Review SAMSUNG LE26R88BD.html
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. Enter
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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.
