PR/Business Insider
The S95D* is one of the best Samsung TVs you can buy, and one of the brand’s most impressive high-end screens this year.
The model is Samsung’s latest OLED flagship model and improves on last year’s already excellent S95C.
Above all, it delivers the highest peak brightness we have ever measured on an OLED display.
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The Samsung S95D is undoubtedly a top contender in the premium TV market. It offers best-in-class color performance and features a new anti-glare filter that reduces reflections better than any other display of its kind. The matte screen does affect black level performance in bright rooms, but the S95D is, to our knowledge, the only OLED display that performs so well Can avoid glare.
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What we like
The brightest OLED screen we’ve ever tested Matte screen significantly reduces glare and reflections 144Hz refresh rate for smooth PC gaming Sleek design with One Connect Box
What we don’t like
Does not support Dolby Vision Anti-glare coating increases black level in bright rooms Expensive compared to 2023 counterpart
Details
Resolution4K Ultra HD (3840 x 2160p)Panel typeQD-OLED, 144Hz with PC backlightN/AHDR formatsHDR10, HDR10+, HLGSmart TV OSTizen
A new benchmark for OLED TV brightness
Steven Cohen/Business Insider
The Samsung S95D is a picture performance champion with all the bells and whistles that buyers should expect from a TV in this price range. Thanks to its QD-OLED (OLED with quantum dots) panel, the display offers pixel-perfect contrast and a wide range of vibrant colors, resulting in exceptional HDR (High Dynamic Range) images. The S95D is also the brightest OLED we have ever measured.
For testing purposes, we put the TV in Filmmaker mode, which offers the most accurate picture settings. Using an X-Rite colorimeter, we measured a peak brightness of about 1,700 nits on a 10 percent HDR test image (a white box that takes up 10 percent of the screen). That’s about 350 nits more than last year’s version of this TV, the Samsung S95C, and about 200 nits more than the S95D’s top competitors, including the LG G4.
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The S95D’s brightness helps the TV produce a vivid picture, giving you plenty of leeway to increase the brightness and adjust settings for rooms that let in a lot of light. The TV also helps display high-brightness HDR videos the way the filmmakers envisioned them – and the results are fantastic.
Excellent images
The S95D delivers impressive picture quality when watching current films and TV shows. During our testing, we tried various movie sequences, including scenes from 4K Blu-ray discs such as “The Matrix,” “Aquaman,” “Ex Machina,” “Blade Runner,” “Game of Thrones,” and “La La Land.” , as well as HDR streaming demos from YouTube.
Steven Cohen/Business Insider
With high-quality 4K material, the television simply amazes. Fine details are sharp, contrast is high and saturation is rich with bold tones that pop on the screen when needed. While most of the demo footage came with the bright saturation we’ve come to expect from a QD-OLED TV with such a high color volume, the big battle in “Aquaman” seemed a little more muted than expected.
The opening scene from The Matrix is a good example of the S95D’s contrast performance in a dark room. Bright highlights, like a police officer’s flashlight, stand out from the screen while black levels remain deep. And because each pixel on the TV’s OLED panel can dim and brighten independently, there’s no backlight blooming on the S95D, which is seen on competing QLED TVs.
The matte screen almost completely eliminates reflections, but the black level suffers
Steven Cohen/Business Insider
One of the most striking features of the S95D is its new anti-glare screen filter. Almost all other TVs currently sold (including last year’s S95C) have a glossy finish, which creates a mirror effect when watching TV in a bright room. The S95D, on the other hand, has a matte surface that significantly reduces glare and reflections. In fact, they are almost completely eliminated.
Read too
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Instead of the deep, rich quality that OLED black levels are known for, the blacks appear slightly heightened, blurry and gray when watching TV with the lights on. This was particularly evident when dark scenes, such as the opening sequence of The Matrix, were shown in a bright room.
Steven Cohen/Business Insider
We’re torn about this side effect, and while we know many will love the benefits of the S95D’s matte screen, we prefer a glossy look that preserves black levels.
Aside from the matte screen, the S95D’s design is similar to the 2023 S95C, and that’s not a bad thing. The 2024 model carries over its predecessor’s uniformly thin profile and features a similar stand, as well as a One Connect box that houses all of the TV’s video and audio ports rather than building them into the panel. The build quality is also robust and stands out clearly from the designs of cheaper brands.
Operating system and navigation
Samsung’s Smart TV interface, which runs on the Tizen operating system, has received a few small design tweaks that make for a slightly sleeker look, but overall it offers a similar experience to last year’s offering.
Navigating the menus was quick when I first used the TV and seemed a bit more consistent than on last year’s model. Some apps can still take a little longer to load than on the streaming devices we tested, but we like that you now see a loading bar when opening apps.
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Like last year’s model, the interface has its own gaming hub and Samsung remains the only TV brand to offer built-in support for the Xbox app. This means that you can stream Xbox games directly to your TV even without a console, as long as you have an Xbox Game Pass Ultimate membership and a Bluetooth controller.
If you play video games via a connected console or PC, the S95D has all the premium features – such as variable refresh rate and support for up to 4K/144 Hz for smooth gameplay.
Samsung S95D: Is it worth buying?
Steven Cohen/Business Insider
The Samsung S95D is one of the best 4K TVs on the market and an excellent model for anyone looking for a high-end OLED TV. It delivers fantastic picture quality with the highest peak brightness we’ve ever seen on a screen of this type, and its matte screen filter, despite the reduced black level, is a huge benefit for anyone struggling with glare and reflections in their living rooms.
This article was translated and adapted from English by Kristina Baum. You can find the original here.
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