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Customer Reviews
Most helpful customer reviews
160 of 181 people found the following review helpful.
TV Stand is too wide - 1st Thoughts
By Corey Fisher
I am currently reviewing one of these units and will post a more in depth review soon. However, I needed to post this right away for those considering purchasing this tv..
Right now, the tv (55-inch) is currently 48 inches wide. The problem I am having with this TV is that the stand is also 48 inches wide, which will be a huge inconvenience to most people. It's too wide for 90% of TV stands out there so be warned before purchasing this tv. It currently is also measured 12 inches depth too. I have yet to find a tv stand other then an ultra wide or expensive shelf to sit it on. This is another poor example of form over function. I have a feeling Samsung will bite the bullet on this one because of this mistake as most will have a difficult time find a stand to put this on or it will be un-achievable on their current existing stands. This won't be an issue for those wall mounting, but before you buy this TV, you better measure where you'll put it first.
**UPDATE - 03/06/2013
I have been testing the unit for a few days now and we found a TV stand that can hold the thing. I've raised the review 1-star due to the picture quality being extroardinary, however, I strongly believe the stand is very impractical, hence, the deduction of 1-star. I've actually reached out to Samsung to see if they can design a new retrofitted stand that hold the set and be a bit more practical and release as an accessory, because this thing is ridiculously wide. Alright, enough with the stand now.
As for the initial picture quality results. They are outstanding. The back panel is comprised of literally thousands of miniature LED lights that produce very strong light and can dim all the way down to be completely turned off. So far, the factory calibration is much improved over last year's, I doubt we will have to modify it much. The image quality is much better as well, there is currently no observable light bleed or halo'ing around images. Darks are much much darker then the ES series, but the ES series were edge-lit, these new panels are not as they are full back-lit set's. The new sets do eliminate most of the image blur found common on LCD sets and it appears, at least initially, that the image is much faster and responsive. However, fast paced scenes like those in Transformers and etc are still not as clear the Plasma panels, but either way are improved still. Black levels are insane for a LED set and depending on when we measure against the best from LG and Sony, might be some of darkest blacks on a LED set yet. I should note that we havent measured it yet. However, we have put the set in complete darkness and tested it and all we could see were images and no halo, which is huge.
3D performance is in fact definitely brighter and smoother and I am unable to identify artifacting or crosstalk whatsoever, however I should note that last year's ES series did a pretty good job at crosstalk reduction, but the new sets are in fact much brighter.
Smart Hub - more on this later, but a MASSIVE improvement over anything we've seen yet. The interface is ingenius and amazing at the same time, just make sure to youtube this as the picture will not do it justice. Not only is this software elegant looking, the TV defaults to it when it's turned on as it is essentially the control hub for the set. The quad core in this set makes this dashboard wicked fast and apps pop up in mere seconds. In comparison to last years sets, its seams about 5 times as fast. The last year models will get this functionality via a "evolution kit" when Samsung releases those next month.
Other misc features - The camera is much improved, more accurately coordinating your movements. Last year models weren't that great until they released several firmware updates to make it usable and practical, but still wasn't that great. These new models are better at tracking movement and resemble the smoothness of the Microsoft Kinect, which is great news for those waving a burrito at the set and dont want to grease up the remote. The voice activation is WAY better, coming close to the ease of use of Siri and maybe, just maybe even surpassing it. So far, I would say the voice recognition is about 90% accurate, compared to last years sets, which I would probably peg at about 75% after the firmware updates. This is likely due to the new software and quad core A15 chipset this new set has. I would assume the new sets will be just as good when they get the evolution kit.
If your thinking of this TV or The Samsung F8500 Plama's, I can tell you right now without a shadow of doubt, the F8500 Plasma panels are KING and are much better in image quality and they seams to even be closing in to the quality of an OLED set, which are currently priced at $10,000. The F8000 LED sets are nice, but not F8500 Plasma nice. You'll need to observe both to understand what I mean. More on this later.
