In this age of 4K TV onslaught, Samsung seems to still be hangning on to the quasi-top spot by a fingernail and a thread. Some can argue that LG's OLED screens are better looking than Samsung's QLED varients but that's not an argument for this review. There are plenty of places you can go read about the differences from that perspective.
Let me say up front that I've been a Samsung TV fan for many years and have had reasonably good, if not great luck with their products. They have proven very reliable (for the most part) and seem to maintain a quality image (without 'burn-in') for a very long time. So, with that in mind I recently replaced an OLD UN55D8000 series 55" TV with a 65" Q80R as our main TV. And that Q80R is fantastic in every aspect! That lead me to purchase this 43" RU7100 series unit as a home-office TV and "Client monitor" for my professional video editing rig as I am in the media industry.
(I know, fellow video editors - it's not going to be calibrated/accurate, etc. and frankly, that's the point - so I can show output on a 'normal' TV to clients. We can see 'true' versions of output on my main calibrated monitor for comparison.)
OK - Let me say right now, I'm going to get wordy here because I think there are some things you should know prior to spending your money on this particular TV, so bare with me, please. Enough already; let's get down to business...
The picture on the UN43RU7100FXZA is very clear and colors are mostly accurate (leaning towards the cool side) and the new Samsung SmartHub user interface (UI) is lightyears away/better than the old version found on our old 2012 55" 8000 series TV. And it's consistent across all the new TVs as far as I can tell. (Not so in prior generations.)
It picks up Internet based programming well and has a number of good apps for streaming content, including most , if not all of the majors as well as the new Apple TV (on which it seems EVERYTHING costs extra, so what's the point? Typical Apple.) 4K content looks very nice and clear. The TV uses a 120Hz refresh rate to avoid motion artifacts, which is mostly successful. While there is virtually no big judder or tearing, there is still smear and drag/blur - especially on larger format content (i.e. 4K native content where there's a tremendous amount of processing going on) or severly upscaled srteaming content like SD Netflix - but some of that can come from the streaming service's ability to deliver as well. Many, if not most people won't/wouldn't care or maybe even notice these artifacts but since I'm in the media business, they stand out to me like a 2x4 to the face. Indeed it took me until 2019 to even buy a consumer grade 4K TV for my home as I couldn't justify the price in prior years for what I saw as utter garbage when it came to displaying motion (artifacts) on even the most capable and expensive TVs - so take my observations here with a grain of consumer salt unless you, like me are bugged by such as well. And if I'm honest, I STILL haven't seen a single consumer grade TV that doesn't present some form of motion artifacts but it's gotten tolerable now.
That said, this TV upscales VERY nicely for how inexpensive it is. In other words if you're watching a show that is presented in anything less than 4K (most programming) and especially older SD 480P content, it scales it up to fit the 4K res screen very well without it looking overly pixelated, smeared, pasty or blurred. An extreme example of this I recently noticed was watching the 1980-released movie "Altered States" (which has outlandish visual effects for its day) on streaming service Vudu - not the best quality streamer at all - and considering all the work the TV had to do to present the movie full-screen (no letterboxing, etc.), it looked GREAT!
OK, so it looks good, has a decent SmartHub UI and connects to the Internet well (both wired and wirelessly), so why the "Average" 3-start score?
What's not so good?
Well... to start with, the remote control is a little too small. I mean, it's a nice size in the hand but they attempted to pack far too much functionality in too small a space and the result is the buttons are way too close together. For instance. when you are attempting to enter an email address to sign into a service and you're half way through a long string of characters, it is FAR too easy to hit "Return", "Exit", "Guide" or "Hulu" and lose everything you just 'typed' & have to relaunch the process/app/etc. and start over.
The A/B/C/D buttons (otherwise known as 'color' buttons) are nto separated at all from the mass of other buttons around them, making them hard to pick out (esp. in a dimly lit room as the remote has no backlight) and in fact NONE of the buttons are separated by anything but size. There's just one big cluster of buttons eqaully spaced from top to bottom across the entire face of the remote! It's something of a mess to operate.
Operation of the remote relative to response time on the TV is also quite sluggish. This is perhaps an indication of processor speed under the UI more than transmission rate from the remote(?) but either way, the result is sluggish. These two combined can make for quite a frustrating user experience.
AND - to boot, every other Samsung TV I've owned has had the capability to connect a Bluetooth wireless keyboard to it so as to avoid some of the issues with the remote I've mentioned. And let's face it, no matter whose TV it is, navigating an on-screen keyboard with N/S/E/W & <Enter> keys on a remote is a tedious and sucky experience.
Indeed, the documentation and promotional copy for this TV indicate that it is has the capability YET, there is NO option to pair or connect a wireless keyboard to the TV. According to the manual (which states you CAN attach a BT KB) you use a regular USB-connected keyboard via one of the TV's USB ports (talk about old school!) which I tested and lo-and-behold, it works! Not really practical for me but hey, if you sit that close or have a keyboard with a 20' cable and that's OK with you, go for it! To be clear here again, I am not the only person experiencing this missing BT KB pairing/connectivity issue; others are complaining about it as well. There's simply no menu option to make it happen. I use a keyboard extensively on my TVs for search, entry of account info, and Internet browsing, etc. so this is a HUGE drawback for me. You CAN add Bluetooth headphones/speakers easily enough in a different menu but Settings/General/External Devices/Input Device Manager/Keyboard Settings only provides you the options to change your keyboard language and type (i.e. country) but there is NO Bluetooth option at all. Indeed, the help in the menu indicates that these options are for USB-connected keyboards.
