Samsung takes on the Sonos Arc Ultra with a powerful all-in-one Dolby Atmos soundbar — and upgrades the best soundbar on the planet too, for good measure

• Samsung reveals two new elite Dolby Atmos soundbars ahead of CES 2026
• The Samsung HW-Q990H replaces the current Samsung HW-Q990F
• The Samsung HW-QS90H is a 7.1.2-channel all-in-one soundbar

Samsung clearly couldn't wait for CES 2026 to reveal its new soundbars coming out next year: it's just announced two new models, though, sorry if you'd like to see what they look like, because the company didn't bother to release any images of them.

However, we have additional details, and I'll be on the ground at CES, where I'm sure I'll hear them in action and see them, so watch this space.

In the meantime, here's what you need to know: two new high-end soundbars are coming: the Samsung HW-Q990H and the Samsung HW-QS90H.

The first is no surprise; it's the successor to the five-star Samsung HW-Q990F, which we rate as the best soundbar for overall Dolby Atmos immersion.

The new model sounds very similar to the previous one, which isn't surprising, since these models don't tend to change much year-on-year. It's a soundbar system comprising four units: the main soundbar, two wireless rear speakers, and a wireless subwoofer.

The total system is an 11.1.4-channel Dolby Atmos setup, with the front soundbar delivering seven channels across it as well as two upfiring height channels. Each rear speaker has two angled surround speakers and an upfiring speaker.

The subwoofer will be a compact unit again, just like the current one, with dual eight-inch drivers.

Samsung has revealed little in the way of specs, but has said that this model debuts two new audio processing technologies: Sound Elevation and Auto Volume. The first "lifts dialogue toward the center of the screen for more natural sounding audio," says Samsung, which is something soundbars generally try to do anyway (and LG even includes a fifth upfiring channel in soundbars such as the LG S95AR to help with this), but I'm all for Samsung doing it better than ever.

But the feature I really like the sound of is Auto Volume, which "maintains consistent volume across channels and content for a smoother, more balanced listening experience", according to Samsung.

No more super-loud ads suddenly, or weirdly quiet old streaming movies? One consistent level without me riding the volume buttons? Love it.

There's no price or release date listed, but Samsung usually releases these in Spring, and the previous model launched at $1,999 / £1,699 / AU$2,099 – though the price started falling quickly.

The other soundbar is also a flagship, but of a different kind. The Samsung HW-QS90F is specifically an all-in-one soundbar, meaning that it's designed not to be used with rear speakers or a subwoofer (though knowing Samsung, it'll probably be possible to add these on – it hasn't announced this as an option currently, though).

It's a 7.12-channel Dolby Atmos soundbar with 13 drivers in total, including four bass drivers (Samsung calls it a Quad Bass Woofer system) to deliver convincing low-end without a dedicated subwoofer.

One interesting touch is that it can be used in two configurations: lying flat on a surface like most soundbars, or rotated upright for wall mounting. This isn't new for Samsung – the concept was used on the Samsung HW-QS700F in 2025, and we found it to be very effective in our testing.

This is basically a direct competitor to the Sonos Arc Ultra as an all-in-one soundbar option with deep built-in bass, though the speaker configuration is closer to the original Sonos Arc in some ways, which also used four bass drivers to create its low-end, while the Arc Ultra uses Sonos' new Sound Motion driver to create big bass in a smaller space, devoting more speaker space towards Dolby Atmos positional sound.

It'll be interesting to see how the two compare – especially because Samsung will likely avoid some of the issues I had with the Arc Ultra when I reviewed it, including its lack of HDMI passthrough and DTS support… though, once again, Samsung hasn't actually announced this for the new soundbar yet, because info is still light.

It's unclear whether this model will support the Sound Elevation or Auto Volume features – Samsung only mentioned them for the Q990H model, but they seem equally useful here.

The best soundbars for all budgets

➡️ Read our full guide to the best soundbars
1. Best overall:
Samsung HW-Q800F
2. Best budget:
Sony HT-S2000
3. Best premium all-in-one:
Klipsch Flexus Core 300
4. Best Dolby Atmos surround system:
Samsung HW-Q990F

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