The Samsung TU7000 is an okay entry-level TV and has an alright all-around performance. It's a budget-friendly option that's sold as the Samsung TU700D at Costco and Sam's Club. It provides good dark-room performance thanks to its VA panel's excellent contrast ratio and outstanding black uniformity. It's limited on features as it doesn't have any variable refresh rate (VRR) support, but most gamers should appreciate its incredibly low input lag and okay response time. It doesn't perform well in bright environments because it doesn't get bright enough to combat glare, and its reflection handling is just okay. The Samsung 7 Series supports HDR10 and HDR10+, but sadly, it doesn't display the wide color gamut needed for HDR content.
The Samsung TU7000 is an okay TV for most uses. It performs decently well for watching TV shows and sports; however, its low peak brightness makes it a poor choice for watching in well-lit environments. Its input lag is very low and response time is okay for gaming, but sadly, there's no FreeSync support. Additionally, it can't display a wide color gamut and has a low HDR peak brightness, so HDR content doesn't look much different from SDR content.
The Samsung TU7000 isn't bad for watching movies. It has a VA panel with an excellent contrast ratio and outstanding black uniformity, but it lacks a local dimming feature. It upscales lower-resolution content well, such as from Blu-ray players, but it can't remove judder from any source.
The Samsung TU7000 is decent for watching TV shows. It can upscale lower-resolution content well, such as from cable boxes. However, visibility may be an issue when watching during the day, as it doesn't get very bright, and its reflection handling is just okay. Also, its VA panel has bad viewing angles, which isn't ideal if you want to watch your favorite show with the entire family.
The Samsung TU7000 is an okay TV for watching sports. Its response time is a bit slow, so there's some motion blur behind fast-moving objects. There's some dirty screen effect in the center, which can be distracting, and its VA panel has bad viewing angles, making it less ideal for watching the big game with a large group of people. Fortunately, 720p content, such as cable sports, is upscaled well without any artifacts.
The Samsung TU7000 is good for video games. Although it's limited to a 60Hz refresh rate and doesn't have VRR support, you still get an okay response time and incredibly low input lag. It's great for dark-room gaming thanks to its excellent contrast ratio and outstanding black uniformity.
The Samsung TU7000 is mediocre for HDR movies. It doesn't provide a good experience HDR experience as it fails to display a wide color gamut and has bad HDR peak brightness. It displays deep blacks thanks to its excellent contrast ratio, but it lacks a local dimming feature.
The Samsung TU7000 is decent for HDR gaming, mainly due to its good gaming experience. It has an incredibly low input and okay response time, but it doesn't have VRR support. Sadly, HDR content doesn't look all that different from SDR content as it can't display a wide color gamut and has bad HDR peak brightness.
The Samsung TU7000 is a decent TV for use as a PC monitor. It has very low input lag, an okay response time, and it can display proper chroma 4:4:4, so text looks sharp and legible. Unfortunately, it has bad viewing angles, but on the upside, there's no risk of permanent burn-in.
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 for the Samsung NU6900 from 2018, and its competitors are the Vizio V Series 2020, the Sony X750H, and the LG UN7300.
The stand is plastic and supports the TV well, but it still wobbles a bit when nudged. Unlike the Samsung 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.
Footprint of the 55 inch 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, such as the Samsung TU8000. The inputs are side-facing, making them easier to access when the TV is wall-mounted. There are tracks to cable management guide cables towards the feet and clips to hold them in place.
The build quality is decent, similar to the Samsung Q60/Q60T QLED. There are no issues with the construction; however, it wobbles a bit.
This TV doesn't have local dimming. The video above is provided for reference only.
This TV has 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). If you want something that gets brighter, then check out the Samsung TU6980.
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.
If you want the TV the brightest possible, set Contrast Enhancer to 'High' and Gamma 2.2 to '+3' while in the 'Vivid' Picture Mode. We got 252 nits in the 10% window.
The Samsung TU7000 has 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'.
We achieved a peak brightness of 282 nits in the 10% window in the 'Movie HDR' Picture Mode with Contrast Enhancer set to 'High', ST.2048 to '+3' and Brightness and Contrast at their max.
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 Samsung TU7000 has narrow viewing angles. The image quickly loses accuracy as you move off-center.
This TV has an okay reflection handling. It performs best in moderately-lit rooms, but 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.
This TV has decent out-of-the-box accuracy, but this may vary between units. Most colors and shades of gray are slightly inaccurate, and the warm color temperature results in a red/yellow tint. Gamma follows the target fairly well, but dark scenes are too dark and other scenes are slightly over-brightened. If you don't plan on getting your TV calibrated and want amazing color accuracy, check out the TCL 4 Series/S434 Android 2020.
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 the gamma, though dark scenes are still too dark. The color temperature is much closer to our target of 6500K.
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.
The Samsung TU7000 has an okay color gamut, but it's not considered a wide color gamut for HDR content. 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, then set Contrast Enhancer to 'High', and ST.2084 to '+3'. These settings result in this EOTF.
The Samsung 7 Series has mediocre color volume. It's mostly limited by the lack of a wide color gamut; however, it can display dark colors well thanks to its excellent contrast ratio.
This TV has great gradient handling. Most of the banding happens in the darker shades of gray and green. Although enabling Noise Reduction doesn'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.
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, but it's slightly slower than the Samsung TU8000. It overshoots in dark transitions, which results in some motion artifacts in dark scenes. Also, there's image duplication due to the backlight's 120Hz flicker.
This TV uses Pulse-Width Modulation (PWM) to dim its backlight. It flickers at 120Hz on all modes unless you set the Brightness to its max in the 'Game' or 'Movie' Picture Mode, at which point it becomes flicker-free. It's also flicker-free if you're in 'PC' mode with the Picture Mode set to 'Dynamic' and Brightness at its max.
The Samsung TU7000 has a Black Frame Insertion feature to help improve the appearance of motion, but it doesn't perform well. The backlight flickers at 60Hz when LED Clear Motion is enabled, but the bad crosstalk results in visible image duplication. It always flickers at 120Hz in 'Game' mode with the backlight set to any level below its maximum, and once again, image duplication is noticeable due to the TV's 60Hz refresh rate.
This TV can interpolate lower-frame rate content up to 60fps, known as the 'Soap Opera Effect'. It looks bad on our test pattern because of the backlight's 120Hz flicker; however, it's not as distracting in regular content. There are some minor artifacts, but it works well overall with most content.
See here for the settings that control the motion interpolation feature.
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.
This TV can't remove judder from any source.
Unfortunately, the Samsung TU7000 doesn't support any variable refresh rate technologies.
The input lag is incredibly low. It's extremely low when in 'Game' mode, and it's only slightly higher outside of 'Game' mode, almost identical to the input lag when using motion interpolation. To get the lowest input lag when using a PC, the input in use must be labeled 'PC' and you must be in 'Game' mode as well. There's also an 'Auto Low Latency Mode', which triggers 'Game' mode automatically when the TV detects a game being launched from a compatible device. To enable it, Game Mode needs to be set to 'Auto' and Anynet+ (HDMI-CEC) must be enabled in the 'External Device Manager' settings page.