Sony A95K vs Samsung S95B: Which one should you buy? | Tech Reddy

The Sony A95K and Samsung S95B are two of the best TVs on the market today. Using cutting edge, quantum-enhanced OLED panels, they offer high brightness, deep colors, and inky blacks. While the panels themselves are built by Samsung, each company puts a different spin on the final product, each with different capabilities and features.

So which one is the best? With TVs this good, the real question is, which is best you? Depending on how you use your TV, the room it’s in, and many other factors, one of these TVs will surely suit your needs. Here’s how they stack up.

Buy the 55-inch Sony A95K at Amazon

Buy the 55-inch Samsung S95B at Samsung

Price

Both TVs are available in just two sizes: 55 and 65 inches. There are significant price differences, however. Both sets will be discounted from time to time, especially as the holiday season approaches, so you can find them on sale. Here’s what you can expect to pay for different sizes in each model series.

Samsung S95B:

• 55-inch (Samsung QN55S95BAF), MSRP $2,199.99
• 65-inch (Samsung QN65S95BAF), MSRP $2,999.99

Nothing surprising. These are reasonable prices for high-end TVs in these sizes.

Sony A95K:

• 55-inch (Sony XR-55A95K), MSRP $2,999.99
• 65-inch (Sony XR-65A95K), MSRP $3,999.99

Sony TVs tend to be priced at a premium, and that’s fully evident here—the 55-inch A95K is the same price as the 65-inch Samsung. The 65-inch model is the most expensive TV we tested this year.

Samsung is clearly the cheaper option, with the 55-inch being a full $800 less than the Sony of the same size and $1,000 between the 65-inch models. This is a simple Samsung phone.

Our picks: Samsung S95B

To work

These are top quality televisions, some of the best ever made. OLED, or Organic Light-Emitting Diode, TVs have been out for a few years, and they are almost always at the top of every best TV list. They are capable of deep, perfect blacks and by extension, an amazing amount of contrast. Both the A95K and S95B are a newer version of this technology: QD-OLED. This adds quantum dots to the OLED, improving brightness and color for an even more incredible picture.

That’s how similar it is, but the way each company uses the underlying technology is similar to how two chefs can use the same ingredients and create different dishes. Sony has made the A95K as precise as possible, perfect for movie enthusiasts who want to see exactly what the director wants. It fully covers the DCI-P3 HDR color gamut (at 98% coverage, Samsung comes close) and the colors out of the box in Custom picture mode are the best we’ve seen.

The Samsung, on the other hand, is tuned to have brighter features, giving it less punch in bright rooms. While its average ANSI brightness is significantly lower than the A95K, especially in SDR, its HDR brightness is the highest we’ve seen for any OLED screen. So explosions, star fields, and other special highlights will jump off the screen more on the Samsung than the Sony.

There is no right or wrong answer here, and it really comes down to your use case. Both are excellent TVs that will look stunning in any room, but we’re slightly leaning towards the A95K due to its excellent color performance and comparable performance to the Samsung. The A95K is the best TV we’ve ever seen, and it’s performance that makes it our best TV of 2022.

Our picks: Sony A95K

Create it

Due to the nature of the OLED panel design (and the lack of a backlight), both TVs are very thin with narrow bezels around the screen. Because of the small plastic housing for the connectors and electronics on the S95B, you have to be careful lifting it up as the panel has a tendency to bend.

Samsung has a traditional base design, with one flat central, metal stand that places the TV directly on top. There is about 2.5 inches of sound bar output.

Sony’s stand design is very different. The A95K rests on a full-width stand that can be placed in front of, or interestingly, behind the TV. In the latter case, the TV seems to support itself, although it tilts slightly backwards. It’s a potentially dangerous setting for households with children or pets, so a forward-facing setting is ideal if you have the option. In any case, the edge of the screen is very close to the table top and leaves almost no space for the sound bar.

You can wall mount both TVs, but accessing their connections is not good. They are more suitable for sitting on a table or credenza.

Our picks: Draw

Features and smart platform

Before we discuss the features that set the Sony A95K vs Samsung S95B apart, let’s take a look at what they share.

Broadly speaking these TVs are more similar than different, even on one level where they differ the most: features. Both are 4K QD-OLED with HDR and a full suite of streaming apps.

The main difference is in the specifics of those brands. For example, Sony has Dolby Vision support, Samsung does not. Dolby Vision is a popular, proprietary version of HDR. Dolby Vision compatible titles can be found on new Blu-rays and other streaming platforms (like Netflix, for example). Like all Samsung TVs, the S95B ditches Dolby Vision in favor of HDR10+, a free version of the format that works the same way. There are many HDR10+ titles out there (Amazon Prime Video offers a range of HDR10+ titles, for example), but Dolby Vision is, however, the most popular format. The A95K’s Dolby Vision compatibility can make the pot a favorite for movie lovers.

Sony’s streaming app comes in the form of Google TV, while Samsung uses its own in-house interface. This isn’t a big difference, since you can find all the major apps in each location, but we prefer Google TV’s faster streaming speed.

While both of these QD-OLED TVs offer gaming-related features such as Refresh Rate and Auto Low Latency Mode, the Samsung comes with four HDMI 2.1 ports that support 4K gaming at 120Hz. The Sony A95K, on ​​the other hand, only comes with two such ports, and one of them doubles as a dedicated eARC TV port. If you own an Xbox Series X, PlayStation 5 and eARC-enabled soundbar or home theater receiver, one of the next-gen consoles will need to take one HDMI 2.0 to reduce performance (or use an HDMI cable through your sound system). You will be able to play at 4K / 60Hz with the HDMI 2.0 port, but 4K / 120Hz is out of the question.

The Samsung S95B is a more flexible gaming TV, but the Sony A95K is more flexible for movie night thanks to Dolby Vision support and a smart, easy-to-navigate platform.

Our picks: Draw

And the winner is…

Sony A95K and Samsung S95B are based on the same OLED panel, so it makes sense that they perform at the same level. However, each company offers different features and a slightly different “look” to their TVs. This is certainly reflected in the results above, each taking one win and sharing 2 ties.

It comes in the way you think you will use the TV regularly. Cinemaphiles may be better suited to the Sony A95K, as its image is very close to industry reference standards. The inclusion of Dolby Vision is a big deal for movie fans, too.

Gamers, and people who watch a lot of TV during the day, can choose Samsung’s bright picture and HDMI 2.1 support. Samsung will save you a little money – small comfort because these are very expensive TVs. Either way, these are excellent TVs that can do everything well. That said, there is no bad choice here.

Buy the 55-inch Sony A95K at Amazon

Buy the 55-inch Samsung S95B at Samsung

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Prices were correct at the time of publication of the article but may change over time.