Customer Reviews

Beautiful design, Bad issues with screen uniformity
I purchased this TV and ended up returning it a week later. The physical TV is gorgeous, but unfortunately it has issues with the screen that I couldn't live with.

During normal viewing (in the store, in a lit room during the day), the picture quality is awesome - it has inky blacks and vibrant colors. The problem has to do with its "screen uniformity", something I didn't even know was a "feature" to consider when I was researching TVs.

This TV has an "edge-lit LED screen", which means the LED lights are along the edges of the screen shining inwards toward the center. Unfortunately, this makes for very uneven lighting across the screen. It's not noticeable during the day, but at night in a dark room watching a dark scene, there were a number of faint glowing streaks coming from the edges of the screen. It was very apparent in the letterboxing (the black bands over and below a widescreen image), in which there were feint cones of light coming from the corners of the screen.

I researched the issue (I searched for the TV's model number and the words "screen uniformity") and it turns out this is an issue all the LEDs have. The review sites offer the technical explanations for it.

I'm by no means a A/V snob, but the problem was almost instantly noticed by me and everyone I had look at the TV.

I returned the TV and instead purchased the Samsung LN46B650 Samsung LN46B650 46-Inch 1080p 120Hz LCD HDTV with Red Touch of Color. It costs almost $600 less, has just as gorgeous of a picture (I don't notice the contrast ratio difference), and has none of the screen uniformity issues.

I'll say that again - the NON-LED 46'' Samsung TV has a BETTER quality picture and costs hundreds of dollars less. Unless you are using this TV in a lit room during the day and you value only the aesthetics of such a thin TV, go with the regular LCD. You won't be disappointed.

My first HDTV
I want to start off by warning everyone that this is my first HDTV ever, so I have nothing to compare it to other than regular old school 4:3 CRT televisions.

I bought this TV Friday, May 8th, 2009.

The main thing about this Samsung TV is that the picture is unbelievably rich and vibrant! (So much so that it takes a little getting use to.) The clarity is so good that it is actually distracting to me. (Though I'm sure I'll get use to it.) But as an example, I was re-watching Pirates of the Caribbean: Curse of the Black Pearl and I couldn't stop noticing the lines on the actors' faces, individual blades of grass, creases in fabric, and all sorts of other subtle details long enough to pay attention to the actual movie! OK - so maybe that is more of a general HDTV thing and has less to do with the Samsung TV? I don't know. Again - this is my first HDTV ever.

The Samsung TV is incredibly thin. This was one of the things that really drew my attention to this TV when I was doing my comparative shopping. Flat panel TV's are an order of magnitude thinner than their larger CRT cousins, but this Samsung TV takes the thinness to a whole new level.

I've read that this particular TV uses less power than standard flat panel TV's. While I'm not a tree-hugging hippie, I do prefer to be a good steward of the planet whenever possible. But more practical is the fact that less power consumption = less heat generated. I live in Florida so I prefer electronics that don't radiate lots of heat.

The integrated speakers are functional, but I can't imagine anyone would spend this much money on a TV and be satisfied with the integrated speakers. I'm not taking points off the review for the relatively lousy speakers because I believe lousy speakers are par for the course with flat panel TV's. (Or TV's in general really. Even CRT TV's have pretty lousy built-in speakers.) If you really want a high quality audio experience, you know you're going to have to use external speakers.

I can't say much about the input options. I bought a Samsung Blu-ray player at the same time I got the TV and I got an HDMI cable to hook up between the two devices. It "just worked." The Samsung TV / Blu-ray player seem to be a good match. When I put in a DVD or Blu-ray disc, the TV turns on automatically and switches to the correct HDMI input. But otherwise I don't have any devices plugged into this TV yet. I don't have cable or satellite or a video game system.

I would suggest that anyone who buys this TV should try to put the TV in a room without any windows or bright lights facing it. I bought this TV for my bedroom and it sits about 12 feet directly in front of my bedroom window. Fortunately the window is on the backside of the house and has a thick blind over it, otherwise I think the reflection from the window would be overwhelming during the day.

The TV is certainly bright and vibrant enough to watch in daylight conditions, that's not the issue. The issue is the amount of reflection on the TV screen. During the day, I can see the reflection from the edge of my window. It's fairly subtle and I can easily address this by buying a decorative curtain to place over my window, but it is something that I think is worth pointing out. If you know you're going to have your TV in front of a big window, it could be a major distraction if you can't cover the window properly.

More with less
My requirement for a television is quite simple: plug it in to the cable box and have it work the first time; then turn on the sports event of the day, e.g. Mets or Yankees, Jets or Giants, etc. The Samsung 46 inch LED TV does that very well. You plug it in, it works.

This TV does more with less. It weighs only about 40 pounds plus another 10 pounds for the stand. Compare that with the older Samsung 950 model of the same size which weighs 70 pounds. The elegant stand allows for easy rotation. The TV is only a little over one inch thick! Power consumption has been measured by reviewers at about 105 watts. The 950 model comes in at 180 watts.

The picture is great. The contrast ratio, rated at 3,000,000 to 1, exceeds that of older LCD TVs. The black areas are dark and the picture has an almost 3D quality. There are four preset picture options. I chose the "normal" setting. The next higher setting, "standard", makes infield grass look almost dayglow. I do not think that there is a need to have any further adjustment done on the picture. However, there is an automatic dimming of the overall brightness for dark scenes. For instance, when the credits of a movie run against a black background the lettering becomes dimmer. This has no effect on sports, but does effect dark movie scenes.

The screen surface does reduce reflections but does not eliminate them entirely. The black frame is shiny and does also reflect some light. Rotating the screen to the best angle helps.

The remote provides choices for four picture size variations. I use "16:9" for the HD format or "wide" to make the non-HD, 4:3, video fill the screen. That loses some of the 4:3 picture at the top and bottom edges, but the picture quality is still good.

The sound also has four preset choices. Although, the internal speakers are not bad, I decided to use my sound system for the audio. The TV has an audio output connection, but the TV remote volume control only allows variation in the sound level for the internal speakers. The audio output stays at a constant level. I got around this by taking the audio from my cable box directly to my sound system and controlling the level with the cable remote. This works.

Although Samsung provides a version of the instruction manual on a USB drive with the TV, I found it easy to download and print a pdf of the manual from the Samsung support center. Having the printed manual is helpful. (See my comment for the web address of the support center.)

After one month, I still really like this TV. It is great for sports. An added bonus is that my electric bill has actually gone down.

Note that there is a similiar 7000 model. The 7000 model differs from the 6000 model in its I/O capabilities. Recently some people have reported that the 7000 has a better picture. If you do not need the extras, go with the 6000 and save a few dollars.