Samsung 8000 55in Smart 3D LED TV review

With an incredibly thin silver metallic bezel and chrome-effect stand, Samsung’s 8000 55in Smart 3D LED TV is a stunning looking piece of kit – we couldn’t wait to find out if the 55in LED-backlit set would have picture quality to match its looks.

The sense of immersion when watching 3D movies seemed heightened thanks to the ultra-thin bezel; on-screen effects seemed to have a much greater sense of depth than on other TVs. Using the supplied active shutter 3D glasses, there was very little cross-talk – where the TV can’t switch between the two images quickly enough, leaving a ghostly outline. We only noticed it in certain scenes where the 3D effects had been over-accentuated, but this is still impressive for an LCD panel. 3D up-scaling of 2D content was underwhelming, with little discernable difference in depth.

Despite its high price, the 8000 ships with just one pair of active shutter glasses.

The glasses themselves are one of the better-looking bundled pairs we’ve seen and were surprisingly comfortable to wear, even over prescription glasses. There was very little discernable screen flicker while watching 3D content and the colour quality was surprisingly vivid. However, taking them off to watch 2D content revealed some problems with image quality.

Massive screen, teeny-weeny bezel

At its default settings, brightness was much too high and images lacked contrast. As the panel is edge-lit, there was also quite noticeable backlight bleed at either side of the screen. After exploring the rather comprehensive settings menus, we managed to adjust the contrast and brightness to much more acceptable levels, but couldn’t completely eliminate bleed from the backlight, which is disappointing given the TV’s price. It was particularly prominent in darker images, even after we’d adjusted the backlight brightness to compensate.

People’s opinions are often divided by motion smoothing; although it can reduce the judder effect that comes with watching a 1080p24 Blu-ray film on a display with a fast refresh rate, it can also eliminate some detail. The ‘standard’ version of Samsung’s Motion Plus smoothing system is enabled by default, but it’s overly sensitive, removing a surprising amount of detail from our Casino Royale test disc. Turning it down to the “clear” setting improved things a great deal, restoring most of the lost detail but maintaining a smooth picture. Unsurprisingly, it still couldn’t cope with extremely fast motion without some blurring, but action scenes were still enjoyable. For casual watching, the downward-firing speakers have a reasonable range and can produce surprisingly loud audio.

It’s super-slim too at just 30mm

As you would expect from a premium-priced TV, the 8000 has a comprehensive specification. You get Freeview HD and Freesat tuners built in, plus a multitude of connectivity options including four HDMI ports, component, DVI, VGA and three USB ports. Free to air HD channels looked crisp and vibrant, as did the higher-quality standard definition channels. BBC1 had reasonable levels of detail and even the lower bit-rate Freeview channels looked acceptable after being stretched across 55 inches.

All the ports you’d expect are present

If you attach an external hard disk to one of its three USB ports, the 8000 can record TV without the need for a separate media recorder. Unfortunately you’ll have to format your disk to Samsung’s proprietary format, but this is still cheaper than buying a separate set-top box. The other two USB ports will play all major video file formats from a connected memory stick, including DivX and MKV. You can also stream audio, video and image files from a compatible media player over LAN or using the built-in Wi-Fi adaptor.

Beyond media streaming, there’s a whole host of internet TV options; as well as a web browser and social network apps, you can watch YouTube video clips and rent movies from LoveFilm. Picture-in-picture means you don’t have to stop watching a program while browsing the internet, but the interface felt punishingly slow. Opening any content-heavy website would freeze the TV completely until the page had loaded, which made it incredibly frustrating to watch on-demand content from BBC iPlayer.

The remote doesn’t mimic the TV’s stylish design

Based on styling alone, it’s clear to see why the 8000 commands such a high price; there are very few other TVs that look this good. As well as being visually striking, the 5mm screen bezel helps make 3D content look better than on other big-screen TVs. Unfortunately, 2D content isn’t quite so impressive; even after tweaking the picture settings, the display quality simply wasn’t up to scratch considering the price of the set. The internet TV features also left a lot to be desired, making the 8000 below-average value overall.