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Samsung UE60ES6300: Big TV, small price

When it comes to updates at my place, these are rare when we have to deal
with expenses beyond the 1000 CHF border. So that’s why the upgrade of my
TV set has taken over 6 years in a rather fast common update cycle. Don’t get
me wrong. I am not Mr. Pinchpenny but such expenses are well-considered.

So that’s wy I had to seek over and over again for suitable TV sets. Either the price of over 2500 CHF scared me or the availability of the TV set was not good anymore.

Just at christmas sale, there was an unbeatable offer from a local online retailer: a 60-inch-LED-TV from Samsung and their Series 6 generation (which has to offer real good picture class and most new features of today’s TV). Just below 2000 CHF for a rather big entertainer seemed to good to be true and I must have been dreaming.

So the quintessence was that I ordered that big fella just from the shelf. You couldn’t do too much wrong with Samsung.

After New year, my new TV arrived and believe me, I was really excited to get that screen onto my HiFi rack. The packaging is scaringly big. Be sure to have lots of space when you’re unpacking that big basterd! A weight of a mere 21 kg (which is not much for a TV of THAT size!) allows a setup by yourself without the need of any assistance (assuming that you know how to carefully mount the stand without bending or cracking the panel). After 15 minutes of haggling with the sort-of ulgy-to-be-mounted screws I finally got the stand firmly fixed to the panel. Time to get the big screen on the rack.

But where to put the PS3, Wii and WiiU? Or the center speaker? I think, I found a convenient solution, using:
1 wood board (240x40cmx18mm)
1 wood board (120x40cmx18mm)
4 steel hinges
8 steel angles (cornered)
2 doorknobs
a bunch of screws

Price: 55 CHF

The result: A nice bright-wooden stand to pack all the devices in and also decently hide the speaker:
(Notice the space to the left, top and right! there’s only 1cm left!)

Since the stand is 140cm wide, you can get a good impression on how big the TV finally is. At least you woudln’t put such a big TV in your hobby room or toilet… ;)

To the left you see the HD media receiver and my GBit WLAN router. The Media receivr will soon be replaced with the new UPC Horizon. The two Philips LED spotlights can be tuned to deliver special light ambience.

At first you gaze upon a very big black area. But switching the TV on and then see the vibrant colours what are emitted from the panel make you want to experience the TV just more.

Included with that TV, there are also 2 3D glasses, so that you can enjoy 3D movies as well. First tests with 3D SBS movies (side by side) brought up immense 3D experience. You hardly notice the halved horizontal resolution of only 960 pixels. Besides 3D SBS, the TV understands 2D -> 3D upconversion (rather mediocre 3D effect) and 3D TB (top bootom steresocopy – halving the vertical resolution to 540 pixels)

Although the screen is LED-backlit (anthing else is just not possible at such screen dimensions) there is no local dimming (which would increase the contrast range). So in the worst case, you might have clouding (which means the shinethrough of the backlight thru the LCD-panel) in dark areas. However this clouding is hardly noticeable if you set the panel to fair brightness settings (using environmental brightness control). The setup will consume at least 1 hour for you to find your preferred settings. But once set up, you won’t have to fiddle around with the settings anymore.

Time to explore it’s SmartTV capabilities which include web services as well. The setup is really easy (although WPS setup didn’t work). Key in the necessary info about your WLAN (or use a cable to hook your TV to the ‘net) and you’re ready to go. Most likely you’ll find yourself confronted with a firmware update first befor you can get started but the update process is rather fast. Once done, you have access to an Appstore and other web-based services. Surprisingly the usage of the SmartTV interface goes well with the TV remote but for text input, you’d most likely attach a keyboard to it. As far as I have read, the TV supports Bluetooth connection and thus allows wireless keyboards and probably mice (haven’t tested though).

The test with gaming consoles revealed occasional judder upon fast movements but they’re hardly noticeable or annoying. So no flaws here either.

Soundlike, the TV seems well equipped although the TV has almost no resonance body. But you’re better off using a home cinema equipment! The highs are strong and sharp, bass could not be detected (but you can’t expect tremendous bass from small speakers), the mids are present but not too intrusive.

The remote is okay for it’s price class and offering most functions well. The reaction time of TV and remote are also okay.

The screen is not too mirroring so that you can watch TV with almost no reflection problems but you’d better avoid direct sunlight to the panel and also the reflection of extremely bright objects like white sunlit clothing or direct lighting of light-emitting sources. An all-day-watching is possible without any gerater stress. I prefer this to Glare display panels which also tend to get in fashion now.

So what to say in this short summary for now?

The TV offers great value for its price. I didn’t regret the expense for this new shiny TV by now.

Of course there are better TV sets available right now. Some also offer bigger screen sizes but hey, if you see the UE72ES9000 (a series 9 model) and consider that the TV has a hefty price tag of 8000 CHF and a width of almost 160cm, the question is: Are you really willing to spend THAT much money and where to put this giant of a TV.

Furthermore I don’t miss features such as Skype and the like on the TV screen. When watching TV, I don’t want to be disturbed. So the non-built-in webcam is no big loss on my TV set.

All in all the TV gets a 4.5 of 5 star rating (I deduct half a star for the occasional judder and the problematic downconversion to native 24p)


January 12, 2013 Netspark - 1594 posts - Member since: May 9th, 2011 No Comments »

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