Samsung’s powerhouse lines of HDTVs are omnipresent in all price ranges, from the lower tiers to the highest end of the spectrum. Among the notables in the Samsung’s vaunted arsenal is the LN46A550, a mid-range LCD that holds a nice balance between performance and affordability.
Design
Lacking the Touch of Colour style of its high-end cousins, the LN46A550 nonetheless looks elegant in its piano black glossy finish that blends quite exceptionally with most modern home décors. The unassuming
Samsung LN46A550
design features a quite wide frame surrounding the screen, with the lower part wider than the other sides and accented with a chrome strip and a strip of blue light at the centre (that can be toggled on/off). The downward-facing speakers are also concealed by the bottom part of the frame, with a swivel stand that matches the finish of the frame.
The new remote is a welcome change from older Samsung clickers. It is fully backlit, has large, well-spaced and colour-coded buttons, and features useful dedicated keys like the ‘Tools’ button that gives easy access to picture and sound modes, and ‘P-Size’ that toggles aspect ratios. However, the clicker lacks dedicated picture-in-picture key and the glossy black finish attracts fingerprints like magnets. The icon-based on-screen menu is easy to navigate, with helpful text at the bottom that explains each option.
Screen/picture clarity
The LN46A550 equals or even bests some of the more expensive LCDs in terms of picture clarity and black levels. Colour accuracy is good to begin with, and with additional tweaking, could be even better – well-saturated greyscale, primary and secondary colours that delivers crisp and vibrant pictures. The black level of the LN46A550 is just slightly inferior to the inky blacks of the top plasmas, but definitely superior to many other LCDs in its class. Even the near-black and shadowy areas on-screen are impressive – with discernible details that is often not seen on other LCDs.
Video processing of this Samsung is just average, partly due to the 60hz. refresh rates that reveal some motion blur on test materials. With 1,920×1,080 pixels native resolution, the TV resolved superbly 1080p and 1080i sources, though for some standard-def materials, some softness were observed. Noise reduction, off-angle viewing and attenuation of bright lighting were also good. Finally, the LN46A550 handled PC inputs from both VGA and DVI excellently, with no observable artefacts.
Features
The LN46A550 has three independently adjustable picture modes; five colour temperature presets; ability to hone colour using the white balance option,; three choices for noise reduction; and numerous other controls that allow settings for gamma, contrast, black levels, and colours. Connectivity for this set is more than adequate, with three HDMI ports, two component-video inputs, VGA-style RGB input PC input, USB port and a headphone jack.
In test conditions and actual viewing, the LN46A550 performed superbly, showing that it’s truly a well-rounded LCD TV that is useful in more ways than one. And with its comparably affordable price, the LN46A550definitely is a winner.
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