Samsung S90H (QD-OLED) vs Hisense UR8S

The Samsung S90H is a really bright TV for the mid-range among OLEDs. In synthetic measurements its peak brightness reached around 1650 nits. That's an outstanding result in this class, roughly 50% higher than what we’ve seen from previous models at this price point. Most importantly, these tests translate directly to real video material. In four out of the five film scenes we tested the S90H’s brightness hovered around 1300-1500 nits. That kind of headroom lets it reproduce most HDR films with very high impact and without obvious compromises, especially material mastered to 1000–1500 nits. In practice, highlights, reflections and explosions have the right punch and the picture doesn’t feel dimmed. Of course, on full-screen, very bright scenes the result is naturally lower and drops to about 900 nits. That’s a direct effect of the protection systems that keep the OLED panel from being overloaded. Even in that scenario there’s little to complain about. Nine hundred nits across the whole screen is still a very high level, guaranteeing excellent dynamics in HDR content. A huge advantage of QD-OLED TVs has always been the colours, and the S90H is no exception. The DCI-P3 colour space we measured reached a full 100% (actually 99.9%), while coverage of the much wider BT.2020 gamut hit about 89%. That’s a great result, allowing very saturated and vivid colours in HDR material. It’s worth emphasising that QD-OLED’s edge over WOLED panels isn’t just about gamut coverage. In practice it’s seen mostly in the higher brightness of saturated colours, in other words greater colour volume. That makes intense reds, greens and blues in HDR look juicier and more impressive.

UR8S is a higher-end Mini-LED, so you could expect plenty of brightness. Indeed, on a synthetic test pattern peak brightness reached about 2200 nits. That’s a very good result, but as always what the TV does in normal film scenes matters much more. Here the results are a bit more mixed. In bright scenes with lots of light on screen, the UR8S can deliver very strong HDR. Brightness then gets up to around 1500 nits, so the image is very intense and has a lot of punch. It’s worse with small bright elements on a dark background. The TV noticeably dims them to preserve deep blacks and avoid excessive blooming. As a result, things like single stars or small specular highlights can be only around 200 nits. And here HDR is no longer as impressive. So the local dimming algorithm works effectively, but it comes at a cost — sometimes it sacrifices the brightness of small details too much in favour of contrast.

Colours

For RGB Mini-LED TVs, colours should be evaluated a little differently than usual. If we look only at the panel’s capabilities, the UR8S performs excellently. We measured about 94% coverage of BT.2020 and virtually full DCI-P3. Those are among the highest figures currently seen in LCD TVs, and this is where the potential of the RGB backlight is most apparent. The problem is that this potential isn’t always used in real scenes. When we ran the same measurements on patterns overlaid with a film-like background, saturation of some colours started to fall noticeably. Individual zones can’t always control the three RGB components with the same precision when the scene becomes more complex. It’s most noticeable with blue and magenta. On simple test patches they can look very strong, but in tougher scenes samples of those colours clearly shrink. In other words, the UR8S has huge potential, but the TV can’t always take full advantage of it in every scene.

The next stage of the test was to check how the S90H handles colour reproduction without any calibration. As always, we took measurements in Filmmaker Mode, the best factory picture setting. And here Samsung really deserves praise. The factory tuning is at a very high level, which wasn’t always the case a few years ago. The white balance was set correctly, as was the brightness response. The average colour reproduction error (Delta E) stayed around 3, which is below the level at which most viewers can notice inaccuracies. Only in the brightest shades of grey did the values slightly approach 4, but it’s still hard to call that a real problem during viewing. For out-of-the-box settings, the result is simply excellent.

For evaluating the factory colours we used Filmmaker mode, which is supposed to show the image as close as possible to how the content was prepared. And if you look at the white balance alone, the UR8S performs quite well. There’s no strong tint that immediately jumps out, although as brightness increases a bit too much blue and red start to appear, with a corresponding lack of green. Colour errors are therefore visible in measurements, but the image itself doesn’t look bad.

We have much bigger reservations about how the UR8S manages image brightness. In SDR the gamma stays around 1.9–2.0 for most of the range instead of the target 2.4. In practice this simply means the image is too bright, especially in the midtones. Shadows are lifted too much, so the picture loses some depth. A similar tendency is visible in HDR. The EOTF curve sits above the reference value for a large part of the range, so the UR8S again brightens the image more than it should. This isn’t a case of the TV lacking brightness, because it has plenty, but of how it manages that brightness. As a result, HDR material can look very striking, but not always exactly as it should.

All right, but you know we wouldn't be ourselves if we didn't also check how much we could get out of the S90H with professional calibration. And there was no big surprise. Since the out-of-the-box settings were already very good, there wasn't a huge margin for improvement. Even so, we managed to refine the image almost to perfection. After calibration the average colour reproduction errors fell below the threshold of perception, reaching Delta E values under 2 for both SDR and HDR material. We also improved the luminance response, so the picture more faithfully reflects the creators' intent and maintains correct tonality across the entire brightness range. After professional calibration the S90H therefore becomes a screen very close to reference. Will the difference be spectacular for everyone? Not necessarily. The factory settings already deliver a very high level, so in everyday viewing some people may not notice a huge jump. Much also depends on the specific unit. Our sample was very well tuned straight out of the box, but that doesn't mean every S90H will present the same level. Even identical models can differ in their factory calibration. That's exactly why professional calibration makes sense: it lets you bring a particular unit to the highest possible accuracy, rather than relying on a bit of luck when buying.

