The Samsung QN990Z Neo QLED 8K TV, with its excellent design, dazzling picture quality, unparalleled brightness, outstanding black level, and rich gaming features, fully meets the high-end positioning of its price. In short, if you are looking for the top-end Mini LED TV, you can choose the Samsung QN990Z Neo QLED 8K TV without hesitation.
Advantages:
- Unparalleled brightness
- One Connect junction box
- All ports support full-bandwidth HDMI 2.1
- Excellent gaming features
Disadvantages:
- Does not support Dolby Vision
- Compression in dark areas
The Samsung QN990Z Neo QLED 8K TV perfectly reflects the Korean company’s attitude towards its flagship products, as it is filled with various features that are dazzling. Despite other manufacturers largely giving up on the production of 8K TVs due to low consumer purchasing power and stricter EU energy regulations, Samsung has not compromised and has launched the most advanced 8K TV to date, the QN990Z.
This TV, sparing nothing, chooses to provide all the features you would expect in a flagship machine, and even more. It has almost no shortcomings except for not supporting Dolby Vision.
Want higher peak brightness? Samsung has launched a TV that can be bright enough for you to want to wear sunglasses indoors. Looking for the ultimate gaming companion with full HDMI 2.1 support? You will have a hard time finding a more comprehensive set of player-centric features elsewhere. As for top-notch enhancement, excellent black level, astonishing color, and immersive built-in audio system? All are great!
Perhaps you are looking for a sufficiently intelligent audio-visual hub that can control all electronic products in your home. If so, the QN990Z fully meets your needs, supports voice assistants, and a wealth of SmartThings features, cleverly utilizing other connected products in the Samsung ecosystem.
Plus, with an unparalleled design, offering almost invisible borders and the return of Samsung’s highly-praised One Connect junction box, the QN990Z feels very luxurious.
In the end, for most people, the real deciding factor that will influence the purchase will be whether the 8K resolution of the QN990Z is worth the investment – especially when Samsung itself has a lower-priced QN90C Neo QLED 4K TV (4K TV does not have a One Connect box).
Of course, if you are unwilling to compromise and only want the top-end TV supplied by Samsung, the QN990Z is likely to amaze you. It is not only one of the best gaming TVs we have tested, but also one of the best TVs of 2023.
Samsung QN990Z Neo QLED 8K TV Review: Pricing and Availability
The Samsung QN990Z Neo QLED 8K TV is the company’s flagship TV for 2023 and, as you would expect, the price is not cheap. The QN990Z comes in four sizes: 65 inches, 75 inches, 85 inches, and 98 inches.
In this review, we received the Samsung QN990Z Neo QLED 8K TV model (85 inches) for testing, and we expect the 65-inch and 75-inch models to provide almost the same viewing experience.
Samsung QN990Z Neo QLED 8K TV Review: Design
As we expected from the Samsung QN900 series, the QN990Z Neo QLED 8K TV is unmatched in industrial design, continuing everything we liked in previous models, and providing some additional improvements.
What you might notice first is that the QN990Z maintains the eye-catching borderless “Infinity Display” design, which first debuted in the QN900A introduced in 2021, and still looks just as eye-catching today.
Between the display and the millimeter-thick speaker grille, there is only a minimal black line, and nothing distracts you from what you are watching. This borderless design is another amazing aspect of the QN990Z compared to Samsung’s own S95C OLED TV, which has a noticeable border.
Speaking of the speaker grille, the QN990Z has slightly updated them from last year – the grille itself is now a dark gray instead of their previous silver, and Samsung has rearranged the diagonal-shaped holes we saw last time, instead using straight-line shaped holes. Again, the QN990Z’s speakers run along the top and side edges of the display and are not visible when viewed from the front.
Like its predecessor, the QN990Z can be placed on a balanced stand, only this time it has changed from the silver of the previous two models to a matte black. This is a small change that added another point to our rating of the QN990Z.
In addition, Samsung cleverly designed the packaging of the QN990Z, allowing you to install the base when the TV is standing in its box, which is very practical for such a large and heavy TV (the 85-inch model weighs 57 kg with the stand, 43.7 kg without).
The detachable One Connect box has also returned, providing users with a media receiver that can be plugged into the QN990Z’s stand or placed in a TV cabinet for easy access.
As for the size of the QN990Z, the panel of the 85-inch model occupies 1,876.6 x 1,071.5 x 15.4 mm (W x H x D), and with the stand it is 1,876.6 x 1,146.8 x 303.7 mm.
On the back of the QN990Z, you will also find four M8 screw holes for standard VESA wall mounts, as well as two additional screw holes at both ends of the TV for use with Samsung’s Slim Fit (or No Gap) wall mount.
Because of the detachable One Connect box, the entire body of the QN990Z is the same thickness, avoiding the protrusions at the back of most other TVs. This means there is less gap when wall-mounted.
Samsung QN990Z Neo QLED 8K TV Review: Performance When Samsung introduced the Mini LED-equipped Neo QLED series in 2021, the goal was to achieve near-OLED black levels while avoiding the drawbacks of the technology, namely low brightness and burn-in risk. Well, about these two points, you don’t have to worry about them on the QN990Z Neo QLED 8K TV.
Firstly, Mini LED TVs do not use organic compounds in their display panels, so there is no risk of burn-in. Secondly, the QN990Z achieved the highest peak brightness of any TV we tested in recent tests, with a peak brightness of 2,433.6 nits in a 10% window, far exceeding Samsung’s own S95C OLED (1374.3 nits), leaving LG’s C2 OLED (794 nits) behind.
