Samsung S90H / S92H (QD-OLED) vs Samsung The Frame Pro 2026 (LS03HW)

The Samsung S90H is a truly bright TV for the midrange among OLEDs. In synthetic measurements its peak brightness reached about 1650 nits. That's an outstanding result in this class, roughly 50% higher than what we’ve seen from previous models at this price point. Crucially, these tests translate directly to real video material. In 4 out of 5 film shots we tested the S90H’s brightness hovered around 1300–1500 nits. That headroom lets the TV reproduce most HDR movies with the same dynamics and expression the creators intended in post-production. Of course, on full-screen, very bright scenes the result is naturally lower and drops to around 900 nits. That’s a direct result of the protection systems that prevent the OLED panel from being overloaded. Even in that scenario there’s no reason to complain. Those 900 nits across the entire screen is still a very high level, ensuring excellent dynamics in HDR content.

A major advantage of QD-OLED TVs has always been color, and the S90H is no exception. The DCI-P3 gamut we measured reached a full 100% (exactly 99.9%), while coverage of the much wider BT.2020 gamut hit roughly 89%. That’s a great result, allowing you to enjoy extremely saturated, vivid colors in HDR content. It’s worth noting these figures are better than WOLED panels, which is especially noticeable in very demanding film scenes.

You can't deny The Frame Pro one thing: brightness. We measured a maximum of around 850 to 900 nits, so the TV already has enough power to render many HDR scenes really impressively. Bright, full-screen shots and more colorful frames look best here. In those scenes The Frame Pro can make a good impression because the image is bright, strong, and delivers the effect we expect from HDR. In our measurements some scenes reached over 800 nits, and even in trickier sections the TV maintained a fairly decent brightness level.

The problem starts when HDR relies on small bright elements shown against a dark background. Individual lamps, stars, or highlights can be bright, but very often the black level across much of the image also lifts. As a result, the bright point itself may look good, but the whole frame loses a lot of quality. That is why The Frame Pro shows HDR best in scenes that are simply full-screen. If a movie or series contains many such shots, the effect can be really enjoyable. In darker material the limitations of local dimming become much more noticeable.

Colors

The Frame Pro deserves praise for its color gamut coverage. The TV uses quantum dots, a solution known as QLED, which allows it to produce very well-saturated colors. In our measurements coverage of the important film color space DCI-P3 was about 94.5%, while the more demanding BT.2020 was around 72%.

Those are very solid results that in most scenes deliver pleasant, saturated colors. Of course, these values are not as striking as those in the latest displays using RGB backlighting, but The Frame Pro makes up for that with something else: color stability. Regardless of the scene, color saturation remains fairly consistent, and there is no situation where the TV loses a lot of color in more demanding shots.

The next stage of the test was to check how the S90H handles color reproduction without any calibration. As always, we took measurements in Filmmaker Mode, the best out-of-the-box picture setting. And here Samsung truly deserves praise. The factory tuning is at a very high level, and a few years ago that wasn't one of its strong points. The white balance was set correctly, as was the brightness response. The average color error (Delta E) hovered around 3, which is below the level at which most people can notice inaccuracies. Only in the brightest shades of gray did values slightly approach 4, but it's still hard to consider that a real viewing issue. For settings straight out of the box, the result is simply excellent.

In SDR material The Frame Pro in Filmmaker mode performs quite well, though it falls short of perfect. White balance is relatively even, but as brightness increases the blue component starts to drop, so brighter parts of the image can have a slightly warmer tint. A bigger difference is visible in the gamma, that is how screen brightness is managed. Across most of the range it runs below our reference point, which means the TV brightens midtones a bit. As a result the image can appear slightly brighter and less contrasty than it should. The color errors themselves are not huge, but they are visible enough that calibration can still make a substantial improvement. In HDR content the white balance looks similar: across much of the range it is fairly even, with larger deviations appearing only at higher brightness. The EOTF curve is more revealing. The Frame Pro follows reference values fairly well in the brighter parts of the image, but noticeably brightens the darkest portions. This stems mainly from the TV’s backlight design. That also affects colors. With less saturated colors the errors are still moderate, but they grow significantly as saturation increases. In ColorChecker measurements a large portion of samples already register high error values. The out-of-the-box HDR can therefore be considered decent, but it is definitely not an image we would call very faithful.

Okay, but you know we wouldn’t be ourselves if we didn’t check how much more we could squeeze out of the S90H with professional calibration. And there was no big surprise here: since the out-of-the-box settings were already very good, there wasn’t a huge reserve. Even so, we managed to refine the picture almost to perfection. After calibration the average color reproduction errors fell below the threshold of perception, reaching Delta E values under 2 for both SDR and HDR material. We also improved the brightness response, so the image more faithfully reflects the creators’ intent and maintains proper tonality across the full brightness range. Not necessarily, because the factory settings already deliver a very high level. If you want the most accurate image and want to squeeze absolutely everything out of this panel, the S90H offers that potential. After professional calibration it’s simply an almost reference display.

Will the difference be spectacular for everyone? Not necessarily. It depends a lot on the individual unit. Our sample was very well tuned straight out of the box, but that doesn’t mean every S90H will perform at the same level. Even identical models can vary in their factory calibration. That’s exactly why professional calibration makes sense: it lets you bring a specific unit to the highest possible accuracy instead of hoping for a bit of luck when buying.

