Samsung UN65F8000 65-Inch 1080p 240Hz 3D Ultra Slim Smart LED HDTV

TV will keep you happy until 4K is perfected & prices lowered, April 5, 2013

*Updated on 6/16/13 to reflect upgrade to 60″*

Overall: I have had this TV series for about 3 months now. I am VERY pleased with the purchase. The previous ES8000 model was plagued with cloudiness, banding–both gone in F series. Flashlighting is minimal on this set and improved over the ES series. I needed a LED TV upgrade and was on a budget ($2500 OTD/with tax) that didn’t place me in the local array dimming technology zone(best type of TV right now). Plasma’s are too reflective for my environment and the extra heat is unwanted (check out the Samsung PN51F8500 though, sounds wonderful).

Right away I noticed how solid the TV itself felt. IF I had to do it over again, I would definitely recommend the 55″(or 60″ I have now) F8000 for others to buy over the ES8000. Just ensure you get the best deal for it as the MSRP is overpriced. For ES8000 owners…I wouldn’t upgrade. No way. This TV will hold me over until 4K’s are on the market for awhile, helping perfect them and lower price.

Be wary of some of these random 1 star reviews, as many users do not even own the F series TV! Or they had an issue because they didn’t have the right settings configured. I feel this TV rates 5 stars as I believe this tech is at it’s “ceiling” and there is minimal room for improvement using edge lit tech.

For those who wish the short and simple, thats it! Keep reading for indepth review.

Current FIXABLE problems with firmware 11.10:
-3D setting “light control” settins on “high” resets to “low”
-Netflix, Vudu, Amazon Prime, DLNA video’s all have cinema black disabled(supposedly this can be fixed in app updates but its remained off)

Picture Quality: The picture quality on this TV is fantastic especially after a few color tweaks (posted below). The blacks are so DEEP compared to my last tv(direct lit led). There is a SMALL amount of flash lighting in all four corners(more noticable on 60″ when in PC mode); I believe this is a fault for ALL edge lit tv’s as that is how the image functions. I can only notice flashlighting in all black lighting with something like movie title in middle of screen and black on rest of screen, or if in PC mode with a most black screen. Unless you are really looking for it in a black screen and concentrated on a corner you will not notice flashlighting.

Viewing Angle: Fairly limited. You will notice the farther off center you will notice more of a degradation in picture quality. This doesn’t bother me as my “seat” is always right in front. Most end users are not as particular or picky as me when it comes to picture quality, many will not even care or notice a difference until a more extreme angle(an angle you can’t reach in the room my TV is in).

Price: MSRP is overpriced. Ensure you get a good deal and get a store to pricematch to best price you can find. The 55″ should be around $1999 and 60″ $2330. I attempted to get Amazon to price match a store that was not on their official authorized list and they refused (attempted multiple times, through different numbers and chat). It was a $500 difference. I’ve found this TV from stores as low as $2075. I ended up having the local Best Buy price match this tv for me. I bought my last flagship Samsung TV in 2008/9. The A850 model(now in bedroom, this TV still satisfies me and looks better than many lower model Sammy TV’s on market today).

Stand: I hated the TV stand. To feng shui for me. My wife loved it though. It actually fit our TV stand, be warwned if you have a small TV stand it will not fit…this stand is very wide. This helps the tv to appear to “float”. It even came with some sort of oversized plastic screws and rope that ensured a child couldn’t pull the TV down (smart). I planned on mounting this TV though like my last TV, so the stand doesn’t matter much to me.

Wall Mount: I opted for a low profile wall mount from Monoprice. The one I picked was $14 and the product ID number is 5918 from monoprice’s website. I linked the same mount below through amazon but it is $8 more here. This places the TV pretty much ON the wall with this mount. It’s about 19mm off of the actual wall. I was able to run the power cord and a Redmere technology HDMI thin cord(10ft for $17 over at Monoprice..same cord is cheaper on Amazon)Monoprice 10-Feet HDMI Cable with RedMere Technology. It came with all the necessary bolts and spacers for the F8000 (1 small/1 large on top bolts and 2 smalls on bottom bolts)…

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TV Stand is too wide – 1st Thoughts, March 3, 2013

By 

Corey Fisher (Las Vegas, Nevada United States) –

  

I am currently reviewing one of these units and will post a more in depth review soon. However, I needed to post this right away for those considering purchasing this tv..

