Compare Sony BRAVIA 6 OLED vs Samsung S85H OLED

In the right room the OLED delivers beautiful blacks and attractive colors. Bright scenes, reflections, and weaker image processing prevent it from matching the best similarly priced TVs.

Perfect blacks, punchy color and crisp textures give the S85H a compelling picture for its price. Premium OLEDs can look brighter, more natural and more finely detailed.

Deep blacks produce excellent contrast, but dim highlights and muted bright scenes limit the HDR wow factor. Better OLEDs produce a more vivid cinematic image.

Most HDR movies and games look vivid and contrasty, but the image lacks flagship brightness and sometimes renders highlights too aggressively.

eARC and wide format compatibility allow high-quality audio to pass to a soundbar or receiver. This is a useful asset for surround-sound systems.

Some Blu-ray audio formats cannot be passed through.

Small HDR highlights lack sparkle, and scenes with large bright areas look especially restrained. This is among the TV's most consequential picture weaknesses.

HDR highlights can look striking against perfect blacks, but the S85H lacks the full intensity of pricier OLEDs. Large bright scenes are especially restrained.

Clearance depends on stand configuration and soundbar height. One assessment found a low position could obstruct the screen, while another describes raising the stand for extra room.

Foot placement leaves practical soundbar space.

Factory white balance is imperfect, especially in bright SDR scenes, though calibration can produce excellent results.

Out-of-box SDR whites are close to reference, with only a small cool cast. Filmmaker settings help deliver a natural-looking image.

Even moderate ambient light can overcome the modest screen brightness. Windows and reflections make this a poor choice for bright daytime rooms.

Ordinary daylight is manageable, but very bright rooms expose the S85H’s limited light output and reflective screen. Windows facing the panel are particularly troublesome.

Both HDR highlights and large bright SDR scenes are relatively dim. Brighter rival OLEDs make much more impact in daytime light and HDR showcases.

Brightness is respectable for a basic OLED, especially in smaller bright areas. It struggles to maintain punch when much of the picture is bright.

The built-in system produces little deep bass or cinematic rumble. Explosions and music have much less weight than they would through a good soundbar.

Explosions, engines and other low-frequency effects lack force, making action-heavy movies feel much smaller than they look.

Brightness drops noticeably as larger parts of the image become light. Sports and snowy or sunlit scenes can look especially subdued.

A larger bright area causes the image to dim considerably, limiting the impact of snowfields, bright skies and full-screen highlights.

Instant-feeling control response and sharp OLED motion make games enjoyable. Support for several consoles is excellent, even if HDR punch is limited.

Fast inputs, nearly instantaneous response and flexible sync make this a standout entry-level gaming TV. Dolby Vision gaming is unavailable.

Evening viewing brings out the strengths of the OLED panel: rich blacks, high contrast, and immersive shadows. Peak brightness is less of an obstacle when the room is dark.

The S85H looks its best in a dim room, where its inky blacks and vivid HDR effects make films and games feel immersive.

Compression smoothing can reduce coarse artifacts, but it may erase fine detail and give low-quality video a waxy appearance.

Artifacts remain after the TV processes low-quality material.

The TV can produce very accurate images after calibration, with natural colors and controlled whites. The limited calibration toolkit makes some HDR errors harder to correct.

Overall SDR accuracy is strong with some HDR deviations.

Internal sound is serviceable for voices but underpowered for cinematic effects and large rooms. An external sound system would provide fuller bass and impact.

Built-in sound is adequate for casual programs, but several tests find it muffled, underpowered or lacking cinematic impact. A soundbar is a worthwhile addition.

The OLED panel can display highlights beside completely black pixels for effectively infinite contrast. This particularly enhances dimly lit scenes.

Near-infinite OLED contrast makes bright highlights stand out sharply against rich dark backgrounds, producing a convincing sense of depth.

Color looks reasonably natural out of the box, and much better after calibration. Bright SDR material can still look too cool or washed out before adjustment.

Filmmaker mode gives the most faithful colors and can look excellent without calibration. Default presets and some HDR scenes exaggerate warm tones, reds or blues.

Pixel response is excellent for games and fast-moving content, but some 60p video is hampered by poor judder removal. Results depend on the source.

Sports and games appear clean and crisp thanks to fast pixel response. Low-frame-rate material can still show stutter or persistence blur.

Controller actions appear onscreen almost immediately, with very little perceptible delay. This is a strong point for fast games.

