Samsung UN55C9000 55 inch 3D LED TV

Apr 3rd, 2011 | By Simon

For a flagship TV, the 55C9000 comes in a very generic and boring brown box. If you’re looking for a TV you probably did your homework and when you’ve decided with the 55C9000 the lack of writing or color on the package isn’t going to change your mind. On the box we see the size printed on the bottom corner and a few features listed: Ultra Slim Wallmount, Touch Remote, Wireless LAN Adapter, Ultimate Slim, Full HD 3D and Internet@TV.

Once the box is opened, the LED TV is protected by a soft wrap that keeps dust and debris off the expensive panel.

A number of smaller boxes are packaged between the protective Styrofoam enclosures. One box is solely for the Ultra Slim Wallmount and the second is the accessories including the remote controls, manual, wireless adapters and cables.

There are three main accessories included with the 55C9000: the Touch Control remote, the Mini Remote Control and the Samsung Wireless LAN Adapter.

The Touch Control remote uses a rechargeable battery where the Mini Remote Control requires a small lithium ion battery. On the bottom of the remote is an earphone jack, this is a great addition and allows you to listen to audio late at night without waking the whole house up by using the TV speakers!

One additional accessory is the USB extender, depending on whether or not the TV is mounted to the wall or the basestand one or the other extender is required. The Wireless LAN Adapter plugs into one end of the adapter and the free end goes into the back of your TV. Sound simple? It is!

Let’s move onto the screen, the UN55C9000 sits on a rectangular brushed titanium base and the trim around the TV is also brushed titanium. This is a change from the glass bezels found in other models. There is no assembly required when you purchase the UN55C9000, right out of the box you can plug the power in, connect the cable and start watching TV. If you place the TV in the corner, the screen pivots like all good TVs. The screen can rotate approximately 15 degrees.

Facing the TV, there are two LEDs on either bottom corner. One flickers when the Touch Control is in use and the other responds to 3D play back.

A remote control generally isn’t the most interesting device to talk about but with the Samsung UN55C9000 it can’t be overlooked. For starters, you get two remotes. The Mini Remote Control works great for simple channel surfing and is the Go-To device on a nightly basis. However, when it comes to switching inputs and sources or configuring the TV to your preference you need to work with the Touch Control Remote. The problem lies when you forget to charge the remote and the batteries are drained. I found the Lithium Ion was good for a little over a week even with limited use. That’s not a lot of time and you’ll need to get into the habit of charging it after every use.

When you have the UN55C9000 Touch Control remote powered and in your hands it works much like any touch screen Smartphone. The display slides to reveal additional buttons. The basic screen is the channel number input. A slight to the right gives you access to the menu and hot keys. If you press on the Services tab you can quickly launch a number of different features and sliding the screen gives you even more features. You open up a navigation keypad by pressing the little arrow on the screen. If you wanted to be over the top, the Touch Control does allow you to display your TV screen on the touch screen. This is definitely a bit over the top but if you like to brag keep this in your back pocket. The Touch Control is also smart in the sense that it can be programmed to replace all of your other remotes. The IR Receiver is located right beside the headphone jack.

While using the Touch Control remote, particularly navigating through the menus with the navigation keypad, I found the screen to be very sensitive and would jump to the wrong key. More often than not this would mean pressing the ExitDown or Right. This would negate everything I did up to that point and it would drive me nuts more than a few times. I would have liked to move the Exit button so it is not by the most popular keys or perhaps create a physical navigation keypad like the Volume and Channel buttons. If you can get over the learning curve and place your fingers in the right spots than the Touch Control remote won’t bother you one bit. For me, after two months of using the remote I still don’t have a good handle on it.

Going back to the TV, from the top we can really see how thin the UN55C9000 actually is. It’s truly amazing and an envy to everyone that has come to visit.

On the backside of the TV there is not very much to see, it’s completely flat. The wall mount is secured to the top. Samsung treats the TV stand like a picture frame with the Ultra Slim Wallmount. Basically a wire is strung between the two screws and you hang it to a wall!

All of the inputs to the TV are recessed on the base making it very easy to hide. This can make it a bit challenging to work with but hiding all the cables gives off a very clean sharp look. For the number of times you need to screw in a coaxial cable or HDMI cable, it’s worth the trouble to make it all concealed.