Review: Samsung UE55KS7000 (KS7000 series) LCD LED TV

Samsung’s SUHD models are at the top of the line-up. The Samsung UE55KS7000 is the first step in the SUHD field and therefore the cheapest way to sample everything that these models have to offer. And that is quite a lot: quantum dot technology and HDR support with very high light output guarantee an impressive image. The Smart Hub provides all the convenience of a modern television.

Samsung UE55KS7000 – specifications

• What: Ultra HD Edge LED LCD TV with local dimming (8×1 segments)
• Screen size: 55 inches (139 cm), flat
• Connections:
  • One connect box: 4x HDMI (1xARC / MHL, 4x v2.0a), 1x optical digital out, 2x USB, 1x digital optical audio out, 2x antenna,
  • TV: 1 USB, network connection, 1x RS-232
• Extras: HDR10, WiFi (802.11n) built in, Tizen Smart Hub, USB / DLNA media player, DVB-T/C/S2, CI + lock, Smart Controller, voice control, One Connect Box
• Dimensions: 1,225 x 776 x 233 mm (including foot)
• Weight: 17.6 kg (including foot)
• Consumption: 85 / 0.3 watt (Energy label A+)
• Recommended retail price: 1.999 euros (currently for sale for 1.499 euros)

The KS7000 series also consists of a 49-inch model (UE49KS7000) and a 60-inch model (UE60KS7000). Apart from the size, the specifications of these models are similar to those of the Samsung UE55KS7000.

Samsung UE55KS7000 – design

No curved screen for this Samsung and that accentuates its super slim profile all the more. The TV uses the ‘bezel-less’ design: the screen has no frame, and the black border around the screen is barely 5mm wide. A nice metal border around the device ensures a stylish finish. The back is finished in glossy black plastic and that looks a bit too kitsch, but it puts its slim profile extra in the paint. The sleek chromatic feet left and right seem to lift the device effortlessly.

Connections

Just like on all SUHD models, this TV uses a One Connect Box. On the television you will only find the network connection, a USB connection and the CI + lock. All other connections are on the separate One Connect box that is connected to the television with a cable. You will find four HDMI connections, all HDMI 2.0a versions, the antenna connections, an optical digital output and two more USB slots. The One Connect box makes it easy to install the TV neatly, especially if you opt for wall mounting.

Note that there are no older analog connections such as Scart. Also noticeable is the absence of a headphone jack. In return you get Bluetooth, with which you can use a wireless keyboard and mouse or a wireless headset.

Samsung UE55KS7000 – ease of use

As soon as you turn on the TV, a simple installation procedure guides you through the first steps. The TV is connected to the network, you select the country, the language, and possibly the channels of the digital tuners are loaded. Samsung also asks you to log in with an account (or via Facebook), but that is optional.

The menus for the settings are slightly simplified. In every submenu (such as Image, Sound, …), only the simplest settings are available. All other options have moved to a deeper submenu ‘expert settings’. That makes it easier for most users who rarely work on their settings. The TV works very smoothly and pleasantly. Both in the menus and in the Smart Hub you can quickly browse, and changing input or application is smooth.

Remote control

The TV comes with two remote controls. A classic remote with keys, and a Smart Controller. The classic remote has a good layout, with large, pleasant keys. Only the three rows of buttons at the bottom are rather on the small side, especially for the playback buttons that is sometimes difficult.

The Smart Controller looks a lot more modern. He is well in hand and the keys are perfect to operate with your thumb. Strikingly, he no longer serves as a pointer. That raises some doubts about his use as remote, because there are hardly any keys to be detected. Soon we notice that the Smart Controller, together with the excellent Smart Hub, delivers excellent work. Another added advantage: you can use the Smart Controller as a universal remote for your peripherals. We connected a set-top box for digital television and a Blu-ray player, which we could easily operate using a simple procedure. Attention, the devices must remain in view of the remote. The One Connect box makes it easy to put everything neatly in the closet, but since there are no IR-extenders, that is not allowed.

Samsung UE55KS7000 – features

Smart TV platform

The Samsung Smart Hub has now become a very user-friendly environment. Samsung tries to integrate all the functions of the television into the Smart Hub, and it also succeeds very well. At the touch of a home screen, a ribbon appears at the bottom of which you can find everything.

To the far left are settings, inputs, and the search function. In addition, ten icons for applications such as Netflix, YouTube, or other internet functions. You can easily adjust the order of those icons so that your favorite applications are available quickly. As soon as you select an icon, a second ribbon appears above the ribbon with all sorts of relevant shortcuts. This way you can quickly navigate to the desired input, change the image mode with two clicks, or you can navigate directly to a recommended range in Netflix. Samsung offers a wide selection of internet apps, games and cloud gaming options.

Smart functions

The Samsung is equipped with a full set of digital TV tuners, and can record to USB hard drive. There is no dual tuner provided, so recording and viewing another channel simultaneously is not possible. The media player is very complete, both for audio and video. He read all our audio tests, including lossless formats such as FLAC or ALAC. He also worked throughout the library on videotests, including files using the new HEVC video codec, Ultra HD, and HDR files and many subtitle formats.

The Smart Remote is equipped with a microphone with which you can record searches, or control the television with simple commands such as ‘volume 20’, ‘channel 10’ or ‘Netflix’. The voice recognition works fine.

Samsung UE55KS7000 – Image quality

Samsung’s SUHD series are Ultra HD televisions equipped with quantum dot technology for a wide range of colors. The television offers very high luminance (HDR1000) for vivid HDR playback. The ‘Moth Eye’ filter is a special film about the screen with the structure of a moth eye to reduce reflections and thus improve the black appearance. ‘Precision Black’ provides local dimming to improve contrast.

