Blaupunkt UGC5500S vs Samsung S90H (WOLED)

Here, we won't beat around the bush either – if you're looking for a TV strictly for cinematic HDR experiences, you've come to the wrong address. The Blaupunkt UGC5500S unfortunately is not a machine designed for such challenges. This is primarily due to its very low brightness, which we measured during our tests. A result of around 250 nits on film screens speaks for itself. It's simply too little to even talk about any real HDR effect. To be honest, everything displayed here in this format can best be considered a slightly "boosted" SDR mode. We expected this because practically every device in this price range fails in this regard, but we feel obligated to warn you. Manufacturers love to boast about HDR compatibility stickers on the boxes, but in reality, this format simply doesn't exist here – it lacks the "fuel" of brightness.

The situation is made all the more difficult for Blaupunkt because we have a panel with a very basic DCI-P3 color gamut coverage of just around 80%. You won't find any advanced coatings that enhance these capabilities (like quantum dots), making scenes that are supposed to burst with richly saturated colors appear simply desaturated on this screen. Therefore, we have a concrete piece of advice for you: do not push the HDR mode on this model. If you have the option in the streaming app settings – just turn it off. Sticking with the classic SDR mode will ensure that the TV won't try to "enhance" something that it can't handle hardware-wise.

The Samsung S90H in the WOLED variant is still an exceptionally bright TV for its price class, although it is slightly dimmer compared to the QD-OLED version. The difference is not as pronounced as in last year’s F series, where gaps could reach as much as 500 nits. Here the specs of both panels are very close, and differences in peak brightness are only about 100–150 nits. In small-area measurements, the S90H on the WOLED panel easily reaches levels close to 1500 nits. That headroom lets it portray HDR dynamics phenomenally—specular highlights, reflections or explosions have the right punch, just as the creators intended in the post-production studio. As with most OLED displays, when a very bright scene fills the entire screen, the protection systems that safeguard the panel kick in and brightness naturally falls to around 700 nits. It’s worth stressing that this is still an excellent result on the market, often noticeably better than many Mini LED screens in the same segment.

Color gamut coverage

The biggest difference between the two S90H variants lies in color reproduction and saturation. This stems directly from the different construction of the WOLED panel, which uses an additional white subpixel. As a result, colors at very high brightness don’t achieve quite the same intensity, and the volume of the wide color gamut is somewhat more limited than with QD-OLED. That said, in everyday use these differences will be hard for most viewers to notice. Our measured DCI-P3 coverage on the WOLED panel reaches nearly 99%, which means that in the vast majority of real film scenes both variants will deliver almost identical images. The true gap only appears in rarer, particularly demanding productions that use the ultra-wide BT.2020 gamut. Due to the WOLED panel’s design, coverage of that standard is about 15% lower compared to the S90HAT with a QD-OLED panel, so the brightest, heavily illuminated HDR colors may appear a bit less vivid.

We also took a close look at how Blaupunkt handles colors in movie mode, and here the situation is, to put it briefly, twofold. We must clearly separate what we see in the standard SDR format from what happens when HDR is turned on, as these are two completely different worlds. Let’s start with the better side of the coin. If you plan to watch classic television, YouTube, or older movies on this TV, you can count on really well-tuned colors. In our test sample, the white balance in movie mode was exceptionally accurate, which honestly surprised us. Of course, to not make it too rosy, we noticed some flaws. Looking at the gamma charts, we observed that the processor struggles with properly dimming the image in its brightest parts. Additionally, there is quite strong, at times too aggressive, red saturation, which resulted in noticeable errors in reproducing certain shades. Nevertheless, in general terms, the image in SDR is simply solid and watchable without a grimace on your face. Unfortunately, the magic fades when we re-enter the world of HDR. Here, Blaupunkt behaves as if we suddenly switched it to store mode, and in its worst form. The excess blue in the white balance is so overwhelming that it literally clashes with the eyes, ruining any realism of the scene. Furthermore, the TV interprets brightness very loosely, which, when analyzing the EOTF curve, clearly showed that for most of the time the colors appear simply washed out and lacking depth. This is, by the way, perfectly visible in the color errors that become evident in this mode. Once again, we are left with the same conclusion: Blaupunkt in SDR mode looks significantly better and more natural than in HDR, which feels forced and not properly refined.

In Filmmaker mode, which we strongly recommend enabling right out of the box, the S90H offers very good factory color tuning. Colors are natural and faithful to the filmmakers' intent, without the intrusive oversaturation found in more aggressive profiles. However, as is usually the case without full calibration, there can be unit-to-unit variation. In our test the white balance lacked a bit of the blue component, causing the image to lean slightly toward warmer, yellowish tones. This was most noticeable in bright scenes, such as the snowy sequences from Star Wars. Additionally, the gamma curve ran slightly low, around 2.2, which resulted in a slight boost to shadow detail. In HDR mode the tuning was a bit better, showing only a slight undersaturation in the red region.

It may sound like a joke – pulling out professional measurement equipment for a television costing around a thousand zlotys / 250 dollars – but we wouldn't be ourselves if we didn't check it out. The question is: does such cheap equipment give us any room for calibration? To your surprise, the answer is yes, and absolutely so. In the Blaupunkt UGC5500S menu, we found surprisingly many options that allowed us to really work on the picture. These are not just empty sliders; they are concrete tools that enabled us to make use of our measurement sensors and software. In SDR mode, the effects were noticeable to the naked eye. We successfully eliminated the issue we mentioned earlier – that excessive, almost artificial saturation of reds. We also fixed the problem of incorrect dimming of the brightest parts of the image. After calibration, the standard format picture became much more balanced and simply correct. As for HDR, the situation was again more complicated. Although we managed to "tame" that aggressive blue tint in the white balance, it was evident that we were fighting a bit in vain. Even after changing the settings, the television still tried to intervene in the image in its own way, as if the electronics knew better than we did how the scene should look. Additionally, there's a hardware barrier that no slider can overcome – colors in HDR still remain unsaturated. This simply results from the quality of the panel itself; it physically cannot produce the most vibrant colors. To summarize this point: if any of you ask whether it’s possible to calibrate a television for "a thousand," we respond with full conviction: it is possible.

