Well after fighting with our old TV for a couple of month, we finally decided to purchase a new one. After scouring the web and our local stores, we settled on a Samsung UN55ES6100 55″ 1080p LED (Slim LED TV Series 6 | 6100) HDTV from Costco (best price and doubled the warrantee compared to anyone else in our neighborhood). Below are some of my thoughts to date:
TV in General
The TV is light, slim and has a great picture.
It took all of 30 seconds to unpack, install and have operational.
Most of the features are straightforward to use.
One thing that I was disappointed with was the fact that the user manual is very small, instead Samsung has chosen to integrate the user manual as an e-manual through the TV console. Personally, I do not like this, I have been unable to locate many items while trying to learn how to use various features of this TV.
Along the same line, the TV presents menu after menu of settings to tweak image, sound, power saving, … which can be very intimidating. Why there is no way while in a menu to click a button to get information blows my mind. Most of the time you will get a brief description, but some are so generic that they really do not help understand the setting whatsoever.
For those receiving the TV signal over the Air, the built-in tuner is excellent. I was previously using a converter, but once I removed the converter and plug the antenna signal directly into the TV unit, the image quality drastically improved and it picked up channels that neither of the 2 converters I had used to date could identify.
SMART HUB
Firstly, I personally find that the SMART HUB is slow to initially load.
Secondly, I would remark to utilize many of the feature available in the SMART HUB you are best to purchase a wireless keyboard and mouse. Trying to use the onscreen keyboard and moving the mouse is very slow and frustrating!
ALL SHARE
Simply put, it sucks (there is no easier way to put it)! I truly do not understand this slow piece of software. Why Samsung developed this instead of concentrating more on a better direct (Wi-Fi) connection is baffling. The software is slow, has to ‘index’ the files you want to share (why?) and is incompatible with many file formats (for instance video files from my JVC camcorder). One of the main reasons I bought this TV in the first was for the Wi-Fi capability to be in a position to stream videos, pictures. To date the best method to do so with this TV is still using an HDMI cable, thus bypassing this useless application. So no need to have the Wi-Fi and SMARTTV aspects since they are not very good.
I will also add that the ALL SHARE software did not install properly the first time I tried to do so and had to perform a reboot of my computer and try again. It would continuously loop ‘Installing HotFix’ (refer to the image below), over and over.
Today, I tried to view some digital camera picture (jpg) and for whatever the reason none of them are not accessible on the TV. They appear in the AllShare program on my PC, but not on the TV.
Furthermore, after applying an update to the SMART Hub application, certain apps and functionalities seem to be affected. Just seems unstable (screen colors changes, flicker, …), untested…
These issues are making me regret this purchase.
Direct Wi-Fi Connection
Not to sure what to say about this feature, since I have yet to get it to actually work! I think that says it all.
Web Browser
Yet another poor aspect of this TV. Samsung has put in place a Web Browser, but has created their own version/flavor and sadly it is much slower than any other browser I have used on any PC I have ever used. It works, but is slower than I expected.
Further testing has revealed a small problem with Samsung’s Web Browser, it cannot open any documents. For instance, it cannot open a simple PDF file! Really, in 2013, a browser that cannot open a PDF is useless. I can understand not necessarily supporting MS Office documents, but a universal format such as a PDF is unforgiveable!
Recently, after performing an update to the SMART Hub application, the external mouse no longer works?! The mouse appears in the SMART Hub and is operational, yet once the Web Browser loads, the mouse is no where to be found?! <sarcastic>Samsung continues to impress!!!</sarcastic>
It is amazing, when I planned on first writing this post, I was thinking that this was a good TV, but the more I write about it the more I am noticing that it has missed the mark on the features for which I bought the TV. This Samsung SMART TV is turning out to be quite Dumb! You pay for advanced functionalities, yet most of them do not work properly, so you end up paying extra for no real reason.
I would give this TV, as a TV alone a 9/10. That said, I would give this TV, as a SMART TV (Wi-fi, SMART Hub, …), a lowly 2/10!