The Samsung NU8500 is a curved 4k UHD TV with good picture quality. It is versatile and performs well for a wide range of usages. It can produce deep and uniform dark scenes but is limited by the poor local dimming performance. It can also get bright to combat glare and supports a wide color gamut which is great for HDR. It also has a low input lag and supports FreeSync for use with a PC, Xbox One X or Xbox One S. Unfortunately the image degrades when viewed at an angle, so the best picture is only reserved for those directly in front of the TV.
Our Verdict
Very good TV for mixed usage. It has good picture quality and good motion handling, which is important in sports, gaming and PC usage. The image, however, deteriorates when viewed at an angle. The TV can handle reflections as it can get bright to overcome glare and can produce deep blacks in dark rooms. HDR content is rich in detail but local dimming is disappointing. Sports fans might notice some uniformity issues, but in most other usages this will not be an issue.
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Great at handling motion
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Supports FreeSync VRR for use with a PC or Xbox
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Great brightness
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Image degrades when viewed at an angle
Good for watching movies in a dark room. Picture quality is good, with a high contrast ratio and good black uniformity. The Samsung NU8500 can play content without judder and with ok out-of-the-box colors. Although the local dimming isn't improving dark scenes, the TV provides a pleasant experience.
Very good for watching TV in a bright room. The TV gets bright and can counteract glare. Reflection handling is good, but image degrades at an angle. The smart interface works well for casual TV watching and upscaling cable 720p content to 4k is good.
The Samsung NU8500 is a decent TV for watching sports. Motion handling is great, so fast-moving objects appear clear. Picture quality is good but deteriorates when viewed at an angle. The TV gets bright enough to overcome the glare of bright ambiances, and the semi-gloss finish works well at diffusing direct lights off the screen.
Great TV for gamers. Input lag is low, and the TV feels very responsive. Motion handling is great and the TV can clear up blur by flickering the image. The picture quality is good and, especially in a dark room, the high native contrast ratio produces deep blacks. The good gray uniformity will allow for a free from DSE gaming experience.
Decent TV for watching HDR movies. The picture quality is good the and the NU8500 can produce bright and vivid HDR highlights in a dark room due to wide color gamut and high peak brightness. The TV plays content without judder, but its poor local dimming affects its overall performance.
Impressive HDR gaming with an Xbox One S or PS4 Pro with the NU8500. The good picture quality and great motion handling with fast response times are omens for a great gaming experience. The support of HDR features like a wide color gamut and the support of motion interpolation in game mode in association with the very low input lag and the slight curvature of the panel, enhance the immersive gaming experience.
Great TV for PC use. The low input lag makes and the great motion handling make the TV feel very responsive. The text is clear due to the support of chroma 4:4:4 and gray uniformity is good for internet browsing. The viewing angle is poor, so the edges of the screen darken when viewed from up-close, although the slight curvature minimizes this effect.
- 7.5 Mixed Usage
- 7.1 Movies
- 7.6 TV Shows
- 7.4 Sports
- 8.0 Video Games
- 7.1 HDR Movies
- 7.8 HDR Gaming
- 7.7 PC Monitor
- Updated May 21, 2020: Converted to Test Bench 1.5.
- Updated Feb 21, 2020: Converted to Test Bench 1.4.
- Updated Feb 28, 2019: Converted to Test Bench 1.3.
- Updated Jan 09, 2019: We have retested the BFI mode, and the backlight does flicker at 120 Hz when displaying a 120 Hz signal. Scores have been updated.
- Updated Jun 12, 2018: Review published.
- Updated Jun 10, 2018: Our testers have started testing this product.
- Updated Jun 10, 2018: Early access published.
- Updated Jun 08, 2018: The product has arrived in our lab, and our testers will start evaluating it soon.
- Updated Apr 04, 2018: We've purchased the product and are waiting for it to arrive in our lab.
Differences Between Sizes And Variants
We tested the 55" (UN55NU8500) version FA01. For the most part, we expect our review to be valid for the 65" (UN65NU8500) as well.