After full calibration it can safely be said that the S90H in the WOLED version looks almost perfect. In SDR mode color reproduction errors drop to ultra-low levels, and Delta E values very rarely exceed 2. That's a phenomenal result, so if you care about perfectly faithful color reproduction it's definitely worth considering calibration. The calibrated HDR mode also performs very well, in which the white balance was stabilized and earlier deviations eliminated. After professional tuning it's really hard to find anything to criticize, because the TV delivers an image with almost exemplary naturalness and dimensionality. The slightly lower rating in this category compared with the QD-OLED variant is solely due to the previously described saturation limitation in extremely bright scenes; the tuning options and color fidelity themselves are at the highest level.

If you expect that the processor in this model will magically "fix" the poor quality signal from cable TV or old films from YouTube, we must disappoint you. The capabilities of this television end with absolutely basic upscaling, which is simply stretching the image to a higher resolution. It does this correctly in that the image is not blurry, but there is no talk of any intelligent sharpening or adding details. Worse still, Blaupunkt is completely devoid of any functions that reduce unwanted tonal transitions. If the material being viewed has so-called banding (ugly "steps" instead of a smooth transition of colors, e.g., in the sky), this television will display them in all their glory. Additionally, the television tends to slightly crop the edges of the image. Instead of displaying 100% of what the source sends, Blaupunkt slightly enlarges the frame, causing us to lose details located at the very edges of the screen. In summary: in the category of digital "enhancement" of the image, Blaupunkt simply performs poorly. We receive a raw, unprocessed signal with all its flaws.

When it comes to reducing posterization, Samsung has kept the same solutions as last year’s models. The dedicated gradient-smoothing function works quite well and can effectively mask unwanted tonal transitions, which can be useful on a WOLED panel that is somewhat prone to banding. However, keep in mind it acts aggressively. This mechanism, aside from removing artifacts, can clean up fine film grain and slightly soften detail. Ultimately it’s a matter of compromise, but if you care about an absolutely faithful reproduction, it’s safer to leave this option off.

There’s also no breakthrough in scaling. The S90H uses the same NQ4 Gen3 processor as its predecessor, so the quality of upscaling was almost identical. The chip sharpens lower-resolution material very well, extracting a satisfying level of detail. Samsung still hasn’t dealt with the old overscan issue. With some older recordings or archival material the image edges can be slightly cropped. It’s a minor flaw, but it’s a shame the manufacturer still hasn’t eliminated it.

When it comes to motion fluidity, Blaupunkt has nothing to defend itself with. A 60 Hz panel at this price is standard, so none of us expected a perfectly sharp image during fast action scenes or while watching a game. However, the biggest drawback of this model is that you won't find any digital smoothers in the menu. The manufacturer did not give us any room to maneuver – there's no way to smooth anything out or adjust the image to our preferences. The image is always "raw" and we receive it exactly as the source transmits it. For fans of cinematic "motion jump," this might be fine, but everyone else just has to get used to the absence of any motion support.

In terms of motion handling, the S90H is simply excellent. This year's panel offers a refresh rate boosted to 165 Hz, though in practice the benefit will be realized mainly by gamers connecting a powerful PC. For movies, TV series, or sports broadcasts, such a high refresh rate makes no difference and the picture looks exactly the same as at the standard 120 Hz. Regardless of the source, the OLED panel's lightning-fast response time does its job, so motion is clean and the ghosting or smearing seen on LCD screens simply doesn't occur here.

When it comes to gaming on the Blaupunkt, we didn’t expect miracles and indeed – the list of features is not very long. However, there are two interesting points worth mentioning, as they may be significant for some of you at this price. The first advantage is that the TV quite efficiently detects the connected console. Thanks to the ALLM (Auto Low Latency Mode) feature, the device automatically knows when you start gaming and switches to low latency mode. This is convenient because you don’t have to fiddle with the settings every time to prevent input lag from ruining the fun. The second point is a real curiosity that surprised us. Even though it’s a 60 Hz panel, the Blaupunkt can display images at 120 Hz at Full HD resolution. Sure, we lose 4K details then, but for those playing more dynamic, online shooters where fluidity is more important than resolution, it’s a really nice and unexpected addition in such an inexpensive piece of equipment. Besides these two points, however, you won’t find anything else here. There are no advanced systems for improving fluidity for gamers or extensive gaming menu bars. It’s a simple screen for occasional gaming.

Players should feel at home with the S90H, because in that respect Samsung left few reasons to complain. The TV has four HDMI 2.1 ports, each of which supports VRR, ALLM, and high refresh rates. There's also the Game Bar, a handy menu that lets you quickly check key parameters and change settings without leaving the game. Importantly, Samsung has also improved HGiG. In last year's models it could cause issues when used with a console, but in the S90H it now works as it should. What sets it apart from the competition is primarily Game Motion Plus. It's a special motion-smoothing mode designed for games, which works best with titles running at 30 or 60 frames per second. Motion becomes noticeably smoother, while latency remains at a reasonable level. In our measurements it was under 50 ms, so you can still play comfortably. That's important, because on many TVs turning on a similar smoothing mode causes such a large increase in input lag that controls start to feel noticeably sluggish. Samsung has managed to find a good compromise here. There's still no Dolby Vision Gaming, but in practice Game Motion Plus may prove to be a far more useful feature.