Samsung LA 32A450 Series 4 LCD TV

We reviewed Samsung’s Series 5 and Series 6 LCD TVs recently, and now it’s time to look at a candidate from Series 4. The model currently sitting in the Tech2.0 AV room is the LA 32A450, an affordable entry-level job that will appeal to the budget-conscious (that’s most of us). As it’s begun to make a wave of sorts in the market, let’s take a closer look…

Design and Features
This is a no-frills model, but that’s not necessarily a bad thing. The simple, high-gloss black bezel is a fingerprint trap, but looks quite good. The surface of the bezel is slightly convex, though it’s not an individual design element. The bottom panel is arched a bit, with a thick transparent plastic rim kissing its entire border. This is only on the bottom panel, which also has a tiny red LED on the right end.

The back is plain enough, with only a small connection window. There are 3 HDMI terminals, along with a PC (VGA) in and a couple of component and composite ins. There is a side panel too with one of the three HDMI terminals and a composite AV input. There is no USB input and all that jazz, but I don’t care much for those.

The contrast ratio is 10,000:1 and the response time is 6ms. The 81cm (32 inch) panel is Samsung’s popular SPVA LCD with a resolution of 1366 x 768 pixels. It’s got picture-in-picture, in-built audio speaker with 20W output, and a brightness of 450 cd/m2. This model does not come with 100Hz artificial frame rate, as it’s a mid-range model.

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Performance
We started off by checking what preset modes were available, and we noticed Cinema, Standard and Dynamic. Cinema, my favorite, displayed warm, slightly washed-out images with a sepia feel, which no doubt works well for movies. Dynamic proved disappointing.

The LA 32A450 has a very comprehensive menu, so there’s no need to stick to presets. Calibrating the TV for brightness and contrast was especially interesting, thanks to the neat backlight control and also gamma correction (which is not usually found in LCD TVs).

I must mention that the TV has very good black levels. It’s not that refined at the lower end of the bandwidth, though the blackest blacks in our test patterns were reached after some adjustment. The color and skin tones proved lovely. The TV has neutral colors, and an accurate tint control that gives desired offsets in color. So you can achieve some nice hues like Cinema mode.

We played games like Crysis (PC) and Ninja Gaiden (PS3) to check the motion and detail, and the image looked a little washed out, with a laidback feel. I’m afraid the sharpness control didn’t help much; it actually worsens the image at high levels. This proved a slight negative, as detail is not the best in this TV. The games look very good though, as the color and vibrancy are very impressive.

Conclusion
At Rs 44,000 I think the LA 32A450 is decent value for money, considering that new 32-inchers cost around 50K these days. Moreover, despite the slight haze, this TV is in no way a compromise. The images are rich, and movies especially look good. Recommended for entry-level enthusiasts.