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Samsung KU6300 TV Review

Tested using Methodology v1.0
Review updated Mar 01, 2017 at 06:31 am
Samsung KU6300 Picture
7.4
Mixed Usage
Value for price beaten by
: Not at the latest test bench
6.9
Movies
Value for price beaten by
: Not at the latest test bench
7.2
TV Shows
Value for price beaten by
: Not at the latest test bench
7.3
Sports
Value for price beaten by
: Not at the latest test bench
8.3
Video Games
Value for price beaten by
: Not at the latest test bench
7.3
HDR Movies
Value for price beaten by
: Not at the latest test bench
8.0
HDR Gaming
Value for price beaten by
: Not at the latest test bench
6.9
PC Monitor
Value for price beaten by
: Not at the latest test bench
This TV was replaced by the Samsung MU6300

The 4k Samsung KU6300 Series UHD LED TV doesn't have a stellar picture quality but is good enough for most content. It supports an HDR input, but it doesn't have the capabilities to display a more colorful picture. It also suffers from bad reflections and constant judder on movies. When watched from the side, its picture quality also diminishes.

Our Verdict

7.4 Mixed Usage

Good TV for a mixed usage. It isn't bad at anything. It will work in any kind of rooms since it is versatile. It is especially good for video games and sports.

Pros
  • Low input lag
  • Great blacks and contrast ratio
Cons
  • Reflects more lights than average
  • Average gray uniformity
  • Judder is present in movies
6.9 Movies

Average for watching movies in the dark. It has a good contrast ratio, but it lacks local dimming to make the blacks even darker. It also has a small judder when watching movies.

7.2 TV Shows

Above average for TV shows in a bright room. The screen can get brighter than average, but it reflects a bit more lights than most TVs. It upscales lower resolution content well.

7.3 Sports

Good for watching sports. However, the screen is not very uniform, which results in a bit of dirty screen effect on playing fields.

8.3 Video Games

Great for video games. Very low input lag of lag, and not too much motion blur.

7.3 HDR Movies

Although the KU6300 support HDR10 input, it does not really benefit from it, since it does not support a wide color gamut and it cannot really get highlight very bright.

8.0 HDR Gaming

Good for HDR gaming. Picture quality is good. Supports HDR10 but can't really benefit from it due to lack of local dimming and no support for wide color gamut. Input lag is low even in HDR mode. Motion blur is good.

6.9 PC Monitor

Works well to use as a PC monitor. It supports a wide range of resolution, even 4k @ 60Hz @ 4:4:4, and the input lag is very good.

  • 7.4 Mixed Usage
  • 6.9 Movies
  • 7.2 TV Shows
  • 7.3 Sports
  • 8.3 Video Games
  • 7.3 HDR Movies
  • 8.0 HDR Gaming
  • 6.9 PC Monitor
  1. Updated Mar 01, 2017: Review published.
  2. Updated May 25, 2016: Our testers have started testing this product.
  3. Updated May 20, 2016: We've purchased the product and are waiting for it to arrive in our lab.

Differences Between Sizes And Variants

We tested the 55" (UN55KU6300) version FA01. For the most part, we expect our review to be valid for the other sizes of this model.

The KU6270 and KU6290 are variants of the KU6300. We expect them to have the same picture quality as the KU6300 reviewed. The only major differences are that the KU6270 and KU6290 lack Bluetooth connectivity and include a remote that looks identical to the KU6300 remote but lacks the features that use Bluetooth, such as pairing and Universal Remote Control.

Update 2017/05/12: The KU6270 does not have component/composite video inputs, but the KU6290 does.

If someone comes across a different type of panel or if their Samsung KU6300 doesn't correspond to our review, let us know and we will update the review.

Size Model US UK Warehouse Warehouse long
40" UN40KU6300 UN40KU6300FXZA UE40KU6000 UN40KU630D UN40KU630DFXZA
43" UN43KU6300 UN43KU6300FXZA UE43KU6000 UN43KU630D UN43KU630DFXZA
50" UN50KU6300 UN50KU6300FXZA UE50KU6000 UN50KU630D UN50KU630DFXZA
55" UN55KU6300 UN55KU6300FXZA UE55KU6000 UN55KU630D UN55KU630DFXZA
60" UN60KU6300 UN60KU6300FXZA UE60KU6000 UN60KU630D UN60KU630DFXZA
65" UN65KU6300 UN65KU6300FXZA UE65KU6000 UN65KU630D UN65KU630DFXZA
70" UN70KU6300 UN70KU6300FXZA N/A UN70KU630D UN70KU630DFXZA

Compared To Other TVs

Comparison picture

Top left:: LG UH7700 (55UH7700). Bottom left: Samsung KS8000 (UN55KS8000). Middle: Samsung KU6300 (UN55KU63000). Top right: Vizio D 4k 2016 (D50u-D1). Bottom right: TCL US5800 (55US5800). Unlike our other photographs, this picture wasn't taken under a controlled environment, so do not draw conclusions from it.

