Compare: Samsung The Frame 2026 (LS03H) vs Philips OLED811

Samsung The Frame 2026 is still a TV aimed at a fairly specific type of buyer. If your main priority is having a screen that looks good in your interior, hangs almost flush against the wall, and doesn’t simply turn into a large black rectangle when switched off, there are very few TVs on the market that execute this idea quite as well. The matte screen, interchangeable bezels, external One Connect box, and extensive Art Mode allow The Frame to genuinely become part of the room rather than just another TV sitting in the living room. And that’s exactly where we see its biggest appeal.

Importantly, though, that doesn’t mean design is all you’re getting. The Frame performs really well in bright rooms. Its matte coating is very effective at reducing reflections, brightness reaching around 650 nits is enough for comfortable daytime viewing, and the wide colour gamut means colourful content, animation, and brighter HDR scenes can look very impressive. On top of that, there’s 144Hz support at 4K and, for the first time, up to 240Hz at Full HD. VRR, ALLM, FreeSync, G-Sync, HGiG, low input lag, and an extensive Game Bar make The Frame a much more capable gaming TV than its “artistic” character might suggest.

The biggest compromises become apparent when you look at it as a TV primarily intended for home cinema. The Frame has no local dimming, so blacks become noticeably raised in dark scenes, and this is where the difference compared with good Mini LED and OLED TVs is most obvious. HDR therefore looks best with bright and colourful content, while evening movie sessions in a dark room are definitely not its strongest suit. There is also noticeable motion blur and only one full-bandwidth HDMI 2.1 port on the One Connect box, which may be frustrating for some users, especially gamers.

The Frame 2026, then, isn’t a TV for someone looking for the absolute best picture quality in its price range. There are models that offer deeper blacks or a more impactful HDR experience. But if the TV is meant to become part of a well-designed living room, is often used during the day, displays artwork, and at the same time needs to perform well with a wide variety of content, The Frame still makes a lot of sense. Samsung has barely changed its formula here, but it’s easy to see why — the “picture on the wall” concept is still executed extremely well. Owners of the previous model have little reason to upgrade, but for new buyers looking for this particular combination of design and TV functionality, it remains one of the most interesting options on the market.

Philips OLED811 is a mid-range OLED for 2026 that stands out from its biggest rivals mainly for one thing: Ambilight. The light that follows the picture and spreads across the wall can change the atmosphere of an entire viewing session. In the evening the screen seems to extend beyond its borders and watching simply gains extra charm. For some it will be a pleasant extra, for others a sufficient reason to choose Philips again. The picture itself is very comparable to what models such as the LG C6 or Samsung S90H offer when using the same type of panel. So you get deep, perfect blacks on which bright elements make a strong impression. The OLED811 can deliver powerful HDR and, importantly, after calibration the picture itself is close to the reference. There is no big advantage over the competition, but there is also no feeling that by choosing Philips for Ambilight you are sacrificing image quality.

There are also a few good changes for gamers compared with last year’s model. Thanks to the MediaTek Pentonic 800 chipset we finally have four HDMI 2.1 ports, so connecting several devices, for example consoles, a PC and a soundbar, no longer requires choosing which device will get the full capabilities of the port. Gaming itself is very enjoyable — the television responds quickly, supports variable refresh rates, and from a PC allows gaming in 4K at 165 Hz. It’s a pity that the new processor’s capabilities were not put to equally good use when processing lower-quality sources. The biggest concern, however, is the operating system. Titan OS replaced the popular Google TV and although it has clearly developed over the past year, it is still hard to call the change a positive one. The system runs more smoothly, has more useful features, and the app library already contains most popular streaming services. Nevertheless, the selection of apps is still much smaller than with Google or the competition, and in our view that remains the OLED811’s biggest drawback. People who use less popular services may particularly feel this difference.

Is it worth buying? Yes, if Titan OS meets your needs. In terms of picture and gaming capabilities the OLED811 has as much to offer as its rivals, but Ambilight gives it something others do not. So Philips both gives and takes. It adds a unique viewing atmosphere but limits freedom of app choice. If the apps you use are available, that compromise may be worth making.