Game Mode delivers extremely quick controls, with measurements around single-digit milliseconds. Optional game interpolation adds substantial latency.

Google TV menus can feel fast and straightforward, but another hands-on assessment found freezes that repeatedly interrupted operation. Daily use is therefore less consistently polished than the interface suggests.

Settings and apps are easier to navigate.

Native apps and 24p sources avoid judder, but 60p boxes can show choppy, uneven motion. This is a notable weakness for some older media devices.

Most film cadence is handled cleanly.

Near-black scenes can display pronounced vertical bars and streaks across the panel. These artifacts are an important drawback for darker movies and games.

Dark gray and green show mild banding.

Simple blade-style feet hold the screen securely. Their placement has limited flexibility compared with adjustable-width stands.

Adjustable feet support different cabinet widths, but the plastic pieces feel cheap and can wobble slightly.

The simpler remote has attracted criticism for its design and layout. Its functionality is conventional rather than especially premium.

The compact SolarCell remote is a favorite for its simple controls and rechargeable battery. Missing backlighting and small size can be inconvenient.

Foot placement is not especially flexible, so the furniture must accommodate the fixed stand width. Check dimensions before buying.

Two foot positions make it easier to fit the TV on narrower furniture or make space for a soundbar.

A full calibration can improve accuracy dramatically, but the controls are limited. In particular, there is no full color management system for nuanced corrections.

Calibration is easy but changes little for SDR.

A genuinely enjoyable dark-room OLED picture and outstanding connectivity are offset by weak brightness, middling value, and reports of severe software glitches. The balance is less favorable than the Sony name might suggest.

The S85H earns strong praise for its OLED picture, extensive gaming features and accessible pricing. Bright-room visibility and audio quality remain the most common reservations.

Most DCI-P3 content is handled competently, but the TV struggles with the wider BT.2020 gamut. Fully saturated red and green tones are harder to reproduce.

Everyday movies show rich, saturated color, with strong DCI-P3 coverage. Extreme Rec.2020 reds and greens are not as intense as on premium OLEDs.

Voices are intelligible through the internal speakers. There is no sophisticated room-correction system to compensate for the acoustics of a particular space.

Speech is generally audible at moderate levels, but the sound can become muffled or compressed when the volume climbs.

Very bright HDR elements can lose fine texture as the set reaches its brightness ceiling. Delicate highlights are less convincing than on brighter OLED competitors.

The TV can preserve bright effects with careful tone mapping, but overly bright skin highlights and demanding HDR masters sometimes lose subtle detail.

Very minor transition overshoot can appear in dark tones, but it is difficult to notice in ordinary viewing.

OLED blacks create atmosphere, but fine detail in nearly black scenes can be crushed or swallowed. Results depend on the content and processing settings.

Mid-gray screens show little central mottling, a benefit during sports and large camera pans. Slight edge darkening remains but is usually minor.

Some panel variations are difficult to notice from normal distance.

The native 120Hz panel produces crisp movement and is well suited to consoles. It falls short of the higher maximum rates offered by some similarly priced gaming OLEDs.

120Hz capability suits console gaming.

Standard-resolution material scales sharply, but compression smoothing is less convincing. Poor-quality streams can lose texture and appear waxy.

DVDs and standard-definition streams remain watchable, though the picture can be somewhat soft and fine details may disappear.

Bright static elements such as logos, news tickers, and game HUDs carry a meaningful risk of permanent burn-in over time. Mixed content is much safer than leaving fixed graphics onscreen for long stretches.

Static logos and HUD elements carry a risk of permanent burn-in over time. Built-in protections help, and varied viewing is less concerning.

Image processing is a divisive area: some previews anticipated Sony's usual advantage, but tests found weaker streaming cleanup and loss of fine texture. The missing premium XR processing is significant.

Processing is competent for everyday sources, and crisp textures help the picture look detailed. Compression cleanup, over-sharpening and aggressive HDR treatment are less consistent.

The simplified remote design has drawn unfavorable reactions. Hotkeys remain, but the overall button arrangement may not appeal to everyone.

Minimal buttons keep the remote tidy, but it can be easy to lose and difficult to use in darkness. Some common functions require on-screen menus.

Low-resolution DVDs and similar sources are enlarged cleanly without obvious oversharpening. This strength does not extend fully to compressed-stream cleanup.

