The Samsung AU7100 is a TV that has solidified itself as one of the best TVs under £500. With its modest pricing, it’s clear that this isn’t going to impress anyone who’s huge on performance, but what can it do? Here are the fancy specs it boasts.

• Crystal clear colour display
• 4K Processing and Adaptive Sound
• HDR Powered by HDR 10+
• TizenOS powered

And here is some key info:

• Manufacturer: Samsung
• Model: AU7100
• Year released: 2020
• Resolution: 4K
• USB Ports: 2
• HDMI Ports: 2
• Bluetooth: Yes

Available screen sizes: 50” 55” 58” 65” 70” 75” 85”

The 4K set is HDR enabled with a 4K display. It is able to provide perfectly serviceable picture content, showcasing a wide variety of colours and contrasts. Impressively, the TV can muster impressive pictures on par with models double the price. The visual display can reach a HDR peak of 287 nits.

As is typical with budget TVs, it can’t do content on par with the best of the best but it’s still great. The AU7100 does struggle a bit when showing dark colours. It especially struggles to portray very dark blacks, but it can still demonstrate a vast palette, which may not be 100% colour accurate but vibrant nonetheless.

The TV has little trouble distinguishing subtle differences in colour. It’s able to maintain a good level of realism. It can deal well with motion, maintaining sharpness even during fast or chaotic motion.

The connectivity options are nothing special: it has an underwhelming 2 HDMI ports, 2 USB ports, optical audio digital output, a terrestrial tuner, Ethernet and Wi-Fi.

The device comes with multiple image presets, including standard, natural, dynamic, movie and filmmaker mode. The best setting is easily natural with it being consistently good for a lot of different programs.

Size wise, the AU7100 is quite good if you’re tight on space, with its thin form it can be placed on a wide surface and leave plenty of room for other stuff – bare in mind you’ll need a wide surface though. The design is pretty simplistic, there’s a lot more screen than anything else and the two slotted feet make setting it up a total breeze.

The remote for the TV is pretty nifty, being equipped with dedicated buttons for Rakuten, Amazon Prime Video and Netflix streaming services. There are a lot of buttons that are pretty tiny so you might have trouble using it if you have big fingers. However, that does mean it can do just about anything since there’s so many buttons.

The TizenOS system is delightful to use, offering a versatile range of streaming services such as catch-up players, YouTube and children’s streaming services, so it offers a lot for everyone. The UI is simplistic and easy to navigate but it’s not the fastest thing in the world.

If you have a Google Assistant, Amazon Alexa or Bixby, you can use your voice to navigate the menu if the UI doesn’t tickle your fancy. You can also connect smart devices to the AU7100 and stream and share content between iOS devices.

The AU7100 is great for video games, with a blazingly fast 9.9ms input lag in gaming mode, making it a perfect display for people who play lots of games. Although it’s not recommended for PS5 or XBOX Series S.

If you buy one you might want to dust off the speakers because the audio is sadly not too great. The audio isn’t unlistenable by any means but it only has 20W of internal amplification which has it sounding pretty lacklustre. The lack of frequency will become apparent the more you raise the audio, so it’s probably best to skip this one if you like it loud.

In Conclusion, the Samsung AU7100 is a great TV if you’re tight on cash but would rather have access to apps, it probably won’t disappoint you to go for it. If you consider yourself a bit of a snob when it comes to performance, this isn’t going to be a let down for you.

Author: Jason MacMillan