Compare: Samsung The Frame 2026 (LS03H) vs Philips OLED811

Samsung The Frame 2026 is still a TV aimed at a fairly specific type of buyer. If your main priority is having a screen that looks good in your interior, hangs almost flush against the wall, and doesn’t simply turn into a large black rectangle when switched off, there are very few TVs on the market that execute this idea quite as well. The matte screen, interchangeable bezels, external One Connect box, and extensive Art Mode allow The Frame to genuinely become part of the room rather than just another TV sitting in the living room. And that’s exactly where we see its biggest appeal.

Importantly, though, that doesn’t mean design is all you’re getting. The Frame performs really well in bright rooms. Its matte coating is very effective at reducing reflections, brightness reaching around 650 nits is enough for comfortable daytime viewing, and the wide colour gamut means colourful content, animation, and brighter HDR scenes can look very impressive. On top of that, there’s 144Hz support at 4K and, for the first time, up to 240Hz at Full HD. VRR, ALLM, FreeSync, G-Sync, HGiG, low input lag, and an extensive Game Bar make The Frame a much more capable gaming TV than its “artistic” character might suggest.

The biggest compromises become apparent when you look at it as a TV primarily intended for home cinema. The Frame has no local dimming, so blacks become noticeably raised in dark scenes, and this is where the difference compared with good Mini LED and OLED TVs is most obvious. HDR therefore looks best with bright and colourful content, while evening movie sessions in a dark room are definitely not its strongest suit. There is also noticeable motion blur and only one full-bandwidth HDMI 2.1 port on the One Connect box, which may be frustrating for some users, especially gamers.

The Frame 2026, then, isn’t a TV for someone looking for the absolute best picture quality in its price range. There are models that offer deeper blacks or a more impactful HDR experience. But if the TV is meant to become part of a well-designed living room, is often used during the day, displays artwork, and at the same time needs to perform well with a wide variety of content, The Frame still makes a lot of sense. Samsung has barely changed its formula here, but it’s easy to see why — the “picture on the wall” concept is still executed extremely well. Owners of the previous model have little reason to upgrade, but for new buyers looking for this particular combination of design and TV functionality, it remains one of the most interesting options on the market.

Philips OLED811 is a mid-range OLED for 2026 that stands out from its biggest rivals mainly for one thing: Ambilight. The light that follows the picture and spreads across the wall can change the mood of the whole viewing experience. In the evening the screen seems to extend beyond its frame and watching gains an extra bit of charm. For some it will be a pleasant extra, for others a decisive reason to pick Philips again. The picture itself is very comparable to what models like the LG C6 or Samsung S90H offer when using the same panel type. You get deep, perfect blacks that make bright elements really pop. The OLED811 can deliver strong HDR and, importantly, after calibration the picture is close to the reference. There’s no big advantage over the competition, but there’s also no sense that by choosing Philips for Ambilight you’re sacrificing image quality.

Gamers also get a few solid upgrades over last year’s model. Thanks to the MediaTek Pentonic 800 chipset we finally have four HDMI 2.1 ports, so connecting several devices, for example consoles, a PC and a soundbar, no longer means you have to decide which one gets the full capabilities of the port. Gaming itself is very enjoyable — the TV responds quickly, supports variable refresh rate, and from a PC it allows gaming in 4K at 165 Hz. It’s a pity the new processor’s capabilities haven’t been put to equally good use when processing lower-quality sources. The biggest doubts, however, concern the operating system. Titan OS replaced the popular Google TV and, although it has clearly developed over the past year, it’s still hard to call the change a good one. True, the system runs more smoothly, has more useful features, and its library already includes most popular streaming services. Still, the choice of apps is much smaller than Google’s (or the competition’s), and in our view that remains the OLED811’s biggest drawback. People using less popular services may feel that difference particularly strongly.

Is it worth buying? Yes, if Titan OS meets your needs. In terms of picture and the gaming features, the OLED811 has as much to offer as its rivals, but Ambilight gives it something others don’t. Philips therefore gives and takes a bit. It adds a unique viewing atmosphere but limits freedom of app choice. If the services you use are available, this compromise may be worth accepting.

