Samsung LE40F71B: Royal quality at paupers' prices
Most of us will never get the opportunity to be a member of the Royal Family, however we can take comfort in the fact that we can own the same televisions they do
It was never going to be long before 1080p screens started to flood the market. With all these high-definition disc formats flying around and those next-gen games consoles just begging to be played, Crave reckons this can only be a good thing.
The Samsung LE40F71B (£1,200) is a 1080p LCD with a stylish and dramatic piano-black finish -- it certainly looks the part. Crave was reminded that the Queen herself recently purchased a sizable number of Samsung televisions. Could this be the screen that Her Majesty has hanging on her bedroom wall? We'll wait for our official invitation to look round the Royal residence before we say for sure.
It's cool that Samsung continues to encourage gaming -- the LE40F71B has a dedicated mode to improve the look of games. If you want to hook it up to your PC, either to play games or as a media centre display, you'll be pleased to know the panel supports full 1,920x1,080-pixel resolution via its VGA input. This is a refreshing change -- far too many televisions won't support proper widescreen resolutions on PC inputs.
This screen also has a nifty card slot, which will accept a multitude of memory cards and USB memory sticks. You can then play MP3s and pictures on-screen via a very swish interface that goes by the ridiculous name 'Wiselink'. It's even possible to print your pictures if you have a PictBridge photo printer hooked up to the TV.
On the downside, the LE40F71B does lack a built-in Freeview receiver, which begs an obvious question: how will Her Royal Highness watch Bid TV? -IM
Read our review of the 46-inch version of this television.