Even more than a year after its release, the Samsung S90F OLED is still the best TV for most viewers. This 2025 model delivers an excellent balance between performance and value, with a vibrant, high-contrast picture that either matches or beats anything else in its price range.

Out-of-the-box color accuracy is fantastic, exceeding many direct rivals. While the S90F isn’t the absolute brightest OLED on the market, it has more than enough luminance for a typical room and pixel-perfect black levels that look deep and inky in a dim home theater.

There is a new 2026 edition of this set, called the S90H, that’s also worth considering, especially if reflections are a big concern in your room. But otherwise, the S90F delivers very similar performance for less money. Here’s why this 2025 TV model is still the best Samsung TV on the market and one of our favorite displays, period.

The TV has a great design, but beware that not all sizes are created equal

The S90F is available in six screen sizes — 42, 48, 55, 65, 77, and 83 inches. However, only the 55-, 65-, and 77-inch versions use a QD-OLED panel. The others use a non-quantum dot OLED, so their color performance isn’t quite as advanced. My sample was a 65-inch S90F, so my impressions also apply to the 55- and 77-inch sizes.

All sizes have an incredibly thin frame that looks sleek and stylish. The S90F’s profile is notably slimmer than that of many competing Mini LED TV models, such as the TCL QM8L, because its OLED panel doesn’t require space for a separate backlight. Its thickest point is only 1.6 inches, where its back panel protrudes to house the TV’s electronics and connections.

The majority of the display’s ports are either side- or downward-facing, allowing the TV to be mounted very close to the wall if desired. Although it requires no screws to assemble, the included pedestal stand feels stable and holds the S90F well. It measures 14.4 inches wide by 10.4 inches deep, so it still comfortably fits on a thinner credenza or table.

There are four HDMI inputs, all version 2.1, supporting up to 4K/144Hz signals. But to use full bandwidth capabilities, it’s important to ensure Input Signal Plus is enabled in the TV’s menu. The setting can be found by navigating to General & Privacy, then External Device Manager, then Input Signal Plus. You can turn this on for each HDMI input to enable the port to receive high-bandwidth signals. If it’s set to off, the TV will not be able to display at 4K/120Hz (or 144Hz for PC gaming).

The S90F comes with Samsung’s compact SolarCell remote with Alexa and Bixby voice control. There’s an additional AI button at the top of the remote, but otherwise, its face is identical to that of previous models. The small size of the remote keeps all its functions easily within reach of your thumb, but the tiny buttons could be mildly frustrating to use if you have large hands.

The remote’s rear has a solar panel for charging, so you don’t need batteries, and it also has a USB-C port as a backup if you ever run out of juice from light sources.

The S90F’s excellent color volume delivers vibrant images

As I mentioned above, I reviewed the 65-inch S90F, which uses a QD-OLED panel. One of the benefits of a QD-OLED screen over regular OLED (called WOLED) is color volume. WOLEDs rely on white light that passes through a color filter. But QD-OLEDs use blue light with red and green quantum dots. Without getting too into the weeds on technical details, this process enables a QD-OLED to produce greater color volume and brighter, purer saturation.

Using my X-rite i1 Pro 3 spectrophotometer, C6 HDR5000 colorimeter, Murideo Seven-G 8K pattern generator, and Calman calibration software from Portrait Displays, I measured the S90F’s P3 color gamut coverage at 99.78% in Filmmaker Mode (the TV’s most accurate setting). That’s an exceptional number at the top end of what TVs can achieve. The P3 color gamut is what modern high dynamic range (HDR) movies and TV shows use, so the S90F is capable of displaying the full range of colors that Hollywood productions are graded for. On top of that, its color accuracy is excellent. All of this results in bright, realistic colors that look stunning on screen.

I watched several HDR videos to test the TV’s real-world performance. The explosions in “Mad Max: Fury Road” burst in swirls of red, orange, and yellow. Skin tones looked natural and not overblown. The TV’s accurate, vibrant hues accentuated the film’s shifting color palette, starkly delineating the red-and-yellow daytime sequences from the rich blue scenes at night. The S90F allowed the film’s stylistic look to shine through, creating a highly engaging cinematic experience.

However, like all Samsung TVs, the S90F doesn’t support Dolby Vision HDR, opting instead for HDR10+, a competing, royalty-free HDR format originally developed by 20th Century Studios, Panasonic, and (surprise) Samsung. Both Dolby Vision and HDR10+ do the same thing — adjust the picture on a scene-by-scene or frame-by-frame basis to offer the most accurate HDR image your TV is capable of. But Dolby Vision content is more widespread, and it allows for more fine-tuning in post-production, which could lead to better performance. You can learn more about the pros and cons of different high dynamic range formats in our HDR guide. Ultimately, the benefits of Dolby Vision are too subtle to be considered a must-have, but this is one area where the S90F is a step behind OLEDs from LG and Sony.

