Samsung S90F (QE48S90F) review

The Samsung S90F is one of a select few OLED TVs available in a small lounge or bedroom-friendly 48-inch size.

This makes it interesting to any serious home cinema fan short on space – or, indeed, one who simply doesn’t want their TV to be the main focal point of the room.

Despite its relatively small size, this 48-inch set doesn’t skimp on features. Indeed, it matches and even at times beats one of our top OLED recommendations at this size.

But a specification sheet tells you only so much. What really matters is how a TV performs in the real world. Here, then, is what we found after thoroughly testing the S90F in our dedicated viewing rooms, directly against its rivals.

Price

The 48-inch Samsung S90F costs £1499 / $1500 / AU$2499. A smattering of short-lived deals have knocked a small amount off that recently, but you’re generally looking at paying full price at the time of writing.

Its arch rival, the 48-inch LG C5, costs the same as the S90F in the UK and Australia, and slightly more in the US – £1500 / $1599 / AU$2499.

You can also get the S90F in 55-, 65-, 77- and 83-inch sizes. Prices rise in line with the TV’s size, topping out at £6000 / $5400 for the largest 83-inch set.

Build

The Samsung S90F is a sleek-looking OLED with a similar aesthetic to its C5 rival.

The central pedestal stand is a particular highlight. It is quick and easy to connect to the screen, with a screw-free design. Assembly takes less than a minute.

The stand’s top face is also angled fairly flat and sets the screen slightly higher than most of the 48-inch OLEDs we test. This makes it high enough to house a smaller soundbar, such as the Sonos Beam (Gen 2), without any of the screen being blocked.

As an added, neat bonus, there are gaps in the pedestal’s top and sides which make it easy to pass cables through. The only real omission is that the stand doesn’t swivel, but at this size and with most of the ports on the TV’s side, that’s less of an annoyance here than it can be on larger sets.

We wish more companies took this much care with their sets. These small quality-of-life optimisations make a huge difference when setting up and using the TV in the real world – cable management matters, kids.

If you want to wall-mount, the S90F’s 39mm depth and flat back mean it is neat enough to sit flush to a wall – although you will need to invest in a compatible mount.

Unlike the LG C5, the Samsung S90F ships with two controller options. The first is a retro, traditional slab full of manual controls that will make anyone born earlier than the ’90s feel right at home.

The second is a more streamlined modern handset, complete with USB charging and a rear-facing solar charging panel, which works to extend its battery life. The only addition we would really like to see is backlighting, which would make it much easier to use in the dark.

Features

The S90F is a fairly feature-packed OLED, particularly for one at its size. But the 48-inch model in our viewing rooms does have one key omission compared with its larger siblings.

The 48-inch model uses a WOLED panel. In certain regions, the larger, more expensive 65-inch model has a next-generation, brightness-boosting QD-OLED panel.

This is a bit of a shame, of course, but with the LG C5 also featuring a WOLED, rather than the next-generation Primary RGB Tandem OLED seen on the LG G5, it’s hardly a deal breaker.

Samsung has also raised the brightness, despite the lack of new panel technology, quoting the S90F as offering a 1300-nit peak. That’s a 30 per cent improvement over the S90D, but still a far cry from the S95F’s 2000-nit cap.

The S90F is also one of the only non-LG OLEDs you can buy with the full complement of four, rather than the more standard two, full-fat HDMI 2.1 inputs – one of which functions as the eARC connection needed to connect a Dolby Atmos soundbar.

If you have just a soundbar and one current-generation games console to connect, that extra connectivity won’t make much difference. But current-generation PlayStation and Xbox consoles, as well as PCs with a modern graphics card, need an HDMI 2.1 input to run at full speed. So, for the increasing number of people with a PS5 and Xbox Series X/S or gaming PC as well, it’s a rare blessing that will remove the faff of constantly having to swap cables in and out.

The S90F actually goes beyond 4K/120Hz with its support for 4K/144Hz, though this is only relevant to hardcore PC gamers with similarly hardcore rigs. As you would expect, ALLM and VRR are also supported.

An AI game mode and pop-up Gaming Bar shortcut menu are also present, making it easy to tweak the TV’s settings quickly as needed when playing.

The only omission is Dolby Vision Gaming – no Samsung set supports any form of Dolby Vision. Samsung continues to put all its eggs in HDR10, HLG and HDR10+, the last of which is Samsung’s answer to Dolby Vision. It uses dynamic metadata to adjust and optimise the picture on a frame-by-frame level.

Under the hood lies the same NQ4 AI Gen3 processor sported by the S90F’s more expensive S95F sibling. As with all the pieces of modern silicon we see, the chipset has an overt focus on AI, with Samsung’s 4K AI Upscaling Pro, AI Motion Enhancer Pro and AI Colour Booster Pro services all catered for.

These all do pretty much what they say on their respective tins and take advantage of the chipset’s “neural networks” to improve contrast, boost colour accuracy and intelligently upscale content to 4K as required.

The S90F employs the same home-brew Samsung Tizen OS as Samsung’s other 2025 OLEDs. This continues the TV’s AI focus, offering things such as curated profiles based on user habits, including recommended shows from every installed app – a little like Google TV’s recommendation hub.

App support remains solid, with the OS offering all the usual suspects, including Netflix, Disney+, Amazon Prime Video and Apple TV+. There’s also a good selection of local catch-up services, including BBC iPlayer as well as specialist offerings such as Shudder and Crunchyroll.

