Over the past few years Samsung’s QLED line has undoubtedly been getting closer to OLED in terms of black levels, whilst retaining superior brightness, and that gap has never been closer than this year. This year, in addition to its standard QLED line, Samsung has introduced the Neo QLED line, which is led by the flagship QN900A model. The Neo QLED line incorporates Mini LED technology to further improve black levels whilst mushing brightness to new levels.
The first thing to talk about is undoubtedly the design of the TV. The thing you’ll instantly notice is the bezel or lack thereof. It’s virtually invisible at 0.2cm (yep you’re reading that right). It’s unmatched in terms of bezel to picture ratio, which makes the image pop all that much more. If you’re mounting this TV using Samsung’s no gap mount, you’ll struggle to see any kind of bezel on the wall in comparison to the image. Similarly, the thickness of the TV is 1.6cm and whilst OLED TVs get a lot thinner at their thinnest point, this is one consistent thickness the whole way down, which in my opinion makes for a nicer design, especially when wall mounting so you can have that even finish down the wall.
When it comes to ports, the QN900A has four HDMI 2.1 ports, which is obviously much appreciated if you’ve got more than one next-gen consoles. You’ll also find 3 USB ports, an ethernet port and an antenna port. These are connected via the new Slim One Connect box, which is a much, much slimmer version of Samsung’s One Connect box that now can either be integrated into the back of the stand with a shorter cord or still in your entertainment unit using the longer cord.
It’s not only HDMI 2.1 support that makes this a great option for gamers, Samsung has clearly had the gamer in mind this year, with the introduction of a new game bar, which turns on automatically when game mode is turned on. By holding down the play button, you can get game bar to pop up. It lets you adjust things such as input lag, see if you’re in 60 or 120 FPS mode, turn HDR on or off and adjust other things such as VRR. Something that’s new this year as well is the option to run at wide or ultra wide if you’re using a compatible PC.
I was as eager as ever to get my hands on the QN900A to test out Mini LED. Samsung had really hit out of the park with its last few flagship TV releases, so I was keen to see how that fared with this new technology. Mini LED should technically result in a brighter picture whilst keeping your blacks dark thanks to smaller LED modules that allow for more accurate local dimming and this was definitely my experience.
Whilst watching 4K movies, I’d go out on a limb and say that the QN900A is extremely close to, if not the best picture that I’ve seen on a TV. It’s able to retain those inky blacks whilst providing the brightest image that I’ve seen on a TV. The QN900A is capable of somewhere around 4000 nits, which in comparison to the 1000 nits that an OLED is currently capable of, really puts into perspective just how bright this TV can get. Coupled with that infinity display that’s bezel-less really makes the image pop.
This TV is absolutely going to shine when watching 4K (or the limited 8K) content in HDR. Given this TV is capable of Quantum HDR 64x, it’s going to absolutely blow your socks off in those brighter scenes. It was a genuine joy to watch movies on this TV and I found myself going back to some older classics to rewatch them on this large, bright display.
In game mode, the TV still performed really well, with incredible brightness which made the image pop. The blacks did take a little bit of a hit at times, given some of that local dimming needs to be turned off to ensure a low input lag, but I was still really impressed. It does require a little bit more tweaking than an OLED, but once it’s right, it’ll blow anybody away.
In pitch black viewing environments, OLED is still going to have a slight edge over QLED in black levels, but an area which the QN900A really outperformed the OLED was in a natural viewing environment. Whether I had the blinds open, or lamps on at night, the glare on the QN900A was minimal, and thanks to those huge brightness levels, I never felt like I was reaching to close the blinds, or felt that the image could have been just a tad brighter.
The speakers on the QN900A have been placed on the back just because of how slim and minimal the design is and I was actually really impressed with how well it sounded given the thinness of this display. Obviously, you’ll still want a soundbar, and the good thing is that Samsung has introduced Q Symphony which allows you to have audio from both the TV and soundbar at the same time to increase immersion. I thought it’d be gimmicky, but it actually works well to create a fuller sound in your room.
In terms of intelligence, if you’re somebody who likes to let the TV do all the thinking, there’s a number of options here that will take care of that. The new processor is capable of taking care of picture settings on the fly with Adaptive Picture and the same for sound too. As with the last few years, you’ve also got Ambient Mode which will allow you to display art or the time matched with your wall colour on the back of the display, which looks great when hung on the wall.
When it comes to streaming, Samsung has it all. Unlike LG, Samsung TVs do have the likes of Binge and Kayo as well as essentials such as Disney+, Netflix, Stan and Prime Video. The U.I is super easy to use and really quick as well, which is important with any TV let alone one in this price tag.
