Introduction, design and key features
Does anyone want a 4k TV? Despite the TV industry and the streaming services taking it seriously, the 4k Blu-ray format is still many months away.
It's impossible to get the very best from a 4k TV, so what's the point in buying one? Besides, most people I talk to know a lot more about the reflection-hungry curved TVs than 4k. However, at £1,500 (US$1,300), the UN55JU6400 (the model name in the UK), or UN55JU6400 (the US name), is eventually destined to be one of the lowest-priced, truly big-screen, big-brand 4k TVs of 2015.
And with cheap 4k TVs on the rise, the price will have to – and almost certainly will – come down.
Design
The monster-sized screen has a metallic trim all around, though viewed head-on, it's an all-black affair. The bezel looks super-slim, though it's a perspective thing – it's actually 13mm on all four sides, which isn't ground-breaking.
Another illusion is an L-shaped desktop stand, which attaches on the back of the TV, then curves underneath it. It works well, though there's a tiny gap between the undercarriage of the UE55JU6400 and the stand itself, which rather wastes what could be a convincing floating look.
The desktop stand is hollowed out – there's actually not much to it – but because of that lack of a gap, it's mostly wasted sculpture that's invisible unless you're hovering over the UE55JU6400.
That desktop stand is also rather long, stretching 76cm along the bottom (the screen itself is only 124cm). Having said all of that, it's a polished-looking TV for the money, and surprisingly lightweight. Though the screen is hardly svelte, measuring 52mm deep, the stand increases that to 270mm.
Features
What, no 3D?! It's got a Freeview HD tuner, but the UE55JU6400 is all about 3840x2160 resolution, and in strictly two dimensions. If you want 4k and smart TV, but aren't interested in the fineries offered by Samsung's ultra-expensive SUHD-branded TVs (chiefly the emerging, though strictly non-essential Quantum Dot technology) and the ability to watch as-yet non-existent HDR footage, the JU6400 Series is ideally spec'd.
Arguably just as crucial as anything else is its 4k upscaler, that takes HD, and even SD, footage and attempts to expand it convincingly for the massive 4k pixel grid.
What the UE55JU6400 does have that the SUHD – and most other top-end Samsung TVs, even without 4k, include – is an all-new for 2015 Smart Hub and a quad-core processor.
Considering how successful Samsung's Smart Hub has been over the past few years, to refresh it completely is a brave move. It's now based on the Tizen OS, a Samsung creation that it could soon use for its smartphones and tablets, though the choice of apps remains very good.
And, of course, the UE55JU6400 comes with features such as WiFi, and compatibility with all kinds of digital media, phones and tablets, NAS drives and networked computers.
Apps
Though the platform has changed – it's centred around a pop-up menu along the bottom of the screen, rather than on dedicated graphical pages – Smart Hub has stacks of must-have apps.
The likes of YouTube, Netflix and Amazon Instant are all included by default (their limited 4k content will be crucial if you want to get the best out of the UE55JU6400). Though you have to search for and download the rest, the usual utterly non-essential suspects are all here; from Dailymotion, Vimeo and MUBI to YuppTV, Viewster and iConcerts.
Oh, and RightMove is here, too, just in case you need a new home for the UE55JU6400. Our UK-based review sample was able to access terrestrial TV catch-up apps, including BBC iPlayer, BBC Sport and BBC News, though missing (temporarily) were ITV Player, 4OD and Demand Five.
Perhaps just as important as third-party apps is Samsung's own Smart View 2.0, which when downloaded to phones and tablets allows live TV porting from the Freeview HD tuner, as well as video and photo pushing to the UE55JU6400.
Ins and outs
Happily, there's no pop-out camera to spy on you, though you can add an accessory for Skype video calls by using one of the UE55JU6400's three USB slots. They're all stored on a side-mounted panel on the UE55JU6400's right-hand side as you look at it, as are four HDMI 2.0 inputs and an RF input to power the UE55JU6400's Freeview HD tuner.
