Samsung's newest OLED TV is even better than the last

The S95C improves on an already-winning formula.

The S95B harnessed quantum dots for a brighter, more-colorful picture than any OLED TV we’d seen up until that point. The S95C builds on that success with even brighter highlights and more finely tuned color. Its gaming capabilities are among the best you can buy, and its design is both posh and thoughtful.

That said, most of the S95B’s shortcomings have carried over to the S95C, too, including a lack of Dolby Vision support, and sluggish, difficult-to-navigate software. If you were hesitant to buy a Samsung OLED last year, you’ll probably balk at the S95C for the same reasons this year.

Make no mistake, however: The Samsung S95C is one of the year’s best TVs, and one of the best OLED TVs we’ve ever seen, period.

About the Samsung S95C

The Samsung S95C is available in three sizes: 55, 65, and 77 inches. The largest size is new to the series this year. Our review unit is a 77-inch model that we received on loan from Samsung.

Here’s how the series shakes out in terms of pricing:

• 55-inch (Samsung QN55S95CAFXZA), MSRP $2,499.99
• 65-inch (Samsung QN65S95CAFXZA), MSRP $3,299.99
• 77-inch (Samsung QN77S95CAFXZA), MSRP $4,499.99

Different sizes within a TV series tend to perform similarly, and this has been especially true for OLED TVs due to the nature of their display hardware. We don’t expect there to be major differences in performance between the 55-, 65-, and 77-inch versions of the S95C.

Samsung S95C Specs

• Resolution: 4K (3,840 x 2,160)
• Display type: QD-OLED (OLED + quantum dots)
• HDR support: HDR10+, HDR10, HLG
• Dolby Atmos: Yes, (native decoding)
• eARC support: Yes (HDMI 3)
• Native refresh rate: 144Hz
• Smart platform: Tizen OS
• Color: DCI-P3 color space/10-bit chroma resolution
• Variable Refresh Rate (VRR): Yes
• Auto Low Latency Mode (ALLM): Yes
• Processor: Neural Quantum Processor 4K
• Other features: AMD FreeSync Premium, Game Bar 2.0, Filmmaker Mode, Samsung Health, Multi View, Ambient Mode+, Amazon Alexa, Google Assistant, Bixby

The S95C ships with Samsung’s Solar Cell remote control, which uses both indoor/outdoor light and radio waves to charge its internal battery. The remote also features a USB-C charging port for emergency charging, and its battery level can be monitored within the TV’s settings menu.

Connectivity

This year, all of the S95C’s inputs can be found on Samsung’s One Connect Box, which connects to the back of the TV with a single proprietary cable. This slim box is designed to mount neatly to the back of the S95C’s stand, but you can also stash it conveniently on a nearby shelf or alongside the TV, depending on your setup.

Here’s what you’ll find along the side of the One Connect Box:

• 4x HDMI 2.1 (4K @ 120Hz, 1x HDMI ARC/eARC)
• 3x USB 2.0
• RF connection (cable/antenna)
• Ethernet (LAN) input
• Digital audio output (optical)
• RS-232C

Performance Data

Before testing each TV, we make sure the panel is on and receiving a continuous signal for at least 2 hours. Our 77-inch S95C received this standard warm-up time before any readings were taken. In addition, the TV received the latest firmware updates at the time of testing.

For both SDR and HDR tests, we’re using Samsung’s Filmmaker picture mode. We’ve chosen this setting because of its accuracy, but performance may vary depending on which picture mode is enabled. For example, you might experience a brighter picture with a different mode enabled, but it may negatively affect color temperature and overall color accuracy.

For further context, I also ran tests while the S95C was set to its Movie picture mode, though those results are not outlined below.

To get a sense of the TV’s average performance, we use a standard ANSI checkerboard pattern for most of our basic contrast tests. We also use white and black windows ranging from 2% to 100% to test how well the contrast holds up while displaying varying degrees of brightness.

Our peak brightness measurements are taken with sustained windows ranging in size from 2% to 100% (full screen) to represent the TV’s peak brightness over a sustained period of time. Specular highlights (like brief flashes of reflected light) might reach higher brightness levels, but not for sustained periods of time.

All of our tests are created with a Murideo Seven 8K signal generator and tabulated via Portrait Displays’ Calman Ultimate color calibration software.

I’ll expand on our test results throughout the review, but for now, here are some key takeaways:

• HDR contrast (brightness/black level): 349.2 nits/0.0001 nits (ANSI checkerboard)
• SDR contrast (brightness/black level): 227 nits/0.0001 nits (ANSI checkerboard)
• HDR peak brightness (sustained): 1,343 nits (10% white window)
• HDR color gamut coverage (DCI-P3 1976 uv/10-bit): 99.48%
• HDR color gamut coverage (BT.2020 1976 uv): 75.02%
• SDR color gamut coverage (Rec.709): 97.7%
• Input lag (4K/60Hz, Game Mode enabled, Input Lag set to Fastest): 9.9ms

Before testing, I disabled the S95C’s power-saving setting to ensure that the picture was not affected by ambient light conditions. This setting (Power and Energy Saving) can be found in the TV’s General settings menu.

