Samsung The Frame Pro vs Haier M95E

Samsung The Frame Pro is one of the relatively bright televisions. In synthetic tests, we managed to achieve values around 900 nits, which is quite a respectable result for a lifestyle model. In full-screen scenes, such as the board from the film The Meg or the initial sequence in Life of Pi, brightness maintained a level of 700–800 nits. These values allow you to fully enjoy the HDR effects and convey their cinematic magic. However, the situation becomes complicated when smaller, point light sources appear on the screen. The edge lighting used here, equipped with the ability to locally dim entire strips, does not manage these well. Sometimes, small elements are overly dimmed, which weakens the effect, or conversely – they are significantly brightened, but at the cost of losing the depth of black in that part of the image. This can be compared to light beams reminiscent of a laser beam spreading in dense fog – the effect is noticeable and bright, yet at the same time, it is quite unnatural and distracting. Fortunately, the colour aspect performs better. Thanks to the use of a quantum dot filter (QLED), colours are saturated, and the reproduction of the DCI-P3 palette exceeds 92%. Generally, films or series watched in HDR on The Frame Pro showcase a rich colour palette, even if contrast and the functioning of the dimming algorithms can sometimes distract us.

If there is one category in which the Haier M95E absolutely shines, it is the HDR effect, driven by the raw power of the backlighting. This television cannot be denied the fact that it is a truly bright device. In both most film scenes and during our synthetic measurements, the panel easily achieved, and often even exceeded, the threshold of 1200-1500 nits. This has a direct impact on the viewing experience – the image has a punch and genuinely allows one to feel the magic of materials recorded in this format. However, one must be aware of a certain compromise. When exceptionally demanding scenes appear on the screen, full of small but intense points of light, the M95E does not lose its resonance or dim, but pays a different price for it. A very strong and noticeably distracting halo effect is generated around these bright elements. It is clear here that the algorithms controlling the dimming have been programmed to prioritise brightness and the visibility of the smallest details, even if this comes at the expense of pristine blacks. We are not entirely convinced that this is the healthiest approach; nonetheless, it must be acknowledged that the overall capabilities of the M95E in this regard are indeed significant. A huge advantage is the fact that we are dealing with a Mini LED QLED type construction. The use of a layer of quantum dots brings measurable benefits in the form of wide coverage of the colour palette, which in our tests reached nearly 96% of the DCI-P3 space. This guarantees that the television has full predispositions for displaying vibrant and properly saturated colours.

We achieved the best results, of course, in Filmmaker mode, which immediately showed that Samsung had put effort into the factory settings. In SDR content – the type most commonly viewed – The Frame Pro performed really well. The white balance and gamma were almost perfectly matched, giving the image a natural and cohesive appearance. Admittedly, there were some noticeable errors, particularly in skin tones and reds, which could be overly saturated, giving everything a slightly "warmed-up" character, but this didn’t significantly detract from the viewing experience in everyday use. For HDR content, the situation was similar regarding the white balance. This was at a good level; however, the biggest issue turned out to be brightness management. The EOTF curve was set in such a way that in many scenes, the image appeared blown out, with the brightest areas losing detail and turning into uniform patches of light. This severely undermined realism and caused the colours to appear overly sharpened. Fortunately, Samsung provides the option for manual adjustment of the curve in their televisions, so we opted for calibration, and its results can be seen below.

Each television is primarily evaluated based on its default cinema mode – in this case, "Movie" – which theoretically should be the "best" and most faithful upon being taken out of the box. Unfortunately, in the case of the Haier M95E, the word "best" is certainly not synonymous with the word "good." Already during SDR viewing, the picture revealed evident problems: white balance skewed too much to red, and excessive, unnatural colour saturation led to visible colour deviations. What’s worse, the M95E also struggles with brightness management (gamma curve), excessively darkening the entire scene. Such behaviour is hard to commend, as it directly leads to details merging into shadows that are irrevocably lost in a black blob.