If someone comes across a different type of panel or if their Samsung NU8500 doesn't correspond to our review, let us know and we will update the review.
| Size | Model | US | UK | AU |
| 55" | UN55NU8500 | UN55NU8500FXZA | UE55NU8500TXXU | UA55NU8500WXXY |
| 65" | UN65NU8500 | UN65NU8500FXZA | UE65NU8500TXXU | UA65NU8500WXXY |
Compared To Other TVs
The Samsung NU8500 is the curved version of the Samsung NU8000. The overall performance of both TVs is very similar, and measured differences may be due to panel variance.
The Samsung MU9000 is somewhat better than the Samsung NU8500. The Samsung MU9000 has better reflection handling, which is good for a room with many small windows and better native contrast ratio that produces deeper blacks in dark rooms. The Samsung NU8500, on the other hand, has a curvy profile, a lower input lag and supports FreeSync which is great if you play video games.
The Samsung NU8500 is slightly better than the Samsung MU8500. The Samsung NU8500 is a better choice for video games and HDR gaming because of better input lag and support for the AMD FreeSync variable refresh rate. Also, the NU8500 has a faster response time that leaves a smaller image trail in fast action scenes like sports. Finally, black uniformity is slightly worse on the older Samsung MU8500, and that might be noticeable when watching movies in a dark room.
The Sony X900F is much better than the curved Samsung NU8500. The Sony X900F has better local dimming and better native contrast ratio. Along with the better black uniformity and better brightness, it can deliver better dark room movie and HDR movie watching experiences. Also, the Sony X900F has better reflection handling and faster response time, so it's a better choice if you watch a lot of sports or TV shows in a room with many light sources. On the other hand, the Samsung NU8500 has FreeSync support, and lower input lag to please gamers.
Test Results
The design of the Samsung NU85000 is excellent. The TV has a sturdy stand and nice cable management to promote neatness. It does not get warm, and the slight curvature captures the viewer's attention and makes the TV look nice and feel slightly premium.
The stand of the NU8500 supports the TV well, but it will wobble a bit if pushed. It is similar to the NU8000, but with a curve to match the curve of the screen.
The footprint of the stand is 31.4", 13.5"
The back of the TV is plastic. The TV's cables can be routed through the available groves towards the center stand, or towards the sides of the TV. If wall mounted, some of the ports might be difficult to access.
The borders are thin and made of metal. They look good and feel high quality.
Even though the TV is curved it does not look very thick and will not protrude much from the wall if mounted.
The build quality of the Samsung NU8500 is average. There are no gaps on the TVs body and everything seems to fall into place. It has a slightly premium feel.
The Samsung NU8500 has a very good native contrast ratio. Just a bit better than the MU8500 of 2017, but lower than the Samsung NU8000. It will, however, show blacks in dark environments better than any IPS TV.
Even with local dimming set to high, the contrast ratio stays about the same due to the poor local dimming implementation.
The local dimming performance of this Samsung TV is bad. Partially due to the edge lit LED panel and due to the poor algorithm. As a result, clouding is quite visible.
The Samsung NU8500 has remarkable peak brightness with SDR content. Small highlights are very bright and stand out, whereas the TV maintains good brightness levels at all windows sizes.
This result is in the same ballpark as the NU8000.
The gray uniformity of our Samsung NU8500 is good. At the 50% gray image, some uniformity issues are visible and some dirty screen effect is expected when viewing sports.
At the 5% gray image, uniformity issues are hardly noticeable and most people will not notice any dirty screen effect.
Bad viewing angle, but expected for a VA TV. Blacks wash out quickly when the TV is viewed from an angle, while colors shift and brightness decreases at slightly larger angles. This is not good for a room where people often view the TV from the side. In this case an IPS TV like the LG SK8000 may be a better choice.
Black uniformity is decent on the NU8500. Some clouding can be seen close to the corners, but this will not disturb many people. When the local dimming is set to maximum, some more blooming becomes more obvious next to the test cross.
