Philips OLED950 vs Samsung The Frame Pro 2026 (LS03HW)

The OLED950 is a phenomenal television for consuming content in HDR format, primarily thanks to the innovative Tandem OLED panel. With this technology, the screen can generate astronomical brightness levels, reaching over 2000 nits in film scenes (on test patterns). This is an exceptional result that places the OLED950 among the world’s top displays available on the market. However, it is important to note a specific characteristic of this solution – at moments when full-screen bursts of light appear on the screen, brightness can drop by as much as half. It is worth emphasising, though, that values above 1000 nits on a full screen are still an outstanding result. This allows for the HDR image to be displayed exactly as filmmakers would wish, maintaining the dynamics and impact of bright scenes.

The use of the Tandem OLED panel has also brought tangible benefits in terms of colour reproduction, improving elements that traditional WOLED panels struggled with compared to their QD-OLED competition. For the OLED950, the colour gamut coverage is broader than in classic WOLED panels, reaching nearly 100% of the DCI-P3 colour space and a solid 82% of the demanding BT.2020 palette. Although these results still do not match the high standards of QD-OLED panels, the difference diminishes during real-world use. We cannot deny that in the vast majority of films, colours look simply fantastic on this model – they are saturated, vibrant, and full of depth.

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.

We tested the OLED950 model in Film mode. Although it is theoretically the best and most faithful preset on this television, in practice it proved not to be free from flaws. Interestingly, in the unit we tested, the biggest challenge was not the white balance itself – although it did show a slight tendency to give the image a pinkish hue. The main issue lay in the way the television managed brightness, both in everyday SDR content and in demanding HDR scenes. The analysis of the gamma graph and the EOTF curve leads to one key conclusion: the television excessively exposes brightness in the lower registers. This results in the image appearing less contrasty than the panel technology allows. Details in dark areas that should remain perfectly black (characteristic of "OLED black") are simply unnecessarily highlighted and brightened. Fortunately, these errors can be corrected using the appropriate tools, which is why – as always – we proceeded with professional 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.

As can be seen, the OLED950, after a professional calibration process, transforms into an absolutely phenomenal display that, without a shadow of a doubt, can be placed alongside the best televisions currently available in the world. This equipment only needed a professional touch to show its full potential and eliminate factory shortcomings. The minimal errors in reproduction in the Color Checker tests and the fidelity of the colour palette speak for themselves. We are dealing with an almost perfect device here. A true window to the world, offering image quality of the highest order.

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.

Upscaling

In terms of the image upscaling, the proprietary P5 processor performs just as well as in most models from this manufacturer. Low-resolution content takes on a very soft and plastic character. This kind of presentation will certainly appeal to many people. However, if you prefer sharper contours, you can lightly enhance them with the appropriate slider in the television's menu. It's really hard to find fault in this aspect. The image simply looks very good and additionally there is no issue with the phenomenon of overscan.

Smoothing and Distortion Reduction

The function for smoothing tonal transitions performs somewhat worse. In the settings, we find an option called "Distortion Reduction." This allows for three levels of adjustment of the processor's interference. Unfortunately, the Minimum setting works poorly and the smoothing effects are negligible. The Medium level gives a decent result, but it also starts to smooth out actors' skin details. On the other hand, the Maximum setting works too aggressively. It definitely removes too much detail from the faces and background elements, and can even take away the film grain. To achieve the optimal effect, it's worth experimenting with these settings at home and adjusting them to your preference. It may seem that the Medium option is the best compromise here.

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.

The motion reproduction in the OLED950 model is virtually perfect. This is typical for screens of this type (OLED 120Hz+), as the panel shows no blurring at all. This allows us to enjoy perfect sharpness in practically any conditions. Much of this is thanks not only to the specifics of organic technology. Equally important work is done by the smoothing systems implemented by the manufacturer.

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.

The OLED950 is nearly the perfect television for gamers. This is not only due to the unique atmosphere created by the Ambilight system during gameplay. The most important aspect here is the robust hardware support. You will find literally everything you should expect from a modern gaming display. The manufacturer has implemented two HDMI 2.1 ports with full bandwidth of 48 Gb/s. This gives us access to gaming in 4K resolution at 120 frames per second. Of course, support for VRR technology and the automatic ALLM game mode is also included. The device handles any HDR signal without difficulty, whether we are using Dolby Vision or the HGiG standard.

Access to all settings is available from one place thanks to the special Game Bar overlay. Although this interface may not be the most visually appealing on the market, it fully accomplishes its purpose. It displays all the important signal parameters and offers useful extras. Gamers can take advantage of the minimap zoom feature or add a permanent crosshair on the screen, which can be seen as a small aid in online competition. The contrast range adjustment also proves to be useful, as it allows you to brighten shadows and gain better visibility of enemies hidden in dark corners of the map.

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.