We're deep into the What Hi-Fi? Awards 2026 judging process, and finalising our list of the best TVs has been the point of order for this week.

As such, I've had the pleasure of testing a crop of compact OLED TVs, and this is a particular area of interest for me both inside and outside of the testing room.

While I love OLED TVs of all shapes and sizes, I've had my eye on a sub-55-inch OLED ever since I first laid eyes upon the LG C2 during my very first year on the What Hi-Fi? team.

Every year since, I've fawned over the 42- and 48-inch OLEDs that we've tested from the likes of LG, Samsung and Panasonic.

As a keen gamer with a love of competitive shooters, getting "up close and personal" with my screen is a must, and these desktop-friendly sizes are ideal monitor replacements, and they often pack in way more features that appease my AV enthusiast side too.

Four years on, however, I still haven't bitten the bullet and bought one. "The time has never been right" and "they're still quite expensive even during Black Friday" are my two favourite excuses, hence why they've sat in my browser tabs on checkout screens that I've never completed.

However, after testing the 42- and 48-inch Samsung S90H and LG C6, I now have a rather smug sense of self-satisfaction, as my patience (or commitment issues, depending on how you look at it) has paid off.

Without spoiling the upcoming reviews or the coveted Awards list, all four TVs are pretty fantastic, and they prove that you can get a large-scale cinematic experience from a TV that doesn't require loads of space.

All of them offer punchy, rich colours, excellent motion, and perfect black depths, and the smaller screen sizes give them an edge when it comes to detail and sharpness, thanks to their greater pixel density compared with their 55- and 65-inch counterparts.

Focusing directly on the LG C6, as we've reviewed the 65-inch model (we have a review of a larger Samsung S90H in the works), we find that the 48-inch version simply feels like a smaller version of that five-star TV.

We affirmed that the C6 has a "brighter, richer and more refined picture quality" than its predecessor, the C5, at this larger screen size. From experience, the 48-inch seems to have taken a very similar path, as I was instantly struck by how bright, crisp and balanced this TV looked this year.

While I've thoroughly enjoyed previous versions of this TV, such as the 48-inch C4 and C5, they've not jumped out at me in the same way this year's C6 has.

Furthermore, the 42-inch C6 and S90H are two truly exceptional TVs, and while I won't divulge who is taking home a What Hi-Fi? Award, they're practically on par when it comes to picture quality and features.

Simply put, I could happily sit and watch a movie on these TVs, despite being used to having an expansive 65-inch at home. They don't feel like compromised versions of larger TVs, but actually great alternatives in their own right.

Now, will any of these TVs make it into my upgraded gaming setup? With the likes of Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 4 and Grand Theft Auto VI launching very soon, I could have the perfect excuse to finally pull the trigger.

MORE:

Check out our full Samsung S90F 48-inch review

As well as our LG C5 48-inch review

And read our full list of the best OLED TVs

2026 is the year of RGB Mini LED and, unsurprisingly, Samsung is eager to get a slice of the new panel technology pie.

To give the Korean AV giant some credit, it joined Hisense to be among the first manufacturers to release a TV sporting the latest backlit panels last year, although its model was only available in a ginormous 115-inches.

Much like its Chinese adversary, Samsung has scaled down the panel technology this year, which brings us neatly to the R95H we have before us today.

This is the brand’s flagship "Micro RGB" (we’ll explain that shortly) TV for 2026, and it’s essentially a backlit counterpart to the superb S99H OLED.

As most tech-obsessed people are aware, Samsung spent years refusing to produce OLED TVs (and even campaigning against them) before doing a full one-eighty, embracing the tech, and going on to produce some of the finest OLED TVs around.

In fact, its OLED models are now so good that this alternative, backlit flagship TV really struggles to make a case for itself.

Price

The 65-inch Samsung R95H – MRE65R95H in the UK, MRN65R95H in the US, and MRA65R95H in Australia – launched at an eyebrow-raising price of £3299 / $3200 / AU$5299.

Given Samsung’s track record of aggressively discounting its TVs throughout the year, it's unlikely you will need to pay that much for it if you're a little patient. In fact, we've already seen the TV dip below £3000 in the UK.

Fascinatingly, the company's S99H OLED launched in the UK and Australia with an identical price tag of £3299 / AU$5299, while it was slightly higher in the US, at $3400.

This is intentional: Samsung hasn’t been shy about how it’s positioning its premium TVs this year, saying that customers can choose from two sides at the top end, with the S99H and R95H being two sides of essentially the same coin.

The R95H also has other RGB Mini LED TVs to contend with, of course, most obviously the Sony Bravia 9 II (which is more expensive at £3499 / $3600 / AU$5999) and Hisense UR9 (a cheaper alternative at £2999 / $2000 / AU$3999).

