Bests & Worsts Reviews from Amazon

Samsung sure has changed my opinion of them with this TV. In other reviews of this product, Samsung apparently lost a fan or two, but they have a new one here. Based on some of the initial reviews I was sure skeptical about how this TV would perform. To pay a premium for a new technology that could potentially make some things worse, like adding blurring, fuzzy text, etc. is just completely unacceptable. After a very thorough and extensive review, I just don't see how those other reviews can be accurate. My personal experience with this TV is polar opposite. This TV makes everything better, and nothing worse. I'll share what components I tested this TV with in a minute. First, let's get through some of the details. As others have noted, this TV is easy to put together and perform initial setup. The included stand is minimalist, involving three pieces and 8 total screws. You can have this put together in less than 5 minutes. You might need a hand taking the TV out of the box and putting it up on a mount or cabinet. The TV weighs 75lbs with its stand. Wish #1: I wish the TV could swivel on the stand, but it can't. Long term I will probably invest in an articulating wall mount. Cabling it is also very simple. Just like any other TV except that the connectivity into the TV has been uncoupled from the TV itself, and lives in a separate box called the One Connect. All of your connections are made to the One Connect, which then attaches to the panel with a single 10 foot cable. This makes wall mounting the system a snap, and brings the connectivity closer to the devices for easy maintenance. I agree with another reviewer, this should be the new standard for TV's. Just awesome. Wish #2: I wish the power cord was longer than 5 feet. When I invest in the wall mount, I will probably have an electrician put an outlet behind where the TV mounts so power cord length is a non-issue. The initial setup is guided by Samsung's very easy and intuitive user interface. You can easily be watching TV within 5 minutes of powering on. The TV comes with two remote controls. One is a standard remote control, and the other is more like the touch-pad on a laptop. Very modern, very smart. I was also able to successfully use U-verse guided remote control setup so that my U-verse remote controls the Samsung TV power, mute, volume, etc. I tried numerous U-verse codes, and none of them worked. The U-verse guided setup basically keeps guessing until it gets it right, and it finally set it up perfectly. Internet connectivity is also easy to set up. The TV supports both wireless and connected LAN. I happen to use powerline networking rather than wireless because I get better performance that way. I was actually able to stream UHD video samples from YouTube flawlessly. The TV allows you to customize the IP settings, choose DNS, Gateway, etc. I was able to setup OpenDNS and Google safe search so the TV Internet browser was much safer for our kids, which I like a lot. So I mentioned earlier that I believe the TV makes everything better, and nothing worse. I tested the TV with the following components that I believe are typical of what most people will have: 1) U-verse DVR capable of outputting both 720p and 1080i via HDMI 2) 5 Year old Sharp Blu-ray player capable of outputting 1080p via HDMI 3) Wii U capable of outputting 1080p gaming via HDMI 4) Brand new "Samsung BD-F7500 4K Upscaling 3D Wi-Fi Blu-ray Disc Player" capable of outputting both 1080p and 4K via HDMI. I just bought this from Amazon for the sole purpose of testing an up-scaling 4K Blu-ray player with a 4K capable TV. I tested each of the above components on my previous TV, which is a "LG Cinema Screen 55LM7600 55-Inch Cinema 3D 1080p 240Hz LED-LCD HDTV", -AND- this TV, the "Samsung UN55F9000 55-Inch 4K Ultra HD 120Hz 3D Smart LED TV". My LG TV currently retails for about $1500, but when I acquired it, it was a $2200 TV. I had both TV's, old and new, right next to each other on separate stands. Same Height, same size, same component inputs, etc. Test #1 - U-verse everyday TV watching. This should be similar in quality to other cable and satellite providers. They may even have higher resolution, so your results could be even better. We watched more than 15 hours of various programming from our U-verse DVR, which is set to 1080i. The difference between this Samsung TV and our old LG TV was very noticeable. We watched animated content, sports, news, etc. In each case this TV always looked better than our old one, and it was unanimous across all 5 family members. We would play content from the DVR on the new TV, and then replay it 10 seconds later on the old one or vice versa. We even paused programs on one TV, and then switched over to view the paused program on other one. Again, this TV is superior in every case. Text is razor sharp and crystal clear. We couldn't find any motion blur at all, no matter how hard we tried. A golf ball in midflight on our old LG TV would actually have a second ball shadow in midair, and on this TV there was none. It's crystal clear. I dialed my U-verse receiver back to the default 720p, and it had a minor negative impact, most noticeable in fine details like text, grass, fabric, etc. Test #2 - Regular 1080p Blu-ray output from a regular Blu-ray player. The Samsung UN55F9000 was superior in both regular non-Blu-ray DVD playback -AND- Blu-ray 1080p playback. I used animated content and