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Xbox Series X: How Microsoft learned from its mistakes in the last console war

Xbox Series X: How Microsoft learned from its mistakes in the last console war

It's 2013 all over again as Microsoft and Sony once again face off in the never-ending battle for console supremacy. If all goes well, both the Xbox Series X and the PlayStation 5 will compete against one another during the 2020 holiday shopping season. But this time around, compared with troubled launch of the Xbox One, it seems Microsoft could be making all the right moves. 

The Xbox One could hardly be termed a failure. But with an estimated 50 million Xbox One units sold, compared with more than 106 million PlayStation 4 consoles sold, the competition wasn't even close. 

So what went wrong?

To understand why Microsoft could get the jump on Sony this holiday season, we have to look back at why the Xbox One fell flat on its face in 2013. 

Licensing, pricing, Kinecting 

You could argue that the third-generation Xbox was, at the time, more advanced than consumers realized. Microsoft simply didn't know how to sell it properly. But there were three big issues with the Xbox One before and after its launch: game licenses, the price tag and the Kinect. 

In an attempt to please publishers, who were up in arms over sales of games and piracy, Microsoft developed a game licensing system designed to make it easier for owners to access games they purchased without constantly switching out discs. In return, there were limitations placed on trading in games and sharing them among friends. That idea didn't sit well with gamers, who weren't so keen on losing the freedom to do what they wanted with the games they owned. 

Strike one for Microsoft. 

Price is also a big indicator of a console's potential success. When it was Xbox 360 versus PS3, the $299 Xbox console outsold the $499 PS3. It also helped that the Xbox came out several months earlier. In 2013, Sony returned the favor by offering its PS4 for $399, which would be $100 cheaper than the Xbox One. 

Strike two for Microsoft.

Microsoft was way ahead of the pack when it came to virtual assistants. The company realized the Xbox 360 was the entertainment center of the home thanks to its early adoption of Netflix streaming. So it wanted the Xbox One to control everything, but not like universal remotes bought at Circuit City in 2003. Instead, Microsoft wanted console owners to use their voice to control everything via its Kinect camera and mic.  

I know, crazy idea, right? A digital device that can control multiple devices by saying a simple phrase? Well, plenty of people weren't so excited about this feature, and it took a lot of complaining before Microsoft finally admitted that the Xbox One would work fine without it, which led to many Xbox One owners tossing the Kinect camera aside. 

Strike three for Microsoft.

Game Pass and xCloud

For the 2020 battle with Sony, it seems Microsoft has learned from its mistakes. In fact, it began laying the groundwork for the battle by seeding a few features that are already outpacing Sony's offerings. 

Xbox Game Pass, Microsoft's on-demand subscription service that provides access to more than 100 full games, is in the process of trouncing Sony's PlayStation Now with its 2.2 million subscribers by racking up 10 million subscribers for the Xbox service as of April. 

How did the Xbox service gain such popularity? Simply put: It's an incredible deal. The service's introductory cost was only  $1. On top of that, major titles such as Gears of War 5 and The Outer Worlds regularly make their debut on the service. Normally you'd pay up to $60 to play these games, but if you're a subscriber you get them, essentially, for free. 

Microsoft also looks like it might remedy the console pricing issue this time or, at least, offer an alternative. The name Xbox Series X gives the impression there might be more than one console, and leaks show a second console in the works codenamed "Lockhart". Rumors suggest this second console will not have a disc drive, which Microsoft has done before with the Xbox One S. Considering parts of the PS5 add up to approximately $450 and both next-gen consoles share similar components, a digital-only console might be just enough to get the console price to $399. Even if it doesn't have the bells and whistles of a $499 "pro" version, that's a compelling price point. 

Then there's xCloud, Microsoft's cloud-gaming service. While it's technically in preview right now, it's already on par with, if not surpassing Google Stadia, which was going to be the cloud-gaming service that would change the industry, but didn't. 

