Verdict

Pros

• Great value
• Good contrast performance
• Content-rich Smart TV service

Cons

• Picture presets aren't helpful
• Average audio
• Crosstalk with 3D

What is the Samsung UE48H6700?

The UE48H6700 is an upper-mid-range Full HD TV with Samsung’s 2014 Smart TV engine, Quad Core processing and active 3D playback. But despite its reasonably large 48-inch screen size and high level of specification, it can be yours right now for just £679.

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Samsung UE48H6700 – Design and Features

The UE48H6700 sets a rather mixed tone with its design. From a distance there’s much to like about its shiny metallic stand with reflective neck, and the way a little sliver of transparent plastic projects out from the bottom edge of the slim black bezel. Up close, though, and especially when you’re man-handling the TV during setup, you can’t help but notice that the set’s build quality is a bit flimsy for a model that sits pretty high up in Samsung’s HD range.

The Samsung UE48H6700’s connections are on the money for a relatively high-end HD TV. Highlights include four HDMIs, three USBs for playing back video, photo and music multimedia files and recording from the integrated tuners, as well as both LAN and Wi-Fi options for getting the TV online. The set can both stream multimedia content from networked DLNA devices and go online with Samsung’s Smart TV platform.

It’s worth adding, too, that you get satellite as well as the usual RF aerial inputs, reflecting the fact that the UE48H6700 has both Freeview HD and Freesat HD tuners.

The Full HD screen is lit by edge LED lighting with Samsung’s micro-dimming technology, which breaks the image into hundreds of small segments for more accurate analysis and to make more localised adjustments of the picture characteristics in each area. Just to be clear, though, this isn’t the same as the true local dimming systems found in some high-end TVs, which change the light levels for sections of the screen individually.

Motion reproduction on the UE48H6700 should benefit from the 600 Clear Motion Rate system, which essentially uses a combination of backlight scanning and frame interpolation to deliver a 600Hz-like effect. Samsung’s Wide Colour algorithms are also on hand to help pictures look more vibrant.

If you’re still into 3D, the UE48H6700 has it via the Full HD active system, with two pairs of free glasses included with the TV.

We’ve covered Samsung’s 2014 Smart TV system in depth previously, so we’ll refer you to that rather than going over the same ground again here. Briefly, though, Samsung continues to impress with the sheer volume of content its Smart platform offers – especially, happily, when it comes to the video streaming services that are by far the most important part of any Smart TV system. Highlights include catch-up apps for all the key UK terrestrial channels – BBC IPlayer, ITV Player, 4oD and Demand 5 – as well as Netflix and Amazon Prime Instant Video.

Samsung’s current Smart interface feels a little clunky now that we’ve got LG’s webOS system in our lives, but it certainly runs quickly and slickly thanks to the Quad Core processing engine at the UE48H6700’s heart. An engine which should also, hopefully, help the TV’s picture quality.

Samsung UE48H6700 – Setup

We’d recommend that you don’t stick with the UE48H6700’s picture presets, at least if you find yourself watching a film in a fairly dark room. This is because Samsung favours pretty aggressive picture settings that can leave images looking a bit over-saturated, over-sharp and noisy.

Our suggestions would be that you reduce the image’s backlight to its 7 level for film viewing to get the best blend of believable black colours and image dynamism, that you reduce the contrast setting to the low 80s and that you keep all noise-reduction processing turned off when watching HD sources. Also, never use the motion processing on any higher setting than ‘Clear’ to avoid processing glitches, and keep sharpness set to below 35 to stop edges looking stressy or grain becoming too exaggerated.

We personally elected to leave the Dynamic Contrast feature on Low – though we turned off the Black Tone feature – to boost the sense of contrast in the image. We should point out, though, that Dynamic Contrast can cause the occasional bit of light instability.

The last thing to mention here is that the UE48H6700 is impressively well equipped with advanced picture calibration tools such as gamma controls, two-point and 10-point white balance fine tuning, and colour management.