Samsung AU8000 TV Review

The Samsung AU8000 is one of the entry-level models in Samsung's 2021 lineup, replacing the Samsung TU8000. It's the only TV in the Crystal UHD lineup in North America, but in Europe, it sits between the AU9000 and AU7000 models. We expect it to compete with other entry-level models like the Sony X80J, LG UP8000, and Hisense A6G.

The TV is a bit stylish for an entry-level model. It comes with new feet compared to 2020's Samsung TU8000, and they sit flat against the table. It has a simplistic look with thin bezels all around and should look nice in any setup.

The stand consists of two plastic feet that support the TV well. You can customize the feet to place the TV in a higher vertical position (in photo) to place a soundbar in front, or it can be placed closer to the table as seen here.

Footprint of the 55 inch stand: 42.6" x 11.1". The height of the lower position is 1.78", and the higher one is 3.08".

The back of the Samsung AU8000 has similar etched horizontal lines as other Samsung TVs. It doesn't offer much in terms of cable management but you can run cables through the clips in the feet and the tracks in the back panel.

The Samsung AU8000 is much thinner than the Samsung TU8000 and should look great when wall-mounted.

The Samsung AU8000 has decent build quality. It's made entirely out of plastic that feels good, and the entire thing is well-built together without any obvious issues. However, the back panel flexes a lot near the center and inputs, and you notice it even when plugging in an HDMI cable.

The Samsung AU8000 has a VA-type panel with a great native contrast ratio, so blacks look fairly deep when viewed in the dark. Sadly, it doesn't have a local dimming feature to improve it. It's significantly worse than the Samsung TU8000, but contrast can vary between units.

The SDR brightness is okay. It's an improvement from the Samsung TU8000 because it doesn't have any frame dimming in the 2% windows. However, it's not enough to fight a ton of glare in a well-lit room.

We tested SDR brightness after calibration in the 'Movie' Picture Mode with Brightness at its max, Gamma set to '2.2', and Contrast at its default setting with all other image processing disabled. If you want an even brighter image at the cost of accuracy, we hit nearly 400 cd/m² in the 10% window in the 'Dynamic' Picture Mode with every other setting at its default.

There's no local dimming feature on the Samsung AU8000. The videos above are provided for reference only. If you need something with local dimming, then look into the Vizio M7 Series Quantum 2021.

There's no local dimming feature on this TV. The videos above are provided for reference only.

The HDR brightness is poor. It doesn't even get brighter than in SDR, which is disappointing, and highlights don't pop. There's visible frame dimming, so small highlights are dimmer than the rest. The EOTF doesn't follow the target well either, as most scenes aren't as bright as they should be.

We tested it in the 'Movie HDR' Picture Mode with Brightness and Contrast at their max with all other image processing disabled. If you want a brighter image, set Contrast Enhancer to 'High' with ST.2084 at its max; this results in a slightly brighter image as you can see in this EOTF. The EOTF tracks better with these settings instead of our recommended settings, but we use the same settings across TVs from the same brand to make them comparable to each other.

The Samsung AU8000's HDR brightness in Game Mode is once again poor. It's pretty much the same as outside of Game Mode and there's no visible change; any difference in testing results is normal as brightness can vary a bit between runs.

We tested it with Game Mode enabled, Color Gamut set to 'Auto', Color Tone on 'Warm 2', and Brightness and Contrast at their max. The EOTF looks the same as outside of Game mode so use the same settings if you want a brighter image.

The gray uniformity is okay, and this can vary between units. There are a few patchy areas, especially on the left side, and there's dirty screen effect in the center, which could get distracting during sports. Uniformity is improved in near-dark scenes, but there's still backlight bleed along the left and right edges.

The black uniformity is excellent. There's no blooming around the center cross, but there's noticeable clouding throughout. This could get distracting in dark scenes, but it also varies between units.

The Samsung AU8000 has narrow viewing angles, which is expected from a VA panel. Colors start to shift, and the image looks darker as you move off-center. If you have a wide seating arrangement, a TV with an IPS panel, like the Hisense A6G or the LG NANO75 2021, might be a better choice.

The reflection handling is impressive, and it's a nice improvement from the Samsung TU8000. It handles a moderate amount of light well, and even though it struggles more with stronger light sources, it's still better than most entry-level TVs.

The Samsung AU8000's out-of-the-box accuracy is good. Most colors are slightly inaccurate, except red, yellow, and cyan are a bit more inaccurate. The white balance is a bit off, which affects the shades of gray. Color temperature is fairly close to the 6500K target, and gamma follows the 2.2 target somewhat well, except most scenes are brighter than they should be. Keep in mind that out-of-the-box accuracy can vary between units.

Accuracy after calibration is fantastic. Any remaining inaccuracies to the white balance and most colors are almost impossible to notice. However, red is still off, which may be noticeable to come people. Color temperature is closer to the target, except it's on the cooler side now, and gamma improved.

You can see our recommended settings here.

The Samsung AU8000 upscales 480p content, like from DVDs, without any issues.

There aren't any problems with upscaling 720p content.

1080p content like from Blu-rays looks as nearly as good as 4k content.

The Samsung AU8000 displays native 4k content without any issues. There's some dithering with pixels, but it's not noticeable with real content unless a pure white screen is displayed.

This is a 4k TV that can't display an 8k image.

