On sale at a fairly low price, the Samsung LE32A456 is also a poorly equipped TV. Although it has a base pivot and 3 HDMI sockets, it doesn’t have a TNT HD tuner. Fortunately the A466 model does.

Apart from that, it has an HD Ready format panel (1366x768 points) with a matt coating. This doesn’t mean it isn’t compatible with 1080p that it displays on 768 lines. Like on all low end TVs, there is no USB socket, nor Ethernet socket. Backlighting settings are also missing, as is the 100 Hz or fluidity optimisation mode.

HD Ready deforms SD images

The default settings give a too hard and bright image. This is partly due to activation of dynamic contrast. If you use Cinema mode you get a much more natural image. Black levels that were 0.19 cd/m² drop to 0.12 cd/m², which is very good for this kind of TV. The contrast of 1256:1 is similarly good and could almost make the more expensive competition blush.
It’s with the colours that the limits of the A456 show more quickly. With a DeltaE of 4.7, the colour problems are particularly visible in the reds, which tend towards greens.
In practice, SD and HD films retranscribe previous settings well: contrast is good, colours just about ok but the sharpness leaves something to be desired. In fact HD Ready definition doesn’t display SD in native format any more than it does HD. The image is therefore resized in both cases. SD lacks sharpness but HD is ok on our test model. It does however lack precision on upper diagonals.

The real angle of vision, that’s to say without any variation in colours or density of black, allow 2 viewers to watch at 2.5m or 3 at 3m.
Contrary to the great majority of Samsung TVs tested over the last two years, the A456 didn’t work properly with our test PCs. It was sometimes impossible to display the Windows desktop in the panel’s original definition. And when it did, we didn’t always manage to reproduce the results.
A note on energy consumption: it is quite economical at 124 W default and 79 W in cinema mode, 1 W on standby.

Sound quality has never been a strength on Samsung TVs and this model is no better than the rest. We are just about able to give it 3 stars.