Samsung UN55ES8000F

It's fun to experiment, but the nature of experiments is that they don't always work. Samsung performed a few with its new high-end LED LCD HDTV, the ES8000F series, and the results are, at best, inconclusive. The 46-inch ES8000F uses several new control options like voice control, motion control, and touchpad control, to reduce the number of hardware buttons. The result is a $2,999.99 (list) HDTV with an impressive design, a solid, if not perfect picture, and a handful of novel control options that don't always work. It still comes with a conventional remote control, which works fine?but you shouldn't have to rely on it after you've spent so much money on a TV that isn't supposed to need one.

Editors' Note: This review is based on tests performed on the Samsung UN46ES8000F, the 46-inch model in the same series. Besides the screen size difference, the 55-inch $3,749.99 UN55ES8000F is identical in features, and while we didn't perform lab tests on this specific model, we expect similar performance.

Design
The UN46ES8000F certainly looks striking, with a very thin black bezel framed by silver. The base is a wide support made of two curved, metallic plastic arms. It keeps the screen steady, but it doesn't pivot. The inputs sit on the right back edge of the back panel. You get three HDMI inputs, three USB ports, and an optical audio input facing right, and component, composite, VGA video, cable, Ethernet, and analog audio inputs facing downward. Most HDTVs this size have four HDMI ports, and having only three can be a problem if you have more than one game system along with a set-top box and Blu-ray player. A small joystick behind the right edge of the panel lets you navigate different menus without the remote.

The most notable aspect of the UN46ES8000F is its Smart Interaction interface. Besides a conventional remote and menu system, it can use a touchpad Smart Touch remote, as well as voice control and motion control. If you want, you can use the HDTV entirely like a normal screen, but with practice you can have it responding to your voice and gestures.

The Smart Touch remote is the most "normal" of the new control choices. The small, rectangular remote has only a small handful of buttons and a large touchpad area for controlling on-screen menus and cursors, which work with certain apps like the Web browser. It's a nice concept, but the touchpad area is flanked by two clickable button areas that activate menus for conventional remote controls, such as color buttons and bringing up the on-screen remote. It's very easy to accidentally click either of those areas instead of the touchpad itself to register a menu click, which brings up new menus you didn't want instead of entering the information you wanted.

Voice and Motion Controls
A camera and microphone array sits on the top edge of the HDTV, enabling voice and gesture controls. The Smart Touch remote also has a microphone you can activate with a button to control the HDTV?by speaking into the microphone instead of at the screen. The voice controls respond to either "Hi TV" or "Smart TV," depending on which you prefer. When you summon the controls with the set phrase, a small list of commands appears at the bottom of the screen. This isn't Siri or Dragon Naturally Speaking, though; you need to enunciate carefully, and you can't speak too fast if you want the HDTV to recognize your commands. With practice, though, you can turn the HDTV on and off with your voice, which is a nice feature.

The camera also allows gesture controls from the user. By waving your hand in front of the screen, a cursor appears that you can control with your motions. Making a fist "clicks" the cursor, letting you navigate the menus and Web pages. Like the voice control, it's not completely useful on its own. The screen takes a few seconds to recognize that you're waving to move the cursor, and unlike the remotes, it doesn't allow quick access to common menus and commands.

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