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  • Introduction

  • Design

  • Smart TV Features

  • Picture Quality

  • Conclusion

  • Science Introduction

  • Color

  • Contrast

  • Other Tests

  • Introduction
  • Design
  • Smart TV Features
  • Picture Quality
  • Conclusion
  • Science Introduction
  • Color
  • Contrast
  • Other Tests

Introduction

Design

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Like a timeless dinner jacket, the EH5000 sports a classic design.

The design of the EH5000 may define the classic look for years to come.

The design of the EH5000 may define the classic look for years to come. There is no touch of color, no flashy metallic finish, no extra Gorilla Glass bezel—just a tight black outline for a fine looking LCD display.

We were a little disappointed by the connectivity on this Samsung. These days, two HDMI ports really holds back the home theater enthusiast. There are plenty of consumers that can get by with just two high definition ports, but many others will simply have to choose another television.

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Smart TV Features

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The menus on the Samsung UN40EH5000 are really simple.

The menus are easy to use and match the simplicity of the feature set. The options are laid out in a column on the left side, each of which open up to a menu with settings that are well explained by captions at the bottom of the screen. There really is not too much to control here. You can change the calibration settings, a few advanced video settings, and a few other options like parental locking. There is also an audio equalizer to play around with.

We didn’t love the way that the menus take up the whole screen. When you change a setting, the menus become a smaller box, but this box sits right in the center of your picture making it less than easy to see how you are affecting the content. It’s not terrible, but we’ve seen better attempts.

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Picture Quality

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The EH5000 produces deep black levels, but motion performance could be better.

The Samsung EH5000 produced some quality results in our tests, including accurate color, top-notch contrast, and a decent viewing angle. There were some flaws to be found, though. The color temperature was overly warm, meaning that the EH5000 produced images with a slightly orange hue.

The Samsung EH5000 produced some quality results.

Detail retention was a problem during motion. Faces were no longer recognizable and background details blurred into obscurity, but jagged edges and pixel artifacts were kept to a minimum. Objects with straight edges became distorted while in motion, which is definitely a motion artifact, but this distortion was no worse than what we saw on the Samsung EH6000, which had a few other unique artifacting problems.

Conclusion

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A 40-inch Samsung for less than $700 is a good deal.

The UN40EH5000 (MSRP $679) from Samsung is in many ways the perfect television for some consumers. We do not recommend it for the people trying to setup a technologically advanced home theater, because it lacks internet for streaming video and the connectivity is limited to two HDMI ports. This will restrict the ability to hook up the entirety of your media empire.

The design of the display epitomizes a classic style such that it is wholly unobtrusive and will fit beautifully in any room in the home. The setup couldn’t be easier. It is a plug-and-play style television. Once you have this Samsung going, calibration is simple and the picture quality is pretty good, especially for the money. There are some issues with the motion performance, like detail loss in images, that might raise an eyebrow or two. For the price, though, the Samsung EH5000 is a decent low-end TV.

Science Introduction

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The Samsung EH5000 was able to produce very accurate colors and a killer contrast, thanks to its deep blacks and bright whites. The viewing angle was also favorable on this LED. Motion performance was spotty, with some detail retention issues, while the color temperature was slightly warmer than it should be.

Color

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The EH5000 can display a highly accurate range of colors.

Accurate is the best word to describe this color gamut. Rarely do we see all three primary colors and the white point matching the Rec. 709 international standard set of HDTV colors so well. This is another one of the advantages the UN40EH5000 has over the more expensive EH6000 series by Samsung, which had some very dull greens and oversaturated blues. Such accuracy is a very strong mark of quality for this television. More on how we test color performance.

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Contrast

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Deep blacks and bright whites give this TV an excellent contrast ratio.

The Samsung UN40EH5000 has some tough competition in the contrast comparison chart. With a really strong black level of 0.05 cd/m2 this Samsung shows a great contrast ratio of 5456:1, even compared to televisions with some of the best ranges on the market. It was surprising to see this model outperform the higher level Samsung UN40EH6000 in both black level and peak brightness (272.80 cd/m2 .)

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Other Tests

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Meet the tester

Josh Fields

Josh Fields

Staff Writer

@reviewedtech

An enthusiast of all things tech, Josh is one of Reviewed.com's resident television experts. When he's not looking at bright TV screens in a dark room, he's probably reviewing a laptop or finding a new snack at 7-11.

See all of Josh Fields's reviews

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