The Samsung KU6300 has fierce competition in the budget range. It is a good choice if you want an affordable versatile TV.

Video

Test Results

Design
8.5
Design
Style
Curved No

The Samsung KU6300 delivers the same look and design as last year's Samsung J5000, J5200 and J5500, keeping it simple for a standard budget television. The borders are still average, and the stand, while still stable, has a wide footprint.

Design
Stand

The stand is quite stable, but has a large footprint.

Footprint of the 55" TV stand: 33.1" x 12.6"

Design
Back
Wall Mount VESA 400x400

The backing of the Samsung TV has a nice plastic design to it. The ports, which are located on the side, will be helpful when needing to have access to them while the TV is wall mounted.

Design
Borders
Borders 0.63" (1.6 cm)

The borders are made up of reflective plastic that will attract finger prints easily.

Design
Thickness
Max Thickness 2.44" (6.2 cm)

The thickness of the KU6300 is about the same as last year's model Samsung JU6500.

Picture Quality
8.9
Picture Quality
Contrast
Native Contrast
5,411 : 1

The blacks are deep on the Samsung KU6300, which offers a high contrast ratio and a better picture quality.

0
Picture Quality
Local Dimming
Local Dimming
No
Backlight
Direct

There is no local dimming option on this TV, so the blacks cannot get darker.

7.7
Picture Quality
SDR Peak Brightness
SDR Real Scene Peak Brightness
431 cd/m²
SDR Peak 2% Window
203 cd/m²
SDR Peak 10% Window
357 cd/m²
SDR Peak 25% Window
439 cd/m²
SDR Peak 50% Window
437 cd/m²
SDR Peak 100% Window
437 cd/m²
SDR Sustained 2% Window
203 cd/m²
SDR Sustained 10% Window
357 cd/m²
SDR Sustained 25% Window
439 cd/m²
SDR Sustained 50% Window
437 cd/m²
SDR Sustained 100% Window
437 cd/m²

The SDR peak brightness is average and almost the same as when watching HDR content, which is good for people watching mostly standard TV content, which lack HDR for the moment.

7.6
Picture Quality
HDR Peak Brightness
HDR Real Scene Peak Brightness
413 cd/m²
HDR Peak 2% Window
242 cd/m²
HDR Peak 10% Window
385 cd/m²
HDR Peak 25% Window
434 cd/m²
HDR Peak 50% Window
433 cd/m²
HDR Peak 100% Window
434 cd/m²
HDR Sustained 2% Window
242 cd/m²
HDR Sustained 10% Window
385 cd/m²
HDR Sustained 25% Window
343 cd/m²
HDR Sustained 50% Window
433 cd/m²
HDR Sustained 100% Window
434 cd/m²

The TV achieves a pretty average peak brightness when maxed out, and HDR is on. When an image is displayed throughout the entire screen, it stays bright, which is great.

Update 02/08/2016: Under the latest firmware, the 'CE dimming' is stronger than before and the peak brightness of the 2% and 10% windows is now less than what we measured when we first did the original review.

6.6
Picture Quality
Gray Uniformity
50% Std. Dev.
4.093%
50% DSE
0.224%
5% Std. Dev.
0.726%
5% DSE
0.132%

The television has a lot of issues with gray uniformity as corners are darker, black patches can be seen throughout the display and horizontal bending waves are visible.

4.3
Picture Quality
Viewing Angle
LCD Type
VA
Color Shift
26°
Brightness
31°
Black Level
19°

Just like the Samsung KS Series, it has an viewing angle of 20 degrees, this is to be expected from a VA panel. At an angle, colors will shift and blacks will become less deep.

9.8
Picture Quality
Black Uniformity
Native Std. Dev.
0.503%

Our unit has an almost perfect black uniformity. No clouding or flash lighting can be seen.

