Samsung LA22A480 LCD TV

We have done quite a few LCD TVs over the years, many from Samsung, but rarely do we go below 32-inchers. Now with budget constraints being the norm due to the recession fad, w have decided to shift the scanner to nice and prim small screen LCD TVs, something you can keep in your bedroom or double up as a monitor for your PC. Samsung sent us unique model form their new A series: the LA22A480.

Design
This model has a lot of different elements in its design, at least unlike the regular lager screen brethren of Samsung. Firstly the bezel is very broad, thus this A480 model goes out the slim category LCD. The finish is still the same Samsung glossy piano black, which comes with its eternal guarantee for fingerprint-magnetism.

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The bottom panel is a bit old fashioned with a inward sloping speaker grille attached as the bottom edge. The stand is broad rectangular one, with a similar finish, and as is the norm, the Samsung logo is printed soberly on the center of the bottom panel. I want to make a small compliant here, the stand does not easily join to the TV. This seems to be a regular feature with Samsung these days as, we recently reviewed their LCD Monitor, which had the same problem. Here there is no ball and socket joint though, just a less than perfect joint construction.

A sweet design addition on this model was a tinge of red on its bottom panel; something like Samsung’s proprietary Touch of Color bezel. This beautiful red streak only is visible in yellow light, but pushes the aesthetic quality of the TV a notch in the right direction. Operational buttons are flush mounted, touch sensitive ones lined up in a column on the right hand side panel.

Features and specs
There is no connection window on the side for this model, rather we have a nice small window facing outwards on the back panel. The connections included are 1 HDMI, 2 components and one each of headphone, composite, PC (D-sub) and finally an input for FM radio antennae. Yes, this is unique feature of the TV; it comes with a FM radio built in, and also 15 watts (x2) stereo speakers. This is smart, considering that this might be a second TV for many, who will not connect to a separate HT system.

This is a 22-inch screen with a HD ready resolution of 1366 x 768. The Dynamic contrast mentioned is 10,000:1. The brightness is not rated anywhere, but we are assuming is around 400 cd/m2 as the LCD monitors of Samsung coming in this price range have that, They might be using the same panels. This model comes with Samsung’s proprietary Digital Natural Image Engine+, commonly known as DNIe, it’s the real world name of the TV’s video optimizing chip.

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Performance
I wish to straightaway say that this TV looks really bright and vivid, this we saw on turning it on straight up, not even glancing into the menu even once. There are not too many presets and control in the menu, compared to bigger Samsungs, though the GUI looks the same, the regular translucent blue and gray menus. Beside Movie and Dynamic settings, there was regular Standard preset, which we chose to work on.

The backlight, contrast and brightness menus are almost all you need here, with a setting of backlight on 8 (on 10) brightness at 35 and contrast way up at 90, we got a sweet spot in terms of black and whites levels. We were very impressed at the performance, except of course low black level accuracy and depth, which we were not even expecting from such low priced LCD.__STARTQUOTE__This beautiful red streak only is visible in yellow light, but pushes the aesthetic quality of the TV a notch in the right direction.__ENDQUOTE__ But the other end of the range, the whites, were radiant and bright, with almost zero coloration and tinges, just pure white. The entire grayscale can be plotted around 6500 K. There was no blooming and impurities in the white even at high contrast levels of 95.

Our color temp setting was kept at normal, as we like everything neutral looking especially while reviewing. There are two more settings called Cool and Warm; the effect of these settings on the display is pretty self explanatory. The colors too were very neutral, yet beautifully saturated in perfect amounts. Neither Red Green or the blues were meandering away when measured individually, thus overall the colors also looked very life like. This is also due to the good performance of the TV in whites, thus colors look very vibrant.

Moving on to motion and details, smaller LCDs are known to be the best at it, and this LA22A480 was no exception. Since its smaller size of 22-inches, the native res of 1366 x 768 was really crisp and high end looking when we played 720p footage. Iron Man, Tropic Thunder and couple of HD trailers like Terminator 4 etc. were played, and we really enjoyed the detail. In its native res we hardly witnessed any haloing, artifacts like jaggies and moiring etc. The green in Tropic Thunder’s forests really contrasted well with the darkish skin tones of the guys moving around, and the explosions also looked amazing due to color depth.

Sound is alright, nothing spectacular, but it can be safely relied upon for loudness. The bass gets jammed and sounds a bit boomy in slim fit speakers these LCDs are notorious for, though dialogues and overall clarity is there in sound output.

Conclusion
So uptil now besides weakish depiction of low black level we have no real complaints, and to top it off, this TV is really reasonable, it’s for Rs. 20,900. Colors and contrast are very impressive, and details too are in superlative zone. Besides being a great choice for budget, small screen LCD TV, it is great for those looking for a TV cum monitor for their PC, as there is no need to get a separate TV tuner. The best part is that on connecting your PC via HDMI you can even go up to the full HD resolution of 1920x1080. The bottom-line is — It’s a very good TV!