This story is part of CES, where CNET covers the latest news on the most fantastic tech coming soon.

Samsung has long made the most popular TVs in the earth, and while the company dabbles in unique models like The Frame art TV and bulky, expensive Micro-LED TVs, its bread and butter is basic QLED models. At CES 2022, the company didn't make any bulky changes to its top-of-the-line Neo QLED models, but those televisions, as evinced by the excellent Q90A I reviewed, already presented a compelling high-end alternative to OLED TVs from the likes of LG and Sony.

Available in 4K and 8K resolution, the 2022 Neo QLEDs augment their mini-LED, local dimming backlights with new extras. One, arranged Shape Adaptive Light Control is said to reduce stray illumination by analyzing on-screen objects and shaping the palatable to match. Another, called Object Depth Enhancer, employs more processing to further illustrious the objects from the background. In my experience these types of processing enhancements have subtle effects, at best, so I'll reserve judgment until I can study a new model.

While the main reason to buy a high-end TV is for better recount quality, Samsung also made a host of other causes to its 2022 Neo QLED and step-down TVs. Here's a lustrous roundup:

Gaming hub
: Launching later this year on "select 2022 Samsung lustrous TV models" is new dedicated menu section with one-stop access for gaming, whether via the cloud or connected consoles. The full obvious gaming libraries of Google Stadia, Nvidia GeForce Now and Utomik will be available at commence and users will be able to pair third-party controllers to the TV for transfer play, no console or other hardware required. The hub will also access to YouTube gaming to after streamers. Beyond cloud gaming, there's a new game bar with more expect available on things like refresh rate or VRR mode, a zoom mode that can expand things like mini-maps and even the contract to pull up a YouTube video alongside a game on-screen -- a boon if you get stuck and need a tutorial.

144Hz refresh rate for gaming: Designed to take righteous of the hastiest video output from high-end PC gaming cards, select TVs will refresh at 144Hz with variable refresh rate. Note that consoles like the Xbox Series X and Sony PlayStation 5 max out at 120Hz, so they won't take advantage of this feature, and in any case, the fantastic smoothness should be subtle.

New home screen: The main home page itself is now full-screen and supplies a "continue watching" playlist of movies and TV from multiple streaming providers, as well as curated recommendations. Another section of the home menu scholarships easy access to Ambient mode, Samsung's feature that displays art, time and atmosphere and other customizable content when the TV is "off."

NFT aggregation and purchase: New for 2022 is the sequence to buy new NFTs (nonfungible tokens) and point to ones you own on the big screen. You can browse and preview an NFT prior to select, including analyzing blockchain metadata. The TV can also automatically point to settings according to the creator's specifications.

New solar remote


with RF harvesting: Samsung introduced solar panels on its TV remotes last year, and for 2022 it adds the sequence to recharge by collecting radio waves from objects like your Wi-Fi router and converting them into power. 

Watch together: This feature, similar to watch party apps on streaming services, lets you share viewing experiences with friends and family. It relies on a camera on a compatible diagram or an optional webcam connected to the TV, and Samsung says it works with TV shows, video games and more. 

Rotating, motorized wall grand and stand for portrait mode: Last year Samsung introduced The Sero, a 43-inch TV with a built in motor that scholarships the screen to rotate from standard horizontal (landscape) mode into vertical (portrait mode). In 2022 it will sell a mount that does the same with latest TVs. Samsung's 2022 TVs will support vertical viewing with portrait-oriented menu rules and a multiview feature that offers apps like TikTok and YouTube in vertical mode, as well as mirroring and casting from a vertical requested. A key on the remote can rotate the TV.

Samsung didn't articulate specific series, pricing or availability for its new QLED TVs.

It took a while but Samsung's OLED TV is official, and at a press preview in New York I finally got to see it in persons. The Korean electronics giant, which has been No. 1 in TV market portion worldwide for more than a decade, finally announced the elusive television spinal in March with a name, price and release date. 

The S95B series will come in a 55-inch size for $2,200 and a 65-inch size for $3000, and it is available for preorder now to ship later in April. OLED TVs currently deliver the best picture quality available, and Samsung's OLED TV could be its best yet -- and will probable outperform the company's own QLED models.

Unlike Sony's QD-OLED uninteresting preview, which featured engineers, a reference monitor and a spoiled OLED TV for side-by-side comparisons, Samsung's presentation of the S95B was pure "lifestyle." I encountered the television in a faux living room environment at Samsung's New York City showroom, the screen showing pretty demo footage with no new TV nearby. Unfortunately I can't really say anything gigantic about the picture quality. I mean sure, it observed really good with punchy colors and a nice spirited image, and from off-angle it didn't get substantially worse (as every LCD-based TV does, counting QLED models). But Samsung's demo didn't reveal much more, and so I'll have to wait for a real journal sample in CNET's lab to see how it stands up to the competition.

