Introduction and features
As we wait for the new wave of 2016 models to hit our homes there's still a whole lot of great TVs available, at great prices, from last year's lists – and Samsung's 65-inch JU6000K behemoth is now one of the best value, vast-screen 4K TVs on the market.
For £1,399 over at Amazon it really is an impressively powerful big-screen display, especially for the price, rocking both the 3840 x 2160 resolution necessary for Ultra HD as well as the Tizen smarts which Samsung has been kitting out its current TV range with.
However, its sheer size does raise some questions. Now that you can afford to buy a 65-inch TV, can you afford the space it needs? I certainly can't, living as I do in a modest flat in small-town Bath.
My lounge isn't tiny, but it felt utterly dwarfed by the huge black mirror looming over me in the corner of the room. I have to say it's been a rather oppressive experience reviewing the UE65JU6000K.
So, if you're looking at that £1,399 price tag and thinking you could find a spot for the JU6000K facing your sofa, give some thought to exactly how far away from it you're going to be sitting…
And given that, apparently, one child dies every three weeks in the US from an unsecured TV falling on top of them, you might want to think about getting it strapped to the wall too.
Connections
So, you've got the space, and you've got the right rigging to keep your epic new TV tied down. What else does the JU6000K offer aside from that 65-inch panel?
In terms of connectivity the three HDMI connections show off where this great-value Samsung is making some savings. Even the excellent, budget-oriented Hisense is rocking four TV inputs – although that manufacturer's 65-inch offering is more expensive than this well-priced Samsung.
And only one of the three HDMIs in the Samsung is the modern HDMI 2.0 / HDCP 2.2 flavour, so you've only got one option for plugging in that 4K set-top box or Ultra HD Blu-ray drive.
Backing up the HDMI inputs are the rest of the standard TV connections. There's the obligatory composite connect, component, RF input, headphone, optical output, ethernet and a pair of USBs (one 2.0 and one 3.0 spec).
Given that the impressive Tizen Smart TV software comes with an impressively complete suite of UK catch-up services, as well as both the main pay TV on-demand providers, the lack of a full roster of HDMI 2.0 connections is not so much of an issue.
You have access to BBC iPlayer, ITV Hub, All 4 and Demand 5, as well as the option of the 4K versions of both the Netflix and Amazon Video apps.
In practice, then, your Ultra HD Blu-ray drive will only be vying for a connection into your TV with either the BT Ultra HD box or the upcoming Sky Q Silver services.
The Smart TV software also offers a limited range of other apps, such as Skype and screen-sharing.
Panel and performance
While we're talking about an ostensibly last-gen TV here, that 4K panel is still capable of some impressive feats of fidelity. The JU6000K isn't one of Samsung's SUHD crowd – it isn't rocking the quantum dot nano-crystal filter tech – but it's still able to create a decent spread of colour in its super high-res imagery.
Samsung has used an algorithmic technique it calls Wide Colour Enhancer Plus to increase the depth of its colour representation and, while we're not talking the sort of wide colour gamut that its latest screens are capable of, the images are still bright and vibrant.
Linked to that is the Contrast Enhancer and Micro Dimming Plus tech with which Samsung has also kitted out the JU6000K. Both these image enhancement techniques enable the panel to display a genuinely impressive level of contrast.
It's not capable of the sorts of black levels you'll see in the awesome OLEDs from LG or Panasonic, or even the nano-crystal SUHDs from Samsung, but it's still mighty impressive for this price-point in the big-screen arena.
The bright points from fireworks or a night-time cityscape stand out against their dark background very effectively, with practically zero halo effect around them.
This is no HDR TV though, and that's evidenced by the weaker performance of the panel when it comes to actual detail in those darker areas. Stark contrast is clear, but if you're looking for some gradation in the shadows you'll find it lacking.
I also found the bottom corners of the screen exhibited a certain amount of backlight bleed, which affects the uniformity of a dark scene.
