Samsung LN40B610

Value Comparison Summary

The LN40B650 is the big brother of the LN40B610, so it's no surprise that the two displays are quite close in terms of performance. But they are not close in terms of price: the LN40B650 costs about $1700, while the LN40B610 costs about $1100. So, the LN40B610 is the better value for money, but the LN40B650 has a wider feature set that might be worth the money if you want these features.

	Comparison Specifications
	Samsung LN40B610	Samsung LN40B650
Size	40 inches	40 Inches
Price	$1050	$1700
Type	LCD	LCD
Format	1080p	1080p
Other	USB port	USB & Ethernet port

Blacks & Whites

The LN40B650 has a slight edge in our tests of blacks and whites: it had significantly deeper blacks and a wider contrast ratio. But the 610 had slightly brighter whites, which might help if you are watching TV in a brightly lit room or during daytime

Blacks & Whites Comparison Chart
Samsung LN40B610 Score: Black Level: 7.79 Peak Brightness: 9.33 Contrast: 8.44	Samsung LN40B650 Score: Black Level: 8.77 Peak Brightness: 9.01 Contrast: 9.26

Color Accuracy

Both displays scored highly in our tests of clor performance; we found that they both had constant whites and smooth RGB curves, which means that they can accurately show small changes in colors on the screen. Both had some issues with color gamut, though; we found that they both had a problem with inaccurate blues.

Color Temperature Comparison

Samsung LN40B610 Score: 8.05

Samsung LN40B650 Score: 8.11

RGB Comparison

Samsung LN40B610 Score: 8.03

Samsung LN40B650 Score: 9.06

Color Gamut Comparison

Samsung LN40B610 Score: 4.15

Samsung LN40B650 Score: 4.23

Motion

We rated both displays equally in terms of the smoothness of motion: we found that the 120Hz motion processing they both used produced noticeably smoother movement than the 60Hz frequency that most others used. However, we did notice some serious problems on the 650: we found issues with trailing on some objects on the screen and a shutter effect, where striaght lines turned into jagged, broken ones when they moved across the screen at high speed.

Viewing Effects

Neither display impressed us with their viewing angle. We test this by measuring the blacks and whites when viewed from a large number of angles, then calcuating the angle at which the contrast ratio between the blacks and whites drops below 50%. For both the 610 and the 650, this was around 19 degrees, which is not a very wide angle.

Viewing Angle Comparison
Samsung LN40B610 Score: 4.10	Samsung LN40B650 Score: 4.55

Connectivity

Both displays have a decent selection of ports and sockets which should be sufficient for most users to connect the various video devices that they have, both analog and digital.

Other features

Both displays include USB ports that can be used to play back music and view photos on the screen. However, the 650 has a few more media tricks up its sleeve; it cn also play back videos from the USB drive, and can also stream content from the Internet over its ethernet port. What this means is that you can watch YouTube videos, read Twitter posts and even watch Netflix streaming videos on the 650 without having to use a computer or other device.

Other Models in the LNXX610 Series
This is a review of the LN40B610, specifically. The other TVs in this series should be broadly similar in terms of performance and usability. For details about any differences, click on the image to jump to the Series Comparison page.
LN46B610 46'	LN52B610 52'