Right now, the tv (55-inch) is currently 48 inches wide. The problem I am having with this TV is that the stand is also 48 inches wide, which will be a huge inconvenience to most people. It’s too wide for 90% of TV stands out there so be warned before purchasing this tv. It currently is also measured 12 inches depth too. I have yet to find a tv stand other then an ultra wide or expensive shelf to sit it on. This is another poor example of form over function. I have a feeling Samsung will bite the bullet on this one because of this mistake as most will have a difficult time find a stand to put this on or it will be un-achievable on their current existing stands. This won’t be an issue for those wall mounting, but before you buy this TV, you better measure where you’ll put it first.

**UPDATE – 03/06/2013

I have been testing the unit for a few days now and we found a TV stand that can hold the thing. I’ve raised the review 1-star due to the picture quality being extroardinary, however, I strongly believe the stand is very impractical, hence, the deduction of 1-star. I’ve actually reached out to Samsung to see if they can design a new retrofitted stand that hold the set and be a bit more practical and release as an accessory, because this thing is ridiculously wide. Alright, enough with the stand now.

As for the initial picture quality results. They are outstanding. The back panel is comprised of literally thousands of miniature LED lights that produce very strong light and can dim all the way down to be completely turned off. So far, the factory calibration is much improved over last year’s, I doubt we will have to modify it much. The image quality is much better as well, there is currently no observable light bleed or halo’ing around images. Darks are much much darker then the ES series, but the ES series were edge-lit, these new panels are not as they are full back-lit set’s. The new sets do eliminate most of the image blur found common on LCD sets and it appears, at least initially, that the image is much faster and responsive. However, fast paced scenes like those in Transformers and etc are still not as clear the Plasma panels, but either way are improved still. Black levels are insane for a LED set and depending on when we measure against the best from LG and Sony, might be some of darkest blacks on a LED set yet. I should note that we havent measured it yet. However, we have put the set in complete darkness and tested it and all we could see were images and no halo, which is huge.

3D performance is in fact definitely brighter and smoother and I am unable to identify artifacting or crosstalk whatsoever, however I should note that last year’s ES series did a pretty good job at crosstalk reduction, but the new sets are in fact much brighter.

Smart Hub – more on this later, but a MASSIVE improvement over anything we’ve seen yet. The interface is ingenius and amazing at the same time, just make sure to youtube this as the picture will not do it justice. Not only is this software elegant looking, the TV defaults to it when it’s turned on as it is essentially the control hub for the set. The quad core in this set makes this dashboard wicked fast and apps pop up in mere seconds. In comparison to last years sets, its seams about 5 times as fast. The last year models will get this functionality via a “evolution kit” when Samsung releases those next month.

Other misc features – The camera is much improved, more accurately coordinating your movements. Last year models weren’t that great until they released several firmware updates to make it usable and practical, but still wasn’t that great. These new models are better at tracking movement and resemble the smoothness of the Microsoft Kinect, which is great news for those waving a burrito at the set and dont want to grease up the remote. The voice activation is WAY better, coming close to the ease of use of Siri and maybe, just maybe even surpassing it. So far, I would say the voice recognition is about 90% accurate, compared to last years sets, which I would probably peg at about 75% after the firmware updates. This is likely due to the new software and quad core A15 chipset this new set has. I would assume the new sets will be just as good when they get the evolution kit.

If your thinking of this TV or The Samsung F8500 Plama’s, I can tell you right now without a shadow of doubt, the F8500 Plasma panels are KING and are much better in image quality and they seams to even be closing in to the quality of an OLED set, which are currently priced at $10,000. The F8000 LED sets are nice, but not F8500 Plasma nice. You’ll need to observe both to understand what I mean. More on this later.

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