Time really does fly… it seems just like yesterday when we launched this website to no fanfare on 14 February 2007. Thanks to all your support, HDTVTest is now among the top 65,000 most visited site on the world wide web (according to Alexa).
Including the Toshiba 47Z3030D I tested over the past week, we’ve calibrated and reviewed a total of 32 high-definition flat screen televisions in 2007. Here’s a roundup of what I think are the best HDTVs I have seen in 2007, written in conjunction with the results of your votes in our Year-End VIP Poll.
Best 32″ LCD TV
More than half of you voted for the Sony KDL32D3000, a decision that I wholeheartedly agree. Compared to its nearest competitor the Panasonic TX32LXD700, the Sony delivers deeper blacks and offers many more picture controls, particularly the option to switch off 100Hz motion which the Panasonic forces upon all material sometimes with less than desirable effect.
If you’re shopping on a budget, look no further than the Samsung LE32R87BDX/ LE32R88BD which in my opinion represents exceptional value-for-money due to its respectable blacks (for this class size), rich array of picture controls and ample connectivity.
Best LCD TV (40″ & Above)
Vindicating its decision to abandon plasma displays and focus all its R&D and marketing efforts into LCD TVs, Sony took the top two spots in this category according to your votes. Although the Samsung F86 and Toshiba Z3030D provided stiff competition, in my mind there’s no doubt that the Sony X3500 and W3000 delivered the best picture quality in the LCD realm as a result of class-leading blacks, consistent greyscale and accurate colours. I would have to give the nod to the Sony X3500 over the W3000 because of the motion resolution benefits granted by Motionflow 100Hz available on the former.
Despite being 7-month-old since launch, the Samsung LE40M86BD/ LE40M87BDX remains a fine performer by today’s standards, largely due to its mesmerising black level and image depth imparted by the Super Clear Panel™. It’s available to buy online for £715 (price checked today) which I frankly think is a stonking bargain.
Best Plasma
No surprises here… the Pioneer Kuros won by a landslide, with the full HD 1920×1080 LX panels leading the way. For those with looking to spend less than £1000, I am partial to the Panasonic TH42PZ70 which boasts a true HD 1920×1080 resolution on top of the traditional plasma strengths of excellent blacks and shadow detail, superb motion handling, and wide viewing angle.
HDTV Of The Year 2007
The best HDTV of 2007 as voted by you – and I fully concur – is the Pioneer Kuro true HD LX series plasma television. While some HDTVs may eclipse the Pioneer LX in one area or another (e.g. the blacks on Samsung F96), no other flat screen television – be it LCD or plasma – delivered as good a picture quality when all the important elements of picture quality (such as black level, shadow detail, contrast ratio, colours, video processing and motion handling) are taken into account as a package.
As we bid farewell to 2007, may 2008 see other manufacturers rise to the challenge and come out with HDTVs of similar picture quality to the Kuros, at a more affordable price point, preferably with no screen uniformity issues nor significant video artifacts (hey one can always hope :) ). Happy new year everyone!
Warmest regards
Vincent
Hope to see a review of the Sony KDL40V3000 in the new year
Happy New Year to you Vincent and thankyou for this great Survey and Roundup.
CES 2008 should be very interesting to see what the new models will bring to the market. Someone I know told me Panasonic will introduce a line of plasmas in 2008 that will have “LCD like” brightness levels and also use less power. If this is true, then I can’t wait to see them in action.
Happy New Year! Vincent, an example of “”other manufacturers” with HDTVs is e.g. Hitachi and their X Series – see P50XR01:
http://www.hitachidigitalmedia.com/product.do?actionName=showProductAction&pt=13&pg=62&proid=596
Happy New Year.
Thanks for the excellent reviews.
Happy New Year. Very well done. Although I think it would be more interesting if price would be considered in this. I think if you sort these tv’s by price, the list would not be much different. Personally I’m having difficulty choosing between the Panasonic 42PY70 (pz in UK I think) or the Sony 40W3000. Both are around 1600 euro and still within budget. Kuro and X3500 are way more expensive.
Very nice reviews in did. Happy New Year for all of us.
I wonder why the Philips 47PFL9732D won the 2007 EISA AWARD for the best European LCD on it’s class (best HD LCD) and hear has ended on the last places?
Is it a marketing thing or what? As all of us know we cannot compare Sony/Philips marketing/promotion.
