Samsung D8000 3D LED HDTV - Class-leading 3D

Samsung D8000 3D LED HDTV

As much as we liked the 3D performance of Samsung D7000 Series, we were even more impressed by 3D content on this set's larger screen. When buying a 3D TV, forget everything your partner's ever told you -- every inch counts and size really does matter. Even with a large TV like the Samsung UN60D8000, we still find you need to sit quite close to the telly to get the best out of the 3D image -- 3D is most impressive when it fills as much of your field of vision as possible.

As with the D7000 TV, we noticed some minor ghosting around 3D images in the Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs Blu-ray. This ghosting can be slightly distracting when it rears its head, but Samsung's minimised the problem to the point where many people won't notice it.

When watching 3D material, pictures remained bright and vibrant, and colours didn't seem to suffer too much. That's very good to see.

We believe Samsung has the best and most comfortable 3D glasses of any manufacturer. The company also has some new models on the way that are even lighter, and look more like normal glasses than any other type we've seen. The new versions will also have an optional dock that can charge up to four pairs at once. We've tried a pair of these on, and found them to be pretty brilliant.

We do have one issue with the current glasses. If you're sitting in a normally lit room, you may notice reflections on the very edge of the glasses It's not a major issue, though, because, when you're watching TV, you won't really be paying much attention to what's happening in your peripheral vision.

Samsung D8000 3D LED HDTV - Internet Smart TV

Samsung D8000 Series 3D LED HDTV

Samsung's old online portal bore the appallingly ugly moniker Internet@TV, which gave no real information on what the telly actually did with the Internet. Now the company's TVs have a 'Smart Hub' instead, which makes fractionally more sense.

The Smart Hub is where the telly makes recommendations about online content and programmes that might appeal to you. The Smart Hub is home to apps too. These are either provided for free or for a small charge. At this point, there are a few games, various information apps, and tools like Skype and Facebook to get you networking in a sociable fashion.

The Samsung UN46D8000 also features built-in Wi-Fi. We managed to connect the TV to our network easily, so we could access all of the online services without messing about with an Ethernet cable. This is a blessing, especially as most people won't have a router behind their TV. The only downside is that, when streaming content, the Wi-Fi connection is another thing that can go wrong, and the speeds will probably never be brilliant.

Samsung D8000 3D LED HDTV - Design One Silver

Samsung D8000 Series 3D LED HDTV

The main difference between the Samsung UN55D8000 and Samsung UN55D7000 ranges is the design. We loved the D7000's thin bezel and clear plastic edge -- they made the TV look like it was floating in the air. But some may prefer the D8000's design, which offers a silver metal bezel instead. Although the D8000's silver bezel makes it look very different to the D7000, we were still utterly blown away by the impact that the thin edge has on this television's pictures.

Below the screen, there's an illuminated Samsung logo. The company tells us that some people love this feature. We assume they're all Samsung employees, though -- we can't see any normal person getting excited about it. We're glad you can turn off the illumination but it didn't distract us enough to warrant hunting through the menus for the off button.