Samsung UE55TU8500 Review, A Comprehensive Look at This 55-Inch 4K TV

Today’s televisions are dramatically different to those of the past 100 years, not just in size and added intelligence but in breadth of content and ways to experience it. As the rapidly evolving technologies for television fuel a market push from benefits rarely seen with past iterations, viewers who are at risk of being left behind demand picture quality with smart features that are easy to use at a reasonable price.

Samsung’s UE55TU8500 – an ultra-high-definition (UHD) 55-inch TV – is but one alternative for those seeking a mostly balanced solution among the growing range of such options. This UE55TU8500 presents itself as part of Samsung's drive to provide everyone with the best possible viewing experience. Whether you're a movie fan looking to immerse yourself in the best-quality picture, a gamer who wants to feel competitive or just a regular person looking to enhance their everyday viewing experience, UE55TU8500 should be on your radar.

With this article, we are attempting to unpack the nitty gritty of this product - its key features, strength, limitations and most importantly, its overall value proposition - so that you can make an informed decision on whether it works for your specific viewing and entertainment goals.

A Deep Dive into the Features of the Samsung UE55TU8500

Here is an analysis of the Samsung UE55TU8500 TV, which is not just another TV but also a set of thoughtfully combined features that were carefully devised to make your viewing experience much more enjoyable and your leisure time richer. Let us then deconstruct its main features:

• 4K UHD Resolution: 4K UHD is the modern standard for television resolution and the UE55TU8500 has 4K UHD at its heart. Its resolution is 3840 x 2160, rendering four times more pixels than the Full HD resolution (1080p), and bringing more detailed and sharper images to your television. 4K, therefore, brings the ultimate detail to your television. Catch me if you can! There’s more detail to be seen, such as every individual blade of grass in the meadow, every fine crease of skin on the face of a character, and every detail of a metropolitan cityscape. The effect is to immerse you in fine detail and bring the world alive. It’s going to be hard to top such quality. I’ll never be able to look at a television again!
• Crystal Processor 4K: Samsung’s Crystal Processor 4K is the smart operating engine that powers the UE55TU8500’s picture quality and maxes out the video signals as much as possible. This processor recognises and analyses incoming video signals and works hard to optimize colour accuracy, improve contrast and fine-tune clarity. The Crystal Processor 4K upscales any lower-resolution content that’s being fed into the television, bringing the quality closer to the 4K standard, so that even movies and TV shows from a few years back will still look fresh and sharp. Samsung has designed this processor to bring you a consistently superb viewing experience, regardless of the source quality of the material.
• High Dynamic Range (HDR) Support – The UE55TU8500 supports High Dynamic Range (HDR) technology, which takes television visuals to a whole new level of realism by reproducing a much wider range of colours as well as dramatically increasing the contrast between the darkest and lightest areas of the image. With HDR, brilliant highlights dazzle and colours explode, bringing entertainment to life with a range of colour and contrast that is closer than ever to real life. The UE55TU8500 also supports HDR10 content which is the industry-backed HDR standard. A gateway to a world… Imagine the top getting bigger and the bezels below it dipping into the frame beneath, acting as virtual speakers
• Smart TV with Tizen OS: making your UE55TU8500 a smart TV is as simple as only Samsung can make it. The new UE55TU8500 runs on Samsung’s Tizen operating system. In layman’s terms, that means that your dumb TV is busy getting smart. Samsung’s smart Samsung TV platform is based on the same easy-to-use operating system that your Samsung smartphone, table and wearable devices are built on. The UE55TU8500 instantly gives you access to the mainstream world of streaming services such as Netflix, Prime Video, Hulu, YouTube, Disney+ and many more. Tizen brings minimal user-friction design, so switching from app-to-app, browsing or tweaking settings is always a breeze. It’s not a chore. You’re here to watch shows and play games, not cross your fingers in hopes that your big dumb TV will give up the ghost already.
• Voice Control: The UE55TU8500 comes with voice control and you can issue commands and manipulate your TV settings using your voice. Use voice search for content, move between menus and more – all while you don’t have to do anything with your hands. This makes the Samsung TV experience more futuristic and adds a small element of sci-fi to your living room. Voice control is useful for those who enjoy commands from across the room or not having to reach forward. Navigate to ‘Picture’ on the home screen.
• Multi Plenty of Connectivity ​Want to add the TV functionality to the rest of your setup? The UE55TU8500 sports multiple ports to connect today’s tech to your TV. Multiple HDMI ports let you plug in whatever hardware you might have from gaming consoles to Blu-ray players, set-top-boxes, and streaming dongles. USB ports also allow media playback from external drives, contact-free with your own music library, or recent faves from your favorite artist. The TV features an Ethernet port for hard-wiring Internet, and a Wi-Fi radio for a wireless Internet connection. Ditch the cables or keep them; either way, your options for connections are as many as you need to meet your specific setup desires and consciouses.

