[alhow]

Hi

After weeks and weeks of research I had finally decided to get a Samsung LE40B550 and the best price I can find is £540 from Amazon:

Samsung LE40B550A5 40 inch Widescreen Full HD 1080p: Amazon.co.uk: Electronics & Photo

but all of a sudden quite a few retailers have started offering a LE40B530 for £480:

Currys - Shop for Flat Panel TV - Samsung LE40B530P 40" 1080P LCD TV

but Im really struggling to find any info on this TV (is not even listed on the Samsung website) from what I can see the 530 is missing an Hdmi slot and a usb slot (which is worth the saving to me, especially since there is a live 5% discount code for Currys at the moment) if that is the only difference

However, looking at the Currys website the 550 is listed as having a contrast ration of 80,000:1 whilst the 530 only 60,000:1 so is it actually a different panel completely? (have actually just been to Currys but they werent able to tell me anymore than is on the website) and reading back through threads on this forum someone mentioned that the firmware for the 530 is completely different? (sorry cant find the link to that thread now)

Any info anyone could give me about the differences between these two TVs would be amazing as I was hoping to finally buy one today but now Im all confused again!

[longwolf3]

I don't know the specific difference here, but Samsung usually use these numbers to highlight aesthetic differences in a range. For example, in the Samsung 7000 series they have the UE40B7020W and the UE40B7000W the only difference being the 7000 is platinum black and the 7020 rose black.

[kaidiez]

had a look but couldnt find anything on their site about it so would presume they are the same model, what longwolf said is true samsung tend to give different model numbers to different retailers with slight cosmetic changes.

coincidentally I was looking at this TV for a friend of mine but dont have time to go on a mad reading spree like I used to, is this a worthwhile purchase at this price or are there better alternatives in this pricerange?

[vickster]

The 530 has fewer connections and lacks a USB port I believe

[el_nello]

I have been trying to find out similarly what the difference is. It seems to be more than just cosmetic.
From what I've read the 530 has:

1 less HDMI port (3 instead of 4)
No USB play functionality. USB port is there but only for firmware upgrades.
1 less scart (1 instead of 2)
No s-video
60,000:1 contrast ratio instead of 70,000:1 on the 550

There might be other differences too but that's what I've found so far.

[alhow]

thanks for the input but still cant be absolutely sure if the difference is cosmetic/about ports or more than that:

Found this thread talking about the differences between a 550 and a 530 in another Samsung series last year (LNxxAxxx ?) which says the same thing (i.e. that the TVs have different contrast ratios):

Samsung LCD TV's 530 vs. 550 series???? - CNET Samsung Forums

so maybe they really are completely different (just dont want to buy a 530 on the strangth of the 550s reviews and find out its entirely different)

sent an email to Samsung requesting clarification and got back a reply simply stating that the 550 'has a higher specification' without explaining if they were referring to the screen or the connections

anyway maybe Ill just get the 550 and spend the extra £80 for piece of mind...............