9.0
Picture Quality
Gradient
Color Depth
10 Bit

The Samsung KU6300 can display our gradient test image fairly well. On our test picture, the gradation is smooth overall in the light shades with some small anomalies in the darker shades, especially in the green color. But it should not be an issue in regular content.

Update 10/26/2016: Our original test was showing 8 bit gradations due to incorrect drivers on our system. After some correction to our test apparatus, we have retested the color depth and found that it is able to display a 10 bit gradient smoothly.

8.2
Picture Quality
Pre Calibration
White Balance dE
3.84
Color dE
2.8393
Gamma
2.23

The White Balance dE was pretty high out of the box, as for the Color dE and the Gamma, they were above average.

9.9
Picture Quality
Post Calibration
White Balance dE
0.19
Color dE
0.2343
Gamma
2.2

Like other Samsung TVs, calibration went smoothly and helped reduce both white balance and color dE to a very low level.

8.0
Picture Quality
480p Input

Standard definition TV is upscaled well without any problems.

8.0
Picture Quality
720p Input

720p content also looks good when displayed on the KU6300.

9.0
Picture Quality
1080p Input

Blu-rays looks sharp and crisp when upscaled.

10
Picture Quality
4k Input

4k UHD Blu-rays look good and very sharp on the KU6300.

7.0
Picture Quality
Color Gamut
Wide Color Gamut
No
DCI P3 xy
77.23%
DCI P3 uv
85.22%
Rec 2020 xy
54.74%
Rec 2020 uv
60.72%

The range of colors the Samsung TV can display is only good enough for Rec. 709 content. Sending an HDR signal or settings the color space to native will not give you a wider color gamut.

5.5
Picture Quality
Color Volume
Normalized DCI P3 Coverage
60.917%
10,000 cd/m² DCI P3 Coverage
33.096%
Normalized Rec 2020 Coverage
45.063%
10,000 cd/m² Rec 2020 Coverage
23.943%

The KU6300 can't display a wide range of colors and so can't reproduce much of the P3 or 2020 color volume.

10
Picture Quality
Image Retention
IR after 0 min recovery
0%
IR after 2 min recovery
0%
IR after 4 min recovery
0%
IR after 6 min recovery
0%
IR after 8 min recovery
0%
IR after 10 min recovery
0%

No image retention could be notice at all after running our test. Even on the first test picture, right after the 10 minutes exposure to the burn-in image, nothing was found after our computer analysis, which is great. This is in line with others VA TVs results and is good for people looking for a good TV for video games, to use as a PC monitors and for shop or office that need to display a lot of static contents.

7.0
Picture Quality
Reflections
Reflection
2.4%
Screen Finish
Semi-gloss

This Samsung TV is worst than average when it comes to handling reflections, especially in a bright room environment. This is a bit surprising because it reflects more lights than even the cheaper Samsung TVs from last year.

0
Picture Quality
3D
3D
No
Picture Quality
Pixels
Type LED
Motion
7.7
Motion
Motion Blur
Refresh Rate 60 Hz
Response Time
18.7 ms
Overshoot
0 ms

The motion blur is good, but not great. The response time is favorable, and the trail that is behind the logo has an average length that is faint. It does have PWM flickering, but it only occurs when the back light is below 10 out of 20.

4.8
Motion
Image Flicker
PWM Dimming Frequency
120 Hz
BFI
Yes
BFI Frequency
60 Hz
BFI In Game Mode
No

The KU6300 is able to flicker the backlight at 60Hz, which helps to clear up motion blur due to eye tracking. Unfortunately as with other Samsung TVs this isn't available in the 'Game' picture mode.

0
Motion
24p Playback
Judder-free 24p
No
Judder-free 24p via 60p
No
Judder-free 24p via 60i
No

Even 24p sources have little judder. In fact, judder is present on all sources for movies.

5.0
Motion
Motion Interpolation
Motion Interpolation (30 fps)
Yes
Motion Interpolation (60 fps)
No

Enabling 'Action Motion Plus' to 'Auto' will allow 30fps content become smoother, this cannot be said about 60fps content. Even though they advertise that it has '120Hz Motion Rate', this is a 60Hz TV.

