Samsung NU8000 Review (UN49NU8000, UN55NU8000, UN65NU8000, UN75NU8000, UN82NU8000)

 
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The Samsung NU8000 is the top model of Samsung’s 2018 non-QLED TV line. The Samsung NU8000 was replaced by the newer RU8000. Even though the NU8000 was the prior year’s model and was replaced by the RU8000, but you can still find the NU8000 in some stores. Just like other mid-range televisions on the market, you’ll find that there’s many screen size options. The smallest is the 49 inch model (the UN49NU8000), then there’s a 55 inch model (UN55NU8000), a 65 inch model (UN65NU8000), a 75 inch model (UN75NU8000), and the biggest being the 82 inch model (UN82NU8000).

Price is mostly dependent on the screen size.  For the 55 inch model and smaller, the NU8000 is just a few dollars cheaper than the RU8000. This is partly due to the price of the NU8000 being lowered a lot. For the 65 inch models and larger, the newer RU8000 can actually be hundreds of dollars less than the NU8000. Of course, prices are not fixed and can still change at any time. 

Click here for an Owner’s Manual for the Samsung NU8000.

Samsung NU8000 Specifications

Review of the Samsung NU8000

Panel Technology

The NU8000 uses a VA (Vertical Alignment) panel technology. As is typical of VA panel, this makes for a good native contrast ratio to produce a deep black. On the other hand, the use of the VA panel makes for a poor side viewing angle. In 2019, Samsung  introduced a new optical layer technology (called “Ultra Viewing Angle) that helps improve the side viewing angle coverage of its lineup. Currently this technology is just applied with the premium models like the Q90R and the Q80R.

Backlight Technology

The NU8000 has local dimming technology that helps improve its dark room viewing technology. The NU8000 has UHD Dimming features, called Supreme UHD Dimming. One more feature of the NU8000 is that it can help to improve its contrast ratio with the “Contrast Enhancer”. 

Image Processor

The NU8000 is powered by UHD Engine, which is similar to the engine used in their RU8000 lineup. I think there is no significant improvement with the newer 4K UHD Processor compared to the UHD Engine when it comes to the picture quality produced.

HDR Support

In addition to HDR10, the most popular HDR format, the NU8000 supports HLG (Hybrid Log Gamma), HDR format developed by NHK and BBC for TV broadcasting. This allows you to watch TV shows with HDR quality. You also get support for HDR10+, an HDR format that is an improvement over the HDR10 format. The difference is that HDR10 utilizes static metadata, and HDR10+ uses dynamic metadata. Although the NU8000 does not support Dolby Vision  — another HDR format that uses dynamic metadata.

Motion Technology

The Samsung NU8000 is supported by Motion Rate 240 technology. And has a native refresh rate panel at 120 Hz. This allows the NU8000 to play native 120 fps content or interpolate lower frame rate content at up to 120 Hz.

To dim their backlight, there’s a PWM (Pulse Width Modulation) dimming system. And dimming frequency relies on the setting. When picture mode is set to “Movies”, dimming frequency is equal to 240 Hz. In all other modes, the dimming changes to 120 Hz. Additionally, when the Auto Motion Plus is set to “Custom” or “Auto”, the dimming frequency is always 120Hz, even if set in Movie mode. The 120 Hz flicker can help fast motion look a little crisper, but on the other hand, this will also cause some unwanted duplication.

Additionally, there’s an optional 60Hz (BFI) Black Frame Insertion mode. This feature can be activated by enabling “LED Clear Motion” in the “Auto Motion Plus” menu.  This means, when the “LED Clear Motion” is enabled, the backlight flicker will change to 60 Hz. Enabling the BFI mode will help to make motion look crisp, particularly when playing 60 fps content — like fast sports and video games. On the other hand, the backlight flickers at a lower frequency which could make the flicker more noticeable to some people who could be sensitive to flicker.

The NU8000 supports FreeSync VRR (Variable Refresh Rate) technology. At 4K resolution, the refresh rate can change between 48 to 60 Hz while with 1080p and 1440p resolution, the refresh rate can change between 20 to 120 Hz. When a compatible device like an Xbox one or a PC with compatible GPU is connected, you get games that are nearly tear-free.

