Samsung RU9000 TV Review

The Samsung RU9000's design is excellent. It's a simple-looking TV with a stand that gives it a modern industrial vibe. The borders are a bit thick compared to other recent high-end TVs, and they protrude from the screen.

The stand supports the TV well and only wobbles a little bit. The feet are identical, so you don't have to worry about putting them on the wrong side, and they don't need to be screwed in as they just slide into the TV.

Footprint of the 82" TV stand: 46.5" x 15.1"

The back of the TV is made out of plastic, with a horizontal texture etched into it. All the inputs are side-facing, making them easier to access when wall-mounted. For cable management, there are grooves to guide cables towards the back of the stand, allowing to you hide them in the hollow section of the feet.

Unfortunately, the borders are on the thick side compared to other higher-end Samsung TVs, even slightly thicker than the Samsung RU8000.

The TV is fairly thin but the back isn't flat, so it sticks out a little bit when wall-mounted. The 82" model that we reviewed didn't come with any wall-mount spacers, although it may be different for the smaller sizes.

The Samsung RU9000's build quality is okay. It feels pretty sturdy despite its plastic construction, and there's very little wobble for a TV this size. There's a lot of flex in the back panel near the edges and around the inputs, but it doesn't feel flimsy and shouldn't cause any issues.

The Samsung RU9000 has an excellent contrast ratio, which is expected of most VA panels. It isn't as good as the Samsung RU8000 and sadly, there's no local dimming to further improve the black level. Note that the contrast ratio can vary between units.

The SDR peak brightness is okay. It's better suited for a dark to moderately-lit room, as it doesn't get bright enough to combat glare in very bright lighting conditions. The brightness is fairly consistent except for the dimmer 2% window, which is caused by frame dimming. If you need a TV that gets brighter to combat glare, check out the Samsung Q60/Q60A QLED.

We measured the SDR peak brightness after calibration, in the 'Movie' Picture Mode, with Color Temperature set to 'Warm 2' and Gamma set to 2.2.

If you don't mind losing image accuracy, you can get a brighter image by setting the Picture Mode to 'Dynamic, with Contrast Enhancer set to 'Max', and all other settings left at their default value. We achieved 362 cd/m² in the 10% window with these settings.

Update 07/29/2021: Added the real content local dimming videos.

The Samsung RU9000 doesn't have a local dimming feature. The video above is provided for reference only.

Update 07/29/2021: Added the real content local dimming videos.

Unfortunately, the Samsung RU9000 has a poor HDR peak brightness, lower than its peak brightness in SDR. There's also brightness variation in the 2% window, so small highlights in dark scenes appear dimmer.

We measured the HDR peak brightness before calibration in the 'HDR Movie' Picture Mode, with Brightness and Contrast set to max, and Color Temperature set to 'Warm 2'.

If you don't care about image accuracy, you can get a brighter image in HDR by setting the Picture Mode to 'HDR Dynamic', with Contrast Enhancer set to max, and all other settings left at their default value. We achieved 372 cd/m² in the 10% window with these settings.

Gray uniformity on our Samsung RU9000 is decent; however, this can vary between individual units. The sides are visibly darker and there's some dirty screen effect at the center of the screen. There's also a bit of flashlighting in the bottom corners of the screen, but it isn't visible in regular content. Uniformity is much better in dark scenes.

Excellent black uniformity. There's a bit of clouding throughout the screen, but it isn't distracting and shouldn't be visible in normal content. Note that black uniformity can vary between individual units.

Like most VA panel TVs, the Samsung RU9000 has sub-par viewing angles. This makes images look washed out when viewed from the side, so it isn't well-suited for wide seating areas.

Decent reflection handling. The semi-gloss finish handles indirect reflections well, but not direct reflections, so it's best to avoid placing the TV opposite bright light sources.

Out-of-the-box, the Samsung RU9000 has acceptable color accuracy. Most colors are somewhat inaccurate, white balance is off, and the color temperature is much warmer than our 6500K target. Gamma doesn't follow the 2.2 target at all; most scenes are too bright while dark scenes are over-darkened. Note that color accuracy can vary between units.

After calibration, the color accuracy is outstanding. White balance is almost perfect and the color temperature is much closer to our target. Gamma is very good, although dark scenes are still darker than they should be. Some people might be able to spot the inaccuracies with reds and blues, but the inaccuracies with the other colors shouldn't be noticeable without the aid of a colorimeter.

You can see our recommended settings here.

The Samsung RU9000 upscales 480p content well and without any issues.

720p content such as from a cable box is upscaled without any obvious artifacts.

1080p content from sources such as Blu-rays looks good.

4k content looks amazing, but there's some sub-pixel dimming that results in crosshatching, and there's some dithering as well. That said, they're very difficult to spot unless you're an inch away from the screen. The dithering can be seen in this photo if you zoom into the shadowy parts, as it causes a slight purplish hue.

The Samsung RU9000 can't display an 8k signal.

The Samsung RU9000 uses a BGR sub-pixel structure. This doesn't affect image quality, but it can affect the way text is rendered when using the TV as a PC monitor. You can find out more about it here.

The Samsung RU9000 has a great HDR color gamut. It has outstanding coverage of the DCI P3 color space used in most content, and decent coverage of the wider Rec 2020. The 'HDR Movie' EOTF follows the PQ curve almost perfectly until the roll-off, which starts earlier than the Samsung RU8000. The 'Game' mode EOTF doesn't follow the curve as well and most scenes are too bright, but the roll-off starts later.

