To be honest, Samsung has taken longer than we'd expected to deliver its first full HD LCD TV. But now that duck has finally been broken in the shape of the 40in LE-40F71B - and a very lovely shape it is too. In fact, with its high-gloss black finish, curved edges and angled silvery strip along the bottom edge, it's hard to think of an LCD TV that's more attractive.

Fittingly for a full HD TV - that's a TV with a 1920 x 1080 resolution that can accept the 1080p hi-def video format - the LE-40F71B's connections include two HDMIs, both capable of taking 1080p, as well as the 1080i and 720p hi-def formats. This is on top of a component video input (an analogue hi-def connection), a PC video input, slots for viewing digital photos off memory cards and USB devices, and all the usual standard-def offerings.

However, there's a surprising hitch: the LE-40F71B doesn't have a digital tuner. This seems bizarre for such a forward-thinking TV, especially as practically every other Samsung TV has one. Our LE-40F71B review sample also blots its copy book by applying overscan to 1,080-line sources rather than showing them on a 1:1 pixel basis.

However, Samsung has produced a simple firmware upgrade for the LE-40F71Bs that introduces a 1:1 option. Call 0870 7267864 to find out more.

The LE-40F71B also carries Samsung's Digital Natural Image engine (DNIe), a picture processing system that works on boosting colour tones and saturation, black levels, sharpness and motion handling among other things. Plus it's built with a new wide colour gamut technology to deliver a greater chunk of the natural colour spectrum than most rival LCD TVs. Finally there's an automatic backlight adjuster that can reduce the picture's brightness during dark scenes to produce a massive claimed contrast ratio of 6000:1.

After spending a few crucial moments toning down the LE-40F71B's crazily aggressive factory presets, the TV proves to be a good, occasionally great, performer.