SAMSUNG S95F (TANDEM OLED 83") vs Hisense U7S Pro

The Samsung S95F in the 83-inch variant with a Tandem OLED panel also enchants with its HDR effects. In test movie scenes, such as “Life of Pi” or “Sicario 2,” where smaller light points dominate – stars in the night sky, the glow of the moon, or headlights – the TV easily achieves brightness levels surpassing 2000 nits. This is a result that not long ago seemed unattainable for OLEDs and places this model in the same category as the best Mini-LED constructions.

The limitations of organic panels only emerge in full-screen scenes completely filled with white. In the case of this model, for example, in the final scene of the film The Meg, brightness drops to around 1000 nits – slightly lower than in the smaller QD-OLED variants, where the result hovered around 1400 nits. Nevertheless, we are still talking about an outstanding result, unprecedented in OLED TVs of this size. The colour reproduction is equally impressive. The new Tandem OLED panel nearly catches up to QD-OLED TVs, offering excellent coverage of a wide colour gamut. The results are slightly weaker than those of QD-OLED, but in practice, they still provide an image whose intensity and naturalness of colours are hard to compare with any other television.

Let's start with the fact that the U7S Pro is an impressively bright television – in calibrated mode, our measurement equipment indicated a staggering 2200 nits of peak brightness! This is an absolutely remarkable result, considering this model is positioned rather as a mid-range option.

However, as we know, peak brightness on test patterns is one thing, and actual movie scenes are another. Unfortunately, in real video materials, the backlight power clearly drops. Admittedly, in the most demanding moments, the television can still exceed the 1000-nit barrier – which is still an excellent result, perfectly aligned with the mastering standards of most HDR films – but the real challenge comes from aggressively tuned local dimming algorithms. Because of these, small bright details, such as stars or the moon in the night sky, become noticeably dimmed. The television tries to maintain deep blacks at all costs, which is of course understandable, but unfortunately, this comes at the expense of the dynamics and brilliance of the HDR effect itself.

It's worth praising the colour reproduction. The new U7S Pro is a QLED type construction that provides a very wide coverage of the colour palette. Unlike last year's model (U7Q Pro), this year's variant is a "true" QLED, not a solution based on a PFS filter. As a result, color saturation has significantly increased, and the coverage of the most demanding BT.2020 space has exceeded the 81% barrier.

The best picture mode right out of the box is undoubtedly Filmmaker Mode. This mode has been present in Samsung televisions for several years and is intended to reproduce the image as faithfully as possible to the creators' vision. In SDR material, it performs reasonably well, though not without flaws. The image is slightly dimmed, and the white balance tends to shift towards red and blue, resulting in a slight pinkish tint on the screen. Average colour errors hover around values of ΔE 3–4, which is on the borderline of what most people can detect with the naked eye.

The limitations are much more apparent with HDR content. Here, a slight excess of blue in the white balance isn't such a big issue – the real obstacle is how the television manages brightness. In many scenes, the image looked as if it had been blown out, and details in the blacks could completely vanish. The final effect didn't do justice to what such a device is capable of, leading to significant colour inaccuracies. It's hard to understand why such a factory characteristic was chosen, as the perception of HDR in this rendition was definitely not what it should have been.

We've tested the U7S Pro model – as we always do – in the best factory-tuned picture mode, which is Filmmaker Mode. We can assess the displayed colours in two ways. The most disappointing was the profile intended for watching SDR content, that is, traditional television, YouTube, and other less demanding materials. The picture was clearly too yellow, which was a direct consequence of a poorly set white balance. As our graphs show, there is a huge deficiency of the blue component here, which drastically affected the overall colour temperature. This is clearly evident on the ColorChecker charts and the colour palette graphs, where most samples leaned towards yellow. Fortunately, the factory HDR mode performed much better – there the colour errors hovered around a Delta E value of 3, which is already a really solid result.

After calibration, the S95F shows what it can really do. The white balance has been straightened out, and minor inaccuracies have been corrected, making the image in SDR content look nearly exemplary. Colour differences have fallen below the level that the human eye can detect – looking at the screen, one just gets the impression of complete naturalness and harmony of colours.

In HDR, the improvement is equally noticeable. The TV handles brightness much better, and there’s no longer the 'blowing out' of the entire frame. Bright scenes are more controlled, and blacks retain more detail, though sometimes a slight brightening of the overall image can still be noticed. However, this doesn’t change the fact that after calibration, the S95F delivers an image that can confidently be called one of the best on the market – regardless of whether we’re watching movies in SDR or spectacular productions in HDR.

We do know, however, that the company Hisense is capable of much more – as previous generations have proven – which is why we simply couldn’t leave the factory flaws of the U7S Pro model unaddressed in everyday content. As always in such cases, we had the television undergo professional calibration. The conclusions? This process brought about a colossal change. After manually adjusting the white balance and compensating for deficiencies in the blue component, the annoying yellow tint disappeared as if by magic. White became naturally clean, and skin tones gained the proper, healthy hue. Importantly, the calibration not only tamed the capricious SDR mode but also maximised the potential of the panel, reducing average colour reproduction errors to values nearly imperceptible to the human eye. The only thing we need to criticise after the whole process is the very nature of the Mini-LED backlighting and its specific interaction with the HDR signal. The aggressively tuned local dimming algorithms significantly interfere with the EOTF brightness curve. As a result, the backlighting doesn’t always work perfectly with the creator’s intent – depending on the scene being watched, the curve can noticeably run either above or below the reference, occasionally disrupting the ideal dynamic of HDR images.