During testing, the TV’s Picture Clarity Settings were disabled, along with Contrast Enhancer and Film Mode. Color Tone was kept at its default setting of Warm2.

For HDR tests, the TV’s HDR Tone Mapping setting was set to Static and Peak Brightness was set to High.

What we like

Superb contrast, class-leading brightness

The benefits of OLED TVs are myriad, but their incredible contrast is what sets them apart the most from even the fanciest LED TVs. Every pixel on an OLED TV is self-illuminating, allowing for perfect black levels, zero light bloom, and exceptionally wide viewing angles. Until recently, OLED TVs represented a tradeoff: the benefits of impeccable contrast at the expense of high-octane brightness. Simply put, OLED TVs weren’t nearly as bright as a high-end LED TV bolstered by quantum dots.

With its release in April 2022, the Samsung S95B set a new bar for OLED brightness, producing scintillating highlights that rose above the 1,000-nit mark in HDR. It achieved this feat thanks to Samsung Display’s elevated OLED panel, which married self-illuminating pixels with a layer of color- and brightness-boosting quantum dots.

This year, the S95C is even brighter than its predecessor, setting a new benchmark for OLED brightness. In HDR Filmmaker mode, specular highlights reach almost 1,400 nits—about 200 to 300 nits higher than the S95B. Full-field brightness is higher, too, so content of all types looks a little punchier on the S95C. Unlike the LG C3, however, the S95C’s full-field brightness is higher in HDR than SDR, allowing the S95C to look a little more lively than the C3 during bright HDR scenes.

To be clear, the S95C is still significantly dimmer than some of the brightest LED TVs on the market (like last year’s Samsung QN90B and presumably the recently released QN90C). Nevertheless, it’s another leap forward for OLED technology, and one that will hopefully galvanize competitors like LG and Sony (Samsung and Sony use the same QD-OLED panels for their displays. Peak brightness isn’t the be-all and end-all criterion for picture quality, but with precise engineering, it can have considerable impact, especially for OLED.

As far as near-black performance goes, I’d put the S95C roughly on par with the S95B, and it fares a bit better in this department than the LG C3. It emerges from black smoothly and preserves shadow detail impressively, especially in dark rooms.

Dazzling, voluminous color

The ace up the S95C’s sleeve is its color production. Traditionally, OLED TVs have relied on a white light and a color filter. The S95C, like all QD-OLEDs to date, doesn’t have an extra white subpixel and bypasses the color filter by shining blue light through quantum dots, which then converts the light to color. The lack of a color filter allows for brighter, purer color.

Primary colors look staggeringly good on the S95C; it took every ounce of my self control not to zone out to flashy, HDR highlight reels and colorful movies like Speed Racer for hours on end. The S95C covers 99% of the HDR color gamut (DCI-P3) and about 75% of BT.2020, and despite the fact that the LG C3 produced similar test results, the S95C’s advantage in this category is undeniable. Its colors are luminous—a true feast for the eyes.

But while bold, bright colors are the star of the show, it’s also worth noting that the S95C does a sensational job handling skin tones and the more subtle shifts in color gradients. It fares better here than its predecessor, and on the whole, I think Samsung’s picture processing has improved year over year.

The S95C’s Filmmaker mode is incredibly accurate right out of the box, and Movie mode isn’t bad, either. Picture purists will appreciate Filmmaker mode’s accuracy; I measured an average DeltaE (a measurement that determines perceptible color error, with lower numbers being better) of around 1.5 across primary and secondary color points. A value of 3 represents the accepted threshold of color error noticeable to most people.

An abundance of gaming features

The S95C is one of the best gaming TVs money can buy. All four of its HDMI ports support 4K gaming at 120Hz, so if you own a PlayStation 5, an Xbox Series X, and an eARC-enabled soundbar, you’ll still have one input left that supports 4K/120Hz.

In addition to its incredibly low input lag, the S95C supports Auto Low Latency Mode (ALLM), Variable Refresh Rate (VRR), and AMD FreeSync Premium for smooth, low-latency gaming. The TV’s 144Hz refresh rate is nice to have in your back pocket, too, even if the majority of your gaming happens at 60 or 120fps.

The S95C’s Game Mode can be accessed by way of the settings menu, and once enabled, users can access various picture- and performance-related settings by way of a quick menu called Game Bar. While the global picture settings menu allows for big, sweeping changes to Game Mode’s picture, Game Bar offers a separate set of picture presets organized by game genre. It’s an easy way to make minor, on-the-fly adjustments to the game’s picture.

Sleek, thoughtful design

The S95C’s panel isn’t quite as wafer-thin as the S95B’s, but because the TV’s inputs have been relegated to the One Connect Box, the panel is uniformly svelte with no bulk around its midsection. Despite the new dimensions, the S95C is still wildly thin, giving it an air of high-end sophistication. The S95C’s pedestal-style stand holds the panel up from its center and offers just over three inches of clearance—ample room for a soundbar.

