- Smart TV with Smart Interaction
- Smart Content with Signature Services
- Built-in Wi-Fi and Camera
- Full HD 2D and 3D
- Thin LED Design: TV with stand (Width x Height x Depth): 48.4-Inch x 30-Inch x 8.3-Inch, TV without stand (Width x Height x Depth): 48.4-Inch x 28.4-Inch x 1.2-Inch
***UPDATE*** after further testing I have found one flaw. The media hub works well, however, Netflix has an issue. It will only work half the time. Half the time it will not load a video and the TV will reset, the other half it works fine. I haven't lost any settings yet, however, it is annoying. I have reduced to 4 stars sInce it isn't the end of the world and will likely be fixed with a simple software update. I watch a lot of Netflix, so Samsung, I know you will read these first reviews. This software bug with Netflix needs to get fixed. I am an advanced tech lead for Sprint, I've already tried everything to T/S the issue and other people reviews state the same. However, my TV has not had its settings reset like others. This is my only small complaint, everything else works fine.
***UPDATE #2*** There was some kind of update to the TV last night and the resetting seams to have stopped during Netflix and seams a bit more responsive, for now, but still not a guarantee that it's fixed. I'm not sure what kind of update it was because the damn TV is so fast, I didn't see it long enough before it was done. I'm pretty sure I will need to wait and test it more. However, it seams to have stopped. The other thing I have noticed is that the LED lights at the bottom of the screen in the middle seam brighter then the rest of the lights, but this is only noticeable in pure 100% darkness, which you'll see anyways, because it's still and LCD anyway you look at it. I have also purchased a PN51E8000 TV for downstairs, it appears that the PN51E8000 has much darker blacks in pure darkness, in fact, it's not far off from an OLED, however, I'll post a review of that one later.
***UPDATE #3*** it appears that the reset issue with Netflix only appears when the smart hub has issues connecting with Samsung. I have noticed that on weekdays, it works fairly well and can connect to apps just fine. However, on weekends, it appears Samsungs servers can't currently handle the traffic as I seam to get "network interference" issues and most apps won't connect, even though my connection to the Internet is fine at 25mbps+ and when the apps are having difficulty and you try to get on Netflix, it has trouble playing videos and gets stuck and then resets. Other then these few small issues I have had with the TV and the connection to Samsungs media hub, I continue to be blown away by the stellar 3D, the ridiculous crispness of the picture and the smooth motion rate and I have gotten use to the voice commands. I was originally having problems with it recognizing my voice, but after turning down our fan in our room, it seams to recognize my voice very well now. So Samsung, hear me out... The network interference problems have to get resolved and Netflix needs to be updated so it simply rebuffed instead of turning off the TV. If this happens, I'll be a happy camper.
***UPDATE #4*** alright Samsung techs, here's one for ya and even though this doesn't actually reflect my review of the TV itself, im not sure where the problem lays. I have an iPad as well as two iPhone 4s's, all running iOS 5.1. The iPhones work great with the remote control, they always find the tv and connect and work well. However, the iPad 2 Samsung remote does not work. It will work right when you connect and allow it, but as soon as you don't use it for awhile, it stops working and never reconnects, it gets an "unknown network error" and disconnects. I was so fixated on getting it fixed that I even hard reset my iPad 2 and reinstalled the app and it still does it. The only way I am able to use it is if I go into the TV settings to network all share and delete the iPad from the allowed list and re-add it, until it stops working again after I don't use it for awhile. Samsung, it is an absolute necessity that this is fixed ASAP!! I use my iPad to browse the net while I watch tv and having the Samsung remote on it to control the Tav is essential. I am a total multi tasker! Gosh I hope they read my post.
***UPDATE #5*** the Netflix app has no reset now in almost two weeks and we watch Netflix almost on a daily basis... It has work flawlessly. The set seems to be performing much better after a few weeks break-in (normal). I think this a great set, but Samsung still needs to update the iPad remote app so it can actually work. I think this TV and PN51e8000 will be our last TVs for a few years until OLED TVs become mainstream in 2014-2015. Manufacturers say they will have mainstream 55inch sets for around $2k. Until then I might actually look into the evolution kits that will come out to upgrade its features, if they are a good price, I might pick one up. If not, then these will do until OLEDs are it.
