Samsung 43-Inch Class The Serif QLED TV Overview

Samsung’s flagship TVs just like the QN90B and S95B stand out from a purely technical standpoint due to their panel know-how and ensuing image high quality. They aren’t Samsung’s solely TVs, although; the corporate gives a complete class of massive screens designed extra to swimsuit a location or sense of favor than to indicate off one of the best picture attainable. Samsung’s way of life TVs embody the outdoor-friendly The Terrace and the gallery wall-ready The Body. However The Serif ($1,499.99 for the 55-inch mannequin we examined) is essentially the most fashion-forward of the three, with a hanging design and flooring stand that make it the centerpiece of any leisure room. It doesn’t get very brilliant, nonetheless, and exhibits solely mediocre distinction, that means it stays costly in contrast with extra technically sound TVs such because the Editors’ Selection-winning Hisense U8G and TCL Google TV 4K 6-Sequence (each 55-inch fashions value $949.99).

Editors’ Notice: This assessment is predicated on testing carried out on the 55-inch mannequin within the sequence. Aside from the screen-size distinction, the $999.99 43-inch mannequin is an identical in options, and we anticipate comparable efficiency.

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A Form All Its Personal

The Serif makes extra of a design assertion than different TVs. It’s immediately identifiable due to its girder-shaped profile, flooring stand, and flat prime, all of which mix distinctive fashion and utilitarian attraction. The middle of the girder is kind of broad at about 2.8 inches, and the underside floor flares out to almost 9 inches. The highest of the TV doubles as a shelf and offers an virtually 4-inch-deep platform that’s steady sufficient for decorations, small gadgets like a Nintendo Swap dock, or just the distant.

(Photograph: Will Greenwald)

Not like most TVs, The Serif isn’t designed for wall mounts in any respect. As a substitute, it stands on the ground on two pairs of angled, tube-shaped steel legs. With that in thoughts, it does not help VESA mounts.

The facility cable connects to a port on the left facet of the TV’s rear panel, whereas all different connections face proper from a recess on the precise facet. They embody 4 HDMI ports (one eARC), two USB ports, an optical audio output, a 3.5mm EX-LINK port, and a cable/antenna connector. A small management stick that doubles as an influence button sits on the decrease proper nook of the again of the TV. A big plastic cowl conceals all of the ports and a cutout makes house for the management stick. Holes on the rear half of the underside girder flare allow you to run cables down from each recesses; you may clip pipe-like guides to the again legs to stop the wires from dangling.

(Photograph: Will Greenwald)

The Serif comes with the Samsung OneRemote, a easy white wand with a round navigation pad close to the highest. Multi-View, energy, settings, and voice buttons sit above the pad, with a pinhole microphone between them to allow voice management. Again, dwelling, and play/pause buttons reside instantly beneath the pad. Quantity and channel rockers are beneath these, together with devoted service buttons for Amazon Prime Video, Disney+, Netflix, and Samsung TV Plus. It’s a easy, purposeful distant, nevertheless it depends on customary AAA batteries. We favor the Eco Distant that comes with the QN90B and S95B; it makes use of a built-in rechargeable battery with a USB-C port and in addition helps solar energy.

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Tizen Sensible TV Frustrations

The Serif makes use of Samsung’s Tizen-powered sensible TV platform, which is wealthy in options however annoying in observe. It gives most main video streaming companies, together with Amazon Prime Video, Apple TV, Disney+, HBO Max, Hulu, Netflix, and YouTube, together with help for Apple AirPlay 2. It additionally enables you to use Amazon Alexa, Google Assistant, or Samsung’s Bixby voice assistant by talking into the distant. It does not have the far-field microphone of the QN90B or S95B, so you may’t use these voice assistants hands-free, nonetheless.

(Photograph: Will Greenwald)

Sadly, the menu layouts throughout the interface are very overbearing. Urgent the settings button on the distant can pop up a fast bar of easy toggles and mode modifications, however accessing particular person settings requires navigating some nonintuitive menus and diving not less than a layer or two deeper than most different TVs require. It’s merely irritating, particularly with no devoted enter button on the distant for rapidly switching between sources—oddly, it has a button for the split-screen Multi-View as an alternative.

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Mediocre Distinction, Sturdy Coloration

The Serif is a 4K LED-backlit LCD TV with a 60Hz refresh fee. It helps excessive dynamic vary (HDR) content material in HDR and HDR10+. It does not help Dolby Imaginative and prescient or the rising ATSC 3.0 broadcast customary.

