Samsung C8700 55’’ Review
Preview – full post 09 July 2010
The Samsung UE 55 C8700 (LED TV 140cm, 200Hz, wifi ready, 3D Ready) is the current Flagship of premium TV (the Samsung C9700 is basically a 7700 repackaged in a thinner casing).
Package
The box is huge, and require two persons to be carried vertically. The screen is well protected but not against any perforation of the carton. As you can see in the pictures number 3. Luckily the screen was not injured during the transport.
29kg
Stand
Don’t be fool by the appearance of the stand, even if it is stable and work as expected, it is just a piece of plastic. When you pay a premium price, you are expecting at least an aluminum stand, no?.
External/
This TV looks just amazing!!! the finish of the brush metal look is really nice even If I was always satisfied by the piano black finish of all my previous Samsung’s TV. The logo is illuminated and is not disturbing the watching of movies, controls in the right corner are basics but sufficient (who is anyway getting up to switch channels today 😉 )
Picture
The default settings (out of the box “dynamic” is pre set) make any show just unwatchable: everything look too hell, colors are denatured. As always tune to your liking, by popping up some Blu-Ray you really like until you get the outstanding picture that this TV really deserve. Don’t get me wrong, it is not a huge task (2-3 minutes in my case) and you’ll really feel the difference!
Samsung has solved the light coming from the corners (Edge lightning) that was hitting previous model line of 2009. I found some lighting uniformity issues while watching a blu-ray (Surf’s Up has some white text on a black background) something known as backlight Clouding Issue: this should not appear in this model
Remote control
soon ..
Pros
- Heavy and stylish, very good locking
Cons
- very limited to enter text
- Difficult to find the lighting button in the top right corner: a proximity sensor and light detector would have been more efficient
3D Glasses
3D Active Glasses offering
Adults | Adults | Kids |
 |  |  |
SSG-2100AB | SSG-2200AR
| SSG-2200KR |
Battery powered | Rechargeable | Rechargeable |
| $ 150 | $199.99 | $179.99 |
I got two Samsung SSG-2200AR Active Shutter Glasses in the package.
To start them all you have to do is just to push the small power button , glasses sync in no time and work nearly immediately. They turn off to save battery in the following case
- TV content is no more in 3D
- You switch the TV off
- You press the power button for a few seconds
NOTE: These glasses are working like sunglasses and remove some brightness (more than 40% i would say) when viewing 3D content.
A soft cloth carrying case for glasses protection is part of the package:
Details of the micro-USB to USB 2.0 charging cable that can be plugged in any USB port (TV, PC or iPhone adapter). They are fully charge after 2 hours and are rated for lasting 30 hours on a full charge.
Me wearing the glasses for a limited amount of time, as I still encounter headaches. For comparison I was also a bit disturbed by the movie Avatar in 3D in theaters.
2D to 3D Conversion
Media Center
You can connect a USB external hard drive and play music, photo’s and movies directly from the HDD.
Internet TV
[email protected] lets you enjoy more with Internet TV, as long as you connect the television with an Ethernet cable or an optional WIFI dongle (+$80). You can get a lot of small applet to run, just to name a few:
- eBay, real-time updates, place bids, monitor your list of watched items
- Twitter, the famous micro blogging
- Yahoo! News
- Yahoo! Weather
- Flickr
- YouTube
- Google MAPS
Sound great? yes but
Widgets are quite slow to startup, the remote control is VERY limited to enter text: a Bluetooth keyboard would be welcomed but is not supported…try to enter an address in Google Maps and you will understand what I mean.
Gaming with PS3
soon ..
Verdict
Positives | Negatives |
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Publicity
A new Dimension in TV
“;” alt=””>and the making of
“;” alt=””>Where to buy
digitec.ch is offering an interesting package which contains:
+ 
- Samsung UE55C8700, 55″ LED, 3D, 200Hz, Slim, Aluminium
- Sony Playstation 3 Slim, 120GB
- 2010 FIFA World Cup, PS3
- Two Samsung SSG-2200AR/XC, 3D Glasses
- SSG-2200AR/XC, 3D Shutter Brille für Erwachsene, Akku, für 3D Hyper Real Engine TV, C750, C7000, C8000
Price 4099 CHF / 3069 euro / $ 3853 Free delivery
Note that this package is also valid for other similar models
Media Markt.ch is offering only the television for the same prize + additional shipping delivery
Specifications
- Precision Dimming: 240 cells that can be switched off if needed for deeper black
- 3D-ready
- Ultra Clear Panel
- Wide Color Enhancer Plus
- Skype™ on Samsung TV
- [email protected]
- Light sensor (energy saving)
- AllShare™
- ConnectShare™ Movie
- Game Mode
- Swivel stand
- 4 HDMI v1.3
- Anynet+™ (HDMI-CEC)
- 2 USB
- 1 PC input
- 1 Ethernet
- 1 Optical sound output
- TNT / DVB-T / TDT
- HD Digital TV MPEG4 with DVB-T/C
- Brushed Titanium
