After nine years with a trusty Sony Bravia that ended its life tethered to a Google TV dongle, I finally decided it was time to buy a TV from this decade. I landed on Samsung’s 55‑inch S90F OLED paired with the B750F 5.1 soundbar.
The combination has absolutely revitalised my living room: responsive, modern smart‑TV software, stunning OLED picture quality and a sound system that finally delivers the “cinema feel” that I can feel as well as hear… I’ve wanted this for so long at home and it did not disappoint.
Why the upgrade?
My old Bravia did its job for nearly a decade. The panel was fine, the motion processing was good for its time and for years it was my default recommendation to friends. But time catches up.
The app ecosystem dated badly. New streaming services stopped appearing, existing apps felt abandoned and I ended up jamming a Google TV dongle in the back just to get something approaching a modern interface. The TV became a dumb screen with a clever accessory hanging off it.
At some point you realise that you’re watching brilliant modern content on hardware that belongs in a museum. I wanted a TV where the apps, the processing and the panel all felt contemporary again, not just workable. That’s what pushed me towards a clean break and a full system upgrade. So here’s a down and dirty look, without any embellished marketing fluff or polished images, of what I got and why I’m so delighted by my new setup.
Design and installation
The S90F is a straightforward, great-looking OLED. On the wall it presents as a big sheet of picture with slim bezels and very little visual clutter. Mounted above the B750F soundbar, it looks like a single tidy stack rather than two separate boxes battling for attention.
Wall‑mounting is simple if you’ve done it before: standard VESA mount, sensible weight and ports arranged so you can still reach them with the TV on the wall. I ended up using my old bracket with the extra arms for the soundbar added on. There’s no extra connection box to hide; it’s just one panel and some cables, which I actually appreciate from a reliability standpoint.
The B750F itself is deliberately understated. It’s low enough not to block the screen, wide enough to visually match the TV and solidly built without shouting “audiophile toy.” The wireless sub tucks neatly to one corner and disappears until the soundtrack ramps up and reminds you it exists. Wiring consists of one power cable and an HDMI cable, both easily hidden out of sight using the bracket.
Smart TV experience: responsiveness finally done right
I cannot overstate how much I value responsiveness in a TV. I hate slow, laggy menus. The S90F fixes that in a way that has changed how I use the TV.
The interface reacts instantly when you press a button. Jump into settings, launch an app, bring up a picture‑mode overlay; it all happens with the kind of immediacy you expect from a decent phone, not a 55‑inch screen hanging on a wall. That alone makes the TV feel “alive” in a way my old Bravia just didn’t.
The app situation is equally modern: the usual suspects (Netflix, Disney+, Prime Video, YouTube and local services) are all present and kept current, and you don’t have to rely on a dongle to get basic apps or updates. You turn the TV on and the apps you actually use are just there, ready to go.
Tizen’s home screen gives you a single place to jump into apps, live TV and recommendations. Because the underlying hardware is quick, moving around that interface feels smooth; there’s no sense that you’re waiting for the TV to catch up with your inputs.
Picture quality: OLED that just works
Moving from a nine‑year‑old LCD to this OLED is like jumping from halogen headlights to modern matrix LEDs. The fundamentals change overnight.
The S90F delivers true blacks, deep contrast and rich colours that make even mundane content look premium. Free‑to‑air drama suddenly has depth in dark scenes; streaming series gain extra texture and subtlety in shadows; HDR movies finally show the detail in both the brightest highlights and the darkest corners of the frame.
What I’ve appreciated most is that it doesn’t demand constant tweaking. Pick a sensible mode (Filmmaker or a lightly tuned Movie mode), adjust a couple of settings to taste and you’re done. Skin tones look natural, bright scenes remain comfortable to watch and the TV doesn’t crush shadow detail for the sake of drama.
