OLED TV Reviews

For the control settings used here go to soundandvision.com. The measurements were made using CalMAN measurement software from Portrait Displays, together with X-Rite i1Pro3 Plus and Klein's K-10A color meters and a Fresco 6G pattern generator from Murideo.

HD/Standard Dynamic Range

Full-On/Full-Off Contrast Ratio: Unmeasurable

In the Filmmaker Picture Mode and its out-of-the-box picture settings, the peak white level was 70 foot-Lamberts (240 nits) and the black level 0.000 foot-Lamberts, rendering the full-on/full-off contrast ratio unmeasurable. The grayscale Delta E values ranged from a low of 1.49 at 30% to a high of 2.24 at 90%. The pre-calibration color Delta E values ranged from a low of 0.76 in blue to a high of 1.91 in red.

The gamma was a tight match to BT.1886 (the standard for non-high dynamic range sources).

While these results were excellent, I found 70 ft-L to be a bit too bright for comfortable viewing of standard dynamic range sources. I reduced the output to just under 54 foot-Lamberts (185 nits). and adjusted the settings for the best-calibrated results. The grayscale Delta Es then ranged from a low of 0.09 at 100% to a high of 1.3 at 50%. The calibrated color Delta Es measured a low of 0.86 in blue and a high of 2.18 in red.

A Rec.709 Saturation Sweep, analyzing all primary and secondary colors at saturation levels from 20% to 100%, produced a consistently good result with all Delta E values below 4.0 (the latter for cyan at 20%). On a color checker test, which samples dozens of real-world colors for accuracy, the maximum Delta E was 3.7 and the average 2.0. The S95B had excellent uniformity on a full field white pattern, with no sign of the "dirty screen effect."

(Delta E is a figure of merit that indicates how closely a display adheres to the color standard. Experts generally agree that at levels below 3.0-4.0 (most argue for 3.0) the result is visibly indistinguishable from perfect tracking. Delta E values may be used to characterize the accuracy of both white balance (grayscale) and color.

The S95B passed all of our standard 1080p video tests for glitch-free upconversion, luma, and chroma resolution, and above and below black and above white levels. The input lag in Filmmaker mode measured 70ms. Our 1080p Bodnar measurement device would not lock on with Game Mode active, so I was unable to measure game mode lag.

HD/ High Dynamic Range

Full-On/Full-Off Contrast Ratio: Unmeasurable

In the HDR10 Filmmaker Picture Mode's default settings, the peak brightness was 1004 nits (293 ft-L, the brightest OLED we've yet measured) and the black level 0.000 nits, for an unmeasurable full-on/full-off contrast ratio. The HDR EOTF (Electro-Optical Transfer Function—roughly the gamma for HDR) was a nearly perfect match to the EOTF standard.

Before calibration, the grayscale Delta E's ranged from a low of 0.4 at 20% to a high of 3.9 at 100% (the maximum was 2.4 at or below 70%, the approximate knee of the EOTF curve). The minimum Color Delta E (at 50% stimulation) was 0.5 in blue and the maximum 2.4 in cyan. After calibration, the minimum grayscale Delta E was 0.29 at 20% and the maximum 3.7 at 70% (no other level was above 2.5). The post-calibration color Delta Es were a minimum of 0.6 in green and a maximum of 2.2 in cyan.

The HDR 100% peak white levels, with luminance windows of varying sizes, measured 1000 nits from windows of 1% to 10%, 600 nits at 25%, 300 nits at 50%, and 200 nits at 100%. On an HDR Color Checker test (sampling a wide range of real-world colors and not just the primaries and secondaries), the S95B averaged a Delta E of 1.28 (2.79 maximum) with luminance included and 1.09 (2.79 max) without luminance. P3 and BT.709 saturation sweeps inside BT.2020 were both very good. The S95B measured 73.5% coverage of BT.2020 color and 98.1% of P3 (using the 1976 standard).