Samsung The Frame 2025 (LS03F) vs Philips OLED910

The Frame LS03F is a television that can surprise with its brightness. The maximum luminance reaches around 650 nits, which already looks solid on paper. But as we know – lab tests are one thing, and real film scenes are quite another story. When watching HDR materials in natural conditions, The Frame 2025 maintains very good results. In most film scenes, peak brightness stayed at around 550–650 nits. This is enough to feel the difference between standard picture and that in HDR quality – bright highlights, reflections on water, or moonlight look distinct and impressive.

It's also worth noting that the LS03F is a QLED television, which translates to solid colour saturation. The coverage of the DCI-P3 colour space reaches about 92%, allowing for vibrant, intense colours in HDR content. It's not at the level of top premium models, but for a lifestyle screen – the result truly deserves recognition.

OLED910 is simply an absurdly bright television for an OLED. All thanks to the new panel from LG Display, the Tandem RGB OLED, which Philips has branded as "META OLED". It is this panel that allows for over 2000 nits of brightness in films, which not long ago was completely unachievable in OLEDs. The way the television handles full-screen scenes flooded with bright light also deserves high praise. Usually, in OLEDs, brightness drops significantly, but here it remains at a great level – around 1400 nits. These values are almost reference-level, and combined with excellent colour reproduction at 99% DCI P3 and 82% BT.2020, it gives us an HDR effect that can confidently be called one of the best in the world.

When it comes to picture quality right out of the box, even in Filmmaker mode, which is supposed to be the closest to reference, there were some issues. In both HD and 4K HDR content, we noticed clear deviations in white balance. The picture was heavily skewed towards red and blue, giving the screen a distinctive pinkish hue. This effect was most noticeable in bright scenes – for example, in shots with a lot of white, where neutral light should naturally dominate. In such moments, the screen clearly took on pink tones, which is also evident in the attached comparative photo. As for brightness characteristics – it wasn't as bad as one might expect given such colour inaccuracies. Analysis of the gamma curve and EOTF showed a slight brightening of the image compared to the reference, but not enough to drastically spoil the viewing experience.

Unfortunately, when it comes to colour reproduction straight out of the box, the Filmmaker mode on the OLED910 really falls short. The television overemphasises the blue colour and at times it looks almost like a shop mode. It gives the impression that the manufacturer hasn't quite calibrated the device properly. The result is that colours appear unnatural, and the overall look resembles a slightly exaggerated display from a store showcase. HDR content looks much better, where apart from a slight loss of detail in blacks, there’s hardly anything to complain about. The problem is that in everyday viewing, it’s actually SDR materials that matter the most – and on the OLED910, they just look poor and significantly deviate from what we would expect from a television of this class.

After calibration, the movie mode gained a completely new quality. The issue of the pink tint, which was previously clearly visible, especially in bright scenes, has been effectively eliminated. Colours started to look significantly more natural, and the white balance no longer dominated the rest of the image. It was no longer the same oversaturated "picture from a box" – everything took on coherence and a cinematic character. Additionally, the tendency of the TV to slightly brighten scenes, previously visible in the EOTF curve analysis, has been partially corrected. Of course, within the limits of what the design allows without local dimming – it's difficult to speak of perfect brightness management here. Nevertheless, the final effect was definitely closer to what one might expect from a mode named Filmmaker.

Fortunately, it quickly turned out that it wasn't the panel causing the problems, but the way Philips factory-tuned the OLED910. After calibration, the television showcased its full potential, and only then could we see what the new panels from LG Display were truly capable of. We primarily corrected the white balance and brightness characteristics, successfully taming the excessive blue and giving the image a natural look. The final effect can be described as excellent. Errors on the Color Checker palette rarely exceeded a value of 3, which in practice means an image close to ideal and colours presented in line with the creators' intent. In SDR content, the effect was stunning, and in HDR, the improvement was even more noticeable – gradients became cleaner, and colours fuller and more accurate. After calibration, the OLED910 transformed from a disappointing television into equipment that can be confidently referred to as reference-grade in terms of colour accuracy.

LS03F is equipped with an NQ4 processor, which is responsible for improving image quality – especially in lower-quality materials. In practice, it works surprisingly well, particularly when it comes to older content and recordings with lower resolution. Activating the "noise reduction" feature delivers noticeable results. The television effectively smooths tonal transitions and removes digital noise that can appear in darker areas of the image. Compared to previous generations, there is a clear improvement – earlier, this feature often smoothed everything too much, including details that it shouldn't have removed. In this year’s model, the smoothing still occurs, but it happens in a much more acceptable way. Textures of materials, skin, or fabric details are not as heavily muted as before – the image retains more naturalness. However, this does not change the fact that film grain is still removed by the television, which may not appeal to everyone. On the other hand, it's no longer such an aggressive intervention as in previous models. It's also worth mentioning that the LS03F may struggle with very weak signals – for example, from VHS tapes or low-resolution video. In such cases, we noticed slight clipping of the image at the edges – the so-called overscan. This can lead to situations where a small part of the image (e.g., subtitles at the bottom edge) gets cut off.