Reflections are present, this is still a glossy OLED panel, but in a typical lounge setup it’s easy to manage with sensible lighting and curtains. Once the content starts, the picture pulls your attention away from the room and into the scene.
Gaming: console‑friendly and snappy
If you game, the S90F feels like it was built with you in mind. The TV supports high refresh rates, variable refresh, low input lag and a dedicated Game mode that you can toggle quickly.
Independent testing puts input lag in Game Mode down in single‑digit milliseconds, which lines up with how it feels: there’s no sense of delay between controller and on‑screen action, even in fast titles. Game‑specific overlays and settings are handy rather than gimmicky; it’s easy to glance at the current refresh rate or adjust picture presets without diving into generic system menus.
The net effect is that you stop thinking about whether the TV is “good enough for gaming” and just game on it. That’s exactly how it should be.
The B750F soundbar: from TV audio to actual cinema
The real revelation of this setup hasn’t just been the OLED picture; it’s the jump from built‑in TV audio to a proper 5.1 soundbar with a subwoofer.
The B750F adds width, clarity and impact in a way that completely changes the viewing experience. Dialogue becomes easier to follow at normal volumes, effects extend well beyond the edges of the screen and the dedicated subwoofer brings low‑frequency weight that you can literally feel in the room. Explosions, musical drops and low rumbles stop being “noises” and start being physical events.
Q‑Symphony, Samsung’s feature that lets the TV and soundbar work together instead of muting the TV’s speakers, does what it promises. It uses the TV’s drivers to reinforce the centre image while the bar and sub handle width and bass. The result feels bigger and more enveloping than a stand‑alone bar, without the faff of running wires to separate rear speakers.
I went into this upgrade expecting better sound. I didn’t quite expect to feel so immersed that I’d stop missing expensive nights out at the cinema. That’s the difference the B750F has made and, I must admit, is what creates more emotional depth of experience than the improved screen.
Living with the system
What I appreciate most about this whole setup is that it feels like a cohesive system rather than a pile of parts. The TV switches on quickly, the soundbar wakes up with it and everything just works from one remote.
Day‑to‑day, there’s very little friction. You turn it on, pick something to watch and the combination of OLED picture and 5.1 sound does its thing. No dongles to manage, no juggling inputs, no waiting for the interface to grind through simple tasks.
Coming from a nine‑year‑old Bravia and an external streamer, this feels like stepping into the current decade in one go; picture, sound and interface all at once. It’s the sort of upgrade that makes you wonder why you waited so long.
Verdict
If you’re sitting on an ageing TV whose smart features have long since tapped out, it’s easy to talk yourself into “just one more year” with a streaming dongle. I did that for several years.
The Samsung S90F OLED paired with the B750F soundbar has convinced me that sometimes it really is worth starting fresh. You get a fast, modern interface, a genuinely impressive OLED picture and a surround‑sound experience that turns ordinary evenings into proper movie nights.
For my money, this is what a modern living‑room TV should feel like: quick, clean, immersive and quietly competent. I upgraded to treat myself and it has paid off every single night since.
I walked into my local Heathcotes to buy another Sony – and I actually did, only to get a call on my way home to say they had made a mistake and had no stock. That turned out to be my good fortune, as on my second visit to the store, I was drawn to the Samsung and I got the TV and the soundbar for about the same money as just the Sony TV.
I looked at a lot of TVs and some of them can really get up there in price. My objective was to buy something that is quick and will serve me and my family for the better part of a decade, again. I walked into Heathcotes to buy what I knew; buy what was familiar, but through a stroke of good fortune and rather excellent staff, I must add, I walked away with a huge upgrade without blowing the budget. Happy days!
Gear list:
Samsung S90F 55″ OLED TV – $1,978
Samsung B750F 5.1 soundbar – $598
One For All Universal Soundbar Bracket – $78 (after price matching a competitor)
Impartiality: Both bits of kit paid for by me and neither Samsung nor Heathcotes know I’m writing this.
