Introduction
Is this really a step-down 4K TV? Samsung's obsession with curved TVs continues apace and it threatens to become a bona fide product category.
But if you're in the camp that thinks curved TVs are for lighthouse owners and victims of marketing, this 55-incher puts flat 4K back on the map.
With a list price of £2,299 at the time of review, this UK-only model has a luscious 7mm screen surround that's so slender the UE55HU7500 almost appears to be frameless and floating. That incredibly convincing effect is helped by a rather unusual L-shaped stand that fastens to the back of the UE55HU7500 and folds under the front.
There are few better-looking TVs than this – the other being Samsung's flagship curved UE55HU8500 and UE65HU8500. Samsung has packed the HU8500 with its ultimate tech – namely a Quad Core Plus processor (to the HU7500's simple Quad Core processor), a built-in camera for gesture control (which the HU7500 lacks) and some slightly faster motion processing. In short, Samsung wants you to buy the curved HU8500, not the flat HU7500. However, anyone with any sense will go for the latter; it's both cheaper and flatter.
Features
The headline feature on the UE55HU7500 is, of course, its 3840x2160 pixel resolution, but there's plenty more to get excited about.
Probably the most useful is the twin Freesat HD and Freeview HD tuners, which barring any decision by Sky or Virgin to broadcast native 4K material, means the UE55HU7500 will have equal appeal to all kinds of users.
Powered by that Quad Core processor, the UE55HU7500 is an active 3D display that comes with two pairs of active 3D glasses, a completely redesigned version of Samsung's Smart Touch remote control, and some basic voice control that – thus far – has failed to impress.
Apps
The UE55HU7500 can play 4K source material pixel-for-pixel, but where to find such a thing? For now Netflix is the best place to head for that, and the UE55HU7500 offers easy access.
In fact, Samsung's Smart Hub proves the best in the business, with apps a-plenty on show including YouTube, Netflix, Amazon Instant, BBC iPlayer, ITV Player, 4OD and Demand Five. It's the only such platform in the UK that delivers all terrestrial TV catch-up apps, and there are reams more apps, too.
Ins and outs
As befits an expensive 4K TV, the UE55HU7500 has plenty of ins and outs on its backside. On a rear panel are slots for component video, composite video, analogue audio, optical digital audio, wired Ethernet LAN (though the UE55HU7500 also has a built-in Wi-Fi module), a full RGB Scart, a headphones slot (slightly oddly placed, admittedly), and a single HDMI slot.
Crucially, the HDMI spec used on the UE55HU7500 is HDMI 2.0, which means that they can support native 4K material at 50 and 60 frames per second; cheap 4K TVs only support 4K at (the slower and often juddery) 24fps. Support for the HEVC codec also means that the UE55HU7500 can display streamed 4K footage from Netflix.
On a side-panel that's more easily accessible there are three USB inputs ranged above three more HDMI slots and a One Connect slot. The latter – a proprietary Samsung connection – is a little odd. It seems that the company has already gone cold on last year's plan to fit its flagship TVs with a Smart Evolution slot for easily upgrading the processor and firmware each year, and instead now plans to provide a small set-top box instead that will need to be hooked-up to the TV.
Of more core interest are the UE55HU7500's RF and LNB ins and outs for the Freeview HD and Freesat HD feeds, which are along the bottom of this panel and within easy reach, though the cables aren't in danger of poking out of the side.
Hardware
Other hardware shipping with the UE55HU7500 includes two pairs of SSG-5100GB active shutter 3D glasses and two remote controls. One remote is the standard affair that's actually nicely streamlined, though it would be a nice touch for the buttons supplied for navigating digital video files and photos were glow-in-the-dark, as they are on Samsung's Blu-ray players.
The other is a slinky palm-sized affair with nicely painted and proud braille-like icons for shortcuts to the Smart Hub, TV guide, volume, channel changer and more besides. Although it does have a microphone for voice control, the entirety of Samsung's smart interaction antics is off-limits due to the UE55HU7500's lack of a built-in motion-sensing camera. Judged on past form, this is absolutely no loss whatsoever. In fact, it's probably worth chiselling-off the Voice Control button in case you accidentally touch it. I jest, of course, but do not buy this product expecting even Siri-quality voice control.
