Haier M95E vs Samsung The Frame Pro 2026 (LS03HW)

If there is one category in which the Haier M95E absolutely shines, it is the HDR effect, driven by the raw power of the backlighting. This television cannot be denied the fact that it is a truly bright device. In both most film scenes and during our synthetic measurements, the panel easily achieved, and often even exceeded, the threshold of 1200-1500 nits. This has a direct impact on the viewing experience – the image has a punch and genuinely allows one to feel the magic of materials recorded in this format. However, one must be aware of a certain compromise. When exceptionally demanding scenes appear on the screen, full of small but intense points of light, the M95E does not lose its resonance or dim, but pays a different price for it. A very strong and noticeably distracting halo effect is generated around these bright elements. It is clear here that the algorithms controlling the dimming have been programmed to prioritise brightness and the visibility of the smallest details, even if this comes at the expense of pristine blacks. We are not entirely convinced that this is the healthiest approach; nonetheless, it must be acknowledged that the overall capabilities of the M95E in this regard are indeed significant. A huge advantage is the fact that we are dealing with a Mini LED QLED type construction. The use of a layer of quantum dots brings measurable benefits in the form of wide coverage of the colour palette, which in our tests reached nearly 96% of the DCI-P3 space. This guarantees that the television has full predispositions for displaying vibrant and properly saturated colours.

One thing you cannot deny The Frame Pro is: brightness. At peak we measured around 850–900 nits, so the TV already has enough power to show many HDR scenes really impressively. Bright, full‑screen shots and more colourful frames perform best here. In such scenes The Frame Pro can make a good impression because the image is bright, punchy and has the effect we expect from HDR. In our measurements some scenes reached over 800 nits, and even in more challenging segments the TV maintained a quite respectable brightness level.

The problem starts when HDR depends on small bright elements shown on a dark background. Individual lamps, stars or highlights can be bright, but very often the black level across a larger part of the image also rises. As a result the bright point itself may look good, but the whole frame loses a lot of quality. Therefore The Frame Pro shows HDR best in scenes that are simply full‑screen. If a film or TV series has plenty of such shots, the effect can be really pleasant. In darker material the limitations of local dimming are much more noticeable.

Colours

The Frame Pro should be praised for its colour gamut coverage. The TV uses quantum dots, the solution known as QLED, which allows it to reproduce very well saturated colours. In our measurements coverage of the most important film gamut DCI‑P3 was around 94.5%, while the more demanding BT.2020 was about 72%.

These are very solid results that in most scenes allow for pleasant, saturated colours. Of course these figures are not as spectacular as in the latest screens using RGB backlighting, but The Frame Pro makes up for that with something else: colour stability. Regardless of the scene, colour saturation remains fairly consistent and there are no situations where the TV loses colour badly in more demanding shots.

Each television is primarily evaluated based on its default cinema mode – in this case, "Movie" – which theoretically should be the "best" and most faithful upon being taken out of the box. Unfortunately, in the case of the Haier M95E, the word "best" is certainly not synonymous with the word "good." Already during SDR viewing, the picture revealed evident problems: white balance skewed too much to red, and excessive, unnatural colour saturation led to visible colour deviations. What’s worse, the M95E also struggles with brightness management (gamma curve), excessively darkening the entire scene. Such behaviour is hard to commend, as it directly leads to details merging into shadows that are irrevocably lost in a black blob.

However, the real disaster occurred after switching to HDR material, while still remaining in "Movie" mode. It’s hard for us to guess who came up with such a fantastic idea – or perhaps it was simply a complete oversight of this stage by Haier's engineers – but instead of cinematic fidelity, the picture began to resemble a garish "Dynamic" mode. The white balance exposed immense problems with the blue colour, which in turn resulted in unnatural sharpening and artificial over-saturation of the entire scene. As if that weren’t enough, the EOTF curve characteristics mercilessly revealed that the television also has fundamental issues with local dimming management in this setting. We have not calibrated many Haier models in our career, but we already know for sure that the M95E definitely needs such calibration.

