This review is for the Samsung UN70KU6300 70-Inch 4K Ultra HD Smart LED TV: The (almost) perfect TV.
I purchased this 70" 4K UHD television around six months ago, but I held off on writing a review until I had the chance to really use it and find out the good and the not-so-good with the hopes of helping others that are in the market for a 4K set.
Pros:
The picture quality is absolutely incredible. Clear and vivid with full 4K UHD definition; everything I was hoping for. After months of comparison shopping with the primary focus being picture quality and, to a degree, price, Samsung was far and away superior to any other television I looked at. Recommendations for Samsung televisions were almost always stellar, and for the picture quality alone, those recommendations proved to be right.
The set itself is sleek and clean and it boasts quite a speaker system all by itself. Our prior LED televisions always sounded tinny with little to no bass, and we always had to turn the volume WAY up to hear anything. Not so with this television; the sound quality is more than adequate. Combined with our 7.1 surround system, it's even better.
Delivery through Amazon was not only free, but it was a breeze, even living in the middle of nowhere like we do. A delivery company, complete with truck and two delivery men gave us a call-ahead an hour before they arrived and they were right on time. They carefully unloaded; unpacked; set up and tested the television. They were considerate and professional and even hauled off the box; styrofoam; packing materials; leaving us with nothing more to do than sit down and enjoy our new tv.
The Samsung SmartHub is easy to set up and easy to use. Setup as a whole was a breeze.
Cons:
While I know that the world of streaming 4K UHD content is still relatively new and constantly evolving, this set in particular turned out to be a disappointment with regard to the offerings and what is available and/or compatible with the UN70KU6300. Netflix and Amazon Prime stream 4K like a dream, and the picture quality for their 4K offerings are incredible. Paired with our Amazon 4K Fire TV, things were looking good. Vudu, however, which is the premiere choice for watching our Ultraviolet movie collection, is not compatible with Samsung 4K UHD televisions for watching UHD movies. Vudu customer support has documented on the Vudu forums that they have the software ready for 2016 Samsung 4K TV owners to watch and buy 4K UHD movies, but that Samsung has not addressed the software issue on their side. Despite attempts to contact Samsung many times, the company and its engineers continue to remain silent and will not offer any kind of answer or reply at all. Not a deal-breaker, but still something to be wary of in this time of 4K UHD streaming-vs-physical discs.
Samsung's only other option for streaming 4K UV titles is through their FandangoNow app, which is absolutely horrible. Their offering of 4K titles is minimal (most of the titles are along the lines of snowboarding features easily found for free on YouTube). The built-in app from Samsung is full of glitches, and at least twice during any given movie (4K or not,) the feature will stop and offer up a permission error or a "too many active streams" error; even if you're only watching the app on ONE device.
The only solution we found for this streaming dilemma (since Samsung absolutely refuses to respond) was to shell out an additional $70 for a Roku Premiere streaming device in addition to our Amazon 4K Fire TV. The Roku allows us to watch our 4K titles on Vudu, but the quality of the picture is inferior to the built-in Vudu app that came pre-loaded with the set. Still yet, the picture quality is good, but just not AS good as it could be if Samsung would work with Vudu to address the issues. As an aside, the FandangoNow app on the Roku Premiere is an absolute dream, especially after the nightmare that is FandangoNow offered up with the Samsung App.
Another option for us to stream was the Samsung-exclusive Vidity device. So, we purchased one of those as well for an additional $50 only to find out that this particular model (a Series 6) is not Vidity-compliant. We can watch the few 4K movies that came loaded on the device in full UHD, but we cannot purchase any others to enjoy what we thought would be a great option to Sony's Ultra program, which is along the same lines.
Another unfortunate con is that Samsung customer service is a massive disappointment when it came to answering any of the questions we had about streaming UHD UV titles. With around 10 calls to Samsung under our belt and almost as many hours spent waiting on the phone, not a single Samsung representative had even the slightest clue what Ultraviolet; UHD or the Samsung-exclusive Vidity were. Not a single one of them.
Overall, this is a great set if you're looking to watch physical 4K UHD discs (with the additional expense of buying a 4K UHD Blu-Ray player, of course), or if you're looking to stream the limited selection of titles available in 4K UHD from Amazon; YouTube or Netflix. However, if you would like to enjoy the Digital versions of the 4K UHD UV titles you have already purchased without having to fork out additional cash for a streaming device or two, you might do well to do a little more research into the offerings from companies other than Samsung. Even with all of this, I'm giving this television five stars because it really is an incredible television. We just wish that Samsung would allow us the opportunity to utilize and enjoy our purchase to a fuller extent by partnering with streaming providers like Vudu. Maybe even offer up a software update to allow us to utilize the Vidity service created specifically for Samsung 4K UHD television. Samsung might do well to realize that folks don't always know the specifics when choosing a luxury item such as this, especially in the evolving world of 4K UHD streaming, so maybe throw us a bone with a software update that will allow us to use the Samsung Vidity service.
| Brand Name | SAMSUNG |
|---|---|
| Item Weight | 29.1 pounds |
| Product Dimensions | 44.4 x 2.5 x 25.8 inches |
| Item model number | UN50KU630DFXZA |
| Is Discontinued By Manufacturer | No |
| Color Name | Black |
| Specification Met | Energy Star |
| Special Features | Flat |
| Item Weight | 29.1 Pounds |
| Standing screen display size | 50 Inches |
| Wattage | 58 watts |
