Samsung OLED S90F (QD-OLED) vs Samsung The Frame 2026 (LS03H)

The biggest difference between the 65-inch S90F and the other versions is brightness. The QD-OLED panel can reach up to 1700 nits in laboratory tests, which is over 500 nits more than the version with a WOLED matrix. This translates to a significantly stronger and more immersive HDR effect. In most scenes, the bright parts of the image look stunning, and we must admit that we were positively surprised, as we expected results closer to the WOLED version, but what we got is an effect that impresses even in films. As with every OLED, there are moments when the panel must reduce brightness a bit. This mainly concerns full-screen, very demanding scenes – for instance, in the last test scene from the movie “The Meg,” brightness drops to around 800 nits. However, it's hard to consider this a flaw because it's still an excellent result, unprecedented in OLED TVs in this price range. Everything suggests that the 65-inch S90F could be one of the best choices this year for those looking for a strong OLED at a reasonable price. Another advantage of the QD-OLED matrix in HDR content is its colour gamut coverage. Thanks to quantum dots, the television achieves nearly 100% of the DCI-P3 gamut and almost 90% of the BT.2020 gamut. These are values that place it alongside much more expensive models and make it exceptional in its class.

The Frame 2026 is a genuinely bright TV. Its peak brightness reaches around 650 nits and, importantly, it maintains similar levels regardless of the type of scene being displayed. It doesn’t really matter whether we’re watching a very bright full-screen image or just a small highlight occupying part of the screen. The backlight remains powerful, allowing bright parts of the image to stand out clearly.

This gives The Frame a solid foundation for HDR. Bright highlights can look impactful, and the picture doesn’t appear flat or overly dim. Unfortunately, there is a compromise. Without local dimming, the TV cannot darken the black areas surrounding very bright objects.

This is clearly visible in scenes 2 and 4 of our test procedure. Bright elements look impressive, but at the same time, the blacks around them become noticeably raised. As a result, the image loses some of its depth, especially when watching in a dark room. This is why The Frame performs best with HDR in bright and moderately bright scenes, where its high brightness works to its advantage. In darker scenes, the situation is quite the opposite.

Colours

The Frame also performs well when it comes to colour reproduction. As a QLED TV, it can display a wide colour gamut and produce rich, saturated colours. DCI-P3 coverage reaches around 94%, while BT.2020 comes in at around 72%. These are good results, and you can see the difference in actual content.

Colours look vivid without appearing washed out, particularly in bright and colourful scenes. Animations and other content with plenty of saturated colours can look really good on The Frame. With this type of material, the TV shows one of its stronger sides.

Samsung S90F, like most modern televisions, offers several picture modes, but in keeping with our tradition, we checked it in the most important one, which is Filmmaker. This setting makes the picture look much more natural than in the default, often oversaturated modes. It is neither overly vivid nor artificially dimmed – just closer to what you should actually see. However, this doesn’t mean it’s perfect. The S90F had noticeable shortcomings in white balance, particularly in the blue range, which created a slightly yellowish filter effect on most scenes. One might argue that it looks more “cinematic” because it’s warmer, but let’s not kid ourselves – George Lucas didn’t shoot Star Wars in sepia 😉 (you’ll find a comparison with a scene as always below). In HDR materials, there was also an issue with brightness management. The EOTF curve clearly showed that the television brightens the image more than it should, which led to some effects looking too intense and deviating from the reference. Fortunately, many of these flaws can be eliminated through professional calibration – we will discuss the effects of this procedure later in the test.

For assessing the factory colour setup we chose the Filmmaker Mode. If you’re encountering it for the first time, it’s a mode designed to reproduce films and TV shows as faithfully as possible. The TV then turns off most additional image enhancers, and the colours and luminance response are intended to be as close as possible to what the creators intended. And it must be said that The Frame 2026 performs quite well in this respect straight out of the box. The biggest deviation is seen in the white balance. As brightness increases, blue starts to fall short and there’s a slight increase in green. As a result, the image shifts towards warmer tones. So white isn’t perfectly neutral, and in some scenes you can notice a subtly warmer cast.

The luminance response, both gamma and EOTF, looks pretty good. Through most of the range they stay fairly close to the target, although larger deviations are visible in the darkest parts of the image. In practice, some shadow details emerging from black may therefore be a bit more pronounced. However, it’s not an error that jumps out during normal viewing. Overall, Filmmaker Mode is a good starting point here. However, the factory picture is a bit too warm and not all hues land exactly where they should.

Calibration quickly revealed that the S90F has a significant reserve of capabilities. The image in SDR immediately gained a natural quality – classic films no longer looked like someone was applying a yellowish filter, and the colours regained their proper character. It's a return to the atmosphere of the original, without the impression that someone tried to "age" it forcefully. In HDR content, the difference was even more pronounced. The EOTF curve was managed to nearly reference level, and any deviations are so subtle that most viewers wouldn't even notice them. In practice, the S90F shows an image very close to ideal post-calibration. Compared to the WOLED version, it even performs better – mainly due to a wider coverage of the colour palette, which makes the colours look fuller and more vibrant.

After calibration we mainly managed to remove that warmer tint and better even out the white balance. We also smoothed the brightness response a bit, which made the picture more neutral and predictable. There are, however, things calibration won't fix. It's mainly the black performance, which comes from the backlight design and the lack of local dimming. In some scenes the blacks will therefore still be slightly lifted, and you just have to accept that. It's more a characteristic of this model than something you can fix with the settings. HDR is also somewhat limited. Samsung doesn't give full freedom to work across the widest colour gamut here, so not all colours can be reproduced perfectly. In normal viewing it will probably be hard to notice, but it's worth being aware of.

