Samsung LE40F71B review

Samsung offers some of the best-value televisions on the market and now it's getting in on the budget act with this 'Full HD' 40-inch LCD. With plenty of features such as a memory card reader, Picture in Picture and MP3 playback, the Korean giant is trying its best to show the more established manufacturers a thing or two about hi-def tellies.

Design
We're big fans of this television's design, especially the way that, apart from a large power switch, the front of the set is devoid of any fussy buttons. If you like piano black then you'll love this set, although bear in mind that the glossiness means you might be able to see the rest of the room reflected in the surround. The speakers are also hidden, and fire on to a strip of silver material. This means there is very little to distract you from what's happening on screen.

Unfortunately the stand is a little cheap looking, although we'll give Samsung some credit for making it swivel. It is possible to wall-mount this television if you buy a separate kit.

Although the remote is long and thin, there are plenty of buttons to justify its length.

The TV features the usual set of inputs. There are two HDMI inputs, two Scart inputs, component video in and a PC D-Sub input for hooking up your computer. You'll also find composite and S-Video inputs at the side of the set, along with a variety of memory card sockets. Most of the popular memory card types are supported, as are USB memory keys.

Features
The headline feature of this television is the 1,920x1,080-pixel resolution. This means, if you've got a 1080p HD DVD or Blu-ray player, you'll be getting the maximum possible quality from it.

One of the nice features of this television is 'Wiselink', which lets you look at photos or listen to MP3s stored on a memory card, USB stick or USB host device. You can also set up slideshows, which will play to music if you choose -- it's a clever feature and it comes in handy for parties. The main downside is that the MP3 playback doesn't have any controls other than start and stop -- if you want to fast forward a long track, you're out of luck. You can even print photos via a PictBridge output, turning the TV into the world's largest preview screen.