Review of the SAMSUNG LE26R88BD 26" HD Ready digital LCD TV-
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Hello and
welcome to my review of the Samsung LE26R88BD. This 26 inch
Samsung would be ideal in the living room of the family which does not
favour an enormous plasma or LCD
screen. Big of course, seems to be becoming the fashion these days. Or of
course it would make a great second television in a kitchen or bedroom.
Samsung
have done a very good job with this TV. The stylish looks of the
frame and stand are pretty well unmatched in its price range. The
dimensions 85 mm depth excluding the stand, which really is quite
slim, 46 cm in height and 66 cm in width. In case
you're new to this and the numbers don't seem to add up, the 26 inch
screen size quoted above is measured from corner to corner.
First
up, let's talk about the picture quality. In a nutshell, it is
great. The Samsung LE26R88BD has a 450 CD/M2 brightness,
5000:1 dynamic contrast, a 170° viewing angle, and some additional
picture features like Samsung DNIE and an optimised gaiming mode.
The TV has regular scart inputs, if you don't have the latest, most
up-to-date DVD player, and it also has HDMI inputs in case you
do. And whether you're viewing regular television via the
built-in Freeview tuner or a DVD with high-definition or standard
definition, the picture is smooth, sharp and bright. This
really is an excellent second television.
Having just said that the Samsung LE26R88BD is so great. I feel that I must point out that the DNIE picture enhancement technology, as usual, did absolutely nothing for me. I felt, if anything is just left an unrealistic sheen
or
glow to the image. I tried using the DNIE, in multiple
situations, but could find none, where it genuinely enhanced
it. Please don't let this put you off as as I have said, it looks
very good without any picture enhancement.
This TV also as
previously mentioned has the gameing mode, and like with the DNIE I
couldn't really see that this enhanced anything. The gameing
mode is meant to improve the colours as well as the response time of
the TV in order to enhance gaming. All I found (and we tested
this with PS2, PS3, Xbox 360), was that it tended to change or distort
the colours sent to the television by the gaming console. We
could see no improvement of smoothness, and if you do decide to
purchase this TV we would recommend all game playing with the gameing
mode switched off.
One thing to add, with regard to games, we
played a fair bit of Command and Conquer 2 on the Xbox 360 while
testing this TV. And were surprised how quickly screen burn built up
around the static areas of the image. This was, even with the
brightness and other settings turned down very low. Any TV is
more prone to screen burn when first using it, but I would be
particularly aware with this TV when you initially get it
home.
Consider pre purchasing PixelProtector. Especially if it might be used for games.
The sound on this TV
is truly excellent, compared to other TVs in its price range, and size
range. The excellent SRS XT surround sound system gives
absolutely fantastic sound from broadcasts and DVDs that complement
it. So unless this was to be your main TV, you certainly would
not need to consider any separate/add on sound accessories.
The
only things we found a slightly lacking, where the absence of auto
setup (which can be a pain when you first get it home), no child lock,
and no onscreen menus make it slightly more complicated to use but this
is only an annoyance to begin with.
All
in all, to summarise,
this is a great TV, and you'll be hard pushed to find better sound,
vision and appearance at this price and size. It has to be said
though, if this is being considered as a second TV, and you aren't too
worried about such fantastic picture or sound quality. Then you
can get a 26 inch TV for much less than the £500 or so which you
will need to pay for the Samsung LE26R88BD.
It is worth
mentioning that Samsung also do similar models to this in 32, 36 and 40
inch screen sizes as well. We hope you have enjoyed this review
and find it in some way helpful.
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