Older movies and low-resolution streams generally look clear and well defined. Some competing models preserve more sharpness and texture from weaker sources.

The full Google TV experience includes ads, and turning off ad personalization does not reduce their number. An ad-free basic-TV setup sacrifices smart features.

Interface ads cannot be removed entirely.

Fast objects remain distinct without long blur trails, thanks to rapid OLED pixel transitions. Some persistence blur is still possible at 60Hz.

Fast-moving objects stay sharp, making dynamic games and sport broadcasts particularly satisfying.

The RGWB subpixel arrangement improves compatibility with PC text rendering, helping text appear crisp. Static desktop interfaces still warrant careful long-term use.

The RGWB arrangement improves computer text rendering.

Near-black scenes can be marred by obvious vertical banding, even though fully black areas look perfect. Gray-field uniformity is considerably better.

Near-black scenes can reveal vertical bands, even though ordinary bright and dark content often looks uniform.

The dim panel and conspicuous direct reflections make glare control a notable weakness. Closing blinds improves dark-scene visibility considerably.

Direct lamps and windows remain clearly visible on the screen. The S85H cannot match the anti-glare coatings on Samsung’s step-up OLEDs.

Individual OLED pixels switch fully off for truly deep blacks. Dark-room contrast is excellent and a consistent strength.

Black areas look genuinely inky, with individual OLED pixels switching fully off. This is one of the TV’s clearest advantages over comparable LCD displays.

At 120Hz, game movement remains sharp and responsive. The ceiling is lower than the 165Hz offered by some similarly priced OLED rivals.

120Hz OLED motion is crisp for consoles and most PC gaming, but fast competitive PCs can benefit from higher refresh rates offered elsewhere.

VRR keeps compatible games nearly free of tearing even during frame-rate fluctuations. Older AMD cards without supported VRR technology are a notable exception.

Adaptive refresh works smoothly across much of the panel’s range and helps keep gameplay free of tearing.

Compatible consoles automatically trigger low-lag operation, avoiding the need to change picture modes manually before gaming.

Automatic low-latency switching removes a gaming setup step.

Four full-speed HDMI 2.1 inputs simplify mixed entertainment setups with consoles, PCs, and external media devices. The breadth of compatible audio formats is an additional strength.

Several demanding devices can stay connected simultaneously.

Bright objects stay cleanly separated from dark surroundings, without the halos associated with backlit LCD televisions.

Bright subtitles and small highlights sit cleanly against dark backgrounds without the glowing halos that can surround them on many LCD TVs.

G-SYNC support helps keep compatible PC gaming smooth and nearly free of tearing, even as frame rates vary.

G-SYNC compatibility is effective with supported sources.

The picture retains its appeal from off-center seats, making the screen an excellent fit for wide group seating.

Off-center seating retains convincing color and contrast, making the panel a good fit for wider couches or seating arrangements.

Direct lights and windows are plainly visible, often obscuring dark scenes. The screen coating only partly mitigates ambient reflections.

Glossy reflections are a major weakness compared with Samsung’s S90H and S95H. A controllable, moderately lit room is the safest setting.

Saturated color looks convincing in darker scenes but loses intensity as picture brightness rises. Bright scenes can appear washed out.

Colors are lively for an entry OLED, but highly saturated HDR highlights can look washed out compared with stronger QD-OLED or tandem panels.

Four full-bandwidth HDMI 2.1 connections are the clearest hardware advantage. Consoles, PCs, and other high-rate devices can stay connected without choosing which inputs get the best features.

All four HDMI ports offer full gaming bandwidth, making the S85H practical for households with several consoles or a gaming PC.

Completely black areas are beautifully uniform thanks to the self-lighting panel, with no halos around bright objects. This does not prevent visible banding in near-black gray scenes.

Pure black regions are impressively uniform and free of haloing around bright objects. Some near-black scenes still reveal vertical bands.

Clips built into the feet make it easier to route cables discreetly behind the television.

Included foot clips help organize exposed cables.

Four HDMI inputs offer plenty of room for consoles, media players, and other AV devices. Their full bandwidth makes the count more useful than a simple four-port specification.

Four capable HDMI sockets provide plenty of room for consoles, streaming hardware and other sources.

OLED pixels change almost instantly, preventing noticeable trails behind fast-moving objects. This helps both games and sports.

OLED pixels transition almost instantly, leaving fast objects with very little trailing blur. Minor overshoot is generally hard to see.