On the back of the TV itself is a set of component video inputs, left and right phonos, a digital optical output, a headphones jack and a wired Ethernet LAN – all bases covered.
Also available
Trying to convince us all that 4k is already cost-effective is this entry-level, though still expensive, 55-inch LED TV from Samsung. Don't confuse the UE55JU6400 with one of Samsung's SUHD range-topping TVs; it's neither curved nor compatible with future HDR video.
Elsewhere in Samsung's Series 6 are the 40-inch UE40JU6400, 48-inch UE48JU6400, 65-inch UE65JU6400 and 75-inch UE75JU6400.
Picture quality, usability, sound and value
Edge LED backlighting isn't exactly the latest tech, but with eight million pixels to its Full HD's paltry two million, the UE55JU6400 has a leg-up on its rivals.
Detail and colour
Native 4k footage is hard to come by, but there are plenty of downloadable 4k-quality MP4 movie trailers online. Compressed they may be, but a 4k trailer of Interstellar shows off the UE55JU6400 at its best. A shot of deep space shows a backdrop of stars that's almost unfathomable; tiny pin-pricks of light that are bright white, while the background remains black.
Next comes Solar Rain of Fire, a close-up test sequence of the sun's surface. The pulsing surface is shown in incredible detail and vibrant colour by the UE55JU6400, while the contrast of bright orange prominences against the black of space, and the textured chromosphere, is simply stunning.
Turn to regular TV and the good work continues. There are four preset colour modes – Dynamic, Standard, Natural and Movie. The latter was our favourite. There's little to differentiate the Standard and Natural settings, though.
One rather strange additional feature here is Sports mode, which gets its own shortcut on the remote control, no less. When activated, it introduces a quite disgusting, over-exposed, over-saturated look that destroys detail, and gives green a weird kind of glow. It also increases the volume. It feels like going to an ad break while watching ITV.
Black levels and noise
The black levels on the UE55JU6400 aren't perfect – there's a definite touch of blue during some of the scenes in our test disc, The Earth – An HD Odyssey, on Blu-ray, though it rarely interrupts an otherwise sparkling colour palette.
It's clean, too, with HD material upscaled well. The only drawback is that anything shot with a standard-definition camera becomes immediately obvious; random panning shots and incidental footage during TV programmes do look soft and noisy.
Motion blur and viewing angles
The viewing angle of the UE55JU6400 is one of its major drawbacks; watch from the wings and there's a definite loss of contrast, with 4k footage taking on a slightly noisier look, too.
Blurring during panning shots isn't much of an issue, though it is occasionally detectable if you deactivate Auto Motion Plus. It's therefore best left in the standard strength.
Usability
Though the UE55JU6400's main menus lack the processing power required to make them tolerable, the Smart Hub is a breeze to navigate.
Since the new Smart Hub is all about easy access, it relies on a pop-up menu on the bottom screen rather than the full-page of previous incarnations. It's divided into two areas, labelled Featured and Recent.
The Featured square on the extreme left gives you one-touch access to launch Smart Hub as a whole, which is where you'll find apps, games, a web browser and everything else.
By default, Featured contains a link to apps and games, plus hot links to Netflix, YouTube, Amazon, Twitter and Web Browser, Smart TV, My Content (USB sticks and connected computers, etc) and Search.
In Recent, you'll find – yes, you guessed it – apps you've been using in the last few days and weeks, which also include inputs (such as the Blu-ray player), TV channels and a shortcut to an attached USB stick, as well as the likes of Netflix, Vimeo or Amazon Instant.
This works well in theory, though if you share a household expect the seven slots to quickly become filled with TV channels and apps you don't particularly want littering your shortcut spaces. A 'clear recent' option is a handy, though nuclear selection; happily, anything you purposely pin to the shortcuts is protected from being cleared by others.
However, actually setting up the apps is long-winded. Though the Apps pages are clear, concise and well laid out, only 10 icons are visible on the screen at once, which means constant remote-fingering. It also doesn't hide details for apps you've already downloaded; you can easily find yourself scrolling through pages of apps you already have while searching for a new one.