Note: the local dimming can't be turned off completely through the regular menu. In order to show the TV’s true native black uniformity, it is necessary to disable local dimming from the service menu. Some vertical blooming can be seen in our test picture even with local dimming off.
The black uniformity picture with local dimming was taken with the local dimming set to High.
The Samsung NU8500 has decent reflection handling. The semi-gloss finish diffuses reflection across the screen, reducing the intensity. This is very similar to the flat NU8000.
The curvature may also help avoid glare depending on where you are seated, or it may focus it to be more distracting. It is ok for not so bright environments, but not for bright ones.
The Samsung NU8500 has decent out of the box color accuracy when picture mode is set to Movie.
The color temperature is warm and thus some Red/Yellow are slightly dominant. This also results in elevated white Balance dE. Gamma is significantly higher than our target of 2.2 and there is some loss of detail in dark shadows.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 is excellent for this Samsung NU8500.
We obtained the best results in the Movie picture mode. White balance and color temperature are almost perfect after calibration, but we were unable to correct completely the color accuracy (just like with almost every other Samsung we have tested), which remains good for most people.
You can see our recommended settings here.
The TV has a good color gamut, very similar to last year MU8500. Although it supports a wide color gamut, it isn't as wide as other HDR TVs since bright outdoor scenes lack some detail due to the TV's limited cyan and green reproduction.
The TV's HDR Movie mode EOTF follows the HDR PQ curve fairly well until it starts to roll off close to its peak brightness. We can see at the Game mode EOTF that compression starts at a little higher levels but is steeper. The EOTF of PC mode starts compression a little earlier but it is smoother thus differentiating slightly greater detail.
The Samsung UN55NU8500 has an okay color volume. It displays bright colors well across its entire color gamut, but does not display deep, dark colors very well.
The Samsung NU8500 has a good gradient.
A little banding is apparent in most areas of the image and some major banding in dark green, but his will not be noticeable to most people.If you set Digital Clean View to Auto, it can help reduce banding, but it can result in a loss of some fine details.
There is no measurable temporary image retention on the Samsung NU8500, even immediately after the burn-in scene.
We don't expect VA panels to experience permanent image retention, as the VA panel in our long term test appears immune.
The response time of the Samsung UN55NU8500 is great.
It results in only a very short trail following moving objects, which is great for sports fans or gamers. The blur shown in the photo is due to 60fps persistence.
The TV dims its backlight by using PWM flicker at 240 Hz. It is present at all brightness levels but diminishes at high brightness. It helps fast motion look a little more clear, but it also introduces some unwanted duplications, that can be seen in the response time box photo.
Unlike in QLED models, the flicker of this TV stays constant at 240Hz. It's also worth noting that it is becoming more common to find TVs that use flicker to clear motion. Several of the 2018 TV models we have tested use flicker and the ones that perform better in this aspect have a flicker frequency greater than or equal to 480Hz (like the Vizio M Series 2018, TCL R617, Samsung Q8FN).
Just like the NU8000, the Samsung NU8500 also has an optional 60 Hz flicker mode, activated by enabling LED Clear Motion in the Auto Motion Plus menu. It can greatly help clear up motion during 60 fps content, but flicker can be bothersome to some people. It can also be activated in Game mode, by using the Game Motion Plus menu.
Update 01/09/2019: We have retested the backlight flicker at 120 Hz, and can confirm that the NU8500 does flicker at 120 Hz when displaying a 120 Hz signal.
Since Samsung 55NU8500 has a 120 Hz panel, it can interpolate lower frame rate content up to 120 fps making motion much smoother. It can, however, look strange to some people (the so-called soap opera effect). Also sometimes it can add unwanted artifacts during fast motion.
Interpolation is activated by setting Auto Motion Plus to Custom and then increasing the Judder Reduction slider to interpolate low frame rate content(up to 60Hz). To interpolate content above 60fps, increase the Blur Reduction slider.
Game mode also has motion interpolation, Game Motion Plus, which doesn't look as good as Auto Motion Plus but adds much less input lag, as shown in the Input Lag box.
