Professionals
- Extremely brilliant, dynamic and vibrant HDR footage
- Normal dynamic vary footage look good too
- A lot-improved sensible interface
Cons
- Some backlight banding with HDR
- No 3D help
- Curved display screen not preferrred from extensive viewing angles
Key Specs
- Evaluation Worth: £2099.00
- 55-inch LCD TV with edge LED lighting
- Native UHD/4K decision
- HDR playback with 1,000-nit mild output
- Tizen-based sensible TV working system
- Multimedia playback by way of DLNA and USB
What’s the Samsung UE55KS9000?
The 55-inch UHD UE55KS9000 TV is the primary mannequin from Samsung’s brand-new 2016 vary. It boasts a revamped model of Samsung’s Tizen-based sensible TV system and, for the primary time ever in a TV (somewhat than skilled monitor), it manages to ship 1,000 nits of brightness from edge LED know-how.
This can be a massive deal, because it makes the UE55KS9000 the primary edge-lit TV to fulfill the specs required to earn the HDR-based Extremely HD Premium badge of honour.
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Samsung UE55KS9000 – Design and Options
After flirting with chunky, boldly angled display screen frames on its 2015 high-end TVs, Samsung has determined to return to slim surrounds for its 2016 fashions. On seeing the super-sleek UE55KS9000, it is a choice of which I wholeheartedly approve. The TV look a lot much less intrusive in your room when it’s turned off, whereas leaving you extra capable of get misplaced within the image high quality when it’s turned on.
The UE55KS9000 additionally continues Samsung’s push for “360-degree” designs. This comes courtesy of an attractively completed, rivet-free rear that’s given added panache by way of a strip of glinting metallic working throughout its center. Additionally including to that is the chrome desktop stand, whose neck angles sharply out of its centre.
To be sincere, I proceed to marvel simply how many individuals actually care in regards to the look of the rear. Though I assume the UE55KS9000’s use of a curved display screen does imply it’s marginally extra probably that among the TV’s rear will probably be on view in sure seating positions.
In line with the previous few generations of Samsung’s high-end TVs, a lot of the UE55KS9000’s connections – most notably 4 UHD-friendly HDMIs, two USBs and each satellite tv for pc and terrestrial tuner feeds – are housed on an exterior connections field. An extra USB and the Ethernet port are discovered on the primary TV chassis.
You could suppose from this exterior connections field that the UE55KS9000 nonetheless helps Samsung’s Evolution Equipment know-how, whereby you possibly can preserve upgrading your Samsung TVs with future connectivity choices, sensible TV techniques, and video processing simply by shopping for a future exterior connections/processing field. In actuality, although, Samsung has truly ditched Evolution Equipment help for its whole 2016 vary.
This can be a disgrace. Whereas few individuals truly bothered investing in improve kits for his or her TVs – which is, in response to Samsung, why it’s not supporting the characteristic – it was all the time reassuring to know that, in a fast-changing TV world, a high-end Samsung set might at the least sustain for a 12 months or two longer than rival model’s items.
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There’s no 3D help in any respect on this TV, or every other 2016 Samsung mannequin. It will clearly be a hammer blow to the small however passionate 3D fan base on the market, however Samsung claims there simply isn’t sufficient curiosity in 3D any extra to justify providing it when there are new options corresponding to HDR on which to pay attention.
Which is precisely the place Samsung is focusing its efforts for 2016. The model has fully redesigned the KS9000’s panels from these used of their JS9000 predecessors to fulfill the powerful calls for of HDR – and the expanded color gamuts that routinely go along with the know-how.
Particularly, Samsung has returned to Quantum Dot color know-how to ship a wider color spectrum. The UE55KS9000 claims 96% of the DCI-P3 digital cinema color vary that’s now seemingly established as essentially the most smart goal for the brand new technology of HDR video content material. Plus, it’s shifted from a horizontal mounting association for its edge LEDs to a vertical one.
This backlight adjustment is probably controversial, since traditionally, vertical edge LED lighting – as utilized by LG LCD TVs, predominantly – has tended to trigger extra distracting lighting issues in footage than horizontally organised techniques.
Nevertheless, the vertical method is presently the one method to get the sunshine output of an edge LED TV to 1,000 nits – and as far as Samsung is worried, hitting 1,000 nits is crucial should you actually wish to specific what HDR is able to.
