Samsung S85F OLED vs Sony BRAVIA 5 (XR5)

For an OLED, the Samsung S85F can truly shine – literally. Under favourable conditions, it is capable of generating brightness exceeding 750 nits. This is hugely significant, as most films are created with displays reaching around 1000 nits in mind. In practice, this means that in scenes with moderately large, bright elements, the image can look simply fantastic. However, it's not always so rosy. When there is a huge amount of light on the screen – whether it's an expansive, bright background or a whole frame filled with white – the S85F has to tone it down. In such scenes, brightness can drop by even four times. This limitation is well-known to essentially every OLED in this price segment, so we do not consider it a particular shortcoming. However, something that deserves praise and sets this model apart from the competition is its colour gamut coverage. Thanks to the QD-OLED panel, our colourimeter recorded values exceeding 100% DCI-P3 coverage and as much as 86% for the ultra-wide BT.2020 gamut. Such results are hard to find even in televisions costing several times more.

Looking at similar results in terms of blackness and contrast, we expected equally stable performance as last year's model when it came to HDR content. Unfortunately – and this needs to be said outright – there has been a regression here that is hard to overlook. The paradox is that the peak brightness of the Bravia 5 is impressive: in our synthetic tests, the television achieved around 1000 nits in HDR. Sounds great, right? The problem is that this power does not always translate effectively to all film scenes. When small, point-like elements appear on the screen, something that had usually been polished with surgical precision in Sony's case is this time noticeably lacking. The algorithms attempt to maintain deep black around small objects, but the side effect is that details can be dimmed to such an extent that they become barely visible. Just consider the example of the film Sicario 2 – in some scenes there, small light sources practically disappeared, as if someone had covered them with dark film.

Of course, not everything looks so dramatic. In simpler, brighter scenes, where the image is filled with more light, the Bravia 5 shows that it can shine: literally and figuratively. Then the television achieves values in the range of 600–800 nits, which we saw both in synthetic tests and during film screenings. The impression is really positive; the brightness adds dynamism, and the colours appear vibrant and fresh. However, there remains a certain dissonance. We feel a slight confusion because evidently something has gone in a direction it shouldn’t have. Technological progress – more zones, greater backlighting power – has not been supported by the well-crafted image management that we usually associate with Sony. Fortunately, there are elements that have not been worsened and are, in fact, at a very high level. We are talking about colour reproduction. Thanks to the application of the PFS filter, the colour palette coverage is excellent – around 97% DCI-P3 and 75% BT.2020. These are values that allow for truly broad colour reproduction, giving films a sense of naturalness and cinematic quality.

Samsung, as befits a manufacturer with ambitions, has equipped the S85F with a mode called Filmmaker. Its task is simple: to ensure that the colours on the newly purchased television are as true to what the director intended as possible. Sounds great… but, as is often the case, a theory that sounds great does not always translate into perfect practice.

In the tested unit, it quickly became apparent that the image – due to an excess of blue and red – looked as though someone had overdone the saturation a bit. As a result, quite significant colour errors occurred, particularly in 4K content. Moreover, there was a problem with brightness – the S85F could brighten most scenes more than it should, taking away their intended mood.

Fortunately, Samsung televisions, including the S85F, offer an impressive number of settings for advanced calibrators. This means that we could test what this panel is truly capable of when placed in the right hands.

Sony Bravia 5 was of course tested in the best possible mode, which is the Cinema mode. Right out of the box, it provides the most natural colours, definitely better than anything offered by the "eco" or "dynamic" modes, which are more suited for a showroom display than for a living room. However, the Cinema mode alone does not mean we can always expect cinematic picture quality. With SDR content, we had virtually no major complaints – the slightly warmed white balance gave the scenes a somewhat golden tone, but it was nothing that was visually jarring. However, the problem arose with HDR material. Here, the colour reproduction simply looked poor. The white balance was heavily skewed – with an excess of blue and a clear lack of red. At times, it resembled the store's "super vibrant image" mode, where everything is overexposed and artificially boosted.

This situation also made brightness management seem overly aggressive. The EOTF graph clearly showed that the television had problems with overexposing many scenes right out of the box. And while we know what Sony televisions are usually capable of, it was difficult to remain indifferent here – thus we quickly decided to go for calibration.

Thanks to the vast number of settings in the menu, we managed to bring the S85F to nearly an ideal level. The white balance in SDR content? Literally perfect – deviations do not exceed the value of “1”. So we can confidently say that in materials with not very high dynamics, we have an image close to reference here.

In HDR content, slight issues have arisen, but they are not significant in practice – most errors fall below the threshold of perceptibility, which is the value of “3”. We also managed to tame the S85F when it comes to brightness management – the EOTF curve, even in movies, holds an almost perfect line. This is one of those cases where after calibration, you can comfortably forget about the settings and simply enjoy films and series at the highest level.

After calibration, the situation changed dramatically. We managed to adjust the white balance so that entire scenes began to look more natural, and the image gained cohesion and elegance. In HDR, we finally got rid of that unwanted clipping effect that had previously marred some shots. Suddenly, it turned out that the Bravia 5 can extract significantly more from films than the “out of the box” impression suggested. Indeed, if we look at the graphs and compare them with the patterns, we can see that the beginning of the EOTF curve slightly deviates from the reference line. However, this is not so much a calibration error as it is a natural limitation of Mini-LED technology, which cannot be bypassed. Sony, instead of clinging to perfect black, prefers to prioritise the visibility of details – and in practice, it's hard to disagree with that. We would rather see the texture of the material on the screen than a pitch-black blob where all nuances are lost.

The calibration itself was truly beneficial. After about an hour spent on the settings, we felt that the image resembled that from the best cinema halls – of course on a home scale, but with the same sense of quality and refinement. And in such moments, we remember why we like Sony televisions: because when we fine-tune them, they can reward us with an image that captivates for long hours.

