Analyzed: Samsung UN46D7900 SMART LED TV

The first thing that catches your attention when you see Samsung's new LED series TVs is how thin the screen is. It is probably thinner than a third of your pinky finger. No joke. This along with the bezel which is only 0.2" thick is in line with Samsung's design philosophy of - visual impression of “more screen, less frame”. After the Pioneer Elite, which is in a league of its own, this is a brand that caught our attention with its innovation and price point. The model we tested was the UN46D7900, read: 46" 3D LED HDTV.

The TV comes with a slew of cool features such as, built in WiFi, 3D capability as well as the ability to upconvert 2D to 3D, Skype, USB ports to hook up your external hard drive or thumb drive to view pictures and films or just listen to music, a QWERTY keyboard which makes your life a little easier while surfing the web, oh and did we mention the Samsung Smart Hub - a suite of applications all geared towards the web (for e.g. web browser, Netflix, YouTube, Twitter, Facebook and ESPN to name a few). With a 1080P HD display at a refresh rate 240Hz, along with 1920 x 1080 resolution in case you decide to use it as a super-sized monitor (which we did), it is hard not to see why these TVs have been selling exceptionally well. 

We tested the out TV for our films (using regular DVDs, blu-ray and HD-DVDs), video games via the PS3 and XBox360, built in applications to stream content online and to browse the web, and used it as a monitor that we hooked our machine up to. The TV performed almost flawlessly. It is easy to get to get lost in all the options that are provided in such a nice package. The colors were vibrant and the blacks darker than most other TVs. A couple of minus points: accessing the Samsung Smart Hub applications is noticeably laggy (not just the getting around all the application options but the applications themselves) and the QWERTY keyboard. Unless you are sitting directly in front of the TV at a certain distance, it just doesn't work too well. Not to mention the fact that the keyboard is too small and seems like a complete after-thought to what we consider an awesome design in the TV. We were just plain frustrated after using it for a while. Maybe this is something that will be addressed in future iterations.

No review can replace the real deal, and given the package and options and of course the price (we tested ours in the U.S.A and got ours for $1,600 without the 3D glasses - add another $100 per), we recommend you check out this TV in person for yourself. In India the similar model will run about Rs. 1,60,000.

For the prices and all available Samsung LED SMART TV options in India, visit their website.