S90F performs really well here, although there are some points that are common across most Samsung TVs. The noise reduction feature can effectively smooth out unwanted colour transitions in lower-quality materials like television or YouTube, making them look simply better. However, it should be noted that it works quite aggressively and can also soften elements that we wouldn’t want to alter, such as facial details. Therefore, if we want to use it, it’s best to use it in the "medium" setting and be aware of the compromise it brings. The upscaling itself is of a high standard – low-quality materials are pulled towards an image resembling 4K. The only caveat is that the S90F can still have issues with so-called overscan, meaning slight trimming of the edges in very low-quality materials such as 576p and lower.

As with many of Samsung’s newer TVs, this one also uses the NQ4 AI processor, albeit the older, second-generation version. I must admit it handles digital image processing quite well. Lower-resolution material is sharpened effectively, and when upscaled to 4K it still looks natural. The TV can also tidy up weaker sources a bit, such as older recordings or lower-quality broadcasts. That doesn’t, of course, mean it will suddenly turn poor footage into true 4K, but at close viewing distances the difference compared with simpler models with weaker processors is easy to spot. Edges are clearer and fine details aren’t lost as much to signal compression.

Samsung also provides a few extra picture-enhancing features, but as usual it’s best to use them sparingly. At stronger settings, noise reduction can very effectively reduce posterisation, but it also noticeably interferes with the image. The picture then starts to look quite artificial, for example by heavily smoothing faces. So these features make most sense with really poor sources when all the noise is very distracting.

S90F is an OLED with a refresh rate of 144 Hz, but in practice, what matters most is how it performs at 120 Hz, as this frequency is the most important when watching sports. The QD-OLED panel is no different in this regard from WOLED panels – the pixel response is nearly instantaneous, so motion is rendered with surgical precision. The effect is easy to predict. The image is practically free of motion blur, making gaming on consoles, matches, or other sports broadcasts a tremendous pleasure on the S90F.

Fans of movies and series have not been forgotten either. Like every Samsung television with a refresh rate of 120 Hz and above, the S90F is equipped with a proprietary motion smoother called “Picture Clarity.” Here, we find two sliders – blur reduction and judder reduction – which allow you to improve the smoothness of content recorded at 24 frames and tailor the effect to your own preferences.

Samsung again used a panel here with a maximum refresh rate of 144 Hz. Refresh rates up to 120 Hz mainly offer greater flexibility with high-motion content. The TV can use additional motion smoothing systems that can improve smoothness in sports and other fast-paced content. However, a high refresh rate alone does not solve everything. The Frame still uses a VA panel, which has a fairly slow response time, resulting in quite pronounced motion blur. With fast-moving objects, especially against dark backgrounds, the trails are easy to notice. There's also a slight double-imaging of edges, which can be visible even after turning off additional motion enhancement systems. We already saw similar behaviour in last year's The Frame 2025, and it's a shame Samsung hasn't fixed this. The 144 Hz itself provides a good foundation, but the panel's response time still limits this TV.

The S90F is a television that genuinely brings a lot of joy when gaming. To start with, we get four proper HDMI 2.1 ports, which means you can connect all consoles and PCs without having to figure out which device takes priority. This is a convenient and practical solution, which is not at all a given with other manufacturers. Additionally, there are key features such as: automatic game mode (ALLM), which automatically switches the screen to low latency settings, and VRR frame synchronization that operates over a wide range from 48 to 144 Hz. This ensures the picture remains smooth, whether we're playing fast-paced online shooters or more relaxed narrative titles. The Game Bar also deserves attention – a panel that allows quick access to several handy extras. For example, you can turn on an extra crosshair in the middle of the screen, enlarge the minimap, or, in the case of PC, change the aspect ratio. Finally, there's also Samsung's unique Game Motion Plus mode. Its task is to smooth out older or poorly optimized titles, and it actually works quite well. With this mode, even less polished games can look better and provide more enjoyment than on other televisions that theoretically offer the same technical parameters.

When it comes to gaming features, The Frame is practically on par with Samsung’s flagship TVs. Once a console is connected, the TV automatically switches to Game Mode thanks to ALLM, so there’s no need to change the settings manually every time. There’s also VRR, which matches the screen’s refresh rate to the frame rate generated by the console or PC. When the frame rate drops, this helps prevent the characteristic screen tearing that can otherwise occur.

The Frame naturally supports 4K at 120Hz, allowing you to take advantage of higher frame rates on the PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series X. HGiG also works correctly. Once HDR has been properly calibrated on the console, the TV doesn’t try to additionally brighten the image on its own, so bright highlights in games are displayed as they should be.

Samsung also includes its Game Bar. This quick-access menu can be opened without leaving the game and lets you check things like VRR operation or the current frame rate, while also giving you quick access to the most important gaming settings. PC users get even more flexibility, as the Full HD mode mentioned earlier allows the refresh rate to be increased all the way up to 240Hz.

There is really only one feature missing, and by now it’s something we’ve come to expect from Samsung TVs: Dolby Vision Gaming. Xbox owners will notice this the most, as Xbox consoles can actually use Dolby Vision in supported games.

There is one more limitation worth mentioning that applies specifically to this model. The One Connect box has only one HDMI 2.1 port, so this is the only input you can use for a console or PC if you want to play at 4K 120Hz. Fortunately, Samsung hasn’t combined this port with eARC. This means you can connect a soundbar separately to HDMI 3 and still keep the full-bandwidth HDMI 2.1 port available for your console.