Samsung UE40B8000

The basics

The Samsung UE40B8000 is a 40-inch LCD television with LED backlighting and a 1920 x 1080 full HD resolution. Its ethernet port allows it to connect to your home network (and from that, the Internet), and there are also four HDMI inputs. It measures 998 x 29.9 x 612mm.

The good

By having its LED backlights dotted around the edge of the screen, the Samsung UE40B8000 can be much skinnier than the average flat panel TV. At a mere 30mm in depth, it’s positively size zero – and that’s with all the electronics, tuners and everything else crammed inside rather than in a separate media box. Thankfully, the wafer-rivalling thinness doesn’t impact on picture quality: you get bright whites, deep blacks and plenty of detail, plus reasonably (if not class-leadingly) smooth motion thanks to the 200Hz processing technology. Meanwhile, the DLNA and web tech adds an extra layer of usefulness, allowing you to stream videos, photos and music, plus view web widgets.

The bad

One thing the skinny frame does impact upon is sound quality, as the speakers have to be extremely thin to fit. This makes audio reedy and, well, thin, which means you’ll need to team the Samsung UE40B8000 up with some separate speakers if you want to marry the strong picture performance to ear-pleasing sound. If we’re being particularly picky, we’d also point out that you can get better black level performance on other, cheaper TVs.

The bottom line

There’s no denying the stylishness of this super-skinny telly, and it’s not a shabby performer on the picture front either. Its substandard sonic performance is a disappointment, though.