Samsung The Frame 2026 uses a VA panel but has no local dimming. That means the TV cannot dim selected parts of the screen. The backlight therefore works quite evenly across the whole panel. The VA panel itself gives an advantage over IPS or ADS screens. Blacks are noticeably better, and the picture doesn't look quite as washed out when watching in the evening. That said, in terms of contrast The Frame performs fairly averagely. This is most evident in dark scenes. If a bright object appears on a black background, the TV cannot dim the area around it. Blacks then take on a more navy cast and the image loses depth. The same applies to films with black bars. In a darkened room it's fairly easy to see that the bars are not truly black. In simpler, brighter scenes the issue is much less noticeable. So during regular TV, sport or daytime viewing, contrast is unlikely to be a major problem. It looks worse during evening viewing sessions, especially if you've previously used an OLED or a good Mini-LED. The difference in black levels to The Frame's disadvantage then becomes very obvious.

Black and contrast are categories where the Philips OLED811 showcases all the benefits of OLED technology. Each pixel lights independently and can be switched off completely, so black is simply black. There’s no grey glow or haloing around bright objects. During evening viewings this produces a great effect: stars in the night sky, city lights and text on dark backgrounds remain clearly separated from a perfectly black surround.

It’s therefore hard to expect any improvement here over other OLEDs, because in terms of black depth and contrast the result is already exemplary. The OLED811 doesn’t need local dimming or a compromise between the brightness of a small object and the black around it. Even a single bright point can sit next to a completely switched-off pixel, giving the image outstanding depth.

It’s in scenes with extensive black that the advantage over Mini LED TVs becomes clear. Even the most sophisticated local-dimming systems control larger areas of the image, so in demanding shots they can create a glow around bright elements or dim them to preserve a dark background. The Philips OLED811 doesn’t suffer from this problem.

The Frame 2026 is a genuinely bright TV. Its peak brightness reaches around 650 nits and, importantly, it maintains similar levels regardless of the type of scene being displayed. It doesn’t really matter whether we’re watching a very bright full-screen image or just a small highlight occupying part of the screen. The backlight remains powerful, allowing bright parts of the image to stand out clearly.

This gives The Frame a solid foundation for HDR. Bright highlights can look impactful, and the picture doesn’t appear flat or overly dim. Unfortunately, there is a compromise. Without local dimming, the TV cannot darken the black areas surrounding very bright objects.

This is clearly visible in scenes 2 and 4 of our test procedure. Bright elements look impressive, but at the same time, the blacks around them become noticeably raised. As a result, the image loses some of its depth, especially when watching in a dark room. This is why The Frame performs best with HDR in bright and moderately bright scenes, where its high brightness works to its advantage. In darker scenes, the situation is quite the opposite.

Colours

The Frame also performs well when it comes to colour reproduction. As a QLED TV, it can display a wide colour gamut and produce rich, saturated colours. DCI-P3 coverage reaches around 94%, while BT.2020 comes in at around 72%. These are good results, and you can see the difference in actual content.

Colours look vivid without appearing washed out, particularly in bright and colourful scenes. Animations and other content with plenty of saturated colours can look really good on The Frame. With this type of material, the TV shows one of its stronger sides.

Philips OLED811 uses a new generation of WOLED EX panels, also found in models such as the LG C6 and Samsung S90H. After calibration we measured around 1500 nits, which is a very good result for an OLED TV. You can see this clearly in films and series. All kinds of bright flashes have the right intensity, especially when they appear against a dark background. In such scenes the OLED811 can deliver truly impressive HDR. Of course, that does not mean you will see that level of brightness in every shot. When the screen is filled with a large amount of white or a wide explosion, brightness falls to around 600 nits. That is still a good result, but those scenes no longer have the same punch as small, bright elements on a dark background. This is a known limitation of OLEDs and the OLED811 is no exception.

Colours

Aside from HDR brightness, colours also matter and here Philips performs very well. It covers almost the entire DCI-P3 gamut, which contains most of the colours used in HDR films and series. You get saturated reds and lush greens, and when watching it’s hard to find major faults in that respect. It looks a little worse with the much wider BT.2020 gamut, whose most saturated shades are already out of reach for this panel. There is also the issue of the white subpixel that the WOLED panel uses to boost brightness. With very bright colours you can see a certain washout: the colour is bright but loses some of its intensity. It is precisely in such situations that QD-OLED panels from Samsung Display have the advantage. However, in most films and series this is not something that will immediately stand out.

