Samsung LA46F81B

It has been a while since we reviewed a large LCD, especially one from a big S: Samsung, Sony or Sharp. Just when we were pondering over this last week, Samsung called to notify us about the delivery of its LA46F81B LCD TV – which boasts the second-largest screen size in the company's new F8 series. Sweet.

Design and Features
The product is black all through, and has that touch of gloss that makes Samsung LCDs look, well, shiny. The finish is much better than older models; this one looks finer and more upmarket. The stand is rectangular for the most part, with a slight bulge on its side tossed in as a design enhancement.

The bezel is slim and sexy, while the simplicity on the front panel is also a positive. The rear panel is bare, with only the connection ports, situated below the central axis. They face outwards, so there's no need to bend over. The two sides have seamless glass strips, slightly tapering towards the front, again presumably a design factor.

There are no physical buttons anywhere on the front or back of the unit; it’s the left bottom corner that has touch-sensitive symbol buttons, for volume plus/minus etc. Nice. Even the main power switch is a touch-sensitive job located below the Samsung logo on the front.

The connections include an ‘all you can connect’ buffet comprising 3 HDMI ins, one of them along with audio-in for DVI connections. One of the HDMIs is on the side, along with a USB input for MP3 and JPEGs. Component, S video and VGA inputs are there as well.

Samsung has this annoying habit of making a hue and cry over its Dynamic Contrast ratios. Others do it too, but not as much as Samsung. I for one don’t care about the dynamic rating; the native reading is what I want to know, but as part of my job I will state it: 25000:1. It’s full HD, so 1080 lines of pixels make up the screen.