Samsung The Frame 2026 uses a VA panel but doesn't have local dimming. That means the TV can't dim selected parts of the screen. The backlight therefore works fairly evenly across the whole panel. The VA panel itself gives some advantage over IPS or ADS screens. Blacks are noticeably better, and the picture doesn't look as washed out when watching in the evening. That doesn't change the fact that, in terms of contrast, The Frame performs fairly averagely. You can see this most clearly in dark scenes. If a bright object appears on a black background, the TV can't dim the area around it. The black then takes on a more navy tone and the image loses depth. It's similar with films that have black bars. With the lights off it's quite easy to notice that the bars aren't truly black. In simpler, brighter scenes the issue is much less noticeable. So during regular TV, sport or daytime viewing, contrast is unlikely to be a major problem. It looks worse for evening viewing sessions, especially if you've previously been using an OLED or a good Mini-LED. The difference in black levels to The Frame's disadvantage is then very noticeable.

Black levels and contrast are categories where the Philips OLED811 showcases all the advantages of OLED technology. Each pixel emits light independently and can be switched off completely, so black is simply black. No grey halo or blooming around bright objects. During evening viewings this creates a striking effect: stars in the night sky, city lights or text on a dark background remain clearly separated from a perfectly black surround.

So it's hard to expect any improvement over other OLEDs here, because in terms of black depth and contrast the result is already exemplary. The OLED811 doesn't need local dimming zones or a compromise between the brightness of a small object and the black around it. Even a single bright point can sit next to a completely switched-off pixel, giving the image excellent depth.

It's precisely in scenes with a lot of black that the advantage over Mini-LED TVs becomes apparent. Even the most advanced local dimming systems control larger areas of the picture, so in demanding shots they can produce a halo around bright elements or dim them to preserve the dark background. The Philips OLED811 doesn't have that problem.

The Frame 2026 is a genuinely bright TV. Its peak brightness reaches around 650 nits and, importantly, it maintains similar levels regardless of the type of scene being displayed. It doesn’t really matter whether we’re watching a very bright full-screen image or just a small highlight occupying part of the screen. The backlight remains powerful, allowing bright parts of the image to stand out clearly.

This gives The Frame a solid foundation for HDR. Bright highlights can look impactful, and the picture doesn’t appear flat or overly dim. Unfortunately, there is a compromise. Without local dimming, the TV cannot darken the black areas surrounding very bright objects.

This is clearly visible in scenes 2 and 4 of our test procedure. Bright elements look impressive, but at the same time, the blacks around them become noticeably raised. As a result, the image loses some of its depth, especially when watching in a dark room. This is why The Frame performs best with HDR in bright and moderately bright scenes, where its high brightness works to its advantage. In darker scenes, the situation is quite the opposite.

Colours

The Frame also performs well when it comes to colour reproduction. As a QLED TV, it can display a wide colour gamut and produce rich, saturated colours. DCI-P3 coverage reaches around 94%, while BT.2020 comes in at around 72%. These are good results, and you can see the difference in actual content.

Colours look vivid without appearing washed out, particularly in bright and colourful scenes. Animations and other content with plenty of saturated colours can look really good on The Frame. With this type of material, the TV shows one of its stronger sides.

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.

For assessing the factory colour setup we chose the Filmmaker Mode. If you’re encountering it for the first time, it’s a mode designed to reproduce films and TV shows as faithfully as possible. The TV then turns off most additional image enhancers, and the colours and luminance response are intended to be as close as possible to what the creators intended. And it must be said that The Frame 2026 performs quite well in this respect straight out of the box. The biggest deviation is seen in the white balance. As brightness increases, blue starts to fall short and there’s a slight increase in green. As a result, the image shifts towards warmer tones. So white isn’t perfectly neutral, and in some scenes you can notice a subtly warmer cast.

The luminance response, both gamma and EOTF, looks pretty good. Through most of the range they stay fairly close to the target, although larger deviations are visible in the darkest parts of the image. In practice, some shadow details emerging from black may therefore be a bit more pronounced. However, it’s not an error that jumps out during normal viewing. Overall, Filmmaker Mode is a good starting point here. However, the factory picture is a bit too warm and not all hues land exactly where they should.

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.