***UPDATE 6*** April 22nd, I have received another update and have had 0 problems with set since. I guess that fact it needed to break in held true. The TV has worked flawlessly, I can't imagine getting much better until OLED hits mainstream. The picture quality has increased as well with the update. The voice recognition now works a lot better, but if you have fans or kids or noise in general, it still has a hard time unless dead silent, but that would be expected. This is my final update.
Buy Samsung UN55ES8000 55-Inch 1080p 240Hz 3D Slim LED HDTV (Silver) Now
I just received my TV, set it up and tested it out. First of all, installation was a breeze, camera and mic work beautifully as do the motion controls.More importantly, the image is perfect. I don't know what these other reviewers are going on about but screen uniformity is phenomenal and on par with any of the other LED LCD tvs I've seen. Blacks are deep and inky and with the backlighting on the factory default, I saw no evidence of flashlighting or light creep.
3D works like a charm. Set the PS3 to recognize the new screen and the new 3D glasses pair with the TV quickly and easily and don't mind at all if I look away from the screen. Tested out Transformers 3D (don't laugh, I have 6 year old son and he loves them) and the image was crisp, detailed with very little artifacting or crosstalk. I fired up wipeout HD 3D and that performed beautifully as well.
For me, it was between this TV and the new Panasonic line up. While I agree that the plasmas handle blacks better than LCD screens, I prefered the image crispness of an LED LCD panel. I am not disappointed and more than happy with the es8000.
Read Best Reviews of Samsung UN55ES8000 55-Inch 1080p 240Hz 3D Slim LED HDTV (Silver) Here
This TV is absolutely incredible. I got the 60 inch and bought direct from Samsung's website as I had a discount. I love the design of the actual TV, it's base is sharp looking and the TV and bezel are so thin it's going to look amazing mounted on my stone wall. The resolution and black levels are amazing. When I first saw the motion control demonstrated at Fry's when they first got them in, it looked completely unresponsive, but after getting mine, I now know why that was. The room has to be bright. They were demonstrating it in a very dim room. It doesn't see your hand movement completely if it's dark. It is totally responsive and much more fluid than I originally thought. Honestly speaking it's REALLY cool, but I doubt I'll end up using it that much, maybe for my fantasy football app during football season or when I can't find the remote and I want to turn the volume up. I bet Samsung will create a wider range of uses for the motion control through updates later on. So I feel like there is more to come from the motion control as well as the voice control.The voice control works really well. There isn't a huge list of commands, only ones on the screen, but it's neat and very impressive to people to speak to your TV, definitely peaking on the wow factor. Like I said, there aren't a ton of voice commands, but I feel this is a good base for expansion by Samsung updates.The amount of apps is plentiful and I love the fact that Samsung has introduced the Evolution Kits. What a great idea. Just a simple software upgrade instead of selling a TV when something new comes out.
Now for my only negative thus far into my purchase. I rented The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo on bluray to test how good the quality of the TV really is. It's phenomenal. HOWEVER, once the screen went to black as the credits rolled you DO see spotlighting from the corners. It's weird because you don't see it when you're on non-HD channels and they black bar the left and right sides. In fact the ONLY time I've seen the spotlighting is during the credits of the movie. You don't see it in dark scenes or when the movie in letterbox format. If someone can explain why I only saw it during movie credits and not when in letterbox, that would be great. I know this TV is edgelit not backlit, so the pixels aren't turned off.
All in all it's a tiny complaint for such an awesome TV that is packed with features no other TV has right now. How often are you watching just a black screen? Never. So seeing spotlighting during credits I really could careless, but for those who are completely obsessive may find it annoying. I am not going to knock down such an awesome TV a star over something like that. When you put this thing on your mantle, wall, or TV stand your jaw is going to drop at how sweet it looks even when it's off. Then you say "Hi TV Power On" and wave your hand at the screen and it just gets even cooler.
**UPDATE** 4/14/12
Voice recognition actually has a lot more capabilities than I originally thought. When creating a Samsung account instead of remote control analog typing which can be tedious or the motion control which hurts you arm keeping it up for awhile typing out a long email, you can just say your full email address into the controller and it will get it pretty damn close. You can also say your name and all that and it did it no problem. My name is Chris, so it's not that complicated, but my last name has 2 Ts in a row and it got that somehow instead of just hearing one. Impressive. What is stupid is that you can't use the voice for entering in a URL or stuff like that. Why did they take away the QWERTY remote? Stupid. Also, to keep from having to manually log in, you can take screen shot of your face and it will log you in and all your PERSONAL setting from reading your face. That is super cool if you have people who like different settings.
