Samsung LE52M87BDX Review

Andrew has posted his first review for HDTVTest on Samsung LE52M87BDX, their current flagship LCD TV.

Looking forward to the future, both Andrew and I are testing a couple of Pioneer plasma televisions that have been kindly supplied by TLC Broadcast, an authorised Pioneer specialist retailer. Their prices are pretty competitive with the additional bonus of free 5 year warranty thrown in. I’ve chatted at length with their boss Tony, who impressed me with his thorough knowledge of (and supreme confidence in) Pioneer products… I’m sure the aftercare provided will be excellent.

Another thing before I sign off this time: following the suggestions of some readers, I’ve reorganised the HDTVTest forum to make it less cluttered, so feel free to sign up and contribute to a growing community. Soon I plan to start offloading some calibrated HDTVs that I bought to review in a subsection of the forum… I’ll keep you guys posted.

7 comments

  1. Andrew with your test on this 52″ did you as Vincent did with the 40″ version turn off movie plus & DNIE, these useless addons tend to make the picture worse.
    the only difference between the two LCD is the size and as i had just read a review from someone else on the 46″ version and their findings were simlar to vincents test on the 40″.
    I have been looking at buying this 52″ myself or a 50″ plasma
    and as a friend off mine just purchased the 52″m8 i went over to have a look, taking with me the settings that Vincent had set the LCD at and turning off the movie plus & DNIE i found the samsung 52″ to be very good in displaying SD signal as good as most 50″ plasma’s ive seen, using a PS3 to upscale a std DVD the picture was just superb it was clear and sharp.
    the finaly was pearlharbour in blueray the clarity/sharpness and quality of the picture just blue me away even with slight colour inaccuracies.
    overall we found the samsung “52 m8 to be an excellent buy and i would have to rate it as the best LCD i have seen.
    the only difference we made to Vincent settings was to have the backlight set to 4, as 1 was to low.

  2. Hi Barry

    I have no doubt that Andrew would have disabled Movie Plus & DNIE when testing the 52M87.

    The larger screen size may have played to the LE52M87BDX’s detriment here: we know for a fact that it’s extremely difficult to maintain LCD screen uniformity beyond 42-inch. Furthermore, with the same level of video processing (which is the case between the LE40M86 and the LE52M87), artifacts would be more obvious on the larger panel… unless you sit much farther away.

    Warmest regards
    Vincent

  3. Hello!
    Maybe the store sent you a t.v. from the display window which worked a lot. anyway, I don’t think they will want to send you more televisions… ;)
    very nice review by the way…
    Ido.

  4. I’m the person that started the thread linked below way back in May on AVForums;

    http://www.avforums.com/forums/showthread.php?t=528371

    Whilst I’m immensely pleased that someone has at last mentioned the internal Freeview Judder in a review, I’m very disappointed HDTVtest has now chosen to seemingly batter the M87 in other areas.

    As you are aware you earlier reviewed the LE40M86 which, as we know, is basically the same television (bar minor cosmetic differences)and you had this to say,

    “the Samsung LE40M86BD is easily among the best in its class”

    In fact it was your review and your confirmation that the M87 was only cosmetically different that went a long way to persuading me to purchase my TV in the first place.

    How can the M86 be “HDTVtest recommended” and the M87 get such a panning when the only real difference is a chrome strip along the bottom?

  5. Nice slaughter. :)

  6. As i said, i found the 52″ M8 that i have viewd of my friends and in the stores once they are adjusted this LCD is outstanding.obviously to view a 52″ compared to a 40″ you would need to be sitting further away to avoid seeing to many
    artifacts but this is also the case with Plasma as well. both 52″ models i looked at i was eight feet away and one was sitting next to a Panny 50″ and Hitachi 50″ both 768 res and all three were displaying the same free to air program and they all were very close in quality in my opinion.
    I know what ill be buying and as with most people i wont be buying a screen of this size to watch free to air,ill be watching DVD and Blueray movies wich the M8 perfect for.

    thanks guys i do enjoy reading your reviews and have done for a while but i dont agree with this one, maybe just the set you had as not with the ones ive seen.

    cheers.

  7. @KeanosMagicHat: the M86 I reviewed was 40″; the M87 Andrew tested was 52″. Size alone, along with any other firmware/ hardware differences that Samsung has implemented, could account for the test conclusions.

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