Compare: Samsung The Frame 2026 (LS03H) vs Philips PQS9011 / PQS9001 (The One 2026)

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.

The idea behind The One has hardly changed over the years and with the Philips PQS9001 this is both a strength and its biggest drawback. You still get a versatile mid-range television whose main distinguishing feature is Ambilight. The light that follows the picture can change the atmosphere of an evening viewing and for many people will be the main reason to buy it. It's easy to see why: once you like that effect, you often don't want to go back to watching without it. The picture quality itself is good, but a very similar level has been seen in this series in previous years. The VA panel delivers decent blacks, colours are nicely saturated and the brightness is sufficient for comfortable viewing in a typical living room. It's a pity, though, that Philips didn't take another step and at least implement some form of local dimming. In a dark room you can see a navy-black rather than true black, and HDR, though noticeable, is less impressive as a result. After so many years of The One on the market we'd expect more.

There is a clear step forward in Titan OS. Compared with last year, and especially the version from two years ago, the system has become much more pleasant to use. A few apps have been added, many small functions improved and the annoying bugs we complained about before have been fixed. Overall it runs respectably, although we're again bothered by a remote that has to be pointed at the television. Philips stubbornly sticks with infrared for basic control, even though voice control uses radio connectivity. That makes it harder to understand why radio wasn't also used for menu navigation. The One also has a lot to offer gamers. Four HDMI 2.1 ports and extensive features are one thing, but what impressed us most was the panel's response time. Our unit showed virtually no smearing, even on dark backgrounds, which is rare for LCD TVs with a VA panel. That deserves considerable praise. The ability to play in 4K at 144 Hz or in Full HD at 240 Hz further encourages connecting a PC. Unfortunately there's an unfinished element here too: Dolby Vision when gaming on Xbox incurs very high input lag.

The PQS9000 therefore leaves mixed impressions. It can surprise with excellent motion handling and shows that Philips has worked on the system, but the image quality lacks a similar step forward. This is a television we can recommend primarily to Ambilight fans. If that lighting is what convinces you to choose Philips, buying The One makes a lot of sense. It's worth checking, though, whether you can't find a Mini LED model with good local dimming at a similar price, which would offer deeper blacks and more striking HDR. Then you need to decide what matters more to you: the ambience created by Ambilight or better image quality itself.

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 levels and contrast on the Philips PQS9000 are decent for an LCD TV without local dimming. That's mainly thanks to the VA panel; in our film scenes contrast often exceeded 5000:1, and in weaker results dropped to around 4000:1. That delivers an image with quite good depth and a clear advantage over typical IPS panels, where blacks are much more prone to looking grey. Unfortunately that's basically where the panel's strengths end. The TV has no local dimming, so it can't dim dark areas separately while retaining strong highlights elsewhere on the screen. All it has is global dimming, which brightens or dims the entire backlight at once. In a completely dark room these limitations become apparent: blacks take on a dark navy hue, and shadowy scenes lack the depth of a good screen with local dimming. Fortunately Ambilight helps here. The light on the wall makes the on-screen blacks appear deeper and slightly masks the panel's glow. That doesn't change the TV's actual contrast, but it affects how our eyes perceive it. In this case Ambilight is therefore not just decorative, as it can also make evening viewing more pleasant.

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 PQS9000 is a moderately bright TV. In our HDR scenes it reached roughly 450 to just over 500 nits. That's enough to notice a difference compared with SDR. Reflections of the sun, lamps or flares have a bit more sparkle than on basic TVs, whose brightness often tops out around 300 nits. However, it is not a level at which bright elements make a particularly strong impression. The biggest limitation remains contrast. Without local dimming, when the TV brightens a bright object it also raises the black level around it. There is therefore no clear separation of strong highlights from a dark background, and it is that contrast that can show what HDR can do. The PQS9000 offers more than the cheapest models, but despite decent brightness the effect remains fairly basic.

Colours

Philips deserves praise for the colours. Although the manufacturer calls this model QLED, in reality a PFS phosphor is used here instead of quantum dots. That choice does not prevent the TV from achieving good results. On both test patterns and in measurements of film scenes we recorded about 94% coverage of DCI-P3 and 75% of BT.2020. For this class of TV that is really good. In practice this means that the vast majority of colours used in HDR films and series will have appropriate saturation. Vibrant green or intense red are not much of an issue and add appeal to the picture. Limitations are easier to notice in some games and in rarer content that use the most saturated shades of the wide BT.2020 gamut. In such situations, displays with wider colour coverage, such as SQD or RGB LED, can show more. In its price bracket, however, the PQS9000 has nothing to be ashamed of.

