Samsung NU6900 55 Review: Decent But Not Exceptional Television

Samsung NU6900 55: At First Glance

Samsung has a long history in the television industry and is well-known for producing adequate 4K televisions. Therefore, in 2018, the brand introduced the Samsung NU6900 55, one of their commendable entry-level televisions.

This television is a 4K TV that offers amazing features and decent overall performance. A few of the features that this television offers include a good contrast ratio and HDR compatibility.

However, as expected from an entry-level TV, the Samsung NU6900 has its downsides. Will these downsides be insignificant enough to be overlooked by potential buyers?

Continue reading to find out!

Samsung NU6900 55: Design, Dimension, and Weight

To start with, the Samsung NU6900 features a superb design, one that can go head-to-head with most high-end televisions. Specifically, this television comes with display bezels that are of average thickness.

To give more details, these bezels measure only 0.55-inch. Thus, they shouldn’t cause distractions when viewing the television.

Moreover, the bezels are made of plastic and feature a matte-black finish. As expected, there is a ‘SAMSUNG’ inscription that sits at the center of the bottom bezel.

In addition to these averagely-thick bezels, the Samsung NU6900 features a pair of short plastic legs. Although these legs are made of plastic, they are very sturdy and provide enough support for the television.

To top that up, the legs aren’t very close to the edges of the TV, unlike most televisions. Therefore, you should be able to place the television on an average-sized table or desk.

Moving to the TV’s back, the Samsung NU6900 comes with a plain plastic back panel. This back panel features four 200 x 200 VESA mount holes for wall-mounting the television.

Moreover, because this back panel isn’t particularly thick, the Samsung NU6900 shouldn’t bulge out of the wall if wall-mounted. To top that up, the television’s back panel comes with a cable management system.

Having discussed the back of the television, now let us move on to the television’s dimensions and weight. The Samsung NU6900 comes with dimensions of 1239.5 x 58.4 x 713.7 mm (W x D x H) and weighs 7800 g.

Honestly, for a 55-inch television, this Samsung television is very light and less heavy than most 55-inch TVs out there. For example, the LG 55SM8600PUA weighs a massive 17191 g and measures 1231 x 63.5 x 716 mm (W x D x H).

In conclusion, the Samsung NU6900 offers a really decent design with averagely-thick bezels. Moreover, this television isn’t heavy and it comes with a cable management system.

Therefore, I will rate the Samsung NU6900 55 a nine out of ten in this design review section.

Samsung NU6900 55: Display Features

The Samsung NU6900 features a 55-inch LCD display that offers a 4K UHD (3840 x 2160) resolution. Due to its 4K resolution, this television’s display should be able to render detailed and realistic images.

Remarkably, asides from its 4K resolution, this 55-inch LCD display also offers an excellent contrast ratio. To give more details, the display has a contrast ratio of 6,107:1.

For clarity, the contrast ratio is the difference between a display’s brightest white and the darkest black. Moreover, a display’s contrast ratio is an important factor in determining the black level of the display.

Therefore, with an impressive 6,107:1 contrast ratio, the Samsung NU6900’s display should be able to produce deep blacks. As a result, the television is ideal for dark room viewing as well as watching movies with lots of dark scenes.

In addition to its impressive contrast ratio, this display is compatible with HDR (High Dynamic Range). To give more details, the display supports various HDR effects including HDR10, HDR10+, and HLG (Hybrid Log-Gamma).

In case you are curious, HDR is a picture technology that enhances the contrast and brightness of a display. Therefore, when viewing HDR-compatible content – which is mostly found on streaming apps – colors will look more realistic and bright.

On the downside, the Samsung NU6900’s display doesn’t support local dimming. Local dimming is a technique that displays use to improve their black level by dimming backlight zones.

Therefore, with local dimming, blacks should look extremely dark than they would without local dimming.

Apart from not supporting local dimming, this display also offers poor viewing angles. However, this was actually expected due to the fact that the display is made with a VA panel.

Well, the result of its poor viewing angles is that colors will look washed-out when viewing the display off-center. Therefore, reducing the overall picture quality of the display.

In addition to its poor viewing angles, this display offers terrible brightness. To be more specific, the Samsung NU6900’s display comes with a maximum brightness of just 273 nits.

Hence, the Samsung NU6900 might not be the ideal television for usage in a bright or even moderately-lit room. On a positive note, the Samsung NU6900’s display features a semi-gloss coating that prevents reflection and sun glares.

Moving further, the Samsung NU6900’s display offers a response time of 16.2 milliseconds. Although this response time isn’t particularly good, it is enough for the display to render fast-motion contents without too many blur trails.

For clarity, response time is the time it takes a display to change from one color to another.

When it comes to the input lag, the Samsung NU6900’s display offers a decently-low input lag of 22.5 milliseconds. Therefore, this display should be ideal, if not exceptional for gaming.

