Samsung TU7000 TV Review

The Samsung 7 Series is an entry-level, budget 4k TV, sitting at the bottom of Samsung's 4k TV lineup. It's a replacement of the NU6900 from 2018, and its competitors are likely to be the Vizio V Series 2020, the Sony X800H, and the LG UN7300.

The Samsung TU7000 has a simple and excellent design. It has thin bezels on all sides and wide-set feet.

The stand is plastic and supports the TV well, but it still wobbles a bit when nudged. Unlike the NU6900, the stand doesn't need to be screwed on. Instead, it's just inserted into the TV, which makes the installation process much easier. The feet aren't reversible.

Footprint of the 55" TV stand: 39.8" x 10.1"

The back of the TV is plastic and has the same etched horizontal texture as other recent Samsung TVs. The inputs are side-facing, making them easier to access when the TV is wall-mounted. For cable management, there are tracks on the back of the TV to guide all the cables towards the feet, where you can secure them with the provided clips.

The bezels are thin and aren't distracting.

The TV is fairly thin and shouldn't stick out when wall-mounted.

The build quality is decent, similar to the Samsung Q60T QLED. There are no issues with the construction; however, it wobbles a bit.

Excellent contrast ratio. Blacks look deep and inky, which is great for dark room viewing. Unfortunately, there's no local dimming to further improve the contrast.

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

Disappointing SDR peak brightness. It's better suited for a dark to moderately-lit room, as it doesn't get bright enough to overcome glare in well-lit environments. The brightness is pretty consistent across different content, except for the 2% window, which is dimmer due to the TV's CE dimming (frame dimming).

We measured the SDR peak brightness after calibration, using the 'Movie' mode. Brightness was set to max, Gamma was set to 2.2, and Contrast was left at its default value.

Bad HDR peak brightness. Although it's fairly consistent when displaying different content, it just isn't enough to make HDR content look much different from SDR content.

We measured the HDR peak brightness before calibration, using the 'Movie HDR' mode. Brightness and Contrast were set to max, and ST. 2084 was left at '0'.

Gray uniformity is decent. The edges of the screen are visibly darker and there's some dirty screen effect. However, uniformity is significantly better in dark scenes.

Update 07/27/2020: We've retested the viewing angle and the 30-degree anomaly is no longer present. It was likely affected by an external light source during testing.

Like most VA panels, the TU7000 has bad viewing angles. Black level rises as soon as you move off-center, followed by gamma shifting. There's an odd bump around the 30-degree angle; however, it isn't noticeable.

Outstanding black uniformity. There's only some faint clouding as well as some blooming around the test cross, but it's otherwise very uniform.

Decent reflection handling. It handles indirect reflections quite well, but not direct reflections, so it's best to avoid placing it in direct sunlight or opposite a bright source of light. If reflection handling is important to you, look into the LG UN7000.

Out of the box, the color accuracy is decent. There are inaccuracies with several colors and white balance is off. The 'Warm 2' Color Temperature is warmer than our 6500K target, resulting in a slight reddish tint. The gamma doesn't follow the target at all, as dark scenes appear too dark, and bright scenes are over-brightened.

Update 09/29/2020: We listed Auto-Calibration Function as 'Undetermined' because 2020 Samsung TVs aren't officially listed as compatible with CalMAN Auto Cal.

After calibration, the color accuracy is outstanding. There are still some inaccuracies with reds and blues, but white balance is nearly perfect and so is gamma, though dark scenes are still too dark. The color temperature is much closer to our target.

You can see our recommended settings here.

480p content such as DVDs is upscaled well without any issues.

The Samsung TU7000 can upscale 720p content like cable TV well.

1080p content looks good and there are no signs of upscaling artifacts.

Native 4k content is displayed perfectly, without any issues.

The Samsung TU7000 can't display an 8k signal.

This TV uses a BGR subpixel layout, which can affect the way text is rendered when using the TV as a PC monitor. You can read about it here.

Just like the NU6900, the Samsung TU7000 can't display a wide color gamut. In 'Movie' mode, the EOTF doesn't follow the input stimulus at all and most scenes are too dark. The 'Game' mode EOTF is a little better, but dark scenes are still over-darkened, which is caused by the TV's frame dimming. However, increasing Shadow Detail to '5' can dramatically improve dark scene performance, as it seems to disable the TV's frame dimming altogether, resulting in this EOTF.

If you want to make HDR content appear brighter overall, set Brightness and Contrast to max while in 'Movie' mode, set Contrast Enhancer to 'High', and set ST.2084 to '+3'. These settings result in this EOTF.

Mediocre color volume. It's mostly limited by the color gamut; however, it's able to display dark colors well thanks to its high contrast ratio.

Great gradient handling. Most of the banding happens in the darker shades of gray and green. Although enabling Noise Reduction didn't do much to improve the performance on our test pattern, it can help in certain content. That said, enabling it may cause the loss of some fine details in some scenes.

As is the case with most VA panels, this TV doesn't exhibit any signs of temporary image retention.

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

The Samsung TU7000 has an okay response time. There's some blur behind fast-moving objects as well as some duplication caused by the backlight's flicker. Additionally, there's overshoot in the 0-20% transition, which results in some artifacts in dark scenes. If you want a similar TV with a quicker response time, check out the LG UN8500.

The TV uses PWM (Pulse-Width Modulation) to dim the backlight. It always flickers at 120Hz; however, it becomes flicker-free when Brightness is set to maximum while in 'Movie' or 'Game' mode, or when using 'PC' mode with 'Dynamic' picture mode.

This TV has a black frame insertion feature that can help reduce the appearance of motion blur. When enabled, the backlight flickers at 60Hz; however, it always flickers at 120Hz when in 'Game' mode. Unfortunately, the strobe crosstalk is quite bad, causing visible duplication of the image. Duplication can also be seen when in 'Game' mode due to the 120Hz flickering frequency. To use it, set LED Clear Motion to 'On'.

This TV can interpolate lower frame rate content up to 60Hz to make motion look smoother, otherwise known as the 'Soap Opera Effect'. It works fairly well in real content, even though it caused noticeable duplication in our test pattern due to the 120Hz backlight flicker. However, the duplication doesn't happen when Brightness is set to max in 'Game' or 'Movie' mode, or when using a PC in 'Dynamic' mode, as explained in the flicker-free section. To enable motion interpolation, set Picture Clarity to 'On' and adjust the Judder Reduction slider to '10'.

Due to the TV's slightly slower response time, there isn't much stutter in lower frame rate content. It can still happen from time to time and if you're bothered by it, enabling Picture Clarity can help.