Samsung R85H Micro RGB TV review

The R85H is Samsung’s most affordable Micro RGB TV and comes in 55-inch, 65-inch, 75-inch, 85-inch, and 100-inch sizes.

It promises better color reproduction, supports high refresh rates for gaming, and comes with Samsung’s feature-rich Tizen software.

Some of that promise holds up. Picture processing is very good, and local dimming has improved. But the brightness is disappointing for the price, viewing angles are poor, and the built-in speakers leave plenty of room for improvement.

The R85H has some strengths, though it’s a difficult TV to recommend over the OLED alternatives.

First, it’s worth clearing up what Micro RGB actually means. This is still an LCD TV with an LED backlight. It uses red, green, and blue LEDs to improve color purity. MicroLED, despite the similar name, is a different technology in which the pixels produce their own light, as they do on an OLED TV.

Samsung claims Micro RGB can deliver 100% BT.2020 color coverage. Tests haven’t quite matched that figure, but the technology does improve on the color capabilities of earlier LCD TVs. It’s a worthwhile development, even if it doesn’t transform every aspect of the picture.

We compared the R85H with Samsung’s six-year-old Q90T to see how much progress the company has made. The results were mixed. In some scenes, the older TV looked almost as good or even better. In others, particularly where processing was concerned, the improvements were much clearer.

Local dimming is another area where Samsung has made progress. The R85H improves on previous 85-series models and comes close to some older 90-series TVs. It also did a better job than the Q90D at controlling its backlight.

That doesn’t mean blooming has disappeared. Bright objects against dark backgrounds, such as stars in a night sky, can still have a visible halo around them. Samsung’s dimming algorithm reduces the effect, but it can be quite aggressive and sometimes dims the scene in the process.

Contrast is good for an LCD TV, and darker scenes can look impressive. You just need to keep your expectations in check: this doesn’t deliver the contrast of an OLED.

Brightness is one of the R85H’s biggest disappointments. We expected more from a TV at this price, especially when competing LCD models can get considerably brighter. The R85H doesn’t seem to push much beyond the 1,000-nit mark.

That doesn’t make it unsuitable for a bright room. For SDR viewing, including sports, there’s enough brightness for it to do a decent job. But if high brightness is the reason you’re choosing an LCD over an OLED, this particular model doesn’t make a convincing case.

Viewing angles are a bigger concern, especially if several people will be watching from different seats. They’re among the worst we’ve seen in this price bracket, and moving off-center introduces a noticeable red tint.

That makes the R85H a poor fit for a wide seating arrangement. If you regularly have people over to watch sports, this is a limitation you’ll want to take seriously.

Samsung’s Tizen software and One UI interface are among the R85H’s stronger points. The home screen is well presented, search is easy to use, and the overall experience is one of the better ones available on a TV.

SmartThings integration is useful if you have smart home devices, while Samsung Gaming Hub provides access to cloud gaming services. There’s plenty of functionality here, and we like what Samsung has done with the interface.

The TV comes with Samsung’s SolarCell Bluetooth remote, while wireless connectivity includes Wi-Fi and Bluetooth 5.3.

Samsung’s picture processing is among the best available. It’s one of the R85H’s strongest qualities, though the gaming experience is less convincing.

All four HDMI ports support HDMI 2.1 specifications and refresh rates up to 144Hz. There’s also variable refresh rate support, while a dual line gate mode allows up to 240Hz at 1080p.

The R85H is serviceable if you play occasionally, but it wouldn’t be our first choice if gaming were the main reason for buying a TV. There are better options at this price, including other LCD TVs.

We noticed some ghosting, and Game Motion Plus seems to add more latency than it did in previous years. That extra delay appears to affect Samsung’s 2026 TVs more broadly, rather than being specific to this model.

The high refresh rates and VRR support are welcome, but they aren’t enough to make this a TV we’d choose primarily for gaming.

The R85H supports Dolby Atmos, Object Tracking Sound Lite, Q-Symphony, and Active Voice Amplifier Pro. Unfortunately, that feature list doesn’t translate into particularly good sound from the built-in speakers.

There isn’t much bass, the highs can sound harsh, and the midrange is a little too boxy. Dialogue and movie scenes are passable, and some viewers will be perfectly happy with that, but there’s nothing especially impressive here.

If you care about audio quality, we’d recommend a soundbar.

The R85H shows that Micro RGB can bring improvements to Samsung’s LCD TVs. Color reproduction benefits from the technology, local dimming is better, and picture processing remains a strong point. Tizen is also a pleasure to use.

But those strengths don’t make up for the disappointing brightness, poor viewing angles, and weak sound. Gaming is adequate rather than a reason to choose this TV, and there are more convincing options for the money.

If you can still find the S90F, that would be our pick for better value. Otherwise, the S90H is worth considering, though panel types vary by region on both models, so check the version sold where you live.

The R85H doesn’t offer OLED-level contrast, and it doesn’t give you a compelling brightness advantage over something like the S90F either. If extra brightness is what you’re after, the step-up R95H is the model to investigate. At its current price, the R85H is hard to recommend.