Samsung S95F OLED  TV Review

The Samsung S95F OLED has amazing peak brightness when watching HDR content. Small and medium-sized specular highlights stand out incredibly well, even giving many Mini LED models a run for their money. The improved OLED stack delivers much brighter full-screen performance as well, so bright daylight shots are far more impactful than previous generations of OLED.

Like all OLED TVs, the S95F has a feature called ASBL designed to protect the panel from extended exposure to high peak brightness. This feature is a bit more aggressive than usual on this TV, resulting in a lower 10% sustained window. This is simply a protection feature of the TV, and it's not at all noticeable with regular content.

These results are in the most accurate, calibrated settings mode, with HDR Tone Mapping set to 'Static' and the Color Space set to 'Auto'. If you want to get the most brightness out of this TV and don't care as much about accuracy, adjusting these two settings has a significant impact on peak brightness, as shown with the following real scene brightness measurements:

The Samsung S95F is slightly brighter when using Game Mode, but it's not a significant difference. The above results are with Game HDR set to 'Basic' and HDR Tone Mapping set to 'Static.'

Unfortunately, Samsung removed HGIG with firmware update 1125.9. Their intention was to move it to the "Original" Game Genre setting, but it's still not working properly as of firmware 1125.

Results with 'HDR Tone Mapping' set to 'Active':

• Hallway Lights: 1114 cd/m²
• Cityscape: 677 cd/m²
• Landscape Pool: 293 cd/m²

The peak brightness in SDR is amazing. It's bright enough to easily overcome glare in a bright room, even when watching very bright content like sports.

The Samsung S95F OLED has remarkable contrast and a nearly infinite contrast ratio. Since each pixel is self-lit, the TV displays bright highlights next to perfect inky blacks with no light bleed or haloing, making it very impressive in a dark room.

Since OLEDs don't use lighting zones and instead have individual pixels that can be lit up to their maximum brightness next to pixels that are turned off, there's no blooming when bright elements are surrounded by deep blacks.

The Samsung S95F is an OLED and doesn't have a backlight, so its self-lit pixels give it the same performance as a TV with perfect local dimming and no zone transitions. We still film the zone transition video on the TV so you can see how it compares to an option with local dimming.

Contrast and dark details look the exact same in Game Mode.

Because OLED pixels are self-lit and can turn off individual pixels, the TV has incredible black uniformity with no blooming or halo effect around bright objects.

The Samsung S95F has superb color volume in SDR. Like almost any TV, it has full coverage of the most commonly used Rec. 709 color space, but it also has nearly perfect coverage of the wider DCI-P3 color space. Its coverage of the widest BT.2020 color space is excellent, and unlike the LG G5 OLED, it doesn't struggle with lighter shades. Overall, it's a fantastic TV to watch the odd SDR content that's mastered in these wider color spaces, or if you like punchier colors by forcing Rec. 709/sRGB content into a wider color space.

This TV has fantastic color volume in HDR. It displays dark, saturated colors perfectly thanks to its nearly infinite contrast ratio. It has better color luminance than the LG G5 OLED, meaning colors are just as bright as pure white since it doesn't rely on a white subpixel to boost the overall luminance in bright scenes.

There's currently a bug with the 'Auto' Color Space setting, and it's not working properly. These results are with it set to 'Auto', but due to the bug, the measured yellow luminance is too low. While it's possible to compensate for this bug, doing so reduces the color space considerably, so we left it alone.

The Samsung S95F is incredibly accurate even without a full calibration. Gamma is extremely close to the 2.2 target, and only dark scenes appear slightly brighter than they should. The white balance and color temperature are fantastic, and there are no noticeable color errors.

The calibration process is quick and easy on this TV, even if it's not really needed since it's already so accurate out of the box. After calibration, it's nearly perfect in SDR, with no noticeable issues.

See our full calibration settings.

The Samsung S95F OLED has great HDR accuracy before calibration. The biggest issue is its white balance, with significant errors in grayscale throughout. The color temperature is nearly perfect. Colors are great overall, but there are noticeable hue errors throughout, especially in more saturated colors.

The HDR calibration process isn't very effective on this TV. Although the white balance improved a bit, both bright and dark shades are still noticeably off, but everything in-between is good. Color accuracy improved a bit, but there are still noticeable hue errors.

Samsung removed HGIG with firmware update 1125.9. Their intention was to move it to the "Original" Game Genre setting, but it's still not working properly as of firmware 1125. This means that most games won't be displayed at the correct brightness level, and it's especially problematic for Switch 2 players, as HGIG is needed to properly calibrate that console's HDR output.

The Samsung S95F's EOTF tracking is outstanding overall, but it's not perfect. Blacks and near-blacks are displayed perfectly, but shadow details are a bit raised. Mid-tones and bright highlights fare better with no significant issues. There's a sharp roll-off near the TV's peak brightness, which means the TV prefers hitting the highest peak brightness possible over preserving gradation in bright areas.

