Samsung The Frame 2025 (LS03F) vs Samsung R85H / R86H

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.

When it comes to brightness, the R85H performs quite well. In most of our test scenes the TV reaches around 800–900 nits, and with larger bright elements it can exceed 1000 nits. These aren't, of course, on the level of the most expensive Mini-LEDs, but they're more than enough for watching films and TV series in HDR and the effect can be quite noticeable. The problem reappears in more demanding scenes, where there's a small bright element on a very dark background. Here the TV can greatly reduce its brightness to avoid lighting up too much of the screen. In our measurements such small highlights fell as low as around 200–250 nits, so it's clear that a limited number of local dimming zones combined with the specific behaviour of the algorithm has consequences here. Fortunately, it doesn't affect viewing all the time. In typical, mixed HDR scenes the R85H looks good and can provide good image dynamics. It's just that with very small points of light you shouldn't expect as strong an effect as on TVs with a much larger number of zones or on OLEDs.

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.

In Filmmaker mode our R85H sample in SDR performed adequately, but a few issues immediately stood out in the measurements. In the white balance, as brightness increased more red was added while blue decreased. As a result, the brighter parts of the image had a slightly too-warm tint. Gamma only held the target value at the start. It then gradually fell, which left most of the image a little too bright. The combination of these two factors also affected the colours, with errors growing particularly in the brighter and more saturated samples. It did not look bad, but for Filmmaker mode we expected a bit more accuracy. Interestingly, our sample fared noticeably better in HDR. The white balance was much more even and the individual components stayed close to one another across most of the range. Only in the brightest parts did red start to be lacking, causing white to shift subtly. The EOTF curve looked very good, tracking the target luminance across almost the entire range. That does not mean HDR colours were perfect. The Colour Checker still shows some deviations, especially for some of the more saturated colours, but the errors are clearly smaller than in SDR.

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.

After calibration the R85H shows it has really substantial colour reproduction capabilities. SDR performed best: white balance could be brought almost perfectly into line, and gamma stays very close to the target value across most of the range. That also translated into very low errors in the ColorChecker, so there's really little to criticise here. HDR also shows a clear improvement, although some issues can't be corrected as well. At the highest brightness levels the character of the backlight itself becomes apparent and the individual components of the white balance begin to diverge. The same applies to the most saturated colours, which don't always land exactly where they should. Despite these limitations the overall picture is considerably more accurate than factory settings, and the biggest difference is definitely visible in SDR. However, there is one thing calibration can't fix. With heavily saturated elements the colour can slightly bleed onto adjacent bright areas of the image. It's easiest to notice on white, which can pick up a faint tint of a neighbouring hue. It doesn't occur in every scene, but when the material is demanding the effect can be visible. This is more a feature of the way the RGB backlight operates than an issue with picture settings.

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.

In the R85H, image processing is handled by the Micro RGB AI Processor. The name is new, but when it comes to upscaling lower-quality sources, the TV's behaviour is very similar to what Samsung has shown before. And that's not a bad thing, because Samsung has handled this aspect quite well for years. Lower-resolution material is displayed cleanly, edges don't become overly soft, and the TV doesn't try to artificially extract detail at all costs. The result is simply balanced, and for regular TV or older recordings the R85H performs as you'd expect from Samsung at this level. There's still a small downside: overscan, which can't be completely switched off at the lowest resolutions. Another matter is the extra processing applied to low-quality sources. The R85H can smooth posterization and tidy up heavily compressed footage, but it's worth emphasising that it does so relatively aggressively. At stronger noise reduction settings it starts removing not only compression artefacts but also fine detail and the natural film grain. So it's best to use it only when the source actually needs it.

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.

R85H has a 144 Hz panel, so motion handling is really good here. You should remember that the extra hertz above 120 will mainly be used when connected to a computer, so in this category we don't treat them as any particular advantage. For films and TV, what's more important is that the panel is fast enough to provide access to an advanced motion smoothing feature, "Motion Clarity", which lets us set motion from more film-like to very smooth. The panel's response time is a bit worse. Since it's a VA panel, fast-moving objects can leave a slight trail. On a bright background this isn't very noticeable, but the darker the scene, the more noticeable the smearing becomes. This is a typical characteristic of this type of panel and it's easiest to spot in dark scenes.

As we mentioned earlier – while The Frame is likely to display images and works of art most of the time, Samsung realised that a Van Gogh enthusiast could equally well be an avid gamer. And it must be said that The Frame 2025 has almost everything it needs to become a full-fledged gaming TV.

Onboard, we find support for ALLM (Auto Low Latency Mode) and Variable Refresh Rate (VRR) thanks to the implementation of one HDMI 2.1 port. The television handles lower resolutions at higher refresh rates with ease and has an extensive Game Bar – already known from other Samsung models – which allows for quick viewing and changing of the most important gaming-related settings. And for that, it scores extra points with us. The proprietary motion smoothing technology, Auto Motion Plus Game, also deserves special mention, which – it’s worth emphasising – works without increasing input lag. Samsung remains the only manufacturer that has managed to implement this feature in a virtually unnoticed way in terms of delays. The result? Much better smoothness in games, especially those that struggle to maintain stable 60 frames. This solution can significantly improve gameplay comfort in more demanding titles – particularly on consoles that don’t always maintain full fluidity, especially in AAA games.

As for the downsides – the lack of Dolby Vision is already regarded as standard in Samsung televisions, so there’s not much to critique here. However, the problem is something completely different. In the latest version of the Tizen system, the HGiG option has disappeared. Literally – it’s gone. This is a significant hindrance when configuring consoles for the correct HDR content display in games. It's hard to understand why such a decision was made, but one thing is certain – this should be fixed as soon as possible. We are talking about a brand that has set standards for years when it comes to gaming on TVs. If HGiG returns – and we hope it will – The Frame LS03F can confidently aspire to the title of a true gaming television. Not just as a wall decoration but as equipment that truly provides joy in gaming.

[UPDATE] We have updated our tests of Samsung televisions from the 2025 model year due to the release of software version 1131, which restored the key gaming feature, HGiG.

Samsung has been steadily expanding its gamer features for several years, and the R85H really doesn't lack anything important. The TV supports 4K at 120 Hz, VRR and ALLM, so it can easily make full use of the PlayStation 5 or Xbox Series X. HGiG also works properly, so when HDR is set correctly on the console, games maintain their intended brightness and you don't unnecessarily lose detail in the brightest parts of the image. The only bigger omission is Dolby Vision Gaming, which Samsung doesn't support on any of its TVs.

The Game Bar is also very useful, a handy menu you can bring up without leaving the game. You can quickly check the frame rate, VRR status or change the key picture settings. Samsung also includes a few less obvious features, like the ability to change the aspect ratio or Game Motion Plus, which can further smooth games running at 30 or 60 fps. Of course this comes at the cost of higher input lag (around 55 ms), but for slower-paced titles it may be an interesting option for some.