- Table of Contents
- Intro
- Design
- Picture Quality
- Motion
- Inputs
- Sound Quality
- Smart Features
- Sizes and Variants
- Compared
- Conclusion
- Discussions
| Design | 8.5 |
| Picture Quality | 7.4 |
| Motion | 6.4 |
| Inputs | 9.4 |
| Sound Quality | 6.7 |
| Smart Features | 7.4 |
- Can produce deep and uniform dark scenes
- Feels very responsive
- Bad viewing angles
- HDR performance is mediocre
- Update 2/28/2019: Converted to Test Bench 1.3. Learn more about our versioned test bench system here.
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Design
The design of the Samsung NU7300 is very good. It is slightly curved and mainly made of plastic except for the borders that are metal. The stand is basic and supports the TV well, but the TV wobbles back and forth when moved. The are no gaps in the construction.
The stand of the Samsung NU7300 is plastic and quite basic. It holds the TV well, but it wobbles back and forth if moved.
The footprint of the 55" model is 38.3" x 10.3"
The back of the TV is plastic and has the distinct groves for guiding the cables. In this model, the cables cannot be hidden through the stand as in more premium models, as only a clip is provided to guide them along the legs.
The Samsung NU7300 is thick even for a curved TV. If wall mounted, it will protrude a little.
The Samsung UN55NU7300 gets quite warm at the bottom edge where the LEDs are encased. This, however, should not be an issue for most.
The build quality is decent. The plastic feel is dominant, but there are no gaps in the construction and the TV is solid.
Picture Quality
The picture quality of the Samsung NU7300 is ok. The good contrast helps black look good in dark environments and the gray and black uniformity are good so there is very little clouding. The TV can get bright enough when displaying SDR content, but it isn't really enough to make HDR content stand out. The TV has a limited color gamut and hence color volume. This TV, as with most VA panels, is not well suited for a wide room as the viewing angles are not good so the image degrades when viewed at an angle.
The Samsung NU7300 has an excellent contrast ratio. It has no problem displaying deep blacks in a dark room. This is in the same ballpark as other Samsung TVs with VA panels, like the flat NU7100.
The Samsung UN55NU7300 has no local dimming option. The video is provided for reference only.
Good SDR peak brightness. In dark scenes with a small bright highlight, the TV reduces the overall brightness to produce deeper dark scenes and thus highlights don't look too bright. Brightness, however, does remain consistent in less dark scenes, and the TV is ok for most rooms. It is just slightly brighter than its flat counterpart the NU7100
The HDR peak brightness of the TV is mediocre. It is just slightly brighter than the flat NU7100 but this may be due to unit variance. Is far behind the brightness levels of the TCL R617. The TV does keep similar brightness levels regardless of the window sizes, but dark scene highlights are not boosted at all.
The Samsung NU7300 has good gray uniformity. On the 50% gray image, although there are uniformity issues, this is mostly darkening of the edges which doesn't create much dirty screen effect. These uniformity issues are not likely to cause dark spots on the screen, and this should make sports fans happy as no clouding will be visible in panning shots.
Similar and even better results are obtained at the 5% gray and this great.
The viewing angle is poor. Blacks fade as soon as you move from the center, colors start shifting at slightly larger angles. Finally, brightness is the last image quality that deteriorates as viewing angle increases.
This TV is not suitable for a wide viewing environment.
The black uniformity is amazing. Our panel has very little clouding on the lower right corner, this should not be a concern as most people will not notice it.
Reflection handling is ok. The semi-gloss finish manages to diffuse most of the ambient reflections but doesn't do a great job if the source is facing the screen
The out-of-the-box color accuracy is decent. We obtained the best results with the Movie Picture mode.
The white dE and the color dE are a bit off, but these differences are too small to bother most people. Gamma is higher than our target and thus some dark details is lost. The colors are a little warm and this explains the faint red and yellow image tint.
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.
The post calibration color accuracy is remarkable. We were able to significantly lower the white balance dE, the Gamma was right on the 2.2 target and color temperature was almost perfect.
As with most 2018 Samsung TVs, we were unable to completely fix the color dE, although it was brought down to levels where very few people might notice.
You can see our recommended settings here.
The Samsung NU7300 displays 480p content well, without any issues or obvious artifacts.
The color gamut is okay. The TV is only capable of covering about 3/4 of the DCI P3 space and only just a little more than half of the Rec. 2020 space.
The EOTF in Movie mode undershoots the target PQ curve significantly, so HDR content looks a little dimmer than normal. This is made less severe by setting Contrast Enhancer to Low, as shown in this plot.
The Game Mode EOTF photo shows that the same undershooting happens in this mode too. In the PC Mode EOTF, there is still some undershooting of the PQ curve, but it starts at higher input signal luminosity.
The Samsung NU7300 has a disappointing color volume as it fails to cover the color space in various luminosity levels. Colors look dim in darker scenes and the TV fails to display the creator intended content accurately. This is also due to the limited color gamut.
