TVs

Samsung LE32A558

Capable of miraculously subtle colours and good-looking, too

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Last reviewed: June 6th

The LE32A55 reaches down to the kind of black level depths that are normally only negotiated by plasma

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If you’re not full HD these days, you’d better be pretty and if you’re really trying to turn some heads, make sure you’re both.

Samsung’s LE32A588 is surprisingly slinky for a ‘conventional’ LCD television. The sparse frame is decked out sumptuously in piano-black gloss and the edges of the screen surround are subtly rolled, softening the set’s profile.

Full HD panel

That stylishly empty front panel, meanwhile, has been achieved by hiding the speakers around the back and they are mounted in a novel, downward-firing configuration, which, as we’ll see, seems to have a pleasingly positive effect on the sound quality.

Top of an extensive spec sheet is, of course, that 1080p panel. This enables you to display Blu-ray discs and HD broadcasts at maximum resolution and should stop this set going out of date for at least a year or two.

This is fed by no fewer than three HDMI inputs, plus a generous roster of secondary connections and even a USB port for plugging in portable storage devices full of photos and/or audio files.

Straightforward installation

The Samsung’s absolutely idiot-proof installation system will be a joyous revelation to the sort of person who breaks out in a sweat when confronted with such things as graphic equalisers. You simply switch on, press the ‘okay’ button whenever you’re asked to and you’re done.

It’s so straightforward we’d defy even the most banana-fingered luddites out there to be able to mess up getting the set tuned into both analogue and digital signals, and even have a DVD deck or digibox hooked up within minutes.

The menus are colourful, clear and attractively presented and manage the neat trick of being soothingly accessible and tweak-tastically comprehensive, which should suit the terminally technophobic and hardcore AV pointyheads equally well.

The remote is also a joy to use, with decent-sized keys sensibly distributed and well labelled on a nicely turned unit that sits well in the hand. The only gripe we have with the zapper is a cosmetic one: that shiny black finish might pleasingly echo that of the set, but it picks up fingerprints quicker than Hercule Poirot and soon loses its swanky lustre.

Understated colours

The generally delightful experience thus far will have you eagerly anticipating some seriously classy pictures from the Samsung, and the set just about manages to deliver on that promise.