Samsung UE48JU7000T review

A terrific 4K TV - set up permitting…

Samsung UE48JU700T review

Why you can trust TechRadar We spend hours testing every product or service we review, so you can be sure you’re buying the best. Find out more about how we test.

The UE48JU7000T delivers an impressive set of specifications for its money, including a native UHD resolution, Samsung's wide colour gamut PurColor technology, direct LED lighting with local dimming, and Samsung's new Tizen smart TV system.

Its pictures are badly blighted using its initial settings by some pretty heavy duty and unexpected motion blur, but fortunately - so long as you follow the advice given during this review - these motion issues can be worked round.

That then leaves you with an excellent - if slightly small - UHD TV.

We liked

Samsung UE48JU700T review

The UE48JU7000T produces one of the best contrast performances I've ever seen from a non-HDR TV, which in turn helps it produce some of the most vivid and effective colour performances I've seen from an LCD TV.

Its smart system is well populated and easy to use, too.

We disliked

Pictures suffer with severe motion blur/lag using its out of the box settings, and curing the problem is far from straightforward (or even logical!). The screen is quite reflective too, meaning you'll need to run it in a dark room to see it at its best.

Verdict

After a few initial hours of huge disappointment with the UE48JU7000T - due to the motion problems produced by its picture presets - I've finally ended up at a point where I've actually become a fan of Samsung's UHD mid-ranger.

It is troubling to say the least to think many people who buy this TV might never realise that they have to make extensive changes to its settings to get it looking anywhere near as good as it's capable of being. But the bottom line is the set is capable of being brilliant.

So on that basis - and in hope that Samsung will be able to fix the preset problems via a firmware update in the coming days - it's still deserving of a strong recommendation.

Needless to say, if Samsung does indeed manage to fix the current picture preset problems we'll update this review accordingly.

John Archer
AV Technology Contributor

John has been writing about home entertainment technology for more than two decades - an especially impressive feat considering he still claims to only be 35 years old (yeah, right). In that time he’s reviewed hundreds if not thousands of TVs, projectors and speakers, and spent frankly far too long sitting by himself in a dark room.