Michał Wołoszyn
The best TV for a home cinema, the best TV for the living room, and finally the best TV of 2026. The Samsung S99H won all three main categories of this year’s HDTVTest TV Shootout organised by Vincent Teoh. We had the opportunity to be among the panel of judges for this special comparison, and this year’s final was particularly interesting. For the first time, a Mini-LED TV also went up against the best OLEDs.
Samsung S99H the best television of 2026
This year's final ended in a complete victory for the Samsung S99H, known on the US market as Samsung S95H. The model scored 21.43 pts in the Best Home Cinema TV category and 17.21 pts as Best Living Room TV, which together gave it 34.58 pts and the title Best TV of 2026. Samsung thus became the first television in the history of the HDTVTest TV Shootout to win all three major awards in a single final.
The test itself was carried out as a blind comparison, and the televisions were judged, among other things, on their performance in dark scenes, colour reproduction, HDR, motion, panel uniformity, image processing and image quality in a bright room. The panel consisted of eight judges (including our Maciej).
You can find our full test of the Samsung S99H on our website and YouTube channel.
Sony BRAVIA 9 II surprised. Mini-LED ahead of two OLEDs
This year's shootout was exceptional for another reason too. For the first time, a Mini-LED LCD TV reached the final: the Sony BRAVIA 9 II. The model had previously won a separate comparison of the best LCD TVs of 2026, beating RGB Mini-LED, Micro RGB and SQD-Mini LED designs. That gave it the opportunity to go head-to-head with the best OLEDs.
And it wasn't merely symbolic. The BRAVIA 9 II finished the whole comparison in second place with a score of 32.54 points, losing only to Samsung. In doing so the LCD TV outscored both the LG G6, 30.00 points and the Sony BRAVIA 8 II, 28.56 points. The Near-Black category was particularly interesting. The BRAVIA 9 II achieved an average of 3.63 here, which is practically only slightly less than the LG G6's 3.69 and even a little more than the OLED Sony BRAVIA 8 II's 3.56. This shows how close the best Mini-LEDs have come to OLEDs in how the image behaves just above black.
Last year's winner comes last this time. Sony Bravia 8 II
Sony BRAVIA 8 II also made the final. It was the winner of the previous (2025) HDTVTest TV Shootout. The model was carried over into this year's line-up as Sony's still highest-ranked OLED. This time, however, it performed much worse. A score of 28.56 points meant last place among the four finalists.
It wasn't all that surprising to us. The unit used during the shootout revealed some of the same issues we'd already highlighted in our own test of the BRAVII 8 II. In several categories the TV still performed very well, but against this year's competition its weaker points were much more apparent.
LG G6 on the podium, but without victory
LG G6 finished the comparison in third place with a total of 30 points. LG's OLED handled motion and HDR content very well, but it was not as consistent across all evaluated areas. It lost particularly heavily in the video processing category, where it scored an average of 2.84, while the Samsung S99H achieved 4.25. Versatility proved to be Samsung's greatest strength. The S99H won, among others, the categories Near-Black, Colour Accuracy, HDR, Video Processing, Bright Room and Out of the Box, and it did not suffer any major lapses in the other categories either.
HDTVTest TV Shootout 2026 results
Place | Television | Best Home Cinema TV | Best Living Room TV | Best TV of 2026 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
1. | Samsung S99H | 21.43 | 17.21 | 34.58 |
2. | Sony BRAVIA 9 II | 21.04 | 15.70 | 32.54 |
3. | LG G6 | 18.00 | 15.49 | 30.00 |
4. | Sony BRAVIA 8 II | 16.59 | 16.29 | 28.56 |
There can only be one winner
So, ultimately, this year's title goes to Samsung S99H. And perhaps the most interesting thing is that it didn't win just because of one standout feature. It was simply the most consistent TV in the whole lineup, whether watching films in a dark room or in a bright living room.
Congratulations to Samsung! And if you want to see how the S99H achieved such a strong result, its full review is already available on our channel. Interestingly, we recently put the three models from this year's podium side by side: the Samsung S99H, the Sony BRAVIA 9 II and the LG G6, so you can also see how their differences look in direct comparison.