The truth is, 1,000 nits is outwardly the brightness degree to which present Extremely HD Blu-rays are being mastered. In consequence, it’s provided that your display screen can ship the identical brightness will you expertise full HDR that hasn’t had its luminance data “downmastered” to go well with a decrease brightness display screen. Or so the argument goes.
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Samsung has an additional curiosity in pushing this argument, in fact, because it raises doubts over the power of rival LG’s OLED know-how to present full expression of HDR content material.
That mentioned, it’s necessary to keep in mind that whereas hitting 1,000 nits allows the UE55KS9000 to earn the business’s new Extremely HD Premium badge of honour, that badge will also be earned by TVs that ship a lot much less brightness as long as they’re capable of produce exceptionally deep black ranges. Like LG’s upcoming new OLED TVs…
There are two ultimate, probably cool, new image options on the UE55KS9000. The primary is its use of a moth eye-style filter on the display screen, which is designed to scale back on-screen reflections and tackling one of many largest points I’ve with curved display screen TVs. The second is a “SUHD Remastering” system that Samsung claims will convert SDR content material of the kind most of us will nonetheless be watching for almost all of our viewing time into one thing that appears like HDR.
Sadly, although, SUHD Remastering isn’t but finalised, so I used to be unable to check it. It’ll apparently be added by way of a firmware replace later within the 12 months.
Samsung has made some pretty main modifications to its Tizen-based sensible TV system for 2016. Particularly, it’s added a second tier of icons that’s used to indicate content material “exploded out of” whichever icon you will have chosen on the underside, authentic tier. Much like the system employed in the primary enterprise space of the newest Apple TV interface, it really works properly – at the least with these apps that help the ‘exploded content material’ characteristic – and makes navigation really feel way more intuitive and related.
The system can be exceptionally straightforward to customize, in order that your favorite apps can all the time have delight of place on the homescreen.
It’s price including that the system carries a robust vary of apps, together with the 4K variations of Netflix and Amazon, and now runs rather more rapidly and stably than it did final 12 months.
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There’s nonetheless one thing barely business-like in regards to the interface’s presentation in contrast with the friendlier look of LG webOS and Panasonic Firefox TV techniques. For essentially the most half, nonetheless, Samsung’s newest sensible system is a good enchancment on what’s gone earlier than and exhibits understanding of the kind of simplicity most TV customers need from a wise TV interface.
Samsung UE55KS9000 – Setup
The UE55KS9000 does an honest job of holding your hand by the preliminary setup, and Samsung has simplified its onscreen menus in two helpful methods. First, it’s eliminated among the largely pointless sub-menus from the image set-up menu. And second, the TV’s Sport preset – designed to minimise the time it takes for the TV to render pictures, to help video gaming – has lastly been moved into the image set-up menus, somewhat than being buried within the System folder.
To get the perfect from the UE55KS9000’s footage, with commonplace dynamic vary content material particularly, I’d suggest lowering the backlight setting to round its 9 degree – at the least for critical film viewing in a darkish room – to get the deepest and most evenly lit black ranges.
When the UE55KS9000 recognises an HDR enter, it’ll mechanically modify its image settings – most notably pushing the backlight proper as much as its most 20 degree to ship the 1,000 nits required.
Every image preset provides a barely completely different flavour of HDR, nonetheless, and in contrast to the corporate’s 2015 HDR TVs Samsung enables you to modify each facet of the HDR presets. If you wish to get that 1,000 nits determine for correct mapping of HDR’s full luminance vary, although, you’ll want to depart the backlight setting untouched. Though this will, as we’ll see, result in some backlight points.
A few different, extra basic factors price making are that it’s best to guarantee all noise-reduction techniques are turned off for HD and 4K sources, and that you simply don’t use the set’s movement processing on its highest setting, since this leaves pictures wanting excessively processed.
How we take a look at televisions
We take a look at each TV we assessment totally over an prolonged time period. We use business commonplace assessments to match options correctly. We’ll all the time inform you what we discover. We by no means, ever, settle for cash to assessment a product.
Discover out extra about how we take a look at in our ethics coverage.
Used as the primary TV for the assessment interval
Examined for greater than per week
Examined utilizing business calibrated instruments, discs and with actual world use
Examined with broadcast content material (HD/SD), video streams and demo discs