Adaptive refresh performs well across the supported range, including low frame rates when the source supports compensation. Tearing is kept to a minimum.

Adaptive synchronization remains effective across the refresh range, including lower frame rates when compensation is available.

Panel longevity looks reasonable with varied content, but static graphics pose burn-in risk. Operational freezes in one review introduce a separate concern about day-to-day dependability.

Most panel problems are not expected to occur quickly, but potential burn-in and eventual edge-pixel defects deserve consideration.

DTS compatibility is particularly helpful for Blu-ray collectors and external home-theater systems. It provides broader audio-format flexibility than many competing setups.

DTS tracks are unsupported, which can complicate lossless surround audio from Blu-ray discs.

HDMI Forum VRR and G-SYNC work well, but lack of FreeSync excludes VRR on certain older AMD graphics cards. Check PC graphics compatibility before relying on tear-free play.

FreeSync provides tear-free play.

Dolby Vision offers a useful range of picture modes, including cinema and gaming options. It can improve some scenes but cannot fully compensate for the panel's low brightness.

Dolby Vision is missing for both movies and games, although HDR10 and HDR10+ are available. This is a real consideration for Dolby Vision-heavy libraries.

An ATSC 3.0 tuner supports NEXTGEN TV broadcasts in the United States, making the television flexible for compatible over-the-air services.

No ATSC 3.0 option for next-gen broadcasts.

The four full-bandwidth HDMI connections are a genuine benefit, but the picture is dimmer and often less refined than cheaper OLED rivals. Even a sale price may not erase concerns about software reliability.

Premium-looking OLED contrast and a broad gaming toolset come at an appealing entry-level price. LG B6 deals or discounted older Samsung models can sometimes offer stronger value.

There is no HDR10+ decoding, so HDR10+-only titles rely on a compatible fallback format. Dolby Vision support helps offset the omission on other content.

HDR10+ mitigates some of the missing Dolby Vision functionality.

HDR10, HLG, and Dolby Vision cover the major formats many viewers use. HDR10+ is absent, so that particular format requires fallback playback.

Available HDR formats are useful, but Dolby Vision is excluded.

Games look sharp at 4K and can run as fast as 120Hz, with excellent input response. The missing 1440p option is a smaller compatibility drawback.

4K console play is strongly supported aside from Dolby Vision.

Current consoles and compatible PCs can play at 4K/120Hz on every HDMI input. Native 1440p signals are not supported, so some alternate output setups are more restrictive.

Current-generation consoles can run at 4K and 120Hz with VRR support. Enthusiast PC gamers may miss a higher 144Hz or 165Hz ceiling.

eARC can deliver high-bitrate, uncompressed surround audio from connected devices to a compatible receiver or soundbar.

Audio connectivity accommodates external soundbars.

Every HDMI port carries high-bandwidth gaming features rather than reserving them for only two inputs. This is an unusually flexible arrangement for a Sony OLED.

All HDMI sockets carry the full gaming bandwidth.

One hands-on test encountered crashes or freezes that required physically unplugging the TV. This serious weakness sits uneasily beside otherwise smooth interface reports.

Streaming apps work reliably.

Much of the HDR signal follows the intended luminance curve accurately. The brightest areas nevertheless clip rather than holding fine gradations.

Bright effects are controlled effectively. Tone mapping sometimes flattens image depth.

Google TV has a large catalog of familiar streaming services and entertainment apps. App availability itself is a strength even though operation is not universally trouble-free.

The major streaming platforms are present, with services such as Netflix, Prime Video, Disney+ and Apple TV working well.

Using Google TV includes advertising, but a basic setup without a Google sign-in offers an ad-free alternative. The tradeoff is losing many smart functions.

Ad targeting can be disabled, but ads themselves remain.

The TV tracks much of the intended HDR brightness curve closely. However, it cuts off highlights abruptly rather than preserving the brightest gradations.

Overall tonal tracking can be impressive, though some scenes expose exaggerated highlights and loss of shadow detail. A brighter setting can further trade accuracy for punch.

Google TV navigation feels quick and intuitive during normal operation. More severe reliability problems were noted in another test, so speed is not the entire story.

Switching inputs and settings is intuitive.

Google TV's normal navigation is fast and direct, although that responsiveness does not guarantee freedom from occasional system faults.

Navigation feels brisk. Tizen improves organization rather than raw speed.

