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The LN46A650 is Samsung’s 2008 entry in the mid-priced 46” 120 Hz-class segment. It stands out from the HDTV crowd by being… red. That might sound a little extreme, but it’s not a Ferrari red, and isn’t particularly noticeable unless in the path of direct light. Even if you consider that to be a detriment, this TV really makes a case for itself with picture quality that ranks among the best LCDs today. Add that to very decent connectivity, features, options and a competitive price, and the A650 series may be one of the best values in HDTVs today.

Samsung has given this TV what it calls a “Touch of Color” which in this case is a deep crimson. While that may sound appalling to some, it’s not really that noticeable unless you have direct light on it. It looks like Samsung intends to vary this up a little year-to-year, as a purple Touch of Color successor to this year’s A650 has been shown at electronics shows around the world. However, at least at this time, the color of the bezel can’t be changed.

Samsung makes some of the more attractive TVs today, and this 46” A650 is no exception. The glossy-screened TV is framed by an attractive acrylic bezel and rests atop an oval, glossy base that swivels a useful amount in both directions. The swivel feature is particularly useful for LCDs, which don’t have the same viewing angles as plasmas. In the case of this specific TV, viewing angles affect both contrast and black level. We’ll discuss that a little more in the performance category.

A pretty standard arrangement of inputs is found at the back, which include three HDMI and two component video inputs. It is supplemented by side inputs that consist of a single HDMI port, USB, S-video and composite. These are the only composite inputs found on this TV, so if you have lots of legacy devices, you’ll have to use an A/V receiver.

Samsung includes a remote that looks like most of its other ones with this 46” A650. Long, and with big buttons, it doesn’t really do anything wrong, with the exception of the wheel-button in the center, which replaces the directional buttons found on other Samsung remotes. Perhaps done in an attempt to differentiate the A650 series from its lesser brethren, the wheel rotates and can be used as a directional-pad, although that is not immediately obvious from first touch. It surrounds a circular enter button, which shows that it is clearly inspired by the original iPods. This type of wheel-and-button setup worked well in those devices when scrolling long lists, but only adds frustration when navigating a TV menu. Other than that, the only other problem is that the remote’s backlight sensor is too sensitive. It’s supposed to light up when you pick it up, but any (and I mean the slightest) vibration will activate the backlight, even when the remote is stationary on a table. This will actually run down the battery far too fast, with my first set of batteries giving the ghost up in an unbelievable (for remotes) two days. You can turn the backlight off to remedy the battery problem, but then you have no backlighting.

GUI

Samsung’s 2008 line of HDTVs are blessed with an excellent GUI. It’s clear, graphically appealing and easy to use. The more advanced settings such as gamma are hidden behind submenus so that they don’t confuse novices, but are still within reach for experts. The TV includes such options as white-level, and even has a blue-only mode that makes it easy to calibrate the tints on the TV. How much you can customize and calibrate this TV is one of the biggest draws in my opinion.

Speakers

The built-in speakers are, of course, nothing compared to a proper home theater setup, but as far as TV speakers go, they’re not bad. They are capable of reproducing a far wider spectrum of sound than another TV I recently tested, the Samsung LN32A550. One of the primary differences between this 46” A650 and uplevel A750 and A850-series TVs is better built-in sound. The panel itself is not really any different between the A650 and its stablemates, so if you’re going to use a home theater system (and you really should), save some money and get the A650.

Connectivity

The A650 has a built-in Ethernet port if you want to be able to check the weather and news through the Internet right on the TV, but I think that this feature is more gimmick than anything else. Not many people today will want an Ethernet cable snaking its way to a router somewhere, and most don’t have Ethernet in the walls. This is the wireless age, and if Samsung insists on Internet connectivity, a simple 802.11g WiFi connection would be a better choice.

I think that the A650’s inputs will have all your high-definition needs covered, but may let you down if you have a lot of legacy standard-definition equipment, such as a VCR or older satellite box. One interesting thing to note is that if you plan on connecting a computer via HDMI, you should use HDMI 2 as the input. It eliminates some of the processing and acts as a monitor when connected to a computer. Macbooks recognize when they are connected to a TV via HDMI, and will sometimes set their resolution to 1080i rather than the 1080p that the TV can in fact natively handle. When connected to HDMI 2, they see the TV as a monitor and feed it the full 1920×1080 resolution.

Samsung includes a VGA port and analog audio inputs from a PC if that’s how you want to connect, but it’s not the best method. The analog audio input should work when you are using a DVI-to-HDMI cable, but it’s hit-and-miss and really depends on your video card. Remember, when connecting 1080p sources to Samsung TVs, set your picture mode to “Just Scan” in order to eliminate overscan and force 1:1 pixel mapping.

Processing

One of this TV’s main features is the panel’s 120 Hz refresh rate. Believed by some to be a gimmick, it is most assuredly not. When watching Blu-Ray movies that are encoded at 24 Hz (because film is shot at 24 frames per second), most TVs have to interpolate frames to display them at their 60 Hz rate. However, since 60 is not a multiple of 24, some frames are duplicated, and others are missed, resulting in judder. This can be seen clearly in shots that pan, and once you see it, it will probably bother you. Since this panel is 120 Hz, a 5x multiple of 24 Hz, it can display film content properly without the judder. 120 Hz processing also helps to reduce blur in LCD TVs, but only as far as processing is concerned (i.e. it cannot make up for physical slowness of the pixels to change). On most 120 Hz TVs, a smooth mode is included, and many people think that the smooth mode is the sole purpose of the 120 Hz. This is not the case, and it is, in fact, an optional by-product of it. In this Samsung, it’s called AMP, and what it does is interpolate the 24 Hz of film to 120 Hz, giving it a video-smooth look. Some people like this look, and some people are nauseated by it, but there are three different levels of it, and you can turn it off altogether. Don’t worry, the TV will still operate at 120 Hz!

