Samsung QN95D review: A superb flagship 4K QLED with extra AI power

The Samsung QN95D builds on the success of one of the best TVs of last year, the QN95C, which wowed me with its Mini LED backlight, peerless local dimming and comprehensive smart platform.

This time around, it’s powered by the NQ4 AI Gen2 processor with 20 neural networks for cutting-edge deep learning. This helps it deliver superb SDR and HDR images, Atmos-enhanced audio, state-of-the-art gaming capabilities and an attractive design. There’s still no support for Dolby Vision, but otherwise, this flagship model is an excellent high-end TV.

Samsung QN95D review: Key specifications

Samsung QN95D review: What you need to know

The Samsung QN95D is an HDR smart TV and the top 4K (3,840 x 2,160) model in the company’s Neo QLED lineup for 2024. It uses a VA LCD panel with a quantum dot filter and Mini LED backlight with over 1,300 dimmable zones, plus the latest NQ4 AI Gen2 processor.

The smart platform enjoys a few cosmetic tweaks, plus there’s support for HDR10, HLG and HDR10+, along with onboard Dolby Atmos decoding to take full advantage of the extra speakers offered by Object Tracking Sound Plus. There are also extensive next-gen gaming features.

The QN95D range includes 55in, 65in, 75in and 85in screen sizes, and for this review, I’m taking a look at the 65in Samsung QE65QN95D.

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Samsung QN95D review: Price and availability

Samsung has been tight-lipped about UK pricing for its 2024 TV range and I don’t have a firm release date for any of the models at present. I do, however, anticipate the TVs will go on sale in April and the pricing for the QN95D appears to be the same as last year.

The 55in model is expected to launch at £2,799, with the 65in option costing £3,699 and the 75in alternative priced at £4,999. The huge 85in model, meanwhile, is likely to set you back £6,999.

Various other manufacturers will bring Mini LED models to market this year. Philips announced “The Xtra” in January, while the QNED91 is the flagship entry in LG’s non-OLED range. Sony showed off a new Mini LED prototype at CES and there’s been talk that its flagship model this year will use a Mini LED panel rather than OLED. It was yet to confirm any of its new lineup at the time of writing, however.

Cheaper and older competition comes in the form of the TCL C845. I reviewed it last summer and awarded it a Best Buy award, praising its impressive performance and seriously appealing pricing; the 65in variant can be picked up for just £1,049.

Samsung QN95D review: Design, connections and control

The Samsung QN95D uses the same Infinity One design as last year, with a bezel-less screen surrounded by a brushed metal outer trim. The panel itself is surprisingly slim given it houses a direct full-array backlight, a multichannel speaker system and all the connections.

The central stand is well-made and provides robust support while also creating a relatively small footprint, making it easy to install the QN95D on narrow surfaces. You can also wall mount using either Samsung’s optional ‘no-gap’ wall mount or a standard VESA bracket.

The connections are located at the rear right as you face the screen and include four HDMI 2.1 inputs, one of which (HDMI 3) supports eARC and all of which are capable of handling 4K/144Hz, VRR and ALLM – making the QN95D a great choice for current-gen gamers.

There are also two USB 2.0 inputs, twin tuners for terrestrial and satellite broadcasts, a CI (common interface) slot, an optical digital output and an Ethernet port. In terms of wireless connections, there’s Wi-Fi, Bluetooth and support for Apple AirPlay 2.

The QN95D ships with two remotes – a standard black zapper, and the Solar Cell controller. The latter offers a stripped-down choice of buttons that cover all the main functionality and control, plus there are direct access keys for Netflix, Prime Video, Disney+ and Samsung’s TV Plus.

Samsung QN95D review: Smart TV platform

The Samsung QN95D runs the latest iteration of the brand’s Tizen OS smart system, which remains a well-designed, intuitive-to-use and highly responsive platform. The home user interface is similar to last year but adds three sub-tabs towards the top called ‘For You’, ‘Live’ and ‘Apps’.

The ‘For You’ tab includes recently watched content, recommendations based on your viewing habits, a row of apps and layers of additional content that are also based on your viewing history. The result is a more personalised experience.

The ‘Live’ tab offers live TV content for you to browse, and includes the electronic programme guide (EPG) with its sensibly laid-out channels, times, information and thumbnail image. Finally, the ‘Apps’ tab includes various recommended apps directly provided by Samsung applications.