The gradient on the Samsung UN55NU7300 is good. Although there is small banding pretty much everywhere, no major banding can be observed in any color except in dark green
Setting Digital Clean View to 'auto' smooths the gradient but can't fix it and causes a lost of fine details.
There is no temporary image retention on the NU7300, which is typical for TVs with VA panels.
The VA panel in our long-term test appears to be immune so we do expect not this TV to experience permanent image retention.
Motion
Motion handling is decent for this Samsung NU7300. The response time is good, so fast-paced content can be displayed without much blur. The backlight uses PWM flicker to dim, but at a frequency of 240Hz it isn't noticeable to most people are motion appears decently smooth. The TV can also flicker the backlight at 60Hz to clear up fast-paced motion.
The response time of the Samsung NU7300 is good. The pixels transition fast and should please sports viewers and gamers. At the same time, there is some blur in the image which is mainly caused by the backlight flickering. The response time is a bit faster than that of the flat NU7100, but this may come down to unit variance and these small response time differences are also visible in the moving logo photo.
Just like the NU7100, the NU7300 uses PWM at 240Hz to dim the backlight except when at 100%.
However, when the motion interpolation is enabled through the Auto Motion Plus option the flicker frequency of the backlight changes to 120Hz as shown in this plot.
This causes worse duplications in the motion as shown in this photo
The BFI is great.
In Game mode, 60Hz flicker is not possible, but the backlight flicker stays at 120Hz in Game mode as shown in this plot.
Motion Interpolations is decent. Some occasional artifacts can be seen, and the TV stops interpolating when there's too much motion.
Note: that when Auto Motion Plus is enabled the backlight flicker changes to 120Hz, as shown in this plot.
The Samsung NU7300 has a very good stutter results as there is practically no stutter on the 60fps signal, but there might be a slight stutter on 24p content. This, however, will not be noticeable by most people.
Just like the NU7100, the NU7300 cannot remove judder from 24fps content. This holds true no matter if the content is 60p/i or from native 24fps content played from a Blu-ray.
This isn't a big issue since most people are not very sensitive to judder and probably won't notice it.
This TV does not support VRR
Inputs
The Samsung 55NU7300 has excellent input lag to please most competitive console gamers. It supports many input signals, including 4K @ 60Hz @ 4:4:4 + HDR. The TV can not pass DTS 5.1 audio to an external receiver. This, however, should not be much of a problem because most of the available content provide both DTS and Dolby Digital audio streams, allowing you to choose.
Excellent low input lag, better than last year's MU6300. When the input is set to PC, the input lag is automatically the lowest possible.
There is no improvement in input lag if you activate Game mode within PC mode. The NU7300 does not a have a Game Motion Plus like the higher end Samsungs.
The Samsung NU7300 is decent at resolution support. The following settings have to be implemented:
- The resolution 4k@60Hz @ 4:4:4 or @ 4:2:2 is only supported when HDMI UHD Color is enabled
- 4:4:4 Chroma is only properly displayed when the input icon is set to PC (aka PC mode)
- In PC mode, Sharpness is set to '10' by default and this means no added sharpness. However, you can 'soften' the image if you decide to reduce it.
The TV includes inputs for a composite or component connection. As the connection is shared it is not possible to connect a component and composite connection at the same time.
The TV can passthrough Dolby Digital signal, but no DTS.
Anynet+ (HDMI-CEC) is needed for ARC, which passes on HDMI 3 only.
Sound Quality
The Samsung NU7300 has an average sound quality. This TV has above-average loudness, produces clear dialogs, and has some punch to its bass. However, it doesn't generate any thump and rumble in the sub-bass region, could produce pumping and compression under heavy loads, and doesn't have a room correction system. For a better sound, dedicated speakers or a soundbar is recommended.
The Samsung NU7300 has an average frequency response. LFE (low-frequency response) is at 80Hz, which is decent. This results in a sound that doesn't lacks thump and rumble, but have some punch to its bass. The response above the LFE point is decently balanced, which is important for producing clear and intelligible dialogs. However, this TV doesn't get very loud and produces some compression and pumping artifacts under max volume. It doesn't have a room correction system either, which is why it wasn't to remove the modes of our test room around 200Hz.
The distortion performance is decent. The overall amount of harmonic distortion is within acceptable limits and doesn't increase dramatically at max volume either. However, this TV doesn't get very loud.
Smart Features
The smart features of the Samsung NU7300 are decent. The TV is equipped with a limited version of the latest Tizen Smart platform from Samsung, also called Smart Hub. As always it is easy to navigate, it is well-organized and provides access to the Samsung app store where a plethora of apps are available. The TV does not support voice control/assistance. The interface is choppy with minimal animations, but because of this menus, load faster than the NU8500. The menu ads can be annoying and you don't have to option of opting out.
The interface is characterized as good mainly due to the speed of menu loading. It feels choppy interface with minimal animations but is faster than the NU8500