
PRICE $4499
AT A GLANCE
Plus
Ultra‑bright picture for an OLED display
100 % DCI‑P3 wide‑color‑gamut coverage
Improved matte‑black anti‑reflective screen
Advanced gaming features with low input lag
Minus
No ATSC 3.0 NextGen TV tuner
No Dolby Vision HDR
Slight blooming in certain dark scenes
THE VERDICT
This series continues to step up the brightness game of QD‑OLED technology and features an excellent “glare‑free” screen that sets this model apart from competitors. In our opinion, the Samsung S95F is one of the best televisions we’ve tested and offers a bargain for OLED technology of this performance level.
The flagship 77-inch QN77S95F is the fourth generation of Samsung’s popular hybrid quantum dot OLED television, now offering even brighter peak HDR10 highlights ranging up to almost 4,000 nits under the right conditions.
In more average real-world viewing, the set measured peak HDR10 brightness at still an impressive 2,300 nits, which is amazing for a TV, but especially for one with OLED technology. Images come alive with brightness and contrast that brings out richer natural color.
As with last year’s excellent QN77S95D, the set also includes a beautiful matte-black anti-reflective screen that gives the set the look of a projection screen. This year’s version improves some of the blooming anti-glare screen displayed last year, while maintaining the core wide viewing angle advantage of OLED technology.
The set offers a thin-panel (0.5” deep) design and out-boarded One Connect Box that connects to the panel with a single cable carrying both power and signal sources, while allowing a snug fit against a wall. Alternately, when positioned on the included stand, the box attaches to the back of the pedestal-style bracket to minimize cable clutter.
The Samsung QN77S95F’s offers a large suite of powerful picture and sound processing systems that are driven by Samsung’s “Neural Quantum” NQ4 AI Gen 3 Processor to present improved upscaling and noise reduction, optimized for more naturally appearing immersive entertainment experiences. Samsung’s premium TV series this year, including the S95F, incorporate the new Samsung Vision AI picture and sound processing technology that enhances the immersive cinematic picture and sound experience. It also drives some new AI-backed convenience features such as Live Translate that allows seeing on-the-fly captions in any of seven languages from live broadcast programs.
AI technology is getting better and better at self-adjusting the television to the visual and acoustics of the room, without a lot of manual adjustment necessary. For those who like to tweak, Samsung continues to offer its Auto Calibration feature that uses a compatible smartphone to tune the gamma, color and grayscale of the set to the room. This can be tricky to get right, however. We found the picture mode presets like Filmmaker Mode to be more consistent in preserving the artistic vision for most movie viewing.
When not being used to watch movies or TV programs, the Samsung S95F is an exceptional 4K OLED gaming display, offering up to a 4K/165Hz refresh rate on all four HDMI 2.1 ports. This will present the latest advanced PC game titles with smooth, clear and fast visual performance. The set’s Motion Xcelerator 165Hz processing enables seamless motion and clear action. Additionally, multiple gaming devices can be connected simultaneously through the multiple HDMI 2.1 inputs on the One Connect box.
The S95F series once again offers a nice assortment of features, although this won’t include a few available in one of the company’s two 8K UHD Neo QLED Mini-LED TV models. For example, you won’t get ATSC 3.0 NextGen TV tuning in these models for the second year in a row. These tuners are necessary to receive the new over-the-air broadcast channels that among other things could soon bring 4K UHD signals over-the-air in your neighborhood.
Alternatively, you can add this capability by purchasing a third-party NextGen TV set-top tuner box outfitted with new Digital- Rights Management (DRM) support for about $100 on the low end.
On the other hand, Samsung offered a nice surprise by changing its long-time policy of not promising unannounced firmware updates for its Tizen 9.0 smart TV platform. The company is now promising update support for seven years as needed or available for apps, services and AI powered features. Samsung calls this its One UI Tizen.
The 2025 S95F 4K QD-OLED series includes a 55-inch ($2,299 suggested retail), 65-inch ($3,299) and 77-inches ($4,499), the latter of which is reviewed here. Samsung said it will have an 83-inch 4K OLED model rolling out shortly.
