Sorry people, but if you've just bought yourself a nice glossy black flat TV, you're already out of date. Rose Black is the new, well, black. How do we know? Because we've just spent some quality time with Samsung's LE40A656.

This really is arguably the prettiest TV we've ever tested. The subtle tint of deep red in the bezel – which becomes stronger towards the outer edge – gives the TV a stunningly individual identity, and makes it a talking point without ever looking garish.

The set is beautifully sculpted too and – in an industry first – uses no rivets or glues in its construction. We guess it must be held together with magic dust, or something…

Fab feature set

The LE40A656 boasts a pretty cool spec to accompany its good looks. This kicks off with four HDMIs – all v1.3 in nature, all Deep Color-compatible, all able to handle 1080p/24 Blu-ray feeds. Other connections, meanwhile, include a D-Sub PC port, and a USB 2.0 for playing MP3s and JPEGs.

As with most 'serious' 40in LCD TVs these days, the LE40A656 sports a Full HD resolution, while the latest improvements to Samsung's LCD panel and dynamic contrast technologies allow the TV to produce a sky-high claimed contrast ratio of 20,000:1 .

The LE40A656's pictures should also benefit from its 100Hz processing, designed to tackle LCD's traditional problems with resolution loss over moving objects. Our only concern is that some of Samsung's previous motion-boosting processing hasn't been particularly successful.

Picture clarity

Other features worth a passing mention are a 120MHz mode for enhanced 24p playback, gamma adjustments, picture-in-picture tools and a skin tone fine tuner.

Happily, the LE40A656's performance reveals its beauty to be considerably more than just skin deep. For starters, its 100Hz system is excellent, delivering terrific clarity and sharpness when showing action set-pieces during our I Am Legend Blu-ray movie

What's more, even during really frenetic scenes – such as the one where infected mutants storm Will Smith's home – the 100Hz engine does its job without throwing up any significant nasty side effects: so long as you avoid the 'High' 100Hz option.

Heavily detailed

Since the mutants only come out at night, this same house attack scene also highlights just how good the LE40A656's black levels are. They're deep, with little of LCD's common greying over problem, and possess plenty of the subtle shadow detailing that gives dark scenes depth.

The opening I Am Legend shots of a New York City over-run by nature, meanwhile, benefit greatly from the LE40A656's full resolution, with every last detail and texture visible in the striking concrete and fauna combination. Actually, the sharpness of the LE40A656's presentation reveals some ropey CGI – but that's hardly the TV's fault!

The set also looks gratifyingly judder-free when watching Blu-ray in 24p, and portrays the bright daylight scenes with extremely vigorous but always natural colours.

Rose-tinted LCD vision

The LE40A656 isn't perfect, though. There's a slight flicker around some edges during fast camera pans; images look over-bright if you stick with the Dynamic image preset the TV ships with; skin tones during standard-def viewing can look waxy; and the soundstage lacks bass.

But these flaws are dwarfed by all the good work on show. And, frankly, this great TV had us at the 'Rose Black' stage!