Hands on: Samsung S95F review

It’s fair to say that Samsung enjoyed a blockbuster 2024, earning multiple five-star reviews throughout its TV and AV portfolio. One such TV was the exceptional S95D, the brand’s first QD-OLED TV to use its new OLED Glare Free technology

The S95F – the brand has decided to skip the “E” suffix, you’ll get used to it – is the highly anticipated successor to the S95D, and we’ve seen it not once, but twice already. An exclusive behind-the-scenes look in Samsung’s headquarters in Suwon, South Korea revealed all, and now here at CES, we come face-to-face with this new flagship OLED TV once again.

While there is still plenty to be revealed about this new model, we already have a few first impressions based on our fleeting encounters.

Price

Unsurprisingly, pricing is somewhat of a mystery as its early days for the S95F. However, we do have previous pricing trends to go off which may hint as to what the S95F might cost when it launches later this year. The 65-inch S95D launched at £3599 / $3400 / AU$4999; the same price as the S95C from in the UK and Australia and $100 more in the US.

Optimistically we’d like to think that Samsung will launch the S95F at the same price as the S95D, or ideally a price drop would be most welcomed as the S95D on the pricier side at launch. We’ll keep a close eye on this TV to share pricing when it becomes available.

Build

Put the S95D and the S95F side by side, and you’ll have a tricky time telling them apart. The S95F design is practically unchanged, though that’s no bad thing if you ask us; the S95D was a stunningly sharp TV with razor-thin edges and slim bezels. This slender design all thanks to the One Connect box which houses the internal components, ports and power socket of the TV, and it connects with a sleek single cable making this an easy TV to wall mount.

Samsung is sticking with the centrally mounted pedestal stand, which is ideal for positioning the TV on narrow units. One aspect of this TV we haven’t seen yet is the remotes, and this is one area where we hope Samsung makes a departure from the S95D. It was one of the few premium OLED TVs of 2024 not to include a backlit remote, and while the Solar Cell remote is functional, we think it’s a tad plasticky.

Features

It was tough to pick holes in the S95D’s feature set, so the S95F’s comprehensive spec list should come as no surprise. It comes equipped with an upgraded QD-OLED panel which is reportedly 30 per cent brighter without compromising energy efficiency. Samsung claims it can reach 2000 nits peak brightness – up from 1650 nits peak on the S95D – while retaining the same energy usage as its 2024 predecessor.

Not only is this panel brighter, but it’s also faster with a maximum refresh rate of 165Hz up from 144Hz on the S95D. While this will only really appeal to PC gamers with capable rigs, for now, there’s no telling what future consoles will be capable of. According to Samsung, the powerful new NQ4 AI Gen 3 processor is to thank for this higher refresh rate, and VRR (variable refresh rate) is even supported up to 165Hz.

Speaking of gaming, Samsung continues to set the bar with four full bandwidth HDMI 2.1 sockets which will support 4K/120Hz signals from consoles or 4K/165Hz gaming from PCs. There is also the option to stream games using the built-in Tizen operating system, with Samsung’s partnerships with huge gaming brands such as Xbox and Nvidia extending into 2025.

Furthermore, one of our favourite AI features from last year’s QN900D 8K TV has trickled down to the S95F courtesy of this new processor. AI Upscaling Pro will now be featured on Samsung’s 4K models for the first time, which should sharpen up finer details and remove visual imperfections such as jagged lines and fuzzy textures. Samsung is also launching its Vision AI features with this TV, which will allow you to generate AI art for wallpapers, find actor information and related content with a press of a button, and more by clicking the new AI button on the remote.

HDR support comes in the form of HDR10, HDR10+ and HLG – Samsung’s stance on Dolby Vision hasn’t changed, unfortunately. If anything, the Samsung/Dolby relationship could be about to become even more complicated, as the S95F will feature the brand’s new audio tech which is set to rival Dolby Atmos.

Eclipsa Audio joins Dolby Atmos on this TV, bringing open-source immersive audio to YouTube; this is due to it being developed in partnership with Google. It might not be a substantial threat to Atmos quite yet, and it appears to be focused towards allowing creators to implement immersive audio in their contnet, but it’s early days.

Picture

Here’s where we’ll remind you that these are not our final, conclusive thoughts on the performance of the Samsung S95F. We’ve seen an early model in environments not suitable to test the full performance, so we’ll have to wait until we see the TV in our AV testing room to draw any final conclusions. However, we do have a few initial impressions to share, and it helps that we had an S95D side-by-side with this new model for comparison.

First and foremost, the enhanced brightness is apparent even with the test footage provided by Samsung. Highlights are dazzling as sunlight hits the water of a nature clip, and colours appear richer on the new model without looking overdone. Contrast also appears to be improved, which gives the S95F a touch more depth and solidity.

The one gripe we had with the S95D was that there was a slight loss of shadow detail in some scenes. Samsung has put its new AI gamma feature to use to rectify this, with a touch more solidity and detail to the darker sections of the picture.

We’ll need to run our usual suite of testing material to truly reveal this TV’s picture capabilities and, yes, that includes Pan (unfortunately) to reveal how the brighter panel impacts picture performance.

Sound

We’ll keep this short and sweet, we haven’t heard the S95F’s sound system in action yet. We also haven’t been told what the specifications of the sound system are, though we presume it to be similar (if not the same) as the S95D.

We are hoping for improved audio performance though, as the S95D stuggled with projection and lacked weight. However, it was detailed and clear, so if Samsung can arrange for more in the way of dynamics, then the S95F could be a step up over its predecessor; only time will tell if that’s the case.

Early verdict

It’s too early to make a call on the S95F, however, we’re liking what we’ve seen so far. A brighter, more impactful image appears to be what Samsung is serving up with its latest QD-OLED TV, and while we’re yet to hear how it sounds, we’re optimistic that Samsung could deliver another impressive flagship.

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Read our full Samsung S95D review

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