Hands on: Samsung S95H review

Samsung has enjoyed enough mainstream success, so now is the time to get experimental.

While its conventional OLED and QLED TVs all scored very highly in our test room last year – take the five-star S95F, S90F and QN90F as prime examples – the Korean tech titan has decided to mix things up with its latest flagship OLED TV, and it's taken inspiration from one of its biggest sleeper hits in doing so.

Meet the S95H (the company joked that it chose to skip the 'G' to avoid confusion with Google, but we think it's because another Korean TV company has a prominent G-series), an oddity in the flagship OLED TV world that appears to be half S95F, and half Frame art TV.

While we haven't reviewed Samsung's The Frame TV, we can't deny its impact on the TV world.

Scrolling through social media (especially with our TV-centric algorithms) reveals plenty of trendy individuals who have carefully curated their living rooms with a Frame TV acting as the centrepiece, and many companies have tried to capitalise on this TV's success too – take the Hisense Canvas and LG's new Gallery TV, for example.

So, with The Frame capturing the hearts and wallets of various demographics, it would only make sense for Samsung to capitalise on its success to create more art-focused sets. It took this approach with the QN900F 8K TV, which featured a classy metal bezel that invoked The Frame, and many of its TVs now sport matte displays and an Art Mode.

Samsung has even partnered with some of the biggest galleries and artists in the world, including Art Basel, The Met, The Tate, and MoMA, so it's really going all-in on this dual-purpose TV role.

Pairing this picture frame functionality with a high-performance QD-OLED TV is a risky move. After all, it could alienate home cinema purists who want a TV that prioritises picture performance above all else, which is the camp we fall into.

But Samsung is attempting to tread a delicate line with the S95H. Aiming for form and function is ambitious, but it may be on the road to hitting the sweet spot.

We had a brief run-in with the new flagship OLED TV during a visit to Samsung's Digital City in Suwon, South Korea, back in October of last year, and while it was a brief introduction, the TV has certainly left a lasting impression.

You won't find a final verdict here as a lot more testing is required, but we've collected some of our preliminary thoughts and first impressions of Samsung's latest flagship television.

Price

It's early days, so Samsung has understandably not settled on a price for the S95H quite yet.

It's worth noting that the 2025 TV range launched fairly late in the year, and pricing was a mystery for a while leading up to the official release of the S95F. That being said, we can use the S95F as a benchmark for how much this model should cost when it reaches shelves later this year.

The 65-inch Samsung S95F launched at £3399 / $3300 / AU$5299, though that price had quickly dropped to £2699 / $2800 / AU$4299 by the time we reviewed the set. That price has continued to drop since our review.

We hope that Samsung sticks to the pricing of its predecessor, and while a price decrease would be nice, we're not counting on it on account of the new design and features. R&D isn't a cheap process, of course.

It's also worth mentioning that there is a new entry point in the S95H series, as Samsung has followed LG's lead in introducing a 48-inch version of its flagship OLED TV.

Much like LG's 48-inch G5, we don't expect Samsung's smaller flagship set to be as fully featured as its larger siblings. Our assumption is that it won't be a QD-OLED, but rather a standard WOLED with the same design language as the other S95H sets.

Design and build

This TV's design is what separates it most from its predecessor. This is easily the biggest design overhaul since Samsung conceded in its longstanding aversion to OLED TVs back in 2022 with the S95B.

The S95H is a TV designed for wall mounting, which aligns with its picture frame influence. The display appears to be floating above a rear plate that features a detachable magnetic bezel – Samsung says it comes in a gunmetal grey finish as standard, but it plans to sell optional bezel styles going forward.

We saw the TV in a wall-mounted configuration, and there's no doubting that it looks sleek and premium in this setup.

We also saw it in its tabletop setup, which involves two blade-style feet rather than the convenient central pedestal-style stand of the S95F.

If we're being honest, the TV looks a lot less appealing when it's set up this way. It looks somewhat awkward, with the frame appearing more like a clunky and thick bezel rather than an elegant backdrop.

Interestingly, Samsung has removed the One Connect system that houses the internal processing components and connections that were included on the S95F, instead opting to include all of this on the TV's chassis.

One Connect does live on, but it's now an optional (as yet un-priced) extra. It's been upgraded, too, in that it's now wireless.

You'll need to plug a receiver dongle into the TV to allow for the wireless connection to take place. The receiver has a dedicated slot, meaning it's hidden from view when plugged in.