Inputs
8.2
Inputs
Input Lag
1080p @ 60Hz
19.8 ms
1080p With Interpolation
109.9 ms
1080p @ 60Hz Outside Game Mode
122.4 ms
1080p @ 60Hz @ 4:4:4
36.7 ms
4k @ 60Hz
20.4 ms
4k @ 60Hz @ 4:4:4
36.7 ms
4k @ 60Hz + HDR
20.4 ms
4k @ 60Hz @ 4:4:4 + 8 bit HDR
36.7 ms

Excellent for fast pace competitive gaming, it will definitely give you an advantage over other gamers. 'Game' mode has to be selected from the 'Special viewing modes' under the 'Picture' menu to get the lowest input lag.

8.0
Inputs
Supported Resolutions
Resolution 4k
1080p @ 60Hz @ 4:4:4
Yes
1080p @ 120Hz
No
4k @ 30Hz @ 4:4:4
Yes
4k @ 60Hz
Yes
4k @ 60Hz @ 4:4:4
Yes

Almost all the resolutions that we have tested are supported on this TV, the only exception was 1080p@120Hz, but that was to be expected for a Samsung TV. For sharper text 4:4:4 you must set the input type to 'PC'. For 4K@60Hz@4:4:4 you must enable UHD mode. This is only possible on HDMI1.

Inputs
Side Inputs
Inputs
Rear Inputs
Inputs
Total Inputs
HDMI 3
USB 2
Digital Optical Audio Out 1
Analog Audio Out 3.5mm 0
Analog Audio Out RCA 0
Component In 1 (incl. adapter)
Composite In 1 (incl. adapter)
Tuner (Cable/Ant) 1
Ethernet 1
DisplayPort 0
IR In 0
SD/SDHC 0
Inputs
Inputs Specifications
HDR10
Yes
5.1 Passthrough ARC Dolby Digital
Yes
Dolby Vision
No
5.1 Passthrough ARC DTS
Yes
5.1 Passthrough Optical Dolby Digital
Yes
5.1 Passthrough Optical DTS
Yes
HDMI 2.0 Full Bandwidth Yes (HDMI 1)
ARC Yes (HDMI 3)
USB 3 No
HDCP 2.2 Yes
CEC Yes
MHL No
Variable Analog Audio Out No
Sound Quality
7.2
Sound Quality
Frequency Response
Std. Dev. @ 70
3.54 dB SPL
Std. Dev. @ 80
3.55 dB SPL
Std. Dev. @ Max
5.53 dB SPL
Max
88.7 dB SPL
Low-end Cutoff
89.8 Hz

Decent frequency response. The low-end cutoff and the responses at 75dB and 85dB are good. However, maximum loudness and frequency response at maximum volume are subpar, since pumping and compression will be present.

5.0
Sound Quality
Total Harmonic Distortion
Distortion @ 70
0.023
Distortion @ 80
0.185
Distortion @ Max
0.306

Poor performance. The overall amount of harmonic distortion at 75dB is quite low. However, there is a significant rise in the harmonic distortion at higher volumes, which negatively affects the sound quality.

Smart Features
Smart Features
Apps

Just like the Samsung KS Series, all the popular applications such as Youtube, Amazon and Netflix are available.

8.5
Smart Features
Interface
Smart OS Tizen (2016)

Just like the Samsung KS Series, it includes the new Tizen 2016 platform, with some minor differences. In terms of the applications, the KU6300 has less pre-loaded application than the KS Series, this shouldn’t be a problem though since you can download them from the menu either way.  The performance slacks, as menus would freeze often for a lengthy duration, and the remote would flash and disconnect because of it.

When a new device is detected (such as when a computer is woken from sleep while plugged into an HDMI port) the TV automatically switches to this device. This may be an annoyance if you are watching other content at the time.

0
Smart Features
Ads
Ad-free
No
Opt-out
No

Unfortunately, Samsung's entry level 4k TV features ads. Much like other Tizen-based sets, they cannot be disabled.

Smart Features
TV Controls

The TV control can be found behind the television on the right side.

Smart Features
Remote
Remote Smart

The remote is very similar to the Samsung KS series with some differences. The back of the remote has a reflective plastic that will easily track finger prints, unlike the Samsung KS Series gray reflective plastic, the buttons protrude out rather than being inwards and the volume up and down, as well as the channel up and down buttons are black rather than chrome. The remote also weighs less than the KS Series remote and lacks the microphone option.

Smart Features
In The Box

  • Manual
  • Remote
  • Batteries
  • Power Cable
  • Component In adapter
  • Composite In adapter

Smart Features
Misc
Power Consumption 48 W
Power Consumption (Max) 161 W
Firmware 1103