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That’s a positive, though. At a touch over 25mm deep for our 55-inch version, the chassis is enviably slim, and the bezels surrounding the screen are minimal too. It can be wall-mounted, of course. If you don’t fancy that option, though, and would rather stand your new TV on a surface, the Samsung’s feet are usefully close together, so your surface needn’t be as wide as the screen itself.
It’s not uncommon for a mainstream TV to betray its price-point more readily with the sound it makes than with the images it produces. And so it proves with the Samsung AU9000 TV. The Samsung BU8500 is impressively slim, but this does limit what its speakers can do. (Image credit: Future) Samsung BU8500 review: Sound quality It’s going to come as no great surprise to learn that the Samsung does its verybest work when given the very best content to work with. And, in light of its specification, the very best content turns out to be some native 4K material with HDR10+ as the cherry on top. To test the Samsung AU9000 we used Portrait Displays Calman colour calibration software. Samsung AU9000 review: Gaming
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After watching all sorts of content, I noticed that edge definition is also handled well, so edges are drawn confidently and with real positivity. Only when combined with properly testing on-screen motion are edges anything less than smooth, and only when on-screen motion gets properly complex does the Samsung do anything except grip movement with real determination. Only in extremis does the AU9000’s Crystal Processor 4K give the slightest hint of how hard it’s working. Colours can be bold and vivid when required (I found more-or-less any sports team’s kit falls into this category), or muted and nuanced if necessary (more-or-less any sports team’s manager’s clothing, for example). Gradations made me sit up and pay attention too – so when I was watching football, the numerous almost-identical shades of green from a pitch are described and differentiated well. One thing that’s not new, on the basis that upgrading it would be difficult in the extreme, is the Tizen smart TV interface. It’s long been close to ideal and, though every other manufacturer has undeniably upped their smart TV game to compete, Tizen continues to be a pleasure to use. Set-up menus are similarly logical, and strike a nice balance between brevity and comprehensiveness. Achieving a picture that scrolls smoothly, defines edges confidently, and is decently bright and detailed, shouldn’t take long. Getting a colour balance you’re convinced by may take just a little longer. The AU9000 supports HDR10, HLG and HDR10+, but not Dolby Vision. However, the absence of the latter has nothing to do with the TV’s mid-range status – none of Samsung’s models support the format, with the company instead opting for the royalty-free HDR10+. HDR10+ performance was good in testing, and while not as prevalent as Dolby Vision, is a format used by Prime Video and some 4K Blu-rays.
As is usual with Samsung – and for reasons that only look more pig-headed with every passing day – there’s no Dolby Vision dynamic metadata on board here. So, despite the fact that the world’s most popular subscription video streaming service has its app front-and-centre on the Samsung’s Tizen smart TV interface, the 50AU9000 isn’t able to exploit that service’s potential. And while Samsung can’t claim HDMI 2.1 specification, all three of the HDMI inputs here go further towards accommodating next-gen consoles than the model the AU9000 replaces. Auto Low Latency Mode and AMD FreeSync are catered for, and PC gamers will be pleased to learn there’s a facility to replicate the ultra-wide 32:9 aspect ratio some games can run at, too. Elsewhere, the 4K HDR10+ news is equally good. Detail levels are high across the board, and the amount of information the Samsung loads into skin-tones in particular is impressive. Colours are natural and convincing, with a degree of vibrancy when required but never over-driven. Plus, they’re wide-ranging enough to give expression to even subtle differences in shade or tone. The chassis itself is only 26mm deep, with the 43in version measuring 966 x 188 x 624mm (WDH) and weighing 8.6kg with its feet attached. These slot into grooves at the rear and provide 80mm of clearance beneath the image. A section of plastic can be used to connect the two feet, which stand 640mm apart, but you’ll want to leave this off if you’re planning to slot a soundbar under the screen.During setup, the adjustment to color balance is on a bit of a hair-trigger – it’ll tip from ‘just slightly understated’ to ‘rather too lively’ in no time. But play around a bit to find the optimum balance and the color palette is naturalistic, convincing and wide-ranging. Skin-tones, in particular, are detailed and varied. Gamers may hanker after full HDMI 2.1 capability to really maximise the potential of their new PS5 or Xbox Series X – but, then again, gamers really ought to know that’ it’s going to cost them a wee bit more than this. If you’re intending to see the Samsung AU9000 TV perform at its best, then you’ll need to serve it some native 4K content with HDR10+ augmentation – because, as is always the case (and as is always galling) with Samsung, there’s no Dolby Vision dynamic metadata HDR standard on the spec-sheet. Many countries receive market-specific variations of television, of course, due to differences in broadcast standards and so on – so at present there’s no confirmation of what the equivalent Samsung screen will be in other territories. What we can be certain of, though, is that both the United States and Australia will be getting a range of competitively priced, competitively specified Samsung 4K LED TVs that are more than a little reminiscent of the BU8500 series. There’s an impressive choice of apps for a TV at this price point too, with Netflix, Prime Video, Now TV, Disney+, Apple TV+, Rakuten, YouTube, and all the UK TV catch-up services; plus there’s the Universal Guide to help you sift through the extensive selection of content.
Slim chassis, great spec and very agreeable picture performance is all well and good – but when it comes to audio performance, the Samsung BU8500 sounds like an affordable flatscreen TV of the old school. And that’s not necessarily a good thing. No, the AU9000 is not the dullest, or the vaguest, or the most volume-adverse, television I've ever heard – but then neither is it all that interesting or engaging to listen to. To give the Samsung 50AU9000 some credit, at least it doesn’t become unlistenable at serious volumes – which is a trait that afflicts plenty of its rivals. It just gets louder. But the tonal quality of its sound is nothing to write home about.Looked at in profile, though, the AU9000 is a fair bit more interesting. Somehow Samsung has managed to keep the depth down to a super-svelte 26mm – and that’s a consistent depth, too. Unlike that OLED TV you’ve had your eye on, there’s no swelling or protuberance housing all the electronic odds and sods here. If you decide to wall-mount your new TV, you can be sure that it will sit as flush to the rear surface as any screen that doesn’t cost maybe five times as much. It’s quite distinct through the mid-range and, again, quite decent levels of detail. Voices project forwards well, and they're actually quite nicely balanced – until they start to nudge into the upper frequency range. Once it reaches the higher frequencies, the BU8500 becomes quite hard and edgy, bringing sibilance and even a hint of coarseness to treble sounds. It’s a trait that’s only exacerbated by volume. The Samsung AU9000 reveals its budget nature most obviously when handling HDR content, especially when it comes to peak brightness. The TV can hit around 300cd/m² on both a 10% window and full-field pattern in Dynamic mode, but in Filmmaker Mode this luminance drops to around 250cd/m² on both a 10% and a full-field pattern. The Samsung BU8500 is on sale now, though at the time of writing this particular model is available in Europe and some other countries, but hasn't been announced for North America or Australia (though it is available in New Zealand). Play to the Samsung’s strengths with some 4K HDR10+ content and the AU9000 didn't take long to impress me. It has some real and unarguable strengths when it comes to picture-making.
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