Philips OLED950 vs Samsung The Frame Pro 2026 (LS03HW)

OLED950 is a phenomenal TV for consuming content in HDR format, primarily thanks to the use of innovative Tandem OLED technology. With this technology, the screen can generate astronomical brightness levels, reaching over 2000 nits in movie scenes (on test patterns). This is an outstanding result that places the OLED950 model among the elite displays available on the market. However, it is worth noting a specific aspect of this solution – at moments when full-screen flashes of light appear, brightness can drop by as much as half. Nonetheless, it is important to highlight that levels above 1000 nits on a full screen are still an outstanding result. This allows HDR content to be displayed exactly as filmmakers intended, maintaining the dynamics and impact of bright scenes.

The use of Tandem OLED technology also brought tangible benefits in terms of colour reproduction, improving elements that traditional WOLED panels had issues with compared to QD-OLED competition. In the case of the OLED950, the colour gamut coverage is wider than in classic WOLED panels, reaching nearly 100% of the DCI-P3 colour space and a solid 82% of the demanding BT.2020 palette. While these results still do not match the highly refined achievements of QD-OLED panels, the difference becomes less noticeable during real-world use. We cannot deny that in the vast majority of films, colours look simply fantastic on this model – they are saturated, vibrant, and full of depth.

You can't fault The Frame Pro for one thing: brightness. At peak we measured about 850-900 nits, so the TV has plenty of power to make many HDR scenes look really impressive. Bright, full-screen shots and more colourful frames perform best. In those scenes The Frame Pro can make a good impression — the image is bright, punchy and has the effect we expect from HDR. In our measurements some scenes reached over 800 nits, and even in tougher passages the TV maintained a fairly respectable brightness level.

The problem starts when HDR depends on small bright elements shown against a dark background. Single lamps, stars or reflections can be bright, but very often the black level across a larger part of the image also rises. As a result the bright point itself can look good, but the whole frame loses a lot of quality. That means The Frame Pro shows HDR best in scenes that are simply full-screen. If a film or series contains many such shots, the effect can be genuinely enjoyable. In darker material the limits of local dimming become much more noticeable.

Colours

The Frame Pro deserves praise for its colour gamut coverage. The TV uses quantum dots, the solution known as QLED, so it can deliver really well-saturated colours. In our measurements coverage of the important DCI-P3 palette was around 94.5%, while the more demanding BT.2020 was about 72%.

Those are very solid results that in most scenes produce pleasant, saturated colours. Of course they are not as eye-catching as the values from the latest panels using RGB backlights, but The Frame Pro makes up for that in another way — colour stability. Regardless of the scene, colour saturation remains fairly consistent and there aren't situations where the TV loses colour badly in more demanding frames.

We tested the OLED950 model in Film mode. Although it is intended to be the best and most accurate preset on this television, in practice, it proved to be not without flaws. Interestingly, in the specimen we tested, the biggest challenge was not the white balance itself – although it did show a slight tendency to give the image a pinkish tint. The main issue lay in the way the television managed brightness, both in everyday SDR content and in demanding HDR scenes. Analysis of the gamma chart and the EOTF curve leads to one key conclusion: the television excessively exposes brightness in the lower registers. This results in the image appearing less contrasty than what the panel technology allows. Details in dark areas, which should remain perfectly dimmed (the characteristic "OLED black"), are simply unnecessarily highlighted and brightened. Fortunately, these errors can be corrected using the appropriate tools, so – as always – we proceeded with professional calibration.

In SDR material The Frame Pro in Filmmaker mode performs quite well, though it falls short of perfect. White balance is relatively even, but as brightness increases the blue component diminishes, so brighter parts of the image can have a slightly warmer tint. A bigger difference is visible in the gamma, i.e. the screen’s brightness handling. Across most of the range it runs below our reference point, which means the TV brightens the midtones a little. As a result, the image can appear a little brighter and less contrasty than it should. The colour errors themselves aren’t huge, but they’re noticeable enough that calibration can still make a significant improvement.

In HDR content the white balance looks similar, being fairly even across much of the range, with larger deviations appearing only at higher brightness. The EOTF curve, however, is more revealing. The Frame Pro holds up fairly well against the reference values in the brighter parts of the image, but clearly lifts the darkest parts. This is primarily due to the TV’s backlight design. This also affects the colours. With less saturated colours the errors are still moderate, but they become significantly larger as saturation increases. In Colour Checker measurements many samples already show high error values. So the out-of-the-box HDR can be considered decent, but it’s definitely not an image we’d call very accurate.

As you can see, the OLED950, after a professional calibration process, becomes an absolutely phenomenal display that, without a shadow of a doubt, can be placed alongside the best televisions currently available in the world. This equipment needed only a professional touch to showcase its full potential and eliminate factory shortcomings. The residual errors in the Color Checker tests and the fidelity of the colour palette speak for themselves. We are dealing with an almost perfect device here. A true window to the world, offering image quality of the highest order.