Hisense offers quite a lot of calibration options, and in SDR you can achieve a really good result with them. After adjustment the white balance is practically even across the whole range, and colour errors fall to very low values. The UR8S can be set very precisely here. HDR looks a little different. The white balance can also be noticeably improved, although at the highest brightness levels larger deviations start to appear. Most interesting, however, is the behaviour of the EOTF curve. Even after correctly setting it on test patterns, the UR8S can still interpret brightness in its own way when watching films. Depending on the scene, parts of the picture are slightly brightened and others darkened compared with how they should look. This shows that the algorithms controlling the backlight have quite a large influence on the final image. Calibration therefore allows colours to be improved very well, but we are not able to completely 'turn off' the way the UR8S manages brightness in HDR.

W tej kwestii Samsung praktycznie nic nie zmienił względem ubiegłorocznego modelu, co akurat jest dość dobrą wiadomością. Funkcja odpowiedzialna za wygładzanie przejść tonalnych nadal bardzo skutecznie ogranicza efekt posteryzacji. Trzeba jednak pamiętać, że działa dość agresywnie, bo oprócz samych artefaktów potrafi usunąć również ziarno filmowe i delikatnie zmiękczyć drobne detale obrazu. Jak zwykle jest to więc kwestia kompromisu i własnych preferencji. Jeśli zależy Wam na jak najwierniejszym odwzorowaniu materiału, polecamy pozostawić tę funkcję wyłączoną.

Również w kwestii upscalingu trudno mówić o rewolucji. S90H korzysta z tego samego autorskiego procesora obrazu NQ4 Gen3 co jego poprzednik, dlatego jakość skalowania pozostała praktycznie bez zmian. Telewizor dobrze radzi sobie z materiałami o niższej rozdzielczości, skutecznie poprawiając ich ostrość. Nadal jednak nie rozwiązano problemu z overscanem. W przypadku niektórych starszych materiałów, zwłaszcza archiwalnych nagrań, może zdarzyć się, że fragment obrazu przy krawędziach zostanie ucięty. To drobna wada, ale szkoda, że Samsung kolejny rok z rzędu pozostawił ten problem bez zmian.

The big plus of the UR8S is its use of the MediaTek Pentonic 800 processor, and digital image processing is one of this model’s stronger points. The TV handles smoothing tonal transitions very well, especially with poorer-quality material. The feature responsible for this effect works effectively without overprocessing the picture. Even on a medium setting it can noticeably reduce visible banding and artefacts without heavily blurring details. Upscaling itself also performs very well. Lower-resolution content is displayed cleanly, edges look natural, and the image isn’t over-sharpened. The UR8S simply copes very well with weaker signals, and in that respect it’s one of its clear strengths.

In terms of motion handling the S90H delivers a very high level of performance. A new feature here is a panel with a refresh rate of up to 165 Hz, although in practice this will mainly benefit PC gamers. Movies, TV series and sports broadcasts don’t use such high refresh rates, so when watching them the difference compared with the standard 120 Hz won’t be noticeable. That said, thanks to the OLED panel’s instantaneous response time, motion is very clean and the image doesn’t suffer from the smearing common to many LCDs. Samsung has equipped the TV with extensive motion settings. You get two sliders: judder reduction and blur reduction, which let you easily tailor the image’s character to your preferences. You can easily achieve very smooth motion for sport, but you can just as easily preserve a more cinematic feel at the typical 24 fps. It all comes down to which effect you prefer.

The UR8S is equipped with a panel that has a native 180 Hz refresh rate, so right away it offers very strong potential for smooth motion. The panel itself performs really well, although some limitations typical of VA panels are still visible. Smearing is relatively low for this type of screen, but during faster motion, especially on darker backgrounds, it can still be noticed, particularly if you compare the same image to OLED TVs.

From the start, the Samsung S90H gives the impression of a TV designed with gamers in mind, and it's easy to see why. The maker has equipped it with nearly everything you’d expect from a modern gaming display. You get as many as four full-bandwidth HDMI 2.1 ports, support for ALLM, VRR and very high refresh rates. There's also a clear Game Bar that lets you quickly check key picture parameters or change settings without leaving the game. Another very welcome improvement is HGiG support. Last year it could cause quite a few problems, but in the S90H it works exactly as it should.

Samsung's real ace, however, is its proprietary Game Motion Plus mode. The feature works much like the motion smoothing used in films: it improves animation smoothness in games while keeping input lag at a very reasonable level. For titles running at 30 or 60 fps, with the right settings, input lag in our testing never exceeded 40 ms. That's an excellent result, especially since on many manufacturers' TVs enabling similar features results in delays several times higher. Game Motion Plus doesn't replace Dolby Vision Gaming, of course, since it's a completely different type of feature, but overall for gaming it's an addition that many players may find more noticeable. Smoother motion in 30/60 fps games often makes more of a difference than HDR itself, which, incidentally, is often poorly implemented in games.

In terms of gamer features the UR8S stacks up really well. The TV supports virtually everything you'd expect from a modern console or PC display. It has ALLM, VRR, and 4K at 120 Hz. There's also Dolby Vision in game mode, so when using, for example, an Xbox Series X you don't have to give up that HDR format. PC gamers get even more options. The panel can run at 4K and 180 Hz, and dropping to Full HD can push the refresh rate as high as 330 Hz. There's also a Game Bar that lets you quickly view key info and change gaming-related settings. The only real shortcoming is a proper implementation of HGiG. When enabled, the TV still interferes with HDR brightness mapping, so we don't get the effect intended by that standard. Apart from that, the UR8S is very well equipped for both consoles and a powerful PC.