When comparing Samsung MU9000 55" (UN55MU9000) vs Sony X850E 75" (XBR75X850E), the Slant community recommends Samsung MU9000 55" (UN55MU9000) for most people. In the question“What are the best TVs?” Samsung MU9000 55" (UN55MU9000) is ranked 34th while Sony X850E 75" (XBR75X850E) is ranked 48th. The most important reason people chose Samsung MU9000 55" (UN55MU9000) is:
The MU9000 can produce really detailed pictures, especially in dark scenes thanks to its really deep black levels. It has a contrast ratio of about 6000:1, which enables it to produce blacks that are 6000 times darker than the brightest white. The colors are lifelike and accurate even without any calibration by the user. They will look really vibrant even in bright scenes because of the panel’s high peak brightness levels of ~400 nits for SDR & ~450 nits for HDR. Even in a decently-lit environment, the MU9000's picture quality can still hold up - the panel is excellent at handling reflections thanks to its glossy finish, and it can get bright enough to fight off glare.
Specs
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Pros
Pro Great picture quality
The MU9000 can produce really detailed pictures, especially in dark scenes thanks to its really deep black levels. It has a contrast ratio of about 6000:1, which enables it to produce blacks that are 6000 times darker than the brightest white.
The colors are lifelike and accurate even without any calibration by the user. They will look really vibrant even in bright scenes because of the panel’s high peak brightness levels of ~400 nits for SDR & ~450 nits for HDR.
Even in a decently-lit environment, the MU9000's picture quality can still hold up - the panel is excellent at handling reflections thanks to its glossy finish, and it can get bright enough to fight off glare.
Pro Good for HDR content
On top of its great picture quality, the MU9000 has a high HDR peak brightness level and wide color gamut that makes it good for HDR.
Shadows look pretty good with nice details, and highlights are quite vibrant thanks to the peak brightness level of ~450 nits.
The panel can reproduce the wide range of colors required for true HDR playback because of its wide color gamut, which covers ~60% of the standard colors required for HDR according to the Rec. 2020 color space. This is considered decent enough for reproducing HDR details, and it can display these colors accurately at different brightness levels.
It’s worth noting that while the MU9000 has local dimming that’s supposed to make HDR better, the local dimming is worthless and doesn’t do much. It increases the contrast ratio by a meager amount and does nothing else.
Pro Excellent at handling glare
The MU9000's panel has a glossy finish that reduce reflections significantly. This makes it excellent at fighting glare, along with its adequate brightness levels of ~400 nits for SDR & ~450 nits for HDR.
Pro Suitable for gaming and watching sports
The MU9000 is pretty versatile. On top of its great picture quality, it has features that makes it perform quite well for gaming and sports.
It offers a responsive and fluid gaming experience . Players will have no issues keeping their actions in sync with what’s on the display, and fast-moving objects won’t leave any trails on the screen. That is thanks to the low input lag of ~25ms and the panel’s quick response time of ~15ms, which virtually eliminates motion blur.
It’s also great for watching sports because of the almost non-existent motion blur that makes fast-moving objects look smooth. The panel is also pretty uniform meaning it has no issues with displaying large, same-color objects on screen, like football fields.
Pro Inputs are very accessible
The MU9000 comes with a OneConnect box which moves all the hard-to-access rear inputs away from the TV. Thanks to this, you’ll always have full access to all inputs and outputs of the TV even if it’s wall-mounted. The OneConnect box can also be used as a USB charging hub.
Pro Intuitive user interface
The MU9000 runs on the Tizen smart platform, known for its simplicity and intuitiveness.
It’s easy to navigate and access all the functions of features of the TV. The Tizen OS menus are organized around the “Smart Hub” which contains everything: apps, settings, input switching and others. It also has a section for quick access to frequently used items.
Pro Remote has a voice command feature
The MU9000's remote has a voice command feature that can perform actions as you physically would with the remote, and it can even be used to adjust settings directly.
Pro Great at upscaling low-res content
The MU9000 can upscale 480p, 720p, and 1080p content to 4K quite well. The upscaled content has almost no noticeable artifacts, and all the details are preserved.
Pro Capable of smooth 24p content playback
The MU9000 is great at dealing with 24p content, such as Blu-rays or media sourced from an cable or satellite box. It can detect and eliminate the judder effect present in these content, where images displayed can appear jittery.
