37in LCD Picture Sound Features Usability Value Excellent black level and great pictures let down only by slightly disappointing colour reproduction and neglibible benefits of Full HD. HD Ready: yes Resolution: 1920 x 1080 Rating: 89%

Reviewed: 10 July 2007

Design

The Samsung M87 and M86 series are essentially the same, the M86 tag a concession to larger retailers such as Curry's who presumably have the clout to demand such things for their own marketing purposes. The M87 gains a small silver strip at the base of the screen, but apart from that, the two ranges are identical.

With its perfectly rounded edges, the LE37M87 makes most other LCD TVs look quite ordinary. Silver brushed finishes have given way to glossy blacks some time ago, and while the sometimes garish effect doesn't appeal to everyone, the overall quality and presence of the LE37M87BDX lends it an an air of sophistication that will bring admiring glances from friends and neighbours alike.

Features

Connectivity on the Samsung LE37M87 is excellent with three HDMIs (one side), 2 Scarts, Component, S-video and PC input are complemented by digital optical port alongside analogue audio output.

	Screen: 37in 16:9 Tuner: Digital Sound System: Nicam Resolution: 1920 x 1080 Contrast Ratio: 8,000:1 (dynamic) Brightness: 550cd/m2 Other Features:DNIe Picture Processing, Wide Colour Enhancer, Movie Plus. Sockets: 3 HDMI, 2 SCART, Component Video, Composite Video, PC input.

 

With a full HD enabled 1080p screen, the LE37M87 is one of the smallest screens available with a 1920 x 1080 pixel resolution. This enables the panel to map a 1080i source such as Sky TV exactly, pixel for pixel onto the screen with the potential for a far superior picture than an LCD which has to scale 1080i to fit. It will be interesting to determine whether the 37in screen can actually make use of the extra pixels and produce any noticeable difference over a 1386 x 768 format.

The picture processing heart of the LE37M87 is Samsung's Digital Natural Image Engine (DNIe). The technology focuses on improving black levels, improving colour saturations and picture sharpness.

Featuring four main technological areas; Motion Optimizer, Contrast Enhancer, Detail enhancer and Colour Optimizer, DNIe has a track record of producing impressive results on previous Samsung screens.

Complementing DNIe is Samsung's Wide Colour Enhancer which has been designed to deliver more vibrant colours, especially around the edge of panels where they are more likely to appear washed out. By adding a full 27 per cent more of the real worlds colour gamut, Samsung claims a four times as many colour gradations than you would normally see from a PAL picture.

Movie Plus, another proprietary technology has been designed, by improving the video signal, to eliminate a bug bear of LCD TVs, motion judder, and to speed up response times and produce a sharper picture for gamers the LE37M87BDX sports something called 'Games Mode'.

Another recent Samsung innovation, HDMI-CEC technology, enables a single remote control unit to operate for example, a screen, a Blue-ray disc player, home theatre system or other HDMI-CEC compatible A/V product.

A video camera connected to the TV via HDMI for example would see the TV automatically switch to the camera's input displaying the content with the user now able to control the camera through the TVs remote, with no extra cabling.

Two 10-Watt speakers form the audio capability of the LE37M87BDX with SRS TruSurround XT technology promising simulated 3D effect enhanced dialog and powerful bass.

Performance

By far the most impressive aspect of the LE37M87's is the incredible black level performance. The depth and richness of blacks on this panel is well into Plasma territory.

Fast paced sporting action or movie scenes do suffer from the bugbear of LCD TVs 'Motion Smear' but the effect is negligible and the LE37M87BDX is at least a match for most its competitors in this area.

With 1080i sources such as Sky we didn't notice any real benefits from the Full HD 1920 x 1080 resolution. Plug a PS3 into the screen and you can see an improvement with the 1080p source piped through, just.

High Definition (HD) sources generally on the LE37M87 are excellent, the sharpness and level of detail are stunning. With Standard Definition (SD) sources such as Freeview, the LE37M87BDX inevitably suffers from trying to fit a 576 signal onto a 1080 screen. This is a problem all flat screens face however, and the screen size of the LE37M87BDX makes it a far better proposition for SD viewing than even its slightly older brother the LE40M87.

The one big criticism of the screen's picture is the colour reproduction. Even with considerable tweaking, colours often appeared over saturated and skin tones sometimes less than realistic.

Audio performance on the LE37M87BDX can only be described as adequate. This is a result of 2 10w speakers being hidden in the bottom panel of the screen with a design which pushes the sound down and backwards only. 

Conclusion

The Samsung LE37M87BDX is notable in that it has blurred the lines which separate good LCD TVs from good Plasmas. Its black level performance rivaling many a good plasma.

The all round performance of the LE37M87BDX is extremely good, and let down only by a slightly disappointing colour performance and the negligible benefits of Full HD resolution.