HD PICTURE QUALITY HD picture quality was Very Good, overall. Reproduction of fine HD image detail was Excellent. Color accuracy was Excellent, so colors, especially flesh tones, look very natural and lifelike. Very Good contrast—the difference between the darkest blacks and brightest whites—gave images convincing depth and dimension. Image brightness was Very Good (with the backlight control turned up), so the picture was well suited for a brighter room—a lower setting is recommended for a dimmer viewing environment. Its reproduction of smooth edges on image content was generally Excellent and free of "jaggies" (jagged edges), when "up-converting" HD-to-UHD images, and detecting the film mode of 1080i film-based content. But when deinterlacing 1080i video, it fell short with some visible "jaggies." The black levels were merely OK and maintained some contrast in darker scenes, but fell short of the better TVs. The quality appeared worse as we viewed from the sides—see our Viewing Angle results, below. 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.
4K UHD PICTURE QUALITY Overall 4K UHD picture quality was Very Good, 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 had limited effectiveness. In our tests, the display's lack of high peak brightness capability (by HDR standards) limited its ability to show the benefits of our HDR 4K content. It could not reveal much contrast between the moderately bright and very bright highlights, while the brightness levels in the mid-to-lower tones, like those in an indoor scene, were preserved. It did a good job reproducing a greater range of nuanced shadow detail, from black to white, with no obvious banding within the gradually shaded areas, but we noted some loss of detail within the highlights of the brightest areas. Brightly colored objects remained nicely saturated.
VIEWING ANGLE This Samsung model has a moderate viewing angle overall—decent, but not quite as good as the better-performing TVs we've tested. The optimal seating position for best picture quality is directly in front of this model. We examined the picture at various viewing angles, and saw the image quality was not consistent. In our tests, the picture did show some slight dimming from the sides, but not to a distracting degree. When we viewed the TV from the sides, image quality got worse. The picture showed a moderate loss of color, so flesh tones looked a bit washed out. Black levels visibly brightened, and reduced the contrast especially on dark scenes. Lastly, we viewed the image from above and below center screen, and saw Very Good vertical viewing angle performance, with minimal changes in color, contrast, and black level.
