Refine search for TVs

  Discuss this article      Email this to a friend TrustedReviews Newsletters

Apparently 26in LCD TVs are no longer as popular as they used to be. Plummeting prices of bigger screens and the sudden embracement to the collective UK bosom of the home cinema experience have both taken their toll on what was once the biggest-selling TV market. Indeed, we at TrustedReviews are starting to find it quite difficult to find 26in models to review - and even more difficult to find brands willing to send them to us when they'd rather we focussed our attentions on their more ‘glamorous' big fry.

But we have no intention of giving up on 26in TVs just yet. For even if they're no longer the TV of choice for most people's living room, as second-room sets in a bedroom, study, or kitchen they've still got loads to offer.

All of which hopefully serves as a good enough excuse for us to look at a TV which actually we just couldn't resist on account of its pure cuteness: Samsung's LE-26R87BD.

Regular readers will know that we're dedicated admirers of Samsung's current flat TV aesthetic, with its glistening black finish, subtle curves and brave lines and angles. But even we're surprised by just how adorably perky this look becomes when shrunk down to the 26in level.

Considering that we've seen this set on sale for comfortably under £400, it also seems unexpectedly well specified. Connections, for instance, gratifyingly include two HDMIs, a component video input, a PC port and even a digital audio output for shipping on digital audio tracks received via the HDMIs.

The set also sports an HD Ready native resolution of 1,366 x 768 (it's not realistic or even worthwhile to expect a full HD pixel count at this price/screen size) and compatibility with all HD signals up to and including 1080i. The 1080p system currently in vogue following its common appearance on Blu-ray and HD DVD discs is not supported, but then we seriously doubt that you'd be able to see any differences between 1080i and 1080p signals on a screen this small anyway.

Worth running by you, too, is a claimed contrast ratio for the set of 5,000:1. This really is a very high figure for this sector of the TV market and owes much to the 26R87BD's use of a dynamic contrast system, whereby the light output from the backlight can be automatically reduced when a dark scene is detected in order to improve black level response.