Samsung ended Sony's seven-year reign in the OLED category with S95H taking the 'King of OLED' title. Sony secured the top spot in the LCD category with its first RGB LED TV, Bravia 9 II.
The annual TV Shootout, hosted by US retailer Value Electronics and its founder Robert Zohn, took place on July 16, 2026, with LG, Samsung and Sony competing. Hisense and TCL chose not to participate this year, while Panasonic is currently restructuring its global TV business.
The six competing TVs were divided into two categories to find a 'King of OLED TV' and a 'King of Micro RGB TV' (LCD). Each model was compared against Sony's professional BVM-HX3110 reference monitor and evaluated by a panel of professional judges using demo footage and movie clips. The TVs were scored on a 1-5 scale across criteria including color accuracy, HDR performance, shadow detail, video processing and motion handling.
The six competing TVs were (with current prices for reference):
2026 TV Shootout models
FlatpanelsKing of OLED, King of LCD
Samsung's S95H (also known as S99H in Europe) was crowned 'King of OLED' with a total score of 9.3, ahead of Sony's Bravia 8 II with 8.0 and LG's G6 with 7.4.
In the RGB LED LCD category, Sony's Bravia 9 II came out on top with 8.1 points, followed by Samsung's R95H with 6.6 and LG's MRGB95B with 5.5.
- "This year’s TV Shootout® clearly demonstrated just how far premium television technology has advanced," said Robert Zohn, President of Value Electronics. "Our goal has always been to provide consumers with an impartial evaluation under identical viewing conditions, allowing the televisions to speak for themselves."
The scores from the OLED and LCD categories cannot be compared directly, as the TVs were evaluated separately, on different criteria and by different teams of judges. According to reports from media outlets including eCoustics and Twice, the OLED models collectively outperformed the RGB LED LCD TVs overall.
Samsung's QD-OLED S95H was also the overall winner of the 2026 TV Shootout, which also put to rest the long-standing claim that OLED TVs are too dim for living rooms. Recent advances in both QD-OLED and WOLED technology have significantly increased brightness. LCD TVs, including the latest RGB LED models, still retain an advantage in very large TV sizes above 85 inches.
We will update this article with the full scoring sheet as soon as it becomes available. Update: See table below.
FlatpanelsHD has published reviews of Sony Bravia 8 II, LG G6 and Samsung S99H / S95H, and will later publish reviews of Sony Bravia 9 II and additional 2026 models.
- Source: Value Electronics via eCoustics, Twice
