Samsung LE32C580J1K Pro Reviews

Samsung unsurprisingly produced yet another winner that will appeal to consumers (including gamers) due its exceptional performance especially considering its price tag. In fact, I was so impressed with the Samsung LE40C580; I purchased one myself. To my surprise, the Samsung LE40C580 I received was embedded with an older SPVA panel (1009), which was made in China (our review unit sported the new 1012 panel manufactured in Slovakia). Please note that the main review is based on the Samsung LTF400HM01 (1012-Slovakia) panel, and apart from the white uniformity and black level, the 1009 (LTF400HM01 – China) version is essentially identical to the 1012. In the LE40C580, Samsung has produced an excellent HDTV that is extremely difficult beat in terms of cost vs. performance (regardless of the panel), and therefore has earned our Highly Recommended award.

It’s perhaps no surprise that this set falls a touch short of the cream of this year's crop – it is, after all, one of the cheaper sets around. That makes it a perfectly good budget choice, but spend a little more for better performance and features.

The Samsung LE32C580 is low-cost 32in LCD TV that looks a lot more expensive than it is thanks to its sleek design. In fact the LE32C580 shares a few design cues with its 40in big brother, which is no bad thing. The glossy black bezel and stand, complete with transparent column certainly make this look like a more expensive purchase, and for many that could be reason enough to buy one. The Samsung LE32C580 is aggressively priced and looks great, but its picture quality isn’t as good as we'd hoped for.

The LE32C580 is an unashamedly mass-market set and is none the worse for that. While 3D and LED sets grab all the headlines, it is relatively unassuming sets such as this that are flying off the shelves in high street retailers. The manufacturer has packed in a lot of the sort of spec that will undoubtedly appeal to a mass-market audience, with the Freeview HD tuner in particular guaranteed to win plenty of admirers.

Looked at purely within the context of sub-£400 32in LCD TVs, the LE32C580 is a pretty good effort, with some decent multimedia features, fair-to-middling picture quality and tolerable sound. But it doesn’t stand out from the crowd as much as we’d hoped, making us suspect you might be well advised to save up longer for Samsung’s step up C650 series, which carry Internet@TV support, superior LCD panel design, and 200Hz processing - and which we will hopefully be reviewing soon.