TEST: Samsung S99H

Samsung S99H marks a new design direction for Samsung’s OLED TVs. For many years, ultra-thin OLED screens have had a minimalist design with no visible frame. The main focus has instead been on picture quality, and here OLED has been in a class of its own.

The problem with slim screens is that there isn’t much room for design flourishes, and the result is that they all look very similar. This year, though, Samsung has managed to come up with something new.

Samsung S99H: New “FloatLayer” design with metal frame

Samsung S99H is officially the best OLED TV the manufacturer can offer in 2026, with a modern QD-OLED panel and advanced AI image processing behind the screen. Even so, it’s probably the design that grabs your attention first.

The screen itself has a matte surface mounted on a brushed-metal frame. The special thing is that the screen sits on top of the frame and will therefore protrude slightly when wall-mounted. It creates an interesting visual look, and Samsung of course has a name for it – FloatLayer.

LB Tech Reviews got to see Samsung S99H as early as CES 2026 in January. At first glance, we weren’t quite sure what Samsung was thinking when this TV left the drawing board. But now, after living with S99H for a couple of weeks, we have to admit the design is growing on us. In a world of almost identical 16:9 TVs, it’s refreshing to have one that stands out from the crowd.

Samsung has had huge success with the design model The Frame, which has sold in the millions worldwide. It’s known for its beautiful framing and living-room-friendly aesthetics, but not necessarily for the most spectacular picture quality. Many have been asking for an OLED TV with a similar design – even if this one is perhaps a bit more unique.

Samsung S99H looks perfectly fine on the two included feet, but it’s clearly designed with wall mounting in mind. That’s when the FloatLayer design works best, with special brackets that secure the frame close to the wall.

Two models with the same picture quality: S99H and S95H

If you feel the metal frame on S99H is a bit too dominant, Samsung also offers the S95H model here in the Nordics. It uses the same picture and panel technology, but with a more traditional design without the prominent metal framing.

It’s also worth noting that Samsung uses different model names in different markets. Across Europe, the framed model is sold as S99H, while the corresponding model in the US is marketed as S95H. That can cause some confusion when reading foreign reviews, but in Denmark we have S99H (with frame) and S95H (without frame).

Ease of use and features

Samsung S99H has good connectivity options, including four HDMI 2.1 inputs. The connections are on the back of the screen and can be hard to reach when the TV is wall-mounted. And it’s not exactly appealing to have a tangle of cables hanging down from the TV.

To address this, Samsung also offers a wireless Wireless One Connect box as an accessory. It can connect to four additional video sources and forward the signal wirelessly to the screen. All in all, that means you can connect up to eight HDMI video sources.

On top of that, the Tizen user interface offers a wide selection of streaming services, including Samsung’s own TV+ service, which has many TV channels with free, ad-funded content. But most of the content there is in SDR, not 4K HDR.

And while we’re talking streaming and HDR, it’s worth reminding you that Samsung still won’t support the Dolby Vision format in this generation either. Samsung S99H does, however, support HDR10+ as well as the still not very widespread HDR10+ Advanced, which is Samsung’s answer to Dolby Vision 2.

The lack of Dolby Vision isn’t necessarily as critical as it used to be, now that more streaming services support the open HDR10+ standard. But the ideal would still be if Samsung let customers choose which HDR standard they want to use in different situations. For that, you’ll probably have to pick a different TV brand.

Differences in panel technology: OLED isn’t just OLED…

Samsung S99H comes with different types of panel technology depending on which screen size you choose. 55″, 65″ and 77″ use a QD-OLED panel from Samsung Display, while the 83″ version has a W-OLED panel from LG Display.

W-OLED uses a white OLED pixel with red, green, white and blue subpixels, while QD-OLED uses a blue OLED pixel combined with quantum dots (Quantum dots).

Both technologies can deliver very high contrast and brightness, but QD-OLED has traditionally had an advantage when it comes to colour gamut and colour volume. Our test of Samsung S99H is based on the 65-inch version, which therefore has a QD-OLED panel.

In our view, it would have been easiest if all screen sizes used the same panel type. At the same time, it’s striking that Samsung considers it acceptable to use a competitor’s display technology in its own flagship model.

Measurements

Samsung claims it has achieved a significant leap in brightness with the new model, which our measurements also confirm. We measured brightness at just over 2,700 nits in a 10% window, up from 2,200 nits on the predecessor S95F. Full-screen 100% white was measured at around 500 nits. That’s pretty impressive for an OLED and shows the gap to MiniLED has narrowed.

(At the same time, we shouldn’t forget that the recently tested Sony Bravia 9 II reached as high as 1,000 nits on full-screen white, so there’s still a certain difference.)

Samsung S99H also comes across as very accurate when it comes to colour reproduction. The OLED screen delivers very good colour accuracy with average DeltaE deviations as low as 1.1–1.6 in both SDR and HDR (Filmmaker Mode). In practice, that means the colour deviations are so small they’re hard to spot with the naked eye.

Measured purely on performance, Samsung S99H is among the most accurate OLED screens we’ve tested. Both the greyscale and HDR colour reproduction show very high precision, while the Samsung screen also delivers very high brightness and a large colour volume.

Picture quality in practice

One thing is what the light and colour meters say, but of course we also put a lot of weight on what the two “meters” sitting on the front of our heads tell us. Based on our experience with S95F (named the best OLED TV of 2025), we had high expectations for Samsung S99H. And we certainly weren’t disappointed. The first difference we notice is the increased brightness, which makes the TV look more convincing in daylight.