For assessing the factory colour output we chose the Filmmaker Mode. If you’re encountering it for the first time, it’s a mode designed to reproduce a film or series as faithfully as possible. The TV then switches off most of the extra picture enhancement features, and the colours and luminance characteristics are intended to be as close as possible to what the creators of the material intended. And it must be admitted that The Frame 2026 performs really well in this respect straight out of the box. The biggest deviation is visible in the white balance. As brightness increases the blue starts to drop out and green increases slightly. As a result the picture shifts toward warmer tones. White is therefore not perfectly neutral, and in some scenes you can notice a slightly warmer cast.

The luminance response for both the gamma and EOTF curves looks good. Across most of the range they stay fairly close to the target, although in the darkest parts of the picture there is a larger deviation. In practice some details emerging from black may therefore be rendered a little more strongly. However, this is not an error that stands out during normal viewing. Overall Filmmaker Mode is a good starting point here. However the picture is a little too warm by default and not all hues land exactly where they should.

Film mode on the Philips OLED811 is sensibly set up straight out of the box. Most colour errors remain small, both in SDR and HDR, so you can sit down to watch without adjusting the settings first. There are no major inaccuracies that would immediately distract from the film. It falls a little short of perfection, though. The white balance shows a slight lack of red compared with green, so whites and greys can have a faint greenish tint. It is not a strong colour cast, but measurements clearly show it. There are also minor brightness deviations in SDR: some parts of the image are slightly brightened, and the darkest shades are not always reproduced evenly. In HDR the TV sticks much closer to the reference, although in places it gently lifts detail from the shadows. These are generally areas that could be improved. The factory film mode provides a good starting point, and calibration will reveal how much more can be gained from it.

After calibration we mainly managed to remove that warmer tint and better even out the white balance. We also smoothed the brightness response a little, which made the picture more neutral and predictable. There are, however, things calibration won't fix here. It's mainly the black behaviour, which stems from the backlight design and the lack of local dimming. In some scenes blacks will therefore still be slightly lifted and you simply have to accept that. It's more a characteristic of this model than something that can be fixed with the settings. HDR is also a limitation. Samsung doesn't allow full freedom when working with the widest colour gamut, so not all colours can be reproduced perfectly. In normal viewing it's probably hard to notice, but it's worth being aware of.

After calibration the Philips OLED811 produces an image very close to the reference. We managed to correct the white balance and eliminate the slight tint visible in the factory settings. Errors in the Color Checker measurements for SDR and HDR fell to around 1 to 2, and many samples are even below 1. That's a level at which differences from the reference image are hard to spot with the naked eye. We also improved the gamma, and only in the brightest whites is there a slight brightening remaining. In HDR the EOTF curve also tracks the reference closely, although the TV still tends to gently boost the brightness of small elements, such as stars or on-screen text. This gives the picture a little extra sparkle that shouldn't be there, but otherwise there's little to fault. It was already good out of the box, and after calibration we managed to refine most of the remaining shortcomings.

Gradation in The Frame 2026 comes across well, though not perfectly. In bright tonal transitions you can notice slight issues and occasional mild banding. These are not faults that seriously disturb normal viewing, but they can be picked up on our test images and in more demanding scenes. We would rate the bright tonal gradation at roughly 7.5 to 8 out of 10.

Interestingly, gradation in the darker parts of the image looks noticeably better. Here the transitions are very smooth and it's hard to find clear signs of posterization. This is the opposite of many LCD TVs, where the near-black region often causes bigger problems. In photos of dark scenes you can, however, see some unevenness in the image. These do not stem from the gradation itself but from panel uniformity and the operation of the backlight. Unfortunately, in that respect our sample of The Frame was not perfect, so in very dark shots you could spot brighter and darker patches of backlight.

Compared with Philips' previous OLEDs the smoothness of tonal transitions has clearly improved. The biggest difference is visible in dark parts of the picture, which can cause WOLED panels a lot of trouble. On the OLED811 they have been smoothed very well, with tones transitioning smoothly from one to another without visible banding or contouring. That's a big plus, especially when viewing dark scenes.

