Samsung S95F vs LG C5

Samsung's QD-OLED brightness versus LG's more affordable, Dolby Vision-equipped WOLED panel — the flagship 2025 OLED fight, broken down for NZ buyers.

Panel technology

This is the core difference between the two. The LG C5 uses WOLED (White OLED) technology — LG's long-running approach where a white OLED layer passes through colour filters. The Samsung S95F uses QD-OLED (Quantum Dot OLED), where a blue OLED layer is paired with a quantum dot layer for colour. In practice, QD-OLED tends to produce brighter, more saturated colour, while WOLED has matured over many generations to be extremely reliable and colour-accurate in its own right.

Brightness

The S95F's standout spec is peak brightness — Samsung claims up to roughly 2,000 nits in small highlight areas, a meaningful jump that makes HDR highlights (bright skies, explosions, reflections) punch harder. The LG C5 peaks lower, generally in the 1,000-1,200 nit range. If you watch a lot of HDR content in a bright room, or want the most dazzling highlight performance, the S95F has a real, visible edge here.

HDR format support

This is where LG claws back ground. The C5 supports Dolby Vision, HDR10, and HLG — full format coverage. The Samsung S95F supports HDR10+, HDR10, and HLG but notably lacks Dolby Vision, a decision Samsung has stuck with across generations for competitive/licensing reasons. Since Dolby Vision is the more widely used dynamic HDR format across NZ streaming catalogues (Netflix, Disney+, Apple TV+) and most 4K Blu-rays, this is a real practical downside for the Samsung if you consume a lot of that content — HDR10+ support exists on fewer platforms and titles.

Colour and everyday picture quality

Reviewers generally credit the S95F's quantum dot layer with brighter, purer colour reproduction than the C5's WOLED panel can produce, particularly in bright, saturated scenes. The C5, meanwhile, has a well-earned reputation for excellent out-of-box colour accuracy and one of the most refined processing chains in the OLED market, built on years of LG's WebOS and αOLED tuning experience.

Pricing

US pricing for the 2025 models has the LG C5 sitting around US$2,197 for a mid-size configuration and the Samsung S95F around US$3,098 — a meaningful gap, roughly NZ$3,600 vs NZ$5,100 at rough conversion, though NZ retail pricing (via Samsung NZ, Noel Leeming, Harvey Norman, JB Hi-Fi) typically differs from a straight currency conversion and moves with promotions, so treat these as ballpark figures and check current NZ listings before buying. Samsung NZ lists the S95F directly on its NZ site in 55" and 65" sizes, confirming local availability.

Which one to buy

• Want the brightest, punchiest HDR picture and don't mind losing Dolby Vision: Samsung S95F.
• Watch a lot of Dolby Vision content (most streaming HDR) and want the better value: LG C5.
• Gaming-focused buyer: both support high refresh rates and low input lag; check current specific model-year gaming spec sheets (VRR, HDMI 2.1 bandwidth) before deciding, as these details shift generation to generation.
• Budget-conscious but still want flagship-tier OLED: LG C5 is the cheaper of the two at equivalent screen sizes.