Main settings

In our article on you can read all about the possibilities to come up with the best image settings with a professional. If you want to get started, please go to our . Here you will find an explanation of the most important picture settings and tips for setting up your TV. With the basic settings we have come to the settings below for this TV.

The best choice starts from the film mode.

Explanation;

• Set Clean Digital View to “Auto” for older material (DVD) or images with high noise, and high compression (bad YouTube videos).
• Set Trilvermindering to 0 if you dislike Motion Compensation.
• Dynamic Contrast can be set to Low or better still Medium if the image wants to give some extra punch. Unfortunately, dark images sometimes become too bright.
• Gamma 0 is ok if you look at ambient light. Set Gamma to -1 when darkening to slightly improve the black display.

General image properties and image processing

The image processing of the KS7000 series models does not have to fall short of that of its more expensive brothers. Deinterlacing and detection of film and video frame rates are excellent, so that serrated edges are extremely rare. The noise reduction makes short work of random noise and compression noise, but you can only turn the setting on or off. We still regret that. Car works fine, but in some cases also removes the intentionally present film grain. You leave it best, unless you look at very low quality material (DVD, older Youtube, poor smartphone movies). Images are sharp, and the upscaling provides excellent work. If you want extra detail, you can set the sharpness setting higher, but do not exceed 20-25 to avoid false detail.

The TV has a particularly good motion sharpness, but here too we regret the rather strong simplification of the menus. ‘Auto Motion Plus’ is now also limited to Auto, off, or modified. Settings such as ‘clear’ or ‘smooth’ have disappeared. You can of course imitate them in ‘adapted’ with the right settings. For the best detail, we recommend keeping haze reduction at 10 and reducing vibration between 6 and 8 depending on how sensitive you are to any image artifacts. ‘Led Clear Motion’ shows the maximum amount of moving detail, but we do not recommend the use, we saw clearly visible flicker on the screen.

The KS7000 uses an edge LED backlight and a VA-type LCD panel. Samsung has also added local dimming, which works in 8 columns. To avoid an obvious transition between columns, five columns usually work together. That is a clear compromise between strong dimming for improved contrast, and soft dimming to avoid visible segment boundaries. The screen itself has a very good contrast, we arrived at 4.455: 1, thanks to an excellent black value. With ‘Smart Led’ activated that still improved to 7,000: 1. The local dimming did not cause annoying jumps in clarity, although you sometimes notice it very lightly. You also let Smart Led on best to eliminate light clouding. The uniformity is solid, but in the upper corners the backlight sometimes caused some cloud formation. The screen shows a lot of black detail, which is due to the gamma curve that clearly shows black detail too bright. It is not a problem, especially in ambient light. If you look in the dark, set the gamma setting to -1.

The calibration is just sufficient, but we actually expect better from Samsung. The gray scale is slightly yellow in the brightest white tones, but it just falls within the acceptable limit. The color range also fits tightly. In the saturation process you notice that blue, magenta and red shades remain slightly too weak. Skin colors are also slightly too weak. The error is small, and will in any case disturb less than too intense colors.

HDR

With its HDR1000 technology, the UE55KS7000 is an excellent choice for intense

Your existing SDR content can give an HDR touch, with one of the special picture modes (HDR +). The result depends largely on what you look at. In the case of predominantly dark material, the result was not so good. The HDR treatment makes the dark scenes too light. With clear material it is a good choice, although we think that many will find it too bright.

Reflections and viewing angles

The VA panel has a good black value, but a rather poor viewing angle, especially when it comes to contrast. That is not uncommon in itself, but certainly in dark scenes this is striking. So try to sit as centrally as possible in front of the TV. The Moth Eye filter does not completely stop reflections, but does deliver excellent results.

Gaming

In the normal image modes (dynamic, standard, natural, film) we measure an input layer of 110,8ms. That is obviously too much for a good game experience. With the game mode active, the lag drops to 20.8ms and that is another top result. Do not forget to activate that fashion.

Samsung UE55KS7000 – Audio quality

With the image quality it is a mustache, but what kind of sound can you expect from such a slim chassis? We set an amazing sound. The Samsung delivers a lot of volume, more than enough for all your TV pleasure. Do not expect hi-fi quality, but the sound is good enough for occasional listening sessions. In that case, switch on the music mode, otherwise it will sound a bit dull.

Review equipment

For the lag measurement we used a Leo Bodnar Display lag meter. For all other measurements we relied on a Spectracal C6 colorimeter, Xrite i1 Pro spectrophotometer, an AVFoundry HDMI Pattern Generator, an HDFury Integral for HDR patterns and the Spectracal Calman for Business software.

Samsung UE55KS7000 – Conclusion

The UE55KS7000 (KS7000 series) in many ways resembles its bigger brothers. After all, they struggle with the same limitations of the edge LED backlight with local dimming. Nevertheless, the results are good: yes, the local dimming is less pronounced than hoped for. But because there are no clearly visible segments in the image, it does not bother. The calibration was certainly a bit better, but with that the most important disadvantages are mentioned.

The TV serves you when you are looking for fine, detailed images, with a good contrast, a very high brightness, and a wide range of colors. The combination provides an excellent TV to enjoy HDR if you do not want to darken. The Smart Hub also makes it convenient to operate. The price of 1,999 euros (currently 1,499 euros) is the icing on the cake.