LG SJ8500 vs Samsung MU8000 Review (55SJ8500 vs UN55MU8000, 65SJ8500 vs UN65MU8000)

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LG SJ8500 and Samsung MU8000 are the mind-range of 4K HDR TV that available in the market. There are 2 screen  sizes options available for SJ8500 including 55 Inch (55SJ8500) and 65 Inch (65SJ8500), while for MU8000, there are 5 screen sizes options available including 49 Inch (UN49MU8000), 55 Inch (UN55MU8000), 65 Inch (UN65MU8000), 75 Inch (UN75MU8000), and 82 Inch (UN82MU8000). Because screen sizes which available on both are 55 inch and 65 Inch only, this comparison certainly is also as true to these sizes (55SJ8500 vs UN65MU8000, 65SJ8500 vs UN65MU8000). With the same screen size, in the market, Samsung MU8000 and LG SJ8000 are sold with almost the same price. But because both of them are recently released in 2017, of course their prices are not fixed and still could change at any time. So, which one is superior and a better choice between them?

Short Review of LG SJ8500 (55SJ8500, 65SJ8500)

LG SJ8000 is a mid-class of LG’s 2017 4K HDR SUHD TV lineup and also the successor of UH8500. Unlike the predecessor that equipped with passive 3D technology, LG SJ8500 lacks 3D feature.  Still focus on HDR technology, it is powered by the number of LG’s advanced technologies and already supports most of HDR formats including HDR 10, HLG, Dolby Vision, and Advanced HDR.  Although it is not certified by Ultra HD Premium certification that means it cannot display HDR contents especially HDR 10 videos like what intended, but its HDR performance is not too bad, even still above average. Picture quality is also above average. But since it has low contrast ratio, this TV cannot show good dark scene in a dark room, so this TV is not suitable when used in a dark room. But even so, because most of people watch TV in a room with ambient light, the drawback of SJ8500 in a dark room should not be a problem for most of people.  On the other hand, since it has wide viewing angle coverage, this TV certainly has some advantages than VA TVs when used in a wide room, particularly when viewers watch TV from side viewing angle.

While the picture quality of LG SJ8500 is not too excellent due its low native contrast ratio and poor black uniformity, it offers great performance of some features that offered. Motion handling is great, results in smooth and clear picture quality when used for watching fast moving image like fast movies or sports program. Additionally, SJ8500 is also a great TV when used for watching movies due its great ability to remove judder at any sources. The other advantage that offered is about its outstanding low input lag under “Game Mode” and “PC Mode” that makes it is very comfortable when used for playing fast paced games and used as the PC monitor. Additionally, with 4 HDMI ports, 3 USB ports, and some inputs/inputs, they are enough to cover most of your electronic devices. And the other strong point offered by LG SJ8500 is about its smart YTV platform where with WebOS 3.5, it offers simple, attractive, and responsive smart TV experience with tons of interesting apps available.

>> Please click here to see today’s price for the LG SJ8500 <<

Short Review of Samsung MU8000 (UN49MU8000, UN55MU8000, UN65MU8000, UN75MU8000, UN82MU8000)

As we have discussion a lot in here, Samsung MU8000 is part of Samsung Premium UHD TV lineup. It is a flat model of Samsung’s 2017 Series 8. Like SJ8500, MU8000 is also not equipped with 3D technology. Meanwhile, compared to the predecessor KS8000, it lacks quantum dot panel where a bit or more, this certainly will have an impact on its color reproduction. Nevertheless, although lacks of quantum dot panel, it still already supports wide color gamut and is able to shows most of colors in DCI P3 of HDR images perfectly. Still focus on HDR, Samsung MU8000 is also powered by some Samsung’s advanced technology for maximizing its HDR performance 4K HDR Pro Engine, 4K color Drive Pro, and more. But unlike SJ8500 that already support most of HDR formats, the HDR formats that supported by MU8000 is not as many as SJ8500. It is already supports HDR 10 and HLG only.

While contrast becomes the drawback of LG SJ8500, it precisely becomes the main strength of good picture quality produced by Samsung MU8000. It is able to display excellent dark scene, even when used in a dark environment. As long as you don’t use it in an extremely bright room, bright scene also looks excellent due it has great peak brightness. Like SJ8500, it is not also certified by Ultra HD Premium Certification due it cannot shows highlight of HDR images at range 1000-4000 nits like what recommended by UHD alliance. Nevertheless, overall, Samsung MU8000 has good picture quality and HDR performance.

