Samsung CU7000D TV Review: Budget-Friendly Design and Mixed Picture Quality
Introduction:
The Samsung CU7000D is a budget-friendly TV model that manages to impress with its design and build quality. While it has some appealing features, particularly its textured plastic design and thin bezels, its picture quality falls short in certain areas. In this review, we'll take a closer look at the design elements of the TV and evaluate its performance in terms of picture quality.
Design and Build Quality:
The Samsung CU7000D makes a strong first impression with its sleek design and textured plastic finish. Despite being a budget model, its appearance defies its price range.
The TV's thicker profile is offset by thin bezels, contributing to an overall premium look and feel. The plastic feet, though not the most premium, offer a simple installation process that doesn't require screwing.
While the TV might wobble slightly, it's generally stable, and the distance from the table to the screen accommodates most soundbars. Wall mounting is feasible with VESA 400x300 compatibility, although the back's hard-to-reach cutout might require a mounting arm.
Picture Quality and Performance:
The Samsung CU7000D's picture quality assessment reveals both strengths and weaknesses. The TV's contrast ratio of 6,793:1 allows for deep blacks, making it a solid choice for dark scenes. However, the absence of local dimming results in washed-out dark scenes when bright highlights are present, diminishing the overall quality of HDR content.
HDR performance is underwhelming due to the TV's limited brightness capabilities. Bright highlights lack impact, and the entire screen dims when displaying small bright sections. This TV does not provide a satisfactory HDR experience, especially when compared to models with better HDR performance.
Color gamut and accuracy also present some limitations. While the TV offers good coverage of the DCI-P3 color space, its colors are undersaturated, and tone mapping inaccuracies are noticeable, except for saturated colors.
The TV's color volume is subpar, struggling to display bright colors accurately. Pre-calibration accuracy is disappointing, with gamma and color accuracy deviations from reference. Post-calibration, improvements are evident, but some color discrepancies persist.
Conclusion:
The Samsung CU7000D stands out with its impressive design and build quality, challenging the notion of a budget TV. However, its picture quality reveals several drawbacks, particularly in HDR performance and color accuracy.
While suitable for moderately-lit or dark rooms, its SDR brightness may not suffice for well-lit environments.
The TV's affordability comes at the cost of compromising certain picture quality aspects, making it a choice for those who prioritize design over the absolute best visual experience.
