Sony UBP-X700 (2017) vs Samsung UBD-K8500 (2016)

The Sony UBP-X700 (2017) makes for an outstanding Blu-ray Player at $189. The Samsung UBD-K8500 (2016), however, while overall a good product for its asking price, doesn't quite manage to stand out from its competition - there are better Blu-ray Players that can be found for around $420 available here.

The Sony UBP-X700 (2017) was loved by reviewers at CNET, a highly trusted source that performs reliable in-depth testing. It did great in its "Best Blu-ray Player for 2023" roundup where it was named its "Ranked 1 out of 4", which, in itself, makes it a product worth considering.

Moving on to the Samsung UBD-K8500 (2016): it was unable to reach the very top of any roundups from sources that conduct reliable and unbiased testing. Nonetheless, it still managed to impress reviewers from a number of such sites, like HomeTheaterReview.com, CNET, Expert Reviews, soundandvision.com, TrustedReviews, AVForums, PCmag, Techradar, and What Hi-Fi?, enough for them to include them on those lists.

Out of the sources that tested and rated both of these Blu-ray Players, What Hi-Fi?, AVForums, and TrustedReviews preferred the Sony UBP-X700 (2017), whereas reviewers at CNET liked the Samsung UBD-K8500 (2016) better. Top Ten Reviews and Digitaltrends gave them identical review scores.

We also took a look at which sources liked these products best - the highest Sony UBP-X700 (2017) rating came from What Hi-Fi?, whereas the Samsung UBD-K8500 (2016) most impressed reviewers at HomeTheaterReview.com; they earned scores of 10 and 9, respectively.

Lastly, we averaged out all of their review ratings and observed that the Sony UBP-X700 (2017), with its 8.7 average, performed considerably better than most Blu-ray Players - the mean score for the product category being 8.1 out of 10 - while the Samsung UBD-K8500 (2016) managed an average of 7.9.

There's one caveat here - it might not be entirely justifiable to do a direct Sony UBP-X700 (2017) vs. Samsung UBD-K8500 (2016) review average comparison since they aren't priced the same and more expensive products tend to get higher review scores from some sources.