In case you are curious, input lag is the time it takes for a display to register a signal input. Moreover, a signal input might be from a wireless gamepad or remote control.

Therefore, the lower the input lag, the better.

In conclusion, for an entry-level television, the Samsung NU6900’s display is quite decent. However, the television’s display comes with some questionable shortcomings which include its poor brightness and poor viewing angles.

Notwithstanding, I will be rating the Samsung NU6900 55 an eight out of ten in this display review section.

Samsung NU6900 55: Sound Features

When it comes to the sound department, the Samsung NU6900 features a pair of 20-watts speakers. These speakers deliver impressive and clear sound quality.

In addition to that, the speakers produce crisp and understandable dialogue sounds. Just to be clear, dialogue is the conversation between two or more people in a movie or TV show.

However, due to the lack of a subwoofer, the Samsung NU6900 doesn’t produce enough bass. Therefore, if you are a bass-heavy movie lover, it is ideal that you purchase a soundbar with this television.

That said, the Samsung NU6900 offers average distortion performance. Basically, if the television is at a moderate volume level (70% or below), distortion will be inaudible.

However, at a maximum volume level (80% – 100%), distortion will be significantly noticeable. This was proven through the Samsung NU6900’s THD (Total Harmonic Distortion) test result.

Briefly, the THD test evaluates the amount of distortion that a sound device is capable of generating. Furthermore, on this test, the acceptable score is 1% or less.

Unfortunately, the Samsung NU6900 scored 1.189% on the THD test. Therefore, at a maximum volume level, distortion will be noticeable.

To be clear, distortion in this context means the deformation of sound frequencies, resulting in the production of less-appealing sound.

All in all, I will be rating the Samsung NU6900 55 a seven out of ten in this sound features review section.

Samsung NU6900 55: Ports and Connectivity Features

The Samsung NU6900 features a reasonable amount of ports. All the ports, however, are on the back of the television.

Therefore, if the television is mounted on the wall, accessing the ports might not be easy.

That said, the Samsung NU6900 comes with two HDMI ports. As with most televisions nowadays, one of these HDMI ports supports ARC (Audio Return Channel).

Therefore, you should be able to connect a soundbar to the television using that particular HDMI-ARC port. The Samsung NU6900 doesn’t only come with an HDMI port, this television features one USB port and an Ethernet port.

Also, this Samsung television comes with a digital optical audio output as well as an RF port for the antenna connection. For wireless connectivity, the Samsung NU6900 comes with a built-in Wi-Fi Direct but lacks Bluetooth.

Having mentioned all of the television’s ports and connectivity, let us now discuss its remote control. To start with, the Samsung NU6900 comes with a basic TM1240A remote.

This remote is made of high-quality plastic and features a simple matte-black finish. Also, there is a ‘SAMSUNG’ inscription at the bottom of this remote for brand recognition.

Although this remote comes with a lot of buttons, it lacks a built-in microphone for voice input. Speaking of the buttons, you will find a full number pad on this remote control.

Moreover, the remote also features a plus-shaped navigation button at the center. However, despite accommodating lots of buttons, this remote lacks dedicated buttons for quick access to streaming apps.

All things considered, I will rate the Samsung NU6900 55 a seven out of ten in this ports and connectivity review section.

Samsung NU6900 55: Smart Features

Just like every Samsung smart television out there, the Samsung NU6900 comes with the Tizen operating system. This operating system offers a straightforward and understandable user interface.

However, the interface lags a bit and doesn’t respond to input quickly. Also, the interface contains ads which might be quite annoying when trying to navigate.

To make things more annoying, the ads cannot be disabled. On a positive note, the Tizen operating system offers quite a number of popular streaming services.

These streaming services include Netflix, YouTube, Amazon Prime Video, HULU, Disney+, and so much more. Besides, if you can’t find your preferred streaming service on the OS, you can easily download it from the Samsung App store.

Interestingly, you can stream/share content from your mobile devices to the Samsung NU6900. To do so, you have to download Samsung’s SmartThings application on your mobile device.

This SmartThings application is available on both the App Store and the Google Play store. Apart from streaming content from your mobile device to the television, you can also use this application to control the television.

Cool right? That’s exactly what I thought!

To conclude this smart features review section, I will offer the Samsung NU6900 55 an eight out of ten ratings.

Frequently Asked Questions

Conclusion

The Samsung NU6900 is a decent 4K television that offers acceptable viewing experiences. To give more details, this television comes with an excellent contrast ratio and HDR compatibility.

Moreover, this Samsung television offers lots of streaming apps thanks to its Tizen OS. However, the television features some major drawbacks including the lack of Bluetooth and poor viewing angles.

Nevertheless, if you believe you can cope with its drawbacks, the Samsung NU6900 is a decent deal.

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