Samsung MU8000 is also a great TV when used for watching fast moving images due it has very low pixel response time. It also has the ability to remove judder from any source when used for playing 24p movies, result in smooth and clear picture quality. Additionally, for covering your other electronic devices, MU8000 is also equipped with 4 HDMI ports, 3 USB ports, and other inputs/outputs. Meanwhile, although not as low as LG SJ8500, the input lag of MU8000 is also quite low to play fast paced games comfortably without feel laggy. And as its smart TV platform, it features Tizen OS and supported by a quad core processor where it is not less attractive and responsive than WebOS 3.5.

>> Please click here to see today’s price for the Samsung MU8000 <<

LG SJ8500 vs Samsung MU8000 Key Specs

Specs and Features Samsung MU8000 LG SJ8500
Resolution 4K (2160×3840) 4K (2160×3840)
Sizes Available 49” (UN49MU8000), 55 inch (UN55MU8000), 65” (UN65MU8000), 75” (UN75MU8000), 82 Inch (UN82MU8000) 55 Inch (55SJ8500), 65 Inch (65SJ8500)
Panel Technology VA Panel IPS Panel
Screen Type Flat Flat
Backlighting Technology Edge Lit LED Edge Lit LED
Local Dimming Yes (precision black) Yes
HDR Engine 4K HDR Extreme Active HDR with Dolby Vision
HDR Format HDR 10, HLG HDR 10, HLG, Dolby Vision, Advanced HDR
Color Technology 4K Color Drive Extreme Nano Cell Display (Quantum Dot)
Support 10 Bit Yes Yes
Brightness Enhancement Peak Illuminator Pro Ultra Luminance
UHD Up-scaling Engine Yes Yes (4K Up-scaler)
Other Features Triple Black, UHD Dimming, Ultra Clear Panel, UHD Remastering Engine HDR Effect, True Color Accuracy
Motion Technology Motion Rate 240 TruMotion 240
Native Refresh Rate` 120 Hz 120 Hz
Smart TV Tizen 2017 WebOS 3.5
Processor Quad Core Information not provided
Remote Samsung Smart Remote (TM1750A) LG Magic Remote
HDMI 4 4
USB 3 3
Composite In No 1
Component In No No
RF In (Terrestrial) 1 1
Audio Channel 2.1 2.2
Speaker Type Down Firing + Front Firing Sound Designed by HarmanKardon
Sound Output 40 Watts 40 watts
Price See today’s price See today’s price

LG SJ8500 vs Samsung MU8000 Performance

Picture quality

Since LG SJ8500 and Samsung MU8000 use different type of panel, this certainly makes them also have different characteristic. SJ8500 with IPS panel has wide viewing angle coverage but on the other hand, its black uniformity is not so good and its native contrast ratio is not so strong. Meanwhile, MU8000 with VA panel has poor wide viewing angle coverage, but on the other hand, it can produce good black uniformity and strong native contrast ratio. This makes them have difference performance depend on the light condition of the room where they are used.’

In a dark room

With high native contrast ratio and good dark uniformity, Samsung MU8000 can produce excellent dark scenes when set in a dark room. Black looks really black, results in detail of images in dark scenes looks excellently. With about 4700:1 of native contrast ratio, it can reach about 0.21 nits of black level that means it is far deeper than 0.05 nits as the recommendation set by UHD alliance for displaying HDR 10 videos fully. This means MU8000 is able to display dark scene of HDR image like what intended. On the other hand, although not as bright as Sony X900E or X930E and still far below 1000 nits, peak brightness reached by MU8000 is bright enough to make bright scenes looks excellently in a dark room. Essentially, picture quality of MU8000 is excellent in a dark scene. Meanwhile, due its native contrast ratio and black uniformity is not so good, when set in a dark room, LG SJ8500 is not able to display dark scene looks excellently. Black even looks tend to grey which make that naturalness of images is reduced. Additionally, with about 1400:1 of native contrast ratio, black level reached by SJ8500 is not quite dark to excellently reveal detail of HDR images in dark scene like what intended. On the other hand, bright scene looks bright, but still not as bright as what displayed on the screen of MU8000.

