Nov 24, 2008 09:45 AM
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We bought this TV in March, 2007 as a replacement to a regular, CRT 21" TV. 1 year 9 months later, we've had no regrets (touch wood!) in the choice we made. When we bought this, we surveyed local dealers and basically reviewed most of the brands on offer. We quickly narrowed down the choice to either Sony (because of the brand value) or Samsung (because of the VFM). Finally, the choice was Samsung, influenced in no small part as the dealer told us that the LCD panels for Sony TVs are also made by Samsung (not verified this, though), essentially meaning that we were paying an unnecessary premium for the same product, were we to purchase a Sony.
The actual purchase was from e-Zone Koramangala, after an 'interesting' few rounds of 'final' negotiations, with me at the Pai Electronics store across the road and the wife at eZone, and both communicating the final prices by cell phone! We got a couple of thousands off the marked price and settled with eZone as their final, final price was lower by about five hundred rupees. Lesson: always negotiate, no matter how swanky the store and snooty the sales people!
As to the TV itself, here's some information on it's performance:
Picture: Excellent picture quality. Note that picture quality also depends on the signal quality, if you're comparing cable channels. We compared Sony with Samsung (comprable models) using a hi-quality dvd (one of our own) and found Samsung - in our own opinion - to be more lifelike and better. The specs for comparable models were better for Samsung (dynamic contrast ratio 5000:1)
Sound: Possibly, the only drawback. No real problems as such, but I've always had a sneaking feeling the sound quality is a bit less than optimal. Again, as cable reception etc. have a great role to play in this, it's difficult to pinpoint the TV as the problem.
Durability / Reliability: So far, absolutely great (touch wood!). No problems at all. I can really vouch for the sturdiness of the remote, as my 3-year old has literally tested it under extreme conditions!
Interfaces: Excellent set of interfaces that allow you to hook up pretty much anything and everything to the TV. I've hooked up my DVD player through a Component Video interface, my PC/laptop through a S-Video, the cable box through a regular composite video and used the audio out to link to my home theatre. The TV also has a HDMI interface, though I'm currently not using it.
Service / Support: No reason to complain, though luckily we've not really had any chance to test this aspect. After the initial purchase, the Service Engineer promptly landed up for installation and took his time to explain the obvious to us (i guess they assume all consumers are morons and need to have everything explained to them) - we didn't go for the wall mount, though he offered to do it free of charge, and as we were content at that time with a stand, he offered to come any time and do the wall mount later, free of charge, which was quite nice.
Maintenance: this is probably true of all LCD TVs, not just this one, but anyway, taking care of the screen is not a small task. Specially in a dusty, polluted city like Bangalore, the screen accumulates dust like a magnet. Word of advice: take good care of the free, microfibre cleaning cloth you get with the TV - we lost ours, and had a tough time finding an alternate cleaning medium for the LCD (ordinary cloth is not a good idea and any other stuff like paper is a BIG no-no!). If possible, negotiate for a second piece, even at the cost of reducing the discount offered - it's worth it! Also, if you've got kids, especially hyper-active toddlers / pre-schoolers, wall-mounting is definitely the way to go!!!
Caution:The TV has a 15 Amp plug, and since we were installing it in the living room, this proved to be a minor issue, as we had only 5 Amp sockets - something quite common with Indian homes, as I think no one would plan on putting heavy duty appliances (except maybe an AC, but that too isn't all that common in Bangalore) in the living room. There was some discussion, and some communication issues with the Service Engineer, but finally I understood that though the plug was 15 Amp, the current rating was less than 5 Amp, which meant that all that was required was a converter to allow the 15 Amp plug to be plugged into a 5 Amp socket (available for about Rs. 40).
