Samsung S85F OLED vs Samsung OLED S95H (S99H) (QD-OLED)

As an OLED, the Samsung S85F can shine – literally. In favourable conditions, it can generate brightness exceeding 750 nits. This is significant because most films are created with displays aiming for around 1000 nits. In practice, this means that in scenes with moderately large, bright elements, the picture can look absolutely stunning. However, it's not always so rosy. When an enormous amount of light appears on the screen – whether it's an expansive, bright background or an entire frame filled with white – the S85F must tone it down. Brightness can drop by even four times in such scenes. This limitation is well-known to anyone familiar with OLEDs in this price segment, so we don't view it as a particular fail. However, something that deserves praise is what sets this model apart from the competition – colour gamut coverage. Thanks to the QD-OLED panel, our colour meter indicated values exceeding 100% coverage of DCI-P3 and an impressive 86% for the ultra-wide BT.2020 palette. Such results are hard to find even in televisions that cost several times more.

When it comes to pure brightness, the S99H is an astronomically bright TV. Its peak brightness in film scenes can exceed 2,800 nits. Whatever the scene, you can expect powerful HDR effects that are almost blinding, which is exactly what we want from a top‑tier display. By nature, an OLED panel can't maintain that extreme brightness in very bright, full‑screen frames the way it can with small bright highlights, but the results are still excellent. In a bright scene from The Meg the sun still exceeded 2,200 nits. That means the S99H was able to hold a higher brightness than most Mini LED screens on the market. In terms of brightness the S99H is currently the best OLED TV we've tested.

Colour gamut coverage

The S99H also handles colours exceptionally well, thanks directly to the QD‑OLED panel used here. Whether the test used synthetic test patterns or measurements with film material in the background, the results remained very high. The S99H easily covers almost 100% of the DCI‑P3 gamut, and in the most demanding space, BT.2020 it reaches nearly 90%. That's absolute top‑tier performance. These results match what we saw in the new SQD‑Mini‑LED displays, and in real film scenes they even surpass RGB Mini LED displays.

Samsung, as befits a manufacturer with ambitions, has equipped the S85F with a mode called Filmmaker. Its task is simple: to make the colours on the newly purchased television as faithful as possible to what the director intended to show us. Sounds great… but, as is often the case, a theory that sounds wonderful doesn’t always translate into perfect practice.

In the tested unit, it quickly became apparent that the image – due to an excess of blue and red – looked as if someone had gone a bit overboard with the saturation. As a result, there were quite significant colour errors, particularly in 4K content. On top of that, there was an issue with brightness – the S85F could brighten most scenes more than it should, stripping them of the intended mood.

Fortunately, Samsung televisions, including the S85F, offer an impressive number of settings for advanced calibrators. This means that we could see what this panel is really capable of when it gets into the right hands.

Samsung offers a whole host of picture modes and features, but we traditionally recommend choosing FILMMAKER mode, especially if you want the most faithful rendering of the creators' intent. Out of the box the TV is tuned very well, though it has minor flaws. These are mainly a slight deviation in white balance in SDR content and a slightly low gamma. As a result, the picture in a dark room can be a little too bright compared with the reference value of 2.4, which is the standard for watching films with the lights off. These are, of course, small issues, because overall colour reproduction remains very good and the errors in ColorChecker measurements are not large. However, we know that for a screen of the S99H's calibre you can and should expect even more, so we subjected it to professional calibration.

Thanks to the huge number of settings in the menu, we managed to bring the S85F almost to perfection. White balance in SDR content? Literally perfect – deviations do not exceed a value of "1". So we can confidently say that in materials with not too high dynamics, we have an image that's close to reference.

In HDR content, minor issues appeared, but they don't have much significance in practice – most errors fall below the threshold of perception, which is a value of "3". We also managed to tame the S85F when it comes to brightness management – the EOTF curve, even in films, holds nearly perfect straight line. This is one of those cases where after calibration, you can comfortably forget about the settings and simply watch movies and series at the highest level.

After professional calibration, FILMMAKER mode looks practically perfect. Because Samsung offers a rich set of advanced calibration controls, we were able to tune the colours to an almost perfect level. Above all, we managed to even out the white balance and the gamma curve, which resulted in noticeably improved contrast and correct image modelling. In a profile prepared like this there really isn't a single thing to pick apart or call a fault. After calibration, the S99H can deliver an essentially reference-quality picture.

