Samsung S85H vs Philips OLED811

Interestingly, the new WOLED SE panel has brought a slight improvement in brightness to the S85 lineup. In the same film scenes last year’s model sat closer to about 700 nits, while the S85H can reach roughly 800 nits. That’s not a change that completely transforms the HDR experience, but the extra headroom is noticeable, especially with point highlights, reflections or stronger special effects. Around 800 nits is a very good result for an entry-level OLED and in most films it’s enough for HDR to have the necessary punch. Bright elements can clearly stand out against perfect blacks, and that contrast is still doing most of the work here. However, you need to remember the typical limitation of OLED technology. When a very bright scene covers a large portion of the screen, brightness can drop to almost half. This is the result of panel protections that limit its output with large bright areas.

Colours

The S85H can deliver very pleasant, saturated colours and in most HDR films it looks really good in that regard. We measured around 95% coverage of DCI-P3, so the palette most commonly used in films is reproduced to a very high degree. Skin tones, greens and stronger reds still have appropriate intensity and under normal viewing it’s hard to have major complaints. Only when you look more broadly at BT.2020 do the limitations of the new WOLED SE panel become apparent. Coverage was about 70%, a bit less than WOLEDs of the previous generation and noticeably less than QD-OLED panels. In films this isn’t a big loss, since most productions rarely use such heavily saturated colours. You’re more likely to notice it in games, where developers more often opt for more intense colours.

Philips OLED811 uses the new generation WOLED EX panels, also found in models like the LG C6 and Samsung S90H. After calibration we measured about 1500 nits, which is a very good result for an OLED TV. You can see that clearly in films and series. Flashes of light have the right punch, especially when they appear on a dark background. In those scenes the OLED811 can deliver really impressive HDR. Of course this doesn't mean you'll see that level of brightness in every shot. When the screen is filled with a large area of white or a wide explosion, brightness falls to around 600 nits. That's still a good result, but such scenes don't have the same impact as small bright elements on a dark background. That's a known limitation of OLEDs and the OLED811 is no exception.

Colours

Aside from HDR brightness, colours also matter and here Philips also performs very well. It covers almost the entire DCI-P3 gamut, which contains most of the colours used in HDR films and series. So you get rich reds and lush greens, and while watching it's hard to fault it in that regard. It looks a bit worse with the much wider BT.2020 gamut — its most saturated shades are already beyond the reach of this panel. There's also the issue of the white subpixel that the WOLED panel uses to help boost brightness. With very bright colours you can see a certain "washout": the colour is bright but loses some of its intensity. It's in exactly these situations that Samsung Display's QD-OLED panels have the advantage. In most films and series, though, this won't be something that immediately jumps out at you.

To evaluate colours we of course used Filmmaker mode, and in SDR our S85H unit was set very well from the factory. The largest deviation appears in the white balance, where as brightness increases it starts to lose a bit of blue. In practice this means whites and greys have a slightly warmer tint than they should. However, it's not a big fault and during normal viewing it generally isn't very noticeable. Gamma also stays close to the reference value, so the picture is neither overly bright nor unnecessarily dim. The S85H's SDR picture therefore looks really good straight out of the box. A few more imperfections appear in HDR. Here the white balance shifts more with rising brightness, with blue starting to dominate and the red component clearly lacking. This also results in larger errors in some colours. These aren't yet colour errors that completely change the character of the picture, but in direct comparison with the reference the difference is easier to spot. Overall, Filmmaker mode is a very good starting point before professional calibration.

The film mode on the Philips OLED811 is sensibly set up straight out of the box. Most colour errors remain minor in both SDR and HDR, so you can comfortably sit down to watch without adjusting the settings first. There are no large inaccuracies that would immediately distract from the film.

It’s not quite perfect, though. The white balance shows a slight lack of red relative to green, so whites and greys can have a faint greenish tint. It’s not a strong colour cast, but measurements clearly show it. There are also small luminance deviations in SDR: some parts of the image are slightly brightened, and the deepest tones aren’t always reproduced evenly. In HDR the TV stays much closer to the reference, although it occasionally lifts detail from the shadows. These are generally things that can be refined. The factory film mode provides a good starting point, and calibration will reveal how much more you can get out of it.

Calibration delivers really good results on the S85H. First and foremost, we were able to set the white balance almost perfectly, which removes the slightly too-warm picture tone previously seen in SDR. Colour reproduction also improves significantly, with most errors falling to very low levels, and in everyday viewing it's hard to find any visible inaccuracies. You can also improve HDR quite a bit, although some issues remain that stem from the TV's inherent characteristics. The S85H doesn't always hold the luminance curve perfectly. The darkest parts are slightly boosted, while, as you approach the panel's limits, you can see small deviations in the brightest highlights. Add to that the limited coverage of the wider BT.2020 colour gamut, which of course cannot be overcome by any calibration. Despite that, the end result is very good, and after calibration the S85H can deliver a really well-tuned, natural image.