Unfortunately, it's not as good in brighter scenes. That's where we have the biggest reservations: instead of a gentle transition between tones, in places you can see distinct boundaries, known as posterisation. It can be quite noticeable, and it's a shame that the improvement seen in dark scenes did not extend to the brighter parts of the image to a similar degree.

As with many of Samsung’s newer TVs, this one also uses the NQ4 AI processor, only the older, second-generation version. And you have to admit it handles digital image processing quite well. Lower-resolution material is sharpened effectively, and after upscaling to 4K it still looks natural. The TV can also somewhat "tidy up" weaker sources, like older recordings or lower-quality broadcasts. That doesn't, of course, mean it will suddenly turn poor footage into 4K, but at closer viewing distances the difference compared with simpler models with weaker processors is easy to spot. Edges are clearer, and fine details don't get lost as much to signal compression.

Samsung also offers a few additional image-enhancing features, but as usual it's best to use them sparingly. At stronger settings, noise reduction can very effectively reduce posterization, but it also noticeably interferes with the image. The picture then simply starts to look very artificial, for example by heavily smoothing characters' faces. So it makes the most sense with really poor sources when various types of noise are seriously distracting.

OLED811 handles lower-quality material reasonably well, though it falls well short of perfection. The "Banding reduction" function helps to smooth tonal transitions and on the low setting gives a fairly good result. It does not remove bands between shades as effectively as similar solutions from some competitors, but at least it does not introduce new artefacts in the process. This is a sensible setting for everyday viewing. There is still some dissatisfaction, however, because the MediaTek Pentonic 800 chipset used here can, in other manufacturers' implementations, cope with the effects of heavy compression more effectively even at similarly low settings. Much therefore depends on how a given manufacturer makes use of its capabilities. We have a few more comments about the upscaling to 4K. There is a lot of detail, but the overall image looks rather soft. Edges are heavily smoothed, which robs the picture of a bit of sharpness and clarity. This can be partly corrected with the sharpness slider in the menu, though that will merely accentuate outlines rather than recover detail. On the plus side, there is no overscan; even with an SD signal the TV does not crop the edges of the picture.

Samsung again used a panel with a maximum refresh rate of 144 Hz. Refresh rates up to 120 Hz primarily offer greater possibilities with material that contains a lot of motion. The TV can use additional motion-smoothing systems that can improve fluidity in sports and other fast-moving content. However, a high refresh rate alone does not solve everything. The Frame still uses a VA panel, which has a fairly slow response time, and consequently fairly pronounced motion blur. With rapidly moving objects, especially on a dark background, trails are easy to notice. There is also a slight doubling of edges, which can be visible even when additional motion-enhancement systems are switched off. We saw similar behaviour in last year's The Frame 2025, and it's a shame Samsung hasn't addressed this issue. The 144 Hz itself provides a good foundation, but the panel's response time still limits this TV.

In terms of motion handling the OLED811 performs excellently. At 120 Hz, which is useful for console gaming and watching sport, the picture stays clear and moving objects do not leave noticeable smears. The fast response of OLED pixels helps here; this is clear in the UFO test, even on dark backgrounds. There are also motion smoothing controls. For films you can adjust the level of smoothing to suit your taste, ranging from preserving a cinematic character to much smoother motion. A separate blur reduction setting is useful for fast-paced material such as sports broadcasts.

In terms of gaming features, The Frame is practically on a par with Samsung’s top televisions. When a console is connected the TV automatically switches to Game Mode thanks to ALLM, so we do not have to change settings manually each time. There is also VRR, which matches the screen refresh rate to the number of frames produced by the console or PC. This helps avoid the characteristic screen tearing when frame rates drop. The Frame of course supports 4K at 120 Hz, so you can take advantage of the capabilities of the PlayStation 5 or Xbox Series X in games that offer higher frame rates. HGiG also works correctly. With HDR properly configured on the console, the TV does not try to brighten the picture further on its own, so bright effects in games are displayed as they should be. Samsung also includes a Game Bar. It is a handy menu you can bring up without leaving the game. There you can check VRR operation and the current frame rate, and quickly change the most important gaming-related settings. With a PC the possibilities are even greater, because the aforementioned Full HD mode lets you increase the refresh rate up to 240 Hz. There is essentially one feature missing that Samsung has already got us used to, namely Dolby Vision Gaming. Xbox owners will notice this most, as that console can use Dolby Vision in games. There is one more thing worth mentioning specific to this model. Its One Connect module has only one HDMI 2.1 port, so you must plug the console or PC into that port if you want to use 4K at 120 Hz. Fortunately Samsung did not combine this port with eARC. The soundbar can therefore be connected separately (3) and you still have a full HDMI 2.1 available for the console.

