Samsung TU8300 TV Review

The Samsung TU8300 is the curved version of the Samsung TU8000. It's the only curved TV in their 2020 lineup and can be seen as the successor to last year's Samsung RU7300. It's one of the only curved TVs still available, but its main competitors with a regular flat screen are the Sony X800H, the Vizio V Series 2020, and the Hisense H65G.

The Samsung TU8300 looks almost identical to the 2019 Samsung RU7300. It has fairly thin bezels around the screen and the wide-set feet support the TV well. Due to the curved screen, the sides of the TV stick out quite a bit when wall-mounted.

The feet are very similar to the Samsung RU7300. They support the TV well, and there isn't too much wobble. Unfortunately, they're quite wide-set, so you'll need a large TV stand, though you should have no problem fitting a soundbar between them.

Footprint of the stand on the 55" TV: 38.4" x 10.2".

The back is the same as the Samsung RU7300. It's quite plain but with a horizontal texture etched into it. There are grooves along the bottom on the screen, as well as clips on the feet, for cable management.

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

The borders are a bit thinner than the Samsung RU7300, but are thicker than the Samsung TU8000. Overall they're still thin enough that they shouldn't be too distracting.

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

The Samsung TU8300 feels reasonably well-built, though it's not as good as the Samsung TU8000. There's quite a bit of flex in the plastic near the inputs, and with a hard enough push you can see the internal components.

The Samsung TU8300 has excellent contrast. Unfortunately, its native contrast ratio is quite a bit lower than both the Samsung TU8000 and the Samsung RU7300. There's also no local dimming feature to further deepen the blacks. It's worth noting that this can vary between units, and your experience may differ.

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

The SDR peak brightness of this TV is okay, and it can get brighter than both the Samsung TU8000 and the Samsung RU7300. The brightness is fairly consistent when displaying different content, though the 2% window is noticeably dimmer due to the TV's CE dimming (frame dimming), which can't be disabled. While the TV is bright enough to use in moderately well-lit rooms, it likely won't be able to overcome glare in very bright environments.

We measured the peak brightness after calibration, setting the Picture Mode to 'Movie', and its brightness to 'Max'.

If you don't care as much about image accuracy but want to get the brightest possible, we were able to get 345 nits by setting the Picture Mode to 'Dynamic'.

The Samsung TU8300 has disappointing HDR peak brightness. Small highlights are dimmed by the TV's frame dimming (CE dimming) feature, which unfortunately can't be disabled.

We measured the peak brightness before calibration, using the 'Movie HDR' Picture Mode with the contrast and backlight both at 'Max.'

The gray uniformity of this TV is only decent. The edges of the screen are darker than the center, and there's some noticeable dirty screen effect in the center, which is distracting during sports and panning shots. The uniformity is much better during darker scenes. This can vary between units, and your experience may differ.

As is common with most VA panel TVs, the Samsung TU8300 has disappointing viewing angles. The image becomes washed out and darker when viewed even slightly off-angle.

The black uniformity of this TV is great, though not as good as the Samsung TU8000 or the Samsung RU7300. There's some blooming around the center cross, though it shouldn't be too noticeable for most people. It's worth noting that this can vary between units, and your experience may differ.

This TV has decent reflection handling. However, the curved screen causes reflections to be stretched out across the screen, which can be distracting.

The Samsung TU8300 has mediocre color accuracy out-of-the-box. The color temperature is much warmer than our target of 6500K, causing most colors to have a red/yellow tint. The white balance is also disappointing, causing grays to be inaccurate. While the gamma curve follows our target decently well, dark scenes appear too dark, while other scenes are slightly bright. Accuracy can vary between units, and your experience may differ.

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 of this TV is remarkable. The color temperature is very close to our target, and most colors are accurate.

You can see our recommended settings here.

480p content, like DVDs, is upscaled without any issues or artifacts.

720p content, like cable TV, is displayed properly, with no sign of artifacts.

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

Like with most Samsung TVs, 4k content looks outstanding, with no obvious issues or artifacts.

This is a 4k TV that doesn't support 8k content.

This TV uses a BGR subpixel layout, which can affect the way text is rendered when using the TV as a PC monitor, similar to the Samsung TU7000 and the Hisense H9G. You can read about it here.

Like the Samsung TU8000 and the Samsung RU7300, this TV doesn't display a wide color gamut.

The EOTF doesn't follow the PQ curve well, so most scenes will be darker than they should, though they're brighter in 'Game' mode, as you can see here.

You can make HDR content brighter by setting the Picture Mode to 'Movie', Gamma ST.2084 to '+3', Advanced Contrast Enhancer to 'High' and the brightness, and contrast each to their max, as you can see here.

The Samsung TU8300's color volume is disappointing, due to its lack of a wide color gamut. It fails to produce a wide range of shades and colors, despite its excellent contrast.

The gradient handling of this TV is great, and it does a significantly better job than the Samsung TU8000. Overall, it's very similar to the Samsung RU7300, with some banding in all dark shades that shouldn't be too noticeable, except for when watching dark scenes. Unfortunately, while there's a Noise Reduction setting to help smooth out banding, it doesn't make a noticeable difference at all.

As is the case with most VA panel TVs, there are no signs of temporary image retention. It's worth noting that this can vary between units, and your experience may differ.

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 is only mediocre and unfortunately, is quite a bit worse than the Samsung TU8000. Due to the 240Hz flicker, there's noticeable duplications in the motion photo, and fast-moving objects will have a bit of blur trail.

This TV uses Pulse Width Modulation (PWM) to dim the backlight, except when at 100%. In 'Movie' mode, the backlight flickers at 240Hz, causing 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 all other modes, except for Game Motion Plus with LED Clear Motion enabled, where it drops even lower to 60Hz.

The Samsung TU8300 has an optional black frame insertion feature to help reduce motion blur. You can enable it by setting LED Clear Motion to 'On'. Unfortunately, the flicker is always at 60Hz and its timing is off, resulting in duplication of the image, similar to the RU7300. The BFI feature also darkens the screen a fair amount, though this is common.

The Samsung TU8300 can interpolate lower frame rate content up to 60fps by setting Picture Clarity to 'On' and Judder Reduction at '10'. Unfortunately, it automatically sets the backlight to flicker at 120Hz, and there are quite a few noticeable artifacts.

There's not much stutter on this TV when displaying lower frame rate content due to its slow response time.

The Samsung TU8300 can remove judder from 24p sources and native apps by disabling Picture Clarity, but not from a 60p or 60i source.

The Samsung TU8300 has a 60Hz refresh rate and doesn't support any variable refresh rate technologies.

The Samsung TU8300 has outstandingly low input lag in 'PC ' or 'Game' mode. It also supports Auto Low Latency which automatically puts the TV into 'Game Mode' when a game from a compatible device is detected.