Samsung is a well-known brand when it comes to consumer electronics. A good 55-inch 4K full HD television today can cost you anywhere between Rs. 60,000 and Rs. 70,000, but there are also models that cross the 1 lakh rupee mark. One of such premium models from Samsung is the NU7100. It falls under the Samsung’s 7000 series and tries to maintain a balance between design, picture quality and a tons of smart features.
What makes the Samsung N7100 so special from its competitors? Is it really worth investing in such a premium TV rather than go opting for the cheaper alternatives? Let’s find out!
Design and build
The Samsung NU7100 is a smart 4K Ultra HDTV with a display resolution of 3840 X 2160. We are reviewing the 55-inch model and the model is also available in 43, 49, 65 and 75 inch sizes. The screen has an anti-glare finish to it, making it very visible even in the brightest of rooms. The NU7100 maintains a sleek design profile which gets slightly thicker only at the bottom. The TV weights 17.3 kg, so make sure you have some extra helping hands while moving it.
The body of the NU7100 is made up of hard plastic with a textured matte finish. The build feels sturdy and the plastic by no means, feels cheap. The bottom of the TV sports a small Samsung logo giving the TV its brand identity.
The back of the TV also sports hard plastic providing good rigidity. All the connectivity ports are placed at back, towards the right side but still far from reach. Accessing them can be a little difficult if you are planning to wall mount it. The table stand is made up of hard plastic with brushed aluminium finish. Attaching the stand to the TV is simple and the rubberised bottom helps provide a strong grip.
The design of the remote may disappoint as the buttons are tightly spaced. There are no dedicated apps buttons for Netflix or Amazon Prime either. The remote itself does not feel premium and looks like any ordinary TV remote. You can always use Samsung Smart view app on your phone to navigate and control the TV with ease.
Ratings (8/10)
Features
The Samsung NU7100 has a display resolution of 3840 x 2160. It uses Samsung’s PurColor technology which claims to make colours more vivid. It also has an ambient light sensor located at the bottom, which adjusts the screen brightness according to the surroundings. If you still prefer manually controlling the TV brightness, this feature can be easily turned off by accessing the Eco Solution settings.
The NU7100 comes with HDR10+ which is an added advantage over most, cheaper 4K TVs. The HDR10+ is an improvement over HDR as well. It sends a dynamic set of information which helps the TV adjust colour and brightness, frame-by-frame. This means the streaming services which supports high dynamic range (HDR) will be able to take advantage of this feature. The result is a more detailed and vibrant picture.
The interface on the NU7100 is simple and easy to navigate. All the menus and setting are neatly organised under their specific categories. If you love your menus to be large and dark, Samsung provides an option to change the light coloured theme to a dark mode by accessing the Expert menu tab. The TV runs on Samsung’s latest generation Tizen operating system. There are a bunch of pre-installed apps which includes Netflix, Amazon Prime and also Google Play Movies & TV. You can easily download more apps from Samsung App store. It also has a pre-loaded internet browser in case you wish to access websites on your TV.
Samsung has made sure you never fall short of connectivity with the NU7100. It has three HDMI ports along with two USB ports. One of the HDMI ports has ARC support which means upstream and downstream of content is done over a single HDMI cable. With this, you can have multiple HDMI connections from the TV to a sound system without requiring additional wires. This can be especially helpful if you want a cleaner look around your entertainment setup. As with most TVs, this one too supports HDMI-CEC (Consumer electronics Control) which lets you control external devices connected to the TV, such as Blu-ray players or set-top boxes using the same TV remote.
Along with all these ports, it also sports a digital audio out (optical) to connect your TV to your sound system. The NU7100 comes with inbuilt Wi-Fi. If you want a more stable connection, you can use the LAN port. Besides these features, the NU7100 supports Wi-Fi Direct which lets you stream content from mobile phones to TV by using Samsung Smart View application.
Ratings (8/10)
Performance
The Samsung NU7100 runs on the latest generation of Tizen operating system which is very easy to operate. The TV quickly turns on without any loading time. The menus are well organised and scrolling through them, simple. After constant scrolling through the menus, we did notice a slight lag. We hope this is a software but and that Samsung fixes it with a software update.
To test the picture quality we watched some 4K videos and photos. On standard settings, the picture may look slightly oversaturated. You may need to tweak it to your preferences. If you are someone looking for a natural picture, turning off Contrast Enhancer helps. Brightness and backlight are up to the mark and pictures looks sharp. We even tried to turn down the sharpness and were surprised to see that the images still looking crisp. The TV is definitely rich in terms of colour reproduction. You may notice the blues to be on higher side, but this can be easily adjusted through the colour bias settings.
To test HDR10+ on the NU7100, we played some 4K HDR clips and were thoroughly impressed by the performance. The TV detects HDR content and automatically adapts the HDR settings replacing the user profile settings. Video playback was smooth and there was hardly any lag while playing videos. The NU7100 misses out on the voice search option as well as a smart remote. We even tried pairing the smart remote from the Samsung NU7470, a slightly higher priced model, however the NU7100 did not support the pairing. Streaming content on the TV from the phone is simple, using the Samsung Smart View app.
Most of the slim profile TVs miss out on good sound quality, but that isn’t the case with the NU7100. It comes with 2-channel, 20W speakers which are thoroughly loud and clear. If you love to tweak the audio hearing experience, the built-in equaliser settings can be of some use.
Ratings (8.5/10)
Verdict
The Samsung NU7100 has a great picture quality when compared to its competitors. Watching content on it is an enjoyable experience. Priced at Rs. 102,900*, it is a great option for someone looking to buy a premium TV for the very first time. However, it lacks features such as voice search and a smart remote which would’ve made typing and internet browsing much simpler. If you want picture quality and don’t care much about every smart feature, the NU7100 is a great buy in this price range. However, if you want those features, you may also consider the Samsung NU7470 which maintains the same sleek profile design along with the smart remote and voice commands.
