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With its arch-rival Samsung doing very nicely thank you very much with its range of edge-LED TVs, the only surprising thing about the arrival of LG’s edge LED debut, the 42SL9000, is that it’s taken so long to get here.

So let’s hope LG has used the time well to really hit the ground running with this exciting new technology.

The Korean brand has certainly managed to impose its reputation for cheapness on the 42in 42SL9000, with the set’s sub-£1,000 asking price managing to match at launch the price Samsung is now asking for its roughly equivalent UE40B7020 many months after it first appeared. So we wouldn’t be entirely surprised to find the 42SL9000 becoming even cheaper in the run up to Christmas.

LG is also well known for its design prowess, and this, too, carries through - with knobs on - to the 42SL9000. For starters, as you’d expect given its edge LED technology, it’s remarkably thin - less than 30mm. In fact, wouldn’t you just know it, is actually a fraction of a millimetre thinner than Samsung’s latest edge-LED TVs!

Also easy on the eye is the almost glass-like nature of the set’s finish, the way the mostly black bezel fades into grey along its bottom edge, and the fact that the screen and bezel exist on the same plane, rather than the bezel sitting proud of the screen as usually happens.

Click to enlarge

There is one annoying thing about the 42SL9000’s design, though - and it owes its existence purely to the ‘imagination’ of LG’s global marketing department, which has clearly been supping too much mulled wine in the run up to Christmas.

For in a fit of extreme optimism, LG has decided to describe the 42SL9000 in its marketing materials as Borderless, Frameless or Seamless (depending on its mood), despite the fact that the 42SL9000 is precisely none of these things. Its bezel is reasonably slender, sure, but to suggest that it’s somehow non-existent or even, more importantly, more slender than the bezels offered now by numerous rivals is just plan disingenuous.

Anyway, having got that off my chest, this is where I intend to let the matter lie. After all, the 42SL9000 is very attractive in its own right, and can hardly be held responsible for the excesses of the marketing department.

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