Note: The 49 inch models (the UN49NU8000) is powered by Motion Rate 120 and only has a native 60 Hz refresh rate panel. The UN49NU8000 does not support Variable Refresh Rate VRR technology, but the other size do support VRR.

Connectivity

The Samsung NU8000 is equipped with 4 HDMI ports as the major connective point. The HDMI ports support most common resolutions except for 1440p @ 60 Hz,. Additionally, the HDMI ports also support HDMI 2.0 Full Bandwidth, HDCP 2.2, CEC, and ARC (HDMI 4). But the NU8000 does not support HDMI 2.1, so the HDMI ports are unable to accept HFR content such as 4K @ 120 Hz. Additionally, the NU8000 does not support eARC (enhanced Audio Return Channel), so it can not pass higher audio quality signals like DTS:X via DTS-HD MA or others. Fortunately the HDMI ports support ALLM (Auto Low Latency Mode), allowing them to automatically change to low latency mode like Game Mode when a signal from a game console is detected.

In addition to HDMI, the NU8000 has 2 USB ports that are USB 2.0 compatible, but not  USB 3.0 compatible. There is 1 Tuner IN (RF In), 1 Digital Audio Out (optical), and 1 Ethernet port., along with built-in Wi-Fi and Bluetooth.

Audio System

The Samsung NU8000 comes with a nice 2.1 channel speaker setup with a total sound output of 40 watts. This means it has two speakers and each speaker has 10 watts of sound output and there’s 1 sub woofer with a total audio power of 20 watts. The NU8000 can deliver a powerful sound output especially when it comes to low frequency bass. 

Smart TV Platform

For the smart TV platform, the NU8000 has Tizen OS 2018. The interface of the 2018 version is well organized and easy to use, but it has some bugs such as frequent animation lag and can be choppy at times, and there are dropped frames, and the interface freezes occasionally, and other minor issues.  With other televisions for the 2019 version, these problems have been minimized and the interface looks much smoother than the 2018 version.

In term of apps provided, there’s an excellent selection of preinstalled apps such as Netflix, YouTube, Amazon Videos, Web Browser, Games, Live TVs, and more. The Samsung apps store provides a huge selection of apps that you can download to your Samsung TV. Additionally, there’s support for voice navigation. Working with Samsung’s Bixby Voice Assistant, you get excellent voice control allowing you to control most of the TV functions, and you can even ask some basic questions.  However, the 2018 version does not Google Assistant and Amazon Alexa.

The Remote Control

Just like their smart TV platform, as to their controller, the NU8000 comes with the 2018 model (TM1850A). This controller is small in size and only has a few buttons.  There’ a built-in microphone where you can give voice commands to control most of the television functions. When you use voice navigation, the remote doesn’t need a direct line-of-sight to the TV because it uses a Bluetooth Connection. With the included OneRemote function, it can act as a universal remote to control other devices connected to your Samsung television. Not only can HDMI CEC compatible devices be controlled by this remote, but also devices which don’t support the HDMI CEC standard. To control a device that doesn’t support CEC, this would require the standard direct line-of-sight to the device. 

>> Please click here to see today’s price for the Samsung NU8000 <<

Samsung NU8000 Performance

Black Level and Contrast Ratio

The Samsung NU8000 has an excellent native contrast ratio, better than most other vertical alignment TVs.  This allows for a very deep black level, deeper than 0.02 nits. In addition, the black uniformity is also excellent. This combination of a deep black level and excellent black uniformity makes dark scenes displayed on screen look excellent, even when playing in a dark room. The black level produced is deep enough to show shadow details of HDR images excellently by showing details as they should be in HDR.

An advantage to the NU8000 is that it is has a local dimming feature that can improve its dark room performance. The local dimming feature of the NU8000 may be not able to boost contrast ratio, but at least it’s able to reduce the amount of visible blooming. 

SDR Peak Brightness

The peak brightness of the Samsung NU8000 is able to hit around 500 nits. Just like the RU8000, except for a 2% window, its peak brightness is also relatively consistent regardless the window sizes.  When showing small highlights (2% window), the NU8000 has a different behavior to the RU8000. On the screen of the NU8000, a small highlight can be shown much brighter than the larger bright scene, which is approximately 700 nits. This means that overall the Samsung NU8000 can show brighter SDR images than the RU8000. This certainly makes the picture displayed on its screen look more consistent in a very bright room.

