Michał Wołoszyn
The best TV for a home theatre, the best TV for the living room and, finally, the best TV of 2026. The Samsung S99H won all three major categories in this year's HDTVTest TV Shootout organised by Vincent Teoh. We had the opportunity to be on the judging panel for this exceptional comparison, and this year's final was particularly interesting. For the first time, a Mini-LED TV also went head-to-head with the best OLEDs.
Samsung S99H named Best TV of 2026
This year’s final ended in a resounding victory for the Samsung S99H, known in the US market as Samsung S95H. The model scored 21.43 points in the Best Home Cinema TV category and 17.21 points as Best Living Room TV, which added up to 34.58 points and the title Best TV of 2026. Samsung thus became the first TV in the history of the HDTVTest TV Shootout to claim all three major awards in a single final.
The test itself was conducted as a blind comparison, and the TVs were assessed, among other things, for performance in dark scenes, colour reproduction, HDR, motion, panel uniformity, image processing and picture quality in a bright room. The panel included eight judges (including our own Maciej).
You can find our full test of the Samsung S99H on our website and YouTube channel.
Sony BRAVIA 9 II surprised. Mini-LED ahead of two OLEDs
This year's shootout was special for another reason as well. For the first time, a Mini-LED LCD TV made it to the final: Sony BRAVIA 9 II. Earlier the model won a separate comparison of the best LCD TVs of 2026, beating RGB Mini-LED, Micro RGB and SQD-Mini LED designs. That earned it the chance to go head-to-head with the best OLEDs.
And that placing was far from merely symbolic. The BRAVIA 9 II finished the whole comparison in second place with a score of 32.54 points, losing only to Samsung. Thus the LCD TV finished ahead of both the LG G6 (30.00 points) and the Sony BRAVIA 8 II (28.56 points). The Near-Black category was particularly interesting. The BRAVIA 9 II scored an average of 3.63 here, which is practically only a little less than the LG G6's 3.69 and even slightly above the OLED Sony BRAVIA 8 II's 3.56. This shows how closely the best Mini-LEDs have come to OLEDs in reproducing detail just above black.
Last year's winner ends up last this time. Sony Bravia 8 II
Also in the final was the Sony BRAVIA 8 II, the winner of the previous (2025) HDTVTest TV Shootout. The model was carried over into this year's line-up as Sony's highest-ranked OLED. This time, however, it performed much worse. A score of 28.56 points meant it finished last among the four finalists.
For us it wasn't such a big surprise. The unit used during the shootout revealed some of the same problems we had already pointed out in our own BRAVIA 8 II test. In several categories the TV still performed very well, but compared with this year's competition its weaker points were much more apparent.
LG G6 on the podium, but not a winner
LG G6 finished the comparison in third place with an even 30 points. LG's OLED handled motion and HDR content very well, among other things, but it wasn't as consistent across all assessed areas. It lost particularly in the video processing category, where it scored an average of 2.84, while the Samsung S99H achieved 4.25. Versatility proved to be Samsung's greatest strength. The S99H won, among others, the categories Near-Black, Colour Accuracy, HDR, Video Processing, Bright Room and Out of the Box, and it didn't suffer any major slip-ups in the other tests either.
HDTVTest TV Shootout 2026 results
Place | TV | Best Home Cinema TV | Best Living Room TV | Best TV of 2026 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
1. | Samsung S99H | 21,43 | 17,21 | 34,58 |
2. | Sony BRAVIA 9 II | 21,04 | 15,70 | 32,54 |
3. | LG G6 | 18,00 | 15,49 | 30,00 |
4. | Sony BRAVIA 8 II | 16,59 | 16,29 | 28,56 |
There can be only one winner
So, in the end, this year's title goes to Samsung S99H. And perhaps the most interesting thing is that it didn't win thanks to any single outstanding feature. It was simply the most consistent TV in the whole lineup, both when watching films in a dark room and in a bright living room.
Congratulations to Samsung! If you want to see why the S99H scored so well, its full review is already on our channel. Interestingly, we recently put the three models from this year's podium side by side: the Samsung S99H, the Sony BRAVIA 9 II and the LG G6, so you can also see how their differences look in a direct comparison.