Multimedia
My Content takes you to a screen that can show what's on a connected USB stick, though it treats up to three sources separately. I prefer LG's source-neutral approach to digital content, though the UE55JU6400's is simple enough; choose the tab relating to the USB stick you want, and the software shows icons for folders on one side of the screen, with any space left filled by thumbnails of grabs from the video or photo files themselves.
However, those grabs are rather random; the backs of people's heads, shots of backgrounds and other meaningless images. They're also all arranged from top to bottom in columns, rather than from left to right, which would give it some at-a-glance glory.
It's easy enough to link a smartphone or tablet to the UE55JU6400; simply download Samsung Smart View 2.0 app for Android or iOS to swipe photos, videos and music to the UE55JU6400.
It displays photos within a second or two, which is impressive, and though music means an unexplained trip back to live TV for a few seconds while the music software is opening, the song plays within a few seconds. There's a great jukebox mode, too, which allows you to cue up songs ahead of time.
Sound
There's nothing special about the the sound emanating from the UE55JU6400's speakers, but the sheer width of the TV does help lend some sense of stereo. That's probably doing it a disservice; gone are the tinny, harsh sonics from the flat TVs of yesteryear, replaced with some semblance of bass (though it can sound a bit false).
The UE55JU6400 has Samsung's usual presets of Movie (boosted low frequency for vocals), Amplify (boosted all-round, but slightly harsh vocals) and Clear Voice (kills background sound), though the Standard setting is the most balanced.
Value
At its initial list price, the UE55JU6400 is too expensive, especially in the UK. It's all down to that under-powering of its core menus system, which just seems a crazy oversight on an otherwise smart, advanced TV. However, if you can find the UE55JU6400 – a 55-inch 4k TV, remember – for closer to £1,000/US$1,500, it would be hard to ignore.
Verdict
We liked
Ultra-HD 4k detail pops on the UE55JU6400 when watched head-on, with colours impressively nuanced and the picture always clean and full of depth. HD channels look superb, though in terms of upscaling, Blu-ray discs are unbeatable; there's no doubt that the UE55JU6400 is up for the 4k future.
Samsung's new Tizen-driven OS for its Smart Hub is a huge success, though so far that's down solely to its reliance on a pop-up bar across the bottom of the screen. Apps such as YouTube, Netflix and Amazon Instant are all here, and everything works quickly.
We disliked
It does its best, but the UE55JU6400 can't prevent standard-definition TV channels and DVDs from looking soft and noisy, while contrast and black levels fade from all qualities of video when the UE55JU6400 is watched from the wings.
While Smart Hub works fine, the TV's built-in menus tend to be sticky and slow, which suggests that the quad-core processor has a lot on its plate.
Annoyingly, the Screen Mirroring option for smartphones, which is flagged in the permanent onscreen menus for Smart Hub, doesn't apply to non-Samsung models.
Having just spent big money, that's a kick in the teeth. We could say the same about 3D. Its omission is surprising, though I'm not sure how many people will care about the format's demise. Sat-fans should also know that there's no Freesat HD tuner.
Final verdict
This is a fine example of a 55-inch 4k TV, and it's only a small price-cut from being good value, too. Ultra HD 4k TVs will soon be everywhere – your next TV will definitely have a 3,840 x 2,160 resolution – and it's good to see some decent 4k upscaling already in place.
Awesome 4k detail and colours from native 4k sources are accompanied by a pristine treatment of all HD content, though standard-definition material can look noisy. Technically, its biggest problem is its tight viewing angle, though without Freesat HD or 3D compatibility, the UE55JU6400 won't be for everyone.
Also consider
Save a few quid by going for the Samsung UE55HU7500, which was out last year and remains on shop shelves – for now. It's got 3D compatibility, too. So has the great-value Sony 55X850B, which is being discounted now.
from TechRadar: Technology reviews http://ift.tt/1I4GR6i
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