The only other feature omissions compared with Samsung’s more premium S95F are the lack of a One Connect box (which neatens up the set-up by separating connected kit from the TV) and a Glare Free screen coating.

Picture

Samsung TVs have a track record for delivering blow-your-socks-off experiences, pushing panels hard to give them a fun, but at times slightly overcooked feel. Out of the box, the S90F continues this trend.

Putting our first test disc, Dune: Part 2, into our faithful Oppo UDP-203 4K player, the images are red – very red. To the point that the scene looks like it’s taking place on Mars.

Out of the box, too, motion handling is smoothed to the point Fremen fighters look like puppets dancing on marionette strings – even compared with the LG C5 we are testing the S90F against, which itself isn’t perfect out of the box.

Bright areas look artificial, with the sun and sand’s highlights pushing too hard, and standing out from the background in an unnatural way.

A switch to Movie mode improves things, but motion is still a little too smooth and highlights still don’t look quite right. Colours are still too warm and the TV is generally still a little too pushy with its processing.

We settle on Filmmaker mode with judder, blur and noise reduction off, colour booster off and the colour profile set to Warm One.

Then the desert retains a decent level of pop and colours look much more realistic, with rolling sand dunes featuring wonderful levels of detail. Movements lose their artificiality with the darting desert warriors’ strikes feeling as sharp as the knives they wield.

A challenging segment in which a Fremen fighter launches a rocket at an enemy ornithopter is handled ably, with the craft’s fluttering wings remaining blissfully free of ghost frames.

Our only minor issue is the skyline, which still looks a little too red for our liking and misses some of the subtle hues seen on the 48-inch LG C5 we’re testing it against. The bright sun in the top-left corner is also not quite as bright as we would like, making the picture a touch flat.

This continues as we switch to Civil War on 4K Blu-ray. When one of the characters wakes up in a field on a hot summer’s day, he should look just a touch sunburned, but the S90F exaggerates this just a touch.

These relatively minor complaints are soon forgotten, though, as the film transitions to a night-time battle. Explosions pop out of the dark cityscape with dazzling brightness and a clear, bright fiery hue that makes them truly come to life.

The S90F also manages to retain colour volume during the tricky scene, with characters’ faces retaining their warmth and offering solid levels of detail in both the darkest and lightest parts of the picture – which is impressive as many OLEDs can struggle here.

We switch to our Alien: Romulus test disc, and the S90F’s strengths in low light continue. As a giant spaceship leaves the dark vacuum of space and slowly floats into view, while the contrast is a touch heavy-handed, leading to some minor black crush, the overall image is wonderfully three-dimensional and immersive.

Popping our ever-demanding SDR Blu-ray of True Grit into our player, the TV offers one of the best upscaled pictures we have seen in quite a while.

The opening scene pushes the lanterns in the otherwise pitch black farmstead to the point they hold a wonderful, isolating beauty, without ever seeming artificial. The falling soft snow is blissfully free of artefacts and retains its soft, fluffy quality.

In a brighter scene in the wild west town, the picture retains its spaghetti western, grainy feel, but features a wonderful sense of depth, with every stitch and dirt stain in the characters’ clothing looking sharp, but never artificial.

The same is true when we stream an episode of Pottery Throw Down on the BBC iPlayer. The picture features vibrant colours that do justice to the creations of the contestants, giving them a lifelike, immersive three-dimensionality that is missing from many rivals.

Sound

The S90F comes with a 60-watt, 2.1.2-channel Dolby Atmos-ready, built-in sound system. It comes with just two profiles: Standard and Amplify.

This is apparently due to Samsung’s confidence in its new AI chipset’s ability to leverage its neural network smarts to optimise the audio both to the space the set is in and to the user’s tastes.

Does it work? No. You’ll want a soundbar to do justice to any movie. Still, the speakers aren’t the worst we have heard on a set this size.

Watching Civil War, the speakers are very weak – we are easily able to hold a conversation even with the volume set at 100.

Go north of 60 on the volume control and distortion creeps into the sound of gunfire and background explosions, despite the set’s lack of low-end heft. We attempt to fix things by switching to Amplify, but find it acts in a similar way to LG’s AI Sound Pro mode.

The mode attempts to offer better separation between different parts of the audio, but ultimately pushes the low end down to the point that all you hear are voices and upper frequencies, which take on a sibilant, forced quality. We soon switch back to standard, which offers a more balanced performance, with some benefits at lower volumes.

Though the weedy speakers can’t deliver the oomph we want, there is at least some sense of directionality. During a heated scene from Top Gun: Maverick, the S90F’s audio manages to match the jet plane’s on-screen movements, and there is enough separation between the characters’ voices and background effects to easily follow their conversation.

The S90F’s audio, then, is a mixed bag.

Verdict

Good TV sound is a rare thing, particularly at this sort of size, so the S90F’s audio performance doesn’t cost it a star.

And, in fact, this is an excellent 48-inch OLED overall – one of the best we have tested, despite the slight colour exaggeration.

For your money, you’ll get a bright, punchy, smallish OLED capable of delivering a fun home movie experience full of pop. Add to this flawless gaming specifications and excellent app support, and you get a TV that we are happy to recommend.

SCORES

• Picture 5
• Features 5
• Sound 3

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