While white tones hardly pop from the screen, they’re clean and equally detailed – so while contrasts are far from the widest you’ve ever seen (even at this unremarkable price-point), they’re convincing nevertheless. Set-up menus are similarly logical, and strike a nice balance between brevity and comprehensiveness. Achieving a picture that scrolls smoothly, defines edges confidently, and is decently bright and detailed, shouldn’t take long. Getting a colour balance you’re convinced by may take just a little longer. Nevertheless, the Samsung UE50AU9000 is a very capable gaming monitor,. Its response times are well below 10ms and almost all the picture-quality positives already discussed hold true for games, too. And the ability to mimic the super-wide 32:9 aspect ratio beloved of some PC games is handy – even if the resulting image is more letterboxing than actual picture. Sound quality To start, I think it is important to cover the expectations on image quality and the use cases for the Samsung AU9000. It is not a TV for critical film or HDR viewing due to the inherent limitations of the TV and the LED LCD technology being used. It is simply not bright enough to provide HDR with full dynamic range and the colour performance is not quite wide enough compared to the higher-end models but, once you are aware and accept these limitations, we can assess the AU9000 fairly. And while Samsung can’t claim HDMI 2.1 specification, all three of the HDMI inputs here go further towards accommodating next-gen consoles than the model the AU9000 replaces. Auto Low Latency Mode and AMD FreeSync are catered for, and PC gamers will be pleased to learn there’s a facility to replicate the ultra-wide 32:9 aspect ratio some games can run at, too.

The bezel across the bottom is a little wider, and stands proud of the screen just a little, but I wouldn’t call it unsightly. ‘Inoffensive’ is sometimes a put-down, but not in this instance. Look directly at it when the TV isn’t switched on, and this Samsung is the best sort of inoffensive. Closer in on the action, there’s still plenty of intensity to the colours, if not quite the same subtlety as we saw at 4K. There are plenty of layers to the blue of Electro’s pulsing form, the yellow of the New York taxis is as we’d expect and the bright red and blue of Spidey’s outfit looks great against the night-time streets. With TVs getting slimmer and built-in speakers getting smaller, choosing the right sound system is more important than ever. Soundbars enhance your TV's sound quality and add that extra audio punch to all your movies, games and TV programmes. More affordable and easier to set up than a full size speaker system, they don't compromise on quality either. Percentage luminance drop at 20 degree vertical angle from the centre of the screen with 100% white output The bad news for the Samsung UE50AU9000 is that it shows just enough weakness when it comes to its handling of very dark scenes and native 4K sharpness to open itself up to challenge by some of the cheaper stars of the budget TV firmament.If you’re intending to see the Samsung AU9000 TV perform at its best, then you’ll need to serve it some native 4K content with HDR10+ augmentation – because, as is always the case (and as is always galling) with Samsung, there’s no Dolby Vision dynamic metadata HDR standard on the spec-sheet.

Last year’s Samsung LED TVs were not as gifted for sound as they were for picture performance and it’s the same balance again. There are three main audio settings to choose from – Standard, Adaptive and Amplified – and they offer increasing levels of weight, but at the expense of clarity. Ultimately, we choose the middle option, but even a budget soundbar will offer a big improvement. And where edge definition and motion control are concerned, the Samsung UE50AU9000 is similarly confident. With content of this standard there’s just no suggestion of the Samsung losing its grip of on-screen movement, and it draws edges with a deft and steady hand. There’s a definite suggestion of three-dimensionality to the 50AU9000’s images that most comparably priced alternatives would struggle to match. It’s not uncommon for a mainstream TV to betray its price-point more readily with the sound it makes than with the images it produces. And so it proves with the Samsung AU9000 TV.Where the AU9000 puts clear blue water between itself and its cheaper siblings, though, is with its gaming features. For, unlike the other AU ranges, the AU9000’s three HDMIs can support both VRR (variable refresh rate) and 120Hz signals. This instantly makes the UE50AU9000 a much more compelling option as a monitor for a PS5, Xbox Series X or a PC with a new high-end Nvidia or AMD graphics card – even though the 120Hz support can only be sustained at 1080p resolutions rather than 4K. Finally, we have the menus and Smart TV system and like all Samsung models at any price point, the same technology is employed across the entire range. Tizen is a superb operating system with almost every major application supported, along with fast and reactive processing, allowing things to work without any hanging or crashing. The menus are also a simple design that makes it very easy for users of any ability to find what they are looking for and make their desired changes. Max light output HDR (high dynamic range) while displaying a live scene and white square taking up 10% of the screen (measured in Nits) If everything we watched on TV happened to be bright, the 50AU8000 would work just fine. Its pictures skew brighter than usual for such an affordable TV, and this joins forces with some serious colour punch to really sell the HDR dream when you’re watching really light images. Max light output HDR (high dynamic range) while displaying small white square taking up 10% of the screen (measured in Nits)