Samsung UN40H6450 Review (UN40H6450AFXZA)

40 inch 1080p 120Hz Smart LED TV

The UN40H6450 offers a few extra features over the H6350 series that is just a step down in the lineup. The small step gets you some pretty hefty feature upgrades. 3D functionality is a big one. The redesigned touch remote for 2014 adds voice control and a better way to control the smart TV features. We found voice control to work pretty well last year. LG still has the upper hand in that area though. 3D playback is strong here as it provides a good amount of detail and depth. There is a lot of competition in the 55 inch class namely from Panasonic, LG, and Sony.

Stunning color reproduction and contrast are seen in this shot of the 40H6450. A strong display of depth is seen here as well

Black Levels and Contrast – Solid Performance

From front and center, black levels on the UN40H6450 are great. Other dark areas of the screen showed just as good performance without too much loss of detail. Blacks are not as stout as the Plasma TVs of the past or top tier LEDs, but excellent for a TV in this price range. Contrast has a great showing here too. Light and dark areas of the screen are separated nicely and don't bleed into each other. This doesn't apply very well to side angle viewing. Contrast fades quickly as the viewer moves further from center.

3D Performance

The best thing to do before enjoying 3D content on the 40H6450 is to adjust the picture settings. Change the picture mode to Movie and the Auto Motion to Standard. This is key to getting the best out of any 3D image. In doing so, judder is eliminated and images bright. The resulting image is sharp and clear with a good amount of depth. Colors appeared slightly subdued for 3D images, but they are certainly not bad. As usual for active 3D glasses, a small amount of flicker present. It may be better suited for dark viewing rooms. Just like the side angle viewing for 2D content, color and contrast fade very quickly when moving from front and center.

These are the 3D glasses for 2014 model Samsung LED TVs

Samsung Smart Hub

The Smart Hub keeps the same basic design as last year with subtle improvements. Samsung hit the mark with their user interface and intuitive nagivation. This time around you will see a Game tab as one of the major smart TV pages. It doesn't sport the split screen mode like the Smart TVs above it in the line up. The H6450 does not implement the quad-core processor like some of the top tier models either. Instead it uses dual-core processing to run browsing and smart TV navigation.

Web Browser, Touch Pad Controller, and Wifi

This year's touch remote features an egg shape with a smaller touch pad, but more buttons

Surfing the web and the Smart TV features is a breeze with the new touchpad remote. It's much faster and easier than a traditional 5-way controller. The actual touch pad is a bit smaller this year, but that's okay because it now supports motion control. This brings it closer to LG's Magic Remote. The smaller touch pad also leaves room for more useful buttons on the remote instead of the on-screen menus. The voice recognition only works for inputting searches if the soft keyboard for the search field is open. The Wifi connection was easy to establish and it help up well while