements. Plus, it's the far better gaming TV, with a faster response time and four 4k @ 144Hz HDMI ports, versus two on the Hisense.
The Samsung S90C OLED is much better than the Samsung QN85C/QN85CD QLED. The QN85C has one advantage over the S90C: it can get noticeably brighter in SDR than the OLED. However, the Samsung TV compensates by having far superior reflection handling, so overall, they're about equally good in bright rooms when watching SDR content. Otherwise, the S90C is the superior TV in every other facet: much better contrast, a wider color gamut, a much wider viewing angle, four full 4k @ 144Hz ports versus 4k @ 120Hz on the QN85C, and a nearly instantaneous response time.
The Samsung S90C OLED is a bit better than the LG C2 OLED. The LG TV does support Dolby Vision, while the Samsung uses the least widespread HDR10+ format, so some Dolby Vision content might look better on the LG. Otherwise, the Samsung has a slight but noticeable advantage in all other areas: it's brighter in HDR, has a noticeably wider color gamut, and is more accurate. The Samsung is also better for PC gamers because it has four 4k @ 144Hz HDMI 2.1 ports versus four 4k @ 120Hz ports on the LG.
The Samsung S90C OLED is a bit better than the LG G2 OLED. The LG has a few advantages over the Samsung, such as Dolby Vision support and much better low-quality content smoothing, so some streaming content looks better on the LG. However, the Samsung outpaces LG in most other metrics: it's a bit brighter in general and much brighter in Game Mode, is more colorful, and has better upscaling and HDR native gradient handling. The Samsung is also better for PC gamers because it has four 4k @ 144Hz HDMI ports, while the LG has four 4k @ 120Hz ports.
The Samsung S90C OLED is better than the LG C1 OLED. The LG model has one advantage over the Samsung TV: Dolby Vision support. Still, the Samsung is much brighter in HDR and SDR and is the more colorful of the two, so Dolby Vision alone doesn't compensate for the Samsung's image quality advantage. Plus, if you care about accuracy, the Samsung TV has you covered here, too, as it is much more accurate than the LG in SDR. The Samsung is also the better PC gaming TV due to its four 4k @ 144Hz HDMI ports, while the LG has four 4k @ 120Hz ports.
The Samsung S90C OLED is better than the Samsung QN95C QLED. The QN95C is the brighter TV of the two, especially in SDR, so it's preferable for bright room scenarios. Still, the S90C is also quite bright in HDR and has better contrast, so it looks better in dark rooms and almost as good in brighter rooms when watching HDR content. Otherwise, the S90C has typical OLED advantages: a much wider viewing angle, a near-instantaneous response time for gamers, and superior screen uniformity.
The Sony A95K is a little better than the Samsung S90C OLED. The Sony TV has significantly better image processing when dealing with low-quality or low-resolution content, so cable TV channels and streaming movies look much better, with less macro-blocking and pixelization. The Sony also includes Dolby Vision support, so it’s great if you’re a movie buff who wants to try out the format. The Samsung is a bit more versatile, especially for gamers, as it has lower input lag and four high-bandwidth HDMI 2.1 ports, whereas the Sony only has two.
The Samsung S90C OLED is much better than the Sony A80J OLED. The Samsung has a QD-OLED panel, allowing it to get brighter and display a wider range of colors than the Sony. The Samsung TV also has better gaming performance due to its lower input lag. However, if you use your TV in a bright room, the Sony performs better because blacks still look black in a bright room, whereas ambient lighting causes the black levels to raise and become purple-tinged on the Samsung.
The Samsung S90C OLED and the LG C4 OLED are similar TVs with only a few key differences. They're very similar in peak brightness, although the LG is noticeably dimmer in Game Mode while the Samsung isn't, making the Samsung the better choice for gamers. The LG is the better choice for movie fans, as it supports Dolby Vision HDR and passes through advanced DTS audio formats. The LG also has slightly better image processing than the Samsung, especially when watching low-bitrate content from streaming services due to its superior low-quality content smoothing.
