Samsung UA40C7000 3D LED TV

The one you have been waiting for -- Samsung’s LED edge lit, 3D TV. Brand f***ing new, in your face. It’s got a lot of hype, and we’re just itching to turn it on, put on the glasses and render some boring old 2D into 'oh so exciting' new 3D. This is the review of the Samsung UA40C7000 TV, it’s a part of their latest 3D TV venture.

So the images won't really look like this

Design and features
The TV comes in at a super slim 1-inch depth, perched on a shiny metallic stand. The bottom of the bezel and sides too are covered in a shiny metallic strip, while the rest of the frame is regular glossy black. The stand is not a boring rectangular plinth, rather a cross shaped one, that adds more chutzpah to some futuristic home décor.

Super slim

So basically, what’s on offer here is a TV that does its own 2D to 3D conversion, and transmits to a pair of shutter glasses. One pair each of these glasses are available with each purchase, they come with a USB connector for charging. It’s very similar to the Nvidia 3D setup. Then any content you play on in it in 3D mode, it tries to render in 3D.

Plus there are all the other crazy features available these days, like Internet connectivity and USB media playback. The internet connectivity, besides regular Youtube, opens out a plethora of options, as one can download special apps and widgets for streaming stuff like sports and weather info, play small time games, do the Facebook thing and much more.

Switching to 3D

Performance
The first thing we did was charge the glasses, as they came wiped out. This took about 30 minutes to get it to work fine, after which we plugged in out HTPC via HDMI. The 3D mode can be accessed by a single button click on the remote. The UI is not new, rather it’s the same design from previous models, but that’s just fine as it’s a fluid, clear and easy to use menu.

All the better to see you with

So, then comes the 3D. Well it’s not as good as we imagined it to be, it had some glitches — a major one being non-uniformity in rendering. What this means is that there are spurts of 2D while rendering. This was also during standard-definition movies. And off course all content does not render into jaw dropping 3D. The video needs some good depth in it in the first place. What the good part was that animation and games work really well, especially higher def stuff. We played Kung Fu Panda, Blu-ray, that worked just awesome. God Of War via the PS3 also was an exhilarating experience. But then some high def movie like Pulp fiction through its Blu-ray did not serve us so well.

Contrast and brightness wise the TV is slightly above average, the LED lamination is not too different from previous models. Its not bad or too dull, just that the higher end model by Samsung will surely be brighter, I guess they have to leave some stuff for the higher end 8000 and 9000 series models.

Settings, Settings and more Settings

Conclusion
It comes for a very reasonable price of Rs.1,30,000, with one set of 3d glasses. Additional glasses are at Rs.9,990. The price is not bad, I was expecting a shocker upwards of 1.5 lakhs. To sum it up, this TV has some positive points in the form of games and High def animation rendering, but that’s about it. The contrast , colors etc are decent but not spectacular. We think the technology is new and needs “kink laundering”, but it is good for those willing to treat it like a fun gimmick, moreover gamers should look at the TV for some added timepass.