Samsung R95H Micro RGB vs LG OLED C6 (WOLED)

In terms of brightness the Samsung R95H shows that it is still a high-end TV, although the results are not always as spectacular as one might expect from a flagship Micro RGB model. In synthetic tests the TV can exceed 2400 nits, so it clearly has plenty of headroom. Crucially, it can maintain high brightness even when bright elements occupy a larger portion of the screen. In real cinematic scenes the situation is a little more complex. The R95H most often reaches around 1000–1400 nits, which still delivers a very good, powerful HDR effect. Bright sun, reflections or lights can look genuinely impressive, and the TV has enough power for HDR to be clearly distinguishable from standard SDR.

The problem appears mainly in very dark scenes with single, small light sources. Here the local dimming algorithm prioritises deep black and reducing halo over maximising the brightness of such elements. As a result, small highlights can be noticeably dimmed. Overall HDR therefore performs well, but not without limitations. The R95H has huge brightness headroom, especially in larger and brighter parts of the image, but in difficult dark scenes its capabilities are primarily limited by the way local dimming operates.

Colours

Colours were supposed to be the biggest revolution brought by RGB backlighting, and indeed the R95H shows considerable potential here. The assessment is not, however, as simple as synthetic measurements alone might suggest. On test patterns the TV performs superbly – BT.2020 coverage reaches almost 94%, and DCI-P3 98%, so particularly strongly saturated reds and greens can look truly impressive. The situation shifts somewhat when, instead of test patterns, we start measuring real film scenes. Then BT.2020 coverage falls to about 87%, and DCI-P3 to 93%. It seems that with more complex images the RGB zones are not always able to maintain the same high colour saturation as on simple charts. They remain saturated, but the advantage of the new backlight is no longer as large as the manufacturer’s figures might suggest.

The HDR performance of the LG C6 is really very good. LG Display's new WOLED panel has primarily brought a considerable increase in brightness. In our unit we measured around 1,500 nits and, importantly, the TV can deliver similar values in many typical film scenes. That gives the HDR the necessary impact. Bright highlights, lamps and sunlight can be really intense, and most HDR films simply look very impressive. Of course it's still an OLED, so brightness falls in scenes with a lot of white. This is well illustrated by the fifth scene in the film The Meg, where the C6 reached around 600 to 700 nits. That's still a very good result, but it also shows that the new panel hasn't shed all the limitations typical of OLEDs.

Colours

When it comes to colours, there is also little to complain about. The C6 covers about 99% of the DCI-P3 gamut and roughly 75% of BT.2020. In practice the colours are very saturated and, importantly, stable across different scenes. This is worth emphasising, because not every TV behaves the same in this respect. In some RGB Mini LED models colour saturation can depend more strongly on image brightness. A wider colour palette is nowadays offered mainly by QD-OLED TVs and new SQD models with a new generation of quantum dots. However, the C6 still performs very strongly here and is able to produce suitably saturated colours in most film scenes.

For assessing factory colour reproduction we naturally chose the Filmmaker mode, the setting that is supposed to be closest to how the picture was intended by the creators. Here, unfortunately, the R95H does not fully exploit the potential of its panel. The biggest problem in SDR concerns the gamma. The image is noticeably brightened across almost the entire range, which makes it lose some depth and look flatter than it should. The white balance itself is also not ideal; as brightness increases there is a red bias and a lack of blue, making the image too warm. This is especially visible in bright elements and skin tones, which can look more "reddish" than they should.

It looks similar in HDR. The EOTF curve is above the reference value for a significant part of the range, so the R95H again brightens the image compared with how it should look. Combined with the inaccurate white balance, this means the colours here are also not as precise as we would expect from a TV of this class. The factory Filmmaker mode is therefore not the R95H's strong suit. At first glance the picture may look impressive because it is bright and highly saturated, but in terms of fidelity to the source material there is still plenty of room for improvement.

Right out of the box the LG C6 is pretty well set up, especially if you choose Filmmaker mode. In SDR material the white balance is decent, although as brightness increases it starts to lack a bit of red. The picture becomes a little cooler as a result, but it’s not such a big difference that it stands out during normal viewing. More happens in the brightness response itself. Gamma is a bit low and instead of holding at 2.4 it sits closer to 2.1–2.2 over much of the range. In practice the C6 slightly brightens midtones. Shadows are therefore more readable, but the image loses some depth compared with how it should look in a dark room. In HDR the situation is a bit more interesting. The start of the grayscale looks very good, but from about 20–30% brightness the white balance starts to drift more and more. As brightness rises there’s more red and a noticeable lack of blue. In the brightest highlights the difference is already significant and also affects reproduction of some colors. The EOTF curve itself is handled fairly well over most of the range. The C6 only has a tendency to slightly brighten the image, which we also saw during our film comparisons. The largest deviation appears around the brightest highlights, where the TV begins to adapt the signal to the panel’s capabilities. So the out-of-the-box Filmmaker mode in HDR isn’t perfect, but overall it performs well. The biggest room for improvement is the white balance, especially at high brightness.

The R95H responds very well to calibration. In SDR we managed to set the white balance and gamma almost perfectly, and colour errors fell to a very low level. The difference compared with the factory settings is therefore substantial and after calibration the picture looks noticeably more natural. In HDR we can also make considerable improvements, particularly in terms of white balance and overall colour accuracy. The issue of managing brightness and colour saturation is somewhat different, though. At a certain point we run up against limitations inherent in the RGB backlight and local dimming. Individual zones must control both the brightness and the colour of the light simultaneously, so in more demanding scenes it is not always possible to achieve exactly the same saturation and brightness that the TV shows on simple test patterns. Calibration simply cannot completely overcome that. Despite this, after calibration the R95H delivers accurate image reproduction, and most of the errors we saw on the factory settings can be effectively eliminated.