While xCloud does allow gamers to play on their Xbox Series X and then pick up where they left off on their phone, its real job is to dominate a user's screen time. Whether it's on the couch, on your laptop, or on a tablet or phone, Microsoft wants Xbox to be on your screens all the time in hopes you forget about Sony and its PS5.

It's the games, stupid

So Microsoft is coming in leaner and meaner like Rocky Balboa in Rocky II, but the company that has the best games usually wins the war.

Since the debut of the Xbox, Microsoft has fallen behind Sony when it comes to exclusive games. PlayStation 4 has dominated this generation with a suite of console exclusives like God of War, Bloodborne, Spider-Man and Horizon: Zero Dawn. This generation Microsoft hasn't been able to compete with the output of Sony's first-party games studios.  

So what's Microsoft's plan? Buy more game companies. In 2018 alone, it purchased six game studios: Ninja Theory (DmC, Hellblade), Playground Games (Forza Horizon), inXile Entertainment (Wasteland), Compulsion Games (We Happy Few), Undead Labs (State of Decay) and Obsidian Entertainment (The Outer Worlds, Fallout: New Vegas). 

Two of those studios, Ninja Theory and Obsidian Entertainment, recently developed award-winning games but, more importantly, all six produce a wide range of titles. Prior to these acquisitions, when you talked about exclusive Xbox games, you were likely referring to Halo, Gears of War and Forza. 

Microsoft also took a page out of Sony's 2013 playbook. Smart Delivery is a feature for the Xbox Series X that allows users to upgrade their Xbox One games at no charge unlike the $10 Sony charged to upgrade PS3 games to PS4 versions. Cyberpunk 2077, Assassin's Creed Valhalla and Halo: Infinite are some of the big titles confirmed to make use of Smart Delivery. 

As with the case of all the previous console wars, the "loser" tends to figure out where they screwed up and come back with a vengeance. Even if Microsoft doesn't beat Sony this time around, it's going to be one hell of a fight.

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PlayStation Plus Review: A Great Deal That's Also a Real Mess

PlayStation Plus Review: A Great Deal That's Also a Real Mess

Sony's PlayStation Plus subscription game service, originally intended to sell online gaming access, went through a big change in June. Still called PS Plus, it has now become Sony's version of Xbox Game Pass, offering access to a large and evolving Netflix-style catalog of games. While it does some things better than Microsoft, the new PS Plus still lags behind in other aspects of the service. 

The new PS Plus offers three subscription tiers, from an Essential package that mimics the old PS Plus, to Extra and Premium tiers offering hundreds of games, cloud streaming, monthly bonus games and online multiplayer access. What it doesn't offer, however, is a clean interface to make it easy to find games, and it also includes only a few of the biggest Sony games on the PlayStation platform. PS Plus mostly lines up with Xbox Game Pass on paper when you're going down a list of features. But for overall value and accessibility, it doesn't always feel like that when actually using it. 

PS Plus is a big plus

Before the big update, Sony offered two different PlayStation subscriptions. PS Plus for playing online, with a couple of bonus games every month, was $10. PS Now offered a catalog of mostly older games to download or cloud stream for the same price. The new PS Plus combines the two under a single name and comes in three tiers:

Essential: Same as the original PS Plus, with two or three bonus monthly games, which you keep only as long as you're an active subscriber; online play; cloud saves; and PSN Store discounts. It costs $10 a month, or $60 a year. (In the UK it's £7 a month or £70 a year, and in Australia it's AU$12 or AU$80.)

Extra:All the features of Essential and more than 400 PS and PS5 games available to download or selectively stream. It costs $15 a month, or $100 a year. (In the UK it's £11 a month or £84 a year; in Australia it's AU$19 or AU$135.)

Premium: A step up from Extra tier adding in PlayStation 1, PS2, PS3 and PSP games, growing the overall catalog to more than 700 games. That tier is available at $18 a month, or $120 a year. It also has time trial game demos, so subscribers try out certain games for a few hours before buying. (In the UK it's £13.49 a month or £100 a year. In Australia, where it's called "Deluxe" for some reason, it's AU$22 or AU$155.)

