Samsung R85H  TV Review

The Samsung R85H has good peak brightness in HDR. It's bright enough to bring out very small details well in most movies and shows. It also maintains that brightness well when more of the scene gets bright at once, like in bright outdoor shots.

The posted results are with the TV in FILMMAKER Mode with 'HDR Tone Mapping' set to 'Static.' Below are the results with the setting set to 'Active,' which increases the peak brightness of some real scenes but doesn't affect the actual peak brightness of the display.

• Hallway Lights: 620 cd/m²
• Yellow Skyscraper: 488 cd/m²
• Landscape Pool: 383 cd/m²

Switching to Game Mode has no significant impact on the TV's peak brightness. It processes HDR slightly differently, though, and the PQ EOTF shows that it's boosting most content brighter than in the calibrated picture mode. The overall peak brightness of the display is roughly the same, but it's displaying everything below the TV's peak brightness higher than it normally would.

The posted results are with the TV in Game Mode with 'HDR Tone Mapping' set to 'Static.' Below are the results with the setting set to 'Active,' which increases the peak brightness of some real scenes but doesn't affect the actual peak brightness of the display.

• Hallway Lights: 607 cd/m²
• Yellow Skyscraper: 474 cd/m²
• Landscape Pool: 364 cd/m²

The Samsung R95H has great peak brightness in SDR. It's bright enough to easily overcome glare when watching TV in a bright room. It also maintains that brightness well even in very bright content, like sports.

The Samsung R85H has good contrast. Its local dimming feature does a decent job of keeping black levels low when there are bright highlights on the screen. 

Local dimming can't be turned off on this TV, so we tested its native contrast with an inverted contrast pattern instead to try to defeat the local dimming. The native contrast of the panel is very good, which helps keep those black levels relatively low in more difficult scenes when the local dimming can't keep up.

The zone precision on this TV is decent. Due to the relatively large size of each zone, it can't dim tightly around small objects or subtitles. This results in some noticeable haloing when there are bright areas on a dark background. Depending on the color of those highlights, this haloing may also be a color other than white due to the TV's RGB backlighting.

The zone transitions on this TV are decent. It can't quite keep up with fast-moving objects, though, so the leading edge is often darker than it should be as objects move across the screen. Due to the limited size of each zone, there's also some noticeable flicker as bright objects move between zones.

There's no difference in local dimming or contrast when you switch to Game Mode. Since most real scenes are a bit brighter in this mode, though, there's slightly more visible haloing around bright objects.

The black uniformity on this TV is okay. There's no obvious flashlighting or pinching in dark scenes, and blacks are fairly deep and even across the screen. Blacks are a bit raised and look slightly washed out around the test cross, though.

Local dimming can't be turned off on this TV, so we tested its native black uniformity with Local Dimming set to 'Low' and Shadow Detail to '1,' with a uniformity image with an RGB value of {5,5,5} as black.

The Samsung R85H has great color volume in SDR. It displays most of the DCI-P3 color space well, but there are a few issues. It can't display the full range of reds and greens, and colors are noticeably washed out in lighter scenes. It has surprisingly good coverage of the wider BT.2020 color space, but again it can't display the full range of colors and they're slightly washed out in lighter scenes.

Due to the new Micro RGB technology, the presence of white on the screen influences the TV's color volume. Additionally, white objects tend to take on the tint of the color they overlap with, and it can take a couple of seconds for the tint to disappear before white objects return to normal.

Samsung's approach here is a bit more aggressive than other brands, like Sony's implementation of RGB Mini LED technology on the Sony BRAVIA 7 II.

The TV has excellent HDR color volume. It displays saturated colors in dark scenes well, thanks to its high contrast ratio. Colors are slightly washed out in light scenes, though, and it can't display the full range of colors in HDR.

The Samsung R85H has decent accuracy out of the box. There's too much blue in most midtones and bright grays, leading to an overall cool color temperature. Gamma tracking is very close to 2.2, so most content is displayed at the correct brightness level. Color mapping is very good, with just a few minor errors across the board that only enthusiasts are likely to even notice.

