Samsung QE48S90H

Design

• Anti-glare panel
• Stands feels flimsy
• Strong viewing angles

The S90H features a WOLED panel from LG Display, but the same panel does not mean the same experience you’d get from other TVs with a similar panel, as Samsung has carried out its own modifications.

The most obvious is the anti-glare solution. The S90H has Samsung’s matte, anti-glare finish that reduces reflections and the impact of ambient light in a room. Samsung maintains that you get ‘true blacks’ with the panel, and in a bright room, black levels don’t seem to be too diminished.

The screen softens any light directed at it, but even in our office/test room, I can’t see any reflections or glare on the screen. The only thing I did notice was the reflection of the Bose Lifestyle Ultra Soundbar’s white finish on the screen.

Viewing angles are terrific from pretty much every angle, with the screen maintaining high brightness and colour saturation.

The design is not too different from LG’s C6 OLED, with the rear featuring a bulky bottom half and a slim upper half. The stand doesn’t give me the most confidence though. Putting it together feels flimsy, and I managed to get my finger trapped pushing the stand in. The stand doesn’t feel as premium as the TV itself, and while it doesn’t take very long to put together (about a minute), it’s function over style with its rudimentary design.

User Experience

• Tweaked look for Tizen
• New smart Hub

Samsung’s given its Tizen interface another overhaul after providing it with a new lick of paint a few years back, and I think it might be the best version yet.

There are no ad banners at the top for those who don’t like the presence of ads, and it makes for a cleaner appearance that’s focused on programming. Big icons/roundels dominate each section, split into For You, Live, (FAST channels, broadcasts) Gaming, Daily (lifestyle) and Apps. It’s quick to load, and navigation is breezy.

For You is your home screen, showing your most recently played input (Samsung TV Plus auto-plays if you leave the home screen unattended). There aren’t too many rows to scroll down, and the number of titles in each row is limited too (15 at the most). It makes Tizen feel neatly compartmentalised while still offering a variety of films and shows to watch.

You can move apps around in the order you want them, which includes access to HDMI inputs such as a Blu-ray player.

Compared to Fire TV, Samsung’s Tizen is not as comprehensive in throwing films and TV series at you, but that means it’s less overwhelming. While I still don’t feel the hand of personalisation informing me of things I’d like to watch, this selective approach to curating titles means less time doom scrolling.

The global apps all seem to be present, but on the UK front, there’s no iPlayer at the time of review. I’ve been told negotiations for getting iPlayer onboard started a little later than normal and are still being finalised. Once that’s done, iPlayer will be available on this, and every other 2026 Samsung TV.

Samsung’s TV Plus provides a portal into on-demand, free-to-watch programming, and America’s Got Talent still appears to be a Tizen online exclusive, and if that doesn’t float your boat, there’s plenty of other titles that cover crime, documentaries, news, food & travel, kids etc.

The Game Hub is mainly a cloud-gaming portal (though if you have a console connected to the S90H, you can access it from here). There’s Xbox, Amazon’s Luna, Nvidia’s GeForce, Boosteroid, Blacknut, Antstream and others to play.

You can browse genres, and there are also themed rows that curate gaming titles (‘Survive the Night’). You can also set up a game controller to connect through this hub.

The Daily section covers smart home (SmartThings), productivity and health. You can connect to Google Photos to share pics to the TV, sing through Stingray Karaoke, or connect your (Samsung Galaxy) watch for workouts.

Samsung’s Vision AI is here, though I can’t see much of a reason to use it beyond a casual search. There’s Copilot and Perplexity if you’ve got queries or, I don’t know, want to create an image through AI for whatever reason.

The biggest change (for me) is that Settings is in a different, better place. Previously it was difficult to find (hidden, you could say). Now it’s on the top shelf to the left and appears as a pop-out (similarly to LG, funnily enough); and you can customise it by adding settings and arranging them for quicker access.

It remembers what you looked for previously, so if you come back to the Settings again, you can dive straight back in. Connected Devices is where all your… connected devices are located, and another entry point to SmartThings home devices. For some reason, the S90H kept thinking the connected PS5 was a Sky box. Privacy choices are located in the top right of the screen.

