Philips OLED910 vs Samsung S90H (QD-OLED)

The OLED910 is simply an absurdly bright television for an OLED. All thanks to the new panel from LG Display, the Tandem RGB OLED, which Philips has dubbed its "META OLED." It is this panel that allows for over 2000 nits of brightness in films, which not long ago was completely unattainable in OLEDs. The television also deserves high praise for how it handles full-screen scenes drenched in bright light. Generally, in OLEDs, brightness drops significantly during such scenes, but here it remains at an excellent level – around 1400 nits. These are almost reference values, and combined with the excellent colour reproduction at 99% DCI P3 and 82% BT.2020, it gives us an HDR effect that can confidently be called one of the best in the world.

The Samsung S90H is a genuinely bright TV for the mid-range OLED segment. In synthetic tests its peak brightness reached around 1650 nits. That’s an impressive result in this class, roughly 50% higher than what we have seen from previous models in this price bracket. Most importantly, these tests translate directly to real video material. In four out of five film clips we tested, the S90H’s brightness ranged between 1300 and 1500 nits. That headroom allows it to reproduce most HDR films with very high dynamic range and without obvious compromises, especially in material mastered to 1000–1500 nits. In practice light effects, reflections and explosions have the appropriate punch, and the picture does not appear dimmed. Of course, on full-screen very bright scenes the result is naturally lower and drops to around 900 nits. This is a direct result of the OLED panel’s protection systems working to prevent overload. Even in this scenario there is little to complain about. Those 900 nits across the whole screen is still a very high level, ensuring excellent dynamic range in HDR content.

Colour has always been a major strength of QD-OLED TVs, and the S90H is no exception. The DCI-P3 colour space we measured reached a full 100% (actually 99.9%), while coverage of the much wider BT.2020 gamut hit about 89%. That’s an excellent result, enabling very saturated and vivid colours in HDR content. It’s worth emphasising that QD-OLED’s advantage over WOLED panels is not limited to palette coverage alone. In practice it’s mainly visible in the higher brightness of saturated colours, that is in a greater colour volume. As a result, intense reds, greens and blues in HDR look more vibrant and more striking.

Update 01/2026

After conducting a series of calibrations of the OLED910 model at our customers' locations, we noticed that the measurement results differ from those obtained during the initial tests. The factory tuning of the movie mode turns out to be significantly better than our first tests suggested. White balance is set very precisely, with only a minimal dominance of red. The factory colour reproduction stays close to reference standards – average Delta E errors hover around 3-4, which is an excellent result for factory settings. However, there is some concern regarding the way the television manages brightness. Analysis of the Gamma (SDR) and EOTF (HDR) graphs shows a tendency to excessively 'pull' details out of the shadows. In practice, this means that the image may appear too bright, resulting in a loss of black depth in favour of visibility of details that should remain hidden. Of course, this effect can be effectively corrected during professional calibration.

Unfortunately, regarding colour reproduction right out of the box, the Filmmaker mode on the OLED910 performs really poorly. The television overemphasises the blue colour, and at times it looks almost like a shop mode. This gives the impression that the manufacturer did not quite tune the device properly. The effect is that colours appear unnatural, and the overall look is somewhat reminiscent of an overly exaggerated display in a store. HDR content performs much better, where aside from a slight loss of detail in the blacks, there's not much to complain about. The problem is that in everyday viewing, it is the SDR materials that matter most – and on the OLED910, they simply look poor and fall far short of what we would expect from a television of this class.

The next stage of the test was to check how the S90H handles colour reproduction without any calibration. As always, we carried out the measurements in Filmmaker Mode, the best factory picture preset. And here Samsung really deserves praise. The factory tuning is at a very high level, and a few years ago this was not one of its strong points. The average colour error (Delta E) remained around 3, which is below the level at which most people can notice any inaccuracies. Only in the brightest shades of grey did the values slightly approach 4, but even then it's hard to regard this as a real problem while watching. For out-of-the-box settings, the result is simply excellent.

Fortunately, it quickly turned out that it was not the panel causing the problems, but rather the way Philips factory-calibrated the OLED910. After calibration, the television displayed its full potential, and only then could we see what the new panels produced by LG Display were truly capable of. We primarily adjusted the white balance and brightness characteristics, successfully taming the excessive blue and giving the image a natural appearance. The final effect can be described as excellent. Errors on the Color Checker palette rarely exceeded a value of 3, which in practice means an image close to perfection and colours presented in accordance with the creators' intent. In SDR content, the effect was outstanding, and in HDR, the improvement was even more noticeable – gradients became cleaner, and colours fuller and more accurate. After calibration, the OLED910 transformed from a disappointing television into equipment that can confidently be referred to as a reference in terms of colour quality.

All right, but you know we wouldn't be ourselves if we didn't also check how far we could push the S90H after professional calibration. And there was no big surprise. Since the factory settings were already very good, there wasn't much room for improvement. Even so, we managed to refine the picture to near perfection. After calibration the mean colour reproduction errors fell below the threshold of perception, with Delta E values under 2 for both SDR and HDR material. We also improved the brightness response, so the image more faithfully reflects the creators' intent and maintains appropriate tonality across the whole luminance range. After professional calibration the S90H therefore becomes a display very close to reference.