After calibration we mainly managed to remove that warmer tint and better even out the white balance. We also smoothed the brightness response a bit, which made the picture more neutral and predictable. There are, however, things calibration won't fix. It's mainly the black performance, which comes from the backlight design and the lack of local dimming. In some scenes the blacks will therefore still be slightly lifted, and you just have to accept that. It's more a characteristic of this model than something you can fix with the settings. HDR is also somewhat limited. Samsung doesn't give full freedom to work across the widest colour gamut here, so not all colours can be reproduced perfectly. In normal viewing it will probably be hard to notice, but it's worth being aware of.

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.

Gradation in The Frame 2026 performs well, though not perfectly. In bright tonal transitions you can notice slight issues and occasional mild banding. These aren't faults that seriously affect normal viewing, but they can be picked up on our test patterns and in more demanding scenes. We'd rate the bright-tone gradation at roughly 7.5-8 out of 10.

Interestingly, gradation looks much better in the dark parts of the image. Here the transitions are very smooth and it's hard to find clear signs of posterization. That's the opposite of many LCD TVs, where the near-black areas usually cause more problems. In photos of dark scenes you can, however, spot some image irregularities. They don't come from the gradation itself but from panel uniformity and the backlight. Unfortunately, in that respect our sample of The Frame wasn't perfect, so in very dark shots you could see brighter and darker patches from the backlight.

Compared with Philips' previous OLEDs, the smoothness of tonal transitions has clearly improved. The biggest difference is in the dark parts of the picture, which can cause WOLED panels quite a few problems. On the OLED811 they have been smoothed very well, with tones flowing smoothly from one to the next, without obvious banding or posterisation. That's a big plus, especially when watching dark scenes.

Unfortunately, it isn't as good in brighter shots. That's where we have the biggest reservations: instead of a gentle transition between tones you can sometimes see distinct boundaries, in other words posterisation. It can be noticeable, and it's a pity the improvement seen in dark scenes didn't extend to the brighter areas of the picture to the same degree.

As with many of Samsung’s newer TVs, this one also uses the NQ4 AI processor, albeit the older, second-generation version. I must admit it handles digital image processing quite well. Lower-resolution material is sharpened effectively, and when upscaled to 4K it still looks natural. The TV can also tidy up weaker sources a bit, such as older recordings or lower-quality broadcasts. That doesn’t, of course, mean it will suddenly turn poor footage into true 4K, but at close viewing distances the difference compared with simpler models with weaker processors is easy to spot. Edges are clearer and fine details aren’t lost as much to signal compression.

Samsung also provides a few extra picture-enhancing features, but as usual it’s best to use them sparingly. At stronger settings, noise reduction can very effectively reduce posterisation, but it also noticeably interferes with the image. The picture then starts to look quite artificial, for example by heavily smoothing faces. So these features make most sense with really poor sources when all the noise is very distracting.

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.

Samsung again used a panel here with a maximum refresh rate of 144 Hz. Refresh rates up to 120 Hz mainly offer greater flexibility with high-motion content. The TV can use additional motion smoothing systems that can improve smoothness in sports and other fast-paced content. However, a high refresh rate alone does not solve everything. The Frame still uses a VA panel, which has a fairly slow response time, resulting in quite pronounced motion blur. With fast-moving objects, especially against dark backgrounds, the trails are easy to notice. There's also a slight double-imaging of edges, which can be visible even after turning off additional motion enhancement systems. We already saw similar behaviour in last year's The Frame 2025, and it's a shame Samsung hasn't fixed this. The 144 Hz itself provides a good foundation, but the panel's response time still limits this TV.

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.

When it comes to gaming features, The Frame is practically on par with Samsung’s flagship TVs. Once a console is connected, the TV automatically switches to Game Mode thanks to ALLM, so there’s no need to change the settings manually every time. There’s also VRR, which matches the screen’s refresh rate to the frame rate generated by the console or PC. When the frame rate drops, this helps prevent the characteristic screen tearing that can otherwise occur.

The Frame naturally supports 4K at 120Hz, allowing you to take advantage of higher frame rates on the PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series X. HGiG also works correctly. Once HDR has been properly calibrated on the console, the TV doesn’t try to additionally brighten the image on its own, so bright highlights in games are displayed as they should be.

