LG OLED B5 vs Samsung The Frame Pro

LG B5 is a moderately bright OLED TV. Regardless of the scene, it can generate around 500 nits of peak brightness. And interestingly, it does this even in full-screen shots flooded with white, where most OLEDs usually fall short. So, is this screen suitable for HDR movies? Yes – absolutely, because such brightness really allows you to feel the magic of HDR effects. However, it's worth noting that compared to last year's model B4, the new B5 is darker – by about 100 nits. It may seem like a small difference, but at such average peak values, it makes quite a significant difference. Fortunately, the TV makes up for it with another advantage – excellent coverage of the DCI-P3 and BT.2020 color gamut. As a result, HDR movies look really colorful, vibrant, and impressive even in more demanding scenes.

Samsung The Frame Pro belongs to relatively bright televisions. In synthetic tests, we managed to achieve values around 900 nits, which, for a lifestyle model, is quite a decent result. In full-screen scenes, such as the frame from the movie The Meg or the opening sequence in Life of Pi, brightness remained at levels of 700–800 nits. These are values that allow you to fully enjoy HDR effects and capture their cinematic magic. However, the situation complicates 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 handle them very well. It sometimes happens that small elements are excessively dimmed, which weakens the effect, or on the contrary – they are significantly brightened, but at the cost of losing black depth in that part of the image. This can be compared to light glows resembling the spread of a laser beam in dense fog – the effect is visible and bright, but at the same time, it is not very natural and distracts our attention. Fortunately, the color aspect performs better. Thanks to the use of a quantum dot filter (QLED), the colors are saturated, and the reproduction of the DCI-P3 palette exceeds 92%. In general, movies or series watched in HDR on The Frame Pro present a rich color palette, even if the contrast and the operation of the backlight algorithms can sometimes distract our attention.

We tested the B5 in Filmmaker mode and... we would like to see more TVs like this straight out of the box. Really. The white balance is set very well – there is practically nothing to complain about. Well, if one were to be very picky, one might notice a slight deficiency in blue, which makes the overall picture have a slightly yellowish tint. But that’s just our editorial nitpicking. Most of you probably won't even notice it. We also have some minor reservations about brightness management in HDR format. The EOTF curve – that is, the one responsible for how the TV distributes brightness in a scene – is slightly below the ideal. In practice, it can happen that the darkest parts of the image may be displayed too dark and simply... disappear. But these are details that only come out in measurements. Overall: we are impressed. But we also know that LG TVs respond very well to professional calibration. They can produce nearly reference-quality images, so – even though it's already very good out of the box – we allowed ourselves to take an extra step and fine-tune everything to perfection.

The best results were, of course, achieved in Filmmaker mode, which immediately showed that Samsung paid attention to the factory settings. In SDR content – the type of content most often viewed – The Frame Pro performed really well. White balance and gamma were almost perfectly matched, making the image look natural and consistent. Yes, there were some noticeable errors, especially in skin tones and reds, which could be overly saturated, giving everything a slightly “warmed up” character, but in everyday use, this did not significantly affect the viewing experience. In the case of HDR content, the situation was similar regarding white balance. It was at a good level; however, the biggest problem turned out to be brightness management. The EOTF curve was set in such a way that in many scenes the image appeared to be overexposed, and the brightest areas lost details and turned into solid patches of light. This severely undermined realism and made the colors appear strongly over-sharpened. Fortunately, Samsung provides the option for manual adjustment of the curve in its televisions, so we opted for calibration, and its results can be seen below.

We must admit that we didn't have much work with the LG B5. It's one of those TVs that looks good right from the start, but after calibration… it can really impress. The white balance was brought to almost perfect levels – to a degree of error invisible to the human eye, unless you are a professional colorist with a magnifying glass at the screen. We also managed to control the TV's slight tendency to dim the darkest details, especially in HDR scenes. After proper tuning, everything looks coherent: the black is still deep, but not information-hungry. The highlights retain a natural sparkle, and the colors align with the director's vision. It's really one of those models that show you don't have to spend a fortune to get almost reference-quality image. If you can decide on professional calibration – it's definitely worth it for the B5.

After calibration, the SDR mode looks simply perfect. We managed to eliminate the overly strong red saturation that previously gave the picture a somewhat excessively warm character. The colors became more balanced, which translated to a natural and pleasant reception of daily content – from television to movies and series from streaming or materials on YouTube. In HDR mode, the EOTF curve required the most work, as it originally caused excessive burning of the entire image. Calibration largely helped to "tame" this problem – the image stopped being overexposed, and details in bright areas became more visible. Of course, the limits are set by the television's own design, as edge lighting reveals its limitations, and even the smallest elements of light can still be oversaturated or blend into the background. However, this is a matter of technology, not calibration itself. After the correction, The Frame Pro is much more enjoyable to watch, and it's definitely worth opting for if you want to make the most of your television's capabilities.