With the UE55HU7500 measuring a mere 8mm deep, the built-in speakers may struggle, though at 40W they're twice as powerful as rivals' attempts.
Also consider
The HU7500 Series comes in two other sizes; the 48-inch UE48HU7500 (£1,699 at various UK retailers, though not on Samsung's website) and 65-inch UE65HU7500 (£2,299), the former of which represents a great value way of getting on to the 4K ladder.
Picture quality
This edge LED-backlit UE55HU7500 has almost the full gamut of Samsung's picture processing tech, boasting Micro Dimming Pro and Wide Color Enhancer Plus. It's also got Clear Motion Rate 1000Hz, which isn't quite as good as the 1200Hz rating on the HU7500 curved TVs. Those figures represent the result of an algorithm rather than a direct figure describing the panel's refresh rate. With the much faster plasma TVs now virtually out of the market, the reason for mathematically massaging such figures has gone, but continues nonetheless.
However, there are traces of motion blur on the UE55HU7500 during 4K playback. Native 4K sources are hard to come by, and although Samsung had promised to send me a USB of Samsung UHD content, it didn't materialise. Instead I hunted down some H.264-encoded 3840x2160 pixel 4K test sequences in both uncompressed MOV and compressed MP4 formats from Elemental, though with little hope that the UE55HU7500 would play these files direct from a USB thumbdrive. Wouldn't you know it; the compressed MP4 files played first time.
Still 4K images do look absolutely wonderful. Resplendent in excruciating detail that's just so, so clean (the value of the pixel grid's invisibility can't be overestimated), native 4K pictures really do create an extra slice of realism.
Colour from the UE55HU7500's UHD colour mode are excellent, but when the pictures move – as in a 'ferry across the harbour' sequence – there's a noticeable loss of resolution. It's not drastic, and nor did I notice many jagged edges or motion artefacts around moving objects, but there's a definite drop in detail from 4K to what looks much more like a paltry Full HD image.
Having watched the resolution on almost every Full HD LCD TV I've reviewed in the past ten years drop to a standard definition image as soon as anything moves, I should have expected this – and I'm sure it's a lot worse on cheap-as-chips 4K TVs – but it's still something of a disappointment. It's worth playing with the Motion Plus settings, though upping the power does bring motion artefacts. I settled on the smooth setting while in movie mode for all content.
That slight loss in ultimate image quality is just about the only disappointment on the UE55HU7500, which in virtually all other areas proves a brilliant, and superb value, performer.
Stick on a Blu-ray disc and the UE55HU7500 upscales it to fit the 4K panel very well. 12 Years a Slave looks detailed enough and colours are well saturated and contrasted, with bold-looking colours dominating. Black levels, too, are awesome; Gravity on Blu-ray provides the ultimate test and the UE55HU7500 makes outer space look utterly convincing – inky black and star-stuffed.
Gravity also proves that the UE55HU7500's edge-lit LED panel is the latest and greatest. While most still tend to feature blotchy light in the corners and along the sides, the UE55HU7500 instead has completely uniform brightness. Nor is there much haloing of bright images or glare on dark backgrounds.
The major downside with the UE55HU7500 is that standard definition material looks so soft. Not the TV's fault, perhaps, but for those relying on the UE55HU7500's built-in Freeview HD tuner there's going to be a few 'what-have-I-done' moments when you're done watching House of Cards in 4K from Netflix and go back to Neighbours. It can't do much about SD fare looking soft and blurry, but the UE55HU7500 does its best and at least makes SD material look clean.
Switch to Gravity in 3D and there's no a whisper of crosstalk, but I did spot some picture noise that's not there on the 2D version.
Usability, sound and value
All of the smart stuff is covered in our review of Samsung's UE48H6400, but suffice to say that along with LG it's the best smart TV system around. Its Smart Hub is divided up into five sections, with On TV flanked by pages for Films & TV Shows, Multimedia, Games and Samsung Apps. Better still, a Dual Core processor that proves plenty fast enough powers it all.