After calibration, the biggest improvements are seen mainly in SDR material. We managed to even out the white balance, but an even more important change was the gamma correction, which before calibration had the greatest effect on the picture's character. After the adjustments the gamma curve is now very close to the reference, so the image is not as bright in the mid-tones and simply looks more natural. Colour errors have also been noticeably reduced, so the effect of calibration in SDR is clearly visible.

In HDR the situation is a bit more complex. White balance was improved and in some ranges the TV tracks the reference much better, but at higher brightness levels deviations still appear. The same goes for colour reproduction; some errors can be corrected, but not all stem from the settings themselves. This reveals the limitations of the TV's design and the way its backlight and local dimming affect the HDR image. So with The Frame Pro, calibration makes the biggest difference to everyday content. Regular TV, YouTube and films and series in SDR (mainly those from cheaper streaming service tiers) can look noticeably better afterwards.

Upscaling

In terms of the scaling of the image, the proprietary P5 processor performs just as well as in most of the manufacturer's models. Lower resolution content gains a very soft and plastic character. This presentation will certainly appeal to many people. However, if you prefer sharper contours, you can gently enhance them using the appropriate slider in the TV menu. In this aspect, it's really hard to nitpick. The image simply looks very good and additionally, there are no issues with overscan.

Smoothing and Distortion Reduction

The smoothing of tonal transitions performs somewhat worse. In the settings, we find an option called "Distortion Reduction." This allows for a three-level adjustment of the processor's intervention. Unfortunately, the Minimum setting works poorly and the smoothing effects are minimal. The Medium level gives a decent result, but it also begins to smooth out the details of the actors' skin. On the other hand, the Maximum setting works too aggressively. It removes far too many details from the face and background elements or can even eliminate film grain. To achieve the optimal effect, it's worth playing around with these settings at home and adjusting them to your liking. It might seem that the Medium option represents the best compromise here.

The Frame Pro uses the NQ4 AI Gen3 processor, so in terms of image processing it behaves very similarly to other recent Samsung TVs. Upscaling works really well, with lower-resolution material being sensibly sharpened and the picture remaining readable without over-emphasising edges. With regular TV broadcasts or lower-quality YouTube content this can deliver a noticeable improvement, although viewers watching even older sources, such as VHS tapes, may notice a slight cropping on the left side (overscan).

It’s a different story for heavily compressed footage and the reduction of noise and posterization artefacts. The "Noise Reduction" feature can improve poorer material, but it fairly quickly starts to interfere with the picture and removes fine detail and film grain. So it’s best used sparingly and mainly when the source genuinely needs it.

The motion reproduction on the OLED950 model is simply perfect. This is typical for screens of this kind (OLED 120Hz+), as the panel shows no motion blur at all. This allows us to enjoy perfect sharpness in practically any conditions. A significant part of this is due not only to the nature of organic technology itself. Equally important work is done here by the smoothing systems employed by the manufacturer.

The Frame Pro is equipped with a 144 Hz panel and, when connected to a PC, also supports 240 Hz at Full HD. That's mainly a feature aimed at PC gamers, but the TV also handles the standard 120 Hz refresh rate used for watching sport or gaming on consoles very well. A major plus is the low smearing. For a VA panel, The Frame Pro performs really well in this regard. You don't see the strong, dark trails behind moving objects that are fairly common on TVs with this type of panel. That keeps fast sport and dynamic games clear in motion. There's also a motion smoothing feature with adjustable strength, so for films and sports broadcasts you can tailor the motion to your preferences. You can find our recommended settings in the photo.

OLED950 is almost the perfect television for gamers. This is due not only to the unique atmosphere created by the Ambilight system during gameplay. The most important aspect here is the solid hardware support. We literally have everything you would expect from a modern gaming display. The manufacturer has implemented two HDMI 2.1 ports with full bandwidth of 48 Gb/s. This gives us access to gaming in 4K resolution at 120 frames per second. There is, of course, support for VRR technology and the automatic game mode ALLM. The device handles any HDR signal with ease, whether we’re using Dolby Vision or the HGiG standard.

We have access to all settings from one place thanks to the special Game Bar overlay. While this interface may not be the most graphically attractive on the market, it fully accomplishes its task. It displays all the important signal parameters and offers useful additions. Gamers can take advantage of the minimap zoom function or add a fixed crosshair on the screen, which can be seen as a small aid in online competition. The adjustment of contrast range also proves to be useful. It allows you to brighten shadows and achieve better visibility of enemies hiding in dark corners of the map.

For gamers, The Frame Pro has a lot to offer. The TV supports 4K at 120 Hz, VRR, ALLM and a correctly implemented HGiG. When connected to a PC you can also run 144 Hz at 4K, and even 240 Hz if you drop to Full HD. Samsung also bundles its usual set of gamer extras: an expanded Game Bar that lets you quickly view and change the key settings, and Game Motion Plus to improve smoothness for games running at 30 or 60 fps. There’s also the Gaming Hub and the ability to play in the cloud without needing to connect a console. The only real omission is Dolby Vision Gaming, which Samsung doesn’t support. Aside from that, The Frame Pro offers pretty much everything you’d expect from a well-equipped gaming TV today.