LG TVs have been very receptive to calibration for years and the C6 is no exception. After adjustment the white balance was set almost perfectly, and most colour errors dropped to values below 3, often even around 2. In practice this means very accurate colour reproduction, both in SDR and HDR. An interesting quirk only appeared with the luminance response in HDR. On a standard EOTF chart everything looks almost ideal and at first glance it would be hard to criticise. Only when we measured the TV's behaviour with filters based on actual film scenes did it become clear that the C6 has a slight tendency to artificially boost image brightness.

This is not a huge difference and many people may even view it positively, because HDR consequently looks a little more striking. From the perspective of fidelity to the source material this is not ideal, however, as some scenes are simply a touch brighter than the filmmaker intended. Interestingly, this is rather unusual for LG. In previous generations the brand's TVs typically stuck very closely to the reference picture characteristic after calibration. With the C6 we are still very close to the standard, but this subtle brightness boost is indeed noticeable in films and TV series.

The Samsung R95H uses the new Micro RGB AI Processor, but in practice we didn't notice a big leap compared with the NQ4 AI Gen2 or Gen3 chips found in Samsung's other TVs. The upscaling itself still performs very well. The image is smoothed appropriately, yet retains plenty of sharpness and does not look overly soft. That's definitely one of Samsung's stronger points. It's a pity that with very low-resolution material you still can't completely disable overscan.

The processor also handles colour gradation well and can effectively smooth unwanted posterization. The noise reduction function is really effective, but you need to use it with care. At higher settings it can start to interfere quite heavily with the image and even remove natural film grain. For that reason it's best used only when the source material is actually heavily compressed.

Here the LG C6 has taken a real step forward. The TV uses the same processor found in the flagship G6, and in terms of image processing the two models are very similar. That's a considerable plus, because in this area LG's processor this year performs excellently. The "Smooth Gradation" function in particular works very well. With heavily compressed material it can effectively hide ugly banding and artefacts that often appear, for example, in lower-quality streaming. It's best to leave it set to "Low". That way the improvement is clear and the TV does not yet start blurring fine details. Higher settings smooth the image more aggressively but can already remove some of the natural texture of objects on the screen. Upscaling itself also performs very well. Lower-resolution content is sharpened correctly, edges look clean, and the processor quite effectively reconstructs fine details. In this respect the C6 is already very close to LG's best TVs and the differences compared with the G6 are small.

Samsung R95H has a 165 Hz panel, so its motion handling is really good. At 120 Hz, for example when gaming on a console or watching sport, motion blur is minimal, and when connected to a PC you can use the full 165 Hz and further improve motion clarity. However, bear in mind it is still a VA panel, so it does not respond as instantly as OLED. You may sometimes notice a faint trail behind a moving object, but from a normal viewing distance this is unlikely to be bothersome. For films and TV shows you can also use the adjustable motion smoothing. You can keep the more cinematic 24 fps look or gradually smooth the motion if you prefer a smoother picture. Samsung gives plenty of flexibility here, so you can easily choose a setting to suit your own preferences.

LG C6 received a panel with a maximum refresh rate of 165 Hz, which is great news above all for gamers using a powerful PC. In films, sport or on consoles we will of course make use of up to 120 Hz, but even then it is hard to fault the motion clarity. As befits an OLED, the panel's response time is almost instantaneous. Moving objects therefore do not leave the characteristic smearing or trails that we can still see on LCD televisions. This is especially noticeable in sport and fast-paced games, where the picture remains very clean even during dynamic movement.

For films and television LG has also prepared the TruMotion motion smoothing system. In the user settings you will find two separate sliders. De-Judder primarily addresses low frame-rate content, that is mainly films and TV series at 24 fps. You can use it to slightly reduce the characteristic judder or set a higher value if you want a very smooth image. De-Blur is useful for higher frame-rate material, chiefly sports broadcasts and 50/60 fps television.

In terms of gaming the Samsung R95H is almost a complete TV. When you connect a PS5 or Xbox Series X you can use 4K at 120 Hz, VRR and ALLM, and the TV also works correctly with HGiG. The only larger omission is Dolby Vision Gaming, which Samsung simply does not support, as with its other televisions. There is also the Game Bar, already seen on other Samsung models, which lets you quickly check the frame rate, VRR status or HDR format and change the most important settings without leaving the game. You can also brighten darker parts of the picture or change the screen aspect ratio.

Samsung also offers Game Motion Plus, a motion-smoothing function developed specifically for games. It makes most sense in titles running at 30 fps, where it can noticeably improve smoothness and make camera movement feel much more pleasant. You should remember, though, that this comes at the cost of higher input lag (about 60 ms), so it is probably not the best choice for online or more fast-paced games. It's also worth mentioning the Gaming Hub, which lets you run some games directly from the cloud without connecting a console. In terms of gamer-focused features, it is therefore hard to find any major shortcomings in the R95H.

LG has long focused heavily on gamers, and the C6 really lacks nothing important. The TV supports 4K at 120 Hz from consoles, and when connected to a PC it can run at up to 165 Hz. There is also VRR from 40 to 165 Hz, ALLM and a properly working HGiG. A big plus is support for Dolby Vision in games, so the Xbox Series X can use that format without giving up Game Mode. It's rounded off by a Game Bar, from which you can quickly check key signal parameters and change settings without leaving the game. In terms of features, the C6 is therefore one of those TVs that is really hard to fault. Whether you're gaming on a PlayStation, an Xbox or a PC, practically everything you could expect from a modern gaming TV is available here.