Samsung TU8000 Crystal UHD TV Review: Good Design, Good Enough Performance
"The Samsung TU8000 is roughly on par, which is great for a budget-friendly set."
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Attractive, slim bezel design
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Excellent 1080p upscaling
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Good color rendering
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HDMI eARC support
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Aggressive vignette
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The contrast is clouded in complex scenes
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Not particularly bright
It might not be QLED, but the Samsung TU8000 Crystal UHD HDR TV promises amazing colors, high contrast ratios, and great HDR playback for just $ 55 for a 55-inch device. That is promising for not a lot of money, especially since the design of this TV features a very attractive thin bezel.
Samsung promises a top-notch 4K upscaling system thanks to its 4K processing and an auto-game mode that is claimed to optimize the screen and minimize input lag. For a clearly budget-friendly television, Samsung met the TU8000 with many expectations. But does it deliver?
Out of the box
I always appreciate a TV that comes with minimal setup, and the TU8000 delivers on that. With just the remote control, batteries, two feet, two cable management locks and a power cable, this Samsung was thankfully easy to take out of the box and assemble. No screwdriver required, the feet simply slide into position and hold in place. These feet are plastic and don't feel particularly great, but from a distance they look nice and definitely get the job done. Once you are on your media stand, the TV feels safe and stable.
The feet are simple but effective. Jaron Schneider / Digital Trends
This removable plastic fastener isn't particularly attractive. Jaron Schneider / Digital Trends
You can stick the cable in these grooves too, but they don't stay particularly well. Jaron Schneider / Digital Trends
However, I'm less enthusiastic about the cable management claps mentioned above. They're lightweight plastic clips that sit on the back of the TV's feet and aren't particularly sturdy to the touch. Plus, they're pretty unattractive. This is a bummer considering how good the rest of this TV looks from the front. You can hide the cable and fasteners pretty well, but it's certainly not perfect and I wanted a better solution here. There are also some grooves on the back of the TV for the cable to plug into, but it doesn't stay very well and the power cord is also quite short, which further limits your options here.
Jaron Schneider / Digital Trends
The voice remote control supplied with the TU8000, like other modern Samsung remote controls, has a slim and curved profile that only houses the buttons that are absolutely necessary. I appreciate how small it is, yet still give me everything I need to enjoy content. It's a voice remote that works with apps like YouTube when you're in a search bar. It also acts as a smart assistant with Google Assistant, Bixby or Amazon Alexa (depending on what you choose during setup).
Features and design
It's not a top-of-the-range Samsung and definitely a plastic model, but the TU8000 manages to improve the looks of a Samsung for the most part. The back of the TV isn't particularly impressive, with a fully rounded plastic back that doesn't scream "high end," but luckily, you'll rarely look there. From the front, the sleek design of the TV on the left, right, and top is crisp and attractive. The base is a bit thicker, but lined with a silver plastic that blends in well and looks expensive, at least from a distance.
From the front, the sleek design of the TV on the left, right, and top is crisp and attractive.
Like other Samsung televisions, the TU8000 is powered by the Tizen smart TV system. Setup was easy and enjoyable and, thanks to the connection with the Samsung SmartThings app, extremely fast. Although you don't need the app, setup times are significantly reduced as you have access to a full keyboard (instead of having to type in your email address and WiFi password letter by letter with the remote control).
Jaron Schneider / Digital Trends
The TU8000 has three integrated HDMI inputs, only one of which has an eARC connection. Samsung has not taken into account the beautiful workmanship of its high-end models like the Q90T, so unfortunately you won't see any reduced artifacts or banding with content with a low bit rate. More on this and further information on image quality in a moment.
The largest bezel is on the bottom of the TV and is still relatively narrow, with a subtle logo placement. Jaron Schneider / Digital Trends
user friendliness
The Tizen Smart TV experience is … okay. As we've said before, it's a perfect example of "good enough," though it doesn't always do its best on that particular TV. Oddly enough, navigating to different apps or content in the Tizen UI shows some lag and is therefore slow and fast, but the performance of the apps themselves is snappy and pleasant. While I didn't like turning on the TV and choosing the app I want to use, I liked the user interface when I got to know Netflix, Amazon Prime, or YouTube. The other downside to Tizen is that it isn't as robust as other streaming platforms like Roku or Android TV. For example, there is no Crunchyroll app. This probably won't bother the majority of people as it has a full breakdown of the most popular apps.
While Tizen does the job, it's generally also overflowing with lots of unnecessary and irrelevant suggestions to look at. You can largely avoid this, but due to the input delay in Tizen navigation, I sometimes accidentally hit "down" too many times and was inundated with a full screen of poorly suggested content. Part of what makes Tizen so beautiful is that it generally only takes up a quarter of your screen when switching between apps, changing your source, or adjusting your picture. If Tizen breaks off from it, it shows its mistakes.
And as we have already mentioned with other Samsung Smart TVs and as I mentioned above, while it supports intelligent assistants that are (thankfully) not only Bixby, the voice integration is not as good as, for example, with an Android TV. It's a bit clunky and disjointed here, but it works.
picture quality
It should come as no surprise that if we found screen uniformity issues on a high-end Samsung TV this year, they would also appear in the lower TU8000 range. There is some particularly aggressive vignetting on this TV that is very inconsistent around every corner. For example, the top left corner on my test unit showed some of the worst vignetting, with the bottom left being a little less aggressive. Nevertheless, all four corners clearly have problems here. The vignette was also clearly visible in the mailbox contents.
This television does not use local dimming zones, but is edge-lit. This is an older, cheaper technology that offers less control over brightness and black levels. As a result, there is considerable bloom, predominantly from the lower part of the television, when there is a light subject on a dark background. With particularly high-contrast images, the scenes can be washed out by this flower.