OLED811 has almost everything you could expect from a TV for gaming. It supports 120 Hz at Full HD, 1440p and 4K, and when connected to a PC it can reach 165 Hz. It also has VRR, which helps prevent screen tearing when frame rates fluctuate, and ALLM, which automatically switches to game mode. So you don't have to dig into the settings every time you power up your console.

Another plus is that HGiG works correctly, so once HDR is set on the console the TV doesn't apply its own changes to image brightness. There's also a Game Bar to check signal parameters and quickly change settings useful while gaming. The list even includes Dolby Vision for gaming, but there is a significant catch, which you can read about below.

People who feared that the additional One Connect module might cause greater delay between our action on the gamepad and what happens on the screen can sleep soundly. The input lag we measured is just as low as in other Samsung TVs.

At 60 Hz it is around 15 ms, and after switching to 120 Hz it falls to around 8 ms. These are very good results, so the delay is hard to notice in practice even in fast-paced games. The One Connect module itself does not introduce any noticeable issue.

The OLED811 responds instantly. We measured 14 ms at 60 Hz and just 5 ms at 120 Hz, both in Full HD and 4K. Those are excellent results that let you comfortably play even fast online titles. Unfortunately, when Dolby Vision is enabled the situation changes dramatically: at 60 Hz latency rises to 157 ms, and at 120 Hz it is 57 ms. The first figure in particular already means a clearly noticeable delay between input on the controller and the on-screen response. For gaming, it’s definitely better to stick with HDR10.

In this category you could jokingly say that the new The Frame gives with one hand and takes away with the other. If you look solely at PC gaming, it performs really well. You have 144 Hz at 4K or even 240 Hz in Full HD, plus support for G-Sync and FreeSync and very low input lag. The Frame can easily serve as a large gaming monitor and it's hard to find major complaints.

On the other hand, we had the impression that font readability in the new model has worsened slightly. When you look at text from very close up, you can notice additional halos at the lower edges of characters caused by the action of individual sub-pixels. This gives a slight impression of blurred text. Of course this is mainly an issue for people who would actually want to use The Frame as a monitor on a desk, for example for working with text. At a typical viewing distance the problem is practically impossible to notice. And let's be honest, it's hard to imagine anyone putting a 55- or 65-inch The Frame on their desk.

The Philips OLED811 works very well with a PC. The manufacturer has finally managed to implement 4:4:4 chroma correctly, even at maximum resolution and refresh rate. As a result, small text and coloured edges are legible, without blurring or rainbow artefacts caused by loss of colour information. Dark text on dark backgrounds also performs well, which is something TVs can struggle with. There are still minor imperfections related to the RGWB subpixel layout. Fonts are not as sharp as on a conventional RGB monitor, and white letters can show faint red outlines up close. From a normal viewing distance you hardly notice it, though sitting close to the screen at a desk makes it easier to spot.

The most fun, however, comes from gaming on a PC. The combination of 4K at 165 Hz, functional G-Sync and input lag of around 5 ms makes the OLED811 excellent for that. If you have a PC that can take advantage of such a refresh rate, it’s definitely worth connecting it to the Philips.

Viewing angles are not a strong point of this model. Compared with LCD TVs with IPS panels, and even more so with OLEDs, the picture loses quality fairly quickly when viewed at an angle.

The viewing angles on the OLED811 are excellent and among the best on the market. Even sitting well off to the side, you still see an image with deep blacks and well-saturated colours. This is a big advantage over LCD screens, as you don't have to sit directly in front to enjoy good picture quality.

QD-OLED panels do even better, keeping colours truer at angles. On the Philips, at greater off‑axis angles white shifts slightly towards greenish hues, but the effect is so small that it is hard to find it bothersome during viewing. We'd even say that, in this respect, we've come across the best WOLED panel unit we've tested so far.