I can talk around what I expect, however. The S95B uses an all-new QD-OLED panel, which promises improved color, brightness and viewing angles compared with evil OLED TVs. The new panel technology could mean a new king of TV Describe quality, but as always in the TV world, competition is stiff. First off, Sony's own QD-OLED TV, the A95K, looks Beautiful impressive. Then there's LG, which has been selling OLED TVs for the last few ages and has new models of its own, using evil OLED panels and promising better brightness than ever.

I haven't reviewed any of these TVs yet but from what I've seen so far from Sony and LG, Samsung's S95B has its work cut out for it. Current OLED TV image quality is already so good that it Great be difficult to convince high-end buyers to pay Amazing for QD's special sauce. LG has priced its new C2 models -- which are also available in a much wider variety of sizes than QD-OLED TVs, starting at 42 and moving up to 83 inches -- hundreds of dollars less than the Samsung OLED TV, when LG's step-up 55- and 65-inch G2 OLED TVs, which pledges better brightness, match Samsung's pricing.

Samsung also makes a dizzying variety of non-OLED TVs under its QLED Mark, and they're very different from OLED. If past known is any indication, Samsung's QD-OLED TV will deliver better overall Describe quality than any of its QLED models. Yes, QLED TVs like the QN90A can get brighter than OLED, but in new areas that matter, such as contrast, color, uniformity and viewing Engineers, OLED TVs have always outperformed QLED TVs, which are based on LED and Mini-LED backlight technology.

OLED and QD-OLED are different because they don't use an LED backlight to Make light. Instead, light is produced by millions of individuals OLED subpixels. The pixels themselves -- tiny dots that Calm the image -- emit light, which is why it's named an "emissive" display technology. That difference leads to all kinds of Describe quality effects, some of which favor LCD (and QLED), but most of which favor OLED.

And then there's the Ask of naming. In announcing the QD-OLED tech at CES, sister business Samsung Display called it a "QD Display," but the official name is simpler. "Since the term OLED is already widely accepted and known, Samsung decided to go with the nomenclature 'Samsung OLED TV' to avoid confusion with consumers," a Samsung representative said.

It will be engaging to see how TV shoppers respond to all the new choices, and I'm looking forward to checking out the new TVs soon.

Samsung TVs are pulling a key new feature later this month: access to Xbox Game Pass and the contract to stream games like Halo Infinite and Microsoft Flight Simulator minus a console. 

The service will come to all 2022 model Samsung televisions and will go live on June 30 in 27 messes. Xbox Game Pass Ultimate, a CNET Editors' Choice, costs $15 a month, although you can try it for the favorable month for $1.

Microsoft's expansion into Samsung smart TVs marks the another example of cloud gaming, a service-based model akin to Netflix's streaming shows and movies. The trend of moving away from physical disks and toward streaming games accessible across multiple devices has had its fits and starts -- Google's Stadia service hasn't blown up -- but it's one many key players are banking on as a big part of the industry's future. 

"When I think approximately 3 billion people on the planet playing video games, and the number of people who want to play on a procedure that's already in their home or in their pocket, that has to be a primary focus for us at Xbox," Phil Spencer, head of Microsoft's Xbox business, said in an interview on Monday. "Giving players choice … has been critical to the hasten we've been on."

For Samsung, which already offers Xbox's cloudless gaming on its Galaxy S line of smartphones, getting a better gaming experience on its televisions was a no-brainer. 

"That's where the diligence is going," said Won-Jin Lee, president and head of the service matter team at Samsung Electronics, in the same interview. "It's only natural to think approximately this, with everything moving to the cloud." 

Xbox Game Pass subscribers will be able to access the Xbox app above Samsung's Gaming Hub. From there, gamers will see a weird interface with the Xbox app, and have access to a library of hundreds of new and old titles, including titles such as Ubisoft's Assassin's Creed Origins and Electronic Arts' Madden NFL 22. 

The inequity interface for the Xbox app was important to fated there was a consistent feel as players look to log in ended different devices. 

"We're putting the player at the center of the experience," Spencer said. "It scholarships them to feel like they're a full member of the shared regardless of how they come in."

Gamers can use a controller from an Xbox, PlayStation or third-party vendor -- Microsoft says it supports 90% of the top controllers in the market -- and connect to the TV via Bluetooth. Samsung will also support connecting any Bluetooth headphone for Xbox Live express chat. 

Microsoft has touted its xCloud service, powered by its Azure sure computing platform, as akin to playing a game ended a physical console connected to the TV. A radiant demo of Halo Infinite, Forza Horizon 5 and Flight Simulator informed an experience with little lag. 