In SDR material The Frame Pro in Filmmaker mode performs quite well, though it falls a little short of perfect. The white balance is relatively even, but as brightness increases the blue component drops, so the brighter parts of the image can have a slightly warmer tint. A bigger difference is visible in the gamma, that is the handling of the screen's brightness. For most of the range it runs below our reference point, which means the TV slightly brightens midtones. As a result the image can appear a little brighter and less contrasty than it should. The colour errors themselves are not huge, but they are noticeable enough that calibration could still bring considerable improvement.

In HDR content the white balance looks similar — for a large part of the range it is fairly even, with larger deviations appearing only at higher brightness. The EOTF curve is more interesting. The Frame Pro sticks reasonably close to the reference values in the brighter part of the image, but clearly brightens the darkest sections. This is mainly due to the design of the TV's backlight. That also affects colours. With less saturated hues the errors remain moderate, but as saturation increases they become much larger. In Colour Checker measurements a large portion of samples already show high error values. The factory HDR can therefore be regarded as decent, but it is certainly not an image we would call very faithful.

The calibration process left us with extremely mixed feelings. On the one hand, we noted considerable success in the area of colour accuracy. By using the available options in the menu, we managed to tame the white balance and bring it down to an acceptable level. As a result, SDR content finally freed itself from the irritating red dominance, and the HDR image no longer resembled a vibrant, shop display mode. We also succeeded in clearly adjusting the entire colour palette and its saturation – perhaps not perfectly, but as much as the software allowed, and the difference was visible to the naked eye.

And unfortunately, this is where our list of improvements essentially ends, as the M95E simply did not allow for more. As we indicated earlier, most settings related to image brightness do not respond to our commands at all. This means that we were unable to grasp its fundamental characteristics in any way – neither the gamma curve nor the EOTF. In practice, the television in SDR content still tends to darken details, as confirmed by the elevated gamma, merging details in the shadows. Meanwhile, the EOTF curve in HDR mode still ruthlessly exposes all the aforementioned problems with chaotic local dimming management. And although the calibration process itself yielded a lot, removing most of the colour issues, in the end, we had to capitulate.

After calibration the biggest improvement is visible above all in SDR content. We managed to even out the white balance, but the more important change was the gamma correction, which before calibration had the greatest influence on the image character. After the adjustments the gamma curve is now very close to the reference, so the picture is not as bright in the midtones and simply looks more natural. Colour errors have also been significantly reduced, so the effect of calibration in SDR is clearly visible.

With HDR the situation is somewhat more complex. White balance has been improved and over part of the range the TV stays much closer to the reference, but deviations still appear at higher brightness levels. The same applies to colour reproduction: some errors can be corrected, but not all stem from the settings alone. This highlights the limitations of the TV's design and the way its backlight and local dimming affect HDR images. Therefore, with The Frame Pro calibration makes the biggest difference to everyday viewing. Regular TV, YouTube and films and series in SDR (mainly those from the cheaper tiers of streaming services) can look noticeably better afterwards.

Well, what happens to those colour connections when a lower quality material full of compression artifacts comes on screen? Unfortunately, we have some bad news for you. Although the menu contains an option responsible for smoothing tonal transitions in older content, we definitely DO NOT RECOMMEND using it. Its activation causes an avalanche of additional, hideous artifacts and noticeably blurs the entire image, and what's funniest – it often doesn't even remove those unwanted "jaggies" it was supposed to fight against. This function might as well not exist at all.

We can write many more positive remarks about the general upscaling process, which raises lower resolutions to the native 4K matrix. The image after upscaling looks really decent – it is neither overly jagged nor artificially smoothed. In this particular matter, the M95E simply performs well.

The Frame Pro uses the NQ4 AI Gen3 processor, so in terms of image processing it behaves very similarly to other newer Samsung TVs. Upscaling works really well – lower-resolution content is appropriately sharpened and the picture remains clear without excessive edge enhancement. With regular broadcast TV or lower-quality YouTube material this can provide a noticeable improvement, although viewers watching even older material, e.g. from VHS tapes, may notice a slight cropping of the image on the left side (overscan).