The TV also deinterlaces and upconverts to its native resolution of 1920×1080, and we’ll discuss this in the performance category.

Black Level

The A650 is capable of displaying the best black level of any LCD TV available, at 0.009 foot-lamberts, aside from the local-dimming LED sets. Local-dimming LED-backlit sets actually turn off the LEDs in a black area such as the black bars above and below the image in a widescreen (2.35:1) movie. There is more to black level than just being convenient; it is a factor that contributes to better shadow detail and a wider visible range of shades and colors. Think about a TV you’ve seen where the blacks are more gray than black; it’s like watching a movie with a screen filter over it. Having a TV with a better black level is like removing the screen, and being able to see a fuller range, and is why Pioneer Kuros carry such a hefty premium over other TVs. LED-backlit TVs do local dimming, yes, but aren’t really any better with blacks than this A650 in the portion where the image can be seen.

Color Accuracy

The LN46A650 has very accurate colors right of the box when using Movie Mode and the Warm2 setting. After calibrating, colors are pretty much spot on. To our eyes, the accurate colors were very appreciated when watching one of our favorite Blu-Ray disc sets, Lost Season 3. The bright, vivid greens of the Hawaiian jungles are almost too bright and neon-y in many TVs, especially plasmas, but on the A650 they were natural and really contributed to the feeling of being there. With the assortment of setup options the menu offers, you can achieve a result very close to the NTSC standard of color.

Video Processing

The 120 Hz processing of the unit really does eliminate judder when watching film material, so it’s a worthwhile upgrade over lesser models. It’s also better for gamers as it reduces ghosting slightly, but I’d recommend using the game mode because all the processing introduces a bit of lag, which can be problematic for some fast games. AMP (the smoothing effect) is really a personal choice. Many professional reviewers do not like it because it’s different from what they’ve grown up with, but I think that there are quite a lot of people out there who would like it. Initially, I disliked it, but after watching a few movies, I did start to warm up to it, though I can see how it can detract from the experience for some. AMP at its highest setting introduces a little bit of artification, but not to the point where most people would notice.

The LN46A650’s video processing is very impressive. When playing standard-definition episodes of Seinfeld, the TV correctly deinterlaced the picture and showed a very smooth, clean image. Performance in this area was far superior to cheaper Samsung TVs, and if you watch a lot of standard-definition TV, this ability may be a worthwhile investment for you. Only the best, most expensive TVs (many times the cost of this unit) were better at video processing, and then, only slightly. The law of diminishing returns is present in full force!

Uniformity

This is the Achilles Heel of this, and all LCD TVs. While the A650 is more uniform than many other competing LCDs, the non-uniformity of the backlight can be seen in dark scenes pretty clearly. Some areas are slightly lighter than others, and this is an effect that people refer to as clouding and mura as well. Many people do not expect this when buying a TV, so it’s best to take some movies with dark scenes (The Dark Knight, anyone?) and test them out to see if you find the set to be acceptable. This is actually one reason I will sometimes recommend plasmas over LCDs, because even in cases where the plasma has a poorer black level, the fact that it is grayish (but uniform) is less distracting than the non-uniformity.

Another issue with this TV is that in order to enjoy its super deep blacks, you must be in a dark environment, and secondly, be front and center. If you are too close, or even slightly at an angle, the deep black filter on the TV doesn’t work the same way and the black level changes drastically. When viewing 1080p content, I pulled up very close, to within five feet of the TV, and while detail was superb, being that close affected the way the blacks looked, and I had to push back a little in order to enjoy better contrast and blacks.

Bright Lighting

LCDs are usually far superior to plasmas in bright environments, and this TV is decent enough in such a scenario. It’s not the brightest I’ve seen, but the reason behind that is better blacks. Having a glossy panel detracts from the experience with this TV in a bright environment too. The same gloss that helps blacks and contrast in darker environments introduces a lot of glare, even more than with glass-paneled plasmas, so you’ll need to be careful when positioning it.

PC Connection

Like other LCDs, the LN46A650 is very happy connecting to a computer. The ideal connection would be HDMI, as it presents a perfect, lossless digital image rather than VGA which is analog. Regardless, the PC connection looked good over both connections, and due to the fact that this is an LCD with no image retention or burn-in, would complement an HTPC very well. Just be sure to calibrate your computer well, because by default the video playback can be very skewed!

The Good: Superb black levels and contrast for an LCD, highly accurate colors out of the box, very good connectivity and features, very customizable and easy to calibrate.

The Bad: Too-glossy glossy screen, black levels and contrast change with viewing angle and distance, no analog audio for DVI-to-HDMI connections, should have had WiFi instead of Ethernet.

Overall: The A650 series represents the best value amongst all TVs I’ve tested, and its positive features easily overcome its shortcomings.

Buy the Samsung LN46A650 at Amazon.com