Samsung UE40C6540

Couldn't fault my beloved Panasonic 37" lcd tv, but I'd been watching and waiting for the prices on LED tv's to drop significantly under £1000 (hello what sane person who doesn't have more money than sense really wants to pay £1000 for a tv).

As anyone with half a brain can see 3D is the same old silly fad that will mercifully fade away in a couple of years, so obviously I was never going to be interested in getting a £1000+ 3D gimmick model. Thus I was overjoyed to find Comet had this model, with £100 off, just a couple of weeks or so before christmas 2010, for just £599.99 - astonishingly just UNDER what I paid out for my 37" Panasonic. I might well have gone for Panasonic LED - but sadly at present they don't even manufacture a 40" model - or at least I've not seen one being sold.

The dimensions of this tv are incredible - it is a mere 1 inch or so wider than my 37" tv, yet has 3 more inches of screen to view. At just over 1 inch in depth it's not hard to see why LED is the tv tech so many people want. This model also has Freeview HD which is absolutely perfect as I never intend on throwing £20 away every month on 400 shopping channels and 278 +1 channels (oh and about 2 half decent channels) - aka Sky.

The picture on this tv is, and I hate to use the word so often but I can't think of any other way to describe it : incredible. The sheer amount of adjustments you can make to the picture settings is mind blowing - and something you simply cannot achieve with ye olde lcd tv's. In some cases though there are TOO many settings, and it did become a bit irritating trying to lighten up the near constant darkness of a SAW film. But this is something you really can live with considering the astounding picture quality you will get on just about everything you watch. Even a crumby old Police Academy film being shown over christmas looked like it was made last week. It is really something that has to be seen to be believed if you doubt that claim.

The tv even has touch buttons on the front of it to power on or off, adjust volume and change channel. What was even more surreal was when I found the Samsung controller actually controlled the menu on my Panasonic blu-ray player. Also, if the tv is off, and you turn the blu-ray player on and insert a disc, the tv will turn itself on. Again - sounds like I'm making this up but again, if you doubt me, buy one and see for yourself. The sheer level of thought that has gone into this tv as a whole is superb. The menus, channel guides and such respond rapidly, and always give you sufficient time to read them before disappearing. Also unlike the Panasonic EPG which forces you to stop watching the channel, this tv keeps the channel up in a little diddy window at the top. Again, so pleasing to see.

Blu-rays look even better than on my old lcd - though to be honest I was half expecting that with the sheer fact it was LED lit which clearly does allow for much more precision. My nay-sayer friend says this is all "hype". He is wrong - it is glaringly obviously different in quality from lcd, and even squares up to plasma (and let's face it who actually wants a plasma tv these days).

The one drawback to this tv is the perspex front to it. This is EXTREMELY beneficial for easy, safe screen cleaning, but you do see a LOT reflected in it on sunny days - so do bear this aspect in mind. Though for me I'm prepared to just sacrifice some light for the sake of the magnificent viewing experience this tv really does provide. You would be mad to pay about £300 more for the 3D fad, when this one, at a very respectable 100Hz, is going to see you through a hell of a lot of viewing.

100% recommend - even with the fiddly picture adjustments.