More to come...
**UPDATE 03/07/2013**
To clarify, this TV does not appear to be a full array back-lit set, but it uses new technology called Precision Black, which appears to be some kind of hardware filter on the TV set. See below for Samsung's description taken from the manual spec sheet.
Micro Dimming Ultimate:
Displays a picture that is as true-to-life as possible by maximizing
the contrast between light and dark. Our innovative technology
scans zones across the image and adjusts brightness to deliver
deeper dark tones and brighter whites. It also eliminates the
"halo" effect and image distortion that can happen with diffused
lights. The Ultimate version of this technology optimizes the
quality to new heights by scanning 2 times the number of zones
in the image.
Precision Black (Local Dimming):
Produces a much greater increase in contrast and black levels
by dimming LEDs behind dark areas of the picture, thus making
blacks darker without affecting brighter elements of the picture.
**UPDATE 03/08/2013**
One thing I've noticed that might be an issue for a lot people is the smart hub and its multi tasking capabilities. The new Smart Hub is essentially a full blown operating system and can open multiple applications. However, I recommend not opening more then one app at a time. I've noticed the more apps that are open will significantly slow the TV down to the point of almost freezing. So be careful using the multi tasking capabilities.
**FINAL UPDATE 03/28/2013**
The TV has now had well over 100 hours of burn-in time and we have calibrated the TV. The image quality after calibration is pretty much near perfect color accuracy, which we've never seen before in an LED set. After calibration, the results are amazing and the black levels are the deepest we've measured on an LED set, even more so then the localized dimming sets from Sony and LG last year.
Our final calibrated settings are as follows. (Note, this is what worked on our set and shouldn't be duplicated unless by a certified professional or by using your own eye with blu-ray calibration software).
We started out with the movie mode, decreased back-light to 8, set gamma to -1, scaled contrast back to 75, left sharpness at 20 (some pros will tell you to eliminate sharpness, however, I find that a little bit actually helps with clarity, just not too much). We only changed one color and that was blue (this has to be done with almost all led sets since predominantly blue). We set black levels to "darkest", dynamic contrast to "low". We left cinema black alone, since we were unable to identify any differences with it on or off. We also set dynamic backlighting to "high" since this also improved contrast and black levels during dark scenes, but standard also does just fine. The black checker-board was almost 100% reproduced with dark blacks and whitest whites and no uneven light. The end result is basically a perfectly calibrated set, almost 100% color accuracy. Can't ask much more then that if you ask me.
All in all, the best LED TV set I've reviewed. We've been messing with the F8500 Plasma, which I believe, along with the Panasonic VT60 to be among the best/ most accurate picture available until 4K and OLED become mainstream. However, this LED set still comes pretty close to the image quality of the top plasma's today. I still recommend the Plasma's over the LED's hoever because they have much faster refresh rates and smoother motion, especially in movie scenes and video games.
62 of 68 people found the following review helpful.
TV will keep you happy until 4K is perfected & prices lowered
By Concerned Consumer
Overall: I have had the TV for about 6 weeks now. I am VERY pleased with the purchase. The previous ES8000 model was plagued with cloudiness (gone in F series), banding (none found on 55" F), and flashlight (minimal on F series). I needed a LED TV upgrade and was on a budget ($2500 OTD/with tax) that didn't place me in the local array dimming technology zone. Plasma's are too reflective for my environment (check out the Samsung 8500 though, sounds wonderful). Right away I noticed how solid the TV itself felt. IF I had to do it over again, I would definitely recommend the 55" F8000 for others to buy over the ES8000(just get a good deal like I did, TV prices ALWAYS go down over time) but for ES8000 owners...I wouldn't upgrade. No way. This TV will hold me over until 4K's are on the market for awhile, helping perfect them and lower price.