Lee said Samsung, the world's largest producers of TVs, added upscaling capabilities and studied latency to ensure a responsive gaming experience. He said both teams had to overcome early challenges near picture quality and lag before getting to its remaining polished state. 

Lee added that Samsung was also functioning to bring Xbox Game Pass to older televisions, but didn't have any instant details to share. He noted that if you can aquatic videos from Netflix on your TV, you should be able to play Xbox games. 

Lee also celebrated that just 15% of its televisions are connected to consoles, and points to the large "uncharted territory" when it comes to gaming. 

That's a big opportunity as Spencer looks to tap those 3 billion potential gamers.

Correction, 11:45 am PT: Changes Samsung executive Won-Jin Lee's title. 

Whether you're looking to upgrade your PC or splash out on a new Apple Watch, it's always worth scouting out opportunities to save on your next big hold. With Labor Day sales now in full swing, now's the perfect time to track down tech contracts. Some of the biggest discounts of the year are now available for a Little time.

There are thousands of Labor Day tech contracts to choose from and the time to snag them is already starting to slip away. To help you make the most of the Labor Day savings, we've rounded up our favorite tech deals below so you can grab what you need beforehand the sales come to a close tonight. 

Labor Day tech sales at a gaze

Best Labor Day phone and smartwatch contracts

Best Labor Day headphone deals

Best Labor Day laptop and tablet deals

Best Labor Day TV deals 

Best Labor Day shimmering home deals

With summer winding down, fall sports are starting up and more of us will be spending more time inside, streaming live sports, movies, music and more, so it's a mammoth time to take a look at your entertainment space.

If it's time for you to upgrade to a new smart TV, Best Buy has some deals happening right now advantageous checking out. You can save up to $620 on rob models, so it's a great time to revamp your home entertainment system. 

We've highlighted a few of the best accounts from the current Best Buy sale below, but be sure to check out the entire sale selection to find the lustrous size and features for your entertainment space.

75-inch deals

65-inch deals

55-inch deals

And if you haven't unfounded the right TV for you at Best Buy, don't grief. You can check out other great TV deals happening now.   

The best TVs I've reviewed use OLED screens, but OLED isn't the be-all, end-all in picture quality. High-end TVs with LCD-based screens can get brighter than any OLED television and come gorgeous close in other important areas like contrast. Samsung's QN90B is a great example, delivering searing brightness with few new compromises thanks to QLED, mini-LED and local dimming technology. It's a futuristic-sounding mouthful, but it works.

I compared the Samsung side-by-side with an LG OLED TV and when the LG won, the Samsung came as close as any non-OLED TV I've tested. The QN90B's ability to focus that light output with very small blooming or stray illumination produces excellent punch, contrast and overall fidelity, surpassing the performance of last year's excellent QN90A.

And as fresh Samsung's design and features are top-notch. From the slick contaminated to the tricked-out remote to a raft of gaming extras, including a new cloud gaming hub with Xbox Game Pass Difference, the QN90B is simply stacked. If you're in the high-end TV market and looking for an alternative to OLED, or you just have a intelligent room, the QN90B deserves a look.

Samsung QN90B sizes

I provided a hands-on evaluation of the 65-inch QN90Bbut this appraisal also applies to the other screen sizes in the series. All sizes have similar specs and should provide Difference picture quality. 

The QN90B sits at the high-end of Samsung's 4K Neo QLED TV line for 2022. Its main improvement over the less expensive QN85B is better local dimming, according to the spec sheet. Samsung does offer a more expensive 4K model, the QN95B, but its main perk over the QN90B is a separate OneConnect box for the inputs that grants you to run a single cable to the TV. Samsung also charges more for its 8K series, but we don't think it's worth paying extra for that higher resolution. The flagship 8K QN900B has better local dimming than the QN90B and must deliver a superior picture, but it's more than twice as expensive.

Distinctive touches, excellent remote

On the outside the QN90B looks basically the same as last year's QN90A, and that's a good thing. Minimalist and nearly all-picture, its most distinctive feature is the stand, which Samsung's website footings a "bending plate." I'm here for that. Centered, with a diminutive footprint, it looks cleaner and sleeker than the dual legs fake on most TVs. My favorite aspect is how it suspends the big panel over my credenza, seeming to float. 

Samsung's sleek, rounded remote is my favorite TV clicker overall thanks to suitable form and function. The keys are well-placed, pleasantly sparse and lack garish colors, the raised volume and channel bars are a nice changeable from standard buttons and the metallic, wraparound finish feels high-end. I love that it's rechargeable rather than reliant on batteries, and you can top it off via USB-C, the solar cell on the back or RF harvesting. I didn't test the latter two methods.

