KEY POINTS:
Just when I thought flat panel TV innovation was beginning to slow, Samsung dropped their latest Series 7 40" LCD telly on my doorstep. A week later I'm drastically revising my earlier estimates as the Samsung series 7 is about as cutting edge as it's possible to get with an LCD TV.
Take for instance the TV's LCD panel and backlighting. Samsung have tweaked and refined their LCD display to deliver greater energy efficient (giving you a great carbon footprint argument for convincing that special financial controller in your life that you really need this TV) and also produce pictures that rival the picture of a good plasma TV. On earlier generation LCD TVS on screen blacks tended to be dark charcoal grey. Not with the Series 7 though - blacks are pitch black and bright colours still manage to dazzle.
Whilst picture quality is the biggest factor figuring in the minds of TV buyers, its just one of many reasons to take a closer look at a Samsung 7 series range of LCDs TVs.
One factor that helps the Series 7 stand out from the crowd is a snazzy design aesthetic. Where many LCD TVs sport a tried and tired stock-standard piano black finish, Samsung have opted for an understated yet slick black ruby finish under a clear overlay. Not only does this give the Series 7 a hint of sophistication, it also makes it look a lot less like it's been hit with the ugly stick.
More significantly, the digital equivalent of several metric tonnes of fancy-pants interactive features have also been bundled into the Series 7. Overseas, Samsung has partnered with online service providers to deliver real time news, stock and weather feeds to the Series 7 via an internet connection. Unfortunately this hasn't been enabled locally (but will be next year according to the press blurb bundled with the review model). Preloaded interactive content includes games, recipes, a slide show of HD artwork, children's stories, and a fitness section with
stretching and massage guides.
The killer interactive content feature, however, is its networking capabilities which allows it to connect to a home network via a built in Ethernet network connection to play back photos, videos, and music stored on a PC or network drive. In addition to being incredibly nifty, this also meant I was able ditch the dedicated media streaming box I'd previously relied on, further reducing cable clutter behind my AV cabinet.
Samsung has also redesigned their remote to include a rotating jogger dial similar to the click wheel used in early iPods. Unfortunately, there was often a delay between the using wheel and on screen actions. This said, the wheel could also double as a four way direction pad, so this wasn't really a biggie. On a more positive note, the extra sensitivity of the scroll wheel did seem to give more gradual control when tweaking picture settings. The remote's other large illuminated buttons were where my fingers thought they should be and worked well.
Speaking of picture settings, the Samsung was extremely tweakable.
Starting with the usual mix of picture modes there were also a bunch of additional presets, colour temperature presets white balance settings (with manual fine-tuning), noise reduction, gamma control, dynamic contrast, black adjust (which tweaks shadow detail) and well as colour level controls. The inclusion of an energy save mode, which when combined with efficient LED backlighting, makes this screen pretty energy efficient.
Fine-tuning the picture was also significantly less annoying for family
members thanks to a menu re-design that's more streamlined than previous
versions, displaying menu items against transparent backgrounds so everyone can continue to watch TV whilst you tweak. The Series 7 also includes a 100Hz refresh rate Motion Plus mode that when enable allowed high speed on-screen motion to be displayed without the juddering that plagues cheaper LCD TVs, delivering surprisingly life-like on screen action.
On the connectivity front the Samsung sports three rear HDMI inputs (plus one side HDMI input), a PC input, a pair of component-video inputs; a antenna input for the built in Freeview HD digital TV Tuner, The side panel also has additional composite AV and S-Video as well as a headphone jack, and USB port. About the only thing missing from the Samsung is a kitchen sink.
Conclusions
There's a lot to like about this model. Not only does it have every feature you're ever likely to need from a flat panel TV, and then some, slick multimedia features take it well beyond what most current TVs are capable of delivering.
Bells and whistles aside, the LA40A750R1M delivers bright, crisp images
with impressive contrast levels. The sheer tweakability of the LA40A750R1M also means it can be optimised to deliver extremely accurate colours whilst 100hz Motion Plus refresh technologies allow it to deliver smooth on screen action. About the only issue holding the LA40A750R1M from a perfect score on the gadget-o-meter is its sometimes sluggish remote, however for day to day use this isn't really a show stopper.
LA40A750R1M
RRP: $3,999
Key Specs
Resolution: 1080P
70,000:1 Dynamic Contrast Ratio
100Hz Refresh
4x HDMI inputs
Component, S-Video, Composite inputs
USB & Ethernet inputs
Built in Freeview HD tuner