This TV does a great job preserving fine details when streaming content from low-bandwidth sources, but there's still noticeable macro blocking in dark scenes, so you don't get as clean an image when watching low-bitrate content as you do on a TV like the Sony BRAVIA 8 II OLED.

This TV does a great job upscaling low-resolution content like DVDs or cable TV channels. Fine details and hard-coded text are hard to make out, but most content looks great overall. Unfortunately, it applies edge enhancement to all content, even with the Sharpness slider set to '0'. This is present in all picture modes, but it's slightly better in Filmmaker Mode.

Gradients look fantastic on this TV, with just a bit of banding in some darker shades. It's really not noticeable in real content unless you're looking for it from close up.

This TV has very low input lag when set into Game Mode, which ensures a responsive gaming experience. It's a bit higher outside of Game Mode, so navigating menus on external devices feels a bit sluggish. It supports a maximum refresh rate of 165Hz at both 1080p and 4k resolutions.

The TV supports all common resolutions up to 4k @ 165Hz. It doesn't support 144Hz, but since most PC gamers are best off outputting a 165Hz refresh rate, this isn't a big deal most of the time. Chroma 4:4:4 signals are displayed properly with all supported resolutions when the TV's input label is set to 'PC' with Input Signal Plus enabled, which is important for text clarity.

Since the HDMI ports on the TV's Slim One Connect box are limited to 40Gbps, the full 165Hz refresh rate only works with sources that support Display Stream Compression, or DSC. Most recent graphics cards support this, but if you have an older HDMI 2.1 graphics card, you'll be limited to 4k @ 120Hz.

The Samsung S95F supports all three types of variable refresh rate (VRR) technology to reduce screen tearing. It works well across a very wide refresh rate range and supports sources with Low-Frame-Compensation (LFC). This ensures you get a more consistently tear-free gaming experience, even when your games can't keep up and the frame rate drops down very low.

Like all OLEDs, the TV's CAD at its maximum refresh rate of 165Hz is fantastic. Pixels transition to their target RGB level almost instantly with no noticeable overshoot, so fast motion is very sharp. The slight dip in the CAD charts is caused by the TV's refresh cycle and isn't noticeable.

Dropping down to sources with a maximum refresh rate of 120Hz, like a console, has no noticeable impact on the TV's motion handling. Fast motion is clear, with no noticeable overshoot or motion artifacts. The slight dip in the CAD charts is caused by the TV's refresh cycle and isn't noticeable.

Due to the sample-and-hold nature of OLED TVs, there's noticeable persistence blur when gaming at 60Hz, but the CAD is still extremely good. Pixels transition very quickly, with no noticeable motion artifacts. The slight dip in the CAD charts is caused by the TV's refresh cycle and isn't noticeable.

The Samsung S95F is fully compatible with everything the base PS5 offers, like 1440p @ 120Hz and 4k @ 120Hz, as well as HDMI Forum VRR. It doesn't support 8k signals from the PS5 Pro, though. 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 S95F is fully compatible with almost 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. Unfortunately, Dolby Vision isn't supported on the TV, so gaming in Dolby Vision isn't possible.

Unfortunately, due to the nearly instantaneous pixel response time of the TV, there's noticeable response time stutter in all content, especially in shots with slow camera movement.

The Samsung S95F OLED TV is free from 24p micro-judder regardless of the source. There's also no micro-judder when watching 25p content from the TV's native apps or from external devices sending a 25Hz signal. However, there's some noticeable micro-judder when watching 25p content via a 60p signal, like when using older streaming devices. 

As initially reported by HDTVTest, the TV has a very minor instance of micro-judder right after starting a video or when exiting a full screen of black, but this lasts less than a second and goes away completely after that, so it's not a big deal at all. 

The TV automatically removes judder from all sources when watching movies or shows that are in 24p, even if they're in a 60Hz signal, like from a cable box or an older streaming device. It also removes judder from 25p sources if you're using the TV's native apps or an external device that sends a 25Hz signal. However, it doesn't remove judder from 25p sources that are being sent via a 60p signal. Furthermore, the duration of frames is incredibly inconsistent, which makes motion look jerky and distracting when watching 25p content via 60p.

The TV has a nearly instantaneous response time, resulting in incredibly clear motion with almost no blur behind fast-moving objects when watching content. There's no noticeable overshoot or other artifacts. The slight dip in the response time charts is caused by the TV's refresh cycle, but it's not noticeable.

This TV doesn't have a traditional backlight and doesn't use pulse-width modulation (PWM) to dim each pixel, but it's not completely flicker-free. There's a slight dip in brightness that corresponds to the TV's refresh rate. This differs from the PWM flicker on TVs with LED backlights and occurs on every OLED we've tested. It's not noticeable, and most people won't be bothered by this, but it can still bother people who are extra sensitive to flicker.

The TV has an optional black frame insertion (BFI) feature that reduces the appearance of persistence blur caused by the TV's nearly instantaneous response time. It can only insert black frames at a 60Hz refresh rate, this feature is not available at 120 or 165Hz.