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.

Unfortunately, the factory picture settings for Film mode on the PQS9000 need refinement. In SDR the most noticeable problem is an excess of red in the white balance, which makes whites, greys and skin tones too warm, sometimes even slightly pinkish. On top of that the gamma runs below the reference across most of the range. The TV therefore brightens midtones and highlights, making the overall image look flatter than it should.

In HDR the white balance itself is much better. Apart from minor deviations the RGB components track closely, so there is no pronounced colour cast as in SDR. However, the EOTF curve shows a slight brightening of parts of the image, and the biggest issue appears in measurements of the wide colour gamut. Many hues deviate significantly from the target, with errors reaching levels of 8–9. The good gamut coverage we praised earlier therefore does not mean the TV hits specific colours equally well. It can display a wide colour range, but out of the box it does not use it very precisely.

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.

Calibration brought a significant improvement, especially in SDR material. We managed to even out the white balance and remove the previous colour cast, and the Color Checker measurements now look really very good. Colours are much closer to what should be on screen, so with ordinary TV or SDR films we can be satisfied with the outcome. Unfortunately HDR somewhat spoils that result. On the one hand it is limited by the panel itself, because calibration won't improve contrast or replace local dimming. On the other hand there remain colour errors that we couldn't correct because the CMS settings, that is the colour management controls, were greyed out and inactive. That costs Philips points with us. The white balance can be fine‑tuned, but without access to wide‑gamut adjustments it's not possible to order HDR colours equally well. It's a shame, because the SDR results show the potential is there, but we weren't allowed to make full use of it everywhere.

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.

The Philips PQS9000 handles tonal transitions very well. This is especially evident in dark scenes, where shades flow smoothly into one another without visible banding or distinct boundaries between colours. As a result, even on large, uniform areas the image looks smooth. Minor imperfections only appear in lighter tones, but you have to look closely to notice them. During normal viewing they are unlikely to distract from the film. In this category Philips performs really well.

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.

Digital picture processing in the Philips PQS9000 performs well, though we have a few reservations. The "Distortion Reduction" function helps to smooth tonal transitions in lower-quality material, but it works rather unevenly. It can improve one part of the image, only to seem to lose its effect a moment later, still in the same scene, and show banding between shades again. A plus is that it doesn't remove film grain or fine noise, so the image retains its texture. We found the 'Medium' setting worked best and we recommend it. The upscaling to 4K itself is acceptable, although the image is very soft. Edges are heavily smoothed, which may leave some viewers feeling the picture lacks definition. In that case, it's worth slightly increasing the sharpness in the TV's menu, as this will make edges appear more defined. However, don't overdo the sharpening slider, otherwise artificial halos may appear instead of an improvement.

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 Philips PQS9000 performs exceptionally well for an LCD TV. It's not just the 144 Hz refresh rate, but above all how quickly the panel itself responds. At 120 Hz there are virtually no typical trailing smears behind moving objects. What is particularly pleasing is that this also applies to darker scenes, where many VA panels clearly struggle. Here motion remains clear and, in this respect, Philips pleasantly surprised us.

The "Motion Styles" feature lets you adjust how motion is displayed. It includes two sliders: "Smoothness" and "Blur Reduction", allowing you to tailor the effect to the content you're watching and your own preferences. Our suggested settings are shown in the photo. Treat them as a starting point and try to find the level of smoothing that suits you best.

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.

Gaming features

In terms of gaming features, the Philips PQS9000 has a lot to offer. Four HDMI 2.1 ports let you connect several devices without having to choose which one gets the full-capability port. Consoles can use 120 Hz at Full HD, 1440p and 4K, while a PC can also make use of 144 Hz at 4K or 240 Hz if you drop to Full HD. There's also VRR, which matches the refresh rate to the frame rate and prevents screen tearing. Its range is 48 to 240 Hz, with the upper limit applying in Full HD mode.

ALLM is present, so the TV automatically switches to game mode, and HGiG works properly, which is useful when setting HDR on a console. There's also a Game Bar for quick access to settings and signal information. The list even includes Dolby Vision gaming, but it's hard to enjoy this option because of very high input lag. Aside from that caveat, the feature set is really solid.

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.

Input lag is already less impressive than the gaming features themselves. At 60 Hz we measured 32 ms, both in SDR and HDR. That result is fine for more relaxed games, but in fast-paced shooters you can feel a slight lag. At 120 Hz the delay drops to 16 ms and gaming is noticeably more enjoyable, though the competition can respond even faster.

