Samsung R95H Micro RGB vs SONY BRAVIA 3 II (XR35M2)

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.

Bravia 3 II is certainly not a TV that tries to impress with brightness. In our measurements it reached about 450 nits, so it falls well short of the brightest models on the market. That does not mean HDR is just a paper feature. Compared with ordinary SDR material, the brightest elements of the image can already come through noticeably, and reflections, highlights and stronger exposures have a bit more energy and stand out better from the rest of the scene. This is most obvious in simpler shots where the screen displays many bright elements. Then the Bravia 3 II can give a hint of a higher dynamic-range picture. The problem only begins with more demanding content, where much greater brightness headroom is required. There the TV quickly shows its limitations and instead of powerful, striking HDR we get only a competently rendered picture.

Colours

Bravia 3 II uses a QLED-type panel, although technically it does not use a classic quantum dot layer. Instead Sony has used a solution based on PFS phosphor, which performs a very similar role: it allows more saturated reds and greens and thus enables a much wider colour gamut. In measurements DCI-P3 coverage was around 94%, and the very wide BT.2020 around 74.4%. These are good results for this class of hardware, which mean the Bravia 3 II has no problem reproducing sufficiently saturated colours in HDR content. Colours do not look washed out, and more intense hues can look genuinely attractive.

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.

In Professional mode the Bravia 3 II already delivers a fairly good level of colour reproduction straight out of the box. In SDR the most noticeable issue is a slightly low gamma, which makes the midtones a little brighter. White balance isn't perfect either; as brightness increases the blue and red components become slightly lacking, so whites can at times take on a marginally warmer, faintly greenish tint. These are not faults that immediately catch the eye when watching a film. Average error values hover around 3, so the factory setting can be regarded as quite good. The situation is similar in HDR. Here too there is a slight lack of the blue component, so the image is marginally warmer than the reference, but the difference is not large enough to significantly interfere with normal viewing.

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.

After calibration, there is particularly a lot to be gained from SDR content. The white balance was set almost perfectly, the gamma practically matches the reference value, and the average colour errors fell from around 3 to about 1. That is already a level at which differences from the reference image are, in practice, very difficult to detect. The Bravia 3 II therefore shows that, despite its position in Sony’s lineup, it has quite a lot of potential for precise picture calibration. Improvements are also visible in HDR, although here it is no longer possible to avoid all the limitations of the TV itself. After evening out the colours, it is easier to notice that the EOTF curve in film content runs slightly below the reference value in places, so the Bravia 3 II gently darkens part of the image. This is not an ideal solution from a reference point of view, but in this particular TV it also has its benefits. With no local dimming and average black levels, this behaviour slightly reduces the visibility of the backlight in darker scenes and helps maintain a stronger impression of contrast. So you could say Sony partly masks the limitations of the panel this way, instead of trying at all costs to stick to the reference luminance.

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.

The Bravia 3 II is Sony's first TV to use the new MediaTek Pentonic 800 chipset, and there are a few changes in image processing. Starting with the basics. The upscaling itself is adequate. The TV can sensibly pull up lower-resolution material and does not have a strong tendency to over-emphasise jagged edges or other source imperfections. With regular broadcast TV or weaker streaming material the picture therefore remains quite pleasing. We have more reservations about the digital image processing. In this model Sony has replaced the well-known "Smooth Gradation" function with a new setting called "Digital Noise Reduction". Its role is essentially very similar: it is supposed to smooth unpleasant tonal transitions and artefacts resulting from heavy signal compression. Unfortunately, this function performs noticeably worse than before. At the "High" setting (the only one that had any visible effect) the TV can smooth away too many elements of the image at once, causing film grain to disappear and the texture of objects or even skin to start looking unnatural. Worse still, the effect is not particularly stable. When a scene contains more motion, the function's effect clearly weakens and at times it looks as if the TV stops intervening in the picture altogether. For everyday viewing we therefore would not recommend using it at a high level. It can help on a static shot, but the price is often an excessive loss of detail.

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.

Motion handling is definitely one of the Bravia 3 II's strongest points. The TV uses a 120Hz VA panel, a solution that, by nature, despite the high refresh rate, does not always cope well with motion blur. Here, however, Sony has managed to keep that problem very well under control. Fast-moving objects remain crisp, and the characteristic trails and blurring are reduced to a very low level, if not to zero. It is one of the least motion-blur-prone LCD TVs we have tested. Interestingly, in this respect the Bravia 3 II can even outperform the much more expensive True RGB flagship series, the Bravia 9 II.

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.

Sony Bravia 3 II is a very good TV for gamers, although not everything has been implemented exactly as we would like. The biggest change concerns the connectors. For the first time in a Sony TV we get as many as four full HDMI 2.1 ports with 48 Gb/s bandwidth, thanks to the new MediaTek Pentonic 800 chipset. That removes one of the issues that has plagued this manufacturer’s TVs for years. We can connect several devices at once and on each input use the device’s full capabilities, for example VRR or ALLM. There is also a simple Game Bar that lets you view key signal parameters and change a few useful settings, such as black level, when you want to improve visibility in darker parts of a game. However, there are two limitations worth knowing. The first is the lack of support for 1440p at 120 Hz. That will not be a problem for everyone, but people using that resolution on a console or PC, for example to get higher frame rates in certain games, will have to choose 1080p. We have more reservations about HGiG support. Sony does not allow you to disable the TV’s tone mapping on the Bravia 3 II, so the screen is always processing HDR content even when you would prefer to leave that task to the console. This is most obvious during HDR setup — the checkerboard pattern does not disappear at the point that corresponds to the TV’s actual capabilities. That does not mean HDR in games will look bad. You just need to approach the setup a little differently and, instead of relying on the pattern, manually set the peak brightness to around 450 nits. The issue can be worked around, but you should know about it before you start setting up the console.