HD PICTURE QUALITY HD picture quality fell short, overall. Reproduction of fine HD image detail was Excellent. We did note some added edge enhancement processing which makes the image look a little less realistic. Color accuracy was Very Good, with flesh tones in particular, looking natural. Contrast—the difference between the darkest blacks and brightest whites—was Good, so images had some depth, but it was not the best. Black levels were overly bright, unfortunately, worse than many TVs. Image brightness was moderately low, dimmer than most even with the backlight control turned up—OK for a dark room but not the best choice for a bright room. There was slight display non-uniformity in our test sample—it appeared as brighter cloudy areas which were most noticeable on very dark scenes (or in the black bars of a letterboxed movie)—the severity can vary from model to model. Its reproduction of smooth edges on image content for "up-converted" HD-to-UHD images was Very Good with minimal "jaggies" (jagged edges); deinterlacing of 1080i video was Excellent and film mode detection from 1080i content was Excellent
4K UHD PICTURE QUALITY Overall 4K UHD picture quality was decent, overall. In our UHD testing, we played native-4K movies and test videos (non HDR) thru the TV's HDMI input, and found their image detail was all there. For color, contrast and black level, the TV performed similarly to its HD picture quality.
HIGH DYNAMIC RANGE (HDR) PERFORMANCE HDR performance was ineffective. In our tests, the display did not have the peak brightness capability necessary (by HDR standards) to reproduce the extended contrast on our HDR content. VIEWING ANGLE This Samsung model has a wide viewing angle overall, better than that of most TVs. It will provide fairly consistent picture quality, with fewer problems than most TVs, for typical viewing conditions—say, if your family is seated across a long sectional or in chairs off to the sides. Our examination at various viewing angles indicated reasonably good consistency. In our tests, the picture did show moderate dimming from the sides. With dark scenes this model doesn't fare quite as well. When viewed from the sides, the depth of black levels varied depending on our vertical position. As we moved closer to the screen this limitation became even more apparent, especially if seated on the floor looking upward where black levels brightened significantly. When we viewed the TV from the sides the image had some loss of quality. We viewed the image from above and below center screen, and saw Excellent vertical viewing angle performance, with no significant changes in color, contrast, and black level.