When it comes to brightness, though, the S90F edges out other OLEDs in this price range, and it delivers a decent upgrade over the older S90D. The S90D offered around 1,240 nits of brightness on a standard 10% window. The S90F improves that number by a couple of hundred nits, with a max of around 1,457 nits on a 10% window. Smaller window sizes can hit an even higher peak of around 1,620 nits. This allows specular highlights (like explosions and light sources in movies and TV shows) to really pop. For example, a scene with stars against a black night sky sparkles with a wonderful intensity on the S90F.

The S90F’s OLED panel also delivers perfect black levels when watching TV in a dark room, free from the patchiness or uneven backlighting that can pop up on QLED and Mini LED sets. That said, ambient light slightly raises those black levels, making them look a little gray in a bright room. This is due to the TV’s QD-OLED panel lacking a polarizing layer, which LG’s WOLEDs have. A TV’s overall brightness is higher without this filter, but it also allows light to reflect internally, which can adversely affect the screen’s black levels.

During regular viewing, this rise in black level is only slightly apparent, and it’s not as distracting as it is on TVs that use a matte screen coating, like the newer S90H and flagship Samsung S95H. Even in a room with ambient light, I found myself able to sit back and enjoy TV shows without any major issues. That said, the TV’s glossy finish doesn’t handle reflections as well as the matte screen used on the 2026 S90H.

The S90F also has extremely wide viewing angles, which is a benefit found on all OLED displays. There’s no visual degradation in color or brightness, even at more than 60 degrees off-axis. If you have a large group over to watch TV or a movie, you can be sure everyone is getting a similar experience.

The S90F’s picture performance is remarkable for the price. Its closest competitor is the LG C5, which is often sold for around the same amount. Performance between the two is a trade-off: you get better color and brightness on the S90F, but better daytime black-level performance and Dolby Vision support on the C5.

The interface is quick, but a bit frustrating to navigate

Samsung uses the Tizen smart TV operating system, and the company has made improvements over the past couple of years that have made navigation far more responsive. I have an older S90C in my bedroom, and even with consistent OS updates over the years, moving the cursor on the home screen can be frustrating because it stutters or fails to respond right away. The S90F, on the other hand, is zippy and smooth, and apps load quickly.

But I find Tizen’s organization to be cumbersome, and it requires a good amount of setup and customization to work well. The S90F autoplays the last app you used if you leave it idle for a few seconds, and the setting to disable this is buried in the Smart Features menu. Adding new apps to the home screen takes a bunch of clicks and searching to find them in the Apps tab, moving them to the main page, and then shifting them from the end of the apps bar to a more accessible spot toward the beginning.

If you have external devices attached to the TV, there isn’t an input select button on the remote, so you need to navigate to Connected Devices and then scroll over to the desired input. Everything feels like it takes a few more button presses than it needs to.

For gamers, though, Tizen’s centralized gaming screen is a useful feature. All gaming options, including cloud gaming services like Nvidia GeForce Now and Xbox Game Pass, are in one place, easily accessed by clicking the Gaming Hub in the sidebar menu. If you have a console connected, it will also be shown on that page.

The TV also supports a suite of AI features that Samsung has dubbed “Vision AI,” including image and audio enhancements, but none of these functions are all that noteworthy. I generally recommend keeping the TV in Filmmaker mode for the most accurate picture.

How does the S90F compare to the newer S90H?

Samsung also offers a newer version of this TV, the 2026 S90H. Though the updated model has some benefits, it costs more and isn’t a clear-cut upgrade across the board.

The biggest difference is that S90H now uses Samsung’s anti-glare screen coating instead of the traditional glossy coating on the S90F. This anti-glare screen is much better at reducing reflections, which is a huge perk if you watch TV in a sunny room. However, this causes the S90H’s black levels to rise a bit more than the S90F’s.

Aside from the anti-glare feature, the other notable change is that the S90H no longer uses quantum dots in any size. This means that the 55-, 65-, and 77-inch S90F actually have superior color performance than the newer S90H. The difference is subtle when watching most content, but the older model does technically have an advantage.

Pricing for both models fluctuates, but the S90F is often on sale for up to $1,000 less than the S90H. The S90H is an excellent TV in its own right, but unless its anti-glare screen is a big selling point, the cheaper S90F remains the better value for most needs. You can learn more in our full Samsung S90H OLED TV review.

Should you buy the Samsung S90F TV?

The Samsung S90F has great contrast and a bright, detailed picture that’s incredibly color accurate. The high refresh rate and cloud gaming support also make it an excellent gaming TV.

The TV’s black levels are perfect in a dark room but slightly compromised in a brighter space, and the Tizen OS isn’t my favorite smart TV interface. But those strikes are small compared to the S90F’s many strengths.

Though this is last year’s model, it remains the best OLED in its class, and easily one of the top TV values for the money. It’s unclear how long the S90F will remain in stock, so if you’re interested, don’t hesitate to snag it while it’s still available at a discount. The 65-inch model typically goes for $1,400 or less, so as long as you’re not paying more than that, you’re getting a good deal.