The LG G4 OLED is a bit better than the Samsung S90C OLED, but they're extremely similar. The LG gets a bit brighter than the Samsung, so bright highlights in HDR pop a bit more on it. The LG is also noticeably brighter in SDR content and has the better image processing of the two TVs, although the Samsung does have the edge when it comes to HDR gradients. The Samsung is the more colorful of the two TVs, so particularly colorful content will look more vibrant on the Samsung TV. Ultimately, the biggest difference between the two is likely the LG's support for Dolby Vision HDR and advanced DTS audio formats, making it the better option for physical media enthusiasts.
The Samsung S95D OLED and the Samsung S90C OLED are very similar TVs, but there are some differences. The S95D has better color volume, so it can display colors in HDR brighter. On the other hand, the S90C has better color accuracy before calibration, which is great if you care about SDR accuracy without needing to get the TV calibrated. The S95D uses a matte screen finish that does an amazing job of eliminating reflections caused by glare, but it comes at the cost of picture quality when the TV is used in a room with lights on. The S95D also comes with Samsung's Slim One Connect Box, so it's more versatile if you need easier access to its ports.
The Samsung S90C OLED is better than the LG B4 OLED. The S90C gets brighter in HDR, so highlights pop more on it. The S90C also displays more vibrant, lifelike, and bright colors overall due to its wider color gamut and better color volume, and its better viewing angle means that there is very little color shift when watching the TV from an angle. However, the B4 has better image processing, so low-resolution and low-quality content looks better on it, and it supports Dolby Vision and DTS audio formats.
The Samsung S90C OLED is better than the Samsung S85D OLED. The S90C has a wider color gamut and much better color volume, so it displays more vibrant and lifelike colors with less banding. The S90C has much better pre-calibration SDR accuracy, so you don’t need to get it calibrated if you care about accurate colors in SDR. Highlights in HDR content pop out more on the S90C due to its better HDR brightness, and it maintains that brightness while using 'Game Mode.' If you’re a PC gamer with a higher-end graphics card, the S90C supports 4k @ 144Hz, so you can play in a higher frame rate.
The Samsung S90C OLED is better than the Samsung QN85D/QN85DD QLED, but they use different panel technologies. The S90C is an OLED, so it has perfect contrast, making it far superior to the QN85D when viewed in a dark room. It also has far better reflection handling and a significantly wider viewing angle than the QN85D. The QN85D is, however, noticeably brighter in SDR content, but unless you exclusively watch SDR content, the S90C is the better choice.
The Samsung S90C OLED is better than the Sharp AQUOS FS1 OLED. The Samsung has a much wider viewing angle, so the image stays more consistent from the sides than on the Sharp. Highlights in HDR content pop much more on the Samsung due to its better HDR brightness, and SDR content looks better in a room with the lights on due to its better SDR brightness. The Samsung is also more versatile thanks to its HDMI 2.1 bandwidth on all four ports, and it has better overall image processing.
Video
Test Results
The TV looks and feels like a premium TV. It's heavy and sturdy and held in place well by its small metallic stand. The panel is thin and feels modern and classy.
The stand is small but is solidly built from metal. It holds the TV very well, and lifts the screen about 3.36" above the table, so almost any soundbar fits in front of it without blocking the screen.
Footprint of the 65-inch stand: 14.45" x 10.47"
The back of the Samsung S90C is very similar to the Samsung S95B OLED. The central panel housing the inputs is made of smooth plastic, with included covers used to help with aesthetics and cable management. Like the S95B, the inputs are hard to reach if you wall-mount the panel with a fixed mount, so a mounting arm is recommended if you don't want to use the included stand.
From the side, the TV looks very much like the Samsung S95B OLED, with a similar, very slight tilt back. It isn't noticeable at all in actual usage.
The TV has excellent build quality. The materials used feel premium, and while there's some flex on the component housing on the back, the panel itself is made of metal and is resistant to flexing. There's some wobble on the stand when the TV is pushed forward or backward, but it quickly settles. The two bottom corners of the screen are very slightly bowed back; it's extremely subtle, and you won't notice it unless you're looking for it. It was also a problem on the Samsung S95B OLED, which can worsen if you lift the TV repeatedly. Unfortunately, the display shows fingerprints easily; they can be difficult to remove.
As OLED displays use self-emissive pixels instead of a backlight, pixels can independently brighten themselves up to their peak brightness, or inversely they can fully turn themselves off for perfect blacks. This ability to fully turn its pixels off gives OLEDs a nearly infinite contrast ratio, with bright highlights right next to perfect blacks with no blooming or haloing.