As for the games available, they're some of the best on the PlayStation console. This includes Death Stranding Director's Cut, God of War (2018), Demon's Souls (the updated 2020 version), Spider-Man: Miles Morales, Red Dead Redemption 2, Control and Marvel's Guardians of the Galaxy. Those who have the Premium tier will also access classics from older generations, including Dark Cloud 2, Syphon Filter, Tekken 2 and Hot Shots Golf. 

Since PS Now included cloud gaming before it was integrated into the new PS Plus, this means game streaming is available from the get go. For Xbox Game Pass, that took years to implement. This means subscribers can play games on their consoles without having to download them or on their PC via the PS Plus app. Some of the classic games are only available to play via streaming, and as long as your internet connection is speedy and stable, there are hardly any noticeable hiccups. 

The Xbox Game Pass flavor of cloud gaming, however, lets you play some games on phones and tablets, or laptop web browsers.

The overall PS Plus catalog is larger than Xbox Game Pass, and it offers some unique features. But there are flaws with the service that Sony will need to address if it wants to match the popularity of Microsoft's service.

Read more: Best Games on PS Plus

Some major minuses

PS Plus' biggest issue is the lack of organization with the catalog of games. There are a few categories games are placed in, but there seems to be little rhyme or reason to it. The Xbox Game Pass user interface is similar to what someone would see on Netflix or Disney Plus, by having some of the more notable games and certain genres easily discoverable. PS Plus, on the other hand, doesn't have this so it's just tedious to find something of interest. 

Another glaring problem is the overall quality of games. It's not as though you'd expect all 700 games to be winners, but there are some absolute garbage games seemingly there just to pump up the numbers. This was the biggest issue with PS Now, and it carried over to the new PS Plus. Xbox Game Pass, in comparison, has just over 100 games available, but it seems like the games are of a higher overall average quality than what PS Plus has to offer. Compound the lackluster games on top of the lousy UI and finding a new game to play becomes a bit monotonous.

What makes the catalog issue even more frustrating is the lack of certain Sony-published games. Microsoft made it clear that its games will be available on Xbox Game Pass from launch day, and they will stay on there. It's been true for Halo Infinite and Forza Horizon 5, and will be for upcoming games like Bethesda's Starfield. 

Sony has yet to do the same with many of its well-known classic games as well as its most recent titles. PS Plus feels like it should include The Last of Us Part 2, Horizon Forbidden West and most of the Gran Turismo titles… but it doesn't. 

There's also the question of the longevity of the titles. PS Now routinely had titles available for a few months before they were removed, and it's unclear if PS Plus will do the same. 

While cloud streaming is available at launch, there's a lack of platforms available to stream to. There are no apps for iOS or Android, and the PC app, while it works, reportedly has problems with not being able to launch certain games. 

PS4 and PS5 owners who want the absolute most bang for their bucks should subscribe to at least the Extra tier of PS Plus. It's still a wealth of great games to play at a reasonable monthly price. Fans of some of the older titles could see a reason to jump to the Premier tier in order to play those classic games, while the Essential tier should be avoided, as it makes little sense to not pay the extra $5 a month to access hundreds of games. 

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PlayStation Plus Review: A Great Deal That's Also a Real Mess

PlayStation Plus Review: A Great Deal That's Also a Real Mess

Sony's PlayStation Plus subscription game service, originally intended to sell online gaming access, went through a big change in June. Still called PS Plus, it has now become Sony's version of Xbox Game Pass, offering access to a large and evolving Netflix-style catalog of games. While it does some things better than Microsoft, the new PS Plus still lags behind in other aspects of the service. 

The new PS Plus offers three subscription tiers, from an Essential package that mimics the old PS Plus, to Extra and Premium tiers offering hundreds of games, cloud streaming, monthly bonus games and online multiplayer access. What it doesn't offer, however, is a clean interface to make it easy to find games, and it also includes only a few of the biggest Sony games on the PlayStation platform. PS Plus mostly lines up with Xbox Game Pass on paper when you're going down a list of features. But for overall value and accessibility, it doesn't always feel like that when actually using it. 