The battle to be crowned the king of this freshly waged RGB war is heating up, but it also may be futile, as we’ve tested three (four, including this Samsung) and none has held a candle to our favourite OLED models.

Design

Samsung knows how to build TVs that look good and feel high-quality, and the R95H is no exception.

Despite being a backlit TV, it's surprisingly slender at just 3cm thick and the uniform flat back should make it an easy TV to wall-mount.

This slim design is paired with super-slim bezels and a central pedestal that sports a reflective panel to give the illusion of a floating screen. The effect is a touch more rudimentary than Sony’s clever lenticular solution on the Bravia 9 II and Bravia 7 II, but the thought process is essentially the same.

What we really must commend Samsung on is how easy this TV is to assemble. The stand slots together with ease, and it clicks onto the main chassis of the TV akin to an oversized LEGO set – all of that with no screwdriver required.

As such, setting this TV up (in its tabletop orientation, that is) takes very little time and effort, although it's worth noting that the stand can only be set up at one soundbar-friendly height.

The only element of the design and build that we don’t approve of is the bundled remotes. It's the same simple smart remote and button-heavy handset duo that has come with Samsung TVs for years, and at this price we really think that Samsung could include a nicer-built remote with backlit buttons.

We do like the USB-C charging port and solar panel, though; anything to avoid fussing with batteries.

Features

Samsung’s 'kitchen sink' approach to loading its TVs full of features continues with the R95H, but the most interesting feature is the new panel technology – so we’ll start there.

Each competing brand has put its own spin on the naming of its take on RGB Mini LED tech, with Samsung opting for "Micro RGB".

As the name suggests, Samsung claims that its LEDs are smaller than those used by its competitors – under 100 microns to be exact. For those without a microscope and a tiny ruler, that’s roughly the width of a human hair.

This has allowed Samsung to increase the density of the LEDs, essentially meaning that the R95H should have more distinct red, blue and green LEDs packed into the backlight.

In theory, this should greatly improve contrast and local dimming capabilities, but, interestingly, we counted 1344 dimming zones on our 65-inch R95H sample, which is fewer than the 1530 we counted in the 65-inch Sony Bravia 9 II.

Panel tech aside, the R95H is packed with features. HLG, HDR10, HDR10+, HDR10+ Advanced, HDR10+ Gaming and HLG are all on board, for starters, and this suite of HDR formats is being bundled under what Samsung is calling its Micro RGB HDR Pro system.

Samsung’s stance against Dolby Vision remains, as it prioritises its own HDR10+ system instead. Thankfully, Dolby Atmos support is on board, and the company’s Eclipsa Audio format is also now supported – though it’s only available via YouTube at the time of our review.

The R95H's Tizen OS software platform and picture processing are powered by Samsung’s new Micro RGB AI Engine Pro. This encompasses a plethora of picture processing features, including Real Depth Enhancer (contrast enhancement), AI Motion Enhancer Pro, Micro RGB Colour Booster Pro, Auto HDR Remastering Pro, Ultimate Micro Dimming Pro, and 4K AI Upscaling Pro.

Samsung’s Tizen system is also home to a wide array of smart apps, both global and terrestrial. We find coverage across movie, gaming, and lifestyle apps to be stellar, with no noticeable omissions.

Speaking of gaming, Samsung remains dedicated to serving gamers only the finest selection of features, with four HDMI 2.1 sockets all capable of handling gameplay up to 4K/165Hz with VRR and ALLM. The inclusion of Xbox, Amazon Luna, NVIDIA GeForce Now and many more gaming apps also allows you to stream games directly to the TV – just add a Bluetooth controller.

Samsung has also implemented a handful of AI platforms (including Perplexity and Microsoft Copilot), and Art Mode is available for displaying a range of artwork from galleries around the world while your TV is in ambient mode.

The 65-inch model that we’re testing sports a 70W 4.2.2-channel sound system, which is compatible with Samsung’s Active Voice Amplifier Pro, Adaptive Sound Pro, 360 Audio and Object Tracking Sound+ features.

If you have a Samsung soundbar, you can also pair the TV’s sound system with it using Q-Symphony, though we advise caution with this feature. Generally speaking, your soundbar will sound better without the heavily compromised speakers of your TV getting in on the action, but do experiment with your specific TV and soundbar combination to establish what sounds best to you.

Picture quality

The R95H has to prove itself a worthy alternative to the five-star S99H, which we have set up as a direct comparison for our testing. Our S99H is 55-inches, so we do have to account for a slight difference in pixel density, which will impact sharpness and contrast to a degree; however, we expect the 65-inch S99H to perform very closely to its 55-inch counterpart.

We’ve hooked our Oppo UDP-203 4K Blu-ray player up to both TVs, and raided our 4K disc library to put the R95H through its paces.