Since this TV uses self-emissive OLED technology, there's absolutely no blooming around bright highlights or subtitles in otherwise dark scenes.
The panel doesn't have a backlight, but thanks to its nearly infinite contrast ratio, it has the equivalent of a perfect local dimming feature with no zone transitions. We still film the zone transition video on the TV so you can see how the screen performs and compare it with a TV that has local dimming.
The TV's contrast and dark details in Game Mode are nearly identical to Movie Mode, but just a tad brighter and with a colder color temperature.
Update 10/05/2023: The 'Auto' color space bug has been fixed. As a result, we've retaken our brightness measurements with the color space set to 'Auto'.
The Samsung S90C has excellent HDR peak brightness. Bright highlights are vibrant on this TV, although, like all OLEDs, the S90C has an aggressive Automatic Brightness Limiter (ABL), which significantly dims bright highlights when they take up a large portion of the screen. So scenes with a lot of bright areas, like a bright sunny day at the beach, are significantly dimmer on this TV than they are on a non-OLED panel.
You can set Peak Brightness to 'Off' in HDR if the brightness fluctuations bother you, but this just makes every scene much dimmer, so now highlights never stand out.
These measurements are after calibrating the HDR white point with the following settings:
- Picture Mode: Filmmaker
- Brightness: 50 (Max)
- Contrast: 50 (Max)
- Contrast Enhancer: Off
- HDR Tone Mapping: Static
- Color Tone: Warm2
- Color Space Settings Auto
- Peak Brightness High
If you prefer a brighter but less accurate image, you can set HDR Tone Mapping to 'Active':
- Hallway Lights: 886.4 cd/m²
- Yellow Skyscraper: 751.3 cd/m²
- Landscape Pool: 369.4 cd/m²
If you want a very similar TV with even better HDR brightness, check out the Samsung S90D/S90DD OLED.
Update 10/05/2023: The 'Auto' color space bug has been fixed. As a result, we've retaken our brightness measurements with the color space set to 'Auto'.
The Samsung S90C is very slightly over brightened in HDR Game Mode. As a result, it looks bright and vibrant but not as accurate.
These measurements are after calibrating the HDR white point with the following settings:
- HDR Picture Mod:e Game Mode
- Game HDR: Basic
- Brightness: 50 (Max)
- Contrast: 50 (Max)
- Contrast Enhancer: Off
- HDR Tone Mapping: Static
- Color Tone: Warm2
- Color Space Settings: Auto
- Peak Brightness: High
If you prefer a brighter but less accurate image, you can set HDR Tone Mapping to 'Active':
- Hallway Lights: 899.8 cd/m²
- Yellow Skyscraper: 784 cd/m²
- Landscape Pool: 429 cd/m²
- EOTF
The TV has superb PQ EOTF tracking, so content is displayed at the correct brightness level. It's a bit over-brightened at very low luminance levels, so dark shadows are a tad too bright, but then the TV follows the curve near perfectly up until the panel's max brightness. At that point, the panel clips anything above its peak brightness for content mastered at 600, 1000, and 4000 nits, so there's a loss of fine detail.
The TV has good SDR peak brightness. It's bright enough to overcome glare in a bright room. The panel's brightness is dimmed considerably by its Automatic Brightness Limiter (ABL), so large bright scenes are significantly dimmed. It's distracting when watching bright content, like hockey, for extended periods. Setting Peak Brightness to 'Off' effectively disables the ABL feature and reduces the peak brightness in all scenes.
These measurements are after calibration with the following settings:
- Picture Mode: Movie
- Brightness: 50 (Max)
- Peak Brightness: High
- Color Tone: Warm2
- Color Space: Auto
If you need an OLED with better SDR brightness, check out the LG G4 OLED.
Update 10/03/2023: Samsung has fixed the issues with the 'Auto' color space setting. Every chart and result is now from the 'Auto' color space, as it now tracks the best. You can see how each color space setting compares in DCI-P3 here, or here for Rec. 2020.