Connectivity

• Four HDMI 2.1 inputs
• Apple AirPlay

Like the LG C6 OLED, Samsung’s QE48S90H features four HDMI 2.1 inputs (one dedicated to HDMI eARC for sound systems), all of which are capable of 165Hz gameplay with PCs. There’s Ethernet for a hardwired connection to a router, two USB-A inputs, two RF inputs (satellite and aerial), a CI slot, and Samsung’s Anynet+ for HDMI CEC control.

Wirelessly it’s Wi-Fi 6E with support for Google Cast and Apple’s AirPlay. Bluetooth 5.3 is also included.

Gaming

• 165Hz with PC
• Nvidia and AMD VRR
• HDR10+ Gaming

As mentioned above, there are four HDMI 2.1 slots, all of which support ALLM and VRR and refresh rates up to 165Hz with PCs (120Hz for consoles). The S90H is compatible with both Nvidia G-Sync and AMD FreeSync Premium Pro for PC users, providing optimal picture and stability with whichever gaming GPU you’re locked into. The HGiG standard and HDR10+ Gaming are supported too.

The AI Gaming Optimiser recognises the genre of game you’re playing and fine-tunes the settings of the TV to adapt. There’s also the much-copied Game Bar that allows you to manually adjust settings such as the aspect ratio or activate the virtual aim point.

In terms of the actual performance, lag is a snappy 9.4ms, and VRR should bring that response time to almost zero. Switch Game Motion Plus on and that adds processing, slowing the input lag to 55.3ms.

Picture quality and gaming responsiveness on the S90H are great, and given the 48-inch size of the screen I’m testing, it’ll also double well as a gaming display for a bedroom or second room.

Features

• HDR10+ Advanced
• Dolby Atmos sound
• AI Football Pro mode

In HDR terms, the Samsung S90H covers HLG, HDR10, and HDR10+ (in Adaptive, Advanced, and Gaming form). There’s no Dolby Vision as per usual from Samsung, with picture presets covering Filmmaker Mode, Standard, Energy Saving (default at initial power-up), Dynamic, and Movie.

There’s support for Dolby Atmos, but no DTS, so anyone playing a DVD, Blu-ray or 4K Blu-ray will hear PCM audio instead.

The built-in sound system is a 2.1-channel, 40W powered effort that supports Samsung’s OTS Lite technology. This system uses a combination of physical and virtual speakers to create the impression of a sound bigger than the TV. There’s also Samsung’s Q-Symphony that merges the TV’s speakers and a compatible Samsung soundbar to create an even bigger soundstage.

Other tech includes the Active Voice Amplifier Pro (which raises the volume of dialogue if the TV senses competing noise in the room) and Adaptive Sound Pro, which analyses the room environment and compensates to optimise clarity, detail and balance.

Samsung hasn’t given up on its Bixby voice assistant, which is still here, but I reckon you’re more likely to use built-in Alexa.

There’s the Multi-View feature that splits the screen in two for the multi-taskers out there; Live Translate with subtitles (though only available in English and a few European languages), and the AI Football Pro mode, which I didn’t get a chance to test given the late kick offs during the World Cup, but automatically recognises if you’re watching a match to give colours a boost and allows for customisable audio (such as focusing on crowd noise).

Picture Quality

• Rich, saturated colours
• Dark detail could be improved
• Very good motion performance

The last 48-inch Samsung OLED I had hands-on time with was the S90D in 2024, and it seems a lot has changed – improved – since then. The S90D has peak brightness of 600 nits, and that’s now pushed to more than 1000 nits. The overall picture performance feels like it’s really stepped up.

However, there are a couple of issues to deal with. Shadow detail (the amount of detail in the darkest parts of the image) is not the best in either Movie or Filmmaker modes. Head to the settings and nudge it up to +5, and you can see more of what you should be seeing, but even then, it could still be better.

There is still that orangey look in Samsung’s Movie mode that can make complexions look a little sandy. This becomes more obvious whenever Johnny Storm flames on in Fantastic Four: First Steps or with the orange/red tones in Kubo and the Two Strings. This is only something I noticed in Movie mode – Filmmaker Mode looks very accurate, though less bright than Movie mode.

You could turn Contrast Enhancer to High with Filmmaker Mode, but switching between it and the Movie mode, and Movie’s brightness levels reveal more within the image. However, this option may be a decent alternative for anyone who wants to keep Filmmaker’s colour performance but seeks a little more brightness.

