Samsung LN26B360- Great Looking Inexpensive TV

Sum and Substance:

Thumbs Up:

Great looks, good picture quality.

Thumbs Down:

No side panel inputs.

Inside the Trunk:

Power cables and reference material.

The Whiz Kid Speaks:

The dimensions of Samsung LN26B360 with stand is – 26.4 in x 8.5 in x 19.5 in x 18.5 lbs and without stand, it is 26.4 in x 3 in x 17.9 in x 15.4 lbs. It is a TFT active matrix panel which has a resolution of 1366 x 768 pixels(720p), Refresh Rate 60Hz, pixel response time 8 ms, image aspect ratio 16:9, dynamic contrast ratio 30000:1, Widescreen Modes Auto Wide, Conventional 4:3, 16:9, Wide Zoom, Zoom, V-Sync Rate at Max Resolution is 60 Hz

Supported resolutions for computer input are 1280 x 1024 (SXGA) 800 x 600 (SVGA), 1024 x 768 (XGA), 640 x 480 (VGA), 1360 x 768, 720 x 400, 640 x 350. Input Video Formats are 480i, 1080i, 720p, 480p.

Speakers are 2 x Right/left channel speaker – Built-in – 5 Watt
Other features include – surround sound, SRS TruSurround, HD balance , sound mode equalizer.

Connectors on the back of the panel are 1 x Headphones (Mini-phone stereo 3.5 mm) – Rear, 1 x Composite video/audio input (RCA phono x 3) – Rear, 1 x Component video input (RCA phono x 3) – Rear, 1 x Audio line-out (RCA phono x 2) – Rear, 1 x HDMI (19 pin HDMI Type A) – Rear, 1 x Audio line-in (Mini-phone stereo 3.5 mm) – Rear, 1 x VGA input (15 pin HD D-Sub (HD-15) – Rear.

Razzle Dazzle:

Samsung LN26B360 is a sexy black sheet of glass which rests on a round stand. The TV is attractive with the shiny and glossy exteriors. It looks like a typical LCD TV that you see. The most beautiful part of the TV is the bar of transparent glass that overflows at the bottom of the panel.

Inside Dope:

Samsung LN26B360 is an entry level 26 inch TV and there is stiff competition in this section for price between the rivals. The screen gives good picture considering this is a HD ready panel, in fact we found that this TV had the best picture quality in this price range. This TV is available in sizes of 32, 26, 19 and 22 inches. The image quality and features are the same but 22 and 19 inch models have lower contrast ratio.

The Samsung LN26B360 looks like a typical LCD but still makes it very attractive. We liked the thin glass bar peeping out from the bottom of TV. The TV swivels on its sides.

The TV is smaller as compared to full size HD panels. The TV is made for people who are not potato couches but for light viewing. This is reflected in the remote control of the TV which has simple controls as compared to those bigger TVs. The interface is not much complicated and you wont need much time to get used to it. The remote looks bright with the buttons all separated with various colors and all the buttons that you expect in a LCD TV remote are there.

The menu icons of the Samsung LN26B360 are simple just like bigger Samsung TVs which we appreciated a lot. There is a discrete Tools menu which gives you easy access to the functions that you are bound to use often. There are text explanations under the items in the main menu which will go great with newbies.

The LCD is 26 inch big and it is not full HD but gives you 1,366×768 pixels, a 720p resolution. But then full HD resolution would not look great on such a small panel either. You need about 47 inch size or more for full HD and these two features would make a panel great for watching full HD movies. But as we said earlier, this panel is not for a movie bluff but for someone who occasionally watches TV.

When it comes to adjustability of picture, only LG is better than Samsung. And this TV too delivers great on this feature; the menu gives you lots of ways for image tweaking, like three adjustable picture modes. There are also controls for color temperature for the four presets and controls for white-balance has all the six adjustments.

You can also adjust the color space and gamma, black tone, dynamic contrast (the latter two automatically adjust the picture), edge enhancement and flesh tone (for decoding of color).

For saving power the LN26B360 has a cap for light output which saves power for you. There is also a feature called Game mode which reduces video processing and thus in turn reduces the lag between the controller and the video.

We tested the LCD in bright light and we noticed that there was no significant difference in what other LCD screens perform under bright light. The video quality lowers a bit in bright lights just like other screens.

The Samsung LN26B360 gives very good quality for standard definition. We tested the TV with a couple for DVDs and we were quite impressed with what we saw. Standard definition representation is excellent.

The TV has a VGA input in the back panel which means you can plug in your computer to the screen to watch movies or to play games. If you have a small monitor for the computer then you can dump it for watching it on a bigger screen like this. Picture quality isn’t the best because it is a 26 inch panel and not full HD but we played a few games and the experience was OK.

The TV doesn’t have any connection ports on the sides and all the ports are located behind. There is room on the panel on the sides and it is quite flat. It looks like Samsung were planning to put an input panel but ditched the idea in the last minute. On the back of the panel there is a VGA port, two HDMI ports, RF input, AV input which has only composite video and there are optical analog and digital stereo audio outputs.

Nitty Gritty:

Samsung LN26B360 is not the best one when it comes to entry level TVs because it is low on features. But we will still recommend this for the price it is offered.

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