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  • Tour & Design

  • Performance Features

  • Connectivity & Media

  • Controls, Menu & Remote

  • Conclusion

  • Series Comparison

  • Ratings & Specs

  • Tour & Design
  • Performance Features
  • Connectivity & Media
  • Controls, Menu & Remote
  • Conclusion
  • Series Comparison
  • Ratings & Specs

Tour & Design

Front


The front of the Samsung UN55B8500 is mostly screen, which is surrounded with a plastic bezel. The bezel isn't really glossy, but it does have a dull sheen to it. The lower right corner of the screen has some touch buttons, which are indicated by some faint white labels. There's also some branding in the bottom center of the bezel, just in case you forget who made the TV (it was Samsung).

Back


Samsung, like Panasonic, like mounting their things on walls so we can't take pictures of them properly. The UN55B8500 was no exception, and our efforts to take photos of the TV's back were ultimately thwarted. Curses.

Sides


As mentioned above, the TV was mounted on the wall. Fortunately, it wasn't mounted *in *the wall. We were therefore able to utilize some extreme camera techniques to provide the following picture. The TV is 1.6 inches deep, which is very thin. The sides didn't have anything worth looking at, however.

 

Stand/Mount


Unless Samsung was hanging the UN55B8500 with some sort of super-advanced adhesive, the TV can be mounted. Even though we suppose securing the TV to the wall with super-advanced adhesive still technically counts as mounting the TV, we don't count it: it would cause damage to your walls.

Aesthetics


The UN55B8500 has a traditional HDTV look, with a black bezel and no jazzy eye candy to distract the viewer. The only break in the minimalism is the power LED in the bottom center, but, knowing Samsung, you can turn this light off in the settings menu.

Performance Features

Display Size & Technology


The Samsung UN55B8500 has a 55-inch screen capable of 1080p. The display is an LCD with LED backlights. LED-lit LCDs are, for some reason, buzzworthy now. Therefore, we're trying to mention 'LED' as much as possible in our LED HDTV reviews, so we'll rank better in search engines. LED.

 

Formats & Resolution


Like most of the TVs here at CEDIA, the UN55B6500 uses 1080p for its native resolution. This enables yo to display 1920x1080 pixels.

Brightness, Blacks and Contrast Ratio


According to Samsung's figures, the UN55B8500 features a 7,000,000:1 dynamic contrast ratio. This number is likely impossible to achieve during normal viewing. Typically manufacturers measure the black level when the backlights are turned off and every setting tuned to enable low blacks, then they change the settings to boost the backlight and brightness. This being said, we thought the UN55B8500 had very deep blacks. Its brightness wasn't as impressive, but that could've been due to the content being displayed.

Color


There aren't any features present on this TV that deal exclusively with color.

Motion & Refresh Rate


The UN55B8500 has a 240Hz refresh rate, which is four times the typical frame rate. This fast refresh rate will help reduce blurring, but the extent to which it will do so isn't clear. On the show floor, motion looked pretty smooth, but the TV was playing a demo reel that didn't really show off much fast movement.

 

Viewing Angle


We didn't see much of a problem with the UN55B8500's viewing angle. We were able to walk out to 45° and beyond without noticing much of a drop in contrast. We did notice that colors tended to fade as you get outside of dead center. Overall, though, we were impressed with what we saw.

Connectivity & Media

Audio & Video Ports


We don't have too much to go on regarding the UN55B8500's ports, since it was mounted on a wall. Unfortunately, the press release didn't detail the sort of connectivity we could expect to see.

Media & Other Connectivity


The UN55B8500 features Samsung’s Medi@2.0 suite, which is PR speak for 'online content.' Samsung has made deals with Yahoo!, USA Today, Twitter, and YouTube, among others. You can connect to this content either through a wired or wireless connection. The TV is also DLNA compatable, so you can network it to stream content from your PC. You can also connect a USB device to view media. 

**

Placement**


Again, a wall-mounted set means we didn't get a look at the ports.

**

Audio**


We weren't able to listen to the TV on the show floor. 

Controls, Menu & Remote

Remote


We weren't able to check out the remote, because Samsung is selfish and doesn't know how to share, not even for like two seconds, which is all we needed the remote for. See what happens next time you want to borrow our Mighty Max playsets, Samsung. Just see what happens.

Controls


The UN55B8500 uses the touch controls that a lot of Samsungs are using lately. They're located in the bottom right of the screen and cover all the basic functionality.

Menu


We weren't able to see the menu specifically, but we have no reason to believe it's drastically different from other Samsungs we've reviewed.

Conclusion

 

Series Comparison

B860 Series


The B860 series is internet-capable, refreshes at 240Hz, and can display 1080p content. They are backlit by LEDs and measure 1.6 inches from front to back. The TVs also have a wide array of internet content available, either via a wired or wireless connection.

Ratings & Specs

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Meet the tester

Mark Brezinski

Mark Brezinski

Senior Writer

@markbrezinski

Mark Brezinski works on the Home Team, reviewing refrigerators, minifridges, dishwashers, washing machines, dryers, air conditioners, air purifiers, and fans.

See all of Mark Brezinski's reviews

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