Picture processing
Watching 4K Ultra HD content on a native 4K panel almost always means you get a great experience. I've checked out super-cheap UHD TVs which manage to look great with native content, but it's what happens when you turn the resolution dial down a notch or two that the cracks start to appear.
That's why, if you're getting a live demo in-store, we'd always suggest asking to see how a TV deals with the sort of HD or SD content you're going to predominantly be piping into it.
Happily the Samsung JU6000K does rather well when it comes to upscaling lower-res video onto its 4K panel. The Samsung UHD Upscaling is actually pretty impressive working with the HD feed from my Virgin TV box – flesh tones look sharp, with very little discernable noise.
And that's even more impressive given that this panel is stretching its upscaling muscles across a huge 65-inch display. Inevitably, standard-definition content tends towards the ropey side of things, but that's an understandable stretch too far for this tech.
But while the performance of the panel processing itself is pretty good, the actual processing power of the smart technology isn't so hot. It might be boasting quad-core silicon at its heart, but the Smart TV software feels rather sluggish in terms of responsiveness.
When you're just flicking through 4K media on an external drive it feels pretty slick; switch to the actual smart offerings, however, and it starts to crawl.
Amazon Video gets around to its 4K goods well enough, but the experience of Netflix leaves a lot to be desired. Suddenly, having a UHD set-top box taking up that solitary HDMI 2.0 port looks a lot more necessary…
Verdict
It might seem a little crazy to be talking about the value proposition of a TV that still costs well north of a grand, but when you're looking at a 65-inch native 4K screen that's exactly what the Samsung JU6000K represents.
That said, when there are 50-inch 4K screens, like the Hisense, doing the goods for just £500 those extra 15 diagonal inches still feel very expensive. If you really want the big-screen 4K effect, the step up from 50 and 55-inch panels is a big one, financially speaking.
We liked
The picture quality of the Samsung JU6000K is really impressive, especially given that it's essentially sitting at the more affordable (we're not calling it cheap…) end of the 65-inch 4K spectrum.
The contrast levels are genuinely surprising, showing very little evidence of the halo effect unless you push the brightness levels up past their default settings.
You've also got to love that combination of vast screen size and 4K native resolution – provided, that is, you own enough living room real estate to avoid having the 65-inch panel dominate the room.
And the UHD Upscaling technology residing in the Samsung JU6000K is able to handle non-native content very well too. It's performance with HD content from a standard set-top box is really impressive.
The breadth of its catch-up and on-demand services has to be applauded too. There are few brands out there that can offer both Amazon and Netflix in 4K, as well as the full suite of UK catch-up TV services. Thankfully, Samsung's Smart TV software is one of them.
We disliked
Although the contrast is impressive at the extremes of light and dark, there is little actual detail within darker scenes. You're not getting the sort of depth HDR or OLED panels are able to offer – so if you like yourself a bit of that '30s noir vibe it may not be the ideal set for you.
You could also colour us unimpressed by the performance of the Smart TV software, comprehensive though it is. General usage is relatively sluggish, and that's only exacerbated when you try to boot up Netflix in 4K.
The poor performance of the software is mirrored in the slightly slack response of the cramped remote control that comes bundled with the JU6000K. It's every inch the basic Samsung remote.
Inevitably, given the relatively slimline design, the audio performance isn't anything to write home about either. The down-firing speakers give a decent level of clarity to the vocals, but lack depth and end up sounding typically thin and tinny at the high end.
Verdict
The 65-inch Samsung JU6000K isn't going to win any top tech awards, but it's got the goods where it matters. It's a resolutely last-gen 4K TV – there's no HDR fun here – but that also means you're still getting a huge native Ultra HD panel for a great price.
And even though it is last-gen, it still retains the features necessary for a good 4K TV experience. There's the requisite HDMI 2.0 (with HDCP 2.2) connection, albeit only one, as well as Netflix and Amazon 4K video support.
The image quality is good, even with HD content stretched across that huge panel, and it makes big-screen 4K affordable.
