Samsung S95D Review : The perfect Gaming and Home Theater Powerhouse TV

The Samsung S95D television is the 2024 flagship of Samsung's display. This super bright OLED tv is one of its kind television coming in three sizes that is 55 inch, 65 inch and 77 inch. For many years OLED TVs have been faced with glare forcing most users to place them in dark rooms with very little light to get the best experience out of it. However, Samsung S95D is here to challenge that, it is the first OLED TV to have anti-glare screen. You can place it directly opposite to a window and you will still get a vibrant picture whether you're gaming or watching your favorite movie.

The Samsung S95D is here to revolutionize your home entertainment with its stunning OLED panel, gamer-focused features, and smart capabilities. But does it live up to the hype? Let’s dive in to find out!

{getToc} $title={Quickly Skip To} $count={False}

Prices and Availability

As you would expect from a 4K OLED Samsung flagship TV, this tv is not cheap at all. Here is the list of prices of the three sizes :

• 55-inch QN55S95DAFXZA goes for $2,599 but you can get it as low from $2,297 on sales and offers
• 65-inch QN65S95DAFXZA goes for $3,399 but you can get it as low from $2, 899 on sales and offers
• 77-inch QN55S95DAFXZA goes for $4,999 but you can get it as low from $4,099 on sales and offers

So how does these prices compare to last year's S95C? They are very close with difference being $100 more at launch this year and with discount the price is even out. So what's the difference? You can now get the 55-inch S95C from sales and offers as low as from $1,499. The two TVs are similar except this year's has anti-glare screen. So if you don't need the anti-glare or your living area is dark then go for the last year model's S95C you won't miss anything. That being said let's take a look at it's features and why you should get this powerhouse TV.

Design and Build Quality

The Samsung S95D choose to opt in for sleek attractive and bezels less design. Thanks to the Oneconnect box that can send power and HDMI data signals in one cord, the TV is only 0.4 inch thick from front to back making it one of the Thinnest tv ever to be made. Inside the box, you will find two Oneconnect box cables, a small 6 inch cable that is just long enough to connect to the TV and Oneconnect box from behind and another 5 feet about cable should you decide to wall mount it. Speaking of wall mounting it, you can use any old 400 x 300 VESA wall mount but to get the ultimate camouflage wall experience you will need to spend $159 extra to buy the Samsung Full Motion slim wall mount. 

{inAds}

While the design of the TV itself is well-engineered, the screen’s fragility can make setup can be a bit perilous, especially if you’re trying to do it all by yourself. Once it’s set up the TV feels secure, but it requires a steady hand as its glass front could crack if you accidentally apply too much pressure when lifting it from the floor to your entertainment center or wall.

Overall, the Samsung S95D has a beautiful look thanks to the lack of cable-clutter. This TV has a truly 5 star look, feel and design. Big ups to Samsung.

{getCard} $type={post} $title={You Might Like}

Display Quality

The Samsung S95D has one of the best picture quality ever. The S95D is the first OLED TV to have the matte finish. The Samsung S95D's matte finish does work, it nearly eliminates all the reflections reducing windows and other glare to dimmer blobs instead of super bright, mirror like distractions. However in bright rooms , the matte finish reduces the image contrast, making the screen appear duller but even so, the matte finish leads to a better picture in a bright room regardless of the contrast hit.

The Samsung S95D contain Quantum Dots which enhance color quality and brightness in the already of the best picture quality that OLED TVs bring. The Samsung S95D has excellent HDR brightness. It gets bright enough for highlights to really stand out and delivers an impactful HDR experience. Unfortunately, large bright scenes are significantly dimmer than smaller specular highlights due to the TV's aggressive Automatic Brightness Limiter (ABL). Unfortunately like most high end TVs, the Samsung S95D does not have Dolby Vison HDR which isn't a major drawback but it would be fun to be included in it too.

{inAds}

The Samsung S95D does a very nice job when it comes to upscaling low-resolution content using the NQ4 AI Gen2 picture processor producing high quality pictures. The TV has a 4K resolution and with its processor any resolution looks almost 4K due to its great job at upscaling.

The viewing angles are pretty much infinite, as usual with modern OLED TVs. If you choose a custom mode, setting judder and blur reduction to their three or four levels and turning off noise reduction, movement doesn't cause the image to lose it's brilliant sharpness.

