While most manufacturers are still wrestling with their debut online TV services, Samsung is already on to its second online generation. And to underline this fact, Samsung has equipped its latest online TVs – as represented today by the 40in LE40B651 – with Yahoo Widget capability.
Already widely embraced by the PC community,
the Yahoo Widget Javascript runtime engine makes it easy to generate online applications to make your browsing easier, more entertaining and more practical. And Samsung has exclusive access to Widgets for TVs until around September.
Predictably, the LE40B651 offers a uniquely expansive and satisfying online experience. Highlights include access to YouTube videos and the Flickr photography storage site, plus interactive news, weather and finance reports. All presented quite beautifully. Of course, the ring-fenced content Samsung lets you access via the LE40B651’s Ethernet port or optional USB wireless dongle is extremely limited versus the internet as a whole, but it's. But it sure beats teletext into a cocked hat.
The Widget-driven online interface isn’t the LE40B651’s only claim to fame, mind. It looks very pretty, for instance, thanks to its beautifully polished finish and the unusual honeycomb effect that appears when the light catches the TV the right way.
Samsung's LE40B651 Series 6 LCD TV is gorgeous. The bezel around the screen has a distinctive crystal effect with a red tint.
It’s fair to say that the LE40B651 has already delivered more features than most mid-range TVs. But a trawl through the extremely elegant if fractionally sluggish onscreen menus reveals plenty more going on, too.
For a start, the set has 100Hz Motion Plus processing - with knobs on. For unlike most 100Hz systems, the one on this Samsung allows you to subtly adjust its machinations, with a gentle 'Clear' option, slightly stronger 'standard' option, strong (processing heavy) Smooth option, and best of all a Custom mode that lets you tweak the system's blur and judder reduction elements to suit your tastes using two separate sliding scales.
Although this level of flexibility doesn't wholly solve all of the TV's processing/motion issues, it's still a great touch that gives a genuine sense of control sorely missing from many other processing-heavy TVs.
The set also lets you adjust black and flesh tones, noise reduction levels, the white balance, the gamma levels, and the colour space, as well as providing the option to turn off the set's dynamic contrast system. Impressive.
As you'd expect, the TV ships with the Widget Gallery 'browser' installed as standard, so that you have a means of tracking down any Widgets you fancy using. But the catch is that for now, at least, the only Widgets I could track down were the ones already installed on the TV. The thousands of others available to PC users just didn't show up, reminding me again that for better or for worse, Samsung is trying to craft a controlled, ring-fenced TV experience more like an ultra-sophisticated teletext service rather than a free-form Internet experience.
But even with this in mind, the extent of what's on offer with the LE40B651 really is a far - and welcome - cry from the simple news, finance and local weather reports that marked the sum total of what was possible with Samsung's previous Internet TV generation. And it's nice to know, too, that the architecture now in place with the LE40B651 opens the door to more service providers and features being added over time.
On the downside, I experienced a few connection hiccups with some of the content - YouTube, in particular. And there's a part of me that still yearns for full Internet access, despite all the numerous navigation and presentation issues that this inevitably presents for a TV as opposed to a PC. But in the end, the draw represented by the online system's slick presentation and user experience keeps you coming back for more.
Another interesting step-up feature of the LE40B651 is its Content Library; a collection of multimedia files, such as recipes, children's stories, screen saver photos and art work stored on internal flash memory.
In an ideal world the picture would hold up over a wider viewing angle, standard definition pictures would look crisper, and the rather flat audio would have more punch. But the 40B651's design prowess, huge feature count and mostly superb pictures ultimately carry the day.