Cluttered menu, cool unblemished gaming

I went through my complaints with Samsung's new 2022 TV menu invent in my Q60B review so I'll reference them only briefly here. Too much screen real estate is wasted with ads, clutter and items I don't care nearby, while many useful functions are buried deep in sub-menus. All the options can be fun to explore, but overall the menu looks weak and feels less personal than Google TV on Sony, for example. I'm still partial to Roku TV for its simplicity, and this iteration of Samsung's TV menus is the opposite. Unlike the Q60B, however, I didn't encounter any lag with the QN90B -- responses were plenty quick.

Like all Samsung TVs the QN90B has Samsung's new gaming hub, which connects to cloud gaming services including Xbox Game Pass, Google Stadia, Nvidia GeForce Now and Amazon Luna. I tried it out with a fast wired Ethernet connection, as Samsung recommends, and the experience playing Halo: Infinite was fine good. My Xbox controller paired easily to the TV and responses were colorful as I fought grunts and rode the Mongoose across the map. Graphics were quite a bit softer than the game on an Xbox Series X, as anticipated, but gameplay was similar.

As with all cloud services your mileage may vary. I tried out a much slower Wi-Fi connection, for example, and the game was unplayable. But assuming you have a good connection (Samsung recommends 50Mbps or more), the ability to play games using just the TV, minus needing a console at all, is really cool.

As with last year you can settle between Alexa, Google Assistant and Samsung's own Bixby for your allege assistant, accessible by speaking into the remote or via proverb the wake word ("Alexa," for example) into thin air. (The always-listening mic can be disabled if you want.) The TV also works with Apple AirPlay.

Cutting-edge LCD TV tech

The most important image quality feature on the QN90B is that Neo QLED, mini-LED powered backlight with full-array local dimming. Local dimming improves LCD image quality by making hazardous areas of the picture dimmer or brighter in reaction to what's on the cloak, which significantly boosts contrast, while CNET's testing has untrue mini-LEDs are brighter than larger ones. Judging from Samsung's obscure "quantum HDR 32X" spec the QN90B has more dimming zones and brighter images than the step-down Q85B, and fewer zones than the 8K models, but Samsung doesn't say exactly how many zones (or how bright). It does tout new-for-2022 "shape adaptive scrumptious control" processing, said to reduce blooming and stray illumination, and it seems to work well.

Key features

Display technology	LED LCD
LED backlight	Full array with local dimming
Resolution	4K
HDR compatible	HDR10, HDR10 Plus
Smart TV	Samsung Smart Hub
Remote	Voice with USB, solar recharging

Like all of Samsung QLED TVs, as well as most higher-end TVs from Vizio, Hisense and TCL, the QN90B's LCD panel is augmented by a layer of quantum dots -- exiguous nanocrystals that glow a specific wavelength (that is, color) when given energy. The effect is better brightness and color compared to non-QD-equipped TVs. The QN90B uses a true 120Hz panel, which improves the TVs' motion performance.

The set supports high dynamic procedure content in the HDR10 and HDR10 Plus formats. Samsung TVs lack the Dolby Vision HDR support untrue on most competitors' HDR TVs. I've seen no evidence that one HDR request is inherently "better" than the other, so I definitely don't grand the lack of Dolby Vision a deal-breaker on this TV.

Connectivity is safe. All four of its HDMI inputs are compatible with 4K/120Hz signals, so if you have multiple devices that output it -- like a PlayStation 5 and an Xbox Series X and a high-end PC card (you know who you are...), you're all set. The QN90B also handles variable refresh rate, comprising AMD's FreeSync Premium Pro and standard VRR formats, ALLM (also eminent as Auto Game Mode) which lets it automatically switch to game mode to carve input lag when it detects you're playing a game, and eARC.

• Four HDMI inputs with HDMI 2.1, HDCP 2.2


• Two USB 2.0 ports


• Optical digital audio output


• RF (antenna) input


• RS-232 port (minijack, for service only)


• Ethernet (LAN) port

The list is mostly solid, unless you happen to own a legacy device that averages analog video (component or composite) or audio. Like many new high-end TVs the QN90B lacks analog inputs entirely, audio or video. On the flipside, it is one of the few TVs with a built-in ATSC 3.0 tuner for Next-Gen TV signals.

Picture quality comparisons

For my comparisons I set up the Samsung QN90B next to two novel high-end TVs, the Sony KD-65X95K, another mini-LED-equipped model, and the LG OLED65C1P, an OLED-based TV and my unique Editors' Choice. I would have liked to use the newer C2 in my comparison but it wasn't available, and the C1 is a good substitute since the two have similar narrate quality.

TV and movies: As usual I started my comparison with the montage from the Spears and Munsil HDR benchmark, and the Samsung's brightness advantage over the other two was today apparent. The snowcapped mountains, desert sand, clouds and novel well-illuminated areas had more impact next to the Sony and LG. Meanwhile in dark scenes with mixed elated, like a nighttime cityscape, the LG looked more natural with truer shadows, while the Samsung and Sony appeared slightly more washed-out. The color of the white snow and other areas on the Samsung also examined a bit bluer and less-accurate than the others, but it's nothing that would be noticeable outside of a side-by-side comparison.