Be wary of some of these random 1 star reviews, as many users do not even own the F series TV! Or they had an issue because they didn't have the right settings configured. I feel this TV rates 5 stars as I believe this tech is at it's "ceiling" and there is minimal room for improvement using edge lit tech.
For those who wish the short and simple, thats it! Keep reading for indepth review.
Picture Quality: The picture quality on this TV is fantastic especially after a few color tweaks (I'll post what I'm using below, as CNET hasn't posted anything up yet). The blacks are so DEEP compared to my last tv(direct lit led). There is a SMALL amount of flash lighting in all four corners; I believe this is the technologies fault though. I can only notice it in all black lighting with something like movie title in middle of screen and black on rest of screen. Unless you are really looking for it in a black screen and concentrated on a corner you will not notice it.
Viewing Angle: Fairly limited, from my understanding its the same if not a little worse than the ES8000. You will notice the farther off center you will notice more of a degradation in picture quality. This doesn't bother me as my "seat" is always right in front. Most end users are not as particular or picky as me when it comes to picture quality, many will not even care/notice a difference until a more extreme angle(an angle you can't reach in the room my TV is in).
Price: I attempted to get Amazon to price match a store that was not on their official authorized list and they refused (attempted multiple times, through different numbers and chat). It was a $500 difference. I've found this TV from stores as low as $2075. I ended up having the local Best Buy price match this tv for me, and recieved a free 7" samsung galaxy tab 2 aswell. I bought my last flagship Samsung TV in 2008/9. The A850 model(now in bedroom, this TV still satisfies me and looks better than many lower model Sammy TV's on market today).
Stand: I hated the TV stand. To feng shui for me. My wife loved it though. It actually fit our TV stand. Although please note this stand is very wide. It even came with some sort of oversized plastic screws and rope that ensured a child couldn't pull the TV down (smart). I planned on mounting this TV though like my last TV, so the stand doesn't matter much to me.
Wall Mount: I opted for a low profile wall mount from Monoprice. The one I picked was $14 and the product ID number is 5918. This places the TV pretty much ON the wall with this mount. It's about 19mm off of the actual wall. I was able to run the power cord and a Redmere technology HDMI thin cord(10ft for $17 over at Monoprice). It came with all the necessary bolts and spacers for the F8000 (1 small/1 large on top bolts and 2 smalls on bottom bolts).
Heat: Had the TV on for 12 hours and couldn't find any hot spots or to much heat to make me worried with how close the TV was to the wall. Was an issue on certain ES8000 sets last year causing a V spot of cloudiness.
Remote: The remote is solid and touch part is amazing. It's not a gimmick at all and actually works great. I find it easy to type with there on screen keyboard. Came with crappy batteries so I opted for some standard spare ones I had in the house. It would have been nice to get a standard remote though for older generations that do not like touchpad technology.
Extended Warranty: I bought my warranty through Costco's squaretrade deal for $99. It will cover ME for 4 years. If I used my AMEX it would have been 5. Research your own warranties and determine if you are ok with how squaretrade handles their warranties, they will not put more money into it then what the TV is worth (pretty sure it is actually what YOU paid for it).
Smart Hub/"Smart TV" features: I have fiddled with it a little bit. I really like it as it consolidates all "apps" I had available on other things like my xbox and bluray player. Nice to have it just on the TV. Browsing the internet is as smooth as Safari on my iPhone 5. EXCEPT when dealing with flash, then it slows way down...I'm not sure if flash is compatible. Netflix has worked fine for me. Amazon Video too. S-Recommended feature does not support Century Link Prism TV(their FIOS tv). They have the DSL rights to my area so I can't have any other FIOS TV. Not a fan of motion control, just like the kinect not useful yet, to gimmicky. Voice seems fairly well if you practice at using it. I prefer to hit buttons myself, using your voice still isn't natural to me. I was able to stream DLNA sources easily(up to 1080P 3D) with no issues wireless on a 5ghz network. Only issue is DLNA servers on Samsung TV's don't let you fastfoward so you have to find a workaround. Mine was using ZappoTV(free app on iphone) to inform my NAS DLNA to stream to TV...then I could FF/Rewind on tv with touchpad remote(flicking remote left or right) OR doing it form my phone.