The biggest problem appears when Dolby Vision is enabled. At 60 Hz the delay is as much as 213 ms, and at 120 Hz it reaches 106 ms. The response to controller input is then clearly delayed, which seriously disrupts gameplay. Therefore, on the PQS9000 it is definitely better to stick with HDR10. Dolby Vision is supported for games, but its practical usefulness remains limited.

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 PQS9000 scores highly for PC compatibility, mainly thanks to its gaming capabilities. A 144 Hz refresh rate at 4K and support for G-Sync Compatible and AMD FreeSync Premium Pro allow frame-rate synchronisation on compatible NVIDIA and AMD cards. Working with text is also good. Regular fonts are sharp and legible, and thanks to proper 4:4:4 chroma handling coloured letters, icons and small desktop elements retain their clarity. The main reservation concerns very small, dark text: the horizontal strokes of letters are noticeably darker than the verticals, which makes some characters look uneven. You probably won't notice this from the sofa, but if someone plans to put The One on a desk and work up close, this flaw may become annoying.

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.

Viewing angles are one of the weakest points of the Philips PQS9001. Simply moving to the side is enough for the colours to lose saturation noticeably, and for the picture to look washed out and less contrasty. When watching with several people, seats directly in front of the screen will therefore be by far the best.

Unfortunately this is a typical characteristic of VA panels, where good contrast when viewed head-on comes at the cost of poorer off-axis performance. Most TVs with such a panel suffer the same problem and The One is no exception. The swivelling stand helps a little, allowing you to angle the screen towards the viewer, but it won't solve the issue when seats are widely spaced.

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.

The Philips PQS9001 performs quite well for daytime viewing. The main advantage is a stable brightness of around 500 nits, regardless of how many bright elements appear on the screen. Even when watching winter sports or a scene full of white, the image does not dim. In a typical living room that level is more than enough to watch television comfortably without having to draw the curtains.

The satin finish does a decent job of suppressing reflections, though it does not eliminate them completely. A window opposite the screen will be visible and can be distracting, especially in darker scenes. Black holds up well in daylight, so the picture does not become overly washed out. For everyday viewing, it's therefore quite good, as long as the sun is not shining directly on the screen.

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. 😉

Titan OS in this year’s The One shows that Philips has worked on its system. Compared with last year’s version many small details and functions that previously did not behave as they should have been fixed. Now you can use AirPlay without problems, stream the picture from a computer via Miracast or search for something by voice in Polish. The system itself runs decently, though it is certainly not among the fastest. The app library has also grown, with Netflix, Prime Video, Disney+, CANAL+, Apple TV and YouTube available. The selection is still smaller than on Google TV, but when using popular services Titan gives fewer reasons to complain. Everyday convenience has improved in the basic features as well. You can connect Bluetooth headphones and listen through them at the same time as the TV’s speakers, and there is a mode that lets you switch the screen off and leave only the audio playing. USB recording and picture-in-picture (PiP) are missing. What’s most disappointing is the remote — despite its backlit buttons it still controls the TV via infrared, so you have to point it at the screen. The system has gained many useful tweaks, but that part of the operation has stayed the same and can be irritating in daily use.

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 built-in USB player works quickly and smoothly and handles most of the files we tested without a problem. Music playback is good, from popular MP3s to FLAC files, including 96 kHz/24-bit. It's perfectly adequate for everyday playback of media from a USB stick. However, our main reservations again concern photo handling. The player is rather selective about image resolution: it opened our 8, 16 and 32 MP files, but failed with, among others, 4, 12 and 24 MP files. It's hard to see the logic in that when a larger photo works but a smaller one doesn't. That can be irritating when browsing holiday photos.

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.

The Philips PQS9001 has a 2.0 audio system with a total power output of 40 W, which is two 10 W drivers on each side. It performs quite well and noticeably better than most budget TVs. There's plenty of volume, but the sound itself lacks depth. The biggest issue is the lack of low bass, so explosions in films and the heavier parts of music don't have the proper weight.

Higher frequencies aren't reproduced evenly either. Measurements show a clear dip around 2 kHz, a boost at 6-7 kHz and a drop above roughly 8 kHz. This can emphasise sibilant consonants and give the sound an edge, despite the roll-off of the highest treble. It's adequate for everyday viewing, but for films and music it's worth considering additional audio equipment, all the more so given that the TV supports surround sound formats, including Dolby Atmos and DTS. A compatible soundbar or AV receiver will make better use of those formats than the built-in speakers.

Samsung The Frame 2026 (LS03H) vs Philips PQS9011 / PQS9001 (The One 2026)

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

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

Apps

Playing files from USB

Sound

Sound Quality Test

Acoustic Measurements