Samsung LE40A656 or Sony 40W4000?

[_Ollie_]

Now that my original choice the Sony 40V4000 has risen to £699 so has my budget. Now a couple of other tvs look alot more appealing...

The best price I've found for the Samsung is £667, the best for the Sony W is £730. The Samsung has 100hz which the Sony doesn't have, a big deal or not?

Which TV is the best all rounder? Thanks.

 

[CAS FAN]

Now that my original choice the Sony 40V4000 has risen to £699 so has my budget. Now a couple of other tvs look alot more appealing...

The best price I've found for the Samsung is £667, the best for the Sony W is £730. The Samsung has 100hz which the Sony doesn't have, a big deal or not?

Which TV is the best all rounder? Thanks.

Tough one as they are both good LCD's. Personally i'd look at a 42" 1080p Panny plasma (like the PZ80) which is about the same price as the Sony.

My brother has the Sony above and my parents have the Samsung and choosing between them is tough. I would go for the Sony myself as the colours are more accurate, but the Samsung is still a good set (with decent black levels) and is a bit cheaper. Look out for clouding on the Sony, but IMO Sony's LCDs currently have the best PQ in the LCD market.

The only way to judge for yourself though is to demo both of them (idealy where they are both set up properly) as what looks good to me may not do so to you.

 

[_Ollie_]

The Panasonic P80... looks decent, you're making my choice pretty difficult! So you'd go with the Sony then, it doesn't matter that it isn't 100hz?

 

[CAS FAN]

The Panasonic P80... looks decent, you're making my choice pretty difficult! So you'd go with the Sony then, it doesn't matter that it isn't 100hz?

It's a tough one and each set has it's advantages. The 100hz on the Samsung can help when watching footie etc. by making the image smoother on fast moving content. That said the Sony has better colour accuracy and response time. The Samsung also has better connectivity (4 HDMI vs 3) and is slightly cheaper. The Sony's have also had clouding issues on some sets. I've included some reviews of the two LCD's you mention below (which may help you decide) and also chucked in a review of the Panasonic PZ80 (which also gives you an extra 2" screen size).

Sony 40W4000

Samsung LE40A656

Panasonic PZ80

If you're going to do mostly gaming then i'd go for one of the LCD's (personally i'd go for the Sony as I go for PQ over virtually anything else and the Sony has the most accurate picture of the two). If you mainly watch TV (especially a lot of SD TV) and movies then the Panny wins hands down for me.

Hope that helps, but i'm no expert and just going on what i'd do. The best thing is to see if you can view the sets all set up right for yourself and to read the various reviews and weigh up the pros and cons.

Best of luck!

 

[_Ollie_]

Thanks alot for your help mate.

 

[CAS FAN]

Thanks alot for your help mate.

You're welcome Ollie, it's never easy buying a new piece of kit .like a TV as it's never cut and dry. I've reacently bought a Pioneer KRP-500A which is an awesome TV, but you can get the Panasonic 50" Plasma for half the price and that's still a good set. There's always pros and cons to weigh up. I'm sure you'll be happy with any of the sets mentioned in this thread though as they are all very highly rated TV's.

 

[deadmonkey]

Definately worth getting along to a shop and having a look at them if you have a vaguely convenient opportunity. I spent ages reading stuff here, dozens of reviews and looking at prices before I bought a 32" lcd. yet when I went to a couple of stores there was one I immediately preferred the picture of. Exactly same tortuous routine when I bought a 20" lcd for the bedroom.

In both cases it was a Sony and I love the picture of both of them.

 

[_Ollie_]

Tortuous is right! Over the Christmas period when TVs were cheaper I must have compared prices at every half decent online retailer every day. New years day I finally bit the bullet and ordered a 40V4000 Sony Bravia for £513 from Dixons with a £50 off voucher. Fantastic deal I thought to myself all smug as the cheapest around at the time was £550...lo and behold they email me 5 days later telling me it was out of stock and they didn't know when it would be in.

The worst part was that due to me sharing an email address I never received it til I was looking through saved emails some days later, by that time prices had gone back up. And I'll be damned if I'm gonna let all that research and caution go to waste (I'm not tight I just like everything I buy to be a good deal)! So I'll go in the shops to judge the TVs first hand then I'll wait for the right deal online if I can't haggle one instore.