The Samsung DU8000 is an entry-level model in Samsung's 2024 lineup and replaces the Samsung CU8000. It sits above the Samsung DU7000 and below Samsung's QLED lineup. It uses Samsung's AirSlim design, which is meant to provide a slim design that blends into your wall, and this TV comes with Samsung's proprietary Tizen OS, which has been updated to version 8.0 in 2024. The TV has a 20W 2.0 channel speaker system built in and is available in a wide variety of sizes: anything from a small 43-inch model to a large 85-inch model. It's a basic TV but has some optional features like Motion Xcelerator to help smooth out motion and the Mega Contrast feature, designed to automatically adjust the brightness and contrast of the image.
Our Verdict
The Samsung DU8000 is poor for mixed usage. It looks pretty bad in a dark room due to its poor black levels, but it's also not nearly bright enough to handle glare in a well-lit room. HDR content is lackluster due to the TV's muted colors and bad HDR brightness. This model also doesn't perform well for gamers, since it doesn't have the modern gaming features needed to take advantage of today's consoles. It even has a narrow viewing angle, making it unsuitable for wide seating arrangements.
Not nearly bright enough in SDR to overcome glare in bright rooms.
Way too dim in HDR for highlights to stand out.
Poor contrast and no local dimming means blacks look grayish.
Doesn't support modern gaming features like HDMI 2.1, 120Hz, and VRR.
Direct reflections are very visible.
The Samsung DU8000 is inadequate for a home theater. The TV has poor black levels, so blacks look gray during most scenes, making it look unimpressive in dark rooms. The TV is way too dim in HDR for highlights to stand out at all, and its inadequate HDR color volume leads to colors looking dull and unimpressive. It does a decent job upscaling low-resolution content, but low-bitrate content is still full of artifacts due to the TV's poor low-quality content smoothing. Finally, it has mediocre motion handling, as there's noticeable stutter and some slight color artifacts in transitions.
Way too dim in HDR for highlights to stand out.
Poor contrast and no local dimming means blacks look grayish.
Dark colors in HDR lack depth, and bright colors are dim.
Poor low-quality content smoothing leads to distracting artifacts in low-bitrate content.
No Dolby Vision HDR or DTS Audio support.
Can't remove judder from 60Hz sources.
The Samsung DU8000 is sub-par for a bright room. The TV's image quality remains mostly unaffected by ambient lighting, so blacks and colors don't look much different from what they do in a dark room. However, the TV is just too dim to fight glare in any environment other than a dimly lit room, so it's unsuitable for a bright room. Even in a dimly lit room, mirror-like reflections are visible on screen, so don't place any light sources directly opposite the screen.
Black levels and colors are barely affected by ambient lighting.
Not nearly bright enough in SDR to overcome glare in bright rooms.
Direct reflections are very visible.
The Samsung DU8000 is a poor TV for watching sports. It's too dim to handle glare in even moderately lit rooms, so it's really only suitable for dimly lit environments. The TV does a poor job cleaning up artifacts in low-quality content, so cable feeds look noisy. On the other hand, it has decent upscaling, so low-resolution feeds still have some details intact. Sadly, fast motion is blurry, colors are a bit muted, and there's some dirty screen effect towards the center of the screen, so the image is far from pristine. Furthermore, the TV has a pretty narrow viewing angle, so its image quality degrades quickly when the screen is viewed from an angle.
Not nearly bright enough in SDR to overcome glare in bright rooms.
Direct reflections are very visible.
Poor low-quality content smoothing leads to distracting artifacts in low-bitrate content.
Noticeable dirty screen effect and uneven brightness due to its unremarkable gray uniformity.
Some color artifacts.
The Samsung DU8000 is a poor gaming TV. It lacks modern gaming features, so you're limited to 4k @ 60Hz. It also doesn't support VRR, so there's some screen tearing when your frame rate is inconsistent. The TV's image quality isn't nearly good enough to make games look as good as they should, since the TV's black levels, brightness, and colors are all very underwhelming.
