Samsung SyncMaster T240HD

.../> ===About It===
The Samsung T240 HD is a flat screen TV which has Freeview built in, as long as you are able to access it in your area. This TV is fantastic if you are wanting to update your older one, and because of the Digital switch over that will be happening around the country, it will then save you buying a new freeview box as well. It is also HD ready which means you will be able to plug in a Blu-Ray player, PS3, Xbox 360 or any ...
...originally going to buy a Samsung TV. We were going to stay with Sony as that is really what we would usually buy. We were always pretty loyal customers. We went to the local Dixons which has 100's of TVs on show. What was proven was that Sony was not a big player anymore.
The Samsung appealed most because of the quality. It was next to a LG which wasn't as good as the Samsung. But the size of it is we, at 24" is really big. Dixons showed ... more

Well Christmas is over, so am now going to start reviewing all the Christmas products! This TV was a whole family present, which has worked out brilliantly as a buy as we replaced our terrible 8 year old TV, which was suffering as a result because our area has been the first for the Digital Switch over.

About It

The Samsung T240 HD is a flat screen TV which has Freeview built in, as long as you are able to access it in your area. This TV is fantastic if you are wanting to update your older one, and because of the Digital switch over that will be happening around the country, it will then save you buying a new freeview box as well. It is also HD ready which means you will be able to plug in a Blu-Ray player, PS3, Xbox 360 or any other HD hardware and it will work.

Why This TV

We were not originally going to buy a Samsung TV. We were going to stay with Sony as that is really what we would usually buy. We were always pretty loyal customers. We went to the local Dixons which has 100's of TVs on show. What was proven was that Sony was not a big player anymore.
The Samsung appealed most because of the quality. It was next to a LG which wasn't as good as the Samsung. But the size of it is we, at 24" is really big. Dixons showed it off better as they had it connected to Sky HD but it was so impressive you could not say no. It does stand out from other TV's and from what we could see it was a clear winner.

Where To Get It

Dixons is our local store, however after doing some research online, it can be bought in many places. Currys, Amazon, Play.com, Comet and Samsung itself are just a couple of places you can buy it. There are so many sites and stores offering it, however I would stay with the shops you trust, whether they are on the Highstreet or online.
I wouldn't recommend buying a TV off Ebay but I searched it and it is there for a discounted price. So it can be widely found if you just ask your local electronics store or Google it.

Price

From Dixons we bought ours before Christmas for £265 which is a really good price for what you get. For a 24" moniter I thought that was really impressive. All the others stores do it for roughly the same price however there are some really good Christmas deals on which are brilliant, like up to £50 off etc. Have a look as the prices are always changing. Don't pay more than £350 for this (exc P&P) as there are much better deals around.

Setting Up

This is were the TV lost a star. The box was great and had a handle on it to keep it upright and easy to carry. The TV was very well packaged and the instructions were the first thing you find. They were nicely laid out, and I was slightly relieved it was written in 'Ikea Style' which means in 5 different languages and exceptionally confusing. But it was not like that at all, it had good pictures and were very easy to follow.
Now you have to set up the stand which was easy and build it up. Now you have to 'Apply Pressure' and put the TV onto of the stand, and push it down. This was really difficult as it would not go in. We did exactly what the instructions said and tilted it, but it would not go into the stand. It took three people: One to hold the stand, One to hold the bottom of the TV and One to push the top.
This eventually worked and after a lot of swearing, pushing and cursing, it went on the stand. This was a huge let down with the TV, and it may have only been our experience but we followed to instructions word for word and still had this problem. It was very annoying but it got sorted out in the end and we were able to start watching the damn thing!

The TV StartUp

You have to plug in the power, the aereal and any other inputs such as a DVD player or games console. It has only 1 scart lead so you may be limited to the amount of inputs you can put on it. It also has:

• DVI-D (Maximises pixel qualtity of input devices)
• HDMI (For High Definition Players)
• PC (Yes you can attach your computer to it and comes with software you can download onto your computer which allows you to do this!)
• Components (The Red Lead, Yellow Lead and White Lead)
  So pretty cool and useful selection of ports to allow your TV to be connected to many things. The PC one is great. I have tried it will my mums laptop and works fantastically. However don't have much use for it but it is an excellent feature to have and may be useful to a lot of people.
  Now once you have set up all that you have to turn it on. Good news, the remote comes with Samsung batteries which is pretty good. So you set up the controller and you will be taken to set up the freeview. This takes very little time which is good and you are ready to go. Our freeview is really strong and showed off excellently on this brand new TV.

Design Of TV

A lot of the TV's that are flat screen look pretty much the same. This one in the shop looked a lot the same as others, the sleek black look which is really nice. There is a big Samsung badge on the front which seems to give it a little designer edge to it. A bit of a status symbol. Now as it is flat screened unlike our last TV, there is nothing really sticking out in the back so it fits and looks perfect against a wall. This is a huge design plus. It looks really stylish and nice, the design is very good. Apart from of course the design of setting the damn thing up!

Picture And Sound Quality

Quality is one of the reasons we picked this TV. The resolution of the TV is high, at 1920 x 1200 pixels. This is means there are about 2,300,000 pixels working on this one TV. Now that is pretty impressive. Now of course you will get better quality using Sky HD and a Blu-Ray player but watching ordinary Freeview shows has vastly improved. The News is one of the most impressive things to watch as the colors are so bright and very crisp and clear. I am very impressed with the quality for the price we paid for the TV. If you are wanting excellent quality however you may want to go on the higher quality TV which are a lot more expensive.
The sound quality is good. It has built in speakers which give stereo sound. This makes watching films and playing games much more effective. However if you are sitting far away from it, as it is surround sound, it sounds quite dull. We do not have a big Living room however but I have noticed that because of the stereo sound, it offers very good quality short range sound but quite poor distance.

Overall

For the price, this is a really good TV. A year ago a 24" TV was a lot of money but now (including built in Freeview) it is under £300 which is very good. This is very much a gamers and family TV. When playing the PS2 the graphics have vastly improved and the sound quality has dramatically improved gameplay. The built in Freeview is a huge advantage as it saves us buying another Freeview box and as our area is already 'Digitally Switched Over' it is great to not have the extra hastle.
If you are thinking of buying this then it would be best to go to your local electronics store and compare. This was in our price range and bigger than we were going to get which was a bonus. We have not had a single problem with it so far. The only thing I would watch out for is the setting up, it really drove us bonkers, and did ruin our expectations of the TV. Price - 8.5/10
Setting Up - 5/10
Design - 9/10
Picture - 8/10
Sound - 7/10
Reliabiity - 9/10
Overall - 8/10

*** Recommended! ***

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