The Media section contains every streaming video service imaginable, along with any connected HDMI devices, which makes switching sources easier. There’s also a dedicated Game Hub, which curates all the latest cloud gaming services and any connected consoles into a single location.

Searching for content and finding recommendations is simple, while Samsung’s TV Plus offers an expanded channel lineup. The Smart Hub automatically detects and connects smart devices in a single handy location, plus the HDMI ports will detect and set up any newly connected devices.

Whatever your preference when it comes to video streamers, the QN95D offers a comprehensive choice with Netflix, Prime Video, Apple TV+, Disney+, Now, Rakuten, YouTube and all the UK catch-up services. All of these apps offer 4K, HDR10, HLG and Dolby Atmos where appropriate.

Samsung’s SmartThings app makes setup simple and provides an extensive amount of control. The brand’s Bixby smart assistant is built-in, but the QN95D also works with Amazon Alexa and you can even access Siri thanks to the TV’s support for Apple’s AirPlay 2.

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Samsung QN95D review: Image quality

The Samsung QN95D builds on the picture improvements made last year, which means it retains the effective filter that eliminates reflections without causing any unwanted artefacts and reduces the impact of ambient light in the room while maintaining the black levels. The off-axis viewing angles are also good, ensuring you’ll enjoy impressive images wherever you’re sat in the room.

It uses a VA panel that delivers deep blacks, with good definition just above black to bring out details in shadows. When you combine this with the direct Mini LED backlight composed of 1,344 independent zones and Samsung’s class-leading local dimming algorithm, the resulting contrast ratios are spectacular. Blacks are deep, highlights punchy and there’s no glowing around bright objects.

The new NQ4 AI Gen2 processor is a revelation, with four times the processing power of the previous generation. Thanks to the processor’s deep learning capabilities, the peerless 4K AI upscaling brings out every detail in an image regardless of the resolution of the content. 

The Quantum Matrix Technology is equally impressive and further helps articulate fine details, while the Real Depth Enhancer Pro adds greater three-dimensional depth by detecting the areas of focus and enhancing the depth through active control of the Mini LED backlight. The resulting images enjoy more punch and an improved sense of definition.

As is always the case with Samsung TVs, the QN95D ships in the Eco mode, which suffers from an excess of blue in whites and over-saturated colours. Thankfully, the Filmmaker Mode delivers an incredibly accurate greyscale with an average DeltaE (error) of only 1.2. The gamma tracking is excellent, and the colours are also impressive, with an average DeltaE that’s around 2.6.

This is a reference level of accuracy, and although there are extensive picture controls, it’s unlikely that a professional calibration could improve this performance in a way that would be perceivable without direct comparison. The upgraded processing also adds a clever custom picture mode that optimises the images based on genre settings and individual preferences.

Thanks to the superb level of accuracy and superior picture processing, SDR images look stunning, with deep blacks, excellent shadows, precisely rendered details and gorgeous colours that benefit from the purity offered by the Neo QLED panel’s quantum dot filter.

The motion handling is also excellent, with the QN95D producing impressive motion that appears free of unwanted artefacts with film content. The Auto mode frame interpolation delivers all the lines of resolution in tests, making it ideal for sports, while the Custom mode is also handy as it allows users to set Blur and Judder Reduction settings based on personal preference.

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Samsung QN95D review: HDR performance

The Samsung QN95D might be excellent with SDR content, but it’s with HDR that this TV comes into its own thanks to exceptional levels of peak brightness. In Filmmaker mode, it hit 2,250cd/m2 on a 10% window, and an equally impressive 757cd/m2 on a full-field pattern. As a result, the QN95D can accurately display 1,000 nits HDR content without resorting to any tone mapping.

The HDR greyscale measurements are extremely accurate, tracking red, green and blue almost exactly, and the EOTF maps the PQ target precisely. This accurate tone mapping ensures the creative intent is being maintained, regardless of whether the grade uses 1,000, 4,000 or 10,000 nits, and the QN95D handled all of our HDR torture tests, regardless of how they were graded.

The overall HDR colour performance was also excellent, with the DCI-P3 coverage measuring 95%, and the BT.2020 coverage reaching 75%. The colour tracking of DCI-P3 within BT.2020 is very accurate, with all the colours hitting their saturation targets.