PS Plus is a big plus

Before the big update, Sony offered two different PlayStation subscriptions. PS Plus for playing online, with a couple of bonus games every month, was $10. PS Now offered a catalog of mostly older games to download or cloud stream for the same price. The new PS Plus combines the two under a single name and comes in three tiers:

Essential: Same as the original PS Plus, with two or three bonus monthly games, which you keep only as long as you're an active subscriber; online play; cloud saves; and PSN Store discounts. It costs $10 a month, or $60 a year. (In the UK it's £7 a month or £70 a year, and in Australia it's AU$12 or AU$80.)

Extra:All the features of Essential and more than 400 PS and PS5 games available to download or selectively stream. It costs $15 a month, or $100 a year. (In the UK it's £11 a month or £84 a year; in Australia it's AU$19 or AU$135.)

Premium: A step up from Extra tier adding in PlayStation 1, PS2, PS3 and PSP games, growing the overall catalog to more than 700 games. That tier is available at $18 a month, or $120 a year. It also has time trial game demos, so subscribers try out certain games for a few hours before buying. (In the UK it's £13.49 a month or £100 a year. In Australia, where it's called "Deluxe" for some reason, it's AU$22 or AU$155.)

As for the games available, they're some of the best on the PlayStation console. This includes Death Stranding Director's Cut, God of War (2018), Demon's Souls (the updated 2020 version), Spider-Man: Miles Morales, Red Dead Redemption 2, Control and Marvel's Guardians of the Galaxy. Those who have the Premium tier will also access classics from older generations, including Dark Cloud 2, Syphon Filter, Tekken 2 and Hot Shots Golf. 

Since PS Now included cloud gaming before it was integrated into the new PS Plus, this means game streaming is available from the get go. For Xbox Game Pass, that took years to implement. This means subscribers can play games on their consoles without having to download them or on their PC via the PS Plus app. Some of the classic games are only available to play via streaming, and as long as your internet connection is speedy and stable, there are hardly any noticeable hiccups. 

The Xbox Game Pass flavor of cloud gaming, however, lets you play some games on phones and tablets, or laptop web browsers.

The overall PS Plus catalog is larger than Xbox Game Pass, and it offers some unique features. But there are flaws with the service that Sony will need to address if it wants to match the popularity of Microsoft's service.

Read more: Best Games on PS Plus

Some major minuses

PS Plus' biggest issue is the lack of organization with the catalog of games. There are a few categories games are placed in, but there seems to be little rhyme or reason to it. The Xbox Game Pass user interface is similar to what someone would see on Netflix or Disney Plus, by having some of the more notable games and certain genres easily discoverable. PS Plus, on the other hand, doesn't have this so it's just tedious to find something of interest. 

Another glaring problem is the overall quality of games. It's not as though you'd expect all 700 games to be winners, but there are some absolute garbage games seemingly there just to pump up the numbers. This was the biggest issue with PS Now, and it carried over to the new PS Plus. Xbox Game Pass, in comparison, has just over 100 games available, but it seems like the games are of a higher overall average quality than what PS Plus has to offer. Compound the lackluster games on top of the lousy UI and finding a new game to play becomes a bit monotonous.

What makes the catalog issue even more frustrating is the lack of certain Sony-published games. Microsoft made it clear that its games will be available on Xbox Game Pass from launch day, and they will stay on there. It's been true for Halo Infinite and Forza Horizon 5, and will be for upcoming games like Bethesda's Starfield. 

Sony has yet to do the same with many of its well-known classic games as well as its most recent titles. PS Plus feels like it should include The Last of Us Part 2, Horizon Forbidden West and most of the Gran Turismo titles… but it doesn't. 

There's also the question of the longevity of the titles. PS Now routinely had titles available for a few months before they were removed, and it's unclear if PS Plus will do the same. 

