TCL C6KS / C69KS / Q6CS vs Samsung OLED S95H (S99H) (QD-OLED)

And how does the issue of HDR look? Here the C6KS performs quite well and – as is becoming a recurring theme in this review – identically to the C6K model. The maximum brightness generated by this television is around 600 nits. In bright scenes, this translates to a really solid, cinematic effect, and generally, the video materials look good here. However, one must remember the specifics of the dimming algorithm in this model. When very small, bright points (e.g., stars) appear against a dark background, the television can dim them quite significantly. The goal is simple: to eliminate blooming and maintain the best possible black levels. It’s a reasonable compromise. Most viewers will definitely appreciate deep, “true black” more than additional micro-details that could cause grayness on the screen. Such is the nature of local dimming technology in this price range, and one must be aware of it. It’s also worth noting that the TCL C69KS (C6KS) has an additional PFS coating, which is marketed under the tagline of QLED technology. Thanks to this, the colors are saturated and vibrant – our measurements showed that the coverage of a wide color gamut reaches 92% here.

When it comes to brightness alone, the S99H is an astronomically bright TV. Its peak brightness in movie scenes can exceed 2800 nits! Regardless of the scene, you can count on powerful HDR effects that practically blind you, and that's exactly what we expect from a top-tier screen. It's inherent to OLED panels that in very bright, full-screen shots they won't sustain as high a brightness as they do with small highlights, but the results are still excellent. In a bright scene from the film The Meg, the sun still exceeded 2200 nits. That means the S99H was able to maintain higher brightness than most Mini LED screens on the market. In terms of brightness, the S99H is currently the best OLED TV we've tested.

Color gamut coverage

The S99H also handles color exceptionally well, which is a direct result of the QD-OLED panel used here. Regardless of the test scenario, whether synthetic test patterns or measurements with film material in the background, the results stayed at a very high level. The S99H easily covers almost 100% of the DCI-P3 gamut, and for the most demanding color space it reaches nearly 90% of BT.2020. That's top-tier performance on the market. These results match what we saw in the new SQD-Mini-LED screens, and in real movie scenes they even outperform RGB Mini LED displays.

Unlike the more expensive C6K model, the tested C6KS does not have an option labeled Filmmaker Mode in the menu. Is this a reason to cry? Absolutely not. Our tests have shown that in practice, in terms of color reproduction, the absence of this specific label makes virtually no difference. The best available Film/Cinema mode here offers nearly identical picture characteristics to the aforementioned Filmmaker mode in the more expensive model. So we get a very similar image, just under a different name. So if you were wondering whether paying extra for the C6K gives you better colors – the answer is: no, in both cases the base is the same and requires slight adjustments.

Samsung offers a whole host of picture modes and features, but as usual we recommend choosing Filmmaker Mode, especially if you want the most faithful rendering of the creators' intent. Out of the box the TV is tuned very well, though it has minor shortcomings. This mainly concerns a slight drift in white balance in SDR content and a slightly low gamma. As a result, in a darker room the image can be a bit too bright relative to the reference gamma of 2.4, which is the standard for watching films with the lights off. These are of course small issues, since overall color reproduction remains very good and the errors in ColorChecker measurements are small. However, we know that from a screen of the S99H's class you can and should expect even more, so we had it professionally calibrated.

Thanks to the white balance adjustment, the tendency of the C69KS to distort colors has been effectively reduced, leading to a very good final effect. After calibration, we won't see excessive warmth in SDR scenes or overly cool tones in HDR. However, it's worth noting the brightness characteristic. In SDR content, there are hardly any objections – the image looks very good, especially in older films, television programs, or materials from YouTube. It is much more difficult to evaluate the performance of the television in HDR. Analysis of the EOTF curve suggests correct behavior, but its practical variant shows certain limitations. The C69KS can overly brighten the smallest elements of the frame, while at other times it can dim the entire scene. Calibration has therefore brought clear benefits in terms of color reproduction, but certain limitations arising from the operation of local dimming and the way it is controlled by the C69KS cannot be avoided, as we also saw in the C6K test.