After calibration the Philips OLED811 delivers an image very close to the reference. We managed to even out the white balance and remove the slight colour cast visible in the factory settings. ColorChecker errors for SDR and HDR fell to around 1 to 2, with many samples even below 1. That's a level at which differences from the reference are hard to spot with the naked eye. We also improved the gamma, with only a slight lift remaining in the brightest whites. In HDR the EOTF curve also stays close to the reference, although the TV still tends to slightly boost the brightness of small details, such as stars or subtitles. That gives the picture a bit of extra brightness that shouldn't be there, but otherwise it's hard to find fault. It was already good out of the box, and calibration allowed us to iron out most of the remaining issues.

Samsung's S85H uses the same proprietary AI processor, AI NQ4 Gen2, as last year’s S85F, and in terms of digital image processing it performs quite well. Upscaling is one of the model's stronger points. Lower-resolution material is well sharpened, edges look natural and the picture doesn't come across as overly artificial. Just remember a common quirk of Samsung TVs: at very low resolutions you can't completely turn off overscan, so the TV may slightly crop the left edge of the picture. The "noise reduction" function, that is smoothing weaker tonal transitions, also works very well. The processor can effectively remove posterisation and other artefacts visible in lower-quality material. However, be careful with the strength of this function, because Samsung can be fairly aggressive here. When it's activated, along with unwanted artefacts, fine details such as skin or clothing texture also start to disappear.

The OLED811 handles processing lower-quality material reasonably well, though it's far from perfect. The "Banding reduction" function helps smooth tonal transitions and on the low setting gives a pretty good effect. It doesn't remove banding between shades as effectively as similar solutions from some competitors, but at least it doesn't introduce new artefacts. It's a sensible setting for everyday viewing. Still, there's a bit of a letdown, because the MediaTek Pentonic 800 chipset used here can, in other manufacturers' hands, deal with the effects of heavy compression more effectively even at similarly low settings. A lot therefore depends on how a given manufacturer uses its capabilities.

We have a few more comments about the upscaling to 4K. There's plenty of detail, but overall the image looks rather soft. Edges are heavily smoothed, so the picture lacks some sharpness and clarity. You can partially correct this with the sharpness slider in the menu, though that will be extra edge enhancement rather than recovering detail. On the plus side, there's no overscan, and even with an SD signal the TV doesn't crop the edges of the picture.

The S85H uses an OLED panel, so it performs brilliantly when it comes to motion blur. Pixels respond almost instantly, so moving objects don't produce the characteristic ghosting seen on some LCD TVs. This is especially noticeable with sport or fast-paced games, where the picture stays very clean even during rapid motion. The panel itself runs at 120 Hz. That's more than enough for movies, TV shows, sport or console gaming. It's a shame Samsung didn't include a higher refresh rate aimed at PC gamers, as more and more TVs now offer 144 or even 165 Hz at 4K. However, that doesn't affect motion handling in films or sport.

There's also the classic motion smoothing feature with two settings: blur reduction and judder reduction. So you can choose whether films should keep their cinematic 24 frames per second, or whether you'd prefer to smooth them a bit. The S85H gives plenty of freedom here, and the interpolation itself works well and, with sensible settings, doesn't generate too many artefacts.

In terms of motion handling the OLED811 performs superbly. At 120 Hz, which is useful for console gaming and watching sport, the image remains clear and moving objects don't leave noticeable trails. The OLED's fast pixel response helps here. You can see it clearly in the UFO test, even on a dark background. There are also controls for motion smoothing. In movies you can adjust the strength of smoothing to your taste, from preserving a cinematic feel to much smoother motion. A separate blur-reduction control is useful for fast-paced content like live sports broadcasts.

Samsung S85H is very well prepared for gaming, essentially regardless of whether you connect a console or a computer. The manufacturer didn’t skimp on connectors and all four HDMI ports support full HDMI 2.1. That means you can use 4K at 120 Hz, VRR and ALLM without worrying which input to plug your console into. With multiple devices that matters a lot, since you don’t have to choose between a console, a PC or a soundbar connected via eARC. The feature set itself is very complete. The S85H supports VRR, FreeSync and automatic switching to Game Mode, and Samsung also offers its expanded Game Bar, which lets you quickly view the key signal parameters and change settings without leaving the game. The only real omission is Dolby Vision, which will matter mainly for Xbox owners. That’s a typical trait of Samsung TVs. Game Motion Plus performs very well and it’s one of the features that has set Samsung TVs apart for years. It smooths motion in games running at 30 or 60 fps, but does so without as large an increase in input lag as a classic motion interpolator. In practice, for slower-paced games, racing or action titles it can genuinely improve motion perception, especially if you’re sensitive to low frame rates.

The OLED811 has almost everything you’d expect from a TV for gaming. It supports 120 Hz at Full HD, 1440p and 4K, and when connected to a PC it can reach up to 165 Hz. It also offers VRR to help avoid screen tearing when frame rates fluctuate, and ALLM, which automatically switches to game mode. So you don’t have to go into the settings every time you start your console.

Another plus is the properly working HGiG, which ensures that once HDR is set on the console the TV doesn’t apply its own changes to image brightness. The Game Bar is also available, letting you check signal parameters and quickly change settings useful while gaming. The list even includes Dolby Vision for games, but there’s a significant catch here, which you’ll read about below.