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Product: Samsung UN46B7000 Amazon Price: Too low to display Availability: In Stock |
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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: This review was written for the 6000 model. The 7000 model differs from the 6000 model only in its I/O capabilities. If you do not need the extras, go with the 6000 and save a few dollars.
This TV has produced a lot of controversy. After having spent a lot of time wading through it, passively and actively (debating it in threads), I came to the conclusion that I would get this set for a number of reasons:
1. I was not convinced by the people who were claiming that there were serious issues with this TV. One reviewer claimed to have seen trails in large dark objects. I went to the store and found NO ability to see it, and it was right next to the 750 (and a lot of other sets). As to the LED being edge and thus the lighting being inconsistent, ditto. I am not saying that it’s all lies and local dimming is useless. I am saying that it’s not something I can see right now (and that’s really all I care about).
2. This set is INSANELY thin. I have a space for mine where this actually makes a big difference.
3. I like to vote with my dollars. This is the lowest consuming television ever made. The CNET list of sets showed that the range was 8:1, which is pretty phenomenal if you think about it; in cars, mileage is not even that spread out. This is a REMARKABLE achievement and it’s a drag to hear people whining about dumb little imperfections that 99% of people would never see while they are buying from the other end of the spectrum. Of course, the amount of energy less you are going to use is not going to make a revolution, but a tiny percentage of all TVs using this amount would make a huge difference (game theory 101).
The biggest difference from my prior set (Westinghouse LCD) is this one actually has blacks.
The controls, menus, remote, etc., are all fine (I use a universal remote). Having a bunch of HDMI ports is great. I plugged in the connection to the web and looked at the Yahoo Widgets. Calling them useless at this point is an understatement. Should be interesting to see what is coming from that direction.
The argument that if the 750 looks just as good, save the money and get that is a compelling one. In terms of value overall, I paid ~$1500 for my 42″ Westinghouse 3 years ago. I just replaced it because it had developed background noise (patterns you could see). If this set lasts 2 more years, it will have exceeded the prior value in size and savings of energy.
Again, this is a remarkable achievement in an industry that had told us we’d all be using power sipping OLED by now, this is a hybrid strategy, here today.
I had the Samsung UN40B7000 for about 3 weeks and loved the picture quality and the features it has. Coming from a 27 to a 32 and now a 40″ I love the large screen size. I would have thought the large the screen the more defects I would notice on the screen but that did not affect me at all. Now I can’t see my shelf viewing a smaller screen at all anymore. This past week I noticed that the prices on the UN40B7000 and UN467000 dropped dramatically at my local Fry’s $1499 for the 40″ and $1699 for the 46″ and both included the Samsung BD P1600 Blue Ray Player worth $225 for FREE. I had no choice but return my 40″ and replaced it with the 46″ for the same price I paid for the 40″ and received the Free Blue-Ray player. Now that I have hooked up the UN467000 I love the bigger screen and happy I upgraded to the 46″ for the same price.
Picture:
I didn’t notice any flashing or black corners on both of my Samsung 7000, only clear high resolution picture with vivid colors. Compared to the Sony XBR9 the Samsung LED picture quality is bright and the color pops out. HD picture is awesome and the SD is okay for an LCD much better than my old 32″ and my brothers XBR4. With 3,000,000:1 dynamic contrast ratio and 120hz Auto Motion that you can be turn off or adjusted this TV has an it all.
Blue Ray movies is outstanding, best picture I’ve ever seen in any TV set and the standard DVD plays great as well not Blue Ray quality but it’s a step up from my old TV. But I don’t know if it’s because of my new 46″ 7000 or the new Samsung BD P1600 that Fry’s throw in that make the picture much better or both.
Gaming:
I have the TV set up with the PS3 and it’s great. The picture quality is amazing no blur affects at all in fast movement.
Sound:
Speakers could be better but what do we expect for a TV that is 1.2″ thin. I’ve purchased the Sony HTC T100 sound bar to get better sound. I must say the HTC T100 has a great sound and meets my expectation and needs (See my review).
Features:
I haven’t yet connected the TV to the internet to see how the widget or DNLA works but I have used the USB connection to plug in my flash drive to view movies, picutres and listen to music. I’ve even connected my I-pod to it and it plays my music, video and even charges the battery.
Overall this TV is the best LCD TV I’ve seen and I’ve been looking for months. The prices are steadily going down and it’s much more affordable to go larger now than it was a month ago and according to what I’ve read the prices might go even lower when it gets closer to the Super Bowl and of course Black Friday. I highly recommend this TV to any one who is looking for a thin set that doesn’t compromises picture quality, features or price.