Stripped back, but still packs a punch
43in LED TV | £419 | whf.cm/UE43BU8000
Samsung’s reputation for maintaining performance quality with its cheaper models has held good for generations now, raising hopes right away for the UE43BU8000. At the same time, though, other aggressively priced TVs we have seen from Samsung’s current range haven’t set our pulses racing as much as expected. That’s partly because of stiffer competition, but also because Samsung’s standards seem to have slipped a touch.
There was a time not so long ago when paying £479 for a moderately well-specified 4K TV from a respected brand would have looked like a steal. These days, though, when you can get decent or better 50in TVs such as Toshiba’s 50UK4D63DB for just £329 and even 55in TVs such as TCL’s 55C735K for just £529, the UE43BU8000’s price no longer stands out as it used to.
Still, you are getting a Samsung TV here, with all the TV experience that brings, along with Samsung’s proven Crystal Colour technology and a smart system capable of covering pretty much every streaming service you can think of.
Impressive build
The set’s ‘AirSlim’ design helps it stand out from the budget TV crowd, with its 26mm-deep rear creating an almost OLED-like look that works well for wall-mounting. The build quality is impressive, too. The skinny chassis isn’t accompanied by scary amounts of bending or flexing and there is enough heft to it to point to the use of much more heavy-duty materials than the lightweight plastics that typically dominate at this price level.
The UE43BU8000 doesn’t benefit from any Quantum Dot colour technology, but its screen does get what Samsung calls Crystal Colour; a combination of a relatively wide gamut LCD panel and potent colour processing that’s claimed to serve up a billion different colour shades.
The LCD panel is a VA one, but as you might expect given how slim it is, it’s illuminated by LEDs arranged around its edges rather than placed directly behind the screen. This, though, can have a negative impact on contrast and black levels. There is no local dimming (probably a sensible decision with an edge-lit TV as, typically, local dimming with edge LEDs results in distracting stripes of light across the image),and the panel is only a 50Hz one, so there is no support for 4K/120Hz gaming. Nor can any of the TV’s three HDMI ports handle VRR, leaving ALLM as the only cutting-edge gaming feature here.
Promising features
The UE43BU8000’s uses the latest version
