Jenith
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Samsung's Tizen 9 TV update has been a bit of a mixed bag for me. I know some people love it, and at least one of my colleagues is happy with how Tizen 9 fixed a few key issues.
I may be in the minority, but I'm still not convinced this is the best Samsung could have offered. So far, the update has been polarizing.
For example, I dislike how the selection highlight (cursor) is sometimes pushed upward on the home screen when you navigate down using the remote. Then there's the fact that Ambient Mode is gone, which I'm still not thrilled about.
However, there are other aspects of Tizen 9 that I enjoy. One change I like is subtle — almost invisible — and could go unnoticed by most users. Here's what I mean.
Tizen 9 introduced a subtle change to the TV's mute/unmute behavior. Before this update, your Samsung TV would instantly mute and unmute audio on command.
With the Tizen 9 update, muting is still instantaneous, but unmuting happens gradually. And it makes a lot of sense for it to work this way.
Your Samsung TV will try its best not to startle you if you've muted it when the volume was high and forgot what to expect once you unmute it. No matter how high the volume was originally, it never comes back instantly when unmuted. Instead, it follows a gradual curve, which will help your hearing adjust.
Again, this is hardly a feature that will fundamentally change how you use your Samsung TV. But as far as I'm concerned, it's a worthwhile quality-of-life addition that shows a lot of attention to detail, and that's something I'm always a fan of.
Of course, there are lots of other things to like about Tizen 9, even if you're like me and feel this release needed more polish. But I like how simple yet very thoughtful this change is. This is the kind of deceptively simple design polish developers can reach only when they pay extra attention.
If you too want the latest, Tizen 9 is rolling out to older TV models (2023 and newer), while Samsung's 2026 TV lineup already ships with a newer version that boasts enhanced AI features.
I may be in the minority, but I'm still not convinced this is the best Samsung could have offered. So far, the update has been polarizing.
For example, I dislike how the selection highlight (cursor) is sometimes pushed upward on the home screen when you navigate down using the remote. Then there's the fact that Ambient Mode is gone, which I'm still not thrilled about.
However, there are other aspects of Tizen 9 that I enjoy. One change I like is subtle — almost invisible — and could go unnoticed by most users. Here's what I mean.
Your Samsung TV will never startle you when unmuting
Tizen 9 introduced a subtle change to the TV's mute/unmute behavior. Before this update, your Samsung TV would instantly mute and unmute audio on command.
With the Tizen 9 update, muting is still instantaneous, but unmuting happens gradually. And it makes a lot of sense for it to work this way.
Your Samsung TV will try its best not to startle you if you've muted it when the volume was high and forgot what to expect once you unmute it. No matter how high the volume was originally, it never comes back instantly when unmuted. Instead, it follows a gradual curve, which will help your hearing adjust.
Again, this is hardly a feature that will fundamentally change how you use your Samsung TV. But as far as I'm concerned, it's a worthwhile quality-of-life addition that shows a lot of attention to detail, and that's something I'm always a fan of.
Of course, there are lots of other things to like about Tizen 9, even if you're like me and feel this release needed more polish. But I like how simple yet very thoughtful this change is. This is the kind of deceptively simple design polish developers can reach only when they pay extra attention.
If you too want the latest, Tizen 9 is rolling out to older TV models (2023 and newer), while Samsung's 2026 TV lineup already ships with a newer version that boasts enhanced AI features.