Very useful website. Congratulations!!
However, the “Best LCD TV & Plasma 2007” award must be read only in perspective, it only concerns to the models reviewed (very well, in deed) in this website, and not all the offers existent in the market – as we can easily see, the final polls reflects the opinions expressed by Vincent Teoh.
There is one important fault: no model of Philips was studied! I wonder why? Shouldn’t the 2007 EISA AWARD deserve more respect? Philips won the best European LCD on it’s class for two consecutive years!!
Nevertheless, great job, Vincent!
(I don’t own any tv set, I’m waiting for a specialized opinion that includes Philips models).
Thanks for your reviews!
Helped me make my decision in buying my new Samsung LCD TV
kuro what a surprise its the best flat screen ive ever seen
by a country mile sony s x range look poor once you try them side by side ,,,,,,,,,,,
keep up the good work ,, lets hope pioneer spark others intp life now the marker is set ,,
Thanks for the reviews over the year. On the strength of the words I dithered over the Sony but bought the Pioneer.
Happy new year I am glad you survived the crisis earlier in the year.
Rom
i think you are rather critical of the z3030 tosh in your review and less critical to the rival sharp and samsung tv . nethertheless cracking web site . where are the philips tvs , why do these tvs not show on the pie charts … strange considering the tv awards ths year , does that mean they are wrong ..
To all of those wondering where are the “philips ” reviews…
read :
http://hdtvtest.co.uk/news/2007/11/06/sony-kdl-40×3500-review/
focus on the last paragraph…
Happy new year everybody,
Ido.
Cobola.
Every independent, unbiased review i have read, and there is a few all agree with Vincent and the team at hdtvtest that the pioneer kuro is the best plasma and the sony is the best LCD in 2007. end of storey.
if just about everone dissagrees with EISA AWARDS then what does that tell you.
now if a manufacture released a PDP in the last couple of months in 2007 i doubt whether anyone of any note would have had the time to review it these would full into the 2008 tested models as there can be anything from a few weeks to many months for some of these models to be released around the world so everyone has a chance to look at them.
happy new year everyone.
Barry Says “Every independent unbiased review … agree with Vincent that … sony is the best LCD”.
The problem is that there at hdtvtest is NO review of any (!) top model from Philips – holder of last two EISA FULL-HD LCD-TV AWARDS.
Philips 42PFL7662D was reviewed back in july, and as Vincent said you would have to be an idiot to buy all your TV you test where as some of the sets are donated free for review purpose then returned or they collect donations to buy the tv then on sell the unit and any lose is covered by the donations
yet some of the manufactures have their favorite sites that do their reviews (wonder why) and they wont lend their sets to the others.
hdtvorg, thats not a review ist a joke i can get the same information out of the philips manual or website.
to Barry:
a] But 42PFL7662D is not EISA winner
b] “you would have to be an idiot to buy all your TV” … so you start fundraising for Panasonic PZ70 and Bravia X3500, but not EISA winning LCD …
http://www.hdtvtest.co.uk/support.php
c] if you think that your competitor (=hdtvorg and all EISA committee) is doing his job badly, why don’t repeat the same review once more, but properly? ;-)
Hi JM
Just to explain, I prioritise my reviews and fundraising based on the results of our VIP Poll where readers vote on the HDTVs they want to see reviewed. Panny PZ70 and Sony X3500 topped the polls; Philips 9732 didn’t.
As for HDTVOrg, here’s my opinion on them:
http://forums.hdtvtest.co.uk/index.php?topic=63.msg660#msg660
Warmest regards
Vincent
thats right jim why dont you ask hdtvorg to review there tv properly and not a five minute effort anyone can do.
Vincent and the boys could spent anything from 7-14 days doing a proper unbiasted review and they do it well even to the point that they find faults in all tv even the pioneer but some have more problems than others.
because of their proper reviews some manufactures may not like what vincent and his team find out about their sets but atleast when they do find a fault they inform the manufacture.
Do hdtvorg do this much to help the consumer, i dont think so.
Barry says “Vincent … find faults in all tv even the pioneer”
and I agree. And that’s just the reason why I am looking for Vincent’s reviews of all EISA winning TV’s. PDP-LX508D was published in December, TH42PX70 in March, “smaller” ;-) LE40R81B/86BD in May … so what’s missing?
And yes, I know the role of the polls, but if I remember correctly, number of votes for EISA Philips + aurea was typically 2-nd or 3-rd the best in a few latest pools..
