Samsung UN55ES8000 55" Class Slim LED HDTV

Even though Samsung’s Smart Interaction is ahead of its time – and, frankly, might never catch on – there is plenty here in the way of performance and features to qualify this high-end television’s equally premium price.

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  Brilliant, bright picture, Excellent black levels, Superb color accuracy, Gorgeous design, Upgradable hardware

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  Some light bleed from edges, Poor off-axis performance, Merciless with low-quality sources

Samsung’s ES8000 has easily the most daring new features on the TV market at the moment, which is why we gave it our Innovator of the Year award for 2012.

Will the escalation of features in today’s tellyboxes never cease? Apparently not if we’re to judge by Samsung’s newest top of the line model, the UA55ES8000. The Foxtel on Internet TV app is exclusive to the ES8000 and other select Samsung Smart TVs from 1 July.

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  Excellent 2D picture quality, Very good 3D display, excellent connectivity and media support, interesting new control options

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  Should have better chosen default for ‘Sharpness’ setting

This 55in LED TV goes into innovation overload and may be the cleverest TV we've ever seen

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  Sensational, slimline design; very good 2D and 3D pictures; excellent Smart services

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  Gesture system is currently very hard work; provided picture presets are unhelpful; backlight bleed possible unless output is low

The flagship Samsung UE55ES8000 adds gesture and voice control to Smart TV

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  Dual-core picture quality, Great multimedia file support, Stunning industrial design

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  Voice/gesture feels faddy, Needs tweaking for best pics, Pricey

When it comes to looks, the 55ES8000 is a clear winner, delivering the kind of design panache we have come to expect from Samsung.

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  Excellent colour gamut out-of-the-box, Reference colour gamut after calibration, Reference greyscale after calibration, Excellent video processing,...

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  Some clouding on the backlight, Some minor undefeatable noise reduction, Very occasional stutter in image processing, Poor performance with off-axis...

Samsung’s top-spec edge LED LCD TV comes in the form of the ES8000, a thin-bezel Series 8 behemoth that, at the 55-inch stature of this review model, will dominate any room. The Pocket-lint team has seen all manner of tellies throughout 2012, but can the Samsung UE55ES8000 live up to the hype to be...

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  Sleek design with thin bezel, good smart interface, light-up controller, generally good picture quality in both 2D and 3D forms, great Smart Hub interface, well-rounded sound

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  Picture lacks uniformity, flimsy 3D glasses, picture presets are too harsh, does a TV really need gesture control? no SD card slot, no custom EQ settings

A brilliant smart TV made into something extraordinary by its next-gen control options

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  Voice recognition works well, Can be upgraded, The best 3D imaging we've seen

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  Gesture recognition, not so much, Not what you would call cheap

Samsung has developed a handy habit of being the first major brand out of the traps each year when it comes to launching new TV ranges. And this year it's done it again, with the ridiculously glamorous Samsung UE55ES8000 - an achievement made all the more impressive by the fact that this 55-inch...

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  -Highest Quality television I have ever seen -3D is amazing, very crisp and no motion sickness after a long period of time -The tiny bezel on the massive 55" screen makes the tv so much bigger and just seeing screen is beautiful.

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  -The hand motion does not work that well since I have it mounted on my wall and the camera is not at my level of use but that is not the TV's Con but my placement. -None :)