Dreame S100 vs Samsung The Frame 2026 (LS03H)

The Dreame S100 is a relatively bright television. In movie mode, the brightness we measured reached about 600 nits. This is a really good result, although not the highest, considering the capabilities of the competition in this price range. In fullscreen scenes, it is evident that the television can generate an image that strikes with brightness. Unfortunately, when more complex scenes appeared on the screen, the local dimming algorithm in this model tried above all to maintain the deepest blacks. However, this came at the expense of HDR effect – and in a drastic way. In such scenes, the brightness of bright elements dropped below 100 nits, which is a truly tragic result, far from any HDR effect. This aspect can be improved, though not without any "buts." It is enough to change the local dimming setting in the television's menu, but then the blacks in such scenes simply turn gray. It’s a pity that Dreame could not refine the local dimming algorithms better, and the S100 is another example that the mere number of local dimming zones does not always translate into better image quality. As a consolation, it is worth adding that the Dreame S100 is advertised as a "QLED" television, although in reality it utilizes a PFS LED filter. As a result, the colors are appropriately saturated, and the color gamut coverage we measured exceeded 94% of the DCI-P3 palette.

The Frame 2026 is genuinely a bright TV. Its peak brightness reaches about 650 nits and, importantly, similar values are maintained regardless of the type of scene being displayed. So it doesn’t matter much whether we’re watching a very bright full-screen shot or just a small bright element occupying part of the screen. The backlight always has a lot of power, so bright portions of the image are strongly illuminated. That gives The Frame a solid foundation for HDR. Bright highlights can stand out, and the picture doesn’t look flat or too dark. Unfortunately, this is not a solution without compromises. Because it lacks local dimming, the TV cannot darken the blacks next to very bright elements.

This is clearly visible, among other things, in scenes 2 and 4 from our test procedure. Bright areas look intense, but at the same time the blacks around them become noticeably lifted. The picture loses depth as a result, especially when watching in the evening. For that reason The Frame performs best with HDR in bright and moderately bright scenes. There the high backlight brightness works in its favor. In darker shots the situation is the opposite.

Colors

The Frame also performs well in terms of color. It’s a QLED TV, so it can display a wide color gamut and show richly saturated colors. DCI-P3 coverage is around 94%, and BT.2020 about 72%. Those are good numbers and you can see them while watching. Colors are vivid and do not look washed out. It looks best in bright, colorful scenes. Animations or cartoons with lots of saturated hues can look really good on The Frame. In such material the TV shows one of its stronger points.

We tested the Dreame S100 in "movie" mode and definitely recommend using this setting for watching all kinds of content. Interestingly, in the deeper settings of the TV, we also find a dedicated "Filmmaker" mode, which is available today from almost every manufacturer. However, in the case of the Dreame S100, we do not recommend using it – it blocks all image-related settings and does not allow any configuration in the menu - not even motion smoothing. So how do the factory colors perform on the S100? Not too bad, but also not great. The TV itself was quite heavily tinted with blue components, which is clearly visible in our white balance measurements. This caused the image to be artificially brightened, and the colors had a slight bluish tint. This is confirmed by the Color Checker palette, which showed how color samples leaned towards blue, generating quite significant color errors. The image in HDR mode looked definitely better, where color errors were not as prominently visible, though they still fell far from ideal. Here, the white balance was also too heavily skewed towards the blue color, which caused quite significant errors in color reproduction.

To evaluate the out-of-the-box colors we chose Filmmaker Mode. If you’re encountering it for the first time, it’s a mode designed to present a movie or series as faithfully as possible. The TV then turns off most additional picture enhancers, and the colors and luminance characteristics are meant to be as close as possible to what the content creators intended. I have to admit that the The Frame 2026 already performs quite well in this regard straight out of the box. The biggest deviation is visible in the white balance. As brightness increases, blue starts to drop off and green increases slightly. As a result the image shifts toward warmer tones. White is therefore not perfectly neutral, and in some scenes you can notice a slightly warmer overall cast.

The luminance response — gamma or EOTF — looks good. Across most of the range they stay fairly close to the target, though in the darkest parts of the image there is a larger deviation. In practice, some details emerging from black may therefore appear a bit more pronounced. That said, it’s not a flaw that jumps out during normal viewing. Overall, Filmmaker Mode is a good starting point here. However, the factory image is a bit too warm and not all hues land exactly where they should.

The Dreame S100 turned out to be a device very susceptible to professional calibration. In its menu, we found a whole array of advanced options that allowed us to effectively correct factory errors. Thanks to advanced white balance correction – both in SDR and HDR content – we completely eliminated excess blue components. The image immediately became much more natural and pleasant to view. After fully tuning the colors, errors in the Color Checker test dropped below Delta E values of 2-3. For the average viewer, this means that any color distortions have become nearly impossible to notice with the naked eye. This is a really nice surprise, as often new brands in the television market have significant problems with proper implementation and functioning of sliders in the calibration menu. Here, everything worked as it should. The only thing we need to criticize is the way the television manages its brightness in HDR. Due to the specific nature of the local dimming algorithms, we observed anomalies in the EOTF curve we measured. In the areas where high highlights should appear, there is a slight uplift of the curve above the reference line. In practice, this results in unnatural brightening of some of the brightest elements in movies or games. Despite this minor flaw, professional calibration brings a huge, very positive change to this model.