Exploring the app store more, there is not a whole lot there, but I expect it to grow since this TV just came out a couple weeks ago. What I am REALLY hoping for is that they bring back the Yahoo apps. The immediate predecessor TVs had Yahoo apps and this one doesn't. A big thing for me was having Yahoo Fantasy Football on screen live updating while I'm watching games. I really don't understand why they dumped Yahoo or why the app store is so scant right now. They have dozens and dozens of kid friendly apps that probably make great use of the motion control, but how does that help me with no kids. I don't care about the Kids section or Family Story. Give me my Fantasy football app. I'm not kidding, they have like 4 sports apps and 25 kids apps. COME ON SAMSUNG!! Please expand on that soon. I am still trying to figure out how to rearrange the Smart Hub, it's unclear. I'll have to check the manual I guess.
I absolutely LOVE the AllShare Play. I just plug my external hard drive with downloaded movies into one of the USB inputs in the back and I got a full movie player and organizer. You can operate everything from the remote. It plays all the formats I've tested so far. Some had the volume kind of low, but if you choose the AUTO VOLUME setting it will automatically correct a volume issue.
Lastly, the amount of storage space on the TV is 785mb, but I've downloaded ZERO of anything and 407mb of that space are already used. I don't even feel like THAT many apps are downloaded already. You got Facebook, VUDU, Hulu, Netflix, MLB.TV, Pandora, Youtube, MTV Music Meter, NBA Gametime, Fitness VOD and CinemaNow. That's it. Then you have the Fitness, Kids, and Family Story programs which I think is what sucks a lot of that space away. Most of the apps are 5mb and below so I guess you can still download a lot of them, but I don't know what else I may be able to download as I explore more and 785mb seems skimpy.
**UPDATE** 4/15/12
AND..... I got a faint vertical yellow line of pixels (very thin) across the left quarter panel of the screen. Top to bottom. At first I thought it was an entire line of dead pixels, but I turned the TV off then back on and the line was gone. Few minutes later it's back again. It goes away then it comes back. It comes back EVERY time whenever I click on the Smart Hub. Also, there is so very faint gray lines across the whole screen that you can see during light scenes. In some parts, it looks like a 3D rectangular boxing. I though it may be some interference, but it's on all channels now and it wasn't there before. It only appeared at the same time as the faint yellow line.
Contrary to some other reviews knocking on Samsung's service, I called 1-800-SAMSUNG and was speaking to a live person after 2-3 button pushes. They are having a service person come out to fix it. If he can't fix it then they will exchange or refund my money they say. The entire service call was 22 minutes and that included describing what was wrong to 2 people and being on hold for 2 minutes. So as of right now, their customer service has been great. However, we'll see how the repair goes. They say I will get a call tomorrow from them to set an appointment.
I changed the review from 5 stars to 2 for right now because I was SOOO careful getting this out of the box and putting it on the TV stand. I don't know if the TV is super fragile because it's so thin, but I treated it like it was regardless. Maybe it got bumped around during shipping, but there was zero box damage and it worked fine for 5 days before the line appeared. I think it was just a quality control issue. Two stars, because this thin little line coming and going is super annoying. Screen is everything. I am very tempted to give it 1 star because it's been 5 days. But if they can fix it, and it never comes back and I never have an issue again, I'll raise the review up again. I think I am the only 60 inch screen review, so watch out.
**UPDATE** 4/23/12
Repair company contracted by Samsung came out last Tuesday (a day after scheduling, great response time) to diagnose problem. He typed some code on the remote to do a color test. I asked how he did that, but he said it's strongly advised you don't do the color screen test yourself because you can damage your screen. Anyways, the color test makes the whole screen go red, blue, green, white, black, or a pattern of colors. When he did this we saw that on blue, all the pixels were dead in the line top to bottom, as well as little speckles of dead ones around it. It was weird because on every other color the pixels worked, so maybe just the blue pixels were dead? Maybe this is why the line looked yellow when just watching tv. This line is so weird because it goes away sometimes. Even when it's there it's barely noticeable unless it's pointed out to you or it's a very light colored or bluish scene.
