Samsung UN58RU7100FXZA Flat 58-Inch 4K UHD 7 Series Ultra HD Smart TV with HDR and Alexa Compatibility (2019 Model)

I've learned the hard way to read those reviews first. I go straight to the one star ratings and allow my fear to rise proportionate to amount of money needed to purchase. I've been reading these reviews for two years. Prices became more affordable. I'm a savvy internet user and my friends think I'm a guru on computers. Most of the nays I read appeared to mes a reflection of ISP's who take advantage of the People's trust. I chose to hard wire my LAN since it's considered safer to begin with. I pay for 10mbps bandwidth. I got good reception on 1.5 mbps until more computers were added. I upgraded to 3mbps and that worked well until I added more peripherals to the network so I went with the 10mbps. I found myself doing speed tests all the time. My ISP's speed tests appeared to be lying. I went from one speedtest to another, as public trust disintegrated and my ISP had to buy into those other testers so they wouldn't look like a crook. If you spend a lot of time on the net, you get used to good behavior and know when there's shenanigans being played. After all, when you've got a monopoly in the area, what's a gal gonna do? I contacted my state attorney and given new information discovered my ISP has been sued so often for bad behavior, taking them to court was a waste of time. Each time they were fined, they simply increased their rates.Back to my Samsung 7100 (2019 model). Like most people I expected some crystal clear picture. I'm a spoiled Mac user when it comes to awesome retina displays so how much better can a Samsung picture be? It was good, almost as good as my Mac screens, just larger and held sharpness across the room. The reason I bought a 50" is so I could read the text on YouTube from across the room. I couldn't believe I was still having trouble, with grey text on a off white background. So I increased the contrast in the hopes that would work. My son came over and gave the whole thing a big boost in color and sharpness and asked if I wanted natural or cool tones. I chose the first natural warm and it's picture perfect and I'm very pleased with the Samsung.There's no lag detected with the ethernet connection fed directly to the ISP's modem. I bought a Cisco 16 port Switch for my art studio and have had no loss of performance on my LAN. I read you can daisy chain modems and rid yourself of lag to altogether. I was prepared to try it if needed.It's hard to say how smart the features are since the Remote is the most challenging of all. I was used to a 32" TCL Roku TV. It's so simple and easy to use I don't even have to look at it. If anyone knows what those A B C D colored buttons do, I'd sure like to know.I bought an Alexa e-bot speaker. I also had a Roku3 on hand. I always go to YouTube seeking a tutorial on setup challenges to measure the stress involved. According to what I've read and watched the tutorials Samsung's smartness says you can install the Roku player without a Roku Remote. SCARY! I already have a Roku account for my bedroom TVs, so adding that player should be as easy as Hulu, Netflix and YouTube sign ups. I followed Samsung's advice and went to Roku and was scared off by the type of questions being asked. These are security type questions you don't want to put it out there on a wireless connection. Do I want to risk a hack after hearing Putin has a financial interest in Facebook?One of the techy tutorials compared Alexa to Google play's speaker. I went with Alexa since I didn't want to give any more personal information to google. I've felt stalked by google every time I bought something online. As soon as I bought something, I got slammed by every competitor for a very similar product. As if I hadn't already done that research before I purchased what I could afford. It was downright scary, since they claimed they respected your privacy well the proof is in the pudding as they say.After I heard Alexa give her sales pitch to nearly every question I thought, "oh no, not again!" My son has his android phone attached to his hip like a Siamese twin. He has Alexa do everything for him. I thought I could reduce some techy type frustration and didn't realize it would be another misadventure as my Kindle. It's about selling products offered on Amazon. As a disabled shut in, I depend on Amazon for nearly everything--and now I'm going to be hounded? Both of these peripherals are wireless. I recall many years ago, reading a trade journal that revealed the technology to embed a microscopic camera inside every TV was here. This was shortly after 9/11. Today, there are all kinds of techy privacy experts revealing that technology is no longer limited to TV sets, it's been put inside many other appliances as well. Oh goody, I get to be a lab rat in the privacy of my own home.

