Samsung S95F OLED vs. QN90F Neo QLED

Tom's Guide

Kate takes you up close with the Samsung S95F OLED TV and Samsung QN90F Neo QLED TVs, two flagship sets that are sure to land on all the best TVs of 2025 lists out there. But which one should you buy? Using differences in design, features, and early performances scores, Kate provides some important context that can help you decide.

Transcript

00:00This is the Samsung S95F QD OLED TV, and this is the Samsung QN90F Mio QLED TV.

00:07And in this video, I'll try to help you decide which one is right for you.

00:12I've got to give Samsung a lot of credit when it comes to what the brand is doing with OLED TVs.

00:17The OLED TVs are getting better and better to the point where they're in conversation

00:21with equivalent models from LG and Sony. With OLED, you're going to have a few more limitations

00:26when it comes to screen size options, but what you will enjoy is this really distinct,

00:32flat, thin design. It'll look beautiful, wall mounted, very premium looking, but one way

00:39that Samsung is differentiating OLED from Neo QLED is with the One Connect box. Come around here,

00:45I'll show you. I think ideally you'd actually want to mount this TV on the wall, and then this box

00:50that's attached to kind of like the foot right here actually comes off, and you can put this into a

00:55cabinet, really anywhere that's more accessible for changing inputs, and that way your cable

01:00management is out of the way. You don't have to mess with your wall setup for that really clean,

01:05premium aesthetic. Although stereotype around this is changing, OLED has been long considered

01:12not the best TV option if you like to watch TV with the lights on, or if you're in a room that has

01:17window lighting, a lot of ambient lighting. That, again, has kind of changed these days, but in order to

01:22combat natural lighting, ambient lighting, Samsung uses a glare-free display on its flagship QD OLED TV.

01:31Basically, if I were to shine a light right on this, instead of giving me the clear outline of that

01:36light, it would more or less diffuse the light. Still not ideal if you're watching a big motion picture,

01:42but it is effective, and in fact a lot of manufacturers are actually copying Samsung based

01:48on how well it was received on the S95D from last year, but I can actually only show you so much here,

01:54so let's take a look at the numbers. All right, let's break down the results side by side, starting

01:59with the Samsung S95F. In terms of picture accuracy, we've got a Delta E of 1.2. That is excellent.

02:07Anything under two is considered top tier, and this TV is comfortably below that mark.

02:12Now, brightness, it is wild. In HDR using a 10% window in Filmmaker Mode, the S95F OLED clocked in at

02:20just over 2100 nits. That's seriously impressive, especially for an OLED TV.

02:27Color reproduction is another standout. We're looking at near-perfect coverage of the color space,

02:32which means you're getting vivid, accurate colors, even in super-saturated scenes. Honestly, the S95F is

02:39really shaping up to be one of the top contenders this year, and so long are the days where it can't

02:44have the same brightness that you get with mini-LED TVs. Now, if I'm honest, I think any TV going up

02:50against the S95F doesn't really have a fair shot, but if I'm saying a TV like this is so great, then

02:57why is everyone so obsessed with mini-LED TVs these days? Well, that's a great question, Kate. Whereas with

03:04that S95F OLED TV, we were talking about contrast. I was really hyped about that, but now looking at

03:10the QN90F mini-LED TV, I'm talking about brightness. That's what you're going to experience with mini-LED

03:17TV, and for some reason, brightness is the key word that customers are looking for. They want to know

03:24that in no matter what room they're watching, the picture is going to look bright, and brightness

03:29then unlocks great contrast, great colors. There's a lot more you can do with brightness when it's

03:34controlled properly, of course. This TV also has the NQ4 AI Gen 3 processor, so hopefully we're going to

03:42see some similar control capabilities here, but what is going to be different compared to the OLED is the

03:49size capabilities of mini-LED. The panels aren't constrained by size, so here we're going to talk

03:55about going from a 43-inch size all the way up to 115-inch size, which is wild. But again,

04:02that's what people are looking for. With OLED TVs, you're going to be a bit more constrained, you know,

04:07up to 83, maybe 97. Whereas last year, glare made a big difference in what TV to buy from the Samsung

04:15lineup. This year, the mini-LED TVs have the glare-free technology, which again is great. I sound like a

04:23broken record. It looks great. Everyone wants it, and in a room like this, we're getting that diffuse

04:28light effect. But also on the design side, a little bit of a trade-up. This does look pretty great at a

04:33glance. It still is very slim profile, but all of the inputs are integrated, no one connect box,

04:39so it will have just a little bit thicker of a look. You might not have that same full premium slim

04:46flush to the wall feel that you get with OLED. I think that comes down to preference.

04:50I'm not going to go too much into the actual software features in this video,

04:54just because they're the same on both, and I want to save some good stuff for when we actually get

04:58these TVs into our lab for full reviews. So make sure you're subscribed and turn on those notifications

05:04so you don't miss when those come out. And let me know in the comments, which you'd want to see

05:08first, and I'll see what I can do. But design and configurations aside, we do have some numbers to

05:14talk about. Accuracy-wise, it's right there with the S95F. The Delta E is a little closer to two,

05:21but still under, which is excellent for a TV of this tier. HDR brightness is also just over 2100 nits

05:28in that same 10% window as the S95F. In other words, the QN90F and S95F are basically neck and neck

05:36when it comes to those peak highlights, which says a lot, especially for how far QD OLED has come in

05:42closing the brightness gap with high-end LED panels. Where the QN90F falls maybe a little

05:48bit behind is in color coverage. We measured about 93% of the color space, still solid,

05:53but not quite as much as the S95F's near perfect level. That said, I do want to test both of these

05:59TVs more thoroughly in the lab before drawing any harder conclusions than that. So both TVs are basically

06:05crushing it in terms of brightness and accuracy, but the S95F may edge out a little bit in color

06:11performance, at least for now. If there's one thing I could say about the S95F versus the QN90F,

06:18it's that the gap between OLED and mini-LED is closing in. You know, with OLED, you're typically

06:24talking about perfect blacks, really rich contrast, but these days, brightness is really good too. And

06:30with mini-LEDs, traditionally it was all about brightness, but the black quality, the blooming,

06:35and the contrast is really keeping up with OLED. So when it comes down to which one you're going to

06:40want to buy, you're going to want to think about the size, the prices it fits into your budget, and

06:45your technology preference. And while it's great that we have those lab results to shed a bit more

06:50light on how these TVs actually stack up, I'm not going to be making any definitive conclusions until we

06:56do those full reviews. You're going to want to stick around for that, but that's it for me for this video.

07:01Thanks for watching. I'll catch you next time.

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