Samsung LA46A650A1 review

[iSonics]

The Samsung LA46A650A1


Samsung has released Series 650 with crystal design HDTVs. It has released three models in the series, and we received a Samsung LA46A650A1 for review. All the models are similar in design but differ in features. The design is inspirational and Samsung claims that with premium performance and aesthetic elegance it's a complete series.

Design

The Samsung LA46A650A1 is a new exquisitely designed series. It sets a new standard in TV design with a new crystal design finish complimented by traditional bezels. You can customize the look of bezels to match your interiors. LA46A650A1 is a masterpiece as it also has hand made designs on the border. This TV can raise the emotions of many people with its red tint. It has touch sensitive controls.

The exteriors are glossy and shiny and dust can be seen very clearly. So, you need to clean it everyday. It had a HDMI and USB port on the side which are hidden and cannot be viewed easily but they are still very easily accessible. The touch controls are not having any lights or LEDs, so you'll have to struggle hard to figure them out in dark. The weight of the LCD monitor is 26.6 KG which is an average weight of any LCD TV with 46-inch screen.

The speakers are placed at the bottom and we think it would be very difficult to hang this LCD monitor. However the sound quality was not affected because of this unconventional placement of speakers. The remote control was easy to use and all the buttons were easily accessible. The speakers are invisible which looks good and allows you to focus on just screen.

Specification and Features

We could find that money spend on buying series 650 is worth when we saw the complete specification. It had everything that's available in a high end LCD TV. It has all features of a top-notch performer. It has a high 50,000:1 dynamic ratio. It has a quick 4 ms response time and 178/178 viewing angle. Samsung claims that the screen is non reflective so there would be no glare. We tested this feature and found that Samsung claims are not vague. The reflection is very less and screen remains visible even when bright light is focused on the screen.

Samsung has also introduced two new technologies to further enhance the experience. The two new technologies are DNIe Pro and Wide Color Enhancer version 2. DNIe Pro is a core image processor which is used to deliver color and motion image optimization. These both technologies improve primary color and contrast. Samsung has also added PIP mode and you can direct the input of any port to the secondary window.

In side it has a USB, so you can play music and pictures from your MP3 player. Samsung has introduced a WiseLink function which helps in playing music and view pictures from any music player or pen drive. You can program a slideshow with music and pictures in your storage device.

Samsung LA46A650A1 has provided great selection of Audio and/or video ports. There are 4 HDMI ports in total with 1 in side and three in rear. Samsung has also provided support for legacy analog equipment such as XBOX and PS2. There are PAL/NTSC features available. There is a VGA port and a component-video port available in the rear.

Samsung has provided a brilliant menu. Every setting can be adjusted and tweaked. You can tweak saturation level. You can also optimize LCD backlight as we can do in our Laptops. This help in optimizing shadow details and white balance. You can also tweak judder suppression and edge enhancement. There are also many presets available. We found that presets are good and you can also manually tweak the presets as well. Therefore we recommend you to tweak any of preset.

There are three presets available which help you in optimizing the picture quality according to your needs. This model has fast motion imaging, dynamic detail enhancement and great speakers to produce the best entertainment experience ever. The three modes are Sports, Cinema and Game. The Sports mode gives you a live experience of the field. The field and water sports etc are shown in true colors and details. Primary colors are displayed accurately which produces a real life picture. Cinema mode converts your LCS monitor into a digital theatre. It gives you best motion pictures and sound. Game mode gives you more sharp picture, smooth moving images, and clear sound.

Performance

We gathered every gadget for testing the Samsung LA46A650A1 like PS3, XBOX 360 and a Blue-Ray DVD player. The picture quality was simply superb. The picture was clean, no grains in background. However we could discover few clouds, which were result of uneven backlighting. There was no noise and dot crawl. The resolution is also the maximum available today, its 1080p.

The performance was great. The color decoding was perfect. There was a perfect balance of red, green, and blue. It was also able to minimize DVD jaggies. The HD content was also displayed with pixel-perfect sharpness. Colors were natural and accurate. The brilliancy was perfect and motion pictures were displayed properly. There was no blur and the experience was simply great.

The dark scenes were pure black and with dynamic contrast ratio of 50,000:1, pictures were powerful and had a lifelike detail. Samsung has also provided an enhance Digital Dynamic Contrast which minimizes the black level and produced deeper black colors. Samsung has also made sure that it does not consume much power. They have optimized the use of energy and thus are taking a social responsibility to conserve energy and power. The power consumed, is just 240W while it's switched on and less than 1W when the TV is on stand-by mode.

We also tested the LCD monitor with an HDMI input from Dell studio Laptop. The text was sharp because of Samsung's pixel to pixel mapping. The shades were subtle and there was no false contouring.

We also tried everything with USB ports. We provided some low and high quality MP3 sounds and pictures. Samsung processor was able to recognize and play everything. The sound was also great. We heard from all the corners of the room, the sound was same in every corner. Samsung has provided SRS TruSurround which made the 3D sound possible.

To conclude, the pros include good picture quality high dynamic contrast ratio of 50,000:1, dark scenes were perfectly black, display of moving pictures was smooth, unique USB port connectivity with MP3 and image compatibility, and pixel to pixel mapping. The cons include the speaker’s placement which does not allow a user to hang this LCD TV, price is also very high. Sony has cheaper Bravia models with similar features and cheap price. So, if you are mesmerized by the design and looks then you go for this model. However, if you are just looking for feature then you must also have a look at Sony Bravia X series.