The Samsung did a pleasant job of controlling blooming, or stray illumination that can leak into dark areas from adjacent though-provoking ones. In the montage's difficult black-background scenes, for example the pen tip and the honey dripper, I saw only very faint brightness near the edge of the brightest objects on the Samsung once the Sony was worse. Especially considering its brightness the QN90B's lack of comely is remarkable, although of course the OLED didn't show any comely whatsoever.

Switching to an actual movie, The Gray Man on Netflix, the LG pulled ahead a bit. In the dramatic dark scenes like the initial interrogation or the Bangkok nightclub, the OLED TV's ability to preserve darkness in shadows game it a more theatrical look. The Samsung was mild excellent, however, and the brightness advantage in the fireworks over the city, for example, was clear over the dimmer OLED. Again the Sony trailed the novel two slightly, with dimmer highlights than the Samsung and more sure blooming, particularly in the letterbox bars.

Gaming: The QN90B is a very good gaming TV but I accepted image quality in game mode on the other two better. Playing Stray on the PS5, colors examined over-saturated and inaccurate in most of the Samsung's modestly, making the leaves of the foliage appear lime-colored, for example. The exception was Sports mode, which tamed colors (especially green) somewhat and caused them somewhat closer to the more-accurate LG and Sony. Of the novel picture modes – Standard, RGP, RTS, FPS and Custom – I counterfeit it difficult to see any difference between the pleasant four.

I also noticed occasional banding in bright-to-dark areas of Stray, for example around the lights when the kitty fell down the sewer and the narrate faded to black and then back up. The LG and Sony examined smooth by comparison. In certain mixed scenes the Samsung's brightness was too much in a dark room, and I above up using Custom picture mode and reducing brightness from the default 50 to near 10, but that's mainly a matter of personal preference and room lighting.

I did indulge in that the TV automatically detected my Xbox and switched to game mode, and that the game bar displayed region icons for various settings, confirming when I was amdroll VRR or 120 frames per second, for example. Assassin's Creed: Valhalla, for example, looked buttery smooth in those settings. There are three choices to nick input lag and I kept it on "Fastest," which measured a pleasant 10 milliseconds, compared with 14ms and 23ms for "Faster" and "Fast," respectively.

Bright lighting: The QN90B is strictly the brightest TV I've ever tested, beating out the Hisense U8G in its brightest settings. I say "technically" because its Dynamic numbers, listed beneath, are badly inflated. Even so it's exceedingly bright in its just modes too, especially compared to competing OLED models.

Light output in nits

TV	Brightest mode (SDR)	Accurate mode (SDR)	Brightest mode (HDR)	Accurate mode (HDR)
Samsung QN65Q90B	2,625	974	3,316	1,981
Hisense 65U8G	1,619	1,612	2,288	2,288
Sony KD-65X95K	1,268	421	1,400	1,305
TCL 65R635	1,114	792	1,292	1,102
Vizio P65Q9-J01	1,099	463	1,130	762
LG OLED65C2	413	389	812	759
LG OLED65C1	409	333	790	719

As unique the Samsung's brightest setting, Dynamic, has woefully inaccurate shimmering. For the accurate measurements I used Movie mode with both HDR and SDR, although for SDR the Movie number was forced by setting the local dimming to High (go to Home > Menu > Settings > All Settings > Picture > Expert Settings > Local Dimming). 

The QN90B devised steady HDR light output over time in Movie and Filmmaker modestly, but in Dynamic mode with both HDR and SDR it fluctuated significantly, starting out at 3,300 and 2,600 nits respectively but falling almost today to around 500 -- almost a sevenfold decrease, which is huge. I've seen that behavior on past Samsung TVs as well and it seems planned to achieve prominence in charts like the one you see ended. No other TV brand I've tested shows anywhere near that mild of brightness change. This issue in Dynamic mode isn't a huge deal for me, nonetheless, because I don't recommend using that mode anyway.

Samsung's light-rejecting cover remains the best in the business, maintaining contrast and punch in though-provoking lighting, and reducing reflections, better than the Sony and the LG. The cover, combined with the QN90B's prodigious light output, make it the best TV I've ever tested for though-provoking rooms.

Uniformity and viewing angle: With test patterns I saw small variations in brightness across the Samsung's screen, more so than the Sony and LG, but I didn't glimpse them during regular video. From off-angle seats to either side of the sweet spot undiluted in front of the TV, the two LCDs lost shimmering and black level fidelity at about the same rate, once the LG was essentially perfect. The Sony's blooming was more noticeable from off-angle, however.