Gaming Features

The Samsung S95D comes with Game Bar settings meant to enhance your gameplay. The TV supports all three types of variable refresh rate (VRR) technology to reduce screen tearing. It works well across a wide refresh rate range and supports sources with Low-Frame-Compensation (LFC), which ensures your games remain nearly tear-free even when your framerate drops very low. Unfortunately, there's an issue when using NVIDIA graphics cards that affects frame rates above 120 fps, which leads to a screen tearing type effect on the bottom of the screen. This issue also affects other TVs, so it's likely an NVIDIA driver-related issue.

{inAds}

This TV has incredibly low input lag when set into Game Mode, which ensures a very responsive gaming experience with very little delay between your actions with your controller or mouse and the action on-screen. Unfortunately, 1440p @ 60Hz doesn't work while in Game Mode which leads to a lot more input lag. Strangely enough, this behavior is intermittent, and sometimes 1440p @ 120Hz works fine. There are also no issues with 1440p @ 120Hz when connected to a PS5 or Xbox Series X, which makes the issue even harder to identify.

The TV is fully compatible with everything the PS5 and Xbox Series X|S offers, like 1440p @ 120Hz and 4K @ 120Hz. It also supports Auto Low Latency Mode, so you don't have to worry about switching to Game Mode to get the lowest input lag.

Audio Performance

The Samsung S95D like most TVs, it doesn't produce much bass, but the sound profile is well balanced overall and the dialogue is very clear. It still sounds pretty good at maximum volume, but the TV doesn't get very loud. With AI processing turned on, the audio quality improves vastly. Samsung's object-tracking sound system is on pretty good form, creating a soundstage that extends in width and height beyond the edges of the screen. It also places sounds into that space with quite startling accuracy.

Smart TV Features

The Samsung S95D runs the 2024 version of the Tizen OS, and it's fast and easy to use. It's not exactly minimalist with its many rows of content suggestions compared to Other TV OS like Google, Daily+ home screen that combines SmartThings and Samsung Health information and the Game Hub, but it is nicely designed.

All of the major streaming apps like Netflix and Youtube are here. Something that might be quite annoying is that if a streaming apps is not pre-installed by default you'll have to create a Samsung account to download. To keep recommendations age appropriate, Tizen does allow for multiple accounts on the same TV. That way, your kids will not be getting recommendations for TV-MA rated films.

The Samsung S95D has a great selection of apps, so it's easy to find your favorite content. You can also cast content from your phone onto the TV or play videos from a USB stick. Like most TVs on the market, there are ads throughout the TV interface, and although you can turn off targeted ads, there's no option to disable them entirely.

{getCard} $type={post} $title={Read Also}

Remote

The remote is identical to the one included with the Samsung S95C OLED. It's slim, compact, has quick access buttons for the most popular streaming apps that is Netflix, Prime Video and Disney+, and is easy to use. The remote has a built-in rechargeable battery with a solar panel on the back of the remote. You can also recharge it via USB-C if it dies unexpectedly.

{inAds}

The TV is compatible with the Bixby and Alexa voice assistants, and its remote has an integrated microphone for voice commands. You can use your voice to launch apps, switch inputs, ask for the weather and time, and adjust certain settings like the TV's brightness.

Connectivity and Ports

Unlike other OLED TVs that have HDMI cords coming out from all angles, the S95D contains the mess with the OneConnect Box. As its name suggests, the OneConnect Box takes all the inputs and outputs to and from the TV and sends all that data through a single cable to the display itself. The box itself can sit on the backside of the screen or you can tuck it somewhere out of sight and just run the one cord to the TV itself.

In terms of actual connections on the box itself, you’re looking at four HDMI 2.1 ports — one of which supports eARC — as well as an RF input, three USB ports, Ethernet port and Optical audio out. It’s a good selection and more than enough to connect all of the latest consoles, a gaming PC and a 4K Blu-ray player. In addition, the TV also supports WI-FI 5 and Bluetooth 5.2

Should I buy the TV?

Well buying the tv will depend on a lot of consideration and factors  but it mostly depends on you. Does the Samsung S95D meet your expectation? Is it a good price value to your money's worth? Here is a quick recap of reasons to buy and not to, to help you decide:

Reasons to Buy

• Excellent Gaming Support with Game Bar options
• Anti- glare feature that works amazingly well
• Superb Display with amazing brightness, contrast and color.
• Amplified audio easy to hear
• Four HDMI 2.1 ports 
• Clutter free experience with OneConnect Box

Reasons not to buy

• No Dolby Vision
• Expensive
• Downloading apps requires Samsung account
• Matte finish reduces contrast

Conclusion

With its vibrant OLED display, gamer-friendly features, and smooth smart TV interface, the Samsung S95D is a top contender for gamers and cinephiles alike. While it’s not the cheapest option, its performance justifies the premium price.