Web content such as news and weather is tailored to your location, but you can add and delete options such as weather info for different cities, selected financial indexes, and so on. More widgets will be made available all the time, some through Samsung and others through external providers. And different users can log onto the widgets functions with different passwords, and arrange their own selection.

The set can also function as a home network centre, a hub for other devices connected to your network. You can route messages or media from other devices to the TV.

An optional extra with the LE40B650 is a £50 wireless dongle, which looks like a USB memory stick. Plug it into the USB 2.0 socket and you can forget about having to run a LAN cable to your TV, you can just configure it to use your wireless network. You have to use this specific dongle as it comes pre-installed with the necessary drivers.

So do this set's internet functions add up to a unique selling point? Definitely, if you think of it as a sort of super-Teletext. Of course, it's no substitute for having full Windows functionality and a web-browser, but I can see this becoming a major feature of all TVs in the near future.

Performance

As for performance, while the LCD technology in this set is not new, Samsung has spent millions developing scaling processors for this range – you should bear in mind, though, that this Samsung is designed to descale any upscaled material, then upscale it again using its own technology.

For example, I used an Oppo upscaling player to test DVD material, and switching the Oppo's own scaling on and off didn't appear to make any difference to the picture. Presumably, the Samsung must have been doing its job effectively.

BBC HD pictures from Freesat looked gorgeous: colours are delightfully true and full without any exaggeration of flesh tones; detail is pin-sharp and grainless. With standard-definition material, the Samsung does an excellent job of tidying up Freesat/Freeview channels with a low bitrate. Fiddling with the 100Hz mode sets it to an effective level without introducing unwanted artefacts.

Not only is blocking minimal, but dot crawl and grain seems to be significantly reduced; this Samsung seems to be the video equivalent of Retinol – it plasters over the cracks very effectively.

With BD material, I started to have some reservations. With no LED-backlighting, blacks didn't appear as deep as I would have liked, and no amount of twiddling with contrast would improve the situation; the picture seemed grainy, and I had to reduce sharpness and switch off edge enhancement to make it more watchable. It's great when you do.

My only other reservation is with off-axis viewing; the image starts to 'grey out' at relatively shallow angles.

Ta-dah!

Samsung's LE40B650 is a set which will probably stand or fall on its internet capabilities, which in some ways is a pity, because it's a fine TV even without them, capable of producing decent pictures and offering a full range of user parameters. But if you are taken with the 'net abilities (like the HCC team is) this could be the start of a whole new way of relating to your TV.

You can vote for the Samsung LE40B650 in the T3 Gadget Awards now.