Home > Consumer Reviews > Samsung LN40A630 40-Inch 1080p 120Hz LCD HDTV with Red Touch of Color

I picked up this TV from Circuit City just before Labor Day. It is basically the same spec-wise as the 650 series. The only differences are 1 less HDMI port (3 instead of 4), a contrast ration of 40,000:1 rather than 50,000:1 and no infolink. For those who don't know, Infolink allows you to hook up the internet to the back of your tv via an ethernet jack. You are then able to pull up news, weather, and stock info from USA Today. This is all it lets you do though. Infolink does not allow you to download firmware, view web pages or anything like that. This is a great TV. 120Hz is amazing. It almost make it seem like the characters are right there in the room with you when you are watching blu-ray movies. The quality picture is great, the menu system looks nice and is easy to use, and for those who like lots of control over picture settings, to get their picture just right, this tv has a ton of different adjustable setting options, allowing you to adjust the backlight level, the black level, 120Hz processing level, gamma, white space, color space, color, contrast, brighness, sharpness, defeatable edge enhancement, and more

Wow. This is a beautiful set - image quality is stellar - off-air and dvd source, 480, 720, 1080 all great. D-TV signals are amazing. Even stronger analog (i.e. old style NTSC) off-air signals look great. Audio clear and accurate. I've had it about a week and first impressions are really strong. Matte finish really helps if placement is near windows. This is a technological marvel. Menu's are clear, features are great, beautiful looking - I have to say touch of color is realllllly subtle, you can pretty much ignore this - it is classy without needing any extra gimmicks like this. Fast action/sports look great. Lots of tweaks to get a picture you will be happy with.

It is reasonably light weight, has swivel stand, viewing angle is excellent. It is like a jewel! Extremely well engineered. As of today, I think this set is at a price performance sweet spot. Samsung seems to really understands LCD video. If you are average person trying to find a good panel, you should be very happy with this one.

I originally bought the LN40A550 but after a few weeks I realized I wanted something a little better. I then went with the LN40A630 and I could not be happier. The quality of this tv is top notch. Standard television looks wonderful on it and High Def...well...it takes my breath away. I especially like the AMP feature that helps to eliminate the blur in fast scenes.

If you're worried about the touch of color don't even worry...they have all but eliminated the color. I think though it was pretty a lot of people didn't like how pronounced it was. If you're unsure about rather you should buy it or not...I say go for it. Its a quality set and the image it gives off is top notch. I also play Xbox 360 and games look wonderful (only one suggestion...in certain games its best to turn the AMP feature off to help eliminate any lag in controls).

Sound has never been HDTV's stronger quality but I have to say that the sound of this set compared to the 550 is much better. You might still want to get external speakers to help when watching tv and movies.

I couldn't wait any longer to buy an HDTV and after looking around for the "right" tv after a month I settled on this one as it was on sale at bestbuy for $1399 (cdn). My goal was to find a TV that could keep up with the industry standard for the next few years (5 at least). It has the 120hz, the 40,000:1 contrast ratio, 1080p, 3 hdmi's, etc etc. This TV also has a lightning quick response time compared to other lcds at this price.

I am extremely happy with this TV. Anyone who has seen a movie on it is shocked as to how clear and realistic the picture is. Actually, my brother said the TV ruins movies because they are presented entirely different with this TV. The TV is so good that it pinpoints the flaws in the CGI of the lord of the rings movies when I play the dvd on my xbox.

At the time I am writing this review, this TV has the specs worthy of a $2000 LCD in its class. In fact, the Samsung 650 is almost $400 more and the specs are almost entirely the same (the screen is made from a different material). Samsung is also the industry leader in LCD technology. I highly recommend this TV, and I agree with the earlier reviewer that it is set at an optimal price/performance position. For what you get and what you pay, this TV can not be beat at this time.

To be clear, if there were the opportunity to give this Samsung LN40A630 a four and a half star, that's what I would have chosen. I really debated about getting this Samsung versus the Sony Bravia XBR KDL-40XBR6 40-Inch 1080p 120Hz LCD HDTV. We already own the Sony Bravia XBR 46" model KDL-46XBR4 and are THRILLED with that TV. Since I was already a fan of Sony, I tried to research whether the few hundred $$ in savings would be worth it if the picture didn't compare to what I was used to with the Sony, and now they are up to XBR6 versus 4. Side by side in a brick and mortar store, the Samsung and the Sony 40XBR6 were practically identical. Of course real world testing is impossible when they are playing a specific video and you are limited to what they are showing you. I went ahead and bought the Samsung LN40A630 from Amazon (great delivery, no problems whatsoever). I performed some color correction with the Samsung's vast amount of color controls. I perform graphic color correction for a living so it is with a highly critical eye that I was judging picture quality and color. Once I was happy with the correction I DVR recorded "LOST" on both TVs. Then in I viewed various scenes on both TVs. For the most part the picture was pretty comparable. I will describe a few differences in my opinion: Our Sony has more of a cinematic feel in the picture most likely because of deeper blacks and it handles banding (abrupt change in shades of the same color) better. In various scenes, the Samsung almost took on a video effect. The clarity and sharpness is profound, but that sometimes gave it a more stark effect. This happened in only some scenes. For the most part the pictures were very comparable. I would imagine for those of you who enjoy football games, this may be an asset. Lest you think I am not pleased with the TV, I am really happy with it. It's got wonderful quality and richness in the picture. The sound is not as good as our Sony because the speakers are on the bottom of the TV as opposed to front facing. But the sound is good enough for sure. I would find it hard to believe anyone would regret this TV. I am a harsh critic. I think most people (and they have) would review this as a 5 star TV. I think I still prefer the Sony, but this Samsung sure gives it a run for it's money. As far as the "touch of red", it is far less red than the glossy screened version of this TV. I happened to like the red, so I was a little disappointed to see it basically looks black. Again, that may be a positive to someone else. Even in bright sunlight, this TV frame pretty much looks black. On the plus side, I think this set is far more attractive than the Sony I was thinking of purchasing. Clean lines, attractive finish. This set is also far less expensive to mount on the wall. We purchased the Peerless PA740 Articulating Wall Mount for 22-inch to 40 inch flat panel displays (Amazon). Only $68 with free shipping and it can move in pretty much any direction. To mount the Sony we would have had to buy a different kind of mount with an adapter, all adding up to more than quadruple the mounting costs.

ADDENDUM 5/23/09: We have had this TV for several months now. If I knew how, I would go back and change my review from 4 stars to 5. I may only buy Samsungs moving forward. Just as great as Sony, lower cost than Sony.