The myth that OLED TVs lack brightness belongs to the past with top models like Samsung S99H. It has more than enough light output to work well in any conceivable situation, including daytime sport.

The brightness increase isn’t just noticeable in white. It’s also clear how the screen maintains colour saturation at high light levels. Even in bright HDR scenes there’s plenty of glow and life in the colour shades, making the viewing experience very vivid. This combination of lots of light and high colour saturation is one of the advantages of Samsung’s QD-OLED.

At the same time, the picture feels more effortless than the predecessor – the panel seemingly doesn’t have to work as hard to deliver the required brightness, and it maintains colour balance without looking exaggerated. The result is a very bright, yet comfortable image to watch.

We note that skin tones are rendered naturally, without faces looking overly tanned or cool. The high colour accuracy means red, brown and orange shades are clearly separated, so even tricky transitions in faces and shadows look very convincing.

Contrast is impressive too: bright HDR scenes get the extra spark they need to draw you in. At the same time, the Samsung screen retains plenty of detail even in the darkest scenes. Instead of drowning in black, it reveals fine textures and details.

How impressive this contrast feels does depend a bit on the lighting conditions in the room. And that brings us to one of the most debated traits of Samsung’s OLED TVs: the matte screen surface.

Matte panel – for better and for worse

Samsung S99H comes with the latest version of Samsung’s Glare Free technology, a matte screen filter that reduces reflections from the surroundings. As with previous generations, opinions will be divided about this approach.

The most positive aspect is that annoying reflections from windows, lamps and other light sources almost completely disappear. The downside of the matte surface is how it diffuses light – meaning dark parts of the image can look more greyish than pitch black.

We also can’t avoid mentioning sharpness. When you have an image where every single tiny pixel lights up one by one, combined with a panel with very low reflection, you get incredibly good image sharpness.

Compared with, for example, the LG OLED G6, Samsung can look a bit flatter, while LG retains a bit more gloss and depth. At the same time, there’s no doubt that the absence of reflections creates a very detailed image on Samsung’s side, where the texture of surfaces – every fibre or pore – really comes through. So if you have a living room with challenging lighting conditions, we give Samsung a slight edge as the more functional of the two.

When the lighting is dimmed, the difference isn’t as pronounced. Then both OLED screens come into their own, whether glossy or matte, with fantastic contrast and an impressive sense of depth.

Samsung S99H vs R95H (Micro RGB)

When we talk about contrast and brightness, we often come back to the comparison between OLED and MiniLED TVs. Both display technologies have undergone rapid development in recent years, most recently with the introduction of Micro RGB screens like Samsung R95H – a TV that Lyd & Billede has already tested and awarded top marks. Still, it’s important to see the different improvements in the context of the screen type.

Even though LCD screens with backlighting technology have seen dramatic improvements, they still face challenges in how images are formed and then illuminated by a backlight. This is in contrast to OLED, where each pixel emits its own light and can be turned on and off individually. That creates incredibly sharp, detailed images that even the most advanced LCD screens struggle to mimic.

During the test we had both Samsung R95H and S99H available for comparison, and while R95H is among the best screens in its category, S99H is a step ahead in perceived picture quality. The combination of a matte panel and the pixel-precise contrast from the QD-OLED panel is simply magical.

While R95H impresses with enormous colour volume, powerful full-screen brightness and HDR intensity, S99H takes it a step further when it comes to precision. The OLED panel’s ability to control each individual pixel makes the finest details in the shadows stand out more clearly.

In the hard-boiled western action film The Harder They Fall, for example, there’s a scene where we can make out tiny specks of dust floating in the air, lit by sunlight through a window. These microscopic details tend to get smeared out on LCD screens, but appear clearly on S99H. It shows just how much information is in the 4K signal when all the conditions are right.

It’s not only modern 4K footage that looks good. Samsung’s latest picture processor does an impressive job with upscaling and noise reduction, so regular TV content and older films also look surprisingly sharp and well balanced.

Sound quality

Despite the slim design, Samsung S99H has a fairly powerful 4.2.2-channel sound system under the hood. And while a TV in this price class deserves a proper soundbar or separate speakers, S99H performs surprisingly well on its own. Voices come through clearly and distinctly, and the soundstage has good width and depth relative to its physical dimensions. There’s also solid bass reproduction that gives music and sound effects a natural fullness.

Samsung offers several ways to expand the sound, and with a design-focused TV like this it’s natural to consider the new Music Studio speakers, which can be used both at the front and rear in a surround setup. We also got good results with the freestanding QS95H soundbar, which was tested in the same period as S99H. It can be connected via HDMI or wirelessly via Wi‑Fi if you want to reduce the number of cables.

Conclusion

Samsung S99H is unquestionably one of the best OLED TVs we’ve tested to date. The combination of pixel-precise contrast, high brightness, excellent colour reproduction and effective reflection suppression delivers a superb picture that works impressively well in almost any situation – from sport in bright daylight to a cosy movie night.

The matte screen isn’t for everyone and looks less glossy than, for example, the LG OLED G6, but if you have a living room with lots of windows, you’ll definitely appreciate the lack of reflections. And when the lights go down, the OLED panel’s formidable contrast and sense of depth really come into their own.

Then there’s the design. The special frame is certainly not anonymous and will no doubt provoke some people. Still, we think it should be allowed to stand out in 2026 – especially for a high-end TV like this. And if the metal frame feels like too much, the sister model S95H is available as a more discreet alternative.

Whatever you think of the looks, the picture quality is hard to question: Samsung S99H sits right at the top of the OLED class in 2026. The score of 6 is well deserved, and S99H gets our special recommendation.