While cloud streaming is available at launch, there's a lack of platforms available to stream to. There are no apps for iOS or Android, and the PC app, while it works, reportedly has problems with not being able to launch certain games. 

PS4 and PS5 owners who want the absolute most bang for their bucks should subscribe to at least the Extra tier of PS Plus. It's still a wealth of great games to play at a reasonable monthly price. Fans of some of the older titles could see a reason to jump to the Premier tier in order to play those classic games, while the Essential tier should be avoided, as it makes little sense to not pay the extra $5 a month to access hundreds of games. 

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Samsung QN90B Review: This QLED TV From the Future's So Bright

Samsung QN90B Review: This QLED TV From the Future's So Bright

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 pretty close in other important areas like contrast. Samsung's QN90B is a great example, delivering searing brightness with few other 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 while 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 little blooming or stray illumination produces excellent punch, contrast and overall fidelity, surpassing the performance of last year's excellent QN90A.

And as usual Samsung's design and features are top-notch. From the slick stand to the tricked-out remote to a raft of gaming extras, including a new cloud gaming hub with Xbox Game Pass compatibility, 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 bright room, the QN90B deserves a look.

Samsung QN90B sizes

I performed a hands-on evaluation of the 65-inch QN90Bbut this review also applies to the other screen sizes in the series. All sizes have similar specs and should provide similar 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 allows 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 should deliver a superior picture, but it's more than twice as expensive.

Unlike many TVs that use legs spread out to either side, the QN90B has a central pedestal stand.

Bobby Oliver/CNET

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 calls a "bending plate." I'm here for that. Centered, with a small footprint, it looks cleaner and sleeker than the dual legs found on most TVs. My favorite aspect is how it suspends the big panel above my credenza, seeming to float. 

The clicker includes voice access via the mic button as well as streaming shortcuts keys.

Bobby Oliver/CNET

Samsung's sleek, rounded remote is my favorite TV clicker overall thanks to superior form and function. The keys are well-placed, pleasantly sparse and lack garish colors, the raised volume and channel bars are a nice change 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 cloud gaming

I went through my complaints with Samsung's new 2022 TV menu design in my Q60B review so I'll mention them only briefly here. Too much screen real estate is wasted with ads, clutter and items I don't care about, while many useful functions are buried deep in sub-menus. All the options can be fun to explore, but overall the menu looks dated 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.

A new feature for 2022 is Samsung's game hub, which features cloud gaming from services like Xbox Game Pass and Google Stadia, as well as quick access to connected video game consoles.

Bobby Oliver/CNET

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 pretty good. My Xbox controller paired easily to the TV and responses were quick 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 expected, 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, without needing a console at all, is really cool.

Xbox Game Pass Ultimate on Samsung TVs lets you play games directly on the TV using cloud streaming, no console required.

Bobby Oliver/CNET

As with last year you can choose between Alexa, Google Assistant and Samsung's own Bixby for your voice assistant, accessible by speaking into the remote or via speaking 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 certain areas of the picture dimmer or brighter in reaction to what's on the screen, which significantly boosts contrast, while CNET's testing has found 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 light 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 -- microscopic 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 range content in the HDR10 and HDR10 Plus formats. Samsung TVs lack the Dolby Vision HDR support found on most competitors' HDR TVs. I've seen no evidence that one HDR format is inherently "better" than the other, so I definitely don't consider the lack of Dolby Vision a deal-breaker on this TV.

Connectivity is ample on the Samsung QN90B TV, with 4 HDMI that can all handle 4K/120Hz signals, 2 USB ports, an Ethernet connection and more.

Bobby Oliver/CNET

Connectivity is excellent. 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, including AMD's FreeSync Premium Pro and standard VRR formats, ALLM (also known as Auto Game Mode) which lets it automatically switch to game mode to reduce 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 requires 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.

The channels also run the length of the TV from the power cable to the input section.