Pro Decent for HDR content
The X850E has a wide color gamut that allows it to reproduce the colors necessary for true HDR, and it has an average peak brightness level of ~400 nits that allows it to light up these colors properly. Thanks to that, HDR pictures look decent and highlights will look fairly good.
However, the HDR performance can’t get better than that, due to the average peak brightness of ~400 nits which isn’t really enough for details to truly stand out, and it lacks local dimming.
Pro Good for sports
The X850E looks fluid thanks to its excellent color uniformity and decent handling of motion.
It can display large, same-color objects like football fields really well - they will look natural and uniform.
Fast-moving objects, like football, will also look smooth. The panel only requires ~14ms to fully change the pixels color, resulting in fast-moving objects not leaving any trails on the screen, eliminating virtually all motion blur.
Pro Great ecosystem of third-party apps
The X850E runs on Android TV that has access to the Google Play Store. The Play Store has a nice selection of apps, but normal Android apps won't work unless they support Android TV.
Pro Decent picture quality
The X850E looks really good in dark scenes, thanks to its decent contrast ratio of 4500:1 and excellent black uniformity.
It can produce blacks that are 4500 times darker than the brightest white, and the black uniformity is especially good - there’s barely visible flashlighting, where edges of the screen have a light on them when displaying a black image, and the screen is evenly bright. This makes it perform really well in dark scenes.
Colors look vibrant because of the panel’s high peak brightness levels of ~350 nits for SDR & ~400 nits for HDR. With these brightness levels, it can get bright enough to fight glare. Along with its great handling of reflections, pictures will still look good in decently-lit environments without dull colors.
Pro Interface is ads-free
There are no ads on the X850E’s interface.
Pro Excellent motion interpolation capabilities
The X850E can increase the framerate of content to either 60Hz or 120Hz.
It guesses which frames are missing based on the previous and next frame, and inserts the missing frame in between them. This produces a really strong soap opera effect, where images look really smooth.
This might look weird to some people that don't like it, but the X850E can do this really well for those who enjoy it.
Pro Suitable for gaming
The X850 has a relatively low input lag of ~35ms that makes it a decent pick for gaming. Most players will feel in sync, however, it might be a little unresponsive for competitive or demanding gamers.
It’s also acceptable for HDR gaming because the input lag does not increase in HDR mode.
Pro Excellent for 24p content
The X850E is an excellent option for those who watch content from an antenna/satellite box, DVD/Blu-ray player or Apple TV. It can detect eliminate jerky playback that is common in content from these sources.
Pro Offers best value for screen size in this price bracket
The X850E has the largest screen size at 65” for the cheapest when compared to its direct competitors. Similarly-sized models from its direct competitors cost much more.
Cons
Con Mediocre sound quality
The sound quality of MU9000's built-in speakers is mediocre. It sounds quite bassy and the clarity is reduced at higher volumes - you might have a hard time following dialogues at higher volumes because of this. There’s also distortion at higher volumes.
Con Not suitable for group watching
The MU9000 has a narrow viewing angle that makes it unsuitable for watching with groups.
Audience sitting away from the center of the screen will not experience the same picture as those sitting in the center, because the picture quality starts to deteriorate significantly when viewing from just ≥20° away from the screen's center - the colors will start looking dull and blacks will look like greys.
Con Lacks support for Dolby Vision
The MU9000 currently only supports the HDR10 format for HDR content.
Con Interface has ads
There are ads that can't be removed on the MU9000's interface.
Con Not a good value for money
The MU9000 is a great TV, but the retail price can be off-putting for some because the picture quality and features it offers are present in other similarly-priced models, e.g. the Sony X900E. This TV can be really worth it when on sale, or if Samsung offers better after-sales service in your region.
Con Not suitable for group watching
The X850E has a narrow viewing angle that makes it unsuitable for watching with groups.
Its picture quality starts to deteriorate significantly when viewing from just ≥20° away from the screen's center. The colors will start degrading really quickly.
Con Might require color calibration
Some viewers might find the X850E’s white balance to be slightly off out of the box, so a brief calibration might be required if you notice it. Fortunately, all the optimal color settings are available on the internet and isn’t hard to find.