It's worth mentioning that this isn't the first time Samsung has gone with a wireless interface solution, as 2025's Frame Pro and QN990F 8K TV both featured it, albeit with no additional ports directly on the TVs themselves.

Features

Sticking with the One Connect system, the wireless box features four HDMI 2.1 sockets, alongside the four available on the TV itself. That's a whopping eight HDMI inputs in total if you do pony up for the wireless system. Samsung claims that they're all capable of handling full bandwidth signals up to 4K/165Hz, with VRR and ALLM.

That's a dream for anyone with multiple gaming consoles, a gaming PC, an external sound system, a 4K Blu-ray player and a streaming device, as each of these has an input to plug into and there will still be spares.

While the interface is new, the processor inside is not. Samsung is sticking with its NQ4 AI Gen 3 processor for another year after introducing it in its 2025 TV range. This handles Samsung's extensive Vision AI suite, which includes a content recognition system that can be accessed via the press of a button to identify actors and related content to what you're watching.

Furthermore, it is capable of handling a range of AI-enhanced accessibility features, AI-generated art wallpapers, and (most importantly) a handful of picture and sound remastering and upscaling systems.

Samsung's impressive image upscaling is handled here, meaning non-4K content should be presented with enhanced sharpness and clarity. Based on what we've seen from Samsung's previous 4K and 8K models, our expectations are high. Samsung itself has promised even better upscaling on the S95H, so we're looking forward to seeing it in action.

Sticking with the display, Samsung has improved its OLED Glare Free coating, meaning reflections are even less of a concern, and it looks incredible when paired with the built-in art mode. The frame-like styling, matte display and art software result in a TV that could genuinely stand in for an art piece.

But we care most about how it handles movies, and that's more related to the brightness improvements. Samsung quotes a higher peak brightness in this TV's movie mode (a picture mode that we actually really liked on last year's S95F), which means that the S95H can reach up to a whopping 2700 nits in a 10% window, up from 2000 nits last year.

Furthermore, Samsung quotes improved efficiency with the colour filter, and it will prioritise gradation over brightness for HDR tone mapping for high brightness content, including content mastered up to 4000 nits.

Picture

As with all of our hands-on reviews, these picture assessments will not be reflective of our final review, which will arrive later this year.

We were shown a handful of clips in both the TV's Movie and Filmmaker Mode in order to get a flavour of what it is truly capable of, and early signs are looking rather promising. Samsung kindly had an S95F on hand as a side-by-side reference, too.

We'll start with the Movie mode, in which we were shown some nature-focused content, including a section of BBC's Planet Earth. Here, we saw snow-capped mountains dazzle with bright highlights and intense three-dimensional depth, while the various creatures shown in these clips all featured more detailed and textured fur.

The enhanced brightness was clear here, with glistening snow reflecting the sun with eye-catching appeal, and the picture generally felt sharper and more immersive as a result.

Switching to Filmmaker Mode, we watched brief sequences from test room favourite Pan and a personal favourite, Pacific Rim. The shot from the former in which the pirate ship glides through the air and through suspended bubbles certainly benefited from the enhanced brightness, with the sun in the background being presented with a more definite and sharper outline.

The same can be said for Pacific Rim, which featured more intensity and detail in what appeared to be a fiery sun.

Finally, we were shown a brief example of how the S95H handles lower-bitrate content, which will appeal to those who prefer to stream their movies. Colour banding seemed to be much less prominent on the new model in Samsung's example, though we'll have to put this to the test by streaming movies to this TV in our full review.

Sound

We'll keep this section as short and sweet as possible. Samsung didn't really mention the sound credentials of the S95H, and the clips mentioned above were played in silence.

For reference, we found the S95F's speakers to be underwhelming due to the fact that distortion can easily creep in at higher volumes and bassier sequences. While the overall bass presentation was solid, and there was a decent sense of spaciousness to the sound, we do hope that Samsung has put some work into improving the speakers with this generation.

Early verdict

Samsung has kicked off 2026 with a left-field TV, and we're very intrigued to see where this goes. We have a feeling that Samsung is attempting to carve a niche in the competitive OLED TV space with the S95H, and that's evident with the bold new design and wireless connectivity feature.

The S95H wants to be a statement piece, and while we have thoroughly approved of the last two iterations of this TV, in some ways, we wish they stood out a bit more. The S95H is here to rectify that, but only time will tell if it will succeed in this mission.

MORE:

Read our full Samsung S95F review

As well as our Sony Bravia 8 II review

And check out our picks for the best OLED TVs