Hands on: Samsung HW-QS90H review

We've grown rather fond of Samsung's soundbar portfolio.

The Korean AV brand took things to another level with the HW-Q990D back in 2024, and it delivered a showstopping successor last year in the form of the HW-Q990F.

We also approved of its nifty convertible soundbar, the HW-QS700F, which could be used in two different orientations depending on whether you wished to wall mount it or use it in a conventional tabletop style.

So, the big question is this: what could possibly be coming next? Well, Samsung unveiled its latest home audio offerings at CES, and while we know that a HW-Q990H model will launch this year, it decided to instead shine the spotlight on a soundbar that's closer to the convertible model mentioned above.

Meet the HW-QS90H, a new all-in-one soundbar that aims to take the exceptional bass performance of the Q990F and cram it into the main body of the bar itself.

Booming bass without the need for an external subwoofer, that sounds familiar, doesn't it? Indeed, this soundbar is gunning for the Sonos Arc Ultra, which launched towards the tail end of 2024, and Samsung isn't shying away from striking up this rivalry.

While the soundbar isn't on shelves yet, and we likely won't see (or hear) it in our AV testing room in the immediate future, we did manage to score an early listen during a trip to Samsung's headquarters in Suwon, South Korea, as well as an additional demo of a more finished unit at CES 2026.

Our impressions shared here are far from final, but after a couple of listening sessions, we're starting to get an idea of how we feel about this bassy 'bar...

Price

Samsung will likely release pricing information closer to the launch of this soundbar, so for now, all we can do is make an educated guess.

We imagine that it will be priced similarly to the HW-QS700F, which retailed for £749 / $700 / AU$999 at launch. However, we could also see it priced more in line with the Sonos Arc Ultra, which hit shelves at £999 / $999 / AU$1799, seeing as this is being billed as a direct competitor.

Build

Looks-wise, the QS90H bears an uncanny resemblance to the QS700F. A Samsung representative at the First Look Exhibition which featured this soundbar noted that the design is very similar, albeit the new model is "a little bit thicker".

The styling is generally pleasing to the eye throughout, with a boxy chassis featuring clean-cut lines and a low-key steel grey colour throughout. The plain top fascia is interrupted by four onboard buttons, but otherwise the QS90H is a simple, clean and understated-looking piece of home audio kit.

Features

Samsung is moving forward with the convertible soundbar functionality, as the QS90H can also be oriented upright in a wall-mounted position, or placed flat on top of a media unit for a more traditional soundbar setup.

An onboard gyroscope will determine which mode it's in and adjust which drivers are activated for their required task. For example, the front-facing and upward-firing drivers switch roles depending on how you position this bar in the same way that the QS700F does.

Speaking of drivers, the QS90H boasts 13 in total, which are configured in a 7.1.2-channel system. All of the drivers are, of course, on board, with no wireless surround speakers or subwoofer required here. Samsung reports that there are nine wide-range drivers inside the bar, which are supported by four dedicated woofers.

That's a high number of woofers for a single soundbar; however, the mission of this soundbar is to deliver punchy integrated bass without the need to clog your living room up with a separate sub.

The QS90H is also compatible with a handful of Samsung-specific features, including Q Symphony, which will pair the bar with your Samsung TV's built-in speakers, and Eclipsa Audio, which is the company's own immersive audio format – though it's currently limited to YouTube videos rather than movies and TV shows.

On the subject of immersive audio, this soundbar does, of course, support Dolby Atmos, with the dedicated up-firing drivers mentioned above allowing for height effects to be beamed overhead rather than virtualised.

Sound

If there's one word to describe the QS90H's sound, it would be 'punchy'.

Samsung seems to have delivered on its promise of bone-rattling bass with this soundbar, as we find ourselves genuinely taken aback by how forceful the low-end is in the handful of music and movie demos we had across the visit to Samsung HQ and CES.

That's not to say that the QS90H is overbearing or distracting, as it seems to deliver bass with impressive clarity and tonality, which makes it a companion to the other elements of the sound rather than a force that drowns everything else out.

We were treated to a demonstration involving a snippet of a K-Pop track (no demon hunters involved, sadly), which seemed to be presented with solid rhythmic drive, clarity and richness.

That being said, we'll reserve final judgments for our full review, as the unfinished model we were shown in Korea and the noisy convention hall in Las Vegas meant that we couldn't nail down any conclusive critical findings for the time being.

Early verdict

If you're a bass enthusiast and want a soundbar that offers additional versatility in placement options, then Samsung may have the soundbar you've been looking for.

The Arc Ultra is, of course, an incredibly fierce competitor, so Samsung has its work cut out for it if it truly wants to dethrone the Award-winning Sonos soundbar, but we certainly won't knock Samsung for aiming high.

MORE:

Read our full Samsung HW-QS700F review

As well as our Sonos Arc Ultra review

And check out our picks for the best Dolby Atmos soundbars