It's a bit different when improving more highly compressed footage by reducing noise and artefacts such as posterization. The "Noise reduction" function can improve poor material, but fairly quickly it begins to alter the picture and remove fine details and grain. Therefore it's best to use it sparingly and mainly when the source truly requires it.

In terms of motion fluidity and blur, our feelings are quite mixed, as the M95E is a paradox of a television. Let's start with absolute admiration: at the heart of the device is a 144Hz panel, but what truly impresses is its performance with 120Hz content, which is crucial for sports and console gaming. We must state with full responsibility that Haier has equipped this television with one of the best VA panels currently available on the market regarding the minimisation of blur. It is rare to encounter an LCD panel that offers such clean, sharp, and ghosting-free motion. In this respect, the M95E is simply phenomenal.

And that is precisely why the unpleasant surprise that awaits us on the software side is so painful. It turns out that this fantastic hardware potential is completely underutilised, as the television practically offers no effective options for improving fluidity. The motion smoothing systems that should assist with lower frame-rate content can indeed be found in the Menu, but they essentially do not respond to our settings. The conclusion is brutally simple: if you intend to watch high-fluidity material, you must be sure that the source is broadcasting it at native 120. In every other case, you must accept a rather raw, stuttering image, as the M95E will do nothing to smooth it out.

The Frame Pro comes with a 144 Hz panel, and when connected to a PC it also supports 240 Hz at Full HD resolution. That feature is primarily aimed at PC gamers, but the TV also performs very well at the standard 120 Hz refresh rate used for watching sport or gaming on consoles. A key advantage is the low level of motion blur. For a VA panel, The Frame Pro does very well in this respect. You don't see the strong, dark trailing smears behind moving objects that we often encounter on TVs with this type of panel. As a result, fast-paced sport and dynamic games remain clear in motion. Of course there's also motion smoothing with adjustable smoothness, so for films and sports broadcasts we can tailor the motion character to our preferences. You'll find our recommended settings in the photo.

When it comes to features for gamers, the Haier M95E presents some very strong arguments. First of all, it is fully ready for the new generation of consoles and powerful PCs. It is equipped with two full-fledged HDMI 2.1 ports, which seamlessly handle 4K signals at 120Hz, and even allow for gameplay at 144Hz. This is the foundation that guarantees us the full use of the potential of our gear. Moreover, the key technologies work flawlessly here. The television flawlessly detects the console and automatically switches to low latency mode (ALLM), so we don’t have to fiddle with the settings. The frame synchronization (VRR) works just as efficiently, eliminating annoying screen tearing when game fluidity slightly drops. Considering the incredibly low motion blur of the panel, which we have already mentioned, the M95E creates a really comfortable and responsive gaming environment. Of course, this is not a perfect package. A dedicated "Game Bar," which is a handy menu for gamers, would be useful, but this is essentially just a nice addition. A more serious failing is the lack of support for the HGiG standard, which complicates the perfect HDR configuration on the console and may lead to overexposures. Despite these shortcomings, the basic "gaming" set that the M95E offers is really solid and fully functional.

Functionally for gamers The Frame Pro has a great deal to offer. The TV supports 4K at 120 Hz, VRR, ALLM and a properly implemented HGiG. When connected to a PC you can also use 144 Hz at 4K, and even 240 Hz when dropping to Full HD. Samsung also includes its standard suite of gaming extras. There is an expanded Game Bar that lets you quickly view and change the most important settings, and Game Motion Plus, which can improve the smoothness of games running at 30 or 60 frames per second. On top of that there is the Gaming Hub and the option to play in the cloud without needing to connect a console. The only real omission is Dolby Vision Gaming, which Samsung does not support. Apart from that, The Frame Pro offers virtually everything you can expect from a well-equipped gaming TV today.