Xiaomi S Mini 2025 vs Samsung OLED S95H (S99H) (QD-OLED)

Since the Xiaomi S MiniLED boasts an impressive number of 308 dimming zones, it was time to see how it performs in HDR tests. Starting with luminance, or the ability to display bright scenes, the television achieved nearly 1000 nits of brightness – a result that can be considered outstanding in this class. However, do these numbers translate into real experiences in movie scenes? In the case of less demanding shots, like those from the film The Meg, the television indeed showed excellent results, reaching up to 900 nits. Such values are impressive and can truly convey the strength of HDR effects.

Unfortunately, similar to the contrast situation, there were issues. When smaller, brighter elements appear on the screen – as in challenging scenes from Sicario 2 – the aggressive operation of the dimming zones spoils the whole effect. Brightness during these moments drops to just 100 nits. This is definitely too little to capture the full magic of HDR. Instead of a dynamic and detailed image, the viewer gets a muted, almost flat impression, which diminishes the enjoyment of the viewing experience.

In summary, if we are looking for a television with high brightness for watching movies during the day, the Xiaomi S MiniLED will easily fulfill that task. However, its inability to precisely manage dimming zones means that watching movies in the evening, especially in demanding HDR scenes, can be more frustrating than satisfying.

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.

Xiaomi, like many manufacturers, offers a wide range of picture modes. On the S MiniLED, we can find both IMAX Enhanced and Filmmaker. We conducted our tests in Filmmaker mode, which theoretically is supposed to reference the original image, but the reality turned out to be somewhat different.

Let's start with the test of SDR materials. Here, the television had quite a few problems, especially with white balance. The clearly visible dominance of red made the image appear too warm, and all colors gained a reddish tint. This was particularly noticeable in a comparative scene from the Star Wars movie. The brightness characteristics (gamma) also left much to be desired – instead of a smooth transition, we had a real "rollercoaster," with a visible excessive brightening of the screen.

In 4K materials, the situation looked much better. The white balance, while still not perfect, was much more balanced, with a slight dominance of red and blue, but without excessive influence on the overall perception. The EOTF curve (responsible for brightness in HDR) showed some brightening in the brightest parts of the image, which was noticeable, for example, in the test scene from the Pan movie that we described above. These brightening effects can disrupt image precision, but in 4K, the overall effect was much more acceptable than in SDR.

Although the Xiaomi S MiniLED can positively surprise in 4K materials, its factory settings in SDR require significant adjustments, especially in terms of white balance and brightness. It is definitely a television that would benefit from calibration.

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.

Xiaomi S MiniLED 2025 is a television that gains a whole new life after calibration. The results are truly remarkable and show how much potential this model has.

In SDR mode, the white balance is nearly perfectly aligned. The errors are minimal enough that in many cases they can be considered negligible. This is confirmed by the Colour Checker palette results, where the errors did not exceed 2 ΔE – a result that is indeed quite rare. Gamma also looks very good, although at the beginning of the graph, there are slight brightenings in the darkest elements. However, this is a minor exception that does not significantly affect the image perception.

In 4K HDR materials, calibration also brought visible improvements, especially in white balance. The image looks natural and consistent. However, the brightness characteristic remains a problem. EOTF analysis in film materials shows that the television tends to over-brighten or darken the smallest elements on the screen. This is a result of limitations in the dimming algorithms that we previously discussed concerning HDR and contrast testing. Unfortunately, this is a technical feature of this model that cannot be completely eliminated.

Despite this minor flaw, calibration allowed extracting the maximum capabilities from this television. The image now looks phenomenal, and its quality impresses with every type of material. Xiaomi S MiniLED 2025 demonstrates that with the right settings, it can compete with more expensive models.

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.

When it comes to color transitions in lower quality materials like YouTube or television, the Xiaomi S MiniLED is equipped with the "Color Contour Removal" feature. In the "low" setting, it works quite well, but its effectiveness can be uneven. Sometimes it seems like the TV struggles with smoothing, which creates a certain dissonance. On the plus side, we did not notice any visible side effects, although given the instability of this feature, one might suspect that unexpected issues could arise in some situations.

Image scaling also performs average. There is slight aliasing, especially on thin elements like branches, and subtitles can appear a bit jagged. While it may not be very bothersome, a more discerning eye will certainly catch these shortcomings. Overall, most users should be satisfied with the scaling and smoothing quality, but the TV may not satisfy those who expect perfection in every frame.

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.

Xiaomi S MiniLED 2025 is equipped with a display that refreshes at 4K@120Hz (1080p@240Hz), providing sufficient smoothness for both watching dynamic sports broadcasts and playing the latest games. This level of refresh rate makes the image look smooth, even in the most intense scenes. Additionally, the TV offers a "Motion Smoothing" feature that allows users to adjust the way images are displayed in movies. We can choose a more frame-like effect, typical of cinematic experiences, or a smoother one reminiscent of the so-called "theatrical effect." This way, every user can tailor the settings to their preferences and enjoy smooth images in their favorite content.

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.

Xiaomi S MiniLED 2025 is a television that has a lot to offer gamers. With two HDMI ports with 48 Gbps bandwidth, we can easily connect modern consoles or PCs, utilizing their full potential. Additionally, the ALLM feature automatically switches the television to low latency mode – something we will appreciate during dynamic games without annoying lags. No matter what we connect, it works smoothly, and the television handles various resolutions well. There is also GameBar, which may not look as impressive as the "bars" from the competition, but makes up for it with practicality. It's a simple settings panel that allows us to quickly change the most important options or check statistics – an ideal solution when time is of the essence.

However, we have to admit that operating the television itself – or rather finding the gaming features – was quite a challenge for us. We approached the Xiaomi S MiniLED 2025 test several times to find all the necessary options. The hidden menu allowed us to discover the "GameBoost" feature, which enables switching the television to 240 Hz mode, activating VRR at 120Hz, and turning on the image in HGIG mode.

In summary, the Xiaomi S MiniLED 2025 is a television that definitely deserves praise in the gaming hardware category. Its rich set of features – 240 Hz mode, VRR, HGIG, and "GameBoost" – provides exceptional gaming experiences. Unfortunately, the intuitiveness of the menu itself leaves much to be desired and may pose a certain challenge for the average user.

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.