After calibration the biggest improvement is visible primarily in SDR content. White balance was evened out, but the more important change was the gamma correction, which before calibration had the greatest impact on the picture's character. After adjustments the gamma response is now very close to the reference, so the image is not as bright in the midtones and simply looks more natural. Color errors have also been noticeably reduced, so the effect of calibration in SDR is clearly visible. In HDR the situation is a bit more complex. White balance was improved and over part of the range the TV tracks the reference much better, but deviations still appear at higher brightness levels. The same applies to color reproduction, as some errors can be corrected but not all result from the settings themselves. This reveals the limitations of the TV's design and the way the backlight and local dimming affect the HDR image. That's why, for The Frame Pro, calibration makes the biggest difference for everyday content. Regular broadcast TV, YouTube, and SDR movies and series (mainly those from cheaper streaming tiers) can look noticeably better after calibration.

In this regard Samsung has practically changed nothing compared with last year’s model, which is actually pretty good news. The function responsible for smoothing tonal transitions still very effectively reduces posterization. You should remember, however, that it works quite aggressively, because besides removing artifacts it can also eliminate film grain and slightly soften fine image details. As always, it’s a matter of compromise and personal preference. If you want the most faithful reproduction of the source, we recommend leaving this function turned off.

There’s also no revolution when it comes to upscaling. The S90H uses the same proprietary NQ4 Gen3 image processor as its predecessor, so scaling quality has remained virtually unchanged. The TV handles lower-resolution content well, effectively improving sharpness. The overscan issue still hasn’t been solved, though. With some older material, especially archival footage, parts of the image at the edges may be cropped. It’s a minor flaw, but it’s a shame Samsung left this problem unchanged for another year running.

The Frame Pro uses the NQ4 AI Gen3 processor, so in terms of image processing it behaves very similarly to Samsung's other recent TVs. Upscaling works really well; lower-resolution material is sensibly sharpened and the image remains clear without overemphasizing edges. With regular broadcast TV or lower-quality YouTube clips, this can provide a noticeable improvement, although viewers watching much older material, for example from VHS tapes, may notice a slight left-side cropping (overscan).

It's a bit different when it comes to improving more heavily compressed images through noise reduction and artifact suppression for issues like posterization. The "Noise Reduction" function can improve weaker material, but fairly quickly it starts to interfere with the image and remove fine detail or grain. So it's best used sparingly and mainly when the source truly needs it.

In terms of motion smoothness, the S90H delivers a very high level. New here is a panel with a 165 Hz refresh rate. In practice, when watching movies or sports broadcasts it's hard to notice any difference, because that kind of content doesn't use refresh rates higher than 120 Hz. The extra 165 Hz will be appreciated mainly by PC gamers who can generate that many frames per second. Samsung equipped the TV with advanced motion settings. You get two sliders (judder reduction and blur reduction) that make it easy to tailor the picture's character to your preferences. You can easily get very smooth motion for sports, but you can just as easily preserve a more cinematic feel with the typical 24 fps. It all depends on which effect you prefer.

The Frame Pro is equipped with a 144 Hz panel and, when connected to a PC, also supports 240 Hz at Full HD resolution. That’s, of course, a feature aimed mainly at PC gamers, but the TV also performs very well at the standard 120 Hz refresh rate we use for watching sports or playing on consoles. A big plus is its minimal motion blur. For a VA panel The Frame Pro does really well in this regard. You don’t see strong, dark trails following moving objects that are fairly common on TVs with this type of panel. As a result, fast sports and dynamic games remain clear in motion. It also includes motion smoothing with adjustable smoothness, so for movies and sports broadcasts you can tune the motion character to your preferences. Our recommended settings can be found in the photo.

From the start the Samsung S90H feels like a TV designed with gamers in mind, and honestly... it's hard to blame them. The manufacturer equipped it with everything you’d expect from a gaming TV. You get four full-bandwidth HDMI 2.1 ports, support for ALLM and VRR, and very high refresh rates. There’s also a clear Game Bar that lets you quickly check key picture parameters or change settings without leaving the game. Another very welcome improvement is that HGiG now works properly. Last year it could cause a lot of issues, but on the S90H it behaves exactly as it should.

Samsung’s real ace, however, is its proprietary Game Motion Plus mode. The feature works similarly to the motion smoothing known from movies, improving animation smoothness in games while keeping input lag at a very reasonable level. For titles running at 30/60 fps, with the right settings, input lag did not exceed 40 ms in our tests. That’s a very good result, especially since enabling similar features from many manufacturers can end up increasing lag three to four times. It’s a feature that partly makes up for the lack of Dolby Vision Gaming. A smoother image often provides more noticeable benefits than the HDR format itself, so for many gamers this will be a far more valuable addition.

Function-wise for gamers The Frame Pro has a lot to offer. The TV supports 4K at 120 Hz, VRR, ALLM and correctly implemented HGiG. When you connect a PC you can also use 144 Hz at 4K, and even 240 Hz if you drop to Full HD. Samsung also adds its standard set of gaming extras: a robust Game Bar that lets you quickly view and adjust key settings, and Game Motion Plus, which can improve the smoothness of games running at 30 or 60 fps. There’s also the Gaming Hub and the ability to play in the cloud without needing to connect a console. The only real omission is Dolby Vision Gaming, which Samsung doesn’t support. Otherwise The Frame Pro offers practically everything you can expect today from a well-equipped gaming TV.