SAMSUNG S95F (TANDEM OLED 83") vs Hisense U7S / U77SE

Samsung S95F in the 83-inch variant with Tandem OLED panel also enchants with HDR effects. In test movie scenes, such as "Life of Pi" or "Sicario 2," where smaller light points dominate – stars in the night sky, the glow of the moon, or headlights – the television easily achieves brightness values exceeding 2000 nits. This is a result that not long ago seemed unattainable for OLEDs and places this model in the same category as the best Mini-LED designs.

The limitations of organic panels reveal themselves only in full-screen scenes completely filled with white. In the case of this model, for example, in the last shot from the movie The Meg, brightness drops to around 1000 nits – a bit lower than in the smaller QD-OLED variants, where the result remained around 1400 nits. Nevertheless, we are still talking about a remarkable result, unprecedented in OLED televisions of this size. Color reproduction is equally impressive. The new Tandem OLED panel essentially catches up with QD-OLED televisions, offering excellent coverage of a wide color gamut. The results are slightly weaker than those of QD-OLED, but in practice, they still provide an image whose intensity and naturalness of colors are hard to compare with any other television.

The Hisense U7S has considerable HDR potential, but it can't use it in every scene. On a test pattern it reaches around 1,100 nits, so the backlight itself is very strong. In our brighter film scenes we measured about 640 to 745 nits. That's still enough for the sun or bright highlights to have a noticeable glow and to show an advantage over SDR material. When the TV needs to illuminate a larger portion of the image, it does quite well.

The problem appears with small lights on a dark background. Each of the 192 zones covers an area much larger than a tiny point on the screen. If the TV were to strongly light such a zone, it would also brighten the surrounding area along with the light. Hisense tries to avoid that and dims the entire zone. Black levels therefore look better, but a small bright object that should draw the eye also loses intensity. That's why in two tougher scenes we recorded only 297 and 154 nits. The difference is large: in one shot HDR can impress, and in the next small lights are noticeably muted. The U7S therefore prioritizes maintaining deep blacks, even at the expense of bright details. With this number of zones that's an understandable compromise, but it's worth remembering — the 1,100-nit peak tells us about the backlight's capability, not how brightly the TV will render every element of a film.

Colors

Hisense calls the U7S ULED, but that's a marketing name; the wider color gamut here comes from a PFS phosphor backlight. In our measurements the TV covered about 91% of DCI-P3 and 71% of BT.2020. Those are good results, although it falls short of the best screens on the market. The biggest shortfall is in green — the TV doesn't even reach the DCI-P3 target there, so the most saturated shades will be less intense than they should be. Most colors in HDR films and series, however, still look suitably rich. A positive is the repeatability of the results. Gamut coverage on test patterns and in film scenes is practically identical.

The best picture mode straight out of the box is undoubtedly Filmmaker Mode. This mode has been present in Samsung TVs for several years, and its intention is to reproduce the image as faithfully as possible to the creators' vision. In SDR content, it works reasonably well, although not without flaws. The picture is slightly dimmed, and the white balance tends to shift towards red and blue, resulting in a slight pinkish hue on the screen. Average color errors hover around ΔE values of 3–4, which is on the edge of what most people can perceive with the naked eye.

The limitations are much more apparent with HDR content. Here, a slight excess of blue in the white balance is not as big of a problem – the real issue becomes how the TV manages brightness. In many scenes, the picture looked as if it had been overexposed, and details in the dark could completely disappear. The final effect did not represent what the equipment of this class is capable of and led to significant color errors. It’s hard to understand why such a factory characteristic was chosen, as the HDR reception in this version definitely was not what it should be.

The out-of-the-box colors on the Hisense U7S are decent, but there are a few things to improve. In SDR there's a red bias in the white balance, which makes the image too warm and in places slightly pink. You can notice this on faces and on bright, neutral surfaces. Gamma also runs below the reference, so the TV brightens the image, especially in darker areas. That makes shadow details easier to see, but the scene loses some of its depth.

In HDR the white balance is a bit more even, but not completely neutral; midtones lack blue, and the brightest areas lack red. A bigger problem is how brightness is reproduced. The EOTF curve shows that a large portion of midtones is being brightened, so the image looks brighter than the source material intends. Color Checker measurements also perform worse than in SDR: many errors are around 3 to 4, and individual ones reach as high as 8. Colors can therefore look attractive, but they are not always faithful to what we should be seeing. There's room for improvement, and we'll check how much can be corrected with calibration.

After calibration, the S95F shows what it is truly capable of. The white balance was corrected, and minor inaccuracies were adjusted, making the image in SDR content look almost exemplary. Color differences have dropped below the level that the human eye can detect – looking at the screen, one simply feels a full sense of naturalness and color coherence.

In HDR, the improvement is equally noticeable. The television handles brightness much better, eliminating the "blowing out" effect of the entire frame. Bright scenes are more controlled, and blacks retain more detail, although sometimes there may still be slight brightening of the image as a whole. Nevertheless, after calibration, the S95F delivers an image that can confidently be called one of the best on the market – regardless of whether we are watching films in SDR or spectacular productions in HDR.

Calibration of the Hisense U7S helped most with SDR content. We managed to even out the white balance, so the previous warm cast is gone and whites and grays look neutral. Gamma is also now very close to the reference, and the TV no longer brightens the image unnecessarily, so darker scenes have regained depth. Color Checker measurements confirm the improvement: most errors fall below 2. That yields a really well-calibrated picture for regular TV and SDR movies. It didn't go as smoothly in HDR. The TV lacks an effective way to correct the EOTF curve, so Hisense still interprets the content's brightness a bit on its own. It brightens parts of the image and can dim the brightest elements depending on the scene and the local dimming behavior. Calibration couldn't eliminate this. It shows up in the Color Checker results as well, where many errors remain around 3–4 and individual ones exceed 7. So in SDR the result is very good, but in HDR we have to accept that the TV adds its own interpretation of brightness to the image.

