Samsung D8000 Pros and Cons

Pros: The Samsung D8000 series has a unique, visually stunning design that minimizes the frame around the screen for a nearly all-picture look. It produces deep black levels with accurate color, along with excellent video processing and improved 3D picture quality. The Smart Hub Internet portal boasts more apps and streaming services than the competition, along with a functional Web browser, and is easier to use thanks to the included dual-sided Bluetooth keyboard with a screen and QWERTY keyboard.

Cons: The Samsung D8000 series is extremely expensive and exhibits poor screen uniformity with excessive brightness variation and banding. Details in shadows were obscured somewhat, and the glossy screen reflects a lot of ambient light. Smart Hub lacks Amazon Instant, its search is next to useless, and its interface can be cluttered and confusing.

The bottom line: The Samsung D8000 3d LED HDTV delivers best-in-class looks and features, but its picture quality--thanks to uneven screen uniformity--is ultimately not as good as that of many less expensive models.

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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.