The Samsung S95F model features noise reduction, aimed at improving the fluidity of tonal transitions. Its effectiveness is difficult to call ineffective – on the contrary, it can excessively interfere with the image. Older films or materials of lower quality, such as those from YouTube, take on a soft, smoothed character reminiscent of a painting effect thanks to this feature. The problem is that along with the noise, the natural film grain, which gives the image a cinematic quality, also disappears. Fortunately, the feature does not blur significant details, so its use is more a matter of preference. If someone prefers a slightly polished and smooth image, it’s worth turning it on, but in our opinion, the most sensible setting is “Standard”.

Upscaling leaves a better impression. The S95F efficiently enhances the quality of lower resolution content – even 576p videos look quite good, although minor artifacts in the form of blockiness can be noticed. Overall, the effect is very solid, although when compared to the competition – such as the Sony Bravia 8 (II) or LG G5 – it is noticeable that those models can extract a bit more from the image. However, one inconvenience to remember is that in the case of older films and photos, there is a problem with overscan, which causes a slight trimming of the left edge of the image.

The digital processing of lower quality signals is at a very high level here, all thanks to the MediaTek Pentonic 800 processor used in the U7S Pro. The upscaling also performs well, which is the TV's ability to enhance lower resolution signals to 4K. We did not notice any unnatural, sharp contours on the screen, and our test image featuring a model simply looked appealing.

In the case of the 83-inch S95F with a Tandem OLED panel, the fluidity of motion also makes a huge impression. The panel in native 4K resolution offers a refresh rate of 165 Hz, and this combined with organic technology makes games and sport look fantastic. Additionally, the manufacturer has added a motion smoother and a motion blur reduction system, allowing each viewer to customise the picture to their own preferences – whether a more 'choppy', cinematic effect or a smooth, almost theatrical spectacle.

Hisense U7S Pro uses a panel with a maximum refresh rate of 165 Hz in 4K, and in gaming mode, it can even reach 330 Hz at Full HD resolution. However, it is important to remember that these highest numbers do not have much significance in everyday usage, as most content supports a maximum of 120 Hz (e.g., when playing on a console). Nevertheless, the TV handles motion quite well and performs really well for an LCD construction.

It's hard to fault the fluidity. In the menu, we find a motion smoother called "Motion Enhancement," which has two sliders: motion blur reduction and judder reduction. They allow for manual configuration of the smoother, which works well in both movies and sports, effectively enhancing the raw TV signal.

Low motion blur and phenomenal motion fluidity, hallmarks of the OLED panel, are just the warm-up. The Samsung S95F has been designed with gamers in mind – and this is evident at every turn. Four HDMI 2.1 ports with a bandwidth of 40 Gb/s may sound like a compromise on paper, but in practice, neither consoles nor PCs will feel the slightest limitation here. Onboard is a full set of gaming features: variable refresh rate VRR, automatic game mode ALLM, and an excellently implemented HGiG standard, which allows you to enjoy HDR exactly as the creators intended. All this is complemented by Game Bar – an intuitive command centre where you can check and adjust the most important settings in seconds.

Particularly noteworthy is Game Motion Plus, Samsung's proprietary motion smoother. It can add additional fluidity to animations, which can be a lifesaver in games running at 60 frames, where stability doesn't always hold up. Yes, there's no support for Dolby Vision in games, but it's hard to consider this a serious flaw – the manufacturer compensates for this gap with other solutions. The S95F is one of the absolute favourites for the title of the best gaming television on today's market.

If you're planning to connect a console or PC to the U7S Pro, you'll be more than pleased – this TV is great gear for gamers. Hisense hasn't held back, featuring 4 HDMI 2.1 ports with full bandwidth of 48 Gbps. So you don't have to juggle cables, as each port will handle the full suite of features. We have an automatic game mode (ALLM) and VRR, which operates over a wide range from 48 Hz to a whopping 330 Hz. Of course, that 330 Hz is currently just a gimmick for owners of powerful PCs, as consoles will cap at 120 Hz, but it's good to have that headroom for the future. The Game Bar also works really well when gaming. It's a handy menu bar for gamers, where you can quickly change the picture mode, turn on a crosshair in the middle of the screen, and even switch the display aspect ratio to ultra-wide, which PC simulation fans will appreciate. The only downside worth noting is the incorrect implementation of the HGiG format in games. The issue is that the TV ignores instructions from the console regarding the image generated in HDR10 and constantly butts in, trying to "enhance" the image in its own way. This makes proper HDR configuration in the console menu (where brightness is set on the logo/checkerboard) a bit more challenging.