In a bright room

While when set in a moderately bright room with ambient light, picture quality of SJ8500, particularly the dark scene look far better. This is due the impact of low native contrast ratio is not as sensitive as when set in a dark room. Nevertheless, it still cannot display dark scene of HDR image like what intended due the deepest black level reached by it is not darker than 0.05 nits. Additionally, bright scene still looks good due it has decent peak luminance. In a room with this light condition, LG SJ8500 shows maximum performance of its picture quality. Meanwhile, with quite strong native contrast ratio and bright peak luminance, Samsung MU8000 still displays excellent dark and bright scene, so SDR and HDR images displayed looks well.  Nevertheless, it still cannot shows highlight of HDR images at 1000 nits-4000 nits like what intended. Overall, in this light condition, both of Samsung MU8000 and LG SJ8500 show good picture quality. But since MU8000 has far stronger contrast and a bit brighter peak brightness than SJ8500, picture displayed on the screen of MU8000 also looks better than SJ8500. Meanwhile, when set in an extremely bright room where there are a lot of lights or sunlight coming in through the window, both of them cannot show the maximum picture quality. This is due peak luminance reached by them is not bright enough to fight the glare. But even so, since Samsung MU8000 has brighter peak brightness, particularly when inputted by HDR signals, this certainly also makes the picture displayed on the screen of MU8000 looks better SJ8500.

Despite picture quality of Samsung MU8000 is better than LG SJ8500, essentially, both of them offer good picture quality for their class. Additionally, although they are not able to shows highlight of HDR images at 1000-4000 nits of brightness range, HDR performance offered by them still can be said well. Meanwhile, since not many people watch TV in a dark or extremely bright room, the drawback of SJ8500 when set in a dark and an extremely bright room and the drawback of MU8000 when set in extremely bright room should not be a problem for most of people. Usually, there is ambient light on the room where they are watching TV.

Color Performance

Both of Samsung MU8000 and LG SJ8500 already supports wide color gamut. Although not as wide as high end TVs like LG OLED TV or Samsung QLED TV, at least they can equally reproduce most of colors in DCI P3 color space of HDR images fairly well. The result, color of the picture displayed on their screen looks very accurate, even when displayed HDR images which mastered with wide color gamut. There are only few color which displayed a bit unsaturated, particularly deep colors and some very dark color. But even so, overall, their color reproduction is great. As we know, for displaying the color of HDR images like what intended, particularly when displaying HDR 10 videos, an HDR TV must be able to cover at least 90% of DCI P3 color space, while color gamut delivered by them is wider than this minimum recommendation.  Meanwhile, talking about color gradient, both of them also already support 10 bit depth of color that means they can deliver more than 1.07 billion shades of color. Although SJ8500 offer a bit better color gradient than MU8000, particularly on dark shades of color, but overall, their color gradient is equally great.

UHD Up-scaling Engine

Both of Samsung MU8000 and LG SJ8500 are equally equipped with great performance of UHD Up-scaling engine. This allows you to watch lower resolution video contents with the quality close 4K.The final image in 4K displayed on their screen equally looks clear and sharp. Even the low resolution content like DVD movies with 480p resolution looks well in 4K quality. And the higher resolution of the video source like movies from Cable TV with 720p resolution or Blu Ray movies with 1080p resolution, the final image in 4K produced will looks shaper and clearer with a lot of small details are preserved well. Additionally, with HDR effect feature, SJ8500 even able to improve the brightness range of the picture, so allows you to enjoy every content with the quality close to 4K HDR.

Side viewing angle

The use of IPS panel might make LG SJ8500 has low native contrast ratio and poor black uniformity. But on the hand, it offer wider range of side viewing angle than Samsung MU8000 that uses VA Panel. The impact will be noticeable when you are watching TV from side viewing angle. Started at 20 degrees off center and front, the picture displayed on the screen of MU8000 will look degraded with the degradation of black level and the shifting of color. Meanwhile, on the screen of SJ8500, the quality of the picture will looks more consistent, even when you are watching TV from wider viewing angle. With performance offered by them, this certainly make SJ8500 is better when used in a wide room with viewers come from multiple viewing angles.

Winner: Samsung MU8000

Motion Handling and 24p Playback

Both of Samsung MU8000 and LG SJ8500 equally do a great job when handling motion blur. The result, when they are displaying fast moving image like sports program or fast of them, both of them equally produce smooth and clear picture quality with almost no motion blur. Although pixel response time of MU8000 is lower than SJ8500, but essentially, both of them equally have very low pixel response time. The result, following fast moving object, there is only a short trail that should not be distracting, even most people might not notice about that. Meanwhile, when displaying 24p movies, both of them also equally offer great performance. No matter the source, whether it is 24p videos like Blu-Ray Movies, 24p videos via 60p signals like movies from streaming device, or 24p videos via 60i signals like movies from satellite TV, all of them displayed clearly and smoothly with judder-free on their screen. Nevertheless, for removing judder, you must set certain setting on their “Picture Setting”. On the LG SJ8500, you just need to activate “Real Cinema” option from “Picture Option”, while on Samsung MU8000, you need to set the “Auto Motion Plus Setting” to “Custom”, “Judder Reduction” to “0”, and “Blur Reduction” to “0”.