The repair guy said that the screen is ruined and it needs to be replaced. I was like wtf do you mean, the screen IS the TV, it's like an inch thick. I don't fault him because he's not even a Samsung employee, he's contracted by them. This was weird. He said it's Samsung's policy to allow 10 days for a part to come in, if it doesn't come in within 10 days they exchange the TV for a new one. The repair guy said because the 60" TV is SO new (it was the first one he'd seen) and that it was on backorder he said it was slim to none they'd get a new replacement screen in 10 days. He told me to call Samsung and tell them I don't have 10 days to waste when it's ultimately going to be the same result. When I spoke to Samsung on the phone, they didn't know what that "10 days" was about, but they confirmed that they have no replacement screens in stock for replacement. They are sending me a new TV and will take the old one. They said it will take 10-12 days. I don't know why people bitch about their customer service. I saw it as being great. I understand they have a process of trying to repair before they just jump into replacing. There are a lot of idiots who can't differentiate normal from defective.
The issue with the TV isn't unbearable to see, so I've been fine waiting. Although this has given me more time to see some things. The fact that the TV doesn't have a keyboard is completely annoying. You will no doubt want a keyboard if you are going to websurf or do anything where you frequently input text. They sell one separately. The voice thing is very good, but not always completely accurate. When you go to Smart Hub right now it says they are updating their system on 4/24/12 from midnight to 5am and the service won't be available during that time, so maybe their ironing out some kinks. I've also noticed the spotlighting is a little more frequent than originally thought. Whenever the screen is black and their is white on the screen with no letterbox, you will see spotlighting. I'll revise my review if my new TV is perfect.
**UPDATE** (5/12/12)
So my order for replacement was processed and I was called today and they now said there are no 60 inches for replacement and they have to give me a refund. Fine. I just want to move on. I like the look of the TV and some cool features, but I was scared my new one was going to be shoddy as well after several warnings from other users. I got IRATE because the guy said my SALES TAX wouldn't be refunded in addition to my $60 shipping since I purchased straight from Samsung's employee website which is the manufacturer and not a retailer. If there is NO SALE, THERE IS NO TAX no matter who the hell you are. I hung up with him and called Executive Customer Service and got her to give me my sales tax, but I lost my $60 shipping. 12-17 business days for my refund after picking up the TV. So through all of this I got NO TV and LOST $60. Hence another revising of my review from 2 stars to 1 star. Samsung just does not have their crap together with their TVs lately and BELIEVE ME I REALLY WANTED TO LIKE THIS TV. I learned a valuable lesson.
Last bit about the TV before I'm done. You will be sitting in your room, push no buttons, just watching and the voice control menu or motion control will come up (unprompted) and turn down the volume on your TV till it goes away or you pick up the remote and close it. It's like a glitch or something. Annoying. I am telling everyone out there, this is straight up honest review. I am not a Samsung hater. I've owned several Samsung TVs in the past. I picked Samsung because I felt it had the best picture and they are a reputable manufacturer. I gave it 5 stars in the beginning! Then 5 days later, it messed up and now I have no TV and $60 less. I was PUNISHED for buying this TV. Don't let it happen to you.
Want Samsung UN55ES8000 55-Inch 1080p 240Hz 3D Slim LED HDTV (Silver) Discount?
When you move from the 55" to the 60"-60"+ size, LED TV options become a bit more limited.Often its a toss up between size vs display quality.
That said, purchasing the Samsung Es8000 doesn't feel like a compromise at all!
######### OUT OF THE BOX #########
Out of the box the picture quality is OK at best. The TV has a natural tenancy to throw to much RED filtering. The brightness vs contrast is off causing quite a bit of clipping to occure.
I also had quite a lot of light bleeding around the 4 corners and a patch about the size of my hand above the SAMSUNG logo at the bottom of the screen.
######### Light Bleeding #########
Out of the box I had a small amount of light bleeding at the 4 corners.
During the day 85% of the time it wasn't enough to bother me.
That said, at night it was a different story. The light-bleeding really distracted from dark scenes in movies.
This is where CALIBRATION comes into play.
After calibrating my TV almost all the light bleeding vanished. I was able to find my TVs ideal black / white, brightness and backlight settings.