Meanwhile, the UE55HU7500's Smart Interaction features, which include only voice, are best ignored (they're not much use even on the odd occasion the TV understands you). Ditto football mode, which amps-up crowd noise and over-saturates the pitch. Yuck.
Digital video file playback is excellent, with the UE55HU7500 supporting AVI, MOV, AVC HD, MPEG-2, MKV and MP4 (including 4K variants encoded in H.264) and WMV video files as well as OGG, FLAC, WAV, AIFF, WMA, APE, MP3 and M4A music. Meanwhile, the photo display software is excellent and even allows sharing to Facebook.
An annoying omission on the UE55HU7500 compared to the UE55HU8500 is cinema black, which is available on a lot of Samsung TVs and makes the back bars shown top and bottom of anamorphic 2.39:1 and CinemaScope movies look deeper.
Sound
Rather surprisingly the UE55HU7500 puts in a decent performance, with the longer chassis allowing just enough room for its downward-firing 40W speakers to deliver a reasonably wide sound. The virtual surround mode isn't up to much, but there's effective stereo and just enough of a suggestion of bass for movies to be playable. However, the UE55HU7500 isn't musical; to make any kind of use of the wide support for lossless music filetypes you're going to need a separate sound system.
Value
We'd judge the UE55HU7500 to be good value, though without checking-out the step-down 4K-ready UE55HU6900 model – which costs significantly less at £1,399 but is likely to be marred by motion blurring to a greater extent – it's difficult to be absolutely sure.
The UE55HU7500 is certainly worth considering in a head-to-head with the pricier UE55HU8500, which is pointlessly curved. Though the UE55HU7500 does include a couple of pairs of super-slim 3D specs, they're not very effective at blocking-out ambient light.
Verdict
The UE55HU7500 is a great value way to jump on the 4K bandwagon, but before we get too excited I feel I do need to issue a warning about the usefulness of its native 4K resolution. Someone recently told me that he planned to buy a 4K TV because his sight was failing and he needed the extra pixels to help him see. 4K isn't a new lens for your eyes, it's a new level of detail that's only perceivable by those with keen eyesight – and even then it blurs during motion, effectively reducing the detail. However, for anyone after an awesome smart TV that's just about as future-proof as you can get, the UE55HU7500 is a compelling option.
We liked
The UE55HU7500 is a picture, it is so slender that the brushed aluminium finish is almost wasted. It's virtually invisible.
Future-proofing on the quad core-powered, speedy-to-navigate UE55HU7500 is second to none. As well as 4K upscaling, there's support for 4K digital files via USB, various higher frame rates thanks to the use of HDMI 2.0 slots, and playback of the HEVC codec that is the basis for 4K streaming from the likes of Netflix.
Detail, colours and contrast are simply awesome while upscaling of HD to 4K quality is good. Digital file support is unsurpassed; the UE55HU7500 even supports compressed 4K MP4 files via USB.
Pleasingly, every app we want from smart TV is available on the UE55HU7500.
We disliked
There's little to complain about on the UE55HU7500. I did spot some motion blur, which immediately lessens any excitement about watching in 4K resolution, as well as a bit of picture noise while watching in 3D. However, the biggest problem with the UE55HU7500 is that there's really nothing to watch in 4K aside from House of Cards via Netflix. Not Samsung's fault, but perhaps it's time for an app? There is a UHD Zoo app on Smart Hub, but for now it's just still 4K photos of animals.
Verdict
By knocking-off a few quid and retaining both a stunning design and killer picture quality, Samsung has created perhaps the best value 4K TV yet. Drenched in smart TV apps, with two remotes and with a fast-working user interface, the UE55HU7500 is only a built-in camera away from the being ultimate future-proof TV.
The UE55HU7500 does present 4K material with a slight (but hardly unexpected) motion blur issue, but perhaps the biggest issue is a lack of 4K material available. It tries to address that by offering HDMI 2.0 slots, being compliant with the HEVC codec that 4K can be streamed in, and adding support for some 4K filetypes via USB. It's future-proof, yet puts most of its effort into being a very good smart TV for the here and now.