HDR Peak Brightness

Peak brightness of the NU8000 makes HDR images look better. With approximately 700 nits on a 2% window, it can show small highlights the way they should in HDR. But even so, its peak brightness is still less than 1000 nits. This means it still cannot show HDR images as bright as intended by the content creator.

Color Gamut and Color Volume

The NU8000 can deliver a good color gamut. With approximately 92% of DCI P3 color space covered, the color gamut is equally wide enough to show most colors of HDR images quite accurately, particularly for HDR images mastered in DCI P3 color space like HDR10 or HDR10+. Since the NU8000 has a bit wider color gamut and brighter peak brightness, than some other televisions. It’s able to produce deep dark colors fairly well and to shows a wide color gamut at the entire brightness range. Like most LED televisions, the NU8000 can not produce the very bright blues.

Color Gradient

Color gradient of HDR images looks very smooth onscreen with the NU8000. 

Side Viewing Angle

Typical of LED televisions with the vertical alignment panel, the NU8000 has a poor side viewing angle. Beginning at 15 degrees off the center and front, the black level rises quickly. Also at this point, colors will shift at an angle off center, mostly starting at 20 degrees. And finally, the brightness drops starting at around 30 degrees. With these working in combination, the picture displayed on the screen will look less accurate when viewed from the side. So if you notice that you like to watch television from the side, the NU8000 might not be a good fit for you.

Motion Handling

A very important visual feature for sports and action movies, the lower the pixel response time of the TV, the motion produced will look smoother with less blur. The Samsung NU8000 has a pixel response time of around 13 ms — which is excellent. When playing fast paced content, the motion will look very clear. Following a fast moving object, there’s just a short faint trail that’s hard to notice. 

There is an optional BFI (Black Frame Insertion) mode. Enabling this mode will make the dimming frequency change to 60 Hz. This helps remove duplications to ensure that motion is clear, particularly when playing 60 fps content like video games and live sports. Since the backlight flickers at a lower frequency, this may cause the backlight flicker to bother some people who are sensitive to this. If you do want to enable BFI mode, you just need to change the setting for “LED Motion Clear”.

When playing 24p movies, except for 24p movies via 60i signal like movies from satellite TV, the NU8000 can do a good job.  This means that regardless if the source is native 24p movies like DVD or Blu Ray movies, movies from native apps like YouTube, Netflix, Amazon Prime, and others, or 24p movies via the 60p signal, you can see them clearly judder free. When the source is 24p movies via 60i signal, the NU8000 can not completely remove the judder.  

Input Lag

In game mode with 60 fps content, the input lag of the NU8000 is around 18 ms, regardless of the resolution. At 120 Hz, the input lag of the NU8000 for both 1080p and 1440p resolution is around 10 ms. With the FreeSync feature enabled, on 1080p and 1440p resolution, the input lag is approximately 6 ms — while on 4K resolution, the input lag is around 15 ms.  As you can see, the input lag is excellent at different resolutions, making the NU8000 very responsive when used for playing games that require fast reflexes.

>> Please click here to see today’s price for the Samsung NU8000 <<

Summary

Conclusion

In terms of picture quality, the newer Samsung RU8000 is not better than the NU8000, and may be considered to be worse. The Samsung NU8000 can get brighter on both SDR and HDR content than the RU8000. Additionally, it also has a bit wider color gamut, better color volume, and a bit smoother color gradient.  In terms of color reproduction, the difference actually is not significant. In terms of motion handling, the RU8000 does a better jo0b, but the difference there is also not significant.

Overall the Samsung NU8000 is better than the newer RU8000. In addition to delivering better picture quality and better HDR performance, it also has a more powerful audio system. This means that regardless if used for watching movies, TV shows, Sports, HDR content, or playing Games, the NU8000 is better. You can see our comparison here. 

So is the Samsung NU8000 a good choice for you? The older Samsung NU8000 might be a better choice than the RU8000. But as we have mentioned, for the 65 inch model or larger, the RU8000 is often priced lower than the NU8000, sometimes significantly less. So the decision comes back to you according to your own preference and budget.

>> Please click here to see today’s price for the Samsung NU8000 <<

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