Samsung also includes its Game Bar. This quick-access menu can be opened without leaving the game and lets you check things like VRR operation or the current frame rate, while also giving you quick access to the most important gaming settings. PC users get even more flexibility, as the Full HD mode mentioned earlier allows the refresh rate to be increased all the way up to 240Hz.

There is really only one feature missing, and by now it’s something we’ve come to expect from Samsung TVs: Dolby Vision Gaming. Xbox owners will notice this the most, as Xbox consoles can actually use Dolby Vision in supported games.

There is one more limitation worth mentioning that applies specifically to this model. The One Connect box has only one HDMI 2.1 port, so this is the only input you can use for a console or PC if you want to play at 4K 120Hz. Fortunately, Samsung hasn’t combined this port with eARC. This means you can connect a soundbar separately to HDMI 3 and still keep the full-bandwidth HDMI 2.1 port available for your console.

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.

Those who worried that the additional One Connect module might cause greater delay between our action on the controller and what happens on screen can rest easy. The input lag we measured is as low as in other Samsung TVs.

At a 60 Hz signal it's about 15 ms, and when switching to 120 Hz it drops to around 8 ms. Those are very good results, so the delay is hard to notice in practice, even in fast-paced games. The One Connect module itself doesn't introduce any noticeable issue.

OLED811 responds instantly. We measured 14 ms at 60 Hz and just 5 ms at 120 Hz, both in Full HD and 4K. Those are excellent results that let you comfortably play even fast online multiplayer games. Unfortunately, when Dolby Vision is enabled the situation changes dramatically: at 60 Hz latency rises to 157 ms, and at 120 Hz it’s 57 ms. The first result in particular already causes a clearly noticeable lag between a movement on the controller and the response on screen. For gaming it’s definitely better to stick with HDR10.

In this category you could jokingly say the new The Frame gives with one hand and takes with the other. If we look purely at PC gaming, it performs really well. It offers 144 Hz at 4K or even 240 Hz in Full HD, plus support for G-Sync and FreeSync and very low input lag. The Frame can easily serve as a large gaming monitor and there’s little to complain about. On the other hand, we got the impression that font readability in the new model has slightly worsened. When you look at text up close you can notice extra fringing along the bottom edges of letters caused by the behaviour of individual subpixels. This gives a slight impression of softened text. Of course this is mainly an issue for people who would actually want to use The Frame as a desktop monitor, for example for working with text. At a typical viewing distance the problem is practically impossible to notice. And let’s be honest, it’s hard to imagine anyone putting a 55- or 65-inch The Frame on their desk.

The Philips OLED811 works very well with a PC. The manufacturer has finally managed to correctly implement 4:4:4 chroma, even at maximum resolution and refresh rate. As a result, small text and coloured edges are readable, without the blurring or rainbow fringing that comes from loss of colour information. Dark text on dark backgrounds also holds up well, which TVs can struggle with. There are still minor imperfections related to the RGWB subpixel layout. Fonts are not as sharp as on a classic RGB monitor, and with white letters you can see faint red halos up close. From a normal viewing distance you barely notice it, though it’s easier to spot when sitting close at a desk.

Where it really shines is gaming from a PC. The combination of 4K at 165 Hz, working G-Sync and input lag around 5 ms makes the OLED811 excellent for that. If you have a computer that can take advantage of that refresh rate, it’s definitely worth plugging it into the Philips.

Viewing angles are not a strong point of this model. Compared with LCD TVs with IPS panels, and even more so with OLEDs, the picture degrades fairly quickly when viewed at an angle.

The viewing angles on the OLED811 are excellent and among the best on the market. Even when sitting well off to the side you still see an image with deep blacks and well-saturated colours. That's a big advantage over LCD screens. You don't have to sit exactly in front to enjoy good picture quality.

QD-OLED panels perform even better, keeping colours more faithful at off-axis angles. On the Philips, at wider off-axis angles the whites shift slightly towards greenish tones, but the effect is so small that it's hard to find it bothersome while watching. We'd even say that in this respect this is the best WOLED panel sample we've tested so far.

