I actually have this very TV and I think the smart TV aspects are pretty good, or at least passable, and the smart remote is very nicely engineered. I am sort of a snob with this stuff and just decided to spring for the AppleTV to control everything and to not be at the beck and call of what Samsung thinks is appropriate today especially in terms of ads and interfaces. I love the posh feeling of the Apple UI and it just feels so much more premium to me and cutting edge. With Samsung I feel like I'm in "Android world" where anything goes and no one really cares about polish too much as much as shipping the app and checking off a list of requirements. QA, performance, etc always feel so much worse in Smart TV land. I figure I only buy a new TV or box every 5+ years, so its okay to spend more to be happy. Over 60 months its really not a lot of money if you view it as a monthly expense.

I want it to "just work" and to me Apple seems to do that well enough. I do feel like if money was tighter I would have just toughed it out with the Samsung interface and been mostly happy. Currently, I do find myself cursing at how overly sensitive the Apple remote is and how tiny and easy it is to lose. Buying a white gel cover and setting sensitivity to low helped with this a lot, but that's just more money down the sink compared to just not being a snob and using the built-in system.