As is typical of TVs with QD-OLED panels, the Samsung S90C has an incredibly wide color gamut. It can display the full range of colors in the DCI-P3 color space used by most HDR content, with slightly oversaturated reds and greens. Coverage of the wider Rec. 2020 color space isn't as good, albeit still excellent. The tone mapping is a bit off, so highly saturated colors aren't displayed accurately.
Update 10/03/2023: Samsung has fixed the issues with the 'Auto' color space setting. Every chart and result is now from the 'Auto' color space, as it now tracks the best.
This TV has exceptional color volume. The panel shows very bright colors well and gets very close to the same brightness as pure white. It can also display dark, saturated colors very well and highlights how good QD-OLED panels are at showing vibrant colors.
The TV has superb pre-calibration SDR accuracy. It's a bit bright for a moderately-lit room, but the white balance and color accuracy are fantastic, with no noticeable issues. The color temperature is also nearly perfect, so this TV barely requires any calibration to look great overall.
After calibration, the Samsung S90C has fantastic accuracy, with no noticeable issues. Plus, it's relatively easy to calibrate.
You can see our full calibration settings here.
The panel has fantastic gray uniformity. There's very little variation in brightness across the screen, which is great for any content. If you look closely, you see vignetting in the corners and very faint vertical lines along the panel, but you have to be very close to see them.
Since OLEDs can turn off individual pixels, the Samsung S90C has perfect black uniformity, with no distracting blooming or halo effect around bright areas of the screen in dark scenes.
The screen has an exceptionally wide viewing angle. Although nearly perfect, the image fades slightly at extremely wide angles. The colors also shift very slightly when viewed from those same extreme angles. In practice, however, you can move around the TV and see a consistent image at almost any angle.
The Samsung S90C handles direct reflections incredibly well. Like the Samsung S95B OLED and the Samsung S95C OLED, the glossy anti-reflective coating significantly reduces the intensity of direct reflections. Still, due to the lack of a polarizer, the TV has a pink tint in a bright room even when turned off.
The Samsung S90C has superb gradient handling in HDR. There's some barely noticeable banding in saturated reds, greens, and blues, but you have to look hard to see them.
This TV's low-quality content smoothing is alright. It can't smooth out macro blocking very well, so it's very noticeable in dark scenes. Fine details are preserved very well.
The Samsung S90C does a good job at upscaling low-resolution content like DVDs or lower-resolution streams. Details are clear enough, but small hard-coded text is hard to make out.
Sharpness processing was calibrated with no over-sharpening for low-resolution content, with the following settings:
- Sharpness: 6
The Samsung S90C uses a unique subpixel structure. Instead of having all three subpixels in a row, each pixel forms a triangle, with the larger green subpixel at the top. This leads to color fringing, which is noticeable when displaying any content with horizontal lines, and it's especially bad when you use the TV as a PC monitor. For example, on a bright window on a Windows PC, you might notice a green fringe at the top since that is where the green subpixel is.
Similarly, you can notice a purple fringe at the bottom of bright windows, as that is where the red and blue subpixels are. Furthermore, with this subpixel arrangement, text has just okay clarity on a PC, as Windows ClearType settings aren't designed for this subpixel structure and can't correct it.
Note that the 83-inch model uses a WOLED panel, which uses a different subpixel structure than the smaller QD-OLED models.
The Samsung S90C has a nearly-instantaneous response time, resulting in incredibly clear motion with almost no blur behind fast-moving objects. Due to the sample-and-hold nature of OLED technology, there's still some noticeable persistence blur when gaming at 60Hz, but it's hardly noticeable at higher refresh rates.
This TV isn't technically flicker-free, as a small decrease in brightness corresponds with the display's refresh cycle. This is very different from pulse width modulation flicker (PWM) on TVs with LED backlights, and it's not noticeable.
The TV has an optional black frame insertion feature (BFI) that reduces the appearance of persistence blur caused by the TV's nearly instantaneous response time. It can only insert black frames at a 60Hz refresh rate.
This TV has an optional motion interpolation feature to improve motion clarity. It doesn't work well on the Samsung S90C; there's lots of artifacting around small fast moving objects, even in slower scenes. In fast scenes, where motion interpolation tends to struggle, there's a higher-than-usual amount of artifacting and haloing.