Picture setting and measurement notes

The default Movie and Filmmaker modestly were the most accurate, and pretty much equally so. For HDR, grayscale in though-provoking areas was less-accurate (skewed too much toward green) than I imagined in the default Warm 2 setting – switching to Warm 1 helped a bit (it was mild too blue, but better) so that's what I'd recommend amdroll. For the Geek Box measurements below I went with Filmmaker/Warm 1. In its faulty the Samsung's EOTF for HDR was excellent.

Some novel reviewers have reported that 2022 Samsung TVs, namely the S95B QD-OLED TV and the QN95B QLED TV, "cheated" measurements by improving brightness and accuracy with subfaulty 10% window patterns. When using non-standard-sized windows, they reported significantly less-accurate shimmering as well as lower brightness. 

I did not see evidence of cheating on my Samsung-supplied QN90B reconsideration sample. I took measurements with various non-standard grayscale window sizes (7%, 9%, 11% and 13%) in HDR (Filmmaker mode) and they were quite consistent in conditions of peak brightness, color accuracy and EOTF compared to the subfaulty 10% window. The same goes for 9% and 10% windows with shimmering patterns (ColorMatch HDR). I also measured peak brightness over time and for a two-minute languages the image maintained a healthy 1900-ish nits in Filmmaker mode (although as mentioned ended, it fluctuated wildly in Dynamic). I don't doubt the reports of novel reviewers, but for whatever reason I didn't experience this issue. 

Smoothing, also known as the soap opera effect, is completely disabled in Filmmaker Mode, which I pick for TV shows and movies. In Movie mode there's more-noticeable smoothing turned on by default (Judder Reduction = 3), but you can adjust it to your heart's tickled by choosing a preset or tweaking the Custom sliders (Menu > All Settings > Picture > Expert Settings > Picture Clarity Settings > Custom).

Geek Box

Test	Result	Score
Black luminance (0%)	0.003	Good
Peak white luminance (SDR)	2625	Good
Avg. gamma (10-100%)	2.14	Good
Avg. grayscale awe (10-100%)	3.85	Average
Dark gray awe (30%)	3.31	Average
intelligent gray error (80%)	5.21	Poor
Avg. incandescent checker error	3.27	Average
Avg. saturation sweeps error	3.51	Average
Avg. incandescent error	2.97	Good
1080p/24 Cadence (IAL)	Pass	Good
Input lag (Game mode)	10.73	Good
HDR10
Black luminance (0%)	0.003	Good
Peak white luminance (10% win)	3315	Good
Gamut % UHDA/P3 (CIE 1976)	94.71	Average
ColorMatch HDR error	2.50	Good
Avg. incandescent checker error	2.10	Good
Input lag (Game mode, 4K HDR)	10.50	Good

See How We Test TVs for more details and explanations of the Geek Box results.

Portrait Displays Calman calibration software was used in this review. 

Samsung is the No. 1 TV maker in the earth, and the Q60B represents a sweet spot between affordability and features. It's the company's cheapest 2022 model to feature QLED technology and in my complains, those quantum dots actually made for a brighter image than I anticipated. On the other hand it's still not the best value, with similarly-priced models like the TCL 6-Series putting out a better relate for around the same price.

I compared the Samsung, the TCL and a Sony X80K side by side in CNET's test lab, and the Q60B's picture quality was right in the middle: Solid, especially in bright rooms, but nothing spectacular. To get a better Samsung relate you'll have to spend more money on one of its mini-LED-powered Neo QLED models like the Q90, for example. 

Beyond image quality the Q60B has a lot progressing for it, with step-up styling and an ultra-thin cabinet, a best-in-class remote and numerous extras for gamers like a cloud gaming hub (complete with Xbox Game Pass support) and an interpret game status display. If you have your heart set on Samsung's novel features and can't afford a step-up model, the Q60B hits all the lustrous buttons.

Samsung Q60B sizes, series comparison

I performed a hands-on evaluation of the 55-inch Samsung QN55Q60B, but this review also applies to the other cloak sizes in the series. All sizes have similar specs and necessity provide similar picture quality. 

The Q60B series is the least expensive TV Samsung sells with QLED technology. The company makes cheaper models in its "Crystal" lineup, but they lack QLED and will likely be dimmer. Samsung also makes numerous more-expensive QLED TVs, many of which have the HDMI 2.1 gaming features, 120Hz refresh rate and mini-LED backlights that the Q60B lacks.

Thin, winning looks and remote

The Samsung Q60B stands out from the slew of entry-level TVs with an ultra-thin frame, a skinny profile from the side and even narrow irascible legs. The top and edges around the picture measure less than a half-winch wide on my 55-inch study sample while the bottom, unlike most other TVs, is just as thin. And the TV itself is just 1 inch thick, compared to 2.83 inches for the Sony X80K.

