Samsung RU7300 TV Review

The RU7300 is a budget 4k TV and is the only curved TV that has been announced for Samsung's 2019 lineup so far. It's very similar to the Samsung RU7100 and replaces 2018's Samsung NU7300. Except for the curved screen, it's mainly comparable to other budget TVs, like the LG UM7300 and the Sony X800G.

The RU7300 has an excellent design, nearly identical to the NU7300, but with a curved screen. The bezels are thin on all sides and the wide-set stand supports the TV well. Due to the curvature of the screen, the TV is quite a bit thicker than non-curved models, so it sticks out a bit more when wall-mounted.

The stand supports the TV well but does wobble a bit if nudged. The feet are placed far apart, so it does require a larger table if it isn't wall-mounted. This leaves enough room to place a moderately-sized soundbar in front of the TV.

Footprint of the 55" stand: 38.3" x 10.4"

The back is plain and it has a horizontal texture etched into it. There are grooves to guide the cables towards the feet and you can attach them using the provided clips, serving as basic cable management.

The TV can also be VESA mounted, but requires special spacers (included in the box) due to the curvature of the back.

The borders are a bit thicker than premium Samsung TVs, but still thin enough that they aren't very distracting.

Due to the curvature of the screen, the TV is quite thick and sticks out a bit more when VESA-mounted.

Decent overall build quality. Although it isn't made from premium materials, there aren't any obvious issues with the construction.

There's a stuck pixel in the bottom left side of the screen; it can be seen in our Black Uniformity image. This can occur with any TV and isn't necessarily indicative of any quality control issues with the RU7300.

The Samsung RU7300 has an excellent native contrast ratio, great for watching movies in a completely dark room. Unfortunately, there's no local dimming feature to improve the contrast.

This TV doesn't have a local dimming feature. The above video is provided for reference only.

Mediocre peak brightness. The brightness is fairly consistent when displaying different content, with only the 2% window being noticeably dimmer due to the TV's CE dimming (frame dimming). It's bright enough for use in dark to moderately-lit rooms, but it won't be able to overcome glare in very bright rooms.

SDR Peak Brightness was measured after calibration, using the 'Movie' Picture Mode, with the Color Tone set to 'Warm 2,' and Gamma set to '2.2.' Different settings may be brighter.

Disappointing HDR Peak Brightness. Small highlights in dark scenes are dimmed by the TV's frame dimming (CE dimming) feature, which unfortunately can't be disabled.

We measured HDR Peak Brightness in the 'Movie' Picture Mode, with our pre-calibration settings.

Decent gray uniformity, very similar to the RU7100. The edges of the screen are a bit darker than the center, and there's some noticeable dirty screen effect (DSE) around the center, which may disappoint some sports fans. The uniformity is much better in very dark scenes.

The TV has disappointing viewing angles, like the majority of VA TVs. The image becomes washed out even slightly off-angle, and the image gets gradually darker the further away you are from the center. Colors remain accurate to a wider angle but gradually lose accuracy.

The TV has outstanding black uniformity, despite the lack of a local dimming feature. Some clouding is noticeable, especially in the top right corner of our unit, but this may vary between individual units.

There's a stuck pixel noticeable in the black uniformity image. This wasn't very noticeable in normal content, and we don't expect it to have any impact on our test results.

Decent reflection handling; however, the curved screen causes reflections to smear across the screen, which can be more distracting than non-curved TVs.

Before calibration, color accuracy is good. There are inaccuracies with several colors and the color temperature is much warmer than our 6500K target, resulting in a slight reddish tint. White balance is off as well, and gamma doesn't follow the target at all, with most scenes looking brighter than they should.

After calibration, color accuracy is outstanding. White balance and gamma are nearly perfect, and the color temperature is much closer to our 6500K target. However, there are still some noticeable inaccuracies with reds and blues.

Changing the Color Space Settings from 'Auto' to 'Custom' caused a noticeable reduction in the color gamut, same as the RU7100. We recommend leaving this set to 'Auto.'

