Samsung UN32F6300 Review (UN32F6300AF)

Weaknesses

Neutral

Picture Quality Rating: 9.2

Picture quality is very similar to the F6400 on the UN32F6300. There is no micro dimming so it's missing that extra boost in conrtast and black levels. Black performance on the F6300 is strong for an LED TV as long as you keep the backlight control located in the picture settings at a reasonable level and as long as you are not viewing from off center. Side viewing angle quality is compromised by degrading contrast and fading colors from extreme side angles. While this is inherently a problem with LED backlighting. It is especially prevalent on the F6300. Keeping the backlight at a reasonable level helps a bit. The the black bars appearing when watching 16:9 content appear rich and inky from front and center, but appear more dark purple from the sides. This TV also features a full 10-point white balance adjustment option out of the box that makes getting colors accurate a breeze.

The F6300 gives a good sense of depth in this shot, even without 3D like the F6400 has. The contrast in this shot leads to some elements being washed out in the background

Colors are accurate and calibrate to D6500K easily. The 32F6300 is loaded with tons of extra picture adjustment options, most of which we recommend just leaving off. Some you might want to play around with to find your preference.

Auto Motion Plus

We recommend no matter what picture mode you watch, that you go into this setting in the Advanced Picture menu, tune the feature to Custom then turn the Blur Reduction to 10, and the Judder Reduction to 0. Or you can just set it to off. The judder reduction part of this feature does too much to distort the picture including eliminating too much natural background blur, actually accentuating judder/jerky motion effects when the camera pans slowly, and creating motion artifacts.

This shot is a good example for color rendition on the F6300. Colors are bright without being over saturated. Also a fair amount of detail comes through in light and dark areas, although we have seen better performance out of LCD/LED TVs

Gaming - Very Responsive Game Mode

Getting to the Game Mode
Go to the Systems menu near the bottom of the main menu. Scroll down to the General settings and open that menu. Game Mode is located here. It seems like a pain to dig into the menus like this to turn it on or off.

Okami HD really brought out the colors of the F6300. Game mode is perfect for an action game like this one

Turning on the Game Mode is the best way to go for gaming on the UN32F6400. The picture mode in Game Mode has its own settings, and initially look pretty bad. Standard is the only available picture mode while Game Mode is on. Take the time to turn the sharpness down to 10 or less, the Color Space to Auto, Dynamic Contrast to Off, Color Tone to Warm1, and the Screen Size to Screen Fit. Adjust the Backlight and Brightness to your personal preference. This will provide a decent picture quality as well as a cut down on input lag. This made Okami HD and Crysis for the PS3 look fantastic and the input lag was negligible at a decent 30ms.

This input lag test shows how important the game mode is for reducing input lag on this LED TV. First person shooters are going to see some of the best results of this low input lag

Features Rating: 8.6

Smart Hub - Lots of Options

Samsung still has the best Internet Apps selection with categories: Videos, Most Popular, Games, Sports, Lifestyle, Information, Education. There is much better free content than the other brands out there and the paid Apps are better and more reasonably priced as well. The Premium Apps such as the movie services, sports and music are also top notch and include the usual Netflix, You Tube (though we like the normal You Tube through the Browser better), Facebook (same here), Twitter, Vudu, Amazon, Hulu Plus. Thanks to the new HVEC Codec mentioned below streaming video looks much better.

See our full article about Samsung's Smart TV 2013 here.

Dual Core Processor

The 32F6300 is a multitasker's dream because of the dual core processor. The same processor is seen in the series above and below the F6300. This makes viewing content and searching around the Smart Hub speedy, an area of criticism in the previous model ES6100. The F6300 missed out even faster quad-core processors seen in models higher up in the lineup.

Remote and Menu System – Very Nice

Here is a shot of the menu. It's easy to read and navigate between the menus. The right-hand side shows everything that is in the sub-menu or gives an explanation of the menu item

Samsung's 2013 menu system is organized very well and easy to use. It's also colorful and attractive and the tutorial beside various settings are included and good information to explain some of the more complicated picture settings that you probably do not want to use, but may be curious about. Dedicated keys on the backlit remote take you to Smart TV options on the 32F6300.

Wifi and Web Browser Included

The Web Browser on the F6300 defaults to a Bing search bar. The browser is slow to use with the 5-way controller on the remote but loads content quickly and the Wifi connectivity is also improved over last years model.

HVEC Codec – Vast improvement in Streaming Content

The Codec device which is used to disseminate and play streaming video content from Internet based services is vastly improved from last years models. If you've noted how poor the video quality can be from services like You Tube or Vudu then you know you will be happy that this has been a focal point for Samsung. This new Codec improves the presentation by leaps. It can take scratchy content and display at what looks like 480p resolution. We could actually see the Codec process and clean up poor images when streaming video from various sources first started.

Inputs

4 HDMI inputs and 3 USB inputs head up a very complete load of inputs for connectivity.

Design and Appearance

The design is just like the F6400, but with a silver stand

The UN32F6300 is attractive with an understated design. The thin charcoal black half inch framing bezel has an acrylic clear edge and the panel is around 2 inches in depth. Some may not care for the “quadrapod” 4-legged stand, but it's not bad and at least its not chrome for this model. It does conveniently swivel 15 to 20 degrees.

Value – Bang for the Buck Rating: 7/10

The UN32F6300 is not a very value-oriented TV in the 32” size range at $599. It offers instead one of the better qualities you will find in 32 inches even without 3D and the touch pad remote control. The LG 32LN5700 is a fairly close competitor.

Overall Rating: 8.2