Philips OLED910 vs Samsung S90H (WOLED)

OLED910 is simply an absurdly bright television for an OLED. All thanks to the new panel from LG Display, the Tandem RGB OLED, which Philips has dubbed its "META OLED." It is this panel that allows for over 2000 nits of brightness in films, which was previously completely unattainable in OLEDs. The way the television handles full-screen scenes drenched in bright light is also commendable. Usually, in OLEDs, brightness drops significantly, but here it remains at an excellent level - around 1400 nits. These are almost reference values, and combined with the great color gamut reproduction at 99% DCI P3 and 82% BT.2020, it gives us an HDR effect that can confidently be called one of the best in the world.

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.

Update 01/2026

After a series of calibrations of the OLED910 model with our customers, we noticed that the measurement results differ from those we obtained during the initial tests. The factory tuning of the movie mode turns out to be significantly better than our first tests indicated. The white balance is set very precisely, with only a minimal red dominance. The factory color reproduction holds close to reference standards – the average Delta E errors hover around 3-4, which is an excellent result for factory settings. However, there is some concern about how the TV manages brightness. Analysis of the Gamma (SDR) and EOTF (HDR) graphs shows a tendency to excessively "pull" details from shadows. In practice, this means that the image can appear overly bright, resulting in a loss of black depth in favor of the visibility of details that should remain hidden. Of course, this effect can be effectively corrected during professional calibration.

Unfortunately, when it comes to color reproduction straight out of the box, in Filmmaker mode, the OLED910 performs really poorly. The TV overexposes the color blue, and at times it looks almost like a store mode. It gives the impression that the manufacturer has not quite tuned the device correctly. The effect is that the colors look unnatural, and the overall impression is somewhat reminiscent of an exaggerated display from a market showcase. HDR content presents itself much better, where aside from a slight loss of details in blacks, it's hard to find anything to complain about. The problem is that for everyday viewing, SDR materials are actually of the greatest importance – and on the OLED910, they simply look bad and fall significantly short of what we would expect from a TV of this class.

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.

Fortunately, it quickly turned out that it was not the panel that was responsible for the issues, but rather the way Philips had calibrated the OLED910 from the factory. After calibration, the television displayed its full potential, and only then could we see what the new panels produced by LG Display were truly capable of. We primarily corrected the white balance and brightness characteristics, which allowed us to tame the excessive blue and give the image a natural look. The final effect can be described as excellent. Errors on the Color Checker palette rarely exceeded a value of 3, which in practice means an image close to perfection and colors presented in accordance with the creators' intentions. In SDR content, the effect was remarkable, and in HDR, the improvement was even more noticeable – gradients became cleaner, and colors fuller and more believable. After calibration, the OLED910 transformed from a disappointing television into equipment that can easily be called reference-level in terms of color reproduction.

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.

The previously visible color artifacts can largely be eliminated thanks to a feature called "distortion reduction." Similar to the OLED820, it's best to set it to a medium level, as it then produces quite decent results – smoothing out unwanted tonal transitions while not taking away too many details from the image. Although there may be times when the effect is a bit too aggressive, it can generally be considered a useful feature for everyday viewing.

As for image scaling, the OLED910 performs really well. The test material with the model had a characteristic soft look typical of Philips – at times even too soft – but the sharpness slider can be adjusted at any moment to tailor the image to personal preferences. It's also worth noting that the TV has no issues with overscan, which still occurs in some competing models. It's a small detail, but it's pleasing because it means that all content, even the oldest, is displayed as it should be.

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.

The OLED910 is a television with a refresh rate of 144 Hz. It's a bit disappointing that Philips didn't choose 165 Hz, because we know that the panel used in it is capable of that. On the other hand, such a bonus would mainly benefit PC gamers, as in everyday use, the most important refresh rate is 120 Hz, which is fully sufficient. Combined with the advantages of an OLED panel – lightning-fast pixel response time and no motion blur, the image is impeccably sharp and fast, even in dynamic action scenes. Kudos also goes to Philips' traditional motion smoother called "Motion Style." We can easily adjust it to our preferences: the "Smoothness" slider is for movies and allows you to choose between a more "frame-like," cinematic character and a smooth, theatrical image. Meanwhile, the "Blur Reduction" slider is for sports; it is worth setting it to the maximum value here to ensure that the image is clear and distinct during very fast shots.

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.

The OLED910 is excellent for gaming. It supports 144 Hz, so if someone has a powerful PC, they can easily take advantage of that potential. On consoles, 120 Hz is the most important, and everything works perfectly here. There is VRR, an automatic game mode, and even Dolby Vision in games along with an HGiG mode, so we actually get a full package of gaming features. Philips also added a Game Bar, which is a quick menu that shows basic information and allows you to enable a few useful things. It may not look as modern as the competition, but it works and serves its purpose. The only downside is the number of HDMI 2.1 ports. There are only two, which can be somewhat disappointing for a TV in this class. If someone is connecting two consoles and something additional to eARC - like a soundbar (which doesn't make much sense in this model, but we'll discuss that in the sound section), they'll need to figure things out a bit more. Other than that, the OLED910 has everything we expect from a gaming TV.

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.