The Frame is, by design, a TV that will often be used in a bright living room, and its matte finish suits that very well. The screen effectively diffuses reflections, so a window or a lit lamp doesn't turn into a clear mirror. In that respect it's really good and it's one of this model's stronger points. The matte finish does have a downside. Strong light falling directly on the screen scatters over a larger area and slightly raises the black level. During the day blacks therefore don't look as "deep" as at night, especially when the room is very bright. But we think that's a fair compromise. Working in The Frame's favour is its high brightness. The TV has enough brightness so the image doesn't wash out and remains clearly visible during the day. Overall, it's a good TV for a bright living room, especially if reflections bother you more.

OLED811 copes with daytime viewing, although in a very bright living room it already has its limits. Peak brightness in SDR reaches about 600 nits, a level comparable with the LG C6 or Samsung S90H, which use the same panel. That’s noticeably more than basic OLEDs and will be plenty for most people. Bear in mind, though, that this brightness isn’t maintained across the whole screen — it falls with a lot of white, and the average from our measurements was around 392 nits.

A bigger issue can be direct reflections from windows or lamps. The glossy coating dampens them reasonably well, but they’re still clearly visible on the screen, especially in dark scenes. It doesn’t diffuse reflections as effectively as matte screens, so placing the TV opposite a large window isn’t the best idea. On the plus side, black levels remain very good even in daylight. In a typical living room the Philips will therefore perform without major problems, but with strong sunlight falling directly on the screen you’ll want blinds.

Operating System: Tizen

Samsung The Frame 2026 runs on the familiar Tizen operating system, so when it comes to Smart TV features, you get pretty much everything you would expect from a modern TV. There is a wide selection of streaming apps, AirPlay, SmartThings, and the ability to cast content from a smartphone. The system itself is fast and responsive, while the menu layout is very similar to what you’ll find on other Samsung TVs.

When it comes to traditional TV features, things are a little more basic. The Frame doesn’t really stand out in this area, focusing primarily on its online features and lifestyle-oriented functionality.

Art Mode

The key feature, of course, remains Art Mode. It allows The Frame to display artwork or your own photos when you’re not watching TV, effectively turning the screen into part of your interior. The matte screen coating plays an important role here, as it helps the displayed artwork look less like an image shown on a glowing TV screen.

Another interesting addition is the motion sensor, something you won’t normally find on other TVs. It’s worth pointing out that this is not the same thing as the ambient light sensor. The latter adjusts the screen brightness to match the conditions in the room, while the motion sensor detects whether someone is nearby. If the room is empty, the TV can automatically turn Art Mode off and then switch it back on when you return. This means the screen doesn’t have to stay on all the time.

Another feature that works particularly well with this model is One Connect. In our opinion, it makes a lot of sense on a TV like The Frame, which is designed to sit as close to the wall as possible. All the main cables are connected to a separate box, while only a single cable runs to the screen itself. It’s simply a very convenient solution.

It’s also worth mentioning that Samsung includes a dedicated wall mount in the box. That might sound obvious, but it really isn’t. With the flagship S99H, for example, which also puts a strong emphasis on flush wall mounting and blending into the interior, the appropriate wall mount has to be purchased separately. With The Frame, it’s included, so you can save yourself a bit of extra money right from the start.

*The Art Mode photo was taken on The Frame Pro 2026. It looks identical on the standard The Frame — we have to admit that we simply forgot to take a photo of it during testing. 😉

Smart features — Titan OS

The Smart TV system is the most controversial change in the OLED811. Philips has dropped the user-favourite Google TV in favour of its own Titan OS. For many people this may be a hard decision to accept, although Titan is getting noticeably better year on year and runs more smoothly. We have working AirPlay, screen mirroring from a computer and voice search in Polish. System responsiveness has improved too, though you can still notice small delays when navigating the menus. We have the impression the IR remote is partly to blame, as it doesn’t always pick up commands immediately. The biggest limitation compared with Google TV is the smaller selection of apps. That doesn’t mean it’s empty, however — you’ll find Netflix, Prime Video, Disney+, CANAL+, and Apple TV has recently joined the library. If you mainly use popular services, Titan should be fine, but it’s worth checking availability of less well-known apps before buying (see the list at the bottom 😉).

