# Samsung LED flatscreen televisions

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/samsung-led-flatscreen-televisions/495951>\
**Category:** In My Humble Opinion\
**Created:** [May 10, 2009, 3:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/samsung-led-flatscreen-televisions/495951 "2009-05-10T15:45:04Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 4\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![Fear\_Itself](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/fear_itself/32/19637_2.png) [@Fear\_Itself](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Fear_Itself)\
**Post date:** [May 10, 2009, 3:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/samsung-led-flatscreen-televisions/495951/1 "2009-05-10T15:45:04Z")

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Has anyone seen these in person? I haven’t actually gone looking, but the specs are impressive.

[Samsung ultra-slim LED TVs](http://www.samsung.com/us/consumer/detail/detail.do?group=televisions&type=televisions&subtype=ledtv&model_cd=UN55B8000XFXZA)

Does this look like a better technology than LCD or plasma?

How long before the prices drop out of the $4,000 range?

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**Author:** ![Dewey\_Finn](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dewey_finn/32/4222_2.png) [@Dewey\_Finn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dewey_Finn)\
**Post date:** [May 10, 2009, 4:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/samsung-led-flatscreen-televisions/495951/2 "2009-05-10T16:39:53Z")

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I have no opinion on them, but I believe that they are LCDs. The difference is that they use LEDs for the backlight and not fluorescent tubes used by some other manufacturers.

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**Author:** ![scr4](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/59ef9b/32.png) [@scr4](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/scr4)\
**Post date:** [May 10, 2009, 4:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/samsung-led-flatscreen-televisions/495951/3 "2009-05-10T16:54:27Z")

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> [@Dewey\_Finn](#):
>
> I have no opinion on them, but I believe that they are LCDs. The difference is that they use LEDs for the backlight and not fluorescent tubes used by some other manufacturers.

I think that’s correct. The Samsung page seems to go out of the way to avoid the term “LCD,” but it says it’s “up to 40% less power consumption than **conventional** LCDs” (bolding mine) which is about right for a LED-backlit LCD screen. The [CNET review](http://reviews.cnet.com/flat-panel-tvs/samsung-un55b8000/4505-6482_7-33490419.html) refers to it as an LCD screen.

The type of backlight doesn’t have much effect on image quality. It does seem like LED-backlit laptop displays are brighter than the “conventional” displays ([CCFL](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/CCFL) backlight), but I don’t know if that carries over to such a large TV.

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**Author:** ![scr4](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/59ef9b/32.png) [@scr4](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/scr4)\
**Post date:** [May 10, 2009, 5:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/samsung-led-flatscreen-televisions/495951/4 "2009-05-10T17:01:02Z")

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By the way, if you’re looking for something that replaces LCDs, it’ll probably be the [OLED](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Organic_light-emitting_diode) (Organic LED) display. They are starting to appear on some high-end gadgets. It’s still very expensive though - SONY’s 15" OLED TV costs [$2500](http://www.sonystyle.com/webapp/wcs/stores/servlet/ProductDisplay?catalogId=10551&storeId=10151&productId=8198552921665327724).