The Samsung S95F model features a noise reduction function aimed at improving the fluidity of tonal transitions. Its performance is hard to call ineffective – on the contrary, it can excessively interfere with the image. Older films or materials of lower quality, such as those from YouTube, take on a soft, smoothed character because of it, reminiscent of a painted effect. The problem is that along with the noise, the natural film grain, which gives the image a cinematic quality, also disappears. Fortunately, the function does not blur essential details, so its use is more a matter of taste. If someone prefers a slightly polished and smooth image, it’s worth turning it on, but in our opinion, the most sensible setting is “Standard”.

Upscaling leaves a better impression. The S95F efficiently enhances the quality of lower resolution content – even 576p video looks quite good, although some minor artifacts in the form of blockiness can be noticed. Overall, the effect is very solid, although when compared to the competition – such as the Sony Bravia 8 (II) or LG G5 – it can be seen that those models can extract a bit more from the image. However, it's worth remembering one inconvenience: with older films and photos, there is an overscan issue that causes a slight cropping of the left edge of the image.

The handling of lower-quality material on the Hisense U7S is fairly mediocre. The Pentonic 700 chipset used here doesn't cope well with the effects of heavy compression. The menu includes a "Smooth & Gradient" picture option, but its performance leaves much to be desired. At the low setting it's hard to notice any improvement in tonal transitions, although at least the image isn't degraded. The medium and high settings still don't remove visible banding between shades and begin to smear details; in our test clips even parts of characters' faces disappeared. Interestingly, film grain remains untouched at every level. If you use this feature, we'd stick with the low setting. Its current behavior needs refinement, but that's mainly down to the processor used. Upscaling to 4K performs much better. Lower-resolution footage gains clarity, edges are well reconstructed, and fine elements look crisp. That doesn't mean it can recover details that weren't in the recording, but the TV makes good use of what it gets from the source. Another plus is that it doesn't crop the image edges, even with an SD signal.

In the case of the 83-inch S95F with a Tandem OLED panel, the motion smoothness also makes a huge impression. The panel in native 4K resolution offers a refresh rate of 165 Hz, and this combined with organic technology makes games and sports look remarkable. Additionally, the manufacturer added a film smoother and a motion blur reduction system, allowing each viewer to adjust the image to their own preferences – whether it's a more "frame-rate" cinematic effect or a smooth, almost theatrical spectacle.

Motion handling on the Hisense U7S is pretty good thanks to the 144 Hz refresh rate. For movies we also have a motion smoothing feature that lets you adjust judder and blur reduction. You can therefore keep a more cinematic motion or increase smoothness if abrupt camera shifts bother you. In sports and games the high refresh rate is also useful, but unfortunately it doesn't solve this panel's biggest problem.

The culprit is pixel response time. Fast-moving objects leave long, noticeable trails, as our UFO test shows. It's worst on dark backgrounds, where the trail behind the object is especially pronounced. So motion can be smooth, but the moving object itself loses sharpness, and that difference on the U7S is fairly easy to notice.

The low trailing and phenomenal motion fluidity, which are the hallmarks of OLED technology, are just the warm-up. The Samsung S95F has been designed with gamers in mind – and this is evident at every turn. Four HDMI 2.1 ports with a bandwidth of 40 Gb/s may sound like a compromise on paper, but in practice, neither consoles nor PCs will experience the slightest limitations. On board is a complete set of gaming features: variable refresh rate (VRR), automatic low latency mode (ALLM), and a flawlessly implemented HGiG standard, which allows you to enjoy HDR exactly as the creators intended. All of this is complemented by Game Bar – an intuitive control center where you can check and adjust the most important settings in seconds.

Particular attention should also be paid to Game Motion Plus, Samsung's own smoothing technology. It can add extra fluidity to animations, which can be a lifesaver in games running at 60 frames, where stability doesn't always hold up. Indeed, support for Dolby Vision in games is missing, but it's hard to consider this a serious flaw – the manufacturer compensates for this gap with other solutions. The S95F is one of the absolute favorites for the title of the best gaming TV on today's market.

The Hisense U7S has a lot to offer gamers. You get two HDMI 2.1 ports and support for 120 Hz at Full HD, 1440p, and 4K, so modern consoles’ capabilities are well used. When connected to a PC you can use 144 Hz at 4K or switch the resolution to Full HD and run 240 Hz. So there’s a wide choice, although it’s worth remembering the motion smearing mentioned earlier, which the high refresh rate does not eliminate. VRR and ALLM are also present. The first helps prevent tearing when frame rates in a game change. The second automatically switches the TV into game mode, so you don’t have to dig through the menu each time. VRR works from 48 to 240 Hz, with the highest refresh rate available in Full HD. Xbox users can also play in Dolby Vision, including at 120 Hz. Importantly, this format does not introduce significant input lag here. The Game Bar also looks very good. It’s easy to read, visually appealing, and lets you quickly check what signal the TV is receiving. There are also handy gaming settings at your fingertips, including shadow brightening. If it’s hard to spot an opponent in a dark game, you can improve visibility without digging through the entire menu.

Our biggest complaints concern HGiG. Hisense continues to do its own tone mapping, which makes setting HDR on the console confusing. You adjust a checkerboard test pattern and the TV continuously adapts how it looks. As a result, the moment the pattern disappears does not correctly indicate the screen’s brightness limit, and it’s easy to set the value too high. For this model it’s better to set the target HDR peak brightness on the console to about 900 to 1000 nits, rather than relying on the configurator.