Samsung S84F QN55S84FA 55"

The Samsung S84F is a 55-inch OLED at CAD 899 with a genuinely great display (89th percentile) but weak HDR, audio, and gaming performance. It's a budget OLED for dark-room SDR viewing, not a full-featured home theater centerpiece. If you want OLED contrast without paying flagship prices, it's worth a look. If you need HDR, gaming, or decent sound, spend more on the LG C5 or look at mini-LED alternatives.

The display is the star here, and the numbers back that up. An 89th percentile display score means the panel itself is doing something right. OLED gives you those perfect blacks and pixel-level control that LCD just can't match. In a dark room, this TV will look stunning with SDR content. The contrast is the real deal, and that's what you're paying for. But the picture quality score of 36th percentile tells a different story. That gap between the raw panel quality and the final image output suggests the processing and HDR implementation are holding things back.

HDR is where this TV stumbles hard. A 13th percentile HDR score means highlights won't pop the way they should, and bright scenes will feel compressed. OLED panels need careful tone mapping to handle HDR well, and it seems like Samsung cut corners here. The audio is equally rough at the 13th percentile, so you'll want a soundbar. Gaming at 18th percentile is another red flag. If you're plugging in a PS5 or Xbox, you're probably not getting the low input lag or high refresh rate support you'd expect from a modern OLED. This is a TV that looks great in a specific scenario and falls apart outside of it.

The LG C5 Series OLED55C5PUA is the direct rival here, and it's a better TV in almost every way that matters. Better HDR, better gaming, better processing. The C5 is what you buy when you want OLED done right. The S84F is what you buy when you want the OLED badge and the deep blacks without paying C5 money. It's a legitimate trade-off, but you should know the C5 exists and what it offers before you commit.

The Sony BRAVIA XR XR77A95L is in a different league entirely, both in size and price. That's a 77-inch flagship with Sony's best processing. Not really a fair comparison, but worth mentioning because if you're considering stepping up, Sony's OLEDs are where the picture quality ceiling lives. On the budget side, the TCL QM8K and Hisense U8 are mini-LED alternatives that will beat the S84F on brightness and HDR while costing less. They won't match the OLED contrast, but they're more well-rounded TVs overall. The Roku Pro Series is another budget option with a simpler smart platform if Tizen isn't your thing.

At CAD 899, this is one of the cheapest ways to get a 55-inch OLED from a major brand. That's the whole pitch, really. You're getting the OLED panel without the OLED price tag. The problem is that value depends on what you're actually using it for. If you're a movie buff who watches in a dark room and doesn't care about HDR, this is a steal. The contrast alone is worth the price. But if you want the full OLED experience with HDR highlights, gaming, and decent built-in audio, you'll end up spending more on a soundbar and still not fixing the HDR issue.

Compared to the LG C5, which is the obvious competitor in this space, the S84F undercuts it on price but gives up a lot in HDR and gaming performance. The LG C5 is the more complete TV, but it costs more. The S84F is the budget OLED play, and for some people, that's exactly what they want. Just know what you're trading away.

The Samsung S84F is one of those TVs that makes you scratch your head a little. On paper, it's a 55-inch 4K OLED with Samsung's Vision AI processing, which sounds like a premium setup. And the display itself is genuinely impressive, landing in the 89th percentile for this category. But then you look at the rest of the scores and things get weird fast. Picture quality sits at a mediocre 36th percentile, gaming at 18th, and connectivity at a rough 7th. This is a TV with a great panel and some puzzling compromises around it.

Who is this for? Honestly, it's for someone who wants that OLED contrast and deep blacks without paying flagship money. At CAD 899, it's priced like a mid-range TV but carries the OLED badge. The catch is that you're giving up a lot of the polish that makes OLED shine on other sets. HDR performance is near the bottom of the barrel at the 13th percentile, and the audio is just as weak. If you're mostly watching SDR content in a dark room, this could work. If you want the full HDR experience, keep reading.

The interesting angle here is Samsung's AI optimization. The marketing talks up scene-by-scene picture and sound tuning, which sounds great until you realize the underlying hardware has limits. AI can only do so much with a panel that's not getting the brightness or color volume it needs for HDR. It's like putting a really smart driver in a car with a weak engine. The driver can make good decisions, but physics still applies.

If you're a gamer, skip this. The 18th percentile gaming score means you're not getting the responsiveness or features you'd want for a PS5 or Xbox. Look at the LG C5 or even a good mini-LED set like the TCL QM8K instead. HDR enthusiasts should also pass. The 13th percentile HDR performance is a real letdown for a TV with an OLED panel, and you'll notice it every time you watch HDR content.

If you need lots of connectivity, this is a hard no. The 7th percentile connectivity score suggests very limited ports and options. Anyone with multiple consoles, a soundbar, and a streaming box will run out of HDMI ports fast. And if you're expecting the full premium OLED experience, this isn't it. The S84F is a budget OLED with real compromises. Spend more on the LG C5 or Sony's OLED lineup if you want the complete package.

If you're a dark-room movie watcher on a budget, the S84F makes a weird kind of sense. You get real OLED contrast at a price that's hard to beat. The display is genuinely good, and for SDR content, it'll look fantastic. Just don't expect HDR to blow you away, and plan on buying a soundbar because the built-in speakers are rough.

For everyone else, this TV is a harder sell. Gamers should look at the LG C5 or even a good mini-LED set. HDR enthusiasts will be disappointed by the 13th percentile performance. And if you need lots of HDMI ports or other connectivity, the 7th percentile score there is a dealbreaker. The S84F is a niche product: a budget OLED for people who know exactly what they're getting and what they're giving up.