Samsung’s approach to its Dynamic mode is not my favourite of the big TV manufacturers. It certainly fulfils its remit of being brighter and delivering more punch to colours, but skintones can look a little too ‘hot’, coming across as overly bright. Shadow detail is affected, while black levels seem too dark. While the image is sharper and more detailed, it’s not as balanced as an LG or Sony.

But Alien: Romulus and Fantastic Four show the TV’s capable of delivering rich, bold and saturated-looking colours – it’s perhaps not quite as big in terms of contrast, though highlights are both precise and bright and add depth to films. The image itself is not the brightest, but the 48-inch S90H is not as bright as the bigger sizes. It can also seem a little soft in terms of sharpness, which I’d put down to the anti-glare screen.

A 4K HDR10+ stream of The Marvellous Miss Maisel on Prime Video features strong black levels, and the pastel colours really stand out with bright pinks and blues that give the show a lovely look on the TV that seems true to what the filmmaker intended.

Alita: Battle Angel (HDR10+), Kubo (HDR10) and Speed Racer (HDR10) all deliver wide-ranging colours and tones, strong black levels, with no noticeable banding issues, good colour gradation, and high levels of detail. Make no mistake, when the QE48S90H fires on all cylinders, it dazzles.

With motion processing, Samsung gives you three options: Off, Auto and Custom. Custom is the default and you should stick with that option.

Auto brings judder and stutter with movement, with a very obvious Soap Opera Effect when activated. Custom, however, is slick, stable, smooth and presents no issues. If you don’t want any processing at all, you’re well served by turning it off, which enables the 24fps stutter of film in a natural manner.

Upscaling

• AI upscaling
• Detailed images
• Auto HDR Remastering

Most people will be watching films and TV upscaled to 4K, and the Samsung QE48S90H does a very, very good job in that regard.

Blu-rays of Tomorrowland, Game of Thrones, and The Wolf of Wall Street reveal plenty of detail, and the TV maintains a faithful look. Black levels are deep – perhaps lacking a little shadow detail here and there, with some scenes in The Wolf of Wall Street a little hard to see at times.

But the saturated, rich and punchy colours come across well – whether it’s a TV series or a film, the Samsung conveys those colours in a natural manner. It all looks clear and defined without it looking processed or blurry.

With lower resolution content, the Samsung S90H seems even better. There’s some noise – usually around people’s mouths or the outlines of people – but the NQ4 AI Gen3 Processor is able to separate noise from actual picture information.

Black levels in DVDs of Star Trek and Inglourious Basterds are buffed up; colours look strong, punchy, and vibrant yet true to the source, and while it’s not in any way a sharp image, it doesn’t look soft. It looks better than DVD’s 576p resolution – I have no complaints about how good the S90H’s upscaling is.

A try of the Auto HDR Remastering and it brightens colours with a warmer tone. Colours have more punch, and while it’s not reflective of the ‘filmmaker’s intent’, in some ways the SDR to HDR conversion looks better.

Sound Quality

• Warmer tone
• Some bass weight
• Clear with dialogue

My default expectation is that TVs likely won’t sound great, but I’m open to a surprise, and the Samsung S90H surprised me.

It’s similar in tone to the S90D: warm, with some bass weight and power in its performance. I’ve moaned that older Samsung TVs I’ve tested have not sounded good, but this TV sounds good.

There’s weight and bass to Galactus’ voice in Fantastic Four. It sounds dynamic with a Blu-ray of Game of Thrones. Dialogue in Dune (Dolby Atmos) sounds clear and natural, with dialogue that matches its placement on screen, with only a few moments that sound soft (but still audible).

There’s some distortion during the film’s bassier moments, but more often than not, it handles the bass well in its Standard mode.

Switch to Amplify and the built-in sound system provides a bigger and wider soundstage, with bass that has more weight and power, and TV pushes dialogue away from the screen. There’s more detail uncovered, and Amplify mode reveals more of the ambience within scenes that the Standard mode doesn’t pick up on.

With Amplify, there’s more dynamism and scale, although there’s still a little distortion with low frequencies, and it simply can’t do deep bass.

The smoothness of the sound does mean it lacks ‘attack’. Gunshots throughout Civil War sound soft and smooth rather than punchy and snappy. I’d still recommend a sound system to go with the S90H, but on its own, it’s better than expected.

Should you buy it?