SAMSUNG 77-Inch Class OLED 4K S90C Series Quantum HDR, Dolby Atmos Object Tracking Sound Lite, Ultra Thin, Q-Symphony 3.0, Gaming Hub, Smart TV with Alexa Built-in (QN77S90C, 2023 Model)

The Samsung TV was ordered on a Friday afternoon, delivered Sunday morning. Box was un-damaged, in 5 ⭐️ shape. Had to first remove the 8 year old Sony TV before installing the new Samsung. It is a 2 person job, but only because of the size of the TV, 65”, not the weight, bulky to manage with only one. The Samsung was sitting on the same cabinet as the old Sony, no wall installation. The platform legs the Samsung TV sits on are easily installed, and sturdy. The new tv rested on a table covered with a blanket. It’s best to connect the cables while still on the table, for the HDMI and soundbar. When the tv is upright it is a little more difficult to see the ports. Easily flipped the tv onto the cabinet. Hardware setup complete. Power up the tv, about 20 minutes to configure the software for the tv, as well as the existing Sony soundbar, which works great. Oh, the picture … we have DirectV, absolutely amazing picture. This is the older model Samsung S90C, the S90D was actually on sale briefly for the same price. Compared the ratings for both between the S90C and the S90D, and the S90C somehow performed significantly better, especially for Sports. The S90D did better for gaming, faster processor, but that’s not now how this tv will be used, it’s mainly for movies and sports. Picked the S90C for just that reason. Buying the kids the same for Christmas. Fortunately did not have to contact Samsung support, which is getting poor grades for those that unfortunately need that service. Hoping luck holds out.

As a videophile. Buying a Television set is a very hard decision. After Plasma sets were discontinued due to energy consumption I thought the color and motion handling was lost forever. In 2016 I made a purchase of the last 3D capable OLED set, the LG 55" C6. The C6 had inky blacks but the color always left something more to be desired. It also had HDMI 2.0 ports which was limited to non-HDR 4K 60hz gaming which was less than ideal in today's high frame rate environment. Enter Quantum Dot OLED. I wanted a set that would dazzle the senses. That meant no compromise image quality and capabilities. I own a gaming PC with a 4090 and a PS5. I wanted to hook up both and enjoy high refresh rate gaming with minimal lag. I wanted to be able to watch any movie in SDR or HDR and be able to pick out every detail in the shadows and experience every shade of 1 Billion colors. This is the TV that does it all. Not only does it do 4K 144hz when connected to my 4090 via a Zeskit HDMI 2.1 certified cable. It also does ALLM and 120hz when connected to the PS5. That is the power of the SoC that is running the display and mainboard. You are getting 48 gbps on all four of the HDMI ports. That means you can easily connect a PC, PS5 and an Apple TV 4K and be able to run lossless audio back to your soundbar or home theater with zero compromise. All of the HDMI-CEC is here. Seamlessly adjust the volume of your soundbar or select "Play Movie" within your PS5 without having to touch the controller. And once you're done, pressing the power button on the Samsung remote turns off all of the connected devices. Many have said that other OLED sets without quantum dot technology do the exact same thing at a lower cost. This to me is the minimum entry price into high end OLED tech in 2023. There is no other set that will provide you with this high of a picture quality. When gaming at 144hz the screen is fluid and smooth. There is minimal tearing when VFR is enabled. On the PS5 Gran Turismo 7 looks stunning. Everything from the audience in the grandstands to the pebbles on the edges of the track are tack sharp and clearly visible. Colors can either drip off the screen in Standard mode or they can be accurate and impactful in Filmmaker mode or in Original PQ Game Mode. Dune 2021 4K UHD is the best disc I have for testing out a set. This S90C passed with flying colors. There was no purple tint to any of the many shades of grey. For a couple of hundred dollars more you can be bleeding edge with the Sony A95L or the Samsung S95C but for all intents and purposes, the S90C is perfect.

At the time of writing this, this tv provides the most bang for your buck among the higher end tvs. The picture quality is phenomenal, side by side with the s95c the picture looks identical (some feature differences but not enough to justify the large price difference). The sound is pretty good for TV speakers on it as well but still can't compare to a high end sound system. A nice added bonus is if you have a compatible q series Samsung sound bar system then this tv will augment that system and provide more speakers to the center channel (only draw back is that this feature will not work for external devices that are plugged into the sound bar itself while connected over E-arc. Dolby vision is missing which is a point against it but hdr10+ on this looks just as good as this TV gets super bright while running hdr content. Something to be aware of is that there is no dts passthrough support so if you have a plex library or a physical media library you'll need to work around this limitation by having a dts supported streaming device such as an Nvidia shield or Blu-ray player plugged into a sound bar that does support dts and pass the video signal back via E-arc to the TV, the built in plex app on the TV down samples to stereo sound so I would not recommend it. If you use Samsung's smartthings this seamlessly integrates with that environment and can even act as a new smartthings hub. The ability to calibrate the TV with a smart app is a nice touch and does make a significant difference on color accuracy. Overall even with the couple drawbacks I mentioned above I highly recommend this tv as it is a stunning display.

The unit worked beautifully for 15 months to the day—then went completely dead—3 months out of warranty. This is the first TV that ever failed me inside of 15 years! This TV ran no more than 5 hours per week over the 65 weeks it worked. The picture was fantastic but for $8 an hour it wasn’t worth it. Of course everyone can decide for themselves.