Design Aesthetics
Just like last year’s S95D series, Samsung has kept the design of the QN77S95F cabinet and bezel thin and minimal. The panel depth measures just over 1mm. When looking straight on, the design presents a nearly bezel-free appearance, with only a slim border trim running along the sides and top of the screen. Samsung supplies a sturdy metal pedestal stand that can be used to mount a supplied One Connect box hidden behind the screen. Alternatively, a single proprietary connection cable can be used to place the box off to the side of or under the display. The One Connect box houses the display circuitry, power and input connections, and provides a neat solution for device input management when installed on a wall using an optional VESA-standard thin-profile bracket.
The One Connect box measures 14.2”x1.6”x13” and offers a full complement of in/out ports including four HDMI 2.1 (one eARC/ARC supporting) all supporting up to 4K/165Hz, three USB ports, one ethernet port, an optical audio output, a RS-232C (EX-Link) port, an antenna/cable connector, and a proprietary port for the One Connect cable carrying power and input signals between the set-top connector box and the back of the screen.
The 77-inch 77S95F’s screen measures 82.5” inches diagonally. The screen measures 72.6″x41.6″x0.5″ deep. It is 44.2″ tall and 12″ deep with a pedestal stand.
The stand footprint measures 14.2″x11.7″x11.3″ below the center screen. It allows 2.75″ of clearance for the soundbar between the top of the foot and the bottom of the bezel chin.
Solar Remote
The S95F still uses Samsung’s SolarCell Remote. This is a slim wand-style controller with a built-in rechargeable battery that uses a small solar panel on the back of the unit to gather sun or room light to keep a consistently charged battery, provided you remember to put it down with the collector panel side up. Users also have the option of connecting the controller to a USB-C cable charger. As in past years, the smart TV app and settings navigation is performed using a large circular directional navigation pad on the control button layout. You can also use voice commands through a button-activated mic. Other buttons include home and playback along with volume and channel rockers. Fast access buttons are also included for Amazon Prime, YouTube, Netflix, and Samsung TV Plus.
Looking Smart
The latest version Samsung’s Tizen OS smart TV platform has been behind the company’s powerful NQ4 AI Gen 3 processor. This is the engine that drives the new Samsung Vision AI feature package that brings a host of new tools including:
Click to Search: this enables searching for information such as an actor’s names of additional content options on the screen without interrupting the programming.
Live Translate: real-time closed caption translations in seven languages for live TV broadcasts.
Home Insights: real-time Smart Home notifications from compatible smart devices around the house, including safety alerts various connected control devices ranging from security cameras to intelligent thermostats.
Pet and Family Care: Users can connect an add-on camera to the TV to engage in various communications apps and the TV speakers to provide helpful services like automatically dimming lights in the evenings.
The engine also makes more traditional smart TV interaction snappier and more personal. Once again, users can use the push-button mic on the remote, to input voice control commands, or activate the built-in far-field mics in the television to do it hands free. Voice commands use Samsung’s Bixby platform or Amazon Alexa. Additionally, the TV works with Google Assistant devices.
Users can also leverage Google’s Circle to Search features to learn more about who or what is on screen in real time, without pausing or interrupting the programming.
The platform continues to offer a large app library loaded with the most popular streaming video, music and gaming apps, using a home screen interface that provides dynamic ribbons of screen thumb nails with shows determined to match past viewing preferences and searches.
Beyond running just Samsung smart tools, the built-in SmartThings system interfaces with other third-party protocols and devices including support for Apple AirPlay 2.
Samsung Takes It Higher
As in the past, Samsung “Quantum OLED” (aka QD-OLED) technology uses quantum dot color exciters in red and green to convert the panel’s self-emitting blue OLED light into a full-color RGB display. This year’s version delivers one of the brightest 4K UHD HDR10 pictures we’ve tested to date in a consumer television of any type, especially OLED.
