Last year at the consumer electronics show, Samsung debuted a line of redesigned TVs with a bezel just as thin as a pencil. This year, they are implying, "That's just too damned fat." For all those times when a bezel (frame) around your TV the size of a pencil is just too damned fat. And so several of their newest LED-lit LCD models sport a new frame design which they've managed to winnow down to a mere two-tenths of an inch, a reduction of up to 80% in some cases. In other news, Dixon Ticonderoga and Callista Flockhart just auditioned for the next season of The Biggest Loser.
Apart from simple cosmetics or "Wow" factor, the bezels help give consumers more of that they want - A BIG PICTURE. Consumers have been gravitating toward 3D, which is actually more successful at this point in its rollout than LED TV was. And what consumers are noticing is that 3D definitely benefits from a larger screen. Of Samsung's 3D models sold, 65% were in the 55-inch and over screen size, which can be tricky to position in the home theater. The new thinner bezels actually give big-screen-hungry buffs more viewing area in a smaller chassis, while providing less of a distraction during movie-watching.
Samsung's plasma TVs are also sporting a narrower bezel (far right in picture), though not quite as dramatic as the LED TV's nearly invisible frame. But still the plasma's narrower bezel allows Samsung to squeeze and extra inch into the same size chassis as last year's models. In other words, when compared to the viewable areas of last year's sizes, a 2010 42-inch (measured diagonally) screen will in 2011 display a 43-inch image without an overall increase in TV size. The popular 50-inch jumps to 51, 58 to 59, and will you still love 63 when it's 64?
But moving back to LED, the Samsung LED D8000 Series offers such a 0.2-inch brushed metal bezel, successor to the less-is-more C8000 Series, with an even better redesigned Quad Stand. Picture-wise, it offers a 240Hz refresh rate, two-millisecond motion picture response time and improved LED backlight scanning, great for both 3D and 2D. Besides its Ultra Clear Panel, the D8000 Series is the first to offer Micro Dimming Plus technologies to provide the richest, most lifelike pictures with deep blacks and pure whites. The D8000 Series comes with Samsung's new 3D glasses and Touch Control remote that can also stream a second video program to its built-in three-inch LCD screen, almost like a second TV, even while a Blu-ray disc is being played.
The D8000 has a built-in Wi-Fi connection and many convenient ways to manage and display content through Samsung's Smart Hub portal, connecting to other devices using DLNA or Samsung's patented "One Foot Connection" technology.
The Samsung LED D7000 Series goes all thin-bezel, too, transparent this time, represents a successful balance of high technology with a hint of Samsung's Touch of Color red thrown in. 3D newbies will appreciate the Auto 3D Format Setup, whereby the D7000 TV automatically detects the encoding format (side-by-side or top-bottom) when playing 3D, so viewers can relax and let the TV do the configuring for them. The LED D7000 also uses an improved backlight scanning technology and Auto Motion Plus proprietary frame interpolation to create sharp 2D and 3D pictures and smooth frame transitions without blurring.
The final screen size lineup, pricing and availability for both the LED D8000 and LED D7000 Series are expected to be announced in the months ahead.
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