Low input lag at 60Hz.
Way too dim in HDR for highlights to stand out.
Poor contrast and no local dimming means blacks look grayish.
Dark colors in HDR lack depth, and bright colors are dim.
Slow pixel transitions in Game Mode leads to blurry motion.
Doesn't support modern gaming features like HDMI 2.1, 120Hz, and VRR.
The Samsung DU8000 has bad brightness. It's too dim in SDR to handle glare in anything other than a dimly lit room. HDR content looks dim and lacks pop, since the TV doesn't have close to the brightness needed to make highlights stand out. Overall, this is a very dim model.
Not nearly bright enough in SDR to overcome glare in bright rooms.
Way too dim in HDR for highlights to stand out.
The Samsung DU8000 has poor black levels. The TV has great black uniformity, so blacks are mostly uniform across the screen during dark scenes. However, the TV's contrast is so poor that blacks look gray in the vast majority of scenes, so the image looks washed out most of the time.
Great black uniformity.
Poor contrast and no local dimming means blacks look grayish.
The Samsung DU8000 has middling colors. The TV's color volume in SDR and HDR isn't up to par, so colors look muted, dim, and lack richness. Its out-of-the-box color accuracy is decent in SDR, so colors don't stray too far from what they should look like. However, the TV is very inaccurate in HDR, and everything looks much colder than intended by the content creator.
Dark colors in HDR lack depth, and bright colors are dim.
Poor color accuracy in HDR.
The Samsung DU8000 has mediocre motion handling. It removes judder from most external sources, unless you're using an older streaming device or cable box that can only send a 60p signal, but these aren't very common anymore. It has an okay response time, but there's still noticeable stutter in most shots, and its motion interpolation feature is ineffective. Transitions are mostly clean with sharp edges, but there are some noticeable color artifacts.
Edge transitions are clear and sharp.
Can't remove judder from 60Hz sources.
Some color artifacts.
Terrible motion interpolation feature.
The Samsung DU8000 has sub-par responsiveness in its dedicated gaming mode. The TV lacks modern features found on many other models, so you're limited to 4k @ 60Hz, and it doesn't support VRR, so you see some screen tearing. Its input lag is low enough that gaming feels responsive, but you miss out on the lower input lag provided by higher refresh rates. Pixel response times are mediocre, so fast motion has blur trails behind it. Overall, this isn't a good choice if you care about gaming performance.
Low input lag at 60Hz.
Slow pixel transitions in Game Mode leads to blurry motion.
Doesn't support modern gaming features like HDMI 2.1, 120Hz, and VRR.
Note: We're in the process of improving our tests related to image processing, but this score should give you a general idea of how a TV performs overall with its image processing capabilities.
The Samsung DU8000 has unremarkable image processing. Its upscaling is decent, so you don't have to look at an overly soft image when watching low-resolution content, but it still lacks some details. Unfortunately, the TV's low-quality content smoothing is poor, so low-bitrate content has visible artifacts. The TV's gradient handling is alright, so even though there's some apparent banding in green gradients, other colors aren't too distracting. Finally, it does a mediocre job of displaying HDR content at the brightness level intended by the filmmaker, since blacks are raised, and the rest of the image is a bit too dim.
Poor low-quality content smoothing leads to distracting artifacts in low-bitrate content.
Performance Usages
Changelog
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Updated Mar 12, 2026:
We added text to our new Cinematic Motion Handling performance usage and our new Transition Artifacts and Stutter Reduction Via Interpolation test sections after converting the review to TV 2.2.
- Updated Mar 10, 2026: This review has been updated to TV 2.2. We've added new sections for Transition Artifacts and Stutter Reduction Via Interpolation, and updated the way we test Stutter. Additionally, we removed the 'Broken' disclaimer from our Motion Handling usage.
- Updated Jan 20, 2026: We added text to the new Micro-Judder section and refreshed the text in the updated Judder and Response Time Stutter sections after converting the review to TV 2.1.