Will the difference be spectacular for everyone? Not necessarily. The factory settings already deliver a very high level, so in everyday viewing some people may not notice a dramatic jump. Much also depends on the individual unit. Our sample was very well tuned straight out of the box, but that doesn't mean every S90H will perform at the same level. Even identical models can differ from each other in terms of factory calibration. That's exactly why professional calibration makes sense: it allows a specific unit to be brought to the highest possible accuracy, rather than relying on a bit of luck when buying.

The previously visible colour banding can largely be mitigated thanks to a feature called "distortion reduction." Like in the OLED820, it is best set to a medium level, as it then produces fairly decent results – smoothing out unwanted tonal transitions while not taking away too much detail from the image. Although at times the effect may be slightly too aggressive, this function can be considered useful for everyday viewing.

As for image scaling, the OLED910 performs really well. The test material featuring a model had a soft look characteristic of Philips – at times almost too soft – but this can be easily corrected with the sharpness slider, allowing you to adjust the image to your own preferences. It's also worth noting that the television has no issues with overscan, which still occurs in some competitor models. It's a small detail, but it's pleasing because it means that all content, even the oldest, is displayed as it should be.

In this respect Samsung has changed practically nothing compared with last year’s model, which is actually quite good news. The feature responsible for smoothing tonal transitions still very effectively limits the posterisation effect. However, you should remember that it works rather aggressively, because besides the artefacts themselves it can also remove film grain and slightly soften fine image detail. As always, this is therefore a matter of compromise and personal preference. If you want the most faithful reproduction of the source material possible, we recommend leaving this function turned off.

There is also little to be said about upscaling in terms of revolution. The S90H uses the same proprietary NQ4 Gen3 image processor as its predecessor, so scaling quality has remained practically unchanged. The TV handles lower-resolution material well, effectively improving its sharpness. However, the overscan problem has still not been solved. With some older material, especially archival recordings, it may happen that a portion of the image at the edges is cropped. It’s a minor flaw, but a shame Samsung has left this issue unchanged for another year running.

OLED910 is a television with a refresh rate of 144 Hz. It’s a bit of a shame that Philips didn’t opt for 165 Hz, as we know that the panel used is capable of that. On the other hand, such a bonus would mainly benefit PC gamers, as in everyday use, the most important refresh rate is 120 Hz, which is fully sufficient. Combined with the advantages of the OLED panel – lightning-fast pixel response time and the absence of motion blur, the image is impeccably sharp and quick, even in dynamic action scenes. The traditional motion smoother from Philips, called “Motion Style,” also deserves praise. We can easily adjust it to our preferences: the “Fluidity” slider is responsible for films and allows you to choose between a more “filmy,” cinematic character and a smooth, theatrical image. Meanwhile, the “Motion Blur Reduction” slider is intended for sports, where it’s worth setting it to the maximum value to ensure that the image is clear and distinct during very fast shots.

In terms of motion handling the S90H delivers a very high level. A new feature here is a panel with a refresh rate of up to 165 Hz, although in practice that will mainly benefit PC gamers. Films, series and sports broadcasts do not use such high refresh rates, so when watching them the difference compared with the standard 120 Hz will not be noticeable. That said, thanks to the OLED panel's lightning-fast response time motion is very clean and the picture does not suffer from the motion blur typical of many LCDs. Samsung has equipped the television with extensive motion-smoothness settings. You get two sliders: judder reduction and blur reduction, which let you easily tailor the picture's character to your own preferences. You can easily achieve a very smooth image when watching sport, but you can just as well preserve a more cinematic feel at the typical 24 frames per second. It all depends on which effect you prefer.

The OLED910 is fantastic for gaming. It supports 144 Hz, so if someone has a powerful PC, they can comfortably utilise that potential. On consoles, the most important thing is still 120 Hz, and everything works perfectly here. There's VRR, an automatic gaming mode, and even Dolby Vision in games and HGiG mode, so we really get a full package of gaming features. Philips has also added a Game Bar, which is a quick menu that displays basic information and allows you to enable a few useful things. It may not look as modern as the competition, but it works and fulfils its purpose. The only downside is the number of HDMI 2.1 ports. There are only two, which can be quite disappointing for a TV in this class. If someone connects two consoles and something additional through eARC - like a soundbar (which doesn't make much sense in this model but I'll discuss that in the paragraph about sound) - they'll have to do some adjustments. Other than that, the OLED910 has everything we expect from a gaming television.

From the outset the Samsung S90H feels like a TV designed with gamers in mind, and it's easy to see why. The manufacturer has equipped it with almost everything you could expect from a modern gaming screen. You get as many as four full-bandwidth HDMI 2.1 ports, support for ALLM and VRR, and very high refresh rates. There's also a clear Game Bar that lets you instantly check key picture parameters or change settings without leaving the game. Another very welcome improvement is the HGiG behaviour. Last year it could cause quite a few problems, but on the S90H it works exactly as it should.

Samsung's ace up its sleeve remains its proprietary Game Motion Plus mode. The feature works similarly to the motion smoothing used for films: it improves animation smoothness in games while keeping input lag at a very reasonable level. For titles running at 30 or 60 fps, with the right settings input lag did not exceed 40 ms in our tests. That's a very good result, especially since with many manufacturers enabling similar features results in delays several times higher. Game Motion Plus does not, of course, replace Dolby Vision Gaming, as it's a completely different type of feature, but overall it's a gaming addition that many players may find more noticeable. Smoother motion in 30/60 fps games often makes a bigger difference than HDR itself (which, incidentally, is often poorly implemented in games).