Hisense UR9S vs Samsung OLED S95H (S99H) (QD-OLED)

Hisense UR9S is undoubtedly a show of strength from the Chinese manufacturer when it comes to luminance. On a synthetic test pattern the panel reached as much as 2600 nits, which is an impressive result. However, it is important to clearly separate laboratory results from filmic realities. In real material the UR9S behaves much more... restrained. Maximum brightness peaks in balanced scenes hover around 1500 nits. In demanding, dark shots, where algorithms must at once maintain deep black and precisely light small details, brightness can fall drastically, even to around 400 nits. The discrepancy between the chart and reality is therefore huge. This is a direct consequence of the conservative behaviour of the local dimming system. When a bright object occupies a large part of the frame, the system can easily sustain a high brightness. But in night scenes the priority becomes protecting black and combating the halo effect (unsightly glows around bright edges). To avoid contrast degradation, the TV drastically limits light output. Even so, the UR9S can still produce a very powerful, immersive HDR effect that impresses in bright, spectacular sequences.

Colour gamut coverage

On test patterns the Hisense UR9S performs excellently in terms of colour. Its coverage of the DCI-P3 gamut is almost 100%, and the wide BT.2020 as much as 93%. Those are results even the best QD-OLED TVs do not achieve. But again, synthetic measurements are one thing, films and series another. In real-world scenes the figures fell to 93% for DCI-P3 and 81% for BT.2020. That's still a great result, but the advantage of RGB Mini LED is no longer as dramatic as manufacturers claim in their marketing materials. One could even say that currently their capability is similar to TVs equipped with quantum dots, the so-called QLED. So why does this happen? To a large extent colour reproduction here depends on the specifics of how the backlight zones operate. When a strongly saturated colour sits next to white or another, more complex element, a single zone has to handle both parts of the picture at once. Under those conditions the backlight cannot maintain extreme saturation of a given colour on screen, because the emitted light takes on a more white-like character. In the UR9S this has been refined quite well, but still not enough for the TV to maintain such high colour saturation in every situation.

When it comes to brightness alone, the S99H is an astronomically bright TV. Its peak brightness in film scenes can exceed 2800 nits. Whatever the scene, you can count on powerful HDR effects that are almost blinding, exactly what you expect from a top-tier screen. It is the nature of OLED panels that they cannot sustain the same extreme brightness in very bright, full‑screen frames as they can with small highlights, but the results are still excellent. In a bright scene from the film The Meg, the sun still exceeded 2200 nits. That means the S99H managed to sustain higher brightness than most Mini LED displays on the market. In terms of brightness, the S99H is currently the best OLED TV we have tested.

Colour gamut coverage

The S99H also handles colour extremely well, which is a direct result of the QD-OLED panel used here. Whether the test scenarios were synthetic test patterns or measurements taken with film material playing in the background, the results remained at a very high level. The S99H easily covers almost 100% of the DCI-P3 gamut, and for the more demanding BT.2020 colour space it reaches nearly 90%. That is absolute top-tier performance. These results match what we have seen in the new SQD-Mini-LED screens, and in real film scenes even outperform RGB Mini LED displays.

We tested the Hisense UR9S in Filmmaker Mode, which out of the box provides the best image reproduction. With HDR material the TV performed quite well in this regard. The white balance showed no major errors, and the luminance response, although it had the characteristic Hisense profile, was maintained at a reasonable level. The picture was therefore neither excessively brightened nor noticeably colour-distorted. The same mode performed much worse with SDR material, the kind of content we watch most often, such as broadcast television or YouTube. The white balance was strongly shifted towards red and blue, giving the picture a slight pink tint. This also affected the gamma curve. Instead of approaching the reference value of 2.4, it was closer to 2.0, making the image look too bright, particularly in midtones and darker areas. Filmmaker Mode therefore remains the best out-of-the-box choice, but it is not a mode without faults.

Samsung offers a whole host of picture modes and features, but as usual we recommend choosing Filmmaker Mode, especially if you want the most faithful rendering of the filmmakers' intent. Out of the box the TV is tuned very well, although it has minor shortcomings. These are mainly a slight drift in the white balance in SDR content and a slightly low gamma. As a result, in darker viewing conditions the picture can be a little too bright compared with the reference gamma of 2.4, which is the standard for watching films with the lights off. These are, of course, minor points, because overall colour reproduction remains at a very good level and the errors in the ColorChecker measurements are not large. However, we know that with a screen of the S99H's class you can, and arguably should, expect even more, which is why we carried out a professional calibration.

After calibration the biggest improvement was in SDR mode, although we also refined the HDR picture. Hisense offers a lot of calibration settings in the menu, so we were able to precisely correct the white balance and the remaining image errors. The most important change was removing the pink tint that had previously been clearly visible in SDR material. After calibration the picture looks much more natural, especially in everyday content such as TV or YouTube.

Colour reproduction errors on the ColorChecker chart are very small after calibration. The vast majority of colours fall below values of 2 to 3, which is at a level very difficult to discern with the human eye. The only thing we could not completely eliminate is the tone-mapping approach characteristic of Hisense TVs in HDR. It affects how brightness is distributed in films and can subtly 'enhance' the image, rather than sticking exactly to the creators' intent. For less experienced viewers this can produce a stronger 'wow' effect, but it will not always fully match how the material should look.

