Joined in 2023 
82 
63 About this deal
Picture quality is equally encouraging elsewhere. Motion is confidently handled (the Samsung’s logical setup menus help here), edge definition is smooth and convincing, while picture noise is minimised even in the darkest, most unchanging scenes. What it does do, though, is show a level of maturity, confidence and understanding of the many elements that go into producing a truly satisfying TV picture that’s comfortably beyond anything else in its class right now. There are three sound modes available and each has its own relative merits. Standard is best suited for most content, as it’s the clearest and most focused. Amplify boosts bass and treble and opens up the sound, making it a good option for movie night, and Adaptive Sound, in our room at least, seems to split the difference. If you want a TV that allows you to catch-up on missed shows, or binge the best of Disney Plus and Now TV (to name but two), then the TU7100 will do the job. The 43AU7100 isn’t as accomplished with its audio as it is with its pictures. It still gets the job done, though, without breaking that sense of consistency that makes it so engaging.
With a set of features and picture quality beyond what you’d normally expect at this price, the Samsung TU7100 is one of the first products in an age to genuinely surprise the team at Trusted Labs. So much so, that as it stands we couldn’t recommend it more to any buyer on a strict budget looking for an affordable, small form-factor TV. The overall palette of 1917 is subdued, and the TU7100 responds accordingly, avoiding boosting certain shades the way that other sets sometimes do. We’ve seen the French fields rendered in a rather lurid green that’s at odds with the film’s overall tone, but that’s not the case here.
Above and beyond’ isn’t something you automatically associated with an aggressively affordable television, yet Samsung ships the AU7100 with not one but two remote controls. Why? To give you the choice between a fairly cheap-feeling, full-function job with a million tiny buttons – or a nicer ‘just the essentials’ alternative with a manageable number of options. The screen struggles with some of the low light sequences in Barbarians (Netflix), but its HDR is adept enough to add intensity to flaming torches and the like.
The design wears the plastic reasonably well, though. The feet aren’t distracting and lift the screen high enough to accommodate a soundbar, while the frame around the screen is extremely narrow for this level of the market (even if the set’s rear depth isn’t). Connections run to three HDMIs and one USB port. The only cutting edge gaming graphics feature the HDMIs support, though, is Automatic Low Latency Mode (ALLM), which allows the TV to switch into and out of its Game mode depending on the sort of content an ALLM-capable device is outputting. There’s no 120Hz or Variable Refresh Rate support. There isn’t a wide colour gamut panel either, though you’ll find the TU7100 has a jolly (if not entirely accurate) vibrancy that’s entertaining to watch. This frankly unlikely level of fidelity is carried over to most other aspects of picture-making too – give the Samsung a fighting chance with some high-quality 4K content and it’s an eminently watchable TV. The colour palette it draws from is wide and convincing, and it has little trouble differentiating between even very subtle variations in tone, and serves up entirely believable skin-tones.There are inescapable shortcomings where picture performance is concerned. But they’re predictable, relatively minor and trifling compared to what the UE43AU7100 gets right. Tizen is a mature, well-honed smart platform, which makes for an easy, uncomplicated user experience. It’s neither as invasive as Android TV or as disjointed as webOS. The Samsung TU7100 is effectively the little brother of the Samsung TU8500 we reviewed earlier in 2020, being the smaller option and lower entry point to the firm’s Crystal UHD series.
Great Deal 
New Comment