Our apologies for the lack of reviews over the last few months. In view of the UK economic recession, we have had to seriously rethink our practice of buying brand new HDTV sets, reviewing them, and then selling them on as second-hand.
The reasons are twofold. First, we are concerned that the retailer from whom we’d bought the HDTV goes into administration (à la Empire Direct), leaving us out of both money and product. Second, the credit crunch will depress second-hand prices even more, and we definitely do not want to be holding on to big-ticket items (like television sets) which may be difficult to sell on in hard times.
What this means is that we will have to rely more and more on manufacturers to provide HDTV review samples. Which is always going to be tricky, because our leave-no-stone-unturned, honest and critical reporting style has more than ruffled the feathers of a few selected manufacturers. That said, we are still receiving HDTV sample units from manufacturers who believe in the performance of their products, and who appreciate our in-depth feedback.
On this note, we have completed a review of the Samsung LE40B650 one week before it’s due to hit the stores in the United Kingdom. In addition to the advertised “Internet@TV” function that lets you access selected internet content like Youtube and Flickr on the LCD television, the Samsung LE40B650 improves upon the A656 series in quite a few areas… you can discover them all in our full Samsung LE40B650 review.
Note: The full model name of the sample unit we tested was the Samsung LE40B650T2W. The same model may be also be sold by retailers as Samsung LE40B650T or Samsung LE40B650T2.
Samsung also offers some alternative models with the same specifications (and hopefully performance) but different styling. Here’s what we’ve been told by Samsung (may not be 100% accurate):
- Samsung LE40B651: glossy black bezel is infused with dark-grey accent. Also sold by retailers as LE40B651T, LE40B651T3 or LE40B651T3W.
- Samsung LE40B652: glossy black bezel is permeated with deep red tone (“Rose Black Crystal Design”), and the bottom of the LCD panel is V-shaped rather than U-shaped. Also sold by retailers as LE40B652T, LE40652T4 or LE40B652T4W.
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