Ambilight

Ambilight remains one of the best reasons to consider a Philips TV. On the OLED811 it’s three-sided — LEDs along the top and sides of the casing light the wall with colours matched to what’s happening on screen. In the evening this creates a great effect and can change the whole room’s atmosphere, so we awarded extra points for this feature. You don’t have to use the dynamic picture tracking though. If you prefer a calmer viewing environment you can set a static white light. It’s a pleasant option for evening sessions when you don’t want to sit in front of a bright screen in a completely dark room.

Classic features

For regular TV viewing the OLED811 performs well, though it lacks USB recording and picture-in-picture (PiP). You can connect Bluetooth headphones and use them alongside the TV’s speakers. What bothers us most, however, is the infrared control mentioned earlier. The remote itself is quite interestingly designed: it’s backlit and has a hybrid keyboard with a numeric section. It’s a shame you still have to point it at the TV like with old sets. With equipment at this level we’d prefer to just press buttons without worrying which way we’re holding the remote. Hopefully Philips will fix that in future models.

When it comes to playing files from USB, The Frame performs adequately. The TV handles the main video, photo and audio formats with no trouble, so in everyday use there shouldn't be many surprises. However, we again ran into problems with the HEIC format, which is common on Apple devices. Photos saved in that format couldn't be opened correctly, which can be annoying if you often transfer photos directly from an iPhone. Apart from that, the media player operated without any major issues.

The USB player in the OLED811 handles most of the audio and video formats we test, so it's perfectly adequate for watching a movie or playing music from a USB stick. Our main reservations are about photos, specifically the strangely selective handling of their resolutions. The TV opened 8, 16 and 32 Mpix files, but couldn't cope with the rest. So it's not that the photos are simply too large, because the player can display a higher-resolution image and refuse to open a smaller one. When browsing holiday photos this can be genuinely annoying, as some will need to be converted on a computer first... or you could just use remote screen mirroring...😉

Despite using a 40W 2.0.2 speaker system, which on paper is slightly better than what you’ll find in many standard TVs, the sound quality is fairly average. Our biggest issue is that it simply sounds flat. As with most very slim TVs, there isn’t much bass or depth.

Fortunately, the midrange and treble are reproduced well enough. Dialogue is clear, and at normal listening volumes there are no major distortions. For watching the news or regular TV, the built-in speakers are perfectly adequate. With movies, music, or games, however, you’ll quickly start to miss a fuller and more powerful sound.

For that reason, we would definitely recommend pairing The Frame with a soundbar or external speakers. Samsung also offers an increasing number of audio products designed specifically with lifestyle TVs in mind, including the slim S800 series, as well as Music Frame and Music Studio speakers, which visually complement The Frame particularly well.

There have been a few concrete changes to the sound compared with last year’s OLED820. The rear subwoofer is gone and the 4.1 speaker layout has been replaced by a 2.2 configuration. Despite these changes the OLED811 still sounds good and fairly even. It can play louder, and the sound even seems a touch fuller than a year ago. The bass has suffered; although the sound has weight, the low end lacks the depth of its predecessor. You can hear this most clearly in films and music when you’re waiting for a stronger hit. That said, it’s still well above average for built-in TV speakers. If you want deeper bass and more distinct spatial effects, it’s worth considering a soundbar or a system with an AV receiver. Philips gives you plenty of flexibility: it supports both Dolby Atmos and DTS, and will pass Dolby TrueHD tracks over HDMI eARC to compatible equipment without any problems. So there’s room to upgrade later if you decide to expand the sound system.

Samsung The Frame 2026 (LS03H) vs Philips OLED811

Advantages

Disadvantages

Our verdict

TV appearance

Where to buy

Contrast and black detail

HDR effect quality

Colours

Colours

Factory color reproduction

Color reproduction after calibration

Smoothness of tonal transitions

Image scaling and smoothness of tonal transitions

Blur and motion smoothness

Console compatibility and gaming features

Input lag

Compatibility with PC

Viewing angles

Daytime performance

Panel details

TV features

Classic features:

Smart features:

Sound connection options

Supported audio formats (external HDMI eARC audio):

Senior accessibility

Operating System: Tizen

Art Mode

Smart features — Titan OS

Ambilight

Classic features

Apps

Playing files from USB

Sound

Sound Quality Test

Acoustic Measurements