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Samsung’s 2011 Series 8 LED TVs are nothing if not minimalist. With a sliver of a bezel just 5mm wide, they virtually hang their images in the air. A mere 29.7mm deep, the 55inch UE55D8000 reviewed here is a masterful example of entertainment engineering.

Yet despite this thinness, this 3D ready set bulges with features: it has Freeview HD and Freesat HD tuners, integrated Wi-Fi and Samsung’s new internet connected Smart Hub platform, which offers access to Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, Lovefilm and other apps.

Build and features

Despite being exceptionally thin, we were surprised at how uniform the Edge LED backlighting appears to be. With live video there are no obvious hotspots. Samsung calls it the ONE Design. You’ll be left wobdering just how a border of LED bulbs can illuminate such a huge LED panel so effectively.

Connections comprise four HDMIs, a VGA PC input, stereo audio minijack, plus SCART and component (both via adaptors). There are also three USB inputs, Ethernet LAN and a digital audio optical output. Strangely, there are no side-mounted inputs at all. Everything is located on the back panel.

The UE55D8000 is DLNA compliant and will scour your network for attached devices. Unfortunately, it turned its nose up at our MKV video files. AVIs play, but without SRT subtitles; audio compatibility is limited to MP3. Things improve significantly if you play the same content from an attached USB drive. Our MKVs became accessible, as did SRT subtitle files. However, given that there are no side-mounted USB slots, taking advantage of this improved compatibility could be awkward.

3D picture quality

The UE55D800’s 3D performance is outstanding when it comes to image brightness and colour fidelity. The zombies from Resident Evil 3D get totally in your face! Less welcome is a different kind of video nasty: 3D crosstalk. A Depth Perception control allows you to dial out either positive or negative parallax ghosting, although minimizing one always emphasises the other.

The screen ships with a single pair of SSG-3100 Active Shutter glasses. Unlike last year’s spex, these use Bluetooth to sync. They’re light (34.5g) and relatively comfortable. And as with last year’s 3D TVs, there’s 2D-to-3D image conversion onboard, which is fun to experiment with.

2D picture quality and audio

2D high def pictures pop like a bottle of Moet. Black level is excellent and there’s plenty of shadow detail. To improve moving picture resolution and smoothness Samsung offers a variety of Motion Plus picture processing modes. All deliver 1080 lines of detail, but you’ll pay a price of increasingly severe artefacts. The best general option is Clear; it doesn’t eliminate all panning judder but smudgy ringing around moving objects is kept to a minimum. Switch Motion Plus off and moving picture resolution drops to around 650 lines.

The rear mounted, downward firing stereo speakers do a grand job. They do offer a surprising amount of volume and the sound is fat enough for casual viewing.

Specifications

• Screen: 55inch LED LCD TV
• Resolution: 1920 x 1080 Full HD
• TV Tuner: 185 watt
• Sound: 30 Watt (2x15watt)
• Audio: Nicam Stereo, Dolby Digital Plus, SRS TheaterSound HD

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Verdict