Samsung S90F OLED TV review: Great picture for games, movies and more

If you are a gamer or a movie buff, the TV technology you should look at is OLED. It provides excellent contrast for that cinematic look, saturated colors and excellent gaming performance. Although cheaper models such as Philips OLED Right now, most OLED TVs are priced at the high end, including the Samsung S95F and LG G5 and C5And this, Samsung S90F.

In many ways, the Samsung S90F is a minor update to the 2024 model, but it packs enough of the company’s tech to make it worth considering. Moreover, the S90F performed in a similar manner to the S95F In my tests – although it’s worth noting that it lacks the more expensive model’s high brightness, anti-reflective coating, and connectivity box. For these things alone, the Flagship is worth the upgrade for many high-end shoppers, but the S90F is not. It is able to deliver a dynamic picture and is great for gamers as well.

Meanwhile, the Samsung S90F and its closest competitor, lg c5, It’s had some big price cuts recently, both down to $1,800 on Prime Day. I expect similar discounts to be repeated before Black Friday and the holidays this fall. Between the C5 and S90F, the Samsung has a slight advantage in my tests, but given the similarities between the two, my advice is simple: just buy whichever is cheaper.

Samsung S90F OLED TV sizes and series comparison

I conducted a hands-on evaluation of the S90F’s 65-inch screen, but it’s unclear whether the test is applicable to other screen sizes in the series, as I note below.

In the UK, only the 65-inch S90F is used QD OLED technology while every other size uses child. However, when I spoke with a Samsung representative in the US, they couldn’t confirm whether the 65-inch model is also the only QD-OLED model or even what technology it uses at all: “Samsung TVs are designed to deliver consistently excellent performance, regardless of the specific panels used.” Samsung’s website also doesn’t mention any technology other than “OLED HDR Plus.”

Why does this matter? It is very possible that color reproduction will vary between the several sizes of the S90F and those I tested, so measurements cannot be transferred directly.

All-in-one design

Ty Pendlebury/CNET

While some may like the sleek look of Samsung’s flagship S95F, it also requires a discreet cable and a large plastic box that you need to put somewhere. The S90F likes to keep it simple by comparison. In terms of design, the S90F is similar to both the S90D that preceded it and the LG C5 as well, with an ultra-thin screen and a more massive ‘input’ section at the bottom. If you’re mounting on a wall, the overall depth is still just 1.6 inches on the 65-inch model, while those who sit the TV on a stand will appreciate the slim, easy-to-install legs.

Over the years, Samsung has pared down its remote control to the bare minimum — a chip-shaped clicker powered by a solar panel on the back. I preferred the old, colorful remotes, but you had to put batteries in them. If you use your TV as a keyThe lack of an enter button is also annoying. You can go to the connected devices list option, but having a dedicated button makes the process much easier.

All the streaming you need

For 2025, the company has updated its menu system with some new screens, including a sound bar. However, it may take some quick relearning to find the options you need. It’s helpful that the new menu highlights the last setting used, so you may be able to access the setting used most often without drill-down menus.

Meanwhile, the Samsung S90F’s home page is back in familiar territory, listing a number of categories on the left – Samsung Account, Search, Ambient, Samsung Daily Plus, Gaming Hub, and Home. Home is the default, and when viewing streaming services, the TV displays a series of related thumbnails across the screen. Thanks to the huge number of Samsung TVs available, this is also one of the most popular smart TV platforms and therefore has a huge range of streaming services. It also caters to gamers through apps like Steam Link and Xbox cloud games.

Like most modern TVs, the S90F features a gaming center with its own control panel. The S90F includes up to 144Hz VRR support on all HDMI ports, so you can not be discriminating about which port you connect your PC/game console to.

Unlike most high-end TVs, the S90F doesn’t have that Dolby Vision HDRand while I don’t think this is a big deal, completionists may look to LG, Sony, or even Panasonic instead.

In terms of on-board connectivity, the S90F includes:

• Four 4K HDMI 2.1 inputs (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, LG C5, Samsung S95F, Samsung S90D, TCL QM8K, Hisense U8Q

TV and movies

Starting with the opening scene of the horror movie It, I found the S90F and S95F to have the best shadow detail of the group. At the 3:06 mark, Georgie comes down the stairs to the basement, and there are some shadow details barely visible at the top of the screen. In S90F, the beams there had the most sharpness, and Georgie’s face was also visible against the light coming through the door. The C5 and S90D had the worst detail in shadows, with less crispness than other Samsung devices, but it was still very good. Meanwhile, the LCD-powered TCL QM8K performed very well with this freeze-frame moment, with good detail and no washed out blacks, and I could also make out Georgie’s face the best.

Switch to brighter scenes for Spider-Man: Into the Spider-VerseI’ve found that most TVs look very similar — excellent contrast and saturated comic book colors. However, the LG C5 stood out with slightly yellow skin tones in the unconvincing alternate Spider-Man universe.

When watching “Endless runnerWar Movie, 1917 I found that both Samsung 2025 TVs again had the best shadow detail of all the models tested. At the 1:07 mark, you see Corporal Schofield (George MacKay) awake in a dark room. The S90F and S95F were able to amplify the lights 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 backlighting makes the scene look eerie and ghostly – as if it had been Photographed through a muslin filter, I’ve seen this effect on LCD TVs before, including huge, expensive ones. Hisense 116UX TV.

Finally, I put all five assembled TVs through a Spears and Munsil 4K HDR10 test disc. I found the S90F and S95F to have the most saturated colors as well as the best contrast levels.

Read more: How we test TVs

Bright room

If you have a bright room with light sources reflecting directly onto the screen – for example a window or overhead lights – you have two options available. The first is the cheapest: turn off the lights or buy a black-out curtain. The second is to buy a Samsung S95 phone with anti-reflective technology. While the S90F will reduce bright room glare and provide excellent contrast, you’ll still clearly see any direct light sources.

However, compared to the older S95D, I saw an improvement in the S90F’s bright room performance, with slightly less room appearing behind me. By shining the phone’s flashlight at the screen from a seated position, I found that the light was not visible at all on the S95F. Flash was visible on both the S90F and S90D, as they seemed to behave similarly with direct bright lights. Next, the C5 came with special FX-like halos and then more visible on TCL.

Games

When set to gaming mode, four of the TVs – the three Samsungs and the Hisense – had high brightness and were super responsive. When playing Doom, I found that the LG C5 in gaming mode was disappointingly dark and the lights 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 the dark areas of the image – where all the bad guys are hiding!

Since the C5 and S90F are similar in price and have equivalent lag (about 10ms) – when tested with Tests by Leo Bodnar’s team – Samsung’s brighter image ultimately makes it better for gamers.

Uniformity and angle of view

OLED displays tend to offer excellent uniformity and off-angle performance, and the S90F, like other OLED TVs surrounding it, had excellent uniformity, and colors remained vivid during off-axis viewing.

Settings and Picture Mode Notes

As always, I tested each mode for light output, color accuracy, and grayscale performance. Two modes in particular stood out – Movie or Filmmaker mode – and it was a bit of a coin toss to determine which was more accurate in SDR mode because they are so similar. However, for HDR, Filmmaker was definitely better.

Image showing Kalman Calibration software was used in this review.