Samsung MU8000 2017 TV Review

Hi, I’m Cedric from Rtings.com.
We are testing today the Samsung MU8000. The Samsung MU8000 is a good 4k TV, but the picture
quality is not really competitive for its price, as you will see later in this video
when we will compare it to other TVs. We bought the 55 inch, and the MU8000 is available
from 49” up to 75”. We expect the picture quality to be the same for all sizes, except
bigger TVs usually have more uniformity issues. Let's start with the design and then we will
look at the picture quality.
The design of the MU8000 is good but the build quality is a bit cheap since there is a lot
of plastic parts.
The stand is wide, so it might not fit your table, but at least it is sturdy. The TV is
quite thin from the side. The back is textured and it has panels to hide some inputs.
You can also route some cables via inside the leg to hide them. All the HDMI inputs
are located on the OneConnect box, which could clutter your setup.
The LEDs of the backlight are located at the bottom, which is why the heat is coming from there.
Now let's look at the picture quality. First, the native contrast ratio. It is inline with
other LCD TVs with a VA panel, so the blacks in a dark room are good and better than an
IPS TV like the LG SJ8500.
The MU8000 has local dimming unlike the cheaper MU6300. However, it's not really good since
it is edge lit from the bottom. This results in vertical blooming around bright objects.
The local dimming on the Sony X900E is much better, which will further improve the quality
of the blacks.
The uniformity of the screen is good, without too much dirty screen effect in the middle
like the MU6300 has. The edges and corners are darker though.
The picture quality degrades at an angle like most LED TVs. The LG SJ8500 can maintain much
better colors from the side, so go for the LG if you have a wide living room.
It reflects an average amount of light. It is OK in a normal bright room, but it could
be an issue in a brighter room with a lot of windows. In that case, the Sony will have
less reflections.
In HDR, the MU8000 can get a little bit brighter than the MU6300, but it does vary in time.
Unfortunately, it cannot get as bright as the Sony X900E, so the HDR experience won’t
be as good. Unlike the MU6300, it has a wider color gamut
for HDR, which is great. This means colors will look vivid when displaying HDR content.
The motion blur is good. The response time is about 12 ms for most transitions, so there
won’t be a long trail following moving objects.
Like most Samsung TVs, it uses the PWM technique to dim the backlight, which is why there is
a duplication of the picture when it is moving. The lower the backlight, the more present
the effect. Check out our other video on PWM dimming if you want to know more about this
subject.
The input lag is not only great, but it is consistent no matter the signal you send.
Fast video games feel very responsive on this TV.
Now for the smart features. The MU8000 uses the Tizen platform from Samsung. It's easy
to navigate but a bit slow at times. The included remote cannot be used as an on-screen pointer,
but it has a microphone.
So, how does it compare to the competition? Overall, it's a good TV but it's very hard
to recommend the Samsung MU8000 since it's not the best and it's priced too high for
what it is.
The Sony X900E is a much better TV on almost all aspects, so it's worth the price difference
if you care about picture quality.
The Sony X800E doesn’t have an as good picture quality in front, but it maintains better
colors at an angle, so it's a good choice if you have a wide living room with multiple
viewing positions.
The Samsung MU9000 is basically the same TV as the MU8000 but with a better screen finish
and a different stand, so it's not worth paying more unless you use it in a bright room.
The MU7000 is a 60Hz TV, so it will have a small judder when playing 24p content like movies.
It's also a bit darker.
The Samsung MU6300 is similar to the MU7000, but without a wide color gamut, so not as
good for HDR.
And finally, the MU8500 is the same as the MU8000 but curved.
So that's it! You can check all our measurements on our website and if you liked this video,
subscribe to our channel and see you next time!

Samsung MU8000 2017 TV Review - Rtings.com

Latest Posts