Bobby Oliver/CNET

Picture quality comparisons

For my comparisons I set up the Samsung QN90B next to two other high-end TVs, the Sony KD-65X95K, another mini-LED-equipped model, and the LG OLED65C1P, an OLED-based TV and my current 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 picture 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 immediately apparent. The snowcapped mountains, desert sand, clouds and other well-illuminated areas had more impact next to the Sony and LG. Meanwhile in dark scenes with mixed content, 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 looked 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 superb job of controlling blooming, or stray illumination that can leak into dark areas from adjacent bright 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 while the Sony was worse. Especially considering its brightness the QN90B's lack of blooming is remarkable, although of course the OLED didn't show any blooming 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 still 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 other two slightly, with dimmer highlights than the Samsung and more obvious blooming, particularly in the letterbox bars.

Game Mode on Samsung TVs includes numerous settings for various types of games, as well as status displays for advanced features like variable refresh rate and frames per second.

Bobby Oliver/CNET

Gaming: The QN90B is a very good gaming TV but I liked image quality in game mode on the other two better. Playing Stray on the PS5, colors looked over-saturated and inaccurate in most of the Samsung's modes, making the leaves of the foliage appear lime-colored, for example. The exception was Sports mode, which tamed colors (especially green) somewhat and brought them somewhat closer to the more-accurate LG and Sony. Of the other picture modes – Standard, RGP, RTS, FPS and Custom – I found it difficult to see any difference between the first 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 picture faded to black and then back up. The LG and Sony looked smooth by comparison. In certain mixed scenes the Samsung's brightness was too much in a dark room, and I ended up using Custom picture mode and reducing brightness from the default 50 to around 10, but that's mainly a matter of personal preference and room lighting.

I did appreciate that the TV automatically detected my Xbox and switched to game mode, and that the game bar displayed status icons for various settings, confirming when I was using 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 reduce input lag and I kept it on "Fastest," which measured a respectable 10 milliseconds, compared with 14ms and 23ms for "Faster" and "Fast," respectively.

Bright lighting: The QN90B is technically the brightest TV I've ever tested, beating out the Hisense U8G in its brightest settings. I say "technically" because its Dynamic numbers, listed below, are badly inflated. Even so it's exceedingly bright in its accurate 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 usual the Samsung's brightest setting, Dynamic, has woefully inaccurate color. For the accurate measurements I used Movie mode with both HDR and SDR, although for SDR the Movie number was achieved by setting the local dimming to High (go to Home > Menu > Settings > All Settings > Picture > Expert Settings > Local Dimming). 

The QN90B maintained steady HDR light output over time in Movie and Filmmaker modes, 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 immediately to around 500 -- almost a sevenfold decrease, which is massive. I've seen that behavior on past Samsung TVs as well and it seems designed to achieve prominence in charts like the one you see above. No other TV brand I've tested shows anywhere near that level of brightness change. This issue in Dynamic mode isn't a huge deal for me, however, because I don't recommend using that mode anyway.

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

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

In-depth picture settings on the Samsung QN90B include adjustments for its full-array local dimming feature, among many others.

Bobby Oliver/CNET

Picture setting and measurement notes

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

Some other 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 standard 10% window patterns. When using non-standard-sized windows, they reported significantly less-accurate color as well as lower brightness. 

I did not see evidence of cheating on my Samsung-supplied QN90B review 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 terms of peak brightness, color accuracy and EOTF compared to the standard 10% window. The same goes for 9% and 10% windows with color patterns (ColorMatch HDR). I also measured peak brightness over time and for a two-minute period the image maintained a healthy 1900-ish nits in Filmmaker mode (although as mentioned above, it fluctuated wildly in Dynamic). I don't doubt the reports of other 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 prefer 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 content 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 error (10-100%)	3.85	Average
Dark gray error (30%)	3.31	Average
Bright gray error (80%)	5.21	Poor
Avg. color checker error	3.27	Average
Avg. saturation sweeps error	3.51	Average
Avg. color 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. color 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. 

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