The tone transition smoothing function in the S85F works really effectively – it can completely eliminate the problem of visible banding in very poor quality material, such as from YouTube. Unfortunately, even the lowest level of this option comes with compromises. The noise reduction is so aggressive that it can smooth out film grain, which many of us consider to be an element of the cinematic atmosphere. At the “Standard” level, we didn’t notice this function removing anything significant from the image, so we can recommend this setting. On the other hand, the “High” level is a different story – it can smooth out not just noise, but also small, desirable details like, for example, the texture of objects.

When it comes to image scaling, the S85F performs very well. The material looks sharp, and the only slight imperfection is the barely noticeable aliasing of edges. And there’s the ongoing issue with Samsung televisions – overscan. This can cause some scenes to be slightly cropped, which is worth noting when watching very old content.

Upscaling and digital image processing are handled by Samsung's proprietary NQ4 Gen3 processor. It copes very well with scaling lower-resolution content to 4K. The picture is clear without looking artificial or overly sharp. The only fairly specific drawback appears with very old material recorded at 480p or lower. In such cases the TV can slightly crop the edges of the image.

The processor also does a decent job with artefacts visible in low-bitrate material, for example in heavily compressed YouTube videos. The noise reduction function effectively smooths the picture and reduces posterisation, but it works quite aggressively. It can remove not only unwanted artefacts but also some fine detail, and even natural film grain. We, wanting to preserve maximum fidelity to the source material, chose not to use it. However, if someone values a clean, as-smooth-as-possible image more than keeping every detail, it may prove useful.

S85F is an incredibly fast television – and that’s not just empty hype. Thanks to the 120 Hz OLED panel, dynamic scenes, whether in games or while watching a live match, look just as they should – smooth, sharp, and without the feeling that something is "slipping" out of frame. The lightning-fast pixel response time, typical of OLEDs, plays a big role here. Transitions between frames are virtually instantaneous, and the image remains clear even during the fastest camera movements. A ball flying across half the field? A car speeding in a chase scene? Everything here is clear and free of the typical "trail" associated with LCDs.

This is exactly what we expect from a good OLED – zero compromises when it comes to motion smoothness. The S85F gives the impression that regardless of the pace of action, we can focus on what’s happening on the screen, rather than on the imperfections of the image.

Another major advantage of organic panels is very good motion handling. Thanks to the pixels' near-instant response time, the Samsung S99H shows virtually no smearing. Fast-moving objects don't produce visible halos or trailing artefacts, so the TV performs very well for both sport and gaming. One quirk of OLED screens compared with LCD is the way they render low-frame-rate material. With very slow camera movement the picture can appear noticeably more juddery. This can be quite effectively mitigated using frame interpolation. Samsung lets you adjust judder reduction and motion blur reduction separately, so it's easy to find a compromise between a smoother picture and preserving the cinematic feel of the content.

[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.

S85F has practically everything on board to become the dream screen for gaming. Four full HDMI 2.1 ports with a bandwidth of 48 Gb/s, support for VRR, ALLM, a super-detailed Game Bar that clearly shows all parameters – plus a gem in the form of Game Motion Plus. This motion smoother makes animation in games more enjoyable, while input lag increases slightly. It's a rare combination, and that’s a big plus for Samsung. Perhaps Samsung will fix this in the next update – and we have high hopes for that. Because if HGiG comes back, the S85F will become nearly the perfect TV for gamers.

Samsung S99H is also a top TV for gamers. It offers almost every possible and useful feature... well, perhaps except the obvious lack of Dolby Vision for the Xbox console. It’s equipped with four full-fledged HDMI 2.1 ports with the full 48 Gbps bandwidth. That makes it easy to use frame-rate synchronization VRR or automatic low-latency mode (ALLM). This year Samsung also has no issues with proper HGiG support, so HDR setup on a console is quick and free of unnecessary complications. Samsung is also known for interesting extras in its TVs. In the Game Bar menu you’ll find options to add an on-screen crosshair, enlarge the minimap, or change the aspect ratio of the displayed image (PC).

Particularly noteworthy is Samsung’s feature: Game Motion Plus. It’s Samsung’s proprietary motion-smoothing system that uses interpolation to boost smoothness in games. Input lag then rises to around 40 to 50 ms (depending on the strength of the setting), which, compared with the competition, is an excellent result. The system makes gameplay noticeably smoother. So if someone has their eye on a demanding game (e.g. GTA 6 😉) that runs on a console at only 30 fps, the S99H can display it much more smoothly than competing models.