The Frame is, by design, a television that will often be used in a bright living room, and its matt finish suits that very well. The screen effectively diffuses reflections, so a window or a lit lamp don't turn into a clear mirror. In that respect it's really good and it's one of this model's stronger points. The matt coating does, however, have its downside. Strong light falling directly on the screen scatters over a larger area and slightly raises the black level. So during the day blacks don't look as "deep" as at night, especially when the room is very bright. But we think that's a fair compromise. On the plus side, The Frame's high brightness helps. The TV has enough power that the picture doesn't wash out and remains clearly visible during the day. Overall, then, it's a good TV for a bright living room, particularly if reflections bother you more.

OLED811 copes with daytime viewing, though in a very bright living room it has its limitations. Maximum SDR brightness reaches around 600 nits, comparable to the LG C6 or the Samsung S90H, which use the same panel. That’s noticeably more than entry-level OLEDs and will be more than enough for most people. However, bear in mind this brightness is not sustained across the whole screen; it falls with large areas of white, and our average measurement was about 392 nits.

A bigger problem can be direct reflections from windows or lamps. The glossy coating suppresses them reasonably well, but they are still clearly visible on the screen, especially in dark scenes. It doesn’t diffuse them as effectively as matte screens, so placing the TV opposite a large window is not the best idea. On the plus side, blacks remain very good even during the day. In a typical living room the Philips will cope without major issues, but with strong sunlight falling directly on the screen you will want blinds.

Operating System: Tizen

Samsung The Frame 2026 runs on the familiar Tizen operating system, so when it comes to Smart TV features, you get pretty much everything you would expect from a modern TV. There is a wide selection of streaming apps, AirPlay, SmartThings, and the ability to cast content from a smartphone. The system itself is fast and responsive, while the menu layout is very similar to what you’ll find on other Samsung TVs.

When it comes to traditional TV features, things are a little more basic. The Frame doesn’t really stand out in this area, focusing primarily on its online features and lifestyle-oriented functionality.

Art Mode

The key feature, of course, remains Art Mode. It allows The Frame to display artwork or your own photos when you’re not watching TV, effectively turning the screen into part of your interior. The matte screen coating plays an important role here, as it helps the displayed artwork look less like an image shown on a glowing TV screen.

Another interesting addition is the motion sensor, something you won’t normally find on other TVs. It’s worth pointing out that this is not the same thing as the ambient light sensor. The latter adjusts the screen brightness to match the conditions in the room, while the motion sensor detects whether someone is nearby. If the room is empty, the TV can automatically turn Art Mode off and then switch it back on when you return. This means the screen doesn’t have to stay on all the time.

Another feature that works particularly well with this model is One Connect. In our opinion, it makes a lot of sense on a TV like The Frame, which is designed to sit as close to the wall as possible. All the main cables are connected to a separate box, while only a single cable runs to the screen itself. It’s simply a very convenient solution.

It’s also worth mentioning that Samsung includes a dedicated wall mount in the box. That might sound obvious, but it really isn’t. With the flagship S99H, for example, which also puts a strong emphasis on flush wall mounting and blending into the interior, the appropriate wall mount has to be purchased separately. With The Frame, it’s included, so you can save yourself a bit of extra money right from the start.

*The Art Mode photo was taken on The Frame Pro 2026. It looks identical on the standard The Frame — we have to admit that we simply forgot to take a photo of it during testing. 😉

Smart features: Titan OS

It's the Smart TV system that is the most controversial change in the OLED811. Philips dropped the user-favorite Google TV in favor of its own Titan OS. For many people this may be hard to accept, although Titan has been getting better every year and runs noticeably smoother. We have working AirPlay, screen mirroring from a computer, and voice search in Polish. System responsiveness has improved too, though minor delays still occur when navigating menus. We suspect the infrared remote is partly to blame, as it doesn't always register commands immediately. The biggest limitation compared with Google TV remains a smaller app selection. That doesn't mean it's empty — you'll find Netflix, Prime Video, Disney+, CANAL+, and Apple TV was recently added to the library. If you mainly use popular services, Titan should be enough, but it's worth checking availability of lesser-known apps before buying (list at the bottom 😉).