Construction is sturdy and tidy, without apparent assembly flaws. The simple design feels well put together.

The thin design looks attractive from the front but uses fairly inexpensive plastic, with some fragility during handling.

Thin framing on all four sides keeps the front unobtrusive and places visual attention on the picture.

The thin borders keep attention on the image.

The 48-, 55-, 65-, 77-, and 83-inch range covers compact setups and expansive theaters. Some rivals additionally offer 42-inch models.

Sizes from 48 to 83 inches cover everything from smaller rooms to large living rooms, adding flexibility within the entry-level OLED range.

The BRAVIA 6 has clean, restrained styling, slim bezels, and simple feet. It looks attractive without a flashy finish.

A very thin panel and narrow bezels make the S85H attractive from the front, while the plastic stand and rear are less premium.

The TV tops out at 120Hz even at 4K, while some similarly priced OLED rivals can accept higher 4K refresh rates. High-frame-rate PC enthusiasts have faster alternatives.

Sharing Galaxy media to the TV is straightforward.

The Gaming Hub makes supported titles accessible without connecting a console, though a compatible service subscription is needed.

Dolby Atmos and other Dolby and DTS formats broaden external audio compatibility. For cinematic impact, an upgraded sound system is still preferable to the modest built-in speakers.

Installation benefits from another person and careful handling.

The set can run in a basic mode without a Google sign-in. That removes advertising but also strips away many connected-TV conveniences.

Abundant AI extras fail to add obvious utility.

The soccer preset brightens the pitch and can enhance stadium sound, but it can also make colors look excessive and needs manual switching on this model.

BFI helps only at 60Hz and leaves some blur.

Low frequencies fail to convey crashes and engines.

Personalized recommendations are better integrated.

AI energy settings can cut power use.

The 100Mbps wired network port should handle everyday streaming, but it can be a bottleneck for extremely high-bitrate local files. Faster networking arrangements may be preferable for demanding home media libraries.

Minor refresh-linked brightness pulsing remains.

Optional interpolation makes 30fps single-player games look smoother, but it substantially raises latency and is less suitable for competitive action.

Samsung’s Game Bar puts VRR information and gaming controls close at hand, while the Gaming Hub helps with console-free cloud play.

Game Mode offers useful tools and responsiveness.

Color gradients are generally smooth with some darker banding. Dark gradients can show posterization.

An 83-inch configuration allows a very large OLED image with deep blacks. It makes most sense where the furniture and viewing distance can accommodate its size.

High volume creates compression that hurts intelligibility.

Smoothing helps but brings a soap-opera effect.

The OLED SE panel delivers genuine OLED black levels but lacks the brightness and color strength of premium tandem OLED models. It is an entry-grade OLED rather than a flagship panel.

4K resolution shows strong detail on large panels.

The coating reduces some total reflected light, but windows and lamps remain quite visible. Direct reflections can overwhelm dark scenes.

The blade feet give the TV a secure base without noticeable wobble.

Around 32GB of stated internal storage is seen as enough for typical streaming apps and everyday software.

Slow frame-rate motion can stutter noticeably.

Traditional broadcast viewers cannot record tuner programs directly to a USB drive.

Playing video files from a USB stick was not dependable in one hands-on evaluation. A local media library is not a risk-free alternative to streaming.

The set can be mounted using standard VESA hardware, but recessed ports are harder to reach when installed flush against a wall.

AI speech mode helps intermittently, at times making sound thin.

Ambient-light adjustment may make casual viewing easier, but it changes the picture as room lighting shifts. Those who need a steady image should pay attention to the setting.

Self-emissive pixels create flawless local dimming-like precision.

Picture-in-picture is missing, preventing two sources from sharing the screen at once.

There is some useful separation and direction between sounds, though weak dynamics and bass limit the overall sense of space.

Bluetooth soundbar pairing works smoothly.

Built-in smart home control is versatile.

Google TV offers easy navigation and broad access to streaming services. It is flexible in principle, though one test uncovered disruptive operating glitches.

The redesigned Tizen layout feels improved.

Samsung’s promise of up to seven years of Tizen updates is a welcome long-term benefit.

Google TV provides a wide assortment of mainstream streaming services. Actual playback reliability is a separate concern in light of reported freezes.

Modern wireless compatibility is a welcome upgrade.

Solar recharging and a USB-C backup eliminate regular battery changes, a convenience rarely found on budget televisions.