After professional calibration, FILMMAKER mode looks practically perfect. Because Samsung offers a rich set of advanced calibration features, we were able to fine-tune the colours to an almost perfect level. Above all, we managed to even out the white balance and the gamma curve, which resulted in noticeably improved contrast and proper image modelling. In this tuned picture profile there really isn't a single thing to criticise or call a flaw. After calibration, the S99H can deliver an essentially reference-quality image.

For the past two years digital picture processing has been one of Hisense's strengths, and the UR9S is no exception. The manufacturer uses the Hi-View AI Engine RGB processor, which in practice is built on the well-known MediaTek Pentonic 800 platform, previously used, among others, in the U8Q model. The TV handles upscaling lower-resolution material to 4K very well, and copes with low-bitrate content where compression artefacts are common. Thanks to a feature called "Smooth and Gradient Picture", the image remains detailed without appearing over-sharpened or artificially smoothed. When watching regular broadcast TV or older, lower-quality material, the UR9S can get a surprising amount out of them. In terms of digital picture processing, this is one of the most refined LCD TVs we've had the chance to test.

The proprietary Samsung NQ4 Gen3 processor is responsible for upscaling and digital image processing. It handles upscaling lower-resolution material to 4K very well. The picture is clear without looking artificial or overly sharp. The only rather specific drawback appears with very old material recorded at 480p or below. In such cases the TV can slightly crop the edges of the picture.

The processor also copes quite well with artefacts visible in lower bit-rate material, for example heavily compressed YouTube videos. The noise reduction function effectively smooths the image and reduces posterisation, but it operates quite aggressively. It can remove not only unwanted artefacts but also some fine detail, and even natural film grain. Wanting to preserve the source material as faithfully as possible, we decided not to use it. However, if someone prefers a clean, as-smooth-as-possible picture over retaining every detail, it may prove useful.

The Hisense UR9S is one of the first televisions on the market with a 4K panel and a 170 Hz refresh rate. In the larger sizes, 75 and 85 inches, this goes up to 180 Hz. However, such a high refresh rate will be useful mainly to owners of very high-performance PCs. Most films and TV series are still watched at 24 fps, and sports broadcasts at 50 fps, so for everyday use panel response time and the operation of the motion smoothing are more important. In that respect the UR9S performs very well. Panel smearing is minimal, as confirmed by our UFO test. Moving objects do not leave a pronounced trail, so the picture remains clear even in fast scenes.

Another major advantage of organic OLED panels is their excellent motion handling. Thanks to the pixels' virtually instantaneous response time, the Samsung S99H exhibits virtually no motion blur. Fast-moving objects do not produce visible halos or trailing outlines, so the television performs very well for both watching sport and gaming. One characteristic of OLED screens compared with LCDs, however, is the way they render low-frame-rate material. With very slow camera movement the image can appear noticeably more 'choppy'. This can, however, be fairly effectively mitigated using a frame-interpolation system. Samsung lets you adjust judder reduction and blur reduction separately, so it's easy to find a compromise between smoother motion and preserving the cinematic character of the content.

Hisense UR9S is very well prepared for gaming. All three HDMI ports are HDMI 2.1 and offer the full 48 Gb/s bandwidth. The TV supports 4K at 170 Hz, and on larger screen sizes even 180 Hz. It also includes VRR, ALLM, NVIDIA G-Sync and AMD FreeSync, so in terms of basic features there is little to criticise. PC gamers can additionally enable DLG mode. After switching the resolution to Full HD the refresh rate can increase to as much as 330 Hz. That's probably an option for a relatively small group of users, but it shows how much headroom the panel has. Hisense has also added a Game Bar that lets you quickly change key settings, check the refresh rate or enable an on-screen crosshair and minimap zoom.

The biggest drawback remains the lack of a properly working HGiG. The TV still uses its own tone mapping, which makes configuring HDR on a console a bit more difficult. In our case values around 1500 to 2000 nits worked best, but it's worth checking which setting keeps all the detail in the brightest parts of the image.

The Samsung S99H is also a great TV for gamers. It offers almost every possible and useful feature... well, except for the obvious lack of Dolby Vision for the Xbox console. It's equipped with four full-bandwidth HDMI 2.1 ports that offer the full 48 Gbps. This lets you use VRR frame-rate synchronization and the automatic game mode (ALLM) without any problems. This year Samsung also has no issues properly supporting HGiG, so HDR setup on a console is quick and straightforward. Samsung's TVs are also known for interesting extras. In the Game Bar menu you'll find options to add an on-screen crosshair, enlarge the minimap or change the displayed image's aspect ratio (PC).

Particularly noteworthy is Samsung's Game Motion Plus feature. It's Samsung's proprietary motion-smoothing system that uses interpolation to increase smoothness in games. Input lag then rises to around 40 to 50 ms (depending on the strength of the setting), which is an excellent result compared with the competition. The system makes gameplay noticeably smoother. So if someone has their eye on a demanding game (e.g. GTA 6 😉) that runs on a console at only 30 frames per second, the S99H can display it much more smoothly than competing models.