Samsung CU7100 Review: Crystal UHD TV worth checking out

Samsung CU7100 Review
Tech Week Score
5.0
- Michail Yahontov

The Samsung CU7100 is considered the most affordable series in Samsung’s entire 2023 4K LED TV lineup. The CU71 range consists of six different screen sizes. The TV contains quite a few features that are most often found in more high-end models. The device has some strong gaming features, user-friendly smart TV interface and numerous control options.

Of course, television battles are not fought on paper. But the good news is that this TV does deliver picture quality for its price. In addition, this model is one of the best 43-inch TVs for users on a small budget. In the Samsung UE43CU7100 review, we will try to find the strengths and weaknesses of the CU7100 series.

Samsung CU7100 Review

Design

Samsung has been smart with the design of the Samsung UE43CU7100U TV case, referred to as the Slim Feet Stand. It’s really minimalistic. The front panel has a thin frame. The simple plastic Y-shaped legs on which it stands also look very elegant. The legs are quite far apart.

Therefore, the installation surface must be wide enough to place the TV on it. The CU7100 is made of plastic, which obviously doesn’t feel cheap. At 59mm deep, the TV doesn’t feel bloated like some other affordable LCDs.

Therefore, this device will look pretty nice on the wall. For wall mounting, you will need to additionally purchase a VESA 200 x 200 type bracket, since it is not included in the kit. In addition to the remote control with two batteries, the TV comes with a power cord and a user manual.

Samsung UE43CU7100 design

Equipment

Smart TV on the Samsung 43CU7100 TV is represented by the Tizen 7.0 operating system . Tizen has been used in the company’s TVs for many years. The system is really simple and understandable on an intellectual level. The interface is navigated using the remote control supplied with the TV.

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The OS has the Smart Things app, which is as stable as the earlier models. There is no built-in voice control in this model, and this is not surprising, given the price of the product. There is also not much advanced technology. The feature set is basically an improvement on what Samsung has been showing since the early days of 4K LCD TVs.

The 4K Crystal UHD LCD panel features Edge LED backlighting and displays images driven by the latest Crystal Processor 4K. There is support for HDR10, HLG HDR and HDR10+ standards . Dolby Vision is missing.

Sound quality

Two full-range speakers with a total power of 20 watts reproduce stereo sound. That being said, the Samsung UE43CU7100 TV is by no means a TV with inferior audio specifications. To be fair, the Samsung sounds pretty clear in the mids.

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Therefore, dialogues are easily recognized. At maximum volume, the sound is almost not distorted. On the other hand, the audio sounds flat. Treble and bass are almost inaudible. The TV has support for Samsung Q Symphony. This technology is able to combine the speakers of the TV with the soundbar to enhance the overall sound. However, the TV lacks support for Dolby Atmos and any other surround sound.

Image quality

It doesn’t take much imagination to realize that the CU7100 TV works best with 4K content. It does not matter if the content comes from a UHD Blu-ray disc or from a streaming service. Either way, the CU7100 is capable of producing compelling and captivating images.

But first, it’s worth dealing with some of the disadvantages of image quality, which are very few. This mainly applies to white and black tones. Samsung tries to reproduce really deep blacks, but doesn’t always succeed due to low peak brightness.

As a result, white tones do not stand out clearly on the screen. It follows from this that the contrast is not as great as we would like. Movies with dark scenes, such as those in outer space, don’t have the inky blacks of more expensive TVs. On the other hand, any OLED costs at least twice as much.

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For the price, the Samsung has good backlight control. In this TV, “black” actually means “very, very dark grey,” not “dirty purple.” In other words, the contrast is good, but limited by the budget. The 7100 TV reproduces both blacks and whites with plenty of detail.

Therefore, in this regard, its images are contrasty and the levels of detail are high across the board. This means all important skin tones and textures look confident. The edges of the contours and motion processing also look confident on the screen.

The settings menu here is not so extensive. However, these features are more than enough to extract a smooth image when moving in dynamic scenes. The color palette is quite wide. Samsung can control even dense, high-contrast patterns without any flicker.

In terms of picture quality, the 43 CU7100 proves to be a very capable 4K display. Even in the most difficult moments, image noise is almost never observed. It’s also a good screen to enjoy enhanced Full HD 1080p images.

Zooming this way will invariably show imperfections in detail levels, and some of the sharp edges or nuances of skin tone may not be ideal. But overall, Samsung does a pretty good job of upscaling 1080p Blu-ray content.

However, if you take a step back, for example, to DVD or lower resolution content, then the image noise will increase significantly, the movements will lose much of the smoothness, and most of the nuances in the color reproduction will also be far from ideal. In other words, it is better not to watch old content on Samsung CU7100.

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On the other hand, the Samsung UE43CU7100 TV is very good for console gaming. The ability to support ALLM is good news for the next generation of gamers. Input lag in Game mode is relatively low. Its value in this mode is reduced to 8 ms.

Samsung UE43CU7100 interfaces

Connections

Wireless connectivity is available via Bluetooth 5.2 and dual-band Wi-Fi. In terms of physical connections, there are three HDMI connectors. One of the HDMI connectors is eARC compatible for TV use with soundbars. The same connector, labeled HDMI 2, has ALLM and 4K@60Hz.

This means that when using next-generation consoles, switching to game mode happens automatically. However, ALLM is the only HDMI 2.1 feature. So while it’s nice to have on hand, it’s not as good as the best gaming TVs due to its 60Hz refresh rate. In addition, there is an Ethernet input, a CI+ card slot, antenna inputs and a digital optical output

Conclusion

Samsung CU7100 is a reasonably priced TV available in a wide variety of screen sizes. It is more than competent among entry-level models and has very good data in the field of image quality.

If you’re willing to pay a little money for a 4K TV that’s really worth the money, the Samsung CU7100 might be a great choice for you. Very nice specs and some really impressive 4K image performance aspects make it a pretty attractive budget option.

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Pros

  • Detailed 4K images.
  • Good contrast and motion processing.
  • High performance for gaming.
  • Excellent Smart TV interface.

Cons

  • Not the brightest screen.
    Mediocre sound.
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