Unfortunately, due to the nearly instantaneous pixel response time of the Samsung S90C, there's noticeable stutter with low frame rate content. It's especially noticeable in panning shots. The black frame insertion feature and the motion interpolation feature can help reduce the appearance of stutter, but they both have their drawbacks.
The TV is judder-free when watching 24p movies or TV shows, even from sources that can only send a 60Hz signal, as long as you set Picture Clarity to 'Custom'. If you would rather enable Black Frame Insertion (BFI) with the Clear Motion option, you can set Judder Reduction to 10 to greatly reduce judder, but it doesn't eliminate it completely.
The Samsung S90C supports variable refresh rate (VRR) technology to reduce screen tearing. It works well across a wide refresh rate range and supports sources with Low-Frame-Compensation (LFC), ensuring your games remain nearly tear-free even when your framerate drops very low. It's also compatible with all three types of VRR, ensuring it's fully compatible with all sources that support that feature.
This TV has incredibly low input lag, ensuring a very responsive gaming experience with very little delay between your actions with your controller or mouse and the action on-screen.
For retro gamers wanting to play in a 4:3 aspect ratio, only two resolutions work well: 640x480 @ 60Hz with an input lag of 27.8ms, and 1080p @ 60Hz, with an input lag of 27.4ms. Other 4:3 resolutions don't scale well or give improper resolution behavior.
The Samsung S90C supports most common resolutions up to 4k @ 144Hz. Chroma 4:4:4 signals are displayed properly with all supported resolutions, which is important for text clarity. Unfortunately, even though it can display chroma 4:4:4 properly, text from a PC isn't clear due to the unusual subpixel structure (see the Pixels section of the review for more on this issue). Note that the TV can only currently output 144Hz at 4k; 1080p @ 144Hz and 1440p @ 144Hz are unavailable. The TV can do 120Hz without issue at all resolutions, however. The 83-inch model of this TV is limited to a maximum refresh rate of 120Hz at all resolutions.
This TV is fully compatible with everything the PS5 offers, like 1440p @ 120Hz and 4K @ 120Hz, as well as HDMI Forum VRR. It also has four ports supporting HDMI 2.1 bandwidth, which is great if you have multiple HDMI 2.1 consoles or want to connect a PC.
This TV is fully compatible with everything the Xbox Series X|S offers, including 1440p @ 120Hz, 4k @ 120Hz, HDMI Forum VRR, and FreeSync Premium Pro. All four HDMI ports support the full bandwidth of HDMI 2.1, which is great if you have both consoles or a PC you plan on using with the TV.
The Samsung S90C supports the full 48Gbps bandwidth of HDMI 2.1 on all four HDMI ports. This allows you to take full advantage of multiple high-bandwidth devices, like if you own both current-gen consoles and a high-end gaming PC. Unfortunately, Samsung still doesn't support Dolby Vision but supports HDR10+ instead, which is very similar overall but not as widely supported. The TV also has variable analog audio out, so you can change the volume of any plugged-in analog devices, such as headphones, using the TV's remote.
This Samsung S90C supports many audio formats, including many Dolby Digital options. Unfortunately, it doesn't support DTS formats, which is disappointing, as many UHD Blu-rays use DTS for their lossless audio tracks.
Overall, the Samsung S90C can't produce much bass but has an overall well-balanced sound profile, so dialogue is clear. It sounds good at or near its maximum volume but doesn't get very loud.
This TV has decent distortion performance. It performs very well in the treble range, and there isn't much distortion at max volume, but, again, this is helped by the TV's low maximum volume.
The Samsung S90C runs the 2023 version of Tizen OS, which is easy to use. The Smart Hub interface is smooth and has many advanced options, making it easy to find your favorite content.
Like most TVs on the market, there are ads throughout the interface of the Samsung S90C, and there's no option to disable them completely.
The included apps cover most of the common streaming services, and a great selection of additional apps is available in Samsung's app store.
The remote is identical to the one included with the Samsung S95C OLED. The remote is slim and compact and is easy to use. It has a built-in rechargeable battery with a solar panel on the back of the remote. You can also recharge it via USB-C if it dies unexpectedly.
The TV is compatible with the Bixby and Alexa voice assistants, and its remote has an integrated microphone for voice commands. Voice controls work well and allow you to launch apps, change inputs, or adjust certain settings.
