Samsung 65-Inch S95F OLED TV
OLED TVs keep getting brighter, and Samsung's S95F continues the trend. I tested a preproduction model of the company's flagship OLED at its QA lab, and it puts out much more light than its predecessor, the S95D, making an already excellent picture look even better. Based on what I saw, the Samsung S95F ($3,199.99 for 65 inches) is a stunner that I look forward to putting through more testing when I get a production-ready model into PC Labs. For now, the ($3,399.99 for 65 inches) is even brighter, adds Dolby Vision support, and has a more intuitive user interface, making it our Editors' Choice winner for premium OLED TVs.
The S95F's panel is almost completely bezel-less, framed by the edge of a metal band along the sides and top and only a narrow brushed metal strip along the bottom edge. Most of the TV's ports and electronics are located in a separate One Connect Box, making for a very thin panel.
It's not quite paper-thin, however, as the TV itself houses a 70W, 4.2.2-channel sound system. That's more advanced than the stereo sound most TVs offer and even bests the LG Evo G5's 4.2-channel system, which lacks height channels.
The One Connect Box drives the S95F by sending all of its power and signal information through a single five-foot cable (if you need a longer reach, Samsung offers 16- and 48-foot cables for $220 and $300, respectively). This lets you place the box some distance from the screen and connect all your devices to it, leaving the screen itself almost completely free of wires. The box can also be mounted behind the TV on the included metal table stand if you prefer. The plain black plastic slab measures 13 by 14.2 by 1.3 inches (HWD), and has four HDMI ports (one eARC), three USB-A ports, a 3.5mm RS-232C port, an optical audio output, an Ethernet port, and an antenna/cable connector.
Samsung includes the same SolarCell Remote that comes with its other flagship TVs. It's a slim, rectangular, matte black wand with a large circular navigation pad near the top, a pinhole microphone, volume and channel rockers, and dedicated service buttons for Amazon Prime Video, Netflix, Samsung TV Plus, and YouTube. Frustratingly, there are no input buttons for quickly switching sources. It has a solar cell on the back and a USB-C port on the bottom for charging its built-in rechargeable battery, so you don't have to deal with AAs.
As always, Samsung's Tizen OS smart TV platform is loaded with features but slightly frustrating due to its overbearing tendency to over-automate certain tasks and bury menus a layer or two deeper than most other interfaces. It's inching forward a little, though, and now lets you easily access settings by just pressing the gear button on the remote instead of having to press the gear button and then manually navigate through a long list to get to that menu.
All major streaming services, including Amazon Prime Video, Apple TV, Crunchyroll, Disney+, Netflix, Twitch, and YouTube, are available on Tizen OS. Apple AirPlay and Miracast/WiDi are also supported, so you can stream directly from your iPhone, iPad, Mac, or PC. Amazon's Alexa voice assistant is also built into the TV, and you can access it hands-free via the S95F's far-field microphone.
The S95F is a 4K OLED TV with a 120Hz refresh rate. It supports high dynamic range (HDR) content in HDR10, HDR10+, and hybrid log gamma (HLG), but Samsung continues to leave Dolby Vision out of its TVs. It has an ATSC 1.0 tuner for over-the-air broadcasts, but not ATSC 3.0.
I test TVs with a Klein K-10A colorimeter, a Murideo SIX-G signal generator, and Portrait Displays' Calman software, and I was impressed by the S95F's performance. The biggest weakness of OLED TVs (besides the high price) is brightness, and they are almost universally less bright than high-end LED TVs, with some models looking outright dim.
In HDR Movie mode, the S95F shows a modest peak brightness of 336 nits with a full-screen white field but an impressive 1,364 nits with an 18% white field. Moving to a 10% field, that number increases to a blazing 2,007 nits. I compare 18% white field measurements between TVs to be consistent across different types, but that 10% field brightness is excellent, especially with perfect black levels and no light bloom whatsoever thanks to the pixel-level dimming OLED technology enables.
It's far brighter than the S95D (1,060 nits 18%, 1,613 nits 10%), though not quite the brightest OLED I've tested. That designation belongs to the LG Evo G5, which is downright stunning at 1,608 nits with an 18% white field and 2,386 nits with a 10% white field.
Mini-LED TVs are still far brighter than OLEDs, and the Samsung QN90F has a peak brightness of 2,259 nits with an 18% field and technically perfect black levels, but light bloom is a factor.
Color is almost always a strong suit of OLEDs, and the S95F is definitely proof of that. The above charts show the TV's color levels in Movie mode with an SDR signal compared against Rec.709 broadcast standards and with an HDR signal compared against DCI-P3 digital cinema standards, and in both cases, colors are largely accurate and free of any tinting. Whites lean just a little bit toward magenta but are still fairly close, and with an HDR signal, colors actually manage to exceed the DCI-P3 color space. The performance is very similar to the LG Evo G5, though the G5's whites are much more accurate and its magentas are a bit warm.
The Great Gatsby demonstrates the strong contrast the S95F is capable of. Black suits in the party scenes show plenty of detail, like cuts, contours, and textures, while staying very dark. The whites of shirts and balloons look bright, while skin tones appear natural.
Demonstration footage on the Spears & Munsil Ultra HD benchmark disc really lets the S95F show off its excellent picture quality. A timelapse scene of a landscape from before dawn to midday transitions smoothly, starting very dark and brightening considerably. Snowy shots retain lots of highlight details, making wisps of clouds and falling snowflakes visible against white skies and snow-covered ground. Colorful objects against completely black backgrounds are bright and vivid. The backgrounds remain perfectly black without any light bloom.
Gamers will be pleased by the S95F, which has a 120Hz panel that supports up to 165Hz variable refresh rate (VRR) and AMD FreeSync Premium Pro. It's very responsive, too. Using a Leo Bodnar 4K Video Signal Tester, I measured an input lag of 9.6 milliseconds with a 4K60 signal and 4.8ms with a 1080p120 signal on the S95F. That's below the one-frame threshold (16.6ms for 60Hz, 8.3ms for 120Hz) we consider best for gaming.
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