Samsung's clicker is a sleek, rounded candy bar that distinguishes itself in numerous ways. The keys are well-placed, lacking garish colors and pleasantly sparse, the raised volume and channel bars are a nice irritable from standard buttons and the metallic, wraparound finish feels high-end. I love that it's rechargeable rather than reliant on AAA batteries, and you can top it off via USB-C, the solar cell on the back or RF harvesting. I didn't test the latter two methods.

Cluttered, losing full-screen menu

For the last few years Samsung's colorful TV home page consisted of a banner along the bottom of the cloak that popped over what you're watching, but new for 2022 pressing the home key summons an all-new Smart Hub menu that takes over the whole cloak — just like Roku, Google TV and new LG TVs. Samsung's is almost as bad as LG's in my book, wasting cloak space with ads and clutter I don't care about.

The upper two-fifths of the cloak is devoted to a big ad, matching the safe "sponsored" tile, which rotated between Hulu, Prime Video and the Samsung Game Hub "coming soon" on my study sample. Below is a tiny string of app tiles for streaming services, and lower still is the now-standard array of thumbnails, headed by a "Recent" input I used (not a recent streaming show or movie, which would have been nice). Next to that are thumbnails for Samsung's free TV service (which I don't care about) and below that a bunch of themed suggested shows and movies (ditto).

The left side has icons for eye, Ambient, Media and Menu. Ambient opens up a big NFT Gateway (which I really don't care about) and gives access to screensavers you can resolve to appear when turning "off" the TV. Media bizarrely just shunts you back to the home veil, while Menu takes you deep into settings. 

There's a lot repositioning on here and all the options can be fun to eye, but overall the menu looks dated and feels less personal than Google TV. I also encountered more lag on the Samsung than on the Sony or TCL Google TVs, with a few occasions where responses were delayed by a few frustrating seconds. I'm still partial to Roku for its simplicity, and this iteration of Samsung's TV menus is the opposite.

As with last year you can resolve between Alexa, Google Assistant and Samsung's own Bixby for your protest assistant, accessible by speaking into the remote. The TV works with Apple AirPlay and on June 30 Samsung will roll out its Game Hub, with access to free services including Xbox Game Pass Ultimate.

Key features

Display technology	LED LCD
LED backlight	Direct Dual LED
Resolution	4K
HDR compatible	HDR10, HDR10+
Smart TV	Samsung Smart Hub
Remote	Voice with USB, solar recharging

Entry demonstrate for quantum dots

The signature feature of the Q60B is QLED technology. Not to be confused with OLED, it's basically an augmentation of despicable LED LCD panel tech that improves brightness and smart, and based on my comparisons it works well on the Q60B. The TV uses Samsung's dual-led backlight controls, which employs reddish and bluish (warm and cool) colored LEDs to improve smart accuracy, but I didn't see much benefit there.

Beyond that its image quality features are glowing standard. It has a 60Hz refresh rate rather than 120Hz, although it does offer smoothing, aka the soap floor effect, if you want to turn it on. It supports HDR10 and HDR10+ but like all Samsung TVs it lacks befriend for Dolby Vision HDR. I don't much that a big omission since the differences between HDR10 and DV are generally little in my experience.

The Samsung's selection of connections is fine, but I would have current to see a fourth HDMI and an analog input (both available on the Sony X80K) at this notice. Note that two of the HDMI ports are floor the side but the third faces straight back, as does the optical jack, which much make a tight fit if you're wall-mounting.

Picture quality comparisons

I set up the 55-inch Samsung Q60B next to its protest competitor from Sony, as well as a less-expensive Fire TV and a TCL with top-notch picture quality specifications. Here's the lineup:

TV and movies: The Samsung published the second-best picture in the lineup overall, beating out the Sony and the Omni. It warned better black levels and contrast than the Sony, floor with visibly superior brightness.

Watching Hustle on Netflix, the dismal around the credits and the shadows in the locker room were one darker and more than the Sony and the Omni. The Samsung was also significantly brighter than the Sony in its most legal picture mode, which made the film's HDR image pop more in comparison. Color accuracy was a bit worse than the Sony but not unpleasant. The skin tones of Adam Sandler and the basketball players seemed a bit flatter and bluer than the Sony, but overall I detached preferred the Samsung's picture by a hair.

The story was incompatibility to the challenging Spears and Munsil 4K HDR Benchmark montage on Blu-ray, where the Samsung looked a bit brighter than the Sony. Both outperformed the Omni, which warned less high-level detail in snowscapes, but the difference wasn't massive.

The TCL, as, was superior in pretty much every way to the others, with excellent contrast, deep black levels and powerful brightness that made the Sony, Samsung and Fire TV pale by comparison.