Further, the light elevation once again stands out brilliantly against the matte black anti-glare screen that nearly eliminates room reflections. To fully leverage the significant panel brightness, the Samsung S95F series supports high dynamic range (HDR) content through the HDR10, HDR10+ (adaptive and gaming), and hybrid log gamma (HLG) profiles, but Samsung continues to eschew Dolby Vision support. Most viewers shouldn’t find this a deal breaker, however, as the dynamic Dolby Vision metadata cues are seamlessly translated to static HDR10 form to produce similarly bright, dark and colorful HDR lighting elements. These aren’t continuously adjusted on a scene-by-scene basis, like the full Dolby Vision profiles provide, but most viewers are unlikely to notice the difference without a side-by-side comparison. Dynamic metadata HDR performance is also delivered nicely when playing content graded for the HDR10+ HDR profile, and supporting HDR10+ content is becoming more and more available from streaming and physical media sources. This year, Netflix joins the camp.
We tested a sample set on loan from Samsung for brightness characteristics of 77S95F using a Portrait Displays C6-HDR colorimeter, a Murideo SIX-G signal generator, and Portrait Displays’ latest Calman software.
HDR10 peak luminance measured across window size patterns topped out at nearly 4,000 nits in a 1% D65 white window, and 2,300 nits at 10% D65 in Portrait Display’s Calman calibration software. Samsung says brightness performance is up 30% from a year ago.
The 2025 QD-OLED panel put out peak HDR10 brightness of an impressive 2,300 nits measured inside a 10% D65 (natural sunlight) white window pattern with picture settings manually set to Filmmaker Mode. These levels get a slight boost with the picture mode set to “AI Mode.” AI Mode offers a slight brightness lift to the image, especially with SDR content, and some film-based 4K HDR-produced content. The UHD Blu-ray of Avatar: The Way of Water takes on a dazzling other worldly effect in AI Mode, but we felt most traditional film-based content looked more cinematic in Film Maker Mode. Alternately, some live sports coverage, like night baseball games, really come alive with AI Mode. Samsung Quick Settings Menu makes it easy to quickly switch between picture modes to get the image that’s the most comfortable to you. The new measurement was some 30% higher than last year’s version, and it shows in real-world content.
Measuring across multiple window patterns, the set quickly ramped down from nearly 4,000 nits in a 1% window to 2,300 nits with the window at 10% all the way down to 426 nits measuring a 100% full white screen pattern. This rapid ramp down is likely a power-handling and safety measure to protect the screen from image retention damage, which is a potential hazard in any transmissive organic display technology like OLED. We didn’t notice any issues with image retention using our window test patterns, but this is still OLED technology and the set should be used with care when viewing static PC images, some video game material and content such as stock tickers or news crawls that remain static on screen.
As expected, black level measured nearly zero nits in Filmmaker Mode. Last year, we observed some clouding or haloing around moving stars in the starfield test pattern from the Spears & Munsil UHD HDR test disc. This year, the condition seems to be significantly improved, although it’s not all together gone. The slight amount of raised haloing (or blooming) in the torture test is the likely result of the special matte “glare-free” screen treatment. For our tastes, we’d sacrifice the small amount of shadow detail in dark scenes for the overall look of the screen. It’s that good.
The display continues to exhibit slight shadow detail crushing. In very dark scenes, such as the night-time evil wizard army attack in Harry Potter & The Deathly Hallows Vol. 2 from the SD 1080p Blu-ray disc, we continue to see the faint swirling background mist that encircles the wizards to be very hard to see against the dark surrounding hills. But it was somewhat more evident than we remember from a year ago. Most of the deep-space backdrop from the opening title sequence of the UHD Blu-ray version of “The Martian” displays a nice full array of faint stars, without gaps of crushed detail that is evident on weaker screens.
The Samsung S95F demonstrated even more nearly perfect HDR10 P3 wide color gamut coverage in Portrait Displays Calman evaluation software.
Both SDR and HDR color reproduction continue to be excellent, with the Ultra HD Alliance target pattern for the HDR10 DCI-P3 wide color gamut recommendation measuring a nearly perfect 99.99% of both the xy and uv P3 gamut patterns in Portrait Display’s Calman. Almost unbelievably, this is an improvement from 99.97% last year.