No Bluetooth Devices, Device List, Add a Device, etc. that show up on other TVs exists relative to input devices on this model TV.
To dig a little deeper on this subject, I loaded the latest firmware... Nope. I even started a support chat with Samsung and let the tech remotely connect and take control of my TV. He searched around, Factory Reset the unit and more but couldn't make it work either. At first he then fell back on a boilerplated "I see your keyboard isn't compatible" response hoping I'd buy that crap and go away. Others have been told this too (check other reviews on the Web) but when I challenged him on it - "Which keyboard are you referring to?" "How do you know which keyboard I'm attempting to pair?" "In order to pair ANYTHING, there has to be a 'Pair Device' function - and there isn't on the TV" etc.
Even a neophite knows that a device would at least have to be attempted to pair before you can determine compatibility. Once he found out I actually had a clue and was not going to go for such BS, he ulitimately ended up telling me "It seems to be an internal issue with the TV and it needs to be physically diagnosed by the technician." and asked me to schedule a repair service call & provided a link to do so. He said "This TV absolutely supports Bluetooth keyboard" but could not actually prove it/DO so or even find a menu that came close to offering it.
This seems to be a manufacturing oversight by Samsung. I scheduled the repair call just for yuks and to actually follow the tech's request. If thru some magic the on-site tech can produce the functionality, I will gladly come back and update this review but I am not feeling much hope. At the end of the day, the fact that the feature is promised yet not delivered is at least 1.5 stars off for me - especially on a feature that I use so often. OK, horse beyond sufficiently beaten... Moving on.
With the launch of Samsung's new SmartHub platform/architecture, a lot of apps that used to work/were available in the old system are gone. This attrition of seriously useful apps (some that come to mind are RedBull TV and IPVanish for instance) is a drawback for me as well. There goes another 1/2-1 star... Perhaps those services' developers are working to catch up and port their apps to the new platform. For that I am holding out hope.
Finally, there's connectivity. Yes, it hooks to the Internet OK but I'm talking local connections. Oddly, this TV has RCA component inputs (what?! a little dated, eh?) and HDMI in's but does not have any DisplayPort/Thunderbolt or USB-C ports. The HDMI port that has ARC is HDMI-3. While ARC not being on HDMI-1 is not that uncommon (why mfg's do this I've never understood,) putting it on 3 seems espeicaly odd and annoying. The USB ports that do exist appear to be USB 2.0 only which is seriously short-sighted for a 2019-release TV and the competition is definitely steps ahead here. I hope I'm wrong on the version of the USB ports. If you're going to plug in a device like a Fire TV 4K Stick, I'd think that the port's bandwidth would need to be higher than v2.0. I know; the video data stream doesn't actually travel thru the USB device but I'd think the control structure code to keep a 4K datastream in check, etc. would require a little higher bandwidth than USB 2.0. As far as I've seen, the TV nor the documentation specify the version of the USB ports but they have no "SS" or "3.x" markings, so I'm ASSUMING the worst. Like I said - I hope I'm just flat out wrong here.
Add all this up, and considering the very considerable competition on the market right now, I honestly can't give this TV higher than an "Average" 3-star grade. I can't ignore the fact that the default support answer for missing functionality (BT KB) is to spout out some false crap about "your keyboard isn't compatible" and hope the customer is uneducated & will just go away (again - look around at other reviews; it's not just me...) really gets under my skin. Just admit there's a problem already that will (hopefully) be corrected in a future update but don't BS/lie to the customer. That's just bad business. Anyway (stepping off my soap box)...
All in all, these days, a TV is about more than just picture quality. It has to live up to much more because we're asking it to do much more now. Taking that into consideration, while this TV has an acceptable picture quality, it has some serious shortcomings that, if you're shopping you should know about ahead of time - and figure into your final decision about what you ultimately spend your hard earned money on. If you value a wireless keyboard, a remote-to-TV-action experience that is crisply responsive, modern connection availability, and a picture that is free from motion blur, you might want to consider a different TV than this one. At least go see this unit in person and play with it before you buy - something I didn't do and should have, leaving me wishing I had. I was beyond my return window before I even unboxed this unit due to a relocation/move but if I could, I probably would return it based on these issues. Perhaps I'd spend a little more and gotten a Q60R series or a competitive brand; who knows... Too late now. I guess I'll just use it mostly for a client monitor connected to my BMD card but that still leaves me wanting, so 3 stars it is.
If you've read this far, perhaps I've offered some info that will/has help(ed) you. I certainly hope so, as I appear to have written a novel. LOL
Cheers & all the best in your TV hunting!
| Brand Name | SAMSUNG |
|---|---|
| Item Weight | 21.2 pounds |
| Product Dimensions | 8.3 x 38.2 x 25.1 inches |
| Item model number | UN43RU7100FXZA |
| Is Discontinued By Manufacturer | No |
| Color Name | Charcoal Black |
| Special Features | 4K UHD Processor; HDR; Smart TV with Universal Guide; PurColor; Slim Design |
| Speaker Type | 2CH |