This TV has an optional motion interpolation feature. It's effective at improving the overall appearance of motion, but there are noticeable artifacts in just about any content, including slower scenes that most TVs have no issue with.

The matte anti-reflective coating on the Samsung S95F OLED does a superb job at reducing the intensity of direct reflections, so you barely see any reflections on this TV. It's even better than the Samsung S95D OLED that this TV replaces.

Unfortunately, the matte screen coating comes with some significant downsides, as this TV does a poor job of displaying deep blacks in a bright room. Since it reduces reflections by scattering light across the screen, blacks look increasingly gray as your room becomes brighter.

The Samsung S95F has impressive reflection handling. Its matte screen finish essentially eliminates both direct and indirect reflections in a bright room, without any undesirable artifacts like rainbow smearing.

The Samsung S95F displays excellently saturated colors in a bright room. The TV's perceived color volume does decrease noticeably in a bright room, especially with low-luminance colors, but you still get incredibly saturated colors since its color volume is so impressive to begin with.

Like all other QD-OLED TVs on the market, the Samsung S95F OLED has an essentially perfect viewing angle. There's a slight loss of brightness at an extremely wide angle, but it's not noticeable.

The Samsung S95F has a very clean panel, with no noticeable uniformity issues. There are some very faint vertical lines, but they're not noticeable at a normal viewing distance. There's no pink or green tint to the panel.

The Samsung S95F OLED TV uses a unique subpixel structure. Instead of having all three subpixels in a row, each pixel forms a triangle, with the larger green subpixel at the top. This leads to color fringing; on a bright window on a Windows PC, you might notice a green fringe at the top since that's where the green subpixel is. Similarly, there's a purple fringe at the bottom of bright windows, as that's where the red and blue subpixels are. Furthermore, with this subpixel arrangement, text has just okay clarity on a PC, as Windows ClearType settings aren't designed for this subpixel structure and can't correct for it.

The TV uses quantum dots to achieve high color peaks with excellent separation between blues, greens, and reds. This gives the TV great color purity and allows it to display an incredibly wide range of colors. The S95F uses a third-generation electroluminescent layer, which Samsung Display advertises as up to 30% more efficient.

The TV's matte coating causes the hazy pixels you see in the photo, but the haziness isn't noticeable when using the TV.

The TV itself only has two inputs: a USB-C service port and an input for the One Connect cable. All the audio/video and USB connections are housed on the external Slim One Connect Box instead.

Although the TV supports HDMI 2.1 bandwidth on all four HDMI ports, all four ports are limited to 40Gbps. The built-in tuner is limited to ATSC 1.0, as Samsung has dropped support for ATSC 3.0 from their U.S. TV Lineup since 2024.

The Samsung S95F supports many audio formats, including all Dolby Digital options. Unfortunately, it doesn't support DTS formats, which is disappointing, as many Blu-rays use DTS for their lossless audio tracks. Dolby Digital+ passthrough is also limited to 5.1 channels instead of the full 7.1 support. It's unclear if this is a bug or an intentional decision by Samsung to limit support, but the other Samsung TVs we've tested in 2025, like the Samsung S85F OLED and the Samsung QN90F, have the same limitation.

7.1 channel LPCM only works with sources that allow you to manually override the EDID, like a PC. If you can't override the EDID, it's limited to 5.1.

Like all Samsung TVs, the Samsung S95F doesn't support Dolby Vision, but it does support the similar HDR10+.

The Samsung S95F has a very premium design and looks incredible, but it's nearly identical to the Samsung S95D it replaces. It's extremely thin, with a slim, uniform profile that looks great in any room. The external Slim One Connect box gives you great flexibility when it comes to cable management, as you can either mount it to the back of the TV, the back of the stand, or place it away from the TV.

The center-mounted stand is solid and small, supporting the TV well. The stand lifts the display 3.3 inches above the table, so almost any soundbar fits in front of it without blocking the viewable portion of the screen.

Footprint of the 65-inch stand: 14.2" x 11.6".

The back of the TV is very plain, and since it uses the Slim One Connect box to house all of the inputs, there's only a small cutout that houses the OCB connection and a USB-C service port. Since the cables all go to the OCB, there's no cable management on the TV itself.

This TV has an extremely thin, uniform profile.

The Samsung S95F is a well-built TV with a premium design, a metal stand, and thin bezels.

The Samsung S95F OLED TV runs the 2025 version of the Tizen OS, which is quick and easy to use.

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 with a solar panel on the back of the remote. You can also recharge it via USB-C if it dies unexpectedly.

• Power cable
• Remote control
• Accessory clips
• User guide
• Short One Connect cable (16 inches)
• Long One Connect cable (98 inches)
• Mounting Screws for Slim One Connect Box

Given how small the speakers are with this TV's extremely thin profile, it sounds surprisingly decent. It doesn't get very loud, and it lacks deep bass, but the sound profile is fairly well balanced, aside from a slight dip in the mids that makes some dialogue sound a bit muted.