Samsung QN900F vs Samsung The Frame Pro 2026 (LS03HW)

QN900F is a seriously bright TV – it can generate nearly 2000 nits, which is a level that remains unattainable for most models on the market. But the ability to achieve such brightness isn’t everything – it also matters whether the TV can make good use of it. And here it’s not always perfect. Our tests on cinematic scenes showed that in scenes like those from Life of Pi or The Meg, the QN900F can really shine – both literally and figuratively. In such moments, its greatest advantage, which is brightness, makes a huge impression. However, in more demanding scenes, things start to get tricky – similar to assessing contrast. When smaller, bright elements appear on the screen, the TV often struggles with the decision of whether to highlight them at the cost of black levels or perhaps maintain deep blacks but tone down the brightness. The result is situations where, for example, in the movie Sicario 2, the brightness dropped to just 200 nits, making details barely visible. The dimming algorithms could definitely be better, considering the class of this television.

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.

Testing the QN900F in Filmmaker mode, the distinct characteristics of the image quickly became apparent, despite this mode being designed to reflect the director's vision. The white balance was not perfect – the television had noticeable deficits in blue. This caused the entire scene to take on a warmer tone, as if someone had applied a subtle filter in shades of yellow and orange to the image. In films where bright shots dominate – for example, scenes in the snow or under strong daylight – this gave an impression of a slight warmth that does not always convey the director's intention. The second noticeable element was the management of brightness. The QN900F sometimes brightened the image more than necessary. It looked as if the exposure had been slightly "pushed up," which caused the scene to lose some naturalness. Shadows could be too shallow, and contrast slightly weakened. These are not disqualifying errors, but for a television in this price range, it is clear that the Filmmaker mode has not been perfected one hundred percent. This is particularly noticeable when we compare its image to what was visible after the screen 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.

After calibration, we managed to reduce the errors in white balance and adjust them to a level that can be considered acceptable. It's not perfect, but definitely better than the factory settings. Most colour errors now fall within the deltaE 2–3 range, so in practice, they shouldn't be noticeable during everyday viewing. The biggest improvement is evident in how the television handles brightness in SDR content. Shadows and details are no longer flattened, giving the image depth and naturalness. As for 4K HDR materials – colours themselves are no longer an issue, but one can still notice some imperfections in Mini-LED technology. The QN900F tends to excessively dim the smallest bright elements, causing them to sometimes disappear from view. However, it's worth noting that this is a much better solution than boosting the entire screen, which would ruin the contrast. This is more of a characteristic of the technology rather than a typical flaw, but it's worth keeping in mind. The effects of the calibration are really very good.

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.

If we want to get rid of awkward tonal transitions that can be annoying, for example, while watching YouTube, we can use a feature called noise reduction. It works really effectively – it eliminates issues with colour blending when set to Standard level. However, as with most Samsung TVs, this comes with some compromises. Although we didn't notice this feature having a significant impact on the structure of objects in the image, it unfortunately reacts quite aggressively to film grain. Most people will likely appreciate this effect – the noise is simply removed – but if someone is looking for an image as close as possible to reference settings, we definitely recommend turning this option off.

When it comes to upscaling, or dealing with very low-quality content, the QN900F performs really well. On the test pattern with a model, the image looked clear, with only slight jaggedness that shouldn't bother most viewers. However, it’s worth mentioning one issue – the TV sometimes struggles with so-called overscan, which means older content may be slightly cut off. This can manifest, for example, with disappearing subtitles at the bottom of the screen.

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.

There’s really nothing to nitpick here – the QN900F looks great when it comes to motion. Thanks to its 165 Hz panel in 4K, you can confidently say that this TV is suited for both watching sports and gaming. The motion smoother plays a key role here. It works brilliantly – not just with sports broadcasts, where it can eliminate blurring and image judder, but also in games, where animation becomes clearer and more fluid. And of course, if someone likes to experiment with movies – they have that option as well. At lower settings, you can see a slight graininess and a filmic quality, while higher settings introduce a soap opera effect. So everyone can tailor the picture to their preferences, and the TV has the power to handle it.

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.

[UPDATE] We have updated our 2025 Samsung TV reviews following the release of firmware version 1131, which officially restores the essential HGiG (HDR Gaming Interest Group) support.

It's really good here. The QN900F offers a full set of features that we would expect from a top-notch gaming TV – we have VRR, ALLM, Game Bar, as well as cloud gaming apps. However, the biggest standout is its proprietary motion smoother, which also works in games and – importantly – does not add noticeable input lag. This is something we won't find in other competitors. Unfortunately, there is also something concerning. This year, Samsung has clearly messed up something with its TVs. During the testing of the QN900F before its update, it had the HGIG feature, which allowed for perfect adjustment of HDR settings for consoles. However, according to our procedures, we always update the hardware to the latest version – to give the manufacturer a chance to fix any issues. And here… it went the other way.After the update, the HGIG feature disappeared from the menu, making proper configuration of the console for HDR practically impossible. It was supposed to be complete – 165Hz, four HDMI 2.1 ports, a full gaming package… but unfortunately, it turned out to be a little mishap. What a shame.

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.