Samsung QE75QN900D

It tells you everything you need to know about Samsung’s feelings on 8K TV technology that its first television out of the traps for 2024 is an 8K model. And not just any 8K model, either. The QE75QN900D is Samsung’s new flagship 75in TV.

With other brands seemingly backing away from 8K, though, and native 8K content still feeling years away, can the QE75QN900D justify Samsung’s confidence in the power of pixels?

Picture Quality

Tech cynics the world over will tell you that 8K is pointless. “You can’t see the difference between 8K and 4K unless you sit half a millimetre from the screen!” they cry. Or sometimes “8K’s useless unless your TV is a gazillion inches wide!” 

Well, I’m here to tell you that such ‘advice’ is nonsense. I’ve seen plenty of reasonably sized 8K TVs that deliver a clear picture quality benefit over 4K from regular viewing distances - and, as we’ll see, the 75QN900D underlines this experience with knobs on.

But to be fair, there are a couple of areas where 8K cynics do have a point. Firstly, true 8K content remains very, very hard to find. Secondly, unlocking the full potential of 8K resolution requires a TV to have more in its arsenal than just the requisite number of pixels. Great processing, great light control, great colour mapping, great contrast, great motion handling… all these picture quality features and more are needed to ensure the 8K effect doesn’t get lost in translation.

Which is where the Samsung QE75QN900D comes in, backing up its 8K pixel count with extraordinary levels of secondary goodness that allow every last pixel to make its mark.

The reinforcement of the 75QN900D’s core resolution advantage starts with a mini-LED lighting system, backed up by a local dimming engine comprising a massive 1920 separate areas of control. Combined with an ultra-powerful new picture-processing system, this mini-LED/dimming zone system delivers some of the deepest, darkest black colours the LCD TV world has ever produced. It does so, too, with impressively minimal backlight ‘blooming’ around bright objects that appear against dark backdrops.

Making the 75QN900D’s handling of dark areas even more impressive is the fact that a radical panel redesign has resulted in a brightness boost of around 25% over last year’s QN900Cs. This matters for three reasons. Firstly, it puts plenty of clear blue ‘peak brightness’ water between this LCD TV and even the brightest OLED TVs. Secondly, it helps the 75QN900D deliver a fearsome demonstration of the power of high dynamic range content when capturing real-world light levels. And thirdly, in conjunction with the TV’s powerful light controls it enhances contrast to emphasise the impact of the 8K pixel count.

The 75QN900D’s combination of higher brightness and excellent-by-LCD-TV-standards black levels contributes to a fantastically vibrant colour performance. The colours of aggressively mastered titles in my resident 4K Blu-ray collection erupt off the screen in the default ‘Standard’ picture preset - yet, crucially, they do so without feeling scrubbed of subtle shading details, even in the very brightest areas. In fact, the screen’s adeptness at portraying the finest of colour tone differences really helps it sell the incredible clarity of its 8K pixel count.

The content I’ve been using to get the exceptional pictures described so far has been 4K rather than 8K. Which brings me to what is potentially the 75QN900D’s single most important feature: its remarkable upscaling engine. This AI-driven system uses the accumulated knowledge of no less than 512 separate neural networks to make sure the screen can deliver an 8K advantage even when you’re not watching 8K content. And with the ‘Standard’ picture preset in particular, it works incredibly well.

Images turned from 4K into 8K actually look as though they are of higher resolution, rather than just looking ‘denser’. There’s more texture, more definition, more three-dimensionality, and an enhanced depth of field. The latest AI-informed processor can even consistently tell the difference between source noise and filmic grain, so none of that cinematic grain gets smoothed away in the upscaling process.

If you can find genuine 8K images to feed it, though, the 75QN900D’s pictures go to another level of awesomeness. The stunning 8K effect - you feel more like you’re looking through a window than watching a television - is delivered irresistibly. It’s a true next-generation experience. The really key point about the 75QN900D, though, is that it delivers a better experience with today’s 4K content. So if you can afford it, it can give you a visible resolution benefit right now. Even HD pictures look engaging and enjoyable after going through Samsung’s latest engine. 

This isn’t to say the 75QN900D is flawless, though. In its ‘Standard’ preset (which is the most impactful in terms of ‘selling’ 8K), the backlight system can throw up a couple of sometimes-distracting instabilities. Firstly, it can dim small, bright objects quite heavily if they appear against a very dark background, presumably to counter potential backlight blooming. Secondly, you can see the picture’s baseline brightness jump up or down during scenes that cut abruptly between dark and bright shots.

Dark scenes can look a touch noisy in ‘Standard’ mode too, and while the upscaling is for the most part deeply impressive, it can sometimes come on a bit strong in areas of particularly fine detail unless you nudge down the sharpness setting a little. Fortunately, the ‘Movie’ preset solves most of the problems I’ve just described, while still giving you plenty of the screen’s brightness and colour prowess. The ‘Movie’ mode upscaling isn’t as aggressive as the ‘Standard’ mode, but so long as sharpness is set to around the ‘10’ mark it still looks better than 4K.

Sound quality

The 75QN900D boasts an eye- (and also ear-) catching bank of eight separate midrange drivers stretched across its rear, while its gorgeous metallic silver edges hide an array of frame speakers designed to spread the TV’s sound further and to place spot effects so that they seem to be coming from the correct area of the picture. Unfortunately, perhaps because of the challenges associated with shifting air around a TV as exceptionally slim as the 75QN900D, it doesn’t get as much out of its promising speaker arrangement as hoped. 