Winner: Samsung MU8000

Inputs/Outputs

Samsung One Connect Box

Both LG SJ8500 and Samsung MU8000 are equally equipped with similar inputs/outputs. As their major connectivity, they are equally equipped with 4 HDMI ports and 3 USB Ports. Additionally, there are also 1 RF In (Antenna In), Ethernet, and Digital Audio Out (Optical). On the other hand, both of them are equally not equipped with Component In. A bit difference is about Composite In where SJ8500 is equipped with1 input while MU8000 is not equipped with this input. The other difference is about where all of these inputs/outputs are located. On LG SJ8500, all of their connectivity ports are located on the rear and side of the panel while on Samsung MU8000, most of its inputs/outputs are located on separated box called “One Connect Box”. Meanwhile, talking about their input lag, LG SJ8500 has lower input lag than Samsung MU8000. Nevertheless, although not as low as SJ8500, the input lag of MU8000 is quite low to make playing fast paced games feel responsively without laggy.

Winner: LG SJ8500

Smart TV Platform

As we see on comparison table above, Samsung MU800 features Tizen 2017 OS as its smart TV platform and powered by a quad core processor, while LG SJ8500 features WebOS 3.5 as its smart TV platform, both of these smart TV platforms are equally simple, responsive, and attractive.  Their layout is equally designed attractively and simple to navigate. If on WebOS, there is strip bar across the bottom of the screen contains quick access to most of popular or your favorite apps, on Tizen, there is also a ribbon at the bottom of the screen that also contains quick access to most of poplar apps or your favorite apps. This allows you to launch apps provided without leaving the home screen. Additionally, both of these OS are also offer fast and responsive performance.  Launch an apps or selecting between apps on both equally feel fastly and responsively. Meanwhile, apps provided also equally very complete and diverse. There are VoD service like YouTube, Netflix, Amazon Videos, Hulu, and more, Web browser, Games, and many more. A bit difference is about default apps by the manufacturer.

As the controller, Samsung MU8000 is equipped with “Samsung Smart Controller”, while LG SJ8500 comes with “LG Magic Remote”. Both of these remote is equally equipped with built-ion microphone for voice command or voice search.  Additionally, they are also equally can be functioned as universal remote. While talking about the buttons”, Samsung remote has fewer buttons than LG magic remote. The major advantage of LG Magic Remote, there is scroll wheel for “point and click” functionality. This has a function like mouse on notebook that makes inputting the texts or surfing on the internet feel more comfortably and easily.

Winner: LG SJ8500

>> Please click here to see today’s price for the SJ8500 <<

>> Please click here to see today’s price for the MU8000 <<

Summary

Performance Samsung MU8000 LG SJ8500
Design (4.5/5) (4.8/5)
Picture Quality (3.8/5) (3.5/5)
HDR Performance (3.9/5) (3.6/5)
Motion Handling (4.3/5) (4.2/5)
Inputs (4.4/5) (4.9/5)
Sound Quality (3.3/5) (3.7/5)
Smart TV (4.1/5) (4.1/5)

Conclusion

As we have discussed a lot above, the major advantage of Samsung MU8000 is about its strong native contrast ratio and better black uniformity that makes its offer better picture quality, particularly when set in a dark environment. Otherwise, the major advantage of LG SJ8500 is about its wider viewing angle that makes it is better when used in a wide room with viewers watch TV from multiple viewing angles. Meanwhile, about other features, although MU8000 and SJ8500 has advantage and disadvantage to each other, but essentially, the difference performance that offered by them is not too significant.

So, which TV is a better choice between them? If you have a plan to use it in a wide room with a lot of viewers come from multiple viewing angles, LG SJ8500 with IPS panel certainly is a better choice for you. Meanwhile, if picture quality is your main consideration in buying TV and you have don’t a plan to use it in a wide room, Samsung MU8000 certainly is better choice for you. No the decision comes back to you according to your need and preferences.

>> Please click here to see today’s price for the LG SJ8500 <<

>> Please click here to see today’s price for the Samsung MU8000 <<

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