The Mini LED backlight further enhances the HDR experience with the addition of 14-bit tone mapping that adds even more details to dark and bright scenes. Meanwhile, the Quantum Matrix tech that controls the dimmable zones can redirect power from darker parts of the picture to the brighter ones, which not only improves the dynamic range but is also more energy efficient.

The QN95D supports HDR10, HLG and HDR10+ (Game and Adaptive), but there’s still no Dolby Vision. Having said that, given the native HDR capabilities of this TV, it is debatable how much benefit that particular dynamic metadata format would add to HDR.

Overall, the HDR performance is superb, with the IMAX-shot desert vistas in Oppenheimer looking stunning. The native 4K images are incredibly detailed and realistic, and the QN95D can handle the brighter full-field images without issue. The same is true when watching Top Gun: Maverick, with the photography delivering visceral and immersive HDR pop as it puts you in the cockpit.

The QN95D also handles highly colourful HDR grades with skill, with the saturated images of The Greatest Showman taking full advantage of QLED’s quantum dot filter being able to display all of the DCI-P3 colour gamut. This was further evidenced in Mad Max: Fury Road, where the deliberately stylised colour scheme bursts off the screen, with primary reds and blues looking stunning.

In general, the local dimming is excellent with no obvious blooming or haloing, except at extreme angles. The flares and burning buildings in the nighttime village sequence in 1917 look fantastic and also benefit from HDR10+ dynamic metadata. The torches in the nighttime scene towards the end of The Revenant also look wonderful, with the natural lighting being reproduced with subtlety.

To test the Samsung QN95D I used Portrait Displays Calman colour calibration software.

Samsung QN95D review: Gaming

The QN95D is an ideal choice for gamers, and not just because there’s no danger of image retention or screen burn on its QLED panel. The gaming features are exceptional, with Freesync Premium Pro and Motion Xcelerator Turbo Pro 144Hz for PC gamers, while the HDMI inputs support current-gen console features like 4K/120Hz, VRR and ALLM.

The input lag in Game Mode is 9ms, resulting in gameplay that’s incredibly smooth and ultra-responsive, and the motion handling is equally impressive, with no signs of tearing or other artefacts, even at the highest frame rates.

The Game Bar is great, allowing you to quickly see all the main settings and technical data, as well as providing access to several gaming-related menus that users can adjust to personalise their gaming experience. The addition of the AI Auto Game Mode is a nice feature, allowing the TV to automatically optimise the settings for the specific type of game genre.

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Samsung QN95D review: Sound quality

The Samsung QN95D sports an impressive set of sonic chops thanks to speakers along the bottom, sides and top in a 4.2.2-channel configuration. The result is a large soundstage that fills the wall behind the TV and creates a sonic presence that matches the screen size.

The addition of extra height makes a difference and the inclusion of Object Tracking Sound Plus results in a more involving audio experience. Sounds are clearly moving around the screen to match specific actions on the screen, while the 70W of amplification provides real power.

The width of the screen itself adds good stereo separation, the mid-range and treble are also impressive and there’s even a surprising amount of bass. The inclusion of onboard Dolby Atmos decoding, along with the ability to send Atmos back via ARC, is effective and adds more height, width and depth to the soundstage, resulting in a superior sonic experience with Atmos content.

Other sound features include Active Voice Amplifier Pro which, as the name suggests, uses AI-enhanced processing to boost dialogue, ensuring every word is heard, no matter how complex the mix. Adaptive Sound Pro also uses AI-enhanced processing to analyse and remaster the audio to ensure every aspect of the sound design is heard as the artist intended.

Samsung QN95D review: Verdict

The Samsung QN95D is a fantastic 4K TV that retains the Mini LED backlighting and class-leading local dimming of last year but adds cutting-edge image processing to produce some of the best SDR and HDR pictures you’ll see on a high-end television.

The new processor helps deliver exceptional AI picture, sound and optimisation features, the upscaling and image processing are excellent and add value, as does the equally impressive AI-enhanced motion handling.

The industrial design remains stunning and, despite its ultra-thin chassis, the QN95D still manages to sound great. The gaming features are state-of-the-art too, while the Tizen OS smart system remains one of the best around.

It’s a shame Samsung continues to shun Dolby Vision, but otherwise, this classy QLED 4K TV is hard to fault.