This TV is somewhat difficult to calibrate, as the test patches used for calibration constantly change color due to the backlight crosstalk, and there's no option to force it to pure white. You also have to completely leave the calibration menu and close all OSD menus before taking measurements; otherwise, the values are incorrect.

Thankfully, it looks fantastic after calibration. The white balance is close to perfect, and the blue tint out of the box is gone. Color accuracy is also a lot better, but not quite perfect.

You can see our full calibration settings here.

The TV has great accuracy out of the box in HDR. The white balance is a bit all over the place, with slightly too much red in some shades and too much blue in others. Overall, the average color temperature is a bit warm, but it varies. Color mapping is quite good, but there are significant luminance errors in all shades.

Unfortunately, this TV doesn't calibrate well in HDR. There's barely any improvement in any metric, and it's not worth doing.

The Samsung R85H has great PQ EOTF tracking. Shadow details close to black are very slightly raised, but it's barely noticeable, and bright tones are crushed slightly. Content mastered at 600 and 1,000 nits rolls off slightly near the TV's peak brightness, striking a good balance between maintaining brightness and losing fine details in bright areas. Content mastered at 4,000 nits rolls off slightly slower.

Unfortunately, this TV has significantly worse low-quality image processing than the Samsung R95H. Low-quality content, like most streaming services or cable TV channels, shows noticeable compression artifacts. The TV can't do much to clean them up, and there's still a loss of fine details.

This TV does a good job upscaling low-resolution content like DVDs. The image is clear and easy to make out, but some small details can be a bit fuzzy.

The gradient handling is excellent. There's barely any banding in areas of similar color.

The Samsung R85H has very low input lag, which helps games feel responsive.

This TV supports most common formats, up to a maximum of 4k @ 144Hz or 1080p @ 240Hz. The higher 240Hz refresh rate is only supported with 1080p signals; it doesn't work with 1440p or 4k inputs. Chroma 4:4:4 signals are displayed properly across all supported formats, which is important for clear text from a PC.

The TV supports FreeSync, HDMI Forum VRR, and is G-SYNC certified, ensuring a nearly tear-free gaming experience from any VRR-enabled source. It works well across the TV's entire refresh rate range and supports sources with Low Framerate Compensation (LFC), which ensures your games remain nearly tear-free even when your frame rate drops very low.

The CAD when gaming on a PC at the TV's max 4k refresh rate of 144Hz is sub-par. It's slow to complete most transitions, so motion is blurry. There's no overshoot or inverse ghosting artifacts, but there's a long blur trail behind fast-moving objects.

The CAD when gaming at a lower 120Hz refresh rate, like with a PS5 or Xbox, is actually a bit faster than at the max refresh rate. Motion is still blurry, but it looks a bit better.

The CAD when gaming at 60Hz is poor. There's no overshoot or inverse ghosting, but most transitions are very slow, so there's a very long blur trail behind fast-moving objects.

The TV is fully compatible with everything the PS5 offers, like 1440p @ 120Hz and 4k @ 120Hz, as well as HDMI Forum VRR. It also supports Auto Low Latency Mode, so you don't have to worry about switching to Game Mode to get the lowest input lag.

The Samsung R85H is almost fully compatible with everything the Xbox Series X|S offers, including 1440p @ 120Hz, 4k @ 120Hz, HDMI Forum VRR, and FreeSync Premium Pro. It also supports Auto Low Latency Mode, so you don't have to worry about switching to Game Mode to get the lowest input lag. Dolby Vision isn't supported on the TV, so gaming in Dolby Vision isn't possible.

Thanks to the TV's relatively slow response time, there's just a bit of stutter. You'll still see it in some slow-panning shots, but it's not too bad.

Adding low levels of motion interpolation helps reduce stutter a bit. The frame hold time is slightly lower, so you won't see as much stutter, and it has excellent consistency.

