Samsung Neo QLED 8K QN900D (QE65QN900D) 8K TV review

Today, we are going to take a look at the Neo QLED 8K QN900D (QE65QN900D), the current update of Samsung’s premium 8K TV lineup. What improvements does the manufacturer offer compared to the 2023 model (see our review)? Let’s take a look!

Samsung Neo QLED 8K QN900D specifications

Design

The Samsung Neo QLED 8K QN900D uses the updated Infinity design – this year it is called Infinity Air. Like the previous version, the Infinity One, it also has an absolutely minimalist look with a minimal body thickness and a screen covered with protective glass, which makes it seem as if it is framed by only a barely noticeable line of a metal side edge when turned off.

The main difference between the Infinity Air and the QN900D is the even thinner black frame under the protective glass: while the last year’s model was only a couple of millimeters thick, the QN900D is less than 1 mm thick.

As before, in the Neo QLED 8K line, the manufacturer uses a single central stand with a small area (37×26.6 cm) rather than the traditional side “legs”. Thanks to this, the TV can be easily placed even on a small cabinet. The “leg” of the stand has a mirror surface, so under certain conditions, you can get the effect of the image “hanging in the air”.

The thickness of the case is the same over the entire area and is only 12.9 mm – it has become even thinner than the QN900C, and quite significantly (the previous model was 15.4 mm thick). This makes it very convenient to mount it on the wall (a 400×300 VESA-compatible mount is available): in this case, it can be turned into a giant interactive “picture”.

The side edges are a silver metal strip with “perforations” on all sides; in addition to the aesthetic pattern, this solution has a purely utilitarian purpose: these holes “hide” the speakers located around the perimeter of the screen.

As before, the body was made so thin by moving all the electronics and connectors into a separate One Connect module (Y24 8K), which, by the way, also has a more compact design compared to last year’s version. This rectangular black “panel” can be fixed behind the leg or placed next to the TV (if it is mounted on the wall).

All connectors, except for the power supply, are located on one side of the module: 4 HDMI 2.1 ports (one of them is eARC-enabled), two USB Type-A, an Ethernet port, a digital optical audio output, two antenna connectors (one for terrestrial/cable TV and the other for satellite) and a CI slot for conditional access cards.

The QN900D is the senior model in the 2024 Neo QLED 8K lineup, which also includes the more affordable QN800D. They have a lot in common (same resolution, same available diagonals, etc.), but the differences include the QN800D’s Infinity One design from last year, the previous generation processor – NQ8 AI Gen2 (QN900D has NQ8 AI Gen3), a lower refresh rate for 4K mode (165 Hz vs. 240 Hz for QN900D), simpler AI image scaling, and a weaker speaker system.

Remote control

Samsung Neo QLED 8K QN900D is equipped with the same SolarCell One Remote (model TM2360G) as the previous year’s model. This is a compact and slim remote control with a typical set of controls and their location for a model of this size.

SolarCell One Remote has a microphone for voice control of the TV. Unfortunately, the proprietary Bixby voice assistant does not yet recognize Ukrainian, so you’ll have to control it in English.

The remote got its name because of the solar panel on the back of the case, which charges the built-in battery and can do so from room lighting. If the remote needs to be recharged quickly, it can be done via the USB-C port.

Functionality

Samsung TVs traditionally have a proprietary Smart TV platform based on the Tizen operating system as their “smart system”. The system interface is represented by a compact side panel with items in the form of icons: it can be “expanded” to see a text description of each item.

In general, the OS looks almost the same as last year, except for some differences in the interface. For example, on the home screen, two tabs have appeared in the upper “advertising” area: Overview and Applications. Overview shows the latest connections and a selection of content from the installed services, and Apps shows a menu of applications, both installed and available in the app store.

The sidebar contains search, sign in to your Samsung account, launch Ambient mode, go to the home screen, and a new Daily+ item: a selection of branded apps for daily tasks – SmartThings, Samsung Health, Workspace, etc. They were present in the system before, but now the manufacturer has collected them in a separate item for greater convenience.

At the bottom of the main screen are menus of connected devices, privacy settings and system parameters – you can open them without leaving the current screen to the main menu using the gear button on the remote control.

The proprietary Ambient mode allows you to display various images on the screen during inactivity: static wallpapers, dynamic screensavers, your own photos, etc. If the TV is mounted on a wall, it will turn a giant black rectangle into a spectacular picture. This year, Ambient mode received its own themed apps with paid content.

Samsung Neo QLED 8K QN900D received an updated processor – NQ8 AI Gen 3. According to the manufacturer, it contains 512 neural networks – 8 times more than last year’s model – and has twice the speed of the neural processor. It is used, among other things, for the 8K Pro AI scaling function, which allows to increase 4K or Full HD video to the native resolution of the TV.

Two additional features that rely on AI capabilities are Real Depth Enhancer Pro and AI Motion Enhancer Pro. According to Samsung, the former optimizes Mini-LED backlight control to increase contrast in very dynamic scenes, while the latter (exclusive to the QN900D) enhances the clarity of small, fast-moving objects in the frame, such as a ball in a football broadcast.

The TV has a game mode that significantly reduces input lag (up to ~11 ms) and a special “game bar” with specific settings for games.

It’s also worth noting that Neo QLED 8K QN900D supports 4K@240Hz gaming video mode (only when connected to a PC; for consoles, of course, the maximum mode is 4K@120) with variable refresh rate (VRR) and automatic low latency mode (ALLM).

Optionally, you can watch local video content from USB drives: the built-in media player supports 8K resolution, H265 format, HDR video (HDR10, HD10+ and HLG standards), and decodes Dolby Digital and DD+ audio tracks.