However, the real disaster occurred after switching to HDR material, while still remaining in "Movie" mode. It’s hard for us to guess who came up with such a fantastic idea – or perhaps it was simply a complete oversight of this stage by Haier's engineers – but instead of cinematic fidelity, the picture began to resemble a garish "Dynamic" mode. The white balance exposed immense problems with the blue colour, which in turn resulted in unnatural sharpening and artificial over-saturation of the entire scene. As if that weren’t enough, the EOTF curve characteristics mercilessly revealed that the television also has fundamental issues with local dimming management in this setting. We have not calibrated many Haier models in our career, but we already know for sure that the M95E definitely needs such calibration.

After calibration, the SDR mode looks absolutely perfect. We managed to eliminate the overly strong red saturation, which previously gave the image a somewhat excessively warm character. Colours have become more balanced, which resulted in a natural and pleasant reception of everyday content – from television to films and series from streaming or materials on YouTube. In HDR mode, the most work was required on the EOTF curve, which factory settings caused excessive brightening of the entire image. Calibration allowed us to largely "tame" this problem – the image stopped being overexposed, and details in bright areas became more visible. Of course, the limitations are set by the design of the television itself, as edge lighting reveals its constraints, and the smallest elements of light can still be overblown or blend into the background. However, this is a matter of technology, not just calibration. After the correction, The Frame Pro is significantly more enjoyable to watch, and it is certainly worth considering if you want to maximise the television's capabilities.

The calibration process left us with extremely mixed feelings. On the one hand, we noted considerable success in the area of colour accuracy. By using the available options in the menu, we managed to tame the white balance and bring it down to an acceptable level. As a result, SDR content finally freed itself from the irritating red dominance, and the HDR image no longer resembled a vibrant, shop display mode. We also succeeded in clearly adjusting the entire colour palette and its saturation – perhaps not perfectly, but as much as the software allowed, and the difference was visible to the naked eye.

And unfortunately, this is where our list of improvements essentially ends, as the M95E simply did not allow for more. As we indicated earlier, most settings related to image brightness do not respond to our commands at all. This means that we were unable to grasp its fundamental characteristics in any way – neither the gamma curve nor the EOTF. In practice, the television in SDR content still tends to darken details, as confirmed by the elevated gamma, merging details in the shadows. Meanwhile, the EOTF curve in HDR mode still ruthlessly exposes all the aforementioned problems with chaotic local dimming management. And although the calibration process itself yielded a lot, removing most of the colour issues, in the end, we had to capitulate.

Although the fluidity of tonal transitions in 4K HDR materials on The Frame Pro is not a problem at all, naturally, with a weaker signal - television, HD materials, or older Full HD films - imperfections may arise. Therefore, it is crucial how the television copes with these limitations thanks to its image processor. The noise reduction function works really effectively here. At the medium setting, it eliminates unwanted bands or artefacts, smoothing the image in a noticeable yet not excessive way. However, it's worth noting that Samsung tends to be aggressive in its approach - even at the lowest level of this function, it can "consume" film grain. So it's advisable to use it judiciously and adjust the settings to the material being viewed.

The upscaling itself is at a high level. The Frame Pro can effectively enhance older materials to a native 4K resolution while maintaining good sharpness and readability. Films and series in lower quality simply look better here. However, it should be mentioned that there is a minor drawback - typical for many Samsung televisions. With very old sources of poor quality, you may notice clipping of the image edges on the left side of the screen. It's not a problem that will ruin the viewing experience, but it's worth knowing that it might occur.

Well, what happens to those colour connections when a lower quality material full of compression artifacts comes on screen? Unfortunately, we have some bad news for you. Although the menu contains an option responsible for smoothing tonal transitions in older content, we definitely DO NOT RECOMMEND using it. Its activation causes an avalanche of additional, hideous artifacts and noticeably blurs the entire image, and what's funniest – it often doesn't even remove those unwanted "jaggies" it was supposed to fight against. This function might as well not exist at all.

We can write many more positive remarks about the general upscaling process, which raises lower resolutions to the native 4K matrix. The image after upscaling looks really decent – it is neither overly jagged nor artificially smoothed. In this particular matter, the M95E simply performs well.