The TV removes judder from most content. It's not quite perfect with 25p European content, but it's extremely minor and most people won't notice it.

There's no micro judder on this TV.

The TV has an okay response time when watching content. It struggles a bit when going from very dark to a very bright shades, resulting in more noticeable blur.

Unfortunately, transitions are slightly uneven. This results in minor color artifacts in fast-action.

The Samsung R85H uses pulse-width modulation (PWM) to dim its backlight, which introduces flicker that can bother people who are sensitive to it. It flickers at 120Hz in the 'Eco,' 'Standard,' and 'Dynamic' picture modes, and flickers at 960Hz in the 'FILMMAKER Mode,' 'Movie,' and 'Game Mode' picture modes. The backlight setting has no impact on the flicker frequency.

This TV has an optional backlight strobing feature that helps to improve the appearance of motion, commonly known as black frame insertion (BFI).

Unfortunately, unlike the Samsung R95H, this model features a glossy coating which does very little to reduce the intensity of direct reflections. Bright lights and windows opposite the TV are very clearly visible.

Ambient light has no noticeable impact on black levels.

The total amount of reflected light off the screen is sub-par. There are also minor diffraction artifacts and a slight rainbow smear around bright lights.

Ambient light has no noticeble impact on color saturation.

The viewing angle is okay. Colors fade and the image washes out as you move to the sides, but they fade evenly so it's not as noticeable.

Unfortunately, the Samsung R85H has poor gray uniformity. The sides of the screen are considerably darker than the center. There's just a little dirty screen effect in the center, though, which is great for watching sports.

The Samsung R85H uses a new Micro RGB backlight paired with a VA panel, which is mainly designed to increase color volume. There are high peaks on reds, blues, and greens, and there's excellent separation between them, giving the TV great color purity. It uses an RGB subpixel arrangement, which helps with text clarity when used with a PC.

The TV supports the full 48Gbps bandwidth of HDMI 2.1 on all four HDMI ports.

The Samsung R85H supports all Dolby audio formats, but it doesn't support any DTS formats that are commonly used on physical media.

Like all Samsung TVs, this model doesn't support Dolby Vision, but it does support the similar HDR10+.

The Samsung R85H has a premium design, with thin bezels on three sides and a slightly thicker bottom bezel. The bottom bezel looks a bit cheaper than the higher-end Samsung R95H.

The TV uses two blade-style feet to support it. They can be placed in either a wide or narrow position to match the size of your media cabinet, and both positions also have a high and low position.

The low position lifts the TV about 2.4 inches above the table, and the high position lifts it 3.3 inches.

Footprint of the 65-inch stand in the wide position: 47.6" x 10"

Footprint of the 65-inch stand in the narrow position: 11.9" x 10"

The back of the Samsung R85H is plain. The inputs are housed in a recessed cutout, which makes them a bit difficult to access. There are grooves along the back and a clip on the stand to help with cable management.

The Samsung R85H has good build quality. It's nearly identical to the Samsung QN80H, with a mostly plastic build that feels solid enough, with no obvious flaws or defects.

The TV ships with the 2026 version of Samsung's proprietary Tizen OS. Samsung promises up to seven years of firmware updates after launch, so it will eventually receive new versions of the OS.

Unfortunately, the interface can be a bit buggy at times. For example, we couldn't consistently change labels on an input device, and we had to reapply the label change multiple times before it would stay.

Like most TVs on the market, it has ads throughout its interface, and although you can disable targeted ads, there's no option to disable them completely.

The remote has a built-in rechargeable battery and a solar panel on its back. You can also recharge it via USB-C if it dies unexpectedly.

• Power cable
• Remote control
• Cable management clips
• Alternate stand covers
• User guides

This TV was initially tested on firmware 1204.

The TV's built-in speakers are okay. It has a well-balanced sound profile, so dialogue is clear and easy to understand. It gets fairly loud, but dialogue isn't quite as clear at max volume. Like most TVs, there's very little deep bass response.