Sound quality

The QN900D’s multichannel (6.2.4) speaker system has a power output of 90 W and consists of eight midrange drivers behind the case and, as mentioned at the beginning of this article, a certain number of high-frequency drivers located on the side edges around the perimeter of the screen.

They are part of the Object Tracking Sound system, which allows you to position sound effects in the appropriate area of the image: thanks to the large size, the sound really moves in space in accordance with what is happening on the screen.

The soundstage is quite large, the TV has high-quality high frequencies and very good midrange, but the situation with the “bass” is worse: in tests, the built-in speakers started playing much quieter already at frequencies around 70 Hz, and at 60 Hz the sound disappeared completely.

To summarize: the QN900D’s own audio system is quite enough for, say, watching TV series in streaming services or videos on Youtube, but for Blu-ray movies with a high-quality soundtrack it is still worth buying an additional soundbar or multi-channel speakers.

Speaking of soundbars, like previous Samsung TV models, the QN900D supports Q-Symphony technology, which allows you to combine the soundbar and built-in speakers into a single speaker system.

Image quality

The Samsung Neo QLED 8K QN900D (QE65QN900D) uses a 65-inch panel with 8K resolution and Quantum Mini LED backlighting. Such LEDs are ten times smaller than conventional LEDs, which means that there are much more of them, allowing you to significantly increase the number of backlight zones (in this model there are almost 2000) and more flexibility in adjusting local dimming of the image.

The main advantages of this backlighting are better transitions between black and bright areas, deeper blacks, and a more dynamic HDR effect. In addition, Quantum Mini LEDs allow you to make the case thinner, which we can see on the example of the QN900D. They also don’t have the disadvantages of organic LEDs: first of all, they have a relatively low maximum brightness and the risk of burn-in over time.

Among the 8K content available today, the most common are the corresponding YouTube videos, but this resolution of the QN900D should not be considered “excessive”: the new NQ8 AI Gen3 processor copes well with upscaling 4K video, and as a result, its clarity and quality are almost as good as native 8K.

And the image doesn’t just become sharper: the scaling algorithms do a good job not only with simple areas of the image, but also with rich fine details or complex textures, preserving the natural look of, for example, dense grass or small tree branches without the feeling of artificiality, spurious “noise” or excessive sharpness.

Another advantage of having four times the number of pixels on the screen (there are more than 33 million) is that they are smaller and more densely arranged, making the image look coherent even from a short distance from the TV compared to a 4K model of the same diagonal.

Quantum Mini LED allows you to achieve almost completely black color, which is close to what OLED panels demonstrate, and very high brightness: for example, at 10% white on the screen, the peak brightness in HDR in dynamic video modes can exceed 2,000 nits.

At the same time, the QN900D works out dark and almost black areas of the image very well: unlike OLED TVs, which are often characterized by the so-called “black crush” (when “almost black” merges with “absolutely black”), this screen produces very smooth transitions in the deepest shadows of HDR content.

Localized shading can have a different degree of effect; at a moderate level, it is very difficult to see the backlight glow even in complete darkness – only at a high angle does a faint dark purple tint become visible against a completely black background.

At the same time, a large number of backlighting zones allows you to handle sharp transitions very well, for example, when displaying white subtitles on a black background – it is almost impossible to notice the glow around them. By the way, the QN900D is much better in this respect than the QN900C was last year.

Comfortable viewing angles are very large, in this sense Quantum Mini LED is not much inferior to OLED: only when viewed almost from the side does the image decrease in brightness and color saturation. But during a group movie session, this is not noticeable at all.

The anti-reflective screen filter absorbs direct light and ambient light quite effectively, which largely eliminates “spurious” glare on the screen and significantly enhances image contrast during daytime movie sessions.

As before, in addition to the typical video modes – Eco, Dynamic, Standard – the manufacturer also offers two modes for movie sessions: Movie and Filmmaker. The former offers optimizations focused on the playback of movie content, while the latter, as the name implies, reproduces the movie as the director intended, without any optimizations or AI algorithms. It should be noted that the visual difference between them is minimal.

You can visually compare the modes in the following gallery, from left to right: Dynamic, Standard, Eco, Movie, Filmmaker

It’s worth noting that these modes are available when playing video on the TV itself (both in streaming services and from a USB drive) and for players connected via HDMI – but for a computer, the system offers two custom modes: “Entertainment and Graphics.

The former offers a bright and impressive image, for example, for gaming (with a maximum brightness of 700 cd/m²), while the latter is quieter and more suitable for everyday tasks. It has a brightness of 150 cd/m² (standard for office use) and a contrast ratio of 2,100:1.

The color temperature is set to “Standard”, which is significantly too high – we would recommend switching the corresponding parameter to “Warm 2”: in this case, it is set to 6600K, which is almost the same as the standard value (6500K).

If you plan to use your PC for watching movies, it’s better to switch the device type from PC to, for example, Blu-ray player in the TV’s system settings: this will allow you to use movie modes and get the best picture during movie sessions.

Thus, in Filmmaker, the peak brightness in HDR at 10% white is almost 1900 nits, and at 100% – almost 500 nits. The color temperature is immediately set to the optimal value of Warm 2, and the color gamut is narrowed to the size of the sRGB space (79% Adobe RGB, 80% DCI-P3): this results in calmer and more realistic colors. Color accuracy in this mode is also the highest, with an average ΔE value just above three.

If you want more saturated colors, you can do it in the Picture – Expert Settings menu, where you need to switch the Color Space Settings item from Auto to Local: this way, all other Filmmaker mode settings will be saved, but the color gamut will be maximized (89% Adobe RGB, 92% DCI-P3).

And for gaming, Dynamic or Standard modes are more suitable – the image is much brighter and more saturated in these modes, and they are best suited to demonstrate the capabilities of Neo QLED.