Samsung UE37D5000 review

Super-slim TV with edge LED backlighting, but no Freeview HD

Samsung UE37D5000
A good budget option for those with a separate Freeview HD tuner

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Samsung ue37d5000

Firmly in Samsung's Series 5 TVs for 2011 and already discounted to below the £500 mark, value seeps from every pore of this 37-inch Edge ED set. Who cares about 3D, Smart TV or Freeview HD?

We liked

Its great value pictures are studded with blacks, contrast, natural but punchy colours, and some anti-blur tech that, for the most part, works well. Its media capabilities and classy Freeview EPG impress and although a slight annoyance to some, the lack of Freeview HD means a better value set for those who either aren't interested in hi-def, or who have a Virgin HD/TiVo or Sky HD box.

We disliked

The lack of a DVB-T2 tuner for fetching Freeview HD channels does seem a shame, as does the absence of Samsung's Smart Hub platform and associated apps – with BBC iPlayer being the biggest draw. The set's incapable of streaming MKV files over a network despite being able to play them from a USB drive, while audio is simply terrible.

Final verdict

A great value LED backlit LCD TV that deserves to sell in droves. Freeview HD, 3D, Smart Hub apps and decent audio are missing, but this 37-incher has enough about it to be the ideal living room TV; good looks, a slim profile, and versatile picture quality – and it's capable of delivering extraordinary pictures from Blu-ray.

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Jamie Carter

Jamie is a freelance tech, travel and space journalist based in the UK. He’s been writing regularly for Techradar since it was launched in 2008 and also writes regularly for Forbes, The Telegraph, the South China Morning Post, Sky & Telescope and the Sky At Night magazine as well as other Future titles T3, Digital Camera World, All About Space and Space.com. He also edits two of his own websites, TravGear.com and WhenIsTheNextEclipse.com that reflect his obsession with travel gear and solar eclipse travel. He is the author of A Stargazing Program For Beginners (Springer, 2015),