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The only notable app absentee is Freeview Play – though Samsung does support the separate catch up apps of all of the key UK terrestrial broadcasters. What’s more, despite the sophistication of its processing engine and lighting system, the QN50QN90B manages to get the time it takes to render images in its Game mode down to a hugely impressive 9.6ms (with 1080p/60Hz signals). Samsung’s Game Bar does, though, provide the option to sacrifice a bit of screen response speed in return for better, processing-assisted picture quality, along with other game-related adjustments such as the ability to raise the brightness of dark areas without impacting the rest of the picture so that you can more easily see enemies lurking in the dark.
While the QN50QN90B joins other Samsung 2022 smart TVs in excelling on content quantity, though, it also labours under the same unhelpful new interface design. This can be sluggish when the TV is first switched on, can be confusing to navigate, and has a tendency to highlight content most people won’t actually be interested in. Apart from its screen being smaller, the Samsung QE50QN90B’s picture specifications are close enough to those of the previously tested QN95B 4K flagship TV to make differences nigh on impossible to spot. Which is no bad thing given how much we like the QN95B’s pictures.
An Excellent High-End TV, With Quirks
Experience shows, though, that blooming issues with local dimming LCD TVs are typically much more pervasive and consistently distracting than the QN50QN90B's occasionally obvious dimming activities, so it’s hard to argue with the logic of Samsung’s approach. Even though the brand does also want to have its cake and eat it, to some extent, by making the QN50QN90B exceptionally bright with light HDR images. The QN50QN90B's main event is its Mini LED lighting system, which crams far more and much smaller LEDs into the 50-inch screen than is possible with regular LEDs. This enables it to deliver more local light control and, potentially, more contrast and brightness than regular LED TVs can. Especially when partnered as here by a local dimming system which, in this case, sees the TV able to output different amounts of light from no less than 448 separately controlled zones.
The problem with Samsung Smart TV is its menu structure. It buries most settings, apart from a few very specific presets, two or three layers down from where other TV interfaces put them. It also seems to constantly nudge users away from any granular controls. Switching among inputs is also more complicated than it should be; the remote has a multiple-source split-screen Multi-View button, but no simple input-switcher button. All of the QE50QN90B’s high-end picture features are marshalled by the latest version of Samsung’s Neo Quantum 4K video processor, complete with improved upscaling and the accumulated knowledge of numerous neural networks that have been busy crunching through countless image types in Samsung’s labs to develop a vast database of picture optimisation shortcuts. Apart from its screen being smaller, the Samsung QN50QN90B's picture specifications are close enough to those of the previously tested QN95B 4K flagship TV to make differences nigh on impossible to spot. Which is no bad thing given how much we like the QN95B’s pictures. While the QE50QN90B joins other Samsung 2022 smart TVs in excelling on content quantity, though, it also labours under the same unhelpful new interface design. This can be sluggish when the TV is first switched on, can be confusing to navigate, and has a tendency to highlight content most people won’t actually be interested in. Samsung describes the QN50QN90B as a Neo QLED model, alerting us to the fact that it uses Quantum Dots to generate its colors rather than color filters. This should, if other aspects of the TV are also up to snuff, result in a wider and more subtle color gamut well suited to the extra color range that typically accompanies high dynamic range content.
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Its biggest audio issue, though, is the way its sound struggles to project forward, leaving film and TV audio mixes sounding rather swallowed and as if everything is happening somewhere behind the screen. Not surprisingly this can leave you feeling rather distanced from what you’re watching. Verdict While a certain type of AV fan will always be drawn to the greater light stability and pixel-level light control you get with OLED TVs, the QN50QN90B's combination of higher HDR-friendly brightness, peerless (by LCD standards) light controls and impressive image flexibility ensures it has more than enough charms of its own to make a convincing case for itself. Especially for people looking for a TV able to take on a bright room environment.
The QN50QN90B continues Samsung’s tradition of delivering ultra sharp and detailed 4K pictures too, despite the screen being relatively small by today’s standards. What’s more, while the screen is obviously at its best with native 4K content, Samsung’s AI-assisted upscaling is also outstanding, adding detail and sharpness galore to HD sources without exaggerating noise or generating unwanted side effects. While a certain type of AV fan will always be drawn to the greater light stability and pixel-level light control you get with OLED TVs, the QE50QN90B’s combination of higher HDR-friendly brightness, peerless (by LCD standards) light controls and impressive image flexibility ensures it has more than enough charms of its own to make a convincing case for itself. Especially for people looking for a TV able to take on a bright room environment. Experience shows, though, that blooming issues with local dimming LCD TVs are typically much more pervasive and consistently distracting than the QE50QN90B’s occasionally obvious dimming activities, so it’s hard to argue with the logic of Samsung’s approach. Even though the brand does also want to have its cake and eat it, to some extent, by making the QE50QN90B exceptionally bright with light HDR images. All of the QN50QN90B's high-end picture features are marshalled by the latest version of Samsung’s Neo Quantum 4K video processor, complete with improved upscaling and the accumulated knowledge of numerous neural networks that have been busy crunching through countless image types in Samsung’s labs to develop a vast database of picture optimization shortcuts.
With an HDR signal, the QN90B shows a peak brightness of 612.132cd/m Rounding out the QE50QN90B’s impressive feature count is its Tizen-based smart interface. This remains as good as ever when it comes to content, with pretty much every streaming app you can think of present and correct, bolstered by Samsung’s increasingly impressive (due to it being more carefully curated) TV Plus system of fully streamed TV ‘channels’. What’s more, despite the sophistication of its processing engine and lighting system, the QE50QN90B manages to get the time it takes to render images in its Game mode down to a hugely impressive 9.6ms (with 1080p/60Hz signals). Samsung’s Game Bar does, though, provide the option to sacrifice a bit of screen response speed in return for better, processing-assisted picture quality, along with other game-related adjustments such as the ability to raise the brightness of dark areas without impacting the rest of the picture so that you can more easily see enemies lurking in the dark.
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