The halo effect also occurs on bright objects, but it's not as bad as I expected. With small sources like subtitles, you can see about half an inch of halo around the letters, while with larger sources it can grow to about an inch and a half. It's not particularly noticeable in most cases, but it's there.
Edge-lighting induced bloom can really wash out what the panel is trying to do and makes for a generally muddy view.
The contrast of the TU8000 is only okay overall. I think the panel is capable of good black levels, but in too many scenes the edge-lit blooming mentioned above really washes out what the panel is trying to do and makes for a generally muddy view. The Mandalorian, with whom I also tested strips with a low bit rate content thanks to the many wide shots in a clear sky, seemed less powerful than I'm used to, since black and white somehow merge into a medium gray. However, it by no means makes the content uncontrollable.
Jaron Schneider / Digital Trends
In less challenging scenes where the area between highlights and shadows is more compact, the TU8000 performs much better. There's a 12K aerial video of a night flight over New York that we like to use as a base, and the slow panning of Times Square looked very good on this TV. Darks were well represented, and when the bright lights came in from the top of the screen, the TU8000 did a pretty good job of keeping the image where it should be.
In other challenging scenes, the TU8000 was able to smooth out shadows and bring out details pretty well. It may border washed-out borders again, but the detail has not been lost; At least the TU8000 doesn't crush black people. The quality is not what we expect from top-notch TVs, but for the price I was happy.
Samsung rightly touted 1080p upscaling: it's fantastic.
Out-of-the-box color accuracy is pretty good even in Standard (but stay away from Dynamic). The film mode reduces Samsung's sharpness to zero, which is very easy to see, and the contrast is better in this mode than in standard. In both Standard and Movie, skin tones could use some work as many of the nuances seem lost, but green and blue are pretty nice.
The TU8000 tends to be more yellow and more blue in film mode, while it is sharpened far too much in standard mode. In both cases the balance is thrown off a bit, but is bearable. This can likely be fixed with a special calibration, but since this TV is aimed at the more general consumer and not a pixel peeper, I say, I don't mind. Most will be perfectly happy with this TV in standard (the horror!) Or movie mode, and that's honestly a relief to report. This TV has to look great right away as the average customer doesn't touch a single setting, and I have to say that it works fine in that regard (although you really need to turn motion smoothing off).
Jaron Schneider / Digital Trends
The brightness is sufficient, but some of the particularly gritty content like Netflix 'Dark is a challenge during the day. Certainly doable, but I had to squint. However, shows like The Mentalist (via Amazon Prime Video) look fantastic no matter when I've watched them. Speaking of the mentalist: The TU8000 has wonderfully demonstrated its outstanding capabilities there, as this 1080p stream looks fantastic on the 55-inch set. Samsung rightly touted 1080p upscaling: it's fantastic.
Gaming performance
This is a good TV to play with, at least for now. According to Samsung, the TU8000 has gamer functions that reduce latency. However, this TV does not have a variable refresh rate, so it cannot remove the jerking. In addition, the display of content is limited to 60 Hz.
I can confirm that while the input delay is less than most TVs in game mode, it is not as fast as a gamer would want to see in a competition where you need split second response times. It's certainly good enough for the occasional single player game, but still a little slow for more intense, action-oriented online games like Apex Legends, top-tier Fortnite games, or Call of Duty.
The performance here is likely good enough for most current generation console games, but it won't be able to play at maximum specs with the next generation due fall 2020.
Sound quality
We don't usually talk too much about the sound quality of modern flat screen TVs, and I didn't want to consider that at all when I submitted this TV for review. However, I was very impressed with the TU8000. Not only can it get damn loud, but the sound quality is shockingly balanced. I strongly recommend buying a soundbar or sound system for any TV (my personal favorite is The Fives by Klipsch), but honestly, if you forego it, you honestly might not feel bad about this choice.
The sound works best in a smaller room. So if you plan to pick one up for a guest room or bedroom, you will be happy with the audio.
Jaron Schneider / Digital Trends
Our opinion
I used the TU8000 for about a week and became more interested in it than I thought. The thin bezel, mixed with great upscaling and surprisingly good sound quality, made for a really pleasant viewing experience. Sure, it has its downsides and the vignetting can be distracting at times, but overall, it does a very satisfactory job with its laundry list of promises. Samsung really had its job cut out for itself when it set such standards with its marketing, but the company is doing well enough in all of these categories for the most part. It isn't and shouldn't be an industry leader. For a fairly budget-friendly TV, many people will be perfectly happy with the Samsung TU8000, especially if you can find it on sale.
Is there a better alternative?
We're still waiting to test out the 2020 TCL 5 Series which seems to be a real head-turner, but despite being a year old, the 2019 5 Series is still a pretty comparable choice to the TU8000. You may also want to consider the new Vizio M or V series, as both sets offer a price close to or lower than the TU8000 for the same size or larger. We'll update this post when we've had the opportunity to rate the entire competition and provide clearer guidance.
How long it will take?
With three HDMI ports and one of them eARC, I'm confident this TV can get you a lot of work done. It's technologically built to last well into the future, and the quality feels solid.
warranty
Samsung offers a one-year parts and labor warranty for home use and a 90-day parts and labor warranty for commercial use.
Should you buy it?
I will reserve a judgment here. I think this is a good TV that is pretty good value at $ 500 for a 55-inch unit. If I didn't know that Vizio has two potential competitors soon, and if TCL doesn't look really promising with its 2020 5 Series, this could be an easy call. There is a lot of competition for the Samsung TU8000 this fall, however. So if you can wait a little to make your decision, this is probably your best bet right now. We will update this recommendation as soon as we have a chance to fully evaluate the field.
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