After professional calibration, FILMMAKER mode looks virtually perfect. Because Samsung offers a rich set of advanced calibration features, we were able to tune the colors to an almost perfect level. Most importantly, we were able to even out the white balance and the gamma curve, which resulted in noticeably better contrast and a more natural image dimensionality. With a profile prepared like this, there's really nothing to nitpick or call a flaw. After calibration, the S99H is capable of delivering an essentially reference-quality image.

C69KS handles upscaling quite well. The tested 576p material looks surprisingly decent – a significant amount of detail is preserved, and the algorithm adds a subtle "rounding" effect to sharp edges, making the image appear more cohesive. However, the smoothing of tonal transitions is lacking. The television practically cannot improve them, leaving the image in a somewhat raw state. With older materials, this can be simply exhausting, as the lack of additional processing highlights all imperfections.

The proprietary Samsung NQ4 Gen3 processor handles upscaling and digital image processing. It does a very good job scaling lower-resolution material to 4K. The picture is sharp but doesn't look artificial or overly sharpened. The only fairly specific drawback appears with very old footage shot at 480p or lower. In those cases the TV can slightly crop the edges of the image.

The processor also copes quite well with artifacts visible in low-bitrate material, for example heavily compressed YouTube videos. The noise reduction feature effectively smooths the image and reduces posterization, but it works rather aggressively. It can remove not only unwanted artifacts but also some fine details and even natural film grain. We, wanting to preserve maximum fidelity to the source material, chose not to use it. However, if someone values a clean, as-smooth-as-possible image over keeping every detail, it can be useful.

C69KS offers a simplified motion improvement panel in movies, allowing you to adjust the intensity of the effect using a slider. This makes it easy to match the smoothness to your own preferences. The possibility of using higher refresh rates is also a plus – even though the panel operates natively at 4K at 60 Hz, lowering the resolution to 1440p allows you to enable 120 and 144 Hz modes, both on consoles and PC. This sounds like great news, but in practice, the image at these settings suffers from significant motion blur. The effect is noticeable enough that the overall experience feels simply mediocre and loses its appeal in everyday use.

Another major advantage of OLED panels is excellent motion reproduction. Thanks to the pixels' near instant response time, the Samsung S99H practically produces no smearing. Fast-moving objects don't show noticeable halos or trailing artifacts, so the TV performs very well for both watching sports and gaming. One quirk of OLED screens compared with LCDs is how they render low frame rate material. With very slow camera movement the image can appear noticeably more stuttery. This can be quite effectively mitigated using a frame interpolation system. Samsung lets you adjust judder reduction and blur reduction separately, making it easy to find a compromise between smoother motion and preserving the cinematic character of the content.

If we overlook the smearing and lack of native 4K at 120 Hz, the C69KS impresses with how well it performs during gaming. We get everything you can expect from a gaming television: variable refresh rate (VRR), automatic switching to game mode (ALLM), Dolby Vision Gaming mode, and a reasonably functioning HGiG. The TV can also operate at 120 and even 144 Hz at lower resolutions, allowing for smoother gameplay on console or PC. Additionally, there is a clear Game Bar that lets you quickly glance at key settings during gaming. As a result — despite a few limitations — the C69KS can be a truly successful screen for gamers.

Samsung S99H is also an excellent TV for gamers. It offers almost every useful feature... well, maybe except the obvious lack of Dolby Vision for Xbox consoles. It's equipped with four fully functional HDMI 2.1 ports with the full 48 Gbps bandwidth. Thanks to that we can easily use frame-rate synchronization VRR and automatic low-latency mode (ALLM). This year Samsung also has no issues with proper HGiG support, so HDR setup on a console is quick and without unnecessary complications. Samsung is also known for interesting extras in its TVs. In the Game Bar menu you'll find options to add an on-screen crosshair, enlarge the mini-map, or change the aspect ratio of the displayed image (PC).

Particularly noteworthy is Samsung's feature: Game Motion Plus. It's Samsung's proprietary motion-smoothing system that uses interpolation to increase smoothness in games. Input lag then rises to around 40 to 50 ms (depending on the strength of the setting), which is an excellent result compared to the competition. The system makes gameplay noticeably smoother. So if someone has their eye on a demanding game (e.g., GTA 6 😉) that runs at only 30 frames per second on console, the S99H can display it much more smoothly than competing models.