Motion looks reasonably natural too, once you’ve swapped the over-enthusiastic, noisy-looking Auto Picture Clarity setting for a calmer Custom mode where Judder Reduction is set to around three or four. There does seem to be a little more residual resolution loss in areas of fine detail during camera pans than we’d typically expect from a Samsung TV, but overall it’s still a good effort. The near bezel-less screen of the AU7100 leaves you with only a beautiful 4K HDR picture. It adapts to optimise both picture and sound, so you see stunning detail in every scene, just as the creators intended. Control all compatible devices with its One Remote, you can access a world of online entertainment and handy home apps via Samsung's Smart platform, and it works with compatible Bixby, Google Assistant and Alexa devices..

Colours look unusually well balanced, too, meaning that you don’t find your eye being drawn to the ‘wrong’ parts of an image by any rogue over-aggressive or under-finessed tones. There's a TU8500 model that sits between it and the company's QLEDs, and perhaps that will be even better, but it's rather hard to imagine it - or any other TV for that matter - proving to be a bigger bargain this year than the excellent, affordable TU8000. As I already observed, the Tizen operating system is exemplary – and to help you find your way around it, Samsung has equipped the AU9000 is not one but two remote controls. The first is the sort of rather thin-feeling, over-buttoned handset we’ve come to expect in this area of the market, but the second is an altogether more upmarket alternative with fewer buttons that are much nicer in terms of action. The bezel across the bottom is a little wider, and stands proud of the screen just a little, but I wouldn’t call it unsightly. ‘Inoffensive’ is sometimes a put-down, but not in this instance. Look directly at it when the TV isn’t switched on, and this Samsung is the best sort of inoffensive.Percentage luminance drop at 35 degree horizontal angle from the centre of the screen with 100% white output The AU9000 is part of Samsung’s ‘Crystal’ UHD range that sits just below the more premium QLED range. We are reviewing the 50-inch model here that features an edge-lit 4K (8bit +FRC) VA panel on a bezel-less design with HDR10+, HLG and HDR10 high dynamic range support, but no Dolby Vision. The picture processing is handled by the Samsung Crystal Processor 4K providing upscaling and motion processing along with the Dynamic Crystal Color feature to provide a wider colour gamut performance.

Our halfway house still offers a sense of bass when Electro blasts away the police cars, but it’s achieved through fuzziness rather than any power or impact. There isn’t much of a leading edge to the sound. It’s fair to say this last part is a red herring. The point-source of sound from the Samsung is hazy, certainly, but that’s not the same as delivering an impression of height – not at all. And as far as tonality goes, the 50AU9000 sounds tentative and rather flat. It’s game, certainly – wind the volume upwards and it resists hardening or coarsening quite commendably. But really, it’s as far removed from the standard of the images the Samsung produces as these things ever are. The video processing on the AU9000 is also decent for the price point with good HD to 4K upscaling with no obvious signs of over enhanced edges or ringing to straight lines, and we didn’t see any obvious issues with good quality HD sources being upscaled to the 3840 x 2160 resolution. Images are also sharp and detailed without looking overly processed in any way, although lower bit rate content doesn’t look good at all, but it doesn’t look any better on a TV costing thousands more. Motion is also decent on the AU9000 with 24fps material adopting the correct pulldown with Motion Clarity switched off. There is no induced judder present and image blur is present in the content and intact, giving images the correct look without over smoothing. You can add in frame interpolation with Soap Opera Effect (SOE) using the provided Motion Clarity controls but we found artefacts were present in most fast-moving scenes with edges breaking up and trailing. Some experimentation in the custom mode may help those looking for smoother motion with fast-moving sports, like football.Colours can be bold and vivid when required (I found more-or-less any sports team’s kit falls into this category), or muted and nuanced if necessary (more-or-less any sports team’s manager’s clothing, for example). Gradations made me sit up and pay attention too – so when I was watching football, the numerous almost-identical shades of green from a pitch are described and differentiated well. From the front, the Samsung AU9000 TV looks clean enough. The bezel is minimal around the top and sides – and even if the bottom portion is both a bit heftier and doesn’t join the main frame seamlessly at either end, that’s the sort of thing you notice while installing the screen and then never give another thought to. The plastics feel nice enough, even on the rear panel, and as is usual with Samsung there’s an impression of quality construction.

The good news is that it’s hard to imagine anyone who ends up with onebeing unhappy about any aspect of its performance. It doesn’t do much wrong, and gets plenty right. Especially if you’re into gaming. The Samsung AU9000 isn’t the first TV to deliver a sound quite strongly at odds with the pictures it is capable of serving up, and it won’t be the last. But nevertheless, I discovered that there is something quite dispiriting about the Samsung’s sonic performance. Set-up menus are similarly logical, and strike a nice balance between brevity and comprehensiveness. Achieving a picture that scrolls smoothly, defines edges confidently, and is decently bright and detailed, shouldn’t take long. Getting a colour balance you’re convinced by may take just a little longer.For quite a while, Samsung’s Tizen smart TV interface was obviously and unarguably the best around. In fact, it’s a measure of just how good it is that it remains one of the best interfaces currently available, despite everyone from LG to Hisense upping their smart TV game in response. The Tizen interface incorporated into the AU9000 is clean, logical, comprehensive and a straightforward pleasure to use. some of these web prices are cheaper than in-store, so please mention that you've seen these offers online) Max light output HDR (high dynamic range) while displaying small white square taking up 10% of the screen (measured in Nits) Percentage Luminance drop at 35 degree horizontal angle from the centre of the screen with 50% white output If everything we watched on TV happened to be bright, the 50AU8000 would work just fine. Its pictures skew brighter than usual for such an affordable TV, and this joins forces with some serious colour punch to really sell the HDR dream when you’re watching really light images.

And while Samsung can’t claim HDMI 2.1 specification, all three of the HDMI inputs here go further towards accommodating next-gen consoles than the model the AU9000 replaces. Auto Low Latency Mode and AMD FreeSync are catered for, and PC gamers will be pleased to learn there’s a facility to replicate the ultra-wide 32:9 aspect ratio some games can run at, too. Gamers may hanker after full HDMI 2.1 capability to really maximise the potential of their new PS5 or Xbox Series X – but, then again, gamers really ought to know that’ it’s going to cost them a wee bit more than this. The UE50AU9000 even supports slightly – though we stress slightly – wider viewing angles than most LCD TVs, which could be handy if you have a few mates over for gaming nights.The OS and Smart TV system on the AU9000 is the excellent Tizen 6.0 system which has been around for a number of years now. It is fast and stable with an excellent selection of terrestrial catch-up applications, as well as the major services such as Netflix, Prime Video, Disney+ and Apple TV+ to name a few. There are also other options such as Samsung TV+ which collates the best TV and catch-up items for you and you can also control the Samsung using Alexa, Bixby or Google Assistant.