Things would be much simpler if “philips” just send in a review sample. If they don’t send a sample, they are at the mercy of the public (e.g. VIP poll). I guess that when it’s all said and done, the public who surf here doesn’t show enough interest.
You want the public to show more interest? send in your top model for review and stop moaning, showing me Certificates of merit from sources who doesn’t impress me (and the majority of the surfers here). I look for proofs not promises when buying a t.v. set for that amount of money. I worked hard enough for it.
good day,
Ido.
I hope to hear when the KDL40W5000 is out in the EU and US!
http://www.cheaptv.org.uk/sony-have-announced-15-new-1080p-hdtvs-from-the-bravia-range/
if only i live in Japan!
I had a Samsung LE40M86BD and i returned it. I dont get, how can it be so well ranked in this site. When people move theyre faces we can only see the faces focus 1second after or more. The time response of that LCD is 8ms, the temporizer is only in a 30mns space instead of the 5mns of my old tv, but in this site it is higly reviewed cause has a deep black!! For god sake
Sony KDL32D3000 best 32″ LCD TV? jajajajajajaja
This TV only wins in price.
A lot of expensive.
no review for almost 3 weeks now… I’m beginning to worry…
good day,
Ido.
I got s Sony 46X3500 three days ago and so far, I am VERY pleased with the output.
Using both PS3 and up-rated 1080p DVD, the results seem excellent. I have also run photo slide shows – Blue-ray disks – home movies – and even digital TV and am very happy. With a G8000 stand I could not ask for more …
There’s a brand of TV which has been missing here and I have read that their full HD plasmas are great.
I’m talking about Hitachi.
Are they hard to come by or just not very popular?
Jan 24
In order to have a fair and balanced judgement of the Best 32″ LCD TV I urge Mr. Vincent to review Philips 32 PFL 9632D and compare it with Sony KDL 32D3000 and Panasonic TX 32 LXD700.
Nevertheless, I highly appraise this website.
My best regards,
Peter.
Geforce.
i am not to sure about their previous models but there current HD models dont rate to high with most people and reviewers, they had also been in some trouble with their advertising saying that their 50″ plasma was full HD leading the consumer to think they where getting a PDP 1080p where in fact they where getting their old alias 1080i panel.
the news i have seen is that they are loosing to much money in the flat panel tv market and will no longer be selling PDP in Australia, but not to sure what that means for other countries.
American reviewers (and most Europeans too) are so brainwashed by the big commercialing lousy marks like Sony. Their are only 2 real good marks in LCD land : Toshiba and Panasonic.
Chris:
yer and you know what your talking about, NOT.
Well, it´s a particular election of the “best” 2007 LCD & plasma TVs. But last year,2007, the best seller in LCD in Japan was SHARP (with a 40%), Sony (20%) and Panasonic (under 20%).In other hand,LCD sellings were the 90% and Plasma only the 10%. I can´t understand there´s no Sharp in the list.
Sergi.
this poll and its results where for the readers of this site
who voted on what they thought was the best LCD & Plasma for 2007 it had nothing to do with sales numbers, the fact that vincent agress with the readers or more to the point the readers agree with HDTVTEST results is proof of who makes the best FPD as far a performance and quality goes.
Pioneers best plasma & Sony best LCD. 2007.
I decided to go with the Sony KDLV40-3000 based on your review for the W3000! The settings for D65 greyscale worked a treat.
The extra features on the W series were not worth the extra 300 pounds to me.
I’m more than happy with my purchase.
kuro what a surprise
m87 nearly got close but for terribly slow remote
bad skin reproduction and shaky freeview tuner
These awards always seem to focus on 32 inch or 40+ inch tellies. How about 37 inch? This is surely the ideal size for a lot of people with smallish rooms who want a good sized TV without deteriorating SD pictures. Do there exist any good 37 inch tellies out there?
Toshiba is the best lcd.One of reason is that: made in Plymouth in England and she give the best perfomance and design for price.
I think so that is Toshiba and Sharp lcd are the best.
I think there are many latest model in tv world now if we are talking about only LCD televisions sharp and sony has captured more of them, but as per sale market KDL52XBR6 Sales is in boom this christmas
Where is admin?!
Thank you
Did you know that USA and Europe blocked Wikileaks? What do you think about it?
Thanks
bye bye ;))
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