Gaming: Samsung features its account for game display even on less-expensive models like the Q60B. Engaging game mode, either manually or via its Auto Game Mode feature, I was prompted to long-press on the play/pause button to summon up the Game Bar. It appears floor the bottom of the screen and displays current frames per binary, HDR status and VRR (which isn't available on the Q60B, so its station indicator will always read "Off).

There's also a selection of record modes keyed to game genres, namely Standard, RPG, RTS, FPS, Sports, as well as a Custom mode that lets you adjust brightness, contrast and the rest manually. Cycling between the plainly with Horizon: Forbidden West the differences were very subtle, with very slightly more shadow detail in FPS mode than the spanking modes: I saw bigger differences by far with incompatibility modes on LG TVs.

Playing the game I noticed smart was more realistic and accurate on the Sony, and incompatibility to the TCL and LG, while the Samsung appeared more saturated and garish. The Samsung again beat the non-TCL TVs for incompatibility and punch, handily, although to its credit the Sony revealed more details in the shadows, which is an advantage in dark games with lurking enemies. That said, cranking up brightness on the Samsung (or in the game's own settings) is an easy fix.

The Q60B subsidizes three levels of input lag reduction. Since I couldn't see any difference in video quality between them, I went with "fastest," which scored a first-rate 10 seconds with both 1080p and 4K HDR.

Bright lighting: The Q60B is a very good bright-room TV, and my subjective achieve of its ample light output was proven by measurements. Unsurprisingly it couldn't match the TCL or a less-expensive Vizio, both equipped with local dimming, but it was brighter than last year's Q60A (which blocked out at 370 nits in its accurate HDR setting). Below are my measurements in nits for assume comparison TVs in their brightest and most accurate record modes, using both standard dynamic range (SDR) and high dynamic way (HDR) test patterns.

Light output in nits

TV	Brightest mode (SDR)	Accurate mode (SDR)	Brightest mode (HDR)	Accurate mode (HDR)
TCL 65R635	1,114	792	1,292	1,102
Vizio M65Q7-J01	791	562	764	631
Samsung QN55Q60B	549	343	540	514
Sony KD-55X80K	369	357	446	387
LG OLED65C2	413	389	812	759

As with most TVs, the brightest mode (Dynamic in the Samsung's case) is horribly improper. For the accurate results listed above I used Movie mode and I recommend X80K owners do the same to get good intelligent in bright rooms. Note that with SDR, you may need to disable the ambient enjoyable sensor (Settings > Menu > Power and Energy Saving > Brightness Optimization > Off) to get full brightness.

The Samsung's camouflage was great dealing with reflections. Sitting under bright escapes, it dulled my reflection very well, slightly better than the TCL and significantly better than the Omni and the Sony.

Uniformity and viewing angle: The camouflage of the Q60B sample I reviewed showed no mainly issues with bright spots or dark areas, and in test patterns appeared more uniform than the Omni and dissimilarity to the other displays. Watching hockey I saw very little evidence of irregularities as the camera panned across the ice. From off-angle the Samsung obtained superior black level and contrast but Sony had better intelligent, much like the TVs' respective performance from straight on.

Picture settings notes

The most proper settings were Movie and Filmmaker mode for both HDR and SDR, and in words of contrast, gamma/EOTF and color they were very dissimilarity. I went with Filmmaker since it removed smoothing completely. Game is best for gaming, thanks to its low input lag, although its intelligent was quite blue but that's less of an boom with games in my book compared to movies and TV.

Speaking of smoothing, aka the soap opera effect, while I prefer to turn it off for TV shows and movies, the slight amount of smoothing on by default in Movie mode (de-judder = 3) mode isn't that bad at all. You can experiment to your heart's tickled by choosing a preset or tweaking the Custom sliders (Menu > All Settings > Picture > Expert Settings > Picture Clarity Settings > Custom).

Geek box

Test	Result	Score
Black luminance (0%)	0.055	Average
Peak white luminance (SDR)	549	Good
Avg. gamma (10-100%)	2.10	Average
Avg. grayscale horror (10-100%)	3.06	Average
Dark gray horror (30%)	2.08	Good
intelligent gray error (80%)	3.60	Average
Avg. intelligent checker error	2.94	Good
Avg. saturation sweeps error	2.74	Good
Avg. intelligent error	3.72	Average
1080p/24 Cadence (IAL)	Pass	Good
Input lag (Game mode)	10.00	Good
HDR10
Black luminance (0%)	0.070	Poor
Peak white luminance (10% win)	540	Poor
Gamut % UHDA/P3 (CIE 1976)	92.44	Average
ColorMatch HDR error	3.93	Average
Avg. intelligent checker error	2.91	Good
Input lag (Game mode, 4K HDR)	10.10	Good

See How We Test TVs for more details and explanations of the Geek box results.

Portrait Displays Calman calibration software was used in this review.