After calibration we mainly managed to remove that warmer cast and better even out the white balance. We also smoothed the brightness response a bit, which made the image more neutral and predictable. However, there are things calibration won't fix. It's mainly the behavior of the blacks, which stems from the backlight design itself and the lack of local dimming. In some scenes blacks will therefore still be slightly lifted, and you'll just have to accept that. That's more a characteristic of this model than something that can be fixed with settings. HDR is also somewhat limited. Samsung doesn't give full freedom to work across the widest color gamut, so not all colors can be reproduced perfectly. In normal viewing you probably won't notice it, but it's worth being aware of.

The scaling and digital processing in the Dreame S100 is handled by a technology that the manufacturer proudly calls Dreamind™ Pro AI. However, it is essential to clarify that this is not a proprietary processor but merely a marketing name for a chip from MediaTek – specifically, the model MT5889. Unfortunately, we are talking about quite an outdated unit, from the time when MediaTek lagged significantly behind the competition in terms of performance. This, unfortunately, has a direct impact on the image, as this chip is responsible for that as well. The upscaling in the S100 is rather mediocre, and the processor tends to strongly and artificially sharpen edges (fortunately, this can be somewhat tempered with the sharpness slider in the menu). In the options, we also find a "Contour Smoothing" function, which theoretically is supposed to improve tonal transitions. In practice, it brings almost no improvement – setting it to any level rarely eliminates visible color banding but can unnecessarily blur elements of the image that should remain sharp.

A separate problem is the phenomenon of overscan (clipping the edges of the frame), which is almost always visible here. Although there is an option to set the screen to display the full frame in low-resolution materials, it requires activating the aforementioned Filmmaker mode. And as you already know, this mode completely blocks any other adjustments in the image menu. In our test tables, we noted that the television offers the option to disable overscan, as technically such a feature exists in the system – however, in everyday use, with reasonable image settings, you will not be able to take advantage of it.

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.

When it comes to motion fluidity, the Dreame S100 performs really well. It features a panel with a 144 Hz refresh rate, although in reality, the vast majority of users using it in a traditional way will still be limited to 120 Hz (because today's equipment, apart from PCs, only allows for such values). Thanks to the high refresh rate, the image in motion remains really sharp, largely due to the well-functioning MEMC fluidity enhancer. In the menu, we find predefined modes that allow the TV to efficiently add artificial frames, which effectively improves the fluidity of dynamic sports shots, but also helps get rid of image stuttering in film and series materials recorded at 24 frames.

Samsung again used a panel with a maximum refresh rate of 144 Hz here. Refresh rates up to 120Hz primarily offer more headroom for material with a lot of motion. The TV can use additional motion interpolation systems that can improve smoothness 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 relatively slow response time, and consequently fairly pronounced motion blur. With fast-moving objects, especially on a dark background, motion trails are easy to notice. There's also a slight doubling of edges, which can be visible even with the additional motion processing systems turned off. We already saw similar behavior in last year’s The Frame 2025, and it’s a pity Samsung hasn’t fixed that element. The 144 Hz itself provides a good foundation, but the panel’s response time still limits this TV.

The Dreame S100 seems almost like the perfect screen for gamers. The TV is equipped with 2 HDMI 2.1 ports with a bandwidth of 40 Gbps, which means that features such as Auto Low Latency Mode (ALLM) and Variable Refresh Rate (VRR) synchronization in the range of 48-144 Hz work seamlessly on consoles. It also has a well-designed game panel (Game Bar) that allows you to continuously check the most important parameters – from active picture modes to the number of frames rendered by the console, and even the ability to add a crosshair in the center of the screen. All of this looks great on paper, but the biggest issue with the S100 is the implementation of HDR mode in games. The TV does not have a properly implemented HGiG format. As a result, an unsuspecting user may incorrectly configure the console during the initial setup of the display. A wrong configuration can lead to a picture that is too dark or too bright (as a guideline: we suggest setting the brightness in the Xbox console menu to about 600 nits, and in the PS5 to 12 clicks). The Dolby Vision format is also problematic; it often just would not activate at all when using the XBOX – Dreame S100 line. And when it was managed to be activated, gaming was impossible due to a very high input lag that often exceeded 100ms. If the manufacturer can improve the HDR issue in games through an update, the S100 will be truly excellent equipment for gamers. For now, however, one must reckon with compromises.

In terms of gaming features, The Frame is practically on par with Samsung's top TVs. When you connect a console the TV automatically switches to game mode thanks to ALLM, so you don't have to change settings manually each time. There's also VRR, which matches the display's refresh rate to the frames being produced by the console or PC. During drops in smoothness this helps avoid the characteristic screen tearing. The Frame of course supports 4K at 120 Hz, so you can take advantage of the PlayStation 5 or Xbox Series X in games that offer higher frame rates. HGiG also works correctly. With HDR set up properly on the console the TV doesn't try to brighten the image on its own, so bright effects in games are shown as they should be. Samsung also includes a Game Bar. It's a handy menu you can bring up without leaving the game. There you can check things like VRR and the current frame rate, and quickly change the most important gaming settings. For PC use the options are even greater, since the mentioned Full HD mode allows raising the refresh rate up to 240 Hz. There is really only one feature missing that Samsung has already spoiled us with, and that's Dolby Vision Gaming. Xbox owners will notice this the most, because that console can use Dolby Vision in games. There's one more thing worth mentioning that applies specifically to this model. Its One Connect module has only one HDMI 2.1 port, so that's the only port you can use for a console or PC if you want 4K 120 Hz. Fortunately Samsung didn't tie that port to eARC. You can therefore connect a soundbar separately (3) and still have a full HDMI 2.1 port available for the console.