Samsung UN40B6000

Display Size & Technology

The Samsung UN40B6000 is a 40-inch LCD television that uses LED backlights instead of the standard Cold Cathode Fluorescent Lamps (CCFL) found on most LCDs. LED backlighting is becoming more popular, although you will pay a premium for it as the UN40B6000's $2,300 price point makes clear.

The UN40B6000 offers full 1080p resolution.

For the B6000 series of LED backlit televisions Samsung is using a technology called edge backlighting. This means that instead of an array of lights directly behind the display the LED lights are arranged along the edge of the screen. The light is then bounced off of elements behind the screen. This allows the television to be very thin and also saves power, although we are curious to see whether it provides as rich a viewing experience as a standard LED array.

Formats & Resolution

The Samsung UN40B6000 is a full 1080p HDTV, meaning it can handle the highest quality of HD content. As such it sports a full resolution of 1920 x 1080 pixels. It is also capable of upsampling lower resolution content.

Brightness, Blacks and Contrast Ratio

We weren't able to do any testing on the Samsung UN40B6000 in this first impression as we were looking at the television at a Samsung event. Samsung has not provided any information about the black level, peak brightness or contrast ratio in their materials for the UN40B6000, so we'll have to wait to get it into our labs to find out what the UN40B6000 is capable of. One thing we can say is that the use of Edge lighting does make it impossible to use local dimming technology to try and maximize contrast ratio.

Color

As we mentioned above we were not able to measure the Samsung UN40B6000's color performance. On the show floor we noticed that colors seemed a bit oversaturated, but without any information about how the HDTV was calibrated we can't make any definitive decision about the color quality. We can say that Samsung has chosen to stick with a standard color gamut for the B6000 series.

Motion & Refresh Rate

The Samsung UN40B6000 sports 120Hz refresh rate, which is twice the standard 60Hz refresh rate found on most HDTVs, although it is becoming more popular. In reviews of other televisions we've seen 120Hz refresh rate does improve motion performance, but we'll have to wait to get the UN40B6000 into our labs to confirm whether this is the case here as well.

Viewing Angle

Taking a look at the viewing angle on the show floor we were very happy with our first impression of the Samsung UN40B6000. Colors held up well as did blacks across a wide range of viewing angles. Once again we'll have to test this under controlled circumstances in our lab to find out if this impression holds up.