Now there is NO visible light bleeding during the day and only a very very very small amount when viewed at night in an almost pitch black room. All LED tv's will have a small amount of light bleeding due to their design once calibrated the Samsung ES8000 really preforms well above most current LED's out there.
######### CALIBRATION IS A MUST #########
Calibrating your new TV will 1) Fix a lot of the light bleeding issues and 2) Bring out the best picture of your TV !
If you don't preform a simple calibration on your TV then you're wasting its potential and your money since you'll be left with a under preforming TV.
Calibrating the TV yourself using a calibration DVD or Blu-Ray is very easy to do and can be done for as little as $20.
I recommend using the following Calibration Disc:
Disney WOW: World of Wonder [Blu-ray]
Let the TV run for a few hours after you first take it out of the box and get it set up.
Once the TV has been running for a while, pop in the Calibration Disc and enjoy a easy step by step walk through of your TV's settings.
Calibration is easy and can always be reset if you want to start over again.
######### 3D Display #########
While I'm a fan of PASSIVE 3D, I've been very very pleased with this TV's ACTIVE 3D.
It's been so sharp and clear with NO noticeable cross-linking in TV shows, Movies and most of my ps3 games.
(Again this is after calibrating the display)
The only time I noticed cross-linking was when viewing some high speed scenes in the background of Wipeout HD 3D on my PS3, but that has more to do with my old PS3 processing than the new LED TV.
Also it has a lot to do with the fact that I was searching obsessively for any signs of cross-linking.
######### Gesture Commands #########
The voice and hand commands and hand gestures work ok at best.
That said, I see how the commands could really improve the User to TV interaction in the not so distant future.
Preforming internet searches via voice command has its uses, but to be honest most of the time I find myself using the Bluetooth remote.
Again its all a work in progress.
DON'T buy this TV if you're main reason is the voice and hand commands.
Buy this TV because of its excellent colour and picture quality.
It is a nice TV.
We have a 46" ES8000 at work and I have never seen such an amazing TV, once I used it for a few hours I was hooked.
The 60" TV is really nice, it fits right above our fireplace.
I used a VideoSecu Ultra Slim Thin Flat LED HDTV Fashion TV Wall Mount Bracket for 32"-55" LED TV VESA 200x200 300x300 400x400 up to 800x800 Adjustable Cable Length 1Y2 to mount this TV, and it was awesome.
You hang the TV like a picture with a wire and two special washers.
The TV is less than 1.5" from the front of the screen to the wall, thinner than most of our paintings we have.
The picture quality is GREAT, not perfect GREAT. This 60" has some cloudyness/bleed through in the corners that is EXTREMELY visible on dark/black backgrounds.
I have read a bunch of forum replies about leaving the TV on for 100hours to get rid of that, and we are on hour 80 right now. It SEEMS to be getting better, but it could be the placebo affect going on.
The 3d is awesome, Transformers and Avatar on the 60" in 3D rock!
You get 4 pairs of glasses with this TV, so it is enough for the family and friends!
The Smart Hub is really cool, the application selection is a bit sparse, but it should be growing.
One last thing that sold me on the TV was the expansion pack that this TV has.
It allows you to constantly upgrade your TV with whatever new technology Samsung comes out with next year, so instead of having to buy a new TV, you can buy the corresponding upgrade kit and plug it in to the expansion pack!
If you have any specific questions about the 60" please ask, I will answer in the comments.
I will update as time progresses with the TV.
***UPDATE****
The clouding was getting pretty bad in the corners, so I contacted Samsung and they wanted to have a service center come out and service the TV. I called the service center and he said return the TV to Amazon.
I called Amazon expecting a big fiasco, and was very surprised that it was extremely easy.
Amazon ordered me a new one (without paying for it) and had it delivered. At the time of delivery, they returned the old one.
The second es8000 is 10X better than the first one, but still not perfect. The ghosting/clouding in the corners on dark scenes is FAINTLY there. I am going to let it run for 200 hours and see if that helps, if not I will try one last es8000, before going with a different brand.
It is very upsetting that Samsung has this issue, and is not doing ANYTHING about it. I never had this much trouble when I was buying 42-50" tv's that were much cheaper. Hopefully this TV fixes itself or the third one works.......
**update** 5 months in.
TV is still awesome.
Fixed the issues with clouding and ghosting by simply changing some settings around.
Now the blacks are intensely black, like NO light black!
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