If you find HDR content too dim, you can make it brighter by setting the Picture Mode to 'HDR Movie', with Contrast Enhancer set to 'High', ST.2084 set to max, and Color Temperature set to 'Warm 2'. These settings result in this EOTF.

The color volume is okay. The TV can display dark colors well due to its high contrast ratio, but it struggles with bright colors.

Good gradient handling. Although there's banding in all colors, it's only noticeable in reds and greens. The banding in other colors is in the darker shades, so it's not as obvious. Enabling Digital Clean View can smooth out most of it, but it may cause the loss of fine details in some scenes.

The Samsung RU9000 doesn't show any signs of temporary image retention; however, this can vary between units.

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

The Samsung RU9000 has impressive response time, which results in very little motion blur in fast-moving scenes. There's a small amount of overshoot in the 0-20% transition, causing some motion artifacts in dark scenes. There's a bit of image duplication due to the backlight's flicker.

The backlight is flicker-free only when the brightness is at maximum. If the brightness is set below maximum, the backlight flickers at 240Hz in all picture modes. With LED Clear Motion Plus enabled in the Game Motion Plus Settings menu, the flickering frequency drops to 120Hz. With LED Clear Motion enabled in the Auto Motion Plus Settings menu, the flicker frequency is 60Hz.

The Samsung RU9000 has an optional Black Frame Insertion feature that can help improve motion clarity. To use it, set Auto Motion Plus to 'Custom' and LED Clear Motion to 'On'. To use this feature while gaming, perform the same steps within the Game Motion Plus Settings menu.

This TV can interpolate lower frame rate content up to 120fps to make motion look smoother. It works quite well, and the TV continues to interpolate in more intense scenes without causing too many artifacts. To use motion interpolation, set Auto Motion Plus to 'Custom', and adjust the Judder Reduction to max for native 30fps content, or adjust the Blur Reduction slider to max for native 60fps content.

Due to the TV's fast response time, lower frame rate content such as movies can stutter. If it bothers you, using motion interpolation can help.

This TV can remove judder from all sources. To do so, set Auto Motion Plus to 'On'.

Update 08/19/2020: We changed HDMI Forum VRR to 'Unknown' because we currently don't have an accurate way to test for HDMI Forum VRR compatibility. Once we do, we'll test for it and update the review.

The Samsung RU9000 supports FreeSync to reduce screen tearing when gaming. To use it, set FreeSync to 'Ultimate' in the Game Mode Settings menu.

The Samsung RU9000 has excellent low input lag. It should be good enough for most gamers, especially when playing at 120Hz. To get the lowest input lag, you only need to be in 'Game' mode, and PC users only need to have the input in use labeled 'PC'.

This TV allows the use of motion interpolation when gaming. The settings are located in a separate menu called Game Motion Plus Settings, but it has the same options as the Auto Motion Plus Settings menu. There are sliders for Blur Reduction and Judder Reduction, which you can adjust to your preference, and an LED Clear Motion toggle for the Black Frame Insertion feature. Using motion interpolation when gaming adds a bit of input lag, but it shouldn't be noticeable for most people.

There's an 'Auto Low Latency' mode that puts you in 'Game' mode automatically when the TV detects a game being launched from a compatible device. To use it, enable Anynet+ (HDMI-CEC) in the External Device Manager settings menu.

This TV supports most common resolutions, and it can display proper chroma 4:4:4 at all supported resolutions, except for 1440p @ 120Hz. To display chroma 4:4:4, label the input in use as 'PC'. For signals that require the full bandwidth of HDMI 2.0, enable Input Signal Plus.

Unfortunately, the Samsung RU9000 doesn't support eARC or any DTS formats.

The Samsung RU9000's frequency response is decent. It's fairly well-balanced overall and dialogue sounds clear. There's very little bass extension, so even though the bass is quite prominent, you won't get that low rumbling sound. It gets pretty loud but there are compression artifacts when playing at max volume.

The distortion performance is okay, a bit better than the Samsung RU8000. The total amount of distortion at moderate volume level is good. At max volume, there's some distortion, but it might not be noticeable for most people and it also depends on the content.

Samsung's Tizen OS is great. It runs very smoothly for the most part. We had an issue with the remote control losing its pairing and would require repeating the pairing process to get it to work. There was also a bug with the 'Home' button not working, but it only happened when the remote lost its pairing, so both issues may be related.

There are ads and suggested content on the home screen and within the Samsung app store. Unfortunately, there's no way to opt-out of them.

Samsung's app store has a large selection of apps available for download and they run smoothly.

The remote control is the same as the one that came with the Samsung RU8000 and other high-end Samsung TVs. There are shortcuts to Netflix, Amazon Prime Video, and Samsung TV Plus. There's a built-in microphone for voice control through Bixby. Changing the TV settings and general inquiries work well through voice control, but content search is a bit of a hit or miss depending on the app, as it's able to search for content on YouTube but not Netflix. The remote can be programmed to work with other devices, even if those devices don't support HDMI-CEC.

The TV's control is just a single button located below the Samsung branding on the bottom bezel. It allows you to turn the TV On/Off, change the channel, change the input source, and adjust the volume.

• User guide
• Remote control
• 2x AAA batteries
• Power cord