While the 2021 QN900A could provide excellent contrast in most cases, it also overcompensated in low light conditions, making the brightest objects look like a spotlight following the brightest objects on the screen. Sometimes, the TV even automatically brightens the faces of characters in dark parts, making some movies look like musical theater.
Fortunately, last year’s QN900B made significant improvements in backlight control compared to its predecessor, and the QN990Z further advanced these improvements, making full use of over 1,000 zone dimming.
After using the QN990Z Neo QLED 8K TV for several weeks, this reviewer has not encountered any real over-backlighting situations. Apart from a slight halo around Netflix’s red “loading” circle, this new flagship shows a more delicate touch when illuminating dark fields.
Samsung’s QN990Z showed improved shadow detail compared to last year’s model. Although the QN990Z’s more subtle handling of the backlight effectively reduced light spillage, it brought a small compromise, namely the introduction of black suppression, resulting in the loss of some detail in very dark scenes. In some cases, watching movies with the TV’s default Filmmaker Mode setting almost makes the film lean towards German Expressionist style.
Fortunately, this problem with HDR content can be alleviated by switching from “Static” to “Active” tone mapping in the QN900B’s “Expert” image settings. For non-HDR content, black clipping can be reduced by setting the TV’s “Shadow Detail” slider (also found under “Expert” settings) to maximum.
In terms of color saturation, Samsung’s Quantum Dot Neo QLED series is known for its vibrant colors, and the QN990Z continues to maintain this level. For SDR content, the QN990Z covers 99.13% of the Rec709 color gamut in Filmmaker Mode, while HDR content covers 93.04% of the UHDA-P3 color gamut, slightly lower than the 99.18% that Samsung’s own S95C QD-OLED can achieve.
As for color accuracy, the QN990Z measured a very respectable 2.8686 in our Delta-E test, the lower the number the better, making it significantly superior to the aforementioned S95C, which measured 4.0946.
One of the biggest criticisms now being made about 8K TVs is that there is very little 8K content, making such a high resolution completely useless. This view has always puzzled me – we should know that 8K is never about content, but about upscaling for larger screen sizes. Obviously, displaying a 4K image on an 8K screen will result in a doubling of the pixel density per inch. From here, the TV’s upscaling skills have to display this image as clearly as possible. As you might expect, the picture quality of the QN990Z, as Samsung’s top-end TV model, is stunning. For the 85-inch model we are evaluating (and the 75-inch model), much of the credit goes to the support of the Neo Quantum HDR 8K Pro processor (the 65-inch version uses a lower-tier Neo Quantum HDR 8K+ chipset). Using AI and neural networks, along with 14-bit processing capabilities, the Neo Quantum HDR 8K Pro is able to analyze and enhance image quality at the pixel level. Obviously, upscaled 4K (and even Full HD) images look clearer than last year’s already impressive QN900B, with less noise. Of course, to get the QN990Z to perform at its best, you need to make some setting adjustments – by default, the TV’s “Intelligent Mode” is turned on, which limits its viewing modes and makes it have aggressive dynamic smoothing and automatic dimming. Before you let a wave of pure panic come over you, know that turning off this mode will restore Filmmaker Mode and other more natural viewing options. Before we look at the audio, there are two more things about the viewing experience. First, the side viewing effects on the QN990Z are excellent, and I did not notice any drop in color or brightness even when viewed from the side. Finally, although the QN990Z has an anti-glare layer, there is still often noticeable reflection in sunlight and indoor lighting, especially in dark scenes. Fortunately, the TV’s very high brightness mitigates the problem of reflection at other times. Samsung QN990Z Neo QLED 8K TV Review: Audio The Samsung QN990Z is equipped with a pretty good set of built-in speakers, using a 6.2.4 channel system (i.e., 12 speakers), in conjunction with Samsung’s Object Tracking Sound Pro technology, to provide Dolby Atmos standard audio, even if its 90W output is enough for us to use. Of course, the real sound system comes into play when the QN990Z is paired with a compatible Q-Symphony soundbar, where the TV’s speakers will synchronize and work in conjunction with it. For this review, Samsung provided us with its flagship model Q990C Q-Series soundbar to test the QN990Z’s Q-Symphony feature, which impressed me. Switching the QN990Z’s audio output to the Q990C soundbar (HDMI-eARC) immediately made the center channel more prominent, especially dialogue, which was significantly improved compared to using only the built-in speakers. Samsung’s QN990Z has a smaller, rounder remote control this time Samsung’s remote control has once again adopted a minimalist design, combining function and navigation buttons with volume and channel control buttons. The difference is that this year’s remote control is smaller than previous versions, with rounder edges and more comfortable to hold. Samsung’s QN990Z has a smaller, rounder remote control this time Samsung’s QN990Z has a smaller, rounder remote control this time Samsung’s QN990Z has a smaller, rounder remote control this time Samsung’s QN990Z has a smaller, rounder remote control this time Samsung’s QN990Z has a smaller, rounder remote control this time Samsung’s QN990Z has a smaller, rounder remote control this time Samsung’s QN990Z has a smaller, rounder remote control this time Samsung’s QN990Z has a smaller, rounder remote control this time Samsung’s QN990Z has a smaller, rounder remote control this time Samsung’s QN990Z has a smaller, rounder remote control this time Samsung’s QN990Z has a smaller, rounder remote control this time Samsung’s QN990Z has a smaller, rounder remote control this time Samsung’s QN990
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