Samsung Crystal DU8000 UN85DU8000F 85" Class Smart LED Review

The Samsung Crystal DU8000 85-inch TV is a budget-friendly giant screen best for streaming movies with good HDR. Its picture and audio are average, and it's not for gaming, but it delivers a huge 4K experience for around $1,700.

If you're hunting for a massive 85-inch screen at a surprisingly reasonable price, the Samsung Crystal DU8000 is going to catch your eye. For around $1,700, it's one of the more affordable ways to get a truly cinematic 4K TV in this size class. It's a standard LED-LCD panel, not a fancy Mini-LED or OLED, but it packs Samsung's Crystal processor and supports HDR10+ and HLG. The smart features are solid, with built-in Google Assistant, Alexa, and Bixby, making it a decent hub for streaming and basic smart home control. People often search for 'big screen TV under $2,000' or 'best 85-inch TV for streaming,' and this model squarely fits that bill.

Our database shows this TV's strengths and weaknesses pretty clearly. It's a specialist, not a jack-of-all-trades. Its HDR support scores in the 94th percentile, which is excellent for the price, meaning you'll get decent dynamic range from compatible Netflix or Prime Video content. The smart platform is also strong, landing in the 88th percentile. But the picture quality score sits in the 43rd percentile, which tells us the overall image clarity and color accuracy are just average compared to other TVs. The audio is even lower, at the 32nd percentile, so you'll almost certainly want a soundbar. And for gamers, the 26th percentile gaming score means it's not a great choice for fast-paced titles—the response time and features just aren't there.

At $1,669, the value proposition is simple: you're trading premium picture tech for sheer size. This is a budget-friendly giant. You could spend the same money on a much smaller but far superior OLED from LG, or a slightly smaller but brighter Mini-LED from Hisense. If your primary goal is to fill a wall with a 4K image for movie nights and Netflix binges, and you're okay with middling audio and non-gaming performance, this price makes sense.

Let's name some competitors. The Hisense U6 Series Mini-LED offers better brightness and contrast at a similar price, but you'd likely get a 75-inch screen instead of 85. The LG OLED evo G5 is a completely different beast—incredible picture quality, but for this price you'd be looking at a 65-inch or maybe 77-inch model, sacrificing size for performance. The Samsung QN800D Neo QLED is this TV's fancy cousin, with much better specs but a much higher price tag. For a similar-sized screen, you'd probably be looking at the Sony BRAVIA 5, which uses Mini-LED tech and would likely outperform the DU8000 in picture quality, but again, at a higher cost.

Skip this TV if you're a console or PC gamer—its slow response and lack of gaming features will disappoint. Also skip it if your living room is very bright, as it doesn't fight glare well. And if your priority is the absolute best picture quality, not just a big screen, you should look at smaller OLED or Mini-LED models from LG, Sony, or Hisense at a similar budget.

Should you buy this? If you want the biggest possible screen for your budget and your main use is streaming movies and TV shows in a dim or normal living room, yes, it's a straightforward pick. The HDR is good, the smart features work well, and the price for an 85-inch is hard to beat. But if you care more about image quality than size, or if you're a gamer, or if your room is super bright, you should skip it. There are better TVs for those needs, even if they're smaller.