- Table of Contents
- Intro
- Design
- Picture Quality
- Motion
- Inputs
- Sound Quality
- Smart Features
- Sizes and Variants
- Compared
- Conclusion
- Discussions
The Samsung NU7100 is a decent 4k LED TV. It has decent picture quality with a good native contrast ratio but lacks more advanced features to improve the dark room performance such as local dimming. It has extremely low input lag which is excellent for gamers but the response time is only decent so some blur is visible behind fast moving objects. When viewed at an angle the image also loses accuracy, so the best picture is reserved for those directly in front of the TV.
- Excellent low input lag
- Good uniformity
- Limited HDR capabilities
- Picture quality degrades when viewed at an angle
| Design | 8.5 |
| Picture Quality | 7.4 |
| Motion | 6.2 |
| Inputs | 9.4 |
| Sound Quality | 6.5 |
| Smart Features | 7.4 |
- Update 2/28/2019: Converted to Test Bench 1.3. Learn more about our versioned test bench system here.
- Update 6/15/2018: The TV's picture settings have been reset and the contrast ratio has been remeasured at a higher value of 5397:1. It is likely that the calibration raised black levels slightly, reducing the native contrast ratio. The new measurement is in-line with other Samsung TVs like the NU7300.
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The stand is modern and sturdy. It is wide enough to fit a soundbar in front.
Footprint of the 55" TV stand: 37.2" x 10.3"
The back of the TV has the same textured finish found in this year's NU8000. There are a few cable management tracks that span the entire width of the back of the TV. Also the TV comes with two clips that attach to the stand legs to also assist with cable management.
The borders of the Samsung UN55NU7100 are simple with a textured plastic finish and have average thickness.
The TV looks thin when viewed from the side and resembles the also new NU8000. It too lacks the OneConnect mini, saving you the trouble of where to place it when wall mounting the TV. At the same time, changing connections is not a as simple as with the OneConnect.
The NU7100 gets warm along the bottom edge of the panel where the LEDs are. This is common for many Samsung models and should not be a problem.
The build quality is ok. It feels solid even though it is almost entirely made from plastic.
Picture Quality
The Samsung NU7100 produces decent picture quality. It has a good native contrast ratio, but it is lower than normal for this type of panel. It isn't very bright either, especially in HDR, and is better suited for viewing in a dim room. It has good gray uniformity, with very little dirty screen effect, great for sports fans. It has a limited color gamut, and poor color volume, so it performs its best with SDR content. It has great reflection handling.
The contrast on the TV is great, and in-line with other Samsung TVs like the NU7300. This is good for producing deep dark scenes.
Update 06/15/2018: We have reset the TV and retested the native contrast ratio, and it is a bit higher. It is likely that the calibration raised the black levels slightly, lowering the previously measured contrast ratio.
The Samsung NU7100 does not have a local dimming feature. The above video is provided for reference only.
Disappointing HDR peak brightness. It is fairly consistent across all input windows. Small highlights in dark scenes are dimmed by the TV's algorithms, as shown by our 2% window test. Like with SDR, the HDR performance is worse than last year's Samsung lineup. Similar performance to the budget-level LG UK6300.
The TV has a good gray uniformity. In the 50% gray test picture you can notice it is a little darker on the sides and especially on the corners. This fades as we move towards the center of the screen where things are pretty even and thus, the minor dirty screen effect is hardly noticeable. This is very good for those who will use the TV mostly for sports viewing.
The 5% gray uniformity is very good with no noticeable brighter spots.
The Samsung NU7100 has a poor viewing angle, but it is better than last year's MU6300. The black levels shift dramatically when viewing even slightly off center.
The Samsung NU7100 has an excellent black uniformity, similar to the 2017 MU6300 and one of the best among LED TVs. The are no clouding issues and black looks very uniform. As a result, dark scenes in movies look great.
Out of the box color accuracy is decent. The Movie picture mode provided the most accurate settings. White balance and color dE are a bit high but most people won't notice a huge difference. Gamma is high, and color temperature is a bit warm.
Update 04/12/2019: This TV was incorrectly measured with Brightness +2, instead of at 0. This only has a small impact on the results (slightly dimmer dark scenes below about 30 IRE) and so we don't plan to retest it.
After calibration with the Movie picture mode, the white balance is almost perfect and colors are much better. Gamma follows our target 2.2 almost perfectly, although the color temperature is a little off from our target of 6500K.
See our recommended settings here.
The Samsung NU7100 displays older 480p content well, without any issues or obvious artifacts.
1080p content, like from a non 4k Blu-ray or game console is displayed well and looks almost as good as native 4k content.
The NU7100 supports a standard color gamut only and is best suited for SDR content. Like the 2017 MU6500, red and green fall quite short of their HDR targets.