Smart LED: I have tried for weeks of turning it on low as opposed to off. I decided to stick with low, it does not bother me. This feature can be bothersome to certain people, let your own eyes bet the judge.
Cinema Black: I love this feature it def makes the bars more black on widescreen flicks. I have not noticed this(nor have others), but another owner claim that the black bleeds into the picture where the black meets the "lit" area. Again you be the judge of this feature, let your eyes guide you.
Devices: Hooked up my 10-13 year old 1st gen microsoft bluetooth mouse and keyboard. Worked just fine, somewhat impressed how functional it seemed to be.
Banding: I did several different banding tests and had no banding. I found none.
Stuttering: I really had to work on finding something to get this tv to stutter. My bluray player on any movie? No. Streaming all different types of formats up to 1080P 3D quality on my laptop to TV via HDMI..no stutter. Streaming from my NAS(Synology DS213+) to TV with same formats/qualities listed above. No stuttering. I played with my Prism TV box and upon another users advice to try watching HGTV panning shots of before/after, I was able to get the TV to half step baby stutter on panning shots on HGTV...just one little one that almost made me believe I blinked, instead of witnessing a stutter. I believe it is HGTV and not the TV though as I haven't been able to get another stutter to happen on any other show or channel...multple users have acknowledged this stutter on different tv sets.
Sound: No idea, disabled it to use my own speakers(newegg runs crazy sales on polk audio speakers) and a Denon 2112CI. A few years ago I spent $700 for Samsung's HTIB. HUGE mistake, so many repairs. All of Samsung's audio/theater products seem to be getting worse in quality control...as is there customer service. They barely stand behind there products DURING their warranty...outside of warranty? You might get "one" comp'd repair...but if you need another, forget it. I had that HITB repaired like 8 times in 2 years.
The firmware I'm running is 15.2. Right when I started the TV and setup network it notified me that I had an update available. I said not to and to turn automatic updates off. Still, Samsung updated the firmware (they are known to sometimes do this). This can be a bad thing as in the past on other sets they sometimes take away features or make the sets look worse--not better. On my last TV it was easy to upgrade OR downgrade firmware...now it's a PITA to downgrade.
Evolution Kits: I think until these kits prove themselves they are a complete and utter joke. UNLESS these kits prove themselves somehow improving picture quality. If they don't at most I might update the last year its "compatible" with my set to upgrade the processor.
Game Mode: This setting helps reduce lag while playing through your gaming consoles(xbox/ps3). I played BF3 on my Xbox just find and did not notice any lag. UNTIL I enabled PC Mode. Then it became very apparent that PC mode was much more functional for gaming than "game mode". Try PC Mode first gents, it has less lag. Samsung seriously needs to fix this in an update.
NOTE: PC mode can only be accessed on sources not assigned to a "Samsung" device(i.e. Samsung Bluray) or any input set up with their universal remote system...it renames source forcing a keyboard naming option that does not enable PC mode. Simply select HDMI 1/2/3/4, select tools(top right), a drop down list should appear, select PC and select it. This mode/dropdown list is ONLY accessible from HDMI's that weren't previously assigned to a Samsung Product or your universal remote. If you wish to assign PC mode to a port previously assigned to STB, just delete the universal remote settings.