Ambilight

Ambilight is still one of the best reasons to consider a Philips. On the OLED811 it's three-sided — LEDs at the top and along the sides of the chassis light the wall with colors matched to what's happening on screen. In the evening it creates a great effect and can change the mood of the whole room, which is why we awarded extra points for this feature. You don't have to use dynamic picture tracking though. If you prefer calmer viewing conditions, you can set a steady white light. That's a nice option for evening sessions when you don't want to sit in front of a bright screen in a completely dark room.

Classic features

For regular TV watching the OLED811 performs well, although there is no USB recording or picture-in-picture (PiP). You can connect Bluetooth headphones and use them at the same time as the TV speakers. What bothers us most is the aforementioned infrared control. The remote itself is really interestingly designed: it has backlighting and a hybrid keyboard with a numeric section. It's a shame you have to aim it at the TV like with old remotes. For equipment at this level we'd prefer to just press buttons without wondering which way we're holding the remote. Hopefully Philips will fix that in future models.

In terms of USB file playback, The Frame performs adequately. The TV easily handles the main video, photo and audio formats, so in everyday use you should not encounter many surprises. However, we again ran into problems with the HEIC format, which is common on Apple devices. Images saved in this format could not be opened correctly, which can be irritating if you often transfer photos directly from an iPhone. Apart from that, the player worked without major issues.

The USB player in the OLED811 handles most of the audio and video formats we test, so it's perfectly adequate for watching a film or playing music from a USB stick. However, our main reservations are about photos, specifically its oddly selective handling of their resolutions. The TV opened 8, 16 and 32MP files but couldn't cope with the rest. It's not that the photos are simply too large. The player can display a higher-resolution image yet refuse to open a smaller one. When browsing holiday snaps this can be simply irritating, because some of them will need to be converted on a computer first... or you could just mirror your screen remotely...😉

Despite using a 40 W speaker system in a 2.0.2 configuration — on paper somewhat better than in many conventional TVs — the sound is fairly average. What bothers us most is that it’s simply flat. As with most very slim TVs, there is a lack of bass and greater depth. Fortunately the midrange and treble are reproduced correctly. Dialogue is clear, and at normal listening levels there are no major distortions. For news or regular TV that setup is perfectly adequate. For films, music or games, however, you’ll quickly find it lacking.

That’s why we would definitely recommend adding a soundbar or external speakers to The Frame. Samsung, moreover, has an increasing number of models designed specifically for lifestyle TVs, such as the slim S800 series or speakers from the Studio or Music Frame lines, which in design match the TV itself.

There have been a few concrete changes to the audio compared with last year’s OLED820. The rear subwoofer is gone, and the 4.1 speaker layout has been replaced by a 2.2 configuration. Despite these changes, the OLED811 still sounds good and fairly balanced. It can play louder, and the sound even seems a little fuller than a year ago. However, the bass has suffered. Although the sound has some weight, the low end lacks the depth of its predecessor. It’s easiest to hear this in films and music, when you’re waiting for a bigger punch. Still, this is well above average for built‑in TV speakers. If you want deeper bass and clearer spatial effects, it’s worth considering a soundbar or a system with an AV receiver. Philips gives plenty of freedom here: it supports both Dolby Atmos and DTS, and can pass Dolby TrueHD tracks over HDMI eARC to compatible equipment. So there are options if we decide to expand the audio setup in future.

Samsung The Frame 2026 (LS03H) vs Philips OLED811

Advantages

Disadvantages

Our verdict

TV appearance

Where to buy

Contrast and black detail

HDR effect quality

Colours

Colours

Factory color reproduction

Color reproduction after calibration

Smoothness of tonal transitions

Image scaling and smoothness of tonal transitions

Blur and motion smoothness

Console compatibility and gaming features

Input lag

Compatibility with PC

Viewing angles

Daytime performance

Panel details

TV features

Classic features:

Smart features:

Sound connection options

Supported audio formats (external HDMI eARC audio):

Senior accessibility

Operating System: Tizen

Art Mode

Smart features: Titan OS

Ambilight

Classic features

Apps

Playing files from USB

Sound

Sound Quality Test

Acoustic Measurements