See our recommended settings here.

480p content, like DVDs, is upscaled with no obvious issues.

720p content is upscaled without any obvious artifacts.

1080p content looks good, almost as good as native 4k content.

Native 4k content is displayed with no obvious issues.

The RU7300 can't display an 8k image.

The TV has a decent color gamut but falls short of being able to display a wide color gamut. It can't display the wide range of greens and reds needed for HDR content to really stand out. Unfortunately, in both 'Movie' and 'Game' mode, the RU7300 does not follow the PQ curve very well, and most scenes appear dimmer than the content creator intended.

If you find HDR too dim, see our recommended settings here. With these settings, the RU7300 is noticeably brighter in HDR, as shown in this EOTF.

Disappointing color volume; limited by the TV's lack of a wide color gamut. Like many TVs, it can't produce very bright blues, and it can't produce dark, saturated colors well despite the excellent contrast ratio.

Good gradient handling. There's some banding in all dark shades, which may be distracting in dark scenes, but otherwise shouldn't be very noticeable. The Digital Clean View setting, which is effective at removing banding on some other Samsung TVs, is not able to remove banding on the RU7300.

There are no signs of temporary image retention on the RU7300.

We don't expect VA panels to experience permanent image retention, as the VA panel in our long-term test appears immune.

The RU7300 has a poor response time. Transitions in dark scenes are noticeably slower, resulting in a bit more motion blur. There are noticeable duplications in the above motion photo due to the TV's backlight flicker.

This TV uses PWM (Pulse-Width Modulation) to dim the backlight, except when at 100%. The backlight flickers at 240Hz in 'Movie' mode, which causes some duplications in motion, as seen in the response time motion photo.

Like many other Samsung TVs we've tested, the flicker frequency decreases to 120Hz in other modes, including if Auto Motion Plus is set to 'Custom,' and in 'PC' mode. This fairly low flicker frequency may bother some people.

This TV has an optional Black Frame Insertion (BFI) feature. When enabled, the backlight always flickers at 60Hz, but like the RU7100, the pulse timing isn't very good, causing some double images like the photo above.

In 'Game' mode, BFI isn't available, and the backlight always flickers at 120Hz.

See here to learn how to enable Black Frame Insertion on the RU7300.

The TV has an optional motion interpolation that can only interpolate lower frame rate content up to 60Hz. The TV does a good job overall and there are very few artifacts. Like most TVs, when it can't keep up with demanding scenes, it will stop interpolating, which can cause a sudden change in frame rate, which may be noticeable. Unlike the higher-end Samsung TVs, the RU7300 doesn't support low latency motion interpolation in 'Game' mode.

Like other Samsung TVs we've tested, the flicker frequency on the RU7300 decreases to 120Hz when Auto Motion Plus is enabled. This fairly low flicker frequency may bother some people.

See here to learn how to enable motion interpolation on the RU7300.

The TV's slower response time results in less stutter, which is great for watching movies.

The RU7300 can't remove judder from any source, even with Auto Motion Plus enabled. This is somewhat expected, as budget Samsung TVs like the RU7100 and NU7300 usually can't remove judder.

The RU7300 has a basic 60Hz refresh rate and doesn't support any variable refresh rate technologies.

The RU7300 has outstanding low input lag in most modes, as long as either 'Game' or 'PC' mode is used. It also supports Auto Low Latency mode when connected to a supported console, but CEC has to be enabled (Anynet+).

Most common resolutions are supported at 60Hz, and all modes can display proper 4:4:4 chroma, as long as the input label is set to 'PC.' In 'PC' mode, only the 'Standard' and 'Dynamic' picture modes are available.

The RU7300 has a dedicated component input on the back, unlike the NU7300, which requires an adapter.

Unlike the NU7300, the RU7300 supports 5GHz Wi-Fi.

The RU7300 can pass Dolby Digital through ARC and optical, but not DTS, like the 2018 models. It also supports lossy Dolby Atmos when played from Dolby Digital Plus sources, like Netflix.