You'd be forgiven for forgetting it these days, but there was once a time where the best implementation of Samsung's own LCD panels was to be found in competitors' TVs. Although the Korean giant's SPVA (Super Patterned Vertical Alignment) panels have enjoyed their position as the best LCD panels in terms of contrast for a long time, it was only more recently that Samsung learned how to build a great TV around them.
The LE40B651's design is impressive and a tiny bit disappointing all at the same time. Impressive because the 'Crystal' design's subtly triangular shape and semi-translucent 'honeycomb' feature both look stunning; disappointing because it just doesn't look quite as distinctive as last year's red-tinged Touch of Colour design.
Still,
while I personally loved the stronger Touch of Colour effect, I accept that it seemed to attract as many haters as lovers, so I can't blame Samsung for thinking more subtly this time round.
It’s also packed with picture processing (including 100Hz for enhanced motion reproduction), can play back all manner of multimedia file formats from USB devices or PCs, and even carries 190MB or so of built-in multimedia content ranging from recipes to children’s stories and songs.
Then there’s the small fact that the LE40B651 produces simply stunning picture quality. Thanks to a combination of bright, superbly saturated colours and some of the deepest black colours seen on an LCD TV, images look so dynamic that even EastEnders looks like a Hollywood blockbuster.
The set’s 100Hz engine helps it reproduce motion with impressively little blur too, which in turn assists in making HD pictures look almost intimidatingly sharp and detailed.
The remote control is large and cluttered but the onscreen interface is coherent. Connectivity is respectable: four HDMI inputs and two USB ports. One of these can be used with Samsung's £50 optional wireless 'dongle' if you are unable to plug in an Ethernet cable.
The TV also has about 200MB of storage for preloaded content including pictures and miscellaneous information, which can be added to via USB. The best thing about the Samsung is the picture quality – after a bit of tweaking. You get the kind of control over judder and blur reduction that's missed on the Philips and Panasonic, which overcook the image when the processing is unleashed.
Samsung's term for net tellies is Internet TV, available in many of its newer sets. It's a well laid out system, mostly populated with Yahoo! widgets for webmail, news and other information. A better fit for TV browsing is the Flickr photo-sharing site and a Twitter application.
It stores one Twitter account but switching users means typing logins from scratch. Writing Twitter updates, even those under the 140-character limit, is slow, owing to the sluggish onscreen keyboard; mobile phone style via number keys would be better. For this reason Twitter on TV is fine for passive following rather than participation but it will not access web links in messages.
There's also a “Content Library”. Select this option and you can access stored recipes, play a slow-to-react game, watch one of several loosely animated children's stories, or select “Wellness” and listen to low bit-rate relaxing melodies. Well, if people don't want to watch TV on their TVs any more, we can hardly blame Samsung for offering optional distractions, can we?
All things considered, the LE40B651 is mostly good news. The way in which Samsung have tried to compensate for LCD's natural contrast deficiencies with the auto-dimming feature isn't to my liking and I'd appreciate being given control over it, but that doesn't change the fact that the TV has above average Greyscale performance and excellent color reproduction. Nor does it change the fact that it shows standard-def TV broadcasts and other sources in a mostly favorable way. Really, this display is typical of most Samsung LCD HDTVs these days: impressive for the most part, chock-full of image processing options (both useful and not), and with a few quirks to anticipate as part of the package.
Plus points
Pretty to look at, superb picture performer, exceptional picture quality, huge feature count.
Minus points
Standard definition pictures could be better, sporadic processing artifacts, slightly feeble audio.