Even at maximum volume it sounds a bit quiet, for starters, and much of the speakers’ energy goes into creating a soundstage that seems to exist behind the screen rather than in the room around you. That bank of eight midrange drivers don’t summon up much bass, either, leaving potent movie soundtracks sounding a bit thin.

It’s not all bad news, though. Dialogue sounds clean and convincing, there are lots of small details revealed, and the screen’s ‘Object Tracking Sound’ system does a great job of placing effects accurately around the picture. This suggests the 75QN900D would likely respond well to being partnered with one of Samsung’s soundbars, where the brand’s Q Symphony feature would let the TV’s speakers join forces with the meatier ones in the soundbar.  

Living with

I should start this section off by saying that (as usual with flagship 8K TVs) the QE75QN900D does make quite a hole in your bank balance. At £6,690 it’s more-or-less double the price of a typical flagship 4K 75in TV. As well as carrying four times as much resolution, though, it also delivers other picture quality features beyond anything Samsung’s 4K TVs can do. Let’s not forget it’s less than half the price of the LG OLED77Z3 8K OLED TV we reviewed recently, too.

The QE75QN900D is less of an imposition in your living room than any other 75in TV I can think of. Its ‘Infinity’ design somehow encases the screen in a frame so slender it’s barely visible, while the rear has been made even slimmer than that of its already ultra-svelte predecessor. The fact that the rear panel is as flat as the front completes a gorgeously futuristic monolithic look, topped off by the screen’s sides being finished in a gleaming silver metallic finish. 

The screen is so thin because it ships with an external ‘One Connect’ box that houses all the TV’s connections and processing. A single cable feeds everything from the ‘One Connect’ box to the screen, making it a spectacular TV to hang on a wall. You do get a desktop pedestal stand with the 75QN900D, though, which cleverly attaches to the screen without the need for any screws. It’s possible to slot the ‘One Connect’ box onto the back of the stand and attach it to the screen using a provided cable. 

The 75QN900D ships with two remote controls, both of which are easy to use (and one of which even carries a solar panel on its rear so you never need to replace the batteries). The onscreen menu system is a bit overwhelming at first, and features one or two rather unintuitive navigation choices. It provides access to a huge amount of content, though. The only thing missing is Freeview Play - but Samsung does still carry all the UK terrestrial broadcaster catchup services as individual apps. And if you find the onscreen menus overwhelming, you can access an impressive amount of content and tweak most features simply by issuing the TV with verbal instructions. 

As ever with Samsung TVs, the 75QN900D doesn’t support the Dolby Vision HDR format. It does support the HDR10+ format, though, which, like Dolby Vision, adds extra scene-by-scene data to the HDR stream to help TVs deliver punchier, more accurate HDR images. It’s just not as common as Dolby Vision.

If you’re a gamer, the 75QN900D has got your back in spectacular fashion. All four of its HDMI ports support 4K/120Hz and 144Hz feeds (as well as 8K/60 of course!), variable refresh rates, and automatic game-mode switching. When in this ‘Game’ mode the screen can take as little as 11ms to render images, and 4K games upscaled to 8K look incredible. 

Conclusion

For anyone with pockets deep enough to afford it, no previous Samsung TV has pulled so many secondary picture strengths together to make such a compelling case for 8K resolution. The latest upscaling engine, in particular, goes far beyond anything I’ve ever seen before, ensuring that while there might still be room for a little improvement with aspects of the ‘Standard’ preset’s backlight management, the 75QN900D is as worthwhile in today’s 4K world as it will be in tomorrow’s 8K world.

Test samples

Aliens 4K Blu-ray

While some fans aren’t happy with the way the 4K Blu-ray release of Aliens removes pretty much all signs of grain, it does let you get an exceptionally clean look at all the film’s fantastically detailed and ‘lived in’ locations. This makes them perfect fodder for the 75QN900D’s remarkable new 8K upscaling system, making the film’s world so real and immediate that it’s almost disturbing at times.

‍Assassin’s Creed Valhalla Xbox Series X 

Considering how many pixels the 75QN900D is having to create in real time to convert the Assassin’s Creed Valhalla 4K graphics to 8K, it’s remarkable how responsive and slick the experience feels. Even better, the extra polish the 8K upscale gives to the picturesque views of mediaeval England takes your immersion in the game’s vibrant world to a whole new level.

‍Top Gun Maverick 4K Blu-ray

This is one of the most consistently bright, clean and detailed 4K Blu-rays around. So again it provides perfect source material for the 75QN900D’s 8K upscaling system to work its magic, making the hot fighter jet action even more exhilarating. Though, yes, you do also feel a bit more aware that even Tom Cruise is starting to get a few wrinkles these days.

The QE75QN900D represents the current pinnacle of LCD technology. This starts with its 8K resolution, which can improve the appearance of today’s 4K sources as well as being ready for the 8K sources of tomorrow. But crucially, 8K is really just the start of its charms - its mini-LED system backs its resolution up with stunning colour, contrast and brightness highs.

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Amazing though the 75QN900D’s upscaling processing is, it definitely helps if you can feed it the highest quality sources you can. With this in mind we’d recommend partnering it with a high quality 4K Blu-ray player - ideally a £999 Panasonic UB9000, or £1,500 Magnetar UDP800.

Also, given that the extraordinary slimness of its design presents it with some sound quality challenges, we’d recommend adding Samsung’s new 11.1.4-channel HW-Q990D soundbar. 

For TV viewing, try to add a source that provides as much 4K content as possible - such as a Sky Q box or, if your broadband speed is good, a Sky Stream box.