nature content (Planet Earth). The Samsung really excels when a scene is dark and there are numerous subtle shades of black and grey. We used to have to close all of the shades in our media room when watching a dark movie like some of the Harry Potter or LOTR movies. The Samsung TV provides a much more clear and vibrant picture. Its handling of black is Plasma-like in quality. This is a vast improvement. We watched lots of content over and over again on both TV's, and the Samsung was the unanimous favorite. Test #3 - Wii U (1080P Gaming). The Samsung UN55F9000 didn't significantly improve older Wii games from the 480p resolution days, but it didn't make them worse either. The few actual Wii U games we have that were designed for 1080P were greatly improved in terms of sharpness, color, and sound as well. One thing people forget about is that TV's make sound too. Some TV's make poor sound, and so then you go buy a sound bar or use a home theater system. This TV actually has very good sound. Good enough that I may neglect to hook up the sound bar we were using with our LG TV. Test #4 - Up-scaling 4K Blu-ray Player. With reports from other reviewers that the TV struggled with blurring when up-scaling content, I thought a useful test would be to see if doing the up-scaling before it entered the TV would make a difference. My experience after comparing the two options is that there is no discernible difference between Up-scaling in the DVD player and sending 4K to the TV, or sending 1080p to the TV and letting it upscale to 4K. Both look really excellent. The TV recognizes Up-scaled content from the DVD player and reports it as such. A quick side-note on 3D, since this Blu-ray player is 3D capable. The 3D glasses that come with the Samsung UN55F9000 TV (model SSG-5100GB) are active, meaning they have a battery. They are very comfortable to wear. The TV comes with 4 of them, but extras are only $18 on Amazon. I already ordered another one since we are a family of 5. 3D performance is really excellent. The combination of the higher resolution and active 3D is a significant improvement over our other LG set. Historically we never really bought or rented much 3D content since we felt we had to sacrifice clarity for the 3D experience. That's not the case with this TV. You can have both 3D and clear at the same time. We will definitely rethink how we rent and buy movies going forward. Some of the newer DVD packs come with 3D, Blu-ray, and regular DVD media all in one, which is appealing. So after all of this testing, I asked myself "Is the Samsung UN55F9000 really this good, or did my LG TV just suck?" To get a better idea of this, I took a field trip to Fry's Electronics to see a whole bunch of TV's up close. What I found was that the 4K UHD TV sets by both Samsung and Sony are superior to all of the regular 1080p TVs. It becomes really apparent when you are able to see the same content, at the same time, right next to each other. UHD TVs have much better resolution, better grey/black handling, and better fine grain detail. It's noticeable. Is it life changing? Probably not, but you can't say it's not a better picture, because it is. I found an LG TV similar to my old one, and I'm happy to say that it didn't suck. It wasn't quite as good as the Samsungs and Sonys, but it held its own with pretty much everything else on display. The 65" version of this Samsung 4K UHD TV that was on display had the best picture of every TV there. Even better than the UHD Sony. So don't be afraid that because your current TV is awesome, this one can't be better, because it is. (most likely) One additional note...if you are considering a very large LED panel for a home theater (70" and above), go see them first. They don't look very good in 1080p. Having 4K UHD will really help the large LED panels have the resolution they need for their large size. So what are you paying for when you buy a TV like this? 1) A premium because you are an early adopter of new technology. At the time of this writing, the premium you are paying is about $500 vs. the 8000 series Samsung sets, which are comparable minus the UHD 4K aspect. 2) You are paying for and getting a better picture 3) You are paying for investment protection. 4K DVD players are coming out. The new XBOX One can output 4K. 4K movies are downloadable in some cases. It's just a matter of time before Blu-ray disks start showing up in 4K format. 4) The Smart TV functions. This TV is super smart, and it's all amazingly fast due to a quad-core processor. It is easily as fast as my wife's 1 year old laptop at web surfing, navigation, etc. My LG TV was a dog at this kind of thing. 5) Form. This is a truly beautiful piece of technology. It's sleek, almost minimalist in its looks. 6) This TV has a camera on top of it. Whaaaaaat? You can sit a family of 5 on the couch and do a Skype session with someone, and they will see your whole family sitting there, just as clear as day. Pretty awesome. No more gathering around the laptop and saying hi one at a time. To sum it up, if you think you might be in the market for a TV like this, go check them out for yourself. The difference is pretty easy to see in a store. Stores have a way of making TVs look their absolute best, and so you wonder what it will look like when you get it home. That's why I tested all of these combinations of components...to hopefully give you a feel for that. Anyway, GREAT TV, couldn't be happier.