Acknowledging the Limitations: The Cons of the Samsung UE55TU8500

Yes, the UE55TU8500 is indeed amongst the good guys… but no TV is perfect. It will – as is the case with all TVs – frustrate you in some way. Here are some areas for improvement:

• Picture quality Poor viewing angles: Also, the UE55TU8500 suffers from poor viewing angles. This essentially means that, as you move away from the centre of your TV, the picture quality degrades the more you view it off-angle. This is especially true if you compare it with a TV that has particularly good viewing angles.If you have a big living room, or are likely to watch TV at odd angles regularly, this could be a deal-breaker. It won’t be the same experience for everyone, and you could very easily end up with one person in the room having a poor picture quality while the rest of the room’s watching content perfectly.
• Basic Sound System: Although the speakers of the UE55TU8500 are fine for day-to-day, you might find that they don’t offer the depth, richness and immersion that a dedicated audio system could deliver. In that case, buying an external sound bar or investing in a full surround sound system would be a worthwhile investment. The built-in speakers are fine for everyday telly time, but you might find that adding some external speakers dramatically enhances your entertainment experience.

Is the Samsung UE55TU8500 the Right TV for You?

The Samsung UE55TU8500 is the 55-inch 4K TV to consider if you care more about having the best overall TV where picture quality, usability for smart TV experiences, and value for money are equally important. As we all know, every technological purchase is a compromise, but this LED TV suits a range of needs.

If you’re more concerned with wide viewing angles or best-in-class sound, high-end models with leading technologies might offer more to you, such as QLED technology or Dolby Atmos audio. But, if you want a reliable 4K TV that’s going to give you a satisfying viewing experience without spending a fortune, the UE55TU8500 is well worth considering – it’s one of the very best TVs in its price bracket.

Samsung UE55TU8500: A Detailed Look at the Specifications

For a closer technical look at the UE55TU8500, here is a detailed list of its main specifications:

• 55 inches – A size large enough to justify a 4K screen, but not so large it makes the TV dominate a living area. Source: AlamyBelow is an instruction that describes a task, paired with an input that provides further context. Write a response that appropriately completes the request. Instruction:Paraphrase the input into human-sounding text while retaining citations and quotes.
• Resolution: 4K (3840 x 2160)– As we have seen, this is one of the most important features for rendering images as sharp and detailed as possible, improving your viewing experience.
• Panel Type: VA (Vertical Alignment) – Panels of this type have deep blacks and high contrast ratios, meaning an improved visual experience.
• HDR Support: HDR10 – This de facto standard for HDR improves contrast and colour range, and shows a more vivid and natural-looking picture.
• Operating System: Tizen – Samsung’s intuitive and feature-filled smart TV OS provides access to a wide selection of streaming apps and online content.
• Smart Features: Voice control; access to a large back catalogue of streaming apps, web browser, etc, so you can navigate the world of entertainment with your voice.
• Connectivity: HDMI ports (two or more, to connect multiple devices), USB ports for media watching (two or more), Ethernet port for internet connection (wired), Wi-Fi for internet connection (wireless), and others (eg: analogue audio ports for connecting to amplifiers) to ensure a slew of connectivity options. Both HDMI ports and USB media-playback ports can be used to connect sensors that can give you output, such as temperature of various rooms.

Conclusion: The Verdict on the Samsung UE55TU8500

The Samsung UE55TU8500 touts a commendable balance of features, performance and affordability. Image credit: Guardian Media Group Ltd/Future Publishing.All things considered, the Samsung UE55TU8500 is an excellent 4K TV. It combines a superb picture with a slick smart TV experience and high specifications for a good all-round performance and great value. If it isn’t the best in any one aspect, its well-judged balance of features and performance, along with its solid value, makes it a top choice.

It’s an excellent example of Samsung’s ability to make a TV for everyone, and its mantra of delivering class-leading features at a reasonable price span remains apparent. Of course, the exact answer to this question depends on how you are going to use the UE55TU8500, and how it fits into your home, your spending, and so on. By understanding its strengths and weaknesses within the context of your personal interests and requirements, you will be able to decide for yourself whether or not this is the TV for you.

All in all, if you are happy to pursue a sensible ‘best of both worlds’ strategy, going for a mid-range TV that is good at everything without being extraordinary at any one thing, the UE55TU8500 offers a superb entertainment experience for the money. It is a pleasing and involving television, not too big or showy, but capable of offering a lot, and one that lacks significant flaws – a very tempting proposition for anybody.