Out-of-the-box SDR settings were pretty accurate, but Delta E errors can benefit from a professional calibration, as seen in the ISF pre-calibration view from Portrait Display’s Calman calibration software.
Where color shades lie outside of the S95F’s coverage range, Samsung continues to feature its Tone Mapping technology that nicely adjusts and rolls off shades that are beyond the coverage range of the set. As last year, this didn’t look unnatural or distracting. In SDR as in HDR, real-world images and flesh tones were realistically vibrant without the need for further embellishments. Samsung AI picture processing gets better and better at color mapping.
We Second The E-Motion
The Samsung S95F can support up to a 120Hz (or 4K/165Hz) refresh rate for compatible gaming content, which is excellent for advanced gameplay, when you are fortunate enough to have supported titles. For movie viewing, the set will display soap opera effect in AI Mode with the “AI Object Motion Enhancer” or with the “Motion Xcelerator 165Hz” systems engaged. This is good for live sports and some enhanced PC games. For most film-based movies, however, these systems will induce the soap opera effect that makes everything look like overly sharpened video. Filmmaker Mode shuts off these “Picture Clarity” settings automatically to preserve the artistic intent. We were pleased to see that this year’s implementation significantly improved the visible judder this option introduced into scenes with camera pans and similar sweeping movement across the frame. The jumping railing seen around the bow of the ship in the opening sequence of the BBC’s 4K Ultra HD Blu-ray of Blue Planet II in last year’s model was virtually absent using Filmmaker Mode this year. In AI Mode, flying baseballs in the spring training games of the New York Mets were nicely free of color smearing.
Gaming
Just like last year’s QN77S95D, the S95F is an excellent advanced gaming display. We measured a pleasingly low 2.3ms for 1080p/60Hz input lag. This once again, produces fast response time and nice clear motion graphics with very little noticeable blur with Game Mode engaged.
The display supports many advanced gaming features, including ALLM that automatically senses an incoming game signal and engages the AI Auto Game Mode and Game Bar menu to trigger advanced settings such as matching the dynamic variable refresh rate of the time to reduce tearing. The set has an arsenal of the latest gaming features, starting with the four HDMI 2.1 ports, each supporting up to 4K/165 Hz HDR gaming signals and FreeSync Premium Pro variable refresh rate in this series. Once again, the AI Auto Game mode will detect the genre of game being played to apply the best picture and sound settings for the experience. The set is also compatible with HDR Gaming Interest Group (HGiG) protocols ensuring streamlined HDR tone-mapping from supported titles.
Sound
Once again, the on-board sound is satisfying, being both clear and understandable, although a tinge shallow, due to the limitations of the thin-cabinet design. We generally recommend adding-on a home theater speaker system or advanced soundbar to push the aural experience further. The S95F’s audio system continues to feature 4.2.2-channel surround sound with 70 Watts of total power with support for Dolby Atmos surround sound built in. The series is compatible with Samsung’s Q-Symphony Pro sound integration technology that enables synching the TV’s on-board speakers with a similarly configured Samsung sound bar for a full multi-channel surround sound experience.
This approach often includes the support of a separate powered subwoofer and wireless rear-channel speakers, depending on the model selected. Samsung’s Active Voice Amplifier Pro feature enhances voices from the internal speakers for greater clarity against background sound and ambient room noise, while Object Tracking Sound+ (OTS+) leverages the TV’s built-in multichannel speakers to make the sound dynamics seem to follow objects across the screen and around the listening environment.
Conclusion
The Samsung QN77S95F is a dazzling high-end QD-OLED TV with extremely high brightness, top-notch color performance, and minimal input lag, worthy of a top pick.
Samsung keeps impressing us by stepping up the game in picture and sound performance from QD-OLED technology. With the brightness levels demonstrated this year and the stunning matte screen design the Samsung QN77S95F is among the best looking and highest performing OLED televisions we’ve tested.
With the economic situation what it is, this might be one of the rare occasions when prices are more affordable earlier rather than later in the year. So, if you are in the market for a great premium 4K UHD OLED TV it might be time to pounce on one of these now.
Shop for the S95F at Crutchfield.com by clicking here.