I read with great interest most of the negative reviews on Amazon and I have to admit I have very few of reported screams of pain - so I will go through my experience with the major complaints, one-by-one:1. Annoying setup - yes, having to go to computer to remember or reset passwords you have not used in forever slows you down, but you get through it.2. Bloatware, yes, but you just ignore it - what's the beef. There is bloatware on everything including every cell phone - so what? Ignore it. Most of it can be "removed" from the "Smart Hub" screen/menu area. The things that cant be removed I ignored. I will tell you when you register the TV - DO NOT CHECK box that says give me ad's, and make sure you DO NOT check the agree with all and continue - leave Ad unchecked and click continue not the Agree with all. Saves a lot of "stuff" from coming to TV.3. Complaints about loosing connection to network -- Not for me, wireless Netgear NIghthawk R7000 Router with 5ghz wifi in next room. Rock solid even before being notified there was a firmware update which I did. Was still rock solid after the update. As a retired computer teacher, I am going to guess that many have router signal strength issues - I have old home built in 70's without insulation in any interior walls and nothing metal in between the router and the guest bedroom where this TV is. For those that have problems, might get a WIFI extender for your Router (same brand as your router), put it in the room with the TV and see if there is any improvement. If not return it where you bought it and tell them - no improvement.3. Loosing connection every day - not for me - either my gamming quality router might be doing a better job than others, or the Samsung firmware update fixed it. I am going to guess that others have routers that are not reliably giving a consistent IP address (called DHCP) to the TV which I had occur one time - until I logged into my router and put the prior IP address into the RESERVED section. I think the best action is to not allow the router to hand out IP address to the TV but to fix a specific IP address for the TV. Playing Russian roulette with IP addresses is not good for consistent network connectivity. If what I just said is geek/greek, call your Router Manufacturer or your internet provider or possibly Samsung to ask for help in setting up a "fixed address" or "reserved address" for your TV. OR get a computer guy/gal friend to help.4. Complaints on TVplus channels being slow - yes, but for me with only a 30mbit download connection --- no slower than surfing the web on one of my PC's and going to a highly graphic web page like the Disney web site. Not a whole lot there that I would be watching anyway. Already removed about 2/3rds of the 60 stations that I would never watch.5. Movement/Lag complaints - didn't see that, did Netflix, Amazon Plus, even a 4K video from Prime - all with fast action and there was no problems; however, I am not a gamer - have NO feeling for what video will do on games. I would guess if you are a hard core gamer - you are probably better off with a QLED model (which I have and love - couple of steps above this TV and of course about $1500 more).6. No Bluetooth keyboard - no problem for me - plugged in a Logitech K400 receiver in the USB port (NOT THE ONE MARKED FOR HDD/SDD) and my keyboard with built in flat mouse pad worked great. No complaints.7. I don't get complaints on sound quality - I have moderate to severe hearing loss and even without my hearing aids, with the sound set to "OPTIMIZE" in the 12 ft x 10 ft guest bedroom with tile floors, and very little on walls - the sound was great and very clear. I would guess that in a large family room with plush carpet and lots of plush furniture - might not be able to power a room that large - carpet and furnishing would absorb a lot of the sound.8. Complaints about no old style RCA jacks - no, I think there is - but kind of hidden. There are 5 RCA style jacks marked -- 3 are video component R/B/G with one at the end half yellow/half green - which I think is the video you would use for VHS tape player with the two on the left (audio R/L - Red/White) - being used for sound. It appears like you can plug into it one way for component input and one way for old style RCA BUT not both - one or the other. Don't have a VHS player to test but it appears like it would work. Maybe another reviewer can test this and comment here or submit a review.9. Poor picture quality - for me only standard over the air - old TV channels - lacked "quality" but everything HD was outstanding. Not as good as QLED 55", but for $1500 less I am thrilled about the quality.10. No Bluetooth for sound bar/headphones. Yes, but you don't want it - put Bluetooth on high end Samsung Qled and the talking heads for news or any voices were way off from the sound not matter how you adjusted it. Better to connect to the Optical Audio out with will avoid the performance issues. Yes, that will cost a little more than poorer quality sound Bluetooth stuff.11. Horrible manual (and web site not much better) - absolutely correct - no detail diagrams and examples of how to hook up various things from Old VHS to Optical Sound devices to keyboard, etc. I was tempted to take of a star for this but decided the lack of a good manual and instructions didn't affect the performance of my set. A list of "compatible" devices or more detail on them would have been great. You listening SAMSUNG?Bottom line for me - great value, great picture, great sound, and great addition to guest bedroom. This is the 4th or 5th Samsung TV for our family, extended family over the last 20 years- this is very good for our needs.