Here at What Hi-Fi?, we love seeing the latest OLED flagship with all the new fancy bells and whistles.
But we also love a good value TV that can deliver a great picture without costing the Earth – and that's exactly what we've got here with the 65-inch Samsung U8000F, now £420 at Amazon.
A 65-inch TV this cheap might raise alarm bells for some, but while there are reasons the Samsung U8000F is so affordable, we're pleased to report that it's still a good performer for the money – especially in Standard mode.
"The Standard mode’s pictures immediately look surprisingly bright by budget TV standards," our Samsung U8000F review reads.
"There’s a very clear step up in brightness between SDR and HDR content, as well as a mild expansion in the HDR image’s colour range. Enough in both cases to make HDR look convincing and surprisingly natural – helped by the presence of a surprisingly effective dynamic tone mapping system."
Black tones are also respectable for such an affordable TV, with plenty of shadow detail and sharpness, too.
We were disappointed by the Filmmaker mode, however, which featured juddery motion and flatter colours. This may put off cinephiles, but it certainly won't be an issue for watching the World Cup in Standard mode.
Being a Samsung TV, there's no Dolby Vision, but there's still strong HDR support in the forms of HLG, HDR10 and the premium HDR10+ format.
Samsung's Tizen OS carries basically every streaming and catch-up TV service almost anyone could want (except Freeview Play and Freely) and can even be voice-controlled, though bear in mind it does run a bit sluggishly.
Gaming is also well catered for, with support for ALLM switching, VRR support and the HGiG system, whereby the TV essentially passes HDR output control to your videogame console.
The 2 x 10W sound system is also clean and immersive by budget TV standards, though we do recommend turning the Amplify sound mode on for the best results. Voices are quite well-rounded and contextualised, so you'll be sure to hear every cheer and chant during the all-important World Cup clashes.
As long as you're not a cinephile, the 65-inch Samsung U8000F is overall a solid TV – especially for £420 at Amazon. As we said in our review, the Standard mode is "cleaner, more balanced, more punchy and above all more consistent performance than most rivals in its class".
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