The smoothness of motion in The Frame Pro is not only due to the matrix, which operates with a refresh rate of up to 144 Hz, but also the image processor and the smoothing system. It is thanks to this that we can adjust the way films or sports broadcasts are displayed to our own preferences. There are sliders for reducing blurring and reducing judder – the first function improves the sharpness of fast movements, while the second helps to soften the effect of a "jumping" image during camera pans. So, everyone can choose between a cinematic motion character and a smoother, more "television" style.

In terms of motion fluidity and blur, our feelings are quite mixed, as the M95E is a paradox of a television. Let's start with absolute admiration: at the heart of the device is a 144Hz panel, but what truly impresses is its performance with 120Hz content, which is crucial for sports and console gaming. We must state with full responsibility that Haier has equipped this television with one of the best VA panels currently available on the market regarding the minimisation of blur. It is rare to encounter an LCD panel that offers such clean, sharp, and ghosting-free motion. In this respect, the M95E is simply phenomenal.

And that is precisely why the unpleasant surprise that awaits us on the software side is so painful. It turns out that this fantastic hardware potential is completely underutilised, as the television practically offers no effective options for improving fluidity. The motion smoothing systems that should assist with lower frame-rate content can indeed be found in the Menu, but they essentially do not respond to our settings. The conclusion is brutally simple: if you intend to watch high-fluidity material, you must be sure that the source is broadcasting it at native 120. In every other case, you must accept a rather raw, stuttering image, as the M95E will do nothing to smooth it out.

Samsung The Frame Pro does not pretend to be just a “living room” television; here, gamers will also find something for themselves. The manufacturer has ensured a full range of gaming features: we have support for variable refresh rate (VRR), automatic low latency mode (ALLM), refresh rates up to 144 Hz, and compatibility with both G-Sync and FreeSync Premium Pro. Additionally, there is the well-known Game Bar panel, which is a quick menu where key parameters can be checked on the fly—from refresh rates to enabled image processing modes. Are there any downsides? Indeed, The Frame Pro does not support Dolby Vision in game mode, but this is hard to consider a serious issue—most gamers use HDR10 anyway... which means HGIG mode. Exactly. The biggest surprise turned out to be the latest software update. Samsung… completely removed this option from The Frame PRO. In practice, this means that the television independently interprets HDR tone mapping in games, and the user has no way to enable settings developed for consoles. This is a step backwards that may disappoint more knowledgeable gamers hoping for full compliance with HGiG guidelines. We can only hope that this issue will be resolved quickly.

An interesting feature of The Frame Pro is also the unusual arrangement of HDMI 2.1 ports. There are as many as five available—four are located in the One Connect box, and the fifth, in micro HDMI version, is directly on the television. This is quite an unusual solution, but rather practical. Samsung clearly suggests that this is the port to which you should connect your console or computer. Why? Because it minimises potential delays associated with communication through the wireless One Connect, and in the case of gaming, every millisecond matters. We have written separately about input lag, but it can already be revealed here that by connecting equipment directly to the television, we achieve the absolute maximum in response speed.

When it comes to features for gamers, the Haier M95E presents some very strong arguments. First of all, it is fully ready for the new generation of consoles and powerful PCs. It is equipped with two full-fledged HDMI 2.1 ports, which seamlessly handle 4K signals at 120Hz, and even allow for gameplay at 144Hz. This is the foundation that guarantees us the full use of the potential of our gear. Moreover, the key technologies work flawlessly here. The television flawlessly detects the console and automatically switches to low latency mode (ALLM), so we don’t have to fiddle with the settings. The frame synchronization (VRR) works just as efficiently, eliminating annoying screen tearing when game fluidity slightly drops. Considering the incredibly low motion blur of the panel, which we have already mentioned, the M95E creates a really comfortable and responsive gaming environment. Of course, this is not a perfect package. A dedicated "Game Bar," which is a handy menu for gamers, would be useful, but this is essentially just a nice addition. A more serious failing is the lack of support for the HGiG standard, which complicates the perfect HDR configuration on the console and may lead to overexposures. Despite these shortcomings, the basic "gaming" set that the M95E offers is really solid and fully functional.