Samsung F8000 Smart LED TV review

SAMSUNG SMARTVIEW APP

The F8000 has plenty of smartphone-friendly features too. As well as having an MHL-compatible HDMI input, which will let you display the contents of your mobile device on the TV over HDMI, the F8000’s Wi-Fi Direct connection and AllShare Cast let you mirror your smartphone straight to the TV without any cables. The Samsung SmartView app can also turn your phone into a second virtual remote control, or a controller for games you’ve downloaded from the Smart TV App marketplace.

The game controller screen lets you play Smart TV games with your phone

However, SmartView’s defining feature is the ability to turn your smartphone into a second screen using Miracast. When your phone and the F8000 are connected to the same Wireless access point, you can view the same channel on both screens or watch two different programs using the twin tuners. Ideal if you want to watch the football, while others enjoy a drama.

The default SmartView screen lets you control the channel and volume on both the TV and your phone

It also works with any source going into the TV, regardless of copy protection (HDCP), which means you can use it to remotely watch the HDMI input from a set-top box, Blu-ray player or games console. Unfortunately the significant display lag makes it unsuitable for playing games, but we managed to watch a Blu-ray disc smoothly over Wi-Fi. SmartView is free to download from the Google Play store, but only for Samsung smartphones. We were able to throw content from other Android smartphones to the TV, but if you want to watch two channels at once you’ll need a Samsung Galaxy smartphone or tablet.

SmartView even works with HDCP protected content, such as the PS3