- Updated Sep 24, 2025: Converted to Test Bench 2.0.1. We did this to fix an issue with our scoring in the Supported Resolutions section, since TVs with a refresh rate higher than 144Hz were being penalized for not supporting 144Hz.
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Differences Between Sizes And Variants
We bought and tested the 65-inch Samsung DU8000, but our results are also valid for the 43-inch, 50-inch, 55-inch, and 75-inch models. The 85-inch DU8000 uses a 120Hz panel and supports VRR. Note that the last four letters in the model number (FXZA in this case) vary between retailers and individual regions, but there's no difference in performance.
There's also a minor variant of this TV known as the Samsung DUX1E. It's an online exclusive that's only available in a 43-inch and 50-inch size. There's no difference in performance, but the stand and bezel are dark gray instead of black.
| Size | US Model | Short Model Code | Gray Variant | Refresh Rate | VRR support |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 43" | UN43DU8000FXZA | UN43DU8000 | UN43DUX1EAFXZA | 60Hz | No |
| 50" | UN50DU8000FXZA | UN50DU8000 | UN50DUX1EAFXZA | 60Hz | No |
| 55" | UN55DU8000FXZA | UN55DU8000 | N/A | 60Hz | No |
| 65" | UN65DU8000FXZA | UN65DU8000 | N/A | 60Hz | No |
| 75" | UN75DU8000FXZA | UN75DU8000 | N/A | 60Hz | No |
| 85" | UN85DU8000FXZA | UN85DU8000 | N/A | 120Hz | Yes |
Our unit was manufactured in February 2024.
Popular TV Comparisons
The Samsung DU8000 is an okay TV overall, but it's held back by its lack of local dimming, low peak brightness, narrow viewing angle, and lack of modern gaming features. You can do much better with your money by going with a TV like the Hisense U65QF or the TCL QM6K, both of which have much better overall picture quality, more features like local dimming, and HDMI 2.1 bandwidth for gamers.
It's also important to note that we encountered a bug that negatively affected our initial HDR test results. We don't know how common this issue is, but it's certainly worth mentioning.
For more options, check out our recommendations for the best budget TVs, the best TVs under $1,000, and the best 4k TVs.
The Samsung U8000F offers an updated design over its predecessor, the Samsung DU8000, but otherwise performs nearly the same. The U8000F is a bit brighter and more accurate out of the box, but the differences are minor. The U8000F also adds VRR support to reduce tearing, but since its effective refresh rate range is so narrow, this feature isn't very useful most of the time.
The Samsung Q7F 2025 is a bit better than the Samsung DU8000, but not by much. The Q7F is a bit brighter in HDR and SDR and has deeper contrast, even if neither set has local dimming. It's also a bit more colorful and is more accurate in SDR out of the box. Ultimately, these are basic TVs, and while the Q7F is a bit better overall, it's not worth paying much more for it than you would for the DU8000.
The Samsung DU8000 and the Samsung DU7200 are very similar overall. The DU7200 has an edge with contrast, displaying slightly deeper blacks. The DU7200 is also brighter overall, meaning it fights a bit more glare in a bright room and displays brighter highlights in HDR. On the other hand, the DU8000 displays a wider range of colors, so you get a slightly more vibrant image on it.
The Samsung Q60D is better overall than the Samsung DU8000. The Q60D has superior contrast for deeper blacks, overcomes more glare in a bright room thanks to its much higher SDR peak brightness, and provides a more impactful HDR experience due to its much better HDR brightness. Additionally, the Q60D displays a wider range of colors and does a slightly better job of upscaling low-resolution content. On the other hand, the DU8000 has a faster response time, so it displays fast motion with less blur behind it.
We buy and test dozens of TVs yearly, taking an objective, data-driven approach to deliver results you can trust. Our testing process is complex, with hundreds of individual tests that take over a week to complete. Most of our tests use specially designed test patterns that mimic real content, but we also use the same sources you have at home to ensure our results match the real-world experience. We use two main tools for our testing: a Colorimetry Research CR-100 colorimeter and a CR-250 spectroradiometer.
Test Results
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