The 'Movie' Picture mode is the most accurate, but it doesn't follow our PQ curve. The brightness rolls off gradually as the TV gets closer to its peak brightness. The PC and Game EOTFs are very similar to 'Movie', but also don't follow our target very closely.
Disappointing color volume, mainly due to the limited color gamut of the TV. It is unable to produce deep, dark colors, and it is limited in its ability to produce bright saturated colors like those in a sunset or bright outdoor scene.
The TV displays our test pattern well but in real-world tests, there are small points of banding in large areas of similar color.
There is no temporary image retention on the NU7100.
We don't expect the TV to experience burn-in, as the VA panel in our long-term test appears immune.
Motion
The motion handling of the Samsung NU7100 is mediocre. The refresh rate is decent, but in dark scenes, it is a bit high so sci-fi fans might be a bit disappointed. The backlight has improved over the MU6300, and it now flickers at 240 Hz, which is less noticeable. It can also reduce the backlight frequency to 60Hz, helping motion appear smoother but introducing visible flicker. The NU7100 cannot remove judder from any source, although most people won't notice this.
Decent response time. In dark scenes like our 20% test slide the 100% transition is very slow and there is some motion trail.
It is slightly worse than last year's MU6300, and similar to the MU7000. While it isn't bad, competing TVs from other brands like the LG UK6300 offer better motion performance.
Most of the blur in the above photo is due to duplications caused by the backlight flicker.
Similar to the Q8FN, the flicker varies depending on settings.
The Samsung NU7100 uses PWM to dim the backlight except when at 100%. It flickers at a high frequency (240Hz), but due to pwm at lower brightness levels, the flicker becomes more noticeable. This year's model is an improvement over the MU6300 with its 120Hz flicker, but it is still not as good as the Sony X850F
When Auto Motion Plus is enabled with the slider set to 0, the backlight flickers at 120Hz, as seen here. This creates a duplicated motion trail similar to when motion interpolation is enabled.
Similar to the Q8FN, the flicker varies depending on settings. There is almost no flicker in 'Movie' mode with the backlight at 100% and 'Auto Motion Plus' set to Custom.
The TV has an optional black frame insertion feature to help motion appear smoother. When enabled, this feature reduces the flicker frequency to 60Hz. As on all Samsung TVs, this is enabled by setting 'Auto Motion Plus' to Custom, and enabling 'LED Clear Motion'.
New to this year's NU7100 is the ability to keep the 120Hz flicker when in game mode. This can help motion in games appear smoother if you don't mind the visible flicker. This is automatically activated when you are in Game Mode, as there is no other option to enable flicker.
Similar to the Q8FN, the flicker varies depending on settings.
The TV is able to interpolate 30 fps content up to 60 fps, the native refresh rate of the panel. This can help motion appear more fluid, but some people don't like the Soap Opera Effect this causes. To enable it, set 'Auto Motion Plus' to Custom, and adjust the 'Judder Reduction' slider to your preference.
In motion scenes there are visible artifacts, when the motion gets too intense the TV stops interpolating.
Similar to the Q8FN, the flicker varies depending on settings.
The Samsung UN55NU7100 is great at displaying content without stutter, even for low frame rate movies. The higher response time helps the transition between frames appear smoother.
The TV cannot remove judder from 24 fps content played through a 60p/i cable box, or from native 24 fps content played from a Blu-ray. Most people aren't very sensitive to judder and won't see it.
The Samsung NU7100 does not support any of the variable refresh rate technologies like AMD's Freesync. This was tested with an Xbox One S and with a Radeon RX 580.
Inputs
The Samsung NU7100 has excellent low input lag and supports most common resolutions, except for 1440p which is becoming popular with gamers. The input lag is extremely low when in PC or Game mode, among the lowest measured. It supports chroma 4:4:4 without any issues, which combined with the low input lag, makes it a good choice for a PC monitor. Like all Samsungs we have reviewed recently, there is no DTS passthrough; this shouldn't be an issue since most sources have both audio formats.
Excellent low input lag. When Game mode is activated, the TV bypasses all processing. This is among the best input lags of any TV, better than similar models from last year like the MU6300, and almost as good as this year's LG UK6300.
When the input label is set to PC, the input lag is automatically the lowest possible. There is no benefit to activating Game mode within PC mode.
The NU7100 supports most of the common resolutions without any issues. It doesn't support 1440p.
4k @ 60 hz with 4:4:4 or 4:2:2 chroma is only supported when HDMI UHD Color is enabled from the External Device Manager settings menu.
The TV includes breakout adapters for a composite or component connection. There is a shared connection on these and as such, it is impossible to connect a component and composite connection at the same time.
Like other 2018 Samsung TVs, the NU7100 does not support DTS passthrough. This shouldn't be an issue as most content has both. For the audio return channel to work, Anynet+ (HDMI-CEC) must be enabled from the settings menu.
The NU7100 does not support 5 Ghz wifi.