electronicsme - Electronics / Televisions made easy

Print this page

Samsung LN55A950: Review

Posted to Televisions 2009-02-24

If you are in the market for a new flat-panel TV, and have been intrigued by LED backlight technology, then you may want to check out the Samsung LN55A950. Building on the popularity of their 81 Series, Samsung has released two new 9 Series flat screens. With the same LED backlight technology as its predecessors, the LN55A950 offers deeper blacks contained in a Touch of Color bezel that is sure to make it stand out from the crowd.

The LN55A950 is a 55 inch 1080p LCD that offers Full HD with a resolution of 1920 x 1080. It also offers users a contrast ratio of 1,000,000:1 and a 4ms response time which is sure to provide a decent picture every time you use it. The LN55A950 also comes complete with 4 HDMI ports, 2 composite, 1 s-video, 1 pc input, 2 component inputs and 1 headphone jack which provides a lot of functionality in one package. Ports are located on the back as well as the side, making it convenient for those loaner electronics that do not need to claim a permanent port on the back of the TV.

Rating:

3.8 out of 5

Features

The LN55A950 provides a wide variety of features in one compact package. One of its newest features is a backlight that is made up of Light Emitting Diodes, otherwise known as LED's. This feature offers many advantages, some of which include less power usage, better color fidelity and the ability to create deeper black colors.

Samsung has added a new technology which they refer to as LED SmartLighting to the LN55A950. This technology is used to dim the LED's located behind the dark areas of pictures. This results in better contrasts, and is one of the biggest contributors to making this TV Energy Star certified. Technology that can turn selected LED's off and on, reducing its power consumption, making it more cost effective in the long run. <\p>

There are also some new features that are geared towards improving the TV's picture performance. Samsung has implemented its Auto Motion Plus, or AMP technology, which refreshes the screen at a fixed 120Hz. When this feature is turned on the TV utilizes "frame interpolation-" which creates extra frames that are used to boost the frame rate of the source. Three levels of interpolation are available on the LN55A950 and they are low, medium, high and demo. High creates the smoothest motion, but by utilizing this setting you run the risk of receiving more unwanted side effects than with any of the other settings. <\p>

Samsung's LED Motion Plus works along with its AMP technology in an effort to reduce motion blur. Motion blur is decreased by cycling horizontal blocks of eight rows of LED's from the top of the screen to the bottom at a rate of 120Hz. This feature is geared towards eliminating motion blur and noticeable lag that can be seen on competitors LCD's. <\p>

The LN55A950 can be used for more than just TV and movie watching. With its InfoLink RSS technology, user can turn their TV into a type of internet portal that can display some of the most popular content on the internet such as weather, news, sports, and stock quotes. You will need to connect your TV's Ethernet port to a network connection for this feature to work. Once connected, all configurations will take place via the LN55A950 onscreen InfoLink menus. <\p>

The LN55A950 also contains Samsung's WiseLink Pro technology which allows instant access to your photos, music and videos via a USB connection that allows you the option to turn your TV into an instant media center. Along with access to your prized photos and other multimedia files, the LN55A950 also comes equipped with a Content Library that is preprogrammed with a library full of fine art, recipes, games, children's programming and fitness programming. <\p>

Performance

Color on the LN55A950 performs quite well right out of the box. Colors appear vibrant and natural, with no real color tweaking required. If you prefer to make it just right, you do have the option to make changes by using the Color Space controls, but most changes are hardly noticeable so it may not really be worth the time spent to play with the settings. Sound performance is average due to bottom-firing speakers. Sound may appear to be somewhat boxy, but performance is ok for a flat screen.

The best feature of the LN55A950 may also be one of its main drawbacks. Due to the fact that there are less backlighting LED's than pixels, the backlit areas may appear to be larger than the pixels they are illuminating. This can cause bright objects that are set against a dark background to be surrounded by a halo of light and the brightness of the objects can vary as the surrounding LEDs dim. Movie credits are a perfect example of this. Letters appear as if they are surrounded by a halo of light instead of the sharply etched characters they should be. <\p>

Off-axis performance on the LN55A950 is not the best, especially when compared to other LCD's on the market. The haloing effect, which is caused by too few LED's, becomes much more evident when the TV is viewed from the side. This flaw makes the prized best seat in the house that much more valuable, and worth the time to fight over. <\p>

Summary

In conclusion, the LN55A950 performs quite well given the new technology it contains. If you just have to have the newest technology to hit the market, and don't mind sacrificing some of your viewing angle to get it, then the LN55A950 may be the way to go.

Pros

1080p Full HD
LED SmartLighting
Auto Motion Plus & LED Motion Plus
Fair off-axis performance

Cons

Halo effect on certain objects