The NU8500 has very little stutter in sports and TV shows. However, some stutter will be noticeable for low frame rate content such as 24p movies due to the fast response time, which results in only a short transition between frames. In slow panning shots, some stutter may be more apparent due to the lack of blur that would otherwise smooth motion between frames.
The Samsung NU8500 is able to display 24p movies without judder from any source.
To remove judder, set Auto Motion Plus to Custom and then set both sliders (Blur Reduction and Judder Reduction) to 0.
The TV supports Variable Refresh Rate through Freesync. We used an Xbox One S and Radeon RX 580 to test it.
First set Game mode to On and then choose FreeSync Ultimate.
The Ultimate setting has the widest sync Hz range. The Basic has a more narrow range that is only recommended if your game is having problems with Ultimate.
1440p@120Hz is 9.3ms.
The NU85000 has excellent input lag that will please even the most demanding gamers.
PC mode is required for proper 4:4:4 display.
The TV always has low input lag in PC mode and you do not need to activate PC and Game mode at the same time. However, with PC and Game mode you have access to the Game Motion Plus motion interpolation features
The input lag is 21.4ms for 60Hz motion interpolation activated. (Game Motion Plus on, Judder Reduction 10, Blur Reduction 0) and at 27.9ms for 120Hz interpolation (Game Motion Plus on, Judder Reduction 10, Blur Reduction 10)
Outside of Game mode the TV skips a frame every ~5 mins, so the input lag swings by 16.7ms and what you see as a score is the average.
The Samsung NU8500 is great at supporting numerous resolutions. However, the following settings have to be implemented:
- 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)
- Although 1440p@60 isn't supported, 1440p@120 is supported, but doesn't have proper 4:4:4 even in when in PC mode
- Finally, Sharpness is at 10 (the default) and it means no added sharpness.
The TV can not passthrough DTS signal.
Anynet+ (HDMI-CEC) is needed for ARC, which passes on HDMI 4 only.
The frequency response is sub-par. The LFE (low-frequency extension) of 71Hz is decent for a TV. This suggests a bass that although doesn't produce any thump or rumble, has a decent amount of body and punch to it. The response above the TV's LFE is also decent, but compression and pumping artifacts start to show even in the 80dB pass. This also correlates with the mediocre maximum loudness of 84dB SPL achieved by this TV. Additionally, this TV doesn't come with a room correction system and therefore, wasn't able to remove the modes of our test room around 200Hz.
The Samsung NU8500 has a sub-par distortion performance. The overall amount of THD is elevated, but it doesn't rise dramatically at Max volume. This is a good thing, however, since the TV doesn't get very loud doesn't say much about the TV's handling of heavy loads. This TV also produces a lot of IMD, which suggests aliasing at higher frequencies.
The interface of the UN55NU8500 is well organized and intuitive. The Smart Hub is the center of the interface through which you can access everything else. Thus, it might take you more time than if you could go directly. Animations in the interface do not lag but are choppy and experience frame drops quite often.
The Samsung NU8500 has ads throughout the home menu, just like all of the latest Samsung TVs. The ads are intermittent. Suggested content is present within the app store. There is no option to disable them.
The TV has preinstalled a few apps, such as Netflix, YouTube and Amazon Video. and more can be downloaded from the app menu.
Apps run smoothly with minimal lag and fewer frame drops that the interface itself.
Samsung's smart remote is quite small and comes with few buttons, so users have to either navigate through the home menu or to use Samsung's Bixby voice assistant feature. Bixby's voice recognition works very well, and it can perform many useful actions on the TV: like 'Change to HDMI 1', 'Change backlight to 5', 'What's the weather like tomorrow', and 'Pause video' work well. Although, 'Search Netflix for Marco Polo' did not. The remote can also act as a universal remote for other devices, even ones that do not support HDMI CEC, using Samsung's OneRemote feature.
The TV has only a single physical button, which brings up a menu that can power the TV on and off, control the volume and channel, and change inputs.
