Features
It would be wrong of us to start with any feature other than the LED backlight because it's the most important part of this TV. The backlight works by having an array of light emitting diodes behind the screen. These replace the more traditional cold cathode tube on regular LCD TVs which while nice and bright, can't be selectively dimmed in certain areas.
As LEDs can be turned off when they aren't needed, this TV can generate much deeper blacks than most LCD TVs. Samsung even claim a dynamic contrast ratio of 500,000:1, which we'll treat with the appropriate sceptisism. Suffice to say, whatever the true figure, this screen does do a great job.
The selective dimming of the LED array isn't especially accurate, which means if you have a totally dark screen and a bright white object, you'll see light bleed around the edges. In real-world viewing this isn't really a problem, but it will show up from time to time as a mild halo around bright objects on a dark background. For example, when you adjust the volume while the screen is showing black, you'll be able to see what we mean.
The Samsung, like all its brothers and sisters, has an immensely customisable picture. There are controls that enable you to adjust every facet of the image, including all of the individual colour components. This is a great thing if you want to optimise the TV for your viewing tastes.
Performance
HD DVDs
on the Samsung were stunning. The 1080p panel makes the most of high
definition material and we saw stunning levels of detail and the
picture was wonderfully bright. Testing the TV with Serenity proved how
good the LED backlight can be. We were quite simply blown away by how
deep and black the space shots looked and how much detail we could see.
Upscaled performance from our Oppo DVD player proved to be very pleasant indeed. We viewed one of the remastered James Bond DVDs and were amazed by the picture quality and the strong pleasing colours.
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User reviews1
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Vowani 27 October 2007
Good: The Samsung LE52F96 is probably the best LCD television set on the market today.
Bad: Navigation in the settings menu can be a bit sluggish at times. The black bezel is a dust magnet.
Comment: The Samsung LE52F96 is probably the best LCD television set on the market today. I am truly delighted by its functionality, quality and attractive design.
The LED SmartLighting backlight on the Samsung F96 allows for true blacks, it is as good as the best plasma displays.
Also, you get exceptional detail from 1080 sources with "Just Scan" mode engaged. It accepts 1080p/24 signals, and does away with telecine judder.
With proper settings tuning, you can achieve near-perfect greyscale display, and very natural looking colours.
Menu settings can be saved independently per input source.
It also has very decent speakers with quite good stereo separation and bass sound for a tv set.
It comes with many connectors, among which are 3 HDMI 1.3a ports.
Via the USB port, one can view photo slideshows, listen to MP3 music, and upload firmware updates.
For digital tv, it comes with a user-friendly on-screen program guide.
The remote control is well-designed.
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