The features currently disabled in 15.2 are:
Game mode settings not available:
Picture Options:
HDMI Black Level (forced normal)
Film Mode
Auto Motion Plus
Advanced Settings:
10p White Balance (forced off)
Motion Lighting
PC Mode settings not available(MUCH is disabled):
Tone
Color
Picture Options:
Digital Clean View
MPEG Noise Filter
HDMI Black Level
Film Mode
Auto Motion Plus
Smart LED
Cinema Black
Advanced Settings:
Dynamic Contrast
Black Tone
Flesh
RGB Only Mode
Color Space
10P White Balance
Expert Pattern
Motion Lighting
Summery: This TV is an excellent purchase for the right price. I believe it deserves 5 out of 5 stars as it has very MINOR flaws: somewhat pricy, stand sort of wide, stutters nonexistent on my tv service(Century Link Prism TV), flashlighting (BARELY there, doesn't even bother me as I think this edge lit tech is perfected and Samsung needs to hurry up and take over sharp's patents so they can get back to local dimming array models).
Current Color Setting's I'm using from an online forum members home calibrator's settings and slight tinkering of my own(remember, all sets are different and you should use this only as an end user as a good "base" too start with and tweak to your liking's..thats why mine do not match his, also I added turned on cineblack/smartled):
Backlight=6(night)-14(day) with best backlight to use being 10
Movie Mode
BL 10
Cont 94
Bright 45
Sharp 0
Color 48
G/R 49/51
Pic Size - screen fit
Pic Options
Color temp - Warm 2
Film Mode Auto 2
Auto Motion Plus > Custon > Blur = 10, Judder = 0, Clear = off (NOTE: if you get studdering, try turning it off custom and onto Clear)
Adv
Color Space - Auto
10 point WB - Off
White Balance:
ro 25
go 26
bo 26
rg 16
gg 25
bg 23
Black Tone=Off
Smart LED=Low
Cinablack=On (you can leave this off if you wish, just make sure its on for widescreen)
Eco= Off
Dynamic Contrast=Off(using it can crush blacks too if not careful)
3D mode
Note: Press the 3D button on the remote and select 2D>3D to put the F8000 into the 3D mode
Turn off everything that says Auto to Off Except Film Auto2 in Picture Options
Movie Mode - Note 2D and 3D on the same HDMI Input have separate memories
Backlight 20
Contrast 100
Brightness 46
Sharpness 0
Color 50
Tint 50/50
Picture Size - Screen Fit
3D
Perspective 0
Frame Depth 5
Light Control > High
Advanced Mode - off, off, 0, and off
Color Space - Custom
R R38 G0 B6
G 15 23 9
B 9 0 51
Y 47 52 9
C 14 51 53
M 41 0 48
White Balance 27 29 28 0 8 50
10p White Balance - not accessible in 3D mode
Gamma -3
Picture Options
Color Temp Warm2
Dig Clean View - off
Mpeg - off
Film - Auto 2
Auto Motion Plus - Custom - Blur 10 - Judder 5 - LED Clear Motion Off
Smart LED Off
Cinema Black Off
XBox: PC Mode on, HDMI Black Level: Normal, Standard Mode(I adjust the settings similiar to whats posted above, higher backlight. Game Mode is better for color control but has higher lag than PC Mode.
17 of 19 people found the following review helpful.
This is a wonderful television
By CC reader
We researched extensively before replacing our 10 year old set. We knew we wanted backlit LCD rather than Plasma and we wanted to go bigger. We looked at many sets but settled on the Samsung UN55ES7200 and UN55F8000. Based upon the reviews there were some issues with the ES8000, which was an early generation of Samsung smart tvs. While that set is meaningfully less expensive we are glad we went with the F8000 released in 2013. The picture is incredibly crisp and, despite its size the set is slim and light weight. The clicker has a touch pad feature and the connections with the internet, HBO, Amazon, Netflix are very easy (even for a non-technically savvy person like me). It connected easily (although it was missing 2 screws which Samsung sent out very quickly) so set up time was nominal. There have been no resolution or lighting issues (as have been described in the ES8000). I have only one constructive comment, the resolution is so very good that you can sometimes see the artificial nature of the movie sets in older movies. If that is the only problem we encounter I believe that is something that can be overlooked. We are really pleased with the purchase and, as always, Amazon delivery was fast and convenient.
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