AT A GLANCE
- 40” screen
- Plays full HD (1920 x 1080p)
- Online connectivity via Wi-Fi
- Wall-mountable
- USB and 4 HDMI ports
(Disclaimer: for the first of the two weeks I had the Samsung Smart TV, I was in the throes of organising Johannesburg’s Slutwalk, so did not have quite as much time to explore all the options as I might have liked. Also, somewhere in that week, the manual went MIA, which left me having to figure things out for myself.)
I have to admit that I don’t watch much TV. I’m spoilt. I don’t have the patience to wait for weekly installments of the series I like to watch, so most of my “TV-watching” happens either on my laptop or on the 27” iMac, via my fully loaded hard-drive. Our last television set has in any case been on loan to friends for ages now since we installed our projector set-up and most of the time it’s too tedious to connect the laptop.
I have to say though, I was rather excited to spend two weeks with the Samsung Smart TV and if the boyfriend had his way, we’d never part. We wrangled the screen out of its sturdy packaging and I immediately went scrambling for a star-screw-driver so that we could attach the screen to the weighted base and give it pride of place.
This took a minute (be careful – the 8 screws are two different sizes and go into specific slots. I found out the hard way), but once it’s set up it takes up relatively little space for the 40” screen size. It’s sleek, it’s good-looking, and it looks really good in my living room! The axis of the screen is fixed from front to back, but does swivel from side to side. Though it has a relatively small footprint, be sure to leave enough ventilation room around the screen so that it does not overheat.
For some reason we had a problem getting a signal from the PVR decoder to the screen. Even though we seemed to be doing everything right, we kept getting a screen message saying we had to check the signal. Imagine my chagrin when I plugged in the same cable the very next day while on a tech support call with someone from Samsung and everything suddenly worked! Crisp, clear picture, even in the middle of the day, which is usually an issue when you have a projector.
With the review set came a Wireless LAN Adapter which provided one of those blissful “I’m glad I live in the 21st century moments!” I plugged it in and immediately we were connected. The adapter does however protrude about 10cm’s beyond the back of the set, which will be a problem should you want to wall-mount the unit. I can’t say that I spent any more than a perfunctory minute browsing through the social media sites like Facebook, Twitter and YouTube using the Smart Hub, but I did spend some time reading online news sites.
One can also connect to the Samsung App Store via Wi-Fi. (It might be worth checking out some apps in the long run, but knowing I’d only have the TV for two weeks, it simply wasn’t worth exploring, seeing that one has to set up an account in order to download anything.)
Apps include YouTube, Skype, BBC iPlayer and more and are categorised into:
- Vidoes
- Sports
- Games
- Lifestyle
- Information (like the AccuWeather.com widget)
- Education
The other shortcoming for me was that I never could get the AllShare system to work. A bit of Googling led me to numerous complaints from other Mac users that the software only works with PC. (Rather frustrating!) I downloaded something called TvMobili which is supposed to facilitate Allshare with Mac, but no joy.
For me the most amazing thing was being able to plug in my memory stick via USB and voila, be able to watch my favourite series or movies. I think that alone, made the bf and I fall in love with the Samsung Smart TV. I want one!
Turn Ons
- Sleek
- 40” screen
- Crisp images
- USB and 4 HDMI ports
- AllShare system (PC only)
- Plays full HD at 1080p
Turn Offs
- AllShare doesn’t work with Mac
- The Wireless LAN Adapter protrudes
- The Wireless LAN Adapter is a costly accessory if you don’t use Ethernet
- Social Media on my TV holds no appeal to me
Price: R6 999.95 (for the 40" model)