LG B5 really surprised us positively in terms of dealing with lower quality content. Thanks to the enhancement and smoothing features, HD or even SD materials get a new life. Importantly – when this option is turned on at the "low" or "medium" level, we don't get the impression that the image is artificially softened or overly smoothed. Details remain intact, film grain does not disappear, and object edges do not look washed out 😉. It's a really useful tool – especially if you watch terrestrial TV, archival materials, or content from YouTube in lower resolutions. The image is clean, cohesive, and simply pleasant to the eye.

Upscaling as such works very well – even content of poor quality is rendered with surprising fidelity. Unfortunately, there was a small hiccup. While the menu offers an option to turn off overscan, the television still struggles to display very low-resolution images correctly. It’s a minor detail, but when watching older materials – it can be annoying.

While the smoothness of tonal transitions in 4K HDR content on The Frame Pro is not a problem at all, naturally with weaker signal quality – from television, HD content, or older Full HD films – imperfections may occur. Therefore, it is crucial how the television handles these limitations thanks to its image processor. The noise reduction feature works really effectively here. At the medium setting, it eliminates unwanted bands or artifacts, smoothing the image in a noticeable but not overly exaggerated way. However, it should be noted that Samsung tends to operate aggressively – even at the lowest setting of this feature, it can "eat" film grain. It is therefore advisable to use it with caution and adjust the settings to the material being viewed.

The upscaling itself is at a high level. The Frame Pro can effectively upscale older materials to native 4K resolution while maintaining good sharpness and readability. Movies and series in lower quality simply look better here. However, it is worth mentioning a minor drawback – typical for many Samsung televisions. With very old sources of poor quality, you may notice cropping of the image edges on the left side of the screen. This is not a problem that will ruin the viewing experience, but it is good to know that it may occur.

The LG B5 is a television with a 120 Hz OLED panel. It may not sound as impressive as the marketing terms "144 Hz" or "165 Hz" found in gaming monitors, but honestly? The smoothness is still excellent. The picture is sharp, smooth, and simply enjoyable to watch – even when there’s a lot happening on the screen. The organic panel does its job – the pixel response time is nearly instantaneous, which means there’s no blurring or smearing that can ruin dynamic shots. Sports, fast-paced games – everything looks clear and distinct.

We also have LG's classic motion smoother, TruMotion. This feature allows you to smooth out films shot at 24 frames per second – in other words, most of what you watch on Netflix or on Blu-ray discs. If you set the “De-Judder” slider to lower values, you'll get an image closer to the cinematic experience – with a slight judder, but without artificiality. Higher settings? Soap opera effect guaranteed. Fortunately, LG gives you the choice, and you can tune everything as you like.

The smoothness of motion in The Frame Pro is ensured not only by the panel, which operates with a refresh rate of up to 144 Hz, but also by the image processor and the smoothing system. It is thanks to this that we can adjust the way we display movies or sports broadcasts to our own preferences. Available are sliders for motion blur reduction and judder reduction – the first function improves the sharpness of fast movements, while the second allows for softening the "jumping" image effect during camera pans. Therefore, everyone can choose between a cinematic character of motion and a smoother, more "television-like" style.

There are already a few televisions on the market with the label "for gamers" that don’t really understand what that means. The LG B5 is not one of them. Everything here is right – there are four HDMI 2.1 ports, it has 120 Hz, VRR and ALLM, and it also has a Game Bar that is actually useful, not just looks good in the promotional folder. You connect your console – it works. You set 4K at 120 Hz – it works. You have an Xbox and want to play in Dolby Vision – it works too. And not in the sense of "it theoretically supports it," but rather it really turns on, looks good, and you don’t have to fiddle with the settings for half an hour. On top of that, there’s the HGiG picture mode, which LG has implemented correctly – meaning that HDR in games doesn’t turn the screen into a flashlight but shows exactly what it should. There are no surprises here, no strange limitations, no "buts." And you know what? That’s how it should be. Kudos to the LG B5!

Samsung The Frame Pro doesn’t pretend to be just a “living room” television; here, gamers will also find something for themselves. The manufacturer has ensured a full suite 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’s the well-known Game Bar panel, which is a quick menu where you can check key parameters on the fly – from refresh rates to active image processing modes. Are there any downsides? Yes, The Frame Pro doesn’t support Dolby Vision in gaming mode, but it's hard to consider this a serious issue – most gamers use HDR10 anyway... so, the 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 TV independently interprets HDR tone mapping in games, and the user has no ability to enable settings designed for consoles. This is a step backward that may disappoint more informed gamers expecting full compliance with HGiG guidelines. We just hope that this mistake will be quickly corrected.

Interestingly, The Frame Pro also features an atypical arrangement of HDMI 2.1 ports. We have as many as five available – four are located in the One Connect module, and the fifth, in micro HDMI version, is directly on the TV. This solution is quite unconventional, but very practical. Samsung clearly suggests that this is the port to connect your console or computer. Why? Because it minimizes potential delays associated with communication through the wireless One Connect, and in gaming, every millisecond matters. We wrote separately about input lag, but it can be revealed here that by connecting equipment directly to the TV, we achieve the absolute maximum response speed.