As mentioned, the One Connect Box can be detached from the neck of the stand and positioned somewhere nearby, which provides plenty of flexibility for folks who are particular about the organization of their devices. When attached to the stand, using the One Connect Box feels similar to using a traditional set of internal inputs.

What we don’t like

Cluttered software with occasional sluggishness

Navigating the S95C’s smart platform and menu options feels slightly faster than it did on last year’s S95B, but there’s still an occasional hiccup if you happen to be an experienced user blasting through menu options at high speed.

The real source of my frustration lies with the general layout of the software and how difficult it can be to move swiftly from one app to another (or in and out of inputs). The fastest way to pull up the settings menu while playing content, for instance, requires pushing a multi-function button on the remote, navigating up to a settings menu, and then scrolling through to the “all settings” option. There’s a new feature this year that allows users to reorder quick menu options (one of the first things I did was move the “all settings” option to the front of the row), but it’s still a weirdly laborious process to jump into the TV’s settings.

If you’ve used Samsung Smart Hub in the last year, there won’t be any surprises here: There’s a dedicated home screen from which you can access your apps, but they’re surrounded by a slew of sponsored and recommended content, which tend to look more prominent than the options you’re actually looking to click on.

The breadth of supported software is appreciated, but I continue to find the Smart Hub experience to be somewhat prickly. It’s as though every task requires one or two more steps than it ought to.

Minor color fringing

Like all of the QD-OLED TVs we’ve reviewed to date, the S95C uses a particular subpixel structure that positions the green subpixel atop red and blue, which creates a very minor, green- or magenta-colored fringe along the edge of white or near-white picture elements.

The effect is most notable when white text is displayed on black backgrounds and along the edge of letterboxes, but I also noticed green and magenta fringing on the edge of an iceberg as a panning shot swept over the arctic ocean.

Fortunately, most people probably won’t notice this phenomenon, and it’s easy to ignore once you’ve grown accustomed to it. For me, it’s fairly noticeable one to two feet away from the TV, at its most noticeable about three feet away, and easy to miss at a normal viewing distance of around five feet and beyond.

Raised black levels during bright room viewing

While it didn’t hinder my enjoyment of the S95C, the S95C lacks a polarizer, causing the TV’s deep, inky black levels to be slightly lifted when met with ambient light.

Unsurprisingly, the effect is most noticeable when the majority of the picture is taken up by darkness, and in fairness, dark sequences on an OLED TV struggle to look their best in bright rooms to begin with. Additionally, I spend hundreds of hours per year looking at TVs, and I wasn’t turned off by the S95C’s picture with some of the lights in the lab turned on.

I would, however, recommend making sure that the S95C isn’t positioned in such a way that directly reflects sources of light.

No Dolby Vision

Like all Samsung TVs, the S95C doesn’t support HDR content mastered for Dolby Vision, opting instead for HDR10+, a format that operates in largely the same manner by using dynamic metadata to optimize the picture on a scene-by-scene or even frame-by-frame basis. Despite their similarities, there are currently more titles mastered for Dolby Vision (including select Xbox Series X games) than there are HDR10+ titles. Still, HDR10+ can be found on a selection of UHD Blu-rays and some of the major streaming platforms, including Amazon Prime Video, Hulu, Apple TV, and Paramount+.

Dolby Vision titles are still available to watch in HDR on the S95C, but they’ll default to HDR10 so you won’t be taking advantage of the format as you would on a Dolby Vision TV.

Should you buy the Samsung S95C?

Yes—it’s one of the best OLED TVs we’ve ever seen

The Samsung S95C may not be quite as game-changing as its predecessor, but that says more about the S95B’s legacy than it does the S95C’s overall performance. It’s every bit as good as the S95B, but with the added benefit of brighter highlights, better color, and improved picture processing.

I could make a case for buying the S95C over the LG C3, but LG’s OLED is significantly less expensive than Samsung’s—they’re not really competing with one another. Its primary competitors are the LG G3 (a similarly priced OLED that uses an all-new, brightness-boosting display component) and the Sony A95L (a fellow QD-OLED).

I suspect that the S95C’s shortcomings—specifically, a lack of Dolby Vision support and raised black levels during bright-room viewing—will be contextualized further once we’ve seen how top OLEDs from LG and Sony compare. As of now, these shortcomings are easier to hand-wave in light of the TV’s performance. It’s in a category all its own, but that hopefully won’t be the case for very long.

Samsung S95C QD-OLED TV

Every pixel on an OLED TV is self-illuminating, allowing for perfect black levels, zero light bloom, and exceptionally wide viewing angles.

$4,497 from Amazon

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Prices were accurate at the time this article was published but may change over time.

Meet the tester

Michael Desjardin

Senior Staff Writer

@Reviewed

Michael Desjardin graduated from Emerson College after having studied media production and screenwriting. He specializes in tech for Reviewed, but also loves film criticism, weird ambient music, cooking, and food in general.

See all of Michael Desjardin’s reviews