The panel is different from the Samsung TU8000 and looks like an MVA panel, which is a type of VA panel and performs the same. There's dithering with blue pixels, but it's only visible with a full white screen. It has BGR subpixel layout, which can affect text clarity when using it as a PC monitor, and you can read about it here.

The Samsung AU8000 has a decent color gamut for HDR content, but it's not considered a wide color gamut. It has great coverage of the commonly-used DCI P3 color space, but it's very limited with the wider Rec. 2020 color space. It's worse than the LG NANO75 2021.

Due to the narrow color gamut, the color volume is mediocre. It displays darker colors fairly well thanks to the high contrast, but it struggles more with brighter colors.

The gradient handling is excellent, which is a significant improvement from the Samsung TU8000. There's a bit more banding in the reds and greens, but it's still not too noticeable. The Noise Reduction setting doesn't seem to improve the gradients.

There are no visible signs of image retention on the Samsung AU8000, but it can vary between units.

We don't expect VA panels to experience permanent burn-in, as the VA panel in our long-term test appears immune.

The Samsung AU8000 has an okay response time. There's visible motion blur behind fast-moving objects, and due to the slow response time with dark transitions, there's smearing. The 100% response time is quicker than the Samsung TU8000, but motion looks worse because there's more black smear.

The Samsung AU8000 uses Pulse Width Modulation (PWM) to dim its backlight. It's flicker-free in the 'Movie' Picture Mode with the Brightness set to anything '25' and above, but it flickers at 480Hz at '24' and below. It flickers at 120Hz with Picture Clarity enabled or in Game Mode. It also flickers at 120Hz in the 'Dynamic', 'Standard', and 'Natural' Picture Modes, but it's flicker-free in those modes if the backlight is set to its max.

The Samsung AU8000 has a Black Frame Insertion feature to try to reduce motion blur. It can flicker at 60Hz outside of Game Mode if you enable LED Clear Motion, but once Game Mode is enabled there aren't any motion settings and it always flickers at 120Hz, which leads to motion duplication. There's also bad crosstalk, and the BFI timing seems off, which could get distracting. Note that our BFI score is based on the range at which it can flicker and not its actual performance.

The Samsung AU8000 can interpolate 30fps content up to 60fps, known as the 'Soap Opera Effect'. You need to set Judder Reduction to '10' in the Picture Clarity tab for it to work. It looks okay in slower scenes but stops interpolating altogether during busy scenes. It also stopped working at random times with our test pattern.

Since the TV has a slower response time, there's not too much stutter with lower frame rate content.

Like the Samsung TU8000, the Samsung AU8000 can remove 24p judder from native sources and apps, but not from 60p and 60i sources. You need to disable Picture Clarity for it to remove judder.

The Samsung AU8000 has a basic 60Hz panel without any variable refresh rate support.

The Samsung AU8000 has incredibly low input lag as long as Game Mode is enabled. Surprisingly, even outside of Game Mode input lag is still low enough that it should be good for gaming in case you accidentally forget to enable it. You can enable the motion interpolation feature while gaming, but it increases the input lag significantly. If you want to use the TV as a monitor, you need to set the input you're using to 'PC'.

The Samsung AU8000 displays 1080p and 4k resolutions up to 60Hz. It supports chroma 4:4:4 on its supported resolutions, which helps with text clarity. To enable it, set the input label you're using to 'PC'. Sadly, it doesn't support 1440p like the Samsung TU8000; we had issues trying to force it as a custom resolution as it would appear as 3840x1600, which is a problem we experienced with the Samsung Q60/Q60A QLED. If you want something that can display 1440p signals, then look into the Vizio V5 Series 2021.

Since it's a 60Hz TV, it only supports 4k games up to 60fps from the PS5 and Xbox Series X. It has an Auto Low Latency Mode that automatically switches the TV into Game Mode to get the lowest input lag possible when a game from a compatible device is launched. For it to work, set Game Mode to 'Auto'.

The Composite In is removed, compared to 2020's Samsung TU8000.

Even though the Samsung AU8000 doesn't have HDMI 2.1 inputs, it still supports eARC. This allows you to pass uncompressed audio in the Dolby Atmos via TrueHD format to a compatible receiver over a single HDMI connection. For it to work, set HDMI eARC Mode to 'Auto' and Digital Output Audio to 'Auto' or 'Passthrough'.

The frequency response is mediocre. It doesn't produce bass, and there are compression artifacts at its max volume. You have to listen at moderate levels if you want more of a well-balanced sound profile.

The distortion performance is mediocre. Although there isn't too much at moderate listening levels, it increases quite a bit at its max volume. However, it depends on the content, and not everyone may hear it.

The Samsung AU8000 comes with an upgraded version of Tizen compared to 2020's Samsung TU8000; the menu navigation feels smoother, and it's easy to use. However, it has fewer features than some of the higher-end models like the Samsung Q80/Q80A QLED as it lacks things like Multi View.

Sadly, there are ads in the home page and app store and there's no way to disable them.

Samsung's app store has many apps, and they run smoothly for the most part.

This TV comes with the same new redesigned remote as other Samsung TVs in 2021, except it requires disposable batteries instead of a rechargeable one. There are shortcut buttons to popular streaming devices, and the voice control gives you access to Bixby, Alexa, and Google Assistant. You can ask it to change settings and switch inputs, but you can't ask it to search for specific content in apps.

There's a single button below the Samsung branding on the right side. You can change volume, channels, and inputs and turn the TV On/Off.

• Remote control (with 2x AA batteries)
• Power cable
• Clips for cable management
• User guides