We take a look at TVs utilizing a Klein Okay-80 colorimeter(Opens in a brand new window), a Murideo SIX-G sign generator(Opens in a brand new window), and Portrait Shows’ Calman software program(Opens in a brand new window). As certainly one of Samsung’s way of life TVs, The Serif doesn’t attain for a similar heights of image high quality like a few of Samsung’s flagship TVs do. Actually, its efficiency is kind of modest and it turned in middling distinction outcomes.

With an SDR sign, The Serif confirmed a peak brightness of 305 nits with a full-screen white area. Outcomes with an 18% white area weren’t considerably totally different. It additionally confirmed a black stage of 0.09 nits, revealing that it lacks the QN90B’s superlative mini LED backlight system with dimming zones. An HDR sign improved brightness and black stage solely just a little; right here, it reached a peak of 379 nits with a full-screen white area and a low black stage of 0.075 nits for a 5,055:1 distinction ratio.

The above charts present The Serif’s colour ranges in Film mode with an SDR sign in contrast with Rec.709 broadcast requirements, and with an HDR sign in contrast with DCI-P3 digital cinema requirements. SDR colours are almost excellent, which is at all times good to see however has turn out to be an increasing number of frequent throughout TVs of late. HDR colours are additionally robust; they do not cowl your entire DCI-P3 colour house, however present an correct steadiness with no vital skewing. For reference, the QN90B exhibits comparable colour vary (although it will get a lot brighter and virtually completely darkish due to its mini LED backlight).

The greens of crops in BBC’s Planet Earth II look effectively saturated and diverse, although they aren’t fairly as wealthy and vivid as they’re on Samsung’s quantum dot-equipped TVs just like the QN90B. Bark and fur look crisp and detailed each in direct daylight and in shade, nonetheless, so this mannequin is able to a surprisingly robust image regardless of its modest brightness and distinction numbers.

(Photograph: Will Greenwald)

The crimson of Deadpool’s costume within the overcast opening scene of Deadpool appears to be like vibrant (however not oversaturated) and stands out properly towards the cool lighting. Within the burning lab battle, the hearth appears to be like brilliant and wealthy, although the yellow facilities of the flickering flames lose some texture. Shadow particulars within the scene additionally often seem barely muddy.

The issue with excessive black ranges swallowing advantageous particulars in darkness is clear within the get together scenes from The Nice Gatsby. Right here, the contours and cuts of black fits are inclined to disappear subsequent to the intense whites of balloons and lights in the identical body. Pores and skin tones look pure and any splashes of colour within the in any other case almost monochrome photographs significantly stand out.

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Low Lag, However Few Gaming Options

Though Samsung’s Sensible TV platform gives the useful Sport Bar to show what options are at present in use whilst you sport, The Serif has fewer gaming options than different Samsung TV fashions. Particularly, it lacks any type of variable refresh fee (VRR), which helps preserve graphics clean and judder-free. Regardless of this, the TV is pretty responsive when it comes to enter lag.

We couldn’t take a look at the TV’s latency utilizing our traditional HDFury Diva HDMI matrix(Opens in a brand new window), however we measured it utilizing a Leo Bodnar 1080p video sign enter lag take a look at, which tends to show increased numbers than the Diva. The Serif confirmed a lag of simply 9.7 milliseconds in Sport mode, just below the 10ms threshold we use to find out if a TV is nice for gaming.

(Photograph: Will Greenwald)

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Excessive Design With Restricted Efficiency

The Serif is an attention grabbing TV that may stand by itself as a centerpiece in your lounge, and we like its utilitarian design touches. It’s fairly expensive contemplating its middling distinction, nevertheless it shows wonderful colour and its sensible TV platform helps prime apps and options even when it is awkward to make use of. However we prioritize image high quality over aesthetics, so the TCL Google TV 4K 6-Sequence and Hisense U8G stay stronger choices with superior brightness, wider colour, and extra helpful options reminiscent of hands-free voice management. And, in the event you can spend extra, the LG C2 ($1,799.99 for the 55-inch mannequin) is our high-end Editors’ Selection winner due to its superlative colours, infinite distinction, and extremely slim design that may mix together with your decor. If the aesthetics are essential to you, nonetheless, few different TVs make such an announcement as The Serif.