The previously visible colour connections can be largely mitigated thanks to a feature called "distortion reduction." Similar to the OLED820, it’s best to set it to medium level, as it then provides quite decent results – smoothing unwanted tonal transitions while not taking away too many details from the image. Although at times the effect may be a bit too aggressive, in everyday viewing, this function can be considered useful.

When it comes to image scaling, the OLED910 performs really well. The test material with the model showcased a characteristic soft look typical of Philips – at times almost too soft – but at any moment this can be adjusted with the sharpness slider to tailor the image to your own preferences. It’s also a plus that the television has no issues with overscan, which still occurs in some competitors' models. It’s a minor detail, but it’s pleasing as it means that all content, even the oldest, is displayed as it should be.

The new feature in The Frame for 2025 is a 144 Hz refresh rate display. Yes – in a television primarily associated with displaying works of art, you can now not only watch Van Gogh, but also comfortably play on a console or follow fast-paced sporting events. This is a significant step towards greater versatility. In the case of Samsung movies, as usual in models with a 120 Hz display and above, it allows you to adjust motion fluidity according to your preferences. You can set a more cinematic reproduction that maintains frame rate or opt for complete image smoothing. The range of options is broad, allowing you to tailor the effect to your tastes – regardless of whether the screening is meant to look like classic cinema or a performance on a modern theatre panel.

*this part of the test refers to the model LS03FAU in sizes 55 and 65 inches, which is equipped with a 144Hz display; the sizes 43 and 50 inches have 60Hz displays, and consequently perform much worse in terms of motion fluidity.

OLED910 is a TV with a refresh rate of 144 Hz. It’s a bit of a shame that Philips didn’t opt for 165 Hz, as we know that the matrix used in it is capable of that. On the other hand, such a bonus will mainly benefit PC gamers, as for everyday use, the most important thing is the 120 Hz refresh rate, which is fully sufficient. Combined with the advantages of the OLED matrix – lightning-fast pixel response times and the absence of motion blur, the picture is impeccably sharp and fast, even in dynamic action scenes. The traditional motion smoother from Philips called “Motion Style” also deserves praise. We can easily adjust it to our own preferences: the “Smoothness” slider is for movies and allows you to choose between a more “framey,” cinematic character and a smooth, theatrical image. Meanwhile, the “Motion Blur Reduction” slider is intended for sports; here, it’s worth setting it to the maximum value so that the image is clear and sharp during very fast shots.

As we mentioned earlier – although The Frame likely displays images and artwork for most of the time, Samsung recognised that a Van Gogh fan could just as easily be an avid gamer. And it must be said that The Frame 2025 has almost everything to become a fully-fledged gaming TV.

Onboard, we find support for ALLM (Auto Low Latency Mode) and Variable Refresh Rate (VRR) thanks to the implementation of a single HDMI 2.1 port. The TV handles lower resolutions at higher refresh rates effortlessly and features an expanded Game Bar – already known from other Samsung models – which allows for quick preview and adjustment of key gaming-related settings. For this, it gets extra points from us. Noteworthy is also the proprietary motion smoother, Auto Motion Plus Game, which – and this is worth emphasising – works without increasing input lag. Samsung remains the only manufacturer that has managed to implement this feature in a practically unnoticeable way regarding delays. The result? Much better fluidity in games, especially those that struggle to maintain a stable 60 frames. This solution can genuinely improve gaming comfort in more demanding titles – particularly on consoles that don’t always manage full fluidity, especially in AAA games.

As for the downsides – the lack of Dolby Vision is already something we consider standard in Samsung TVs, so there’s not much to specifically nitpick here. However, the problem lies elsewhere. In the latest version of the Tizen system, the HGiG option has disappeared. Literally – it’s gone. This is a significant inconvenience when configuring the console for proper HDR content display in games. It's hard to understand why such a decision was made, but one thing is certain – this needs to be fixed as soon as possible. We’re talking about a brand that has set standards for gaming on TVs for years. If HGiG returns – and we hope it does – The Frame LS03F can confidently aspire to be a proper gaming TV. Not only as a decoration on the wall, but as equipment that truly enhances the gaming experience.

The OLED910 is fantastic for gaming. It supports 144 Hz, so if someone has a powerful PC, they'll easily make the most of that potential. For consoles, the most important thing is still 120 Hz, and everything works smoothly here. It has VRR, an automatic game mode, and even Dolby Vision in games along with HGiG mode, so we pretty much get a full package of gaming features. Philips also added a Game Bar, which is like a quick menu that shows basic information and allows you to enable a few handy features. It might not look as modern as the competition, but it works and does its job. The only downside is the number of HDMI 2.1 ports. There are only two, which can be quite disappointing in this class of television. If someone connects two consoles and something extra to the eARC - like a soundbar (which doesn't really make sense in this model, but more on that in the sound section), they'll have to do a bit more figuring around. Other than that, though, the OLED910 has everything we expect from a gaming TV.