A stunning 4K TV. HDR content shines thanks to its vivid colors and high brightness.
A stunning 4K TV. HDR content shines thanks to its vivid colors and high brightness.
While most other TV brands are still fumbling to find a winning formula, Samsung has moved on to better what it created in 2015. Yes, I’m referring to Samsung’s ‘SuHD’ TVs, which in simple terms, are the company’s highest-end quantum dotbased 4K TVs.
First shown during CES in January this year, the new KS range is Samsung’s second-generation SUHD TV, and the current flagship bearer of Samsung’s 4K TV lineup. It comes at a time when the UHD Alliance has defined what makes for a premium 4K TV, as well as at a time when 4K and HDR content are on the cusp of ending their drought.
While what I’m reviewing here is the flagship KS9000, it’s good to know that Samsung has retained many important features on the more affordable (relatively speaking) KS7500 and KS7000 SUHD TVs as well, such as the 10-bit panel, Tizen OS, HDR support, and One Connect box.
These 2016 SuHD TVs are ultra HD Premium-certified, too, which means they fulfill the stringent criteria set out by the UHD Alliance, such as at least 90% DCI-P3 coverage (the KS9000 manages 96%), 1,000 nits peak brightness and less than 0.05 nits black level.
In terms of user interface, the SUHD TVs’ Smart Hub uI has been redesigned again, with most of the attention this year going towards further reducing the friction when switching from live TV to OTT content (e.g., Netflix) and connected devices. And the new smart remote, which Samsung dubbed “One Remote”, is able to control major settop boxes, game consoles, and Blu-ray players connected over HDMI.
With so many features shared across the board, is there any good reason to get the KS9000 then? For one, the KS9000, when perched on its Y-shaped metal stand, is easily the classiest-looking of the new SUHD TVs. It features a curved display with a super-thin bezel, and the back of the TV has a brushed texture for that added premium look. Samsung has gone as far as to hide the screws so that they don’t mess up the aesthetics.
With so much effort going into make the TV look nice, Samsung isn’t going to ruin it with messy cables running from the rear. The KS9000 ships with a mini One Connect box that you hook up to the TV’s rear with a single cable, and it houses enough I/Os for most needs, including four HDMI and two USB 2.0 ports. In my testing, the HDMI ports have no problem handling 4K/60p and HDCP 2.2 signals.
In addition, the KS9000 comes with ‘Supreme Motion Rate’ and ‘Supreme UHD Dimming’ technologies. This implies that it has better motion smoothing and backlight control (through the use of more micro dimming zones) respectively than the curved KS7500 and flat KS7000. The KS9000 also comes with a 60W, 4.1-channel speaker system, compared to the 40W/2.1-channel config on the KS7500 and KS7000.
Indeed, black level performance on the KS9000 is better than last year’s JS9000, which is no mean feat considering this is still an LED edge-lit TV. The degree of contrast dips during off-center viewing is also smaller. Couple all these with a less reflective screen that’s also brighter, the KS9000 shines in both bright and dark room viewing conditions.
HDR content looks great on the KS9000, primary due to the vibrant colors and tons of detail. A peak brightness of 1,000 nits doesn’t mean the TV is always going to be at this brightness level - it just means the TV need not struggle to reproduce highlights, like that glittering dew, those metallic reflections, or the rays of the sun. If I could nitpick, it’d be that this lifting of colors and detail will at times bring blacks into slightly non-black territory, due to the inevitable increase of backlight level.
Overall, the KS9000 is an excellent 4K TV. Sure, its blacks don’t go as deep as OLED TVs, but as far as LED-LCD TVs go, the KS9000’s backlight control is top notch, which should make any fluctuation mostly unnoticeable for the layperson. Factor in the convincing and natural HDR experience and competitive price, it actually isn’t that of a stretch to call Samsung’s SUHD TVs a bargain as well.
AT A GLANCE
Panel Type LCD
Backlight Edge LED
OS Tizen
Hdmi Inputs 4
Price $7,199