We should start by saying that the R95H has some positive attributes by backlit TV standards. Black levels are very impressive, with letterboxing bars and shadows in darker content (think Blade Runner 2049 and The Batman) looking suitably solid and deep.

Black levels remain mostly uncompromised by blooming; our go-to stress test scene from Oppenheimer highlights this, with spotlights lighting up the testing site at night featuring a small halo that looks like an intended glow rather than unwanted blooming.

Colours are also handled well, with slightly more subtlety than the already excellent S99H, particularly in foliage and skin tones. Ultimately, we feel that a truly perfect colour balance sits somewhere between the subtle delivery of the R95H and the more vibrant S99H, but of the two, we find that the R95H looks slightly truer to our eyes.

We also find that in its most dynamic settings – either Standard or Vivid – the R95H can seriously push brightness limits. We find that it outshines the S99H in these modes, but that’s somewhat of a hollow victory considering we recommend avoiding these picture presets.

Unfortunately, Samsung’s flagship Micro RGB falls noticeably behind its OLED counterpart in nearly every other picture aspect.

In our preferred Movie and Filmmaker Mode presets, which are designed to prioritise authenticity over bombast, the R95H struggles to compete. Those Oppenheimer spotlights look dull against the dark night, especially compared with the punchy pinpoint highlights produced by the S99H, and that unfortunately carries forth to the rest of the image.

Switching to the 4K restoration of The Matrix to see if we can push the R95H to outshine its OLED alternative (it’s mastered to 2000 nits), we find that the sequence of Morbius explaining how the simulated world works to Neo on an all-white backdrop is simply more dazzling on the S99H. A panning shot introducing the crew of the Nebuchadnezzar ship also highlights some unpleasantly smeary motion from the R95H, too.

There is also a sense of flatness and dullness to this TV that is genuinely surprising to see. The R95H lacks the three-dimensionality found on the S99H, and we find that the QD-OLED is almost constantly drawing our eyes away from the Micro RGB throughout our testing.

Civil War’s forest fire sequence really sums up the shortcomings of the TV quite efficiently. Simply put, black depths, the intensity and brightness of the flames, and the sharpness and depth of the image are all clearly superior on the OLED.

Crucially, though, this isn't purely a backlit TV being beaten by an OLED, which is something we've seen time and time again, particularly this year: while the Sony Bravia 9 II also struggles against its Bravia 8 II OLED sibling and the S99H, it gets closer than Samsung's R95H does, delivering a picture with more three-dimensionality and a better balance of punch and authenticity.

Sound quality

The R95H also feels like a step back when it comes to sound. Revving up Blade Runner 2049’s tricky chapter two sequence, the TV instantly spirals into distortion, with warbly and mushy bass dominating the scene. This is at odds with the S99H, which holds back on piling on weighty bass in favour of a more controlled delivery.

That unruly bass is emphasised by a recessed midrange, which creates an unbalanced delivery throughout this sequence, with dialogue and several effects lacking the attention they deserve.

Thankfully, the R95H makes up some ground in less bass-heavy sequences. As Officer K heads back home after a stressful day of being slammed through a wall by Dave Bautista’s Sapper Morton, we find that the TV can produce a big, broad and spacious sound. The city's audio advertisements are presented with a solid sense of height, and the general bustle of the street is well preserved.

The conversation between K and Joi in the apartment is delivered with clarity and a semblance of low-level dynamics that ensures the voices aren’t completely devoid of character and emotional inflexion, too.

However, the R95H brings back a critical issue we’ve found with other Samsung sets recently: it’s just too quiet. Even cranked up to maximum volume, we find it easy to speak over this TV without raising our voices, and this is only partly rectified by applying the Amplify sound mode, which boosts volume at the expense of some dynamic compression.

Verdict

We’re not entirely sure what wrong turn Samsung has taken here. The brand stunned us with the S99H, which is a true flagship TV that justifies its price thanks to its sublime picture performance, excellent feature set and improved sound.

While the R95H retains that unquestionably superb feature set, it’s a considerable step backwards in the other two crucial categories. Impressive black depths for a backlit TV can’t make up for the flattened picture and heavy-handed approach to sound.

Some will point to the R95H's peak brightness potential as an important factor, but with the best new OLED TVs – most notably Samsung's own S99H – now capable of going vastly brighter than almost any room and the vast majority of content requires, we simply don't see that as a fundamental issue.

And, what's more, the R95H isn't even the best TV of its type – that crown currently rests on the head of the Sony Bravia 9 II.

SCORES

• Picture 3
• Sound 3
• Features 5

MORE:

Read our review of the Samsung S99H

Also consider the Sony Bravia 8 II

Read our Sony Bravia 9 II review

Best TVs: flagship OLEDs and budget Mini LED sets tried and tested