The tonal transition smoothing function in the S85F works really effectively – it can completely eliminate the problem of visible banding in very poor quality materials, such as those from YouTube. Unfortunately, even the lowest level of this option comes with compromises. Noise reduction is aggressive enough that it can smooth out the film grain that many of us consider a key element of the cinematic experience. At the "Standard" level, we did not notice that this function removed anything significant from the image, so we can recommend this setting. On the other hand, the "High" level is a different story – it can smooth out not only noise but also subtle, desirable details such as the texture of objects.

As for image scaling, the S85F performs very well. The material looks sharp, and the only minor imperfection is slightly visible aliasing of contours. And there’s still the persistent issue with Samsung televisions – overscan. This can cause the frame to be slightly cropped in certain scenes, which is worth keeping in mind when watching very old content.

Bravia 5 carries within it the genes of Sony, which have remained untouched – and thank goodness for that, because we are talking about absolutely remarkable digital image processing. It is no coincidence that for years it has been believed that it is televisions of this brand that set the standard for how a screen should handle lower quality materials. If someone still watches classic television, old films or YouTube in lower resolutions, here they get equipment that can transform such content into an unexpectedly pleasant experience. On board, we find several tools worth activating. The first of these is "digital noise reduction". Set to a medium level, it works perfectly – smoothing tonal transitions, which usually cause the most trouble in low-quality materials, while not introducing any artificial artifacts. Importantly, it also does not remove the filmic character, meaning the natural grain that is intentionally present in many productions. Another advantage of the Bravia 5 is the upscaling capabilities of the XR processor. The image displayed after scaling is soft, yet at the same time sharp and clear. The contours of characters are clearly visible, while backgrounds retain their structure without excessive artificial sharpening. It’s hard to find a better television for watching lower quality materials – Bravia 5 only confirms why Sony is regarded as a benchmark in this field.

The S85F is a mind-blowingly fast television – and this is not just an empty phrase for effect. Thanks to the 120 Hz OLED panel, dynamic scenes, whether in games or while watching a live match, look exactly as they should – smoothly, sharply, and without the feeling that something is “slipping away” from the frame. The lightning-fast pixel response time, typical of OLEDs, plays its part here. Transitions between frames are virtually instantaneous, and the picture remains clear even during the fastest camera movements. A ball flying across half the pitch? A car racing in a chase scene? Here, everything is clear and free from the characteristic “trail” of LCDs.

This is exactly what we expect from a good OLED – no compromises when it comes to motion fluidity. The S85F gives the impression that regardless of the pace of the action, we can focus on what is happening on the screen, rather than the imperfections of the image.

Bravia 5 received a 120 Hz panel, which in itself sounds like an invitation to watch sports, fast matches, or spectacular action films. However, the real magic begins when MotionFlow – Sony's proprietary smoothness technology – comes into play. Thanks to it, we can adjust the character of the image to our own preferences. The "smoothness" slider allows you to transition from a cinematic feel with a slight "jitter" of the film frame to a nearly theatrical fluidity, where every ball in the match glides across the screen as if on a string. The higher the value, the smoother and more fluid it is; the lower it is, the more cinematic and natural it feels. In the options, we will also find an additional setting that Sony has called "clarity". This is nothing more than the BFI function (i.e., inserting black frames), which is meant to improve motion sharpness. It sounds great in theory, but in practice, one must use it with great caution. Why? Because all higher settings cause brightness drops of up to half, and in some cases, contour doubling also appears. Therefore, if we wish to use it, we recommend the lowest possible level – "1" out of the available ten. This way, we gain a bit better motion clarity without risking a loss of half the image brightness.

[UPDATE] We have updated our 2025 Samsung TV reviews following the release of firmware version 1131, which officially restores the essential HGiG (HDR Gaming Interest Group) support.

The S85F has practically everything on board to become the dream screen for gaming. Four full-fledged HDMI 2.1 ports with a bandwidth of 48 Gb/s, support for VRR, ALLM, a super-detailed Game Bar that clearly shows all parameters – and on top of that, a gem in the form of Game Motion Plus. This motion smoother makes animation in games more enjoyable, while input lag only increases slightly. This is a rare combination, and it’s a big plus for Samsung. Now comes the moment when we need to complain a little. The lack of Dolby Vision in Samsung televisions has become standard, so there’s no point in hoping (unless something changes in a few years) – but the disappearance of HGiG after the software update is something hard to explain. HGiG (which stands for HDR Gaming Interest Group) is a mode that allows for precise reproduction of brightness in HDR games, in accordance with the creators' intentions. Without it, HDR calibration on a console becomes less precise, so we can end up with an image that is too dark in the shadows or excessively overexposed. Perhaps Samsung will fix this in the next update – and we have high hopes for that. Because if HGiG returns, the S85F will become nearly the perfect television for gamers.

In the Bravia 5, there is a significant improvement compared to the X90L model from two years ago. The television offers literally everything its predecessor had, but this time the issues that could frustrate gamers have been fixed. The problems with setting variable refresh rate (VRR) have disappeared, and there are no longer any issues with configuring HDR content in HGiG mode. In short: we get hardware that simply works as it should, without any fuss. Therefore, the Bravia 5 has everything you could expect from a modern gaming television – and it can be reasonably advertised with the slogan “ready for PS5.” This is a statement we couldn't make about the X90L model. Well done, Sony!

It’s just a shame that this relatively high-priced model lacks a full set of four HDMI 2.1 ports. In everyday use, this won’t be a problem for most people, but if someone has a console, soundbar, and additional equipment hooked up via HDMI, at some point there will be a need to choose or juggle the cables.