Best Samsung TV 2024: From budget 4K sets to 8K QLEDs

Samsung still believes that 8K will take off, and with its QN900D, it’s certainly putting its best foot forward to bring the format to a wider audience.

It is without doubt the best 8K TV that we’ve reviewed from Samsung, and considering they regularly get five-star awards, that’s an impressive feat. Improvements have been made to how much brightness the TV is capable of, with the QN900D able to produce 2445 nits on a 10% window in its Movie mode, which is much brighter than the 2096 nits the QN900C was capable of.

That level of high brightness helps to produce impressively bright and colourful HDR images, though as always with Samsung, we still find the lack of Dolby Vision support to be disappointing considering how widespread it is.

The upscaling performance is brilliant, and with little native 8K content out there it has to be. We noticed a big jump up in detail with 4K content, with Samsung’s AI processor able to bring out all the detail within an image and sharpen it without producing a fake-looking image or overemphasising any noise in the image. It genuinely looks better than any 4K TV we’ve seen.

For the gamers out there, our reviewer measured input lag at a fast 11ms, and with VRR support in HDMI VRR and AMD FreeSync Premium Pro, the input lag can be brought down ever further. All four of its HDMI inputs supporting 4K 120Hz gaming, so you’ll get a high level of gaming performance with any of the HDMI inputs.

We would suggest leaving the eARC input to add in a soundbar. While the QN900D’s sound system tracks sounds accurately across the screen, it’s not able to generate enough bass to give soundtracks heft and excitement.

Reviewer: John Archer
Full Review: Samsung QE75QN900D

After nearly 10 years of ignoring OLED technology, Samsung decided to create its own panel technology in QD-OLED and with the S95D it’s arguably struck gold.

The first and second-gen QD-OLEDs from Samsung were enjoyable, though we found they had flaws. The S95D appears to be a big improvement on what came before. It is the brighest OLED TV we’ve reviewed yet, hitting 1798 nits on a 10% window that’s more than the likes of the Panasonic MZ2000 and LG G3 OLED

That level of brightness helps the TV produce incredibly rich colours with contrast that brings out the detail in both dark and light areas of the image. Our reviewer also felt that the anti-glare screen technology was impressively implemented on this TV, though it does mean that dark areas do take on a slightly grey appearance.

The Tizen interface has been refined with new sections to help recommend suitable content that matches your tastes, and there’s now the option of creating multiple profiles for multiple in the house. For the gamers out there we measured input response at 9.8ms, while all four HDMI 2.1 inputs support 4K 120Hz through the One Connect box and with 144Hz supported for PCs.

The sound system supports Dolby Atmos, and like with Samsung’s other OTS speaker systems, it can be very good at placing effects on and around the screen. However, it can’t push that sound forward into a room, and volume is a little limited in terms of how loud it can do.

Reviewer: John Archer
Full Review: Samsung S95D OLED

The Samsung QE65QN95C is the brand’s flagship 4K TV, offering an alternative to the next generation of OLED 4K TVs from the likes of LG, Panasonic and Sony.

The picture performance improves on the TVs that come before such as the QN95A and QN95B, with a substantial increase in dimming zones (from 720 to 1344) helping to produce better contrast, black levels and more precision in terms of brightness.

Blooming, which are unwanted halos of light around bright objects, are reduced; and we found that unless you were watching the TV from a very wide and shallow angle that blooming was mostly unnoticeable. That’s an improvement on what we’ve seen from previous Samsung Mini-LED TVs.

Brightness was measured at 2240 nits, which is around the same level of brightness we encountered with the QN95B and easily betters even the brightest OLEDs we’ve tested from competing brands such as the LG G2 and Panasonic LZ2000.

As a gaming television, all four of the HDMI inputs support 4K/144Hz, so gamers don’t have to pick and choose which devices go into which HDMI input. There’s HDMI VRR for gaming consoles, with PC gamers getting AMD FreeSync Premium Pro. Nvidia G-Sync is not officially supported but gamers can still play compatible games with that feature if they choose to do so. We measured input lag to 9.8ms, which is a little faster than the 2022 model.

The speaker system is, in our opinion, a step from what came before, with more power, clarity and scale observed from the QN95C’s 4.2.2 audio system. The Object Tracking Sound (OTS) system plants effects on screen with accuracy, with the TV less prone to buzzing or distortion when having to deal with bassy effects..

Reviewer: John Archer
Full Review: Samsung QE65QN95C

Big screen TVs are becoming more popular and there aren’t many screens as big as the QE98Q80C from Samsung.

At a whopping 98-inches, this is a TV that takes up a lot of space in any home, and because of its size it’s a screen that feels more like a cinema that it does a TV. It’s surpisingly slim for a big screen though, which itself features just 120 dimming zones for control of brightness. As always, it’s not the number of dimming zones you have but what you do with it that’s most important.

And this big-screen Q80C is capable of bright and colourful images, with dark scenes that appear black and little backlight clouding or blooming that our reviewer spotted. Upscaling is very good for a screen of this size, the processor doing an effective job of upscaling HD images to this size, while SD images can look a little stretch, that’s only to be expected considering the quality of the source.

There are four HDMI 2.1 inputs on this model, and all can handle 4K/120Hz sources. We measured input lag at 10.7ms which shoudl ensure a snappy performance even before VRR support comes into play.

Tizen is not the easiest to navigate in terms of its settings, but it is comprehensively stacked for apps with all the apps you could want available. You won’t need to purchase a streaming stick to get the video streaming apps you want.

Sound quality is fine with good detail and effects accurately placed around the screen. The main issue is that this screen doesn’t get particularly loud or be able to generate the kind of power and scale a screen of this size should command. There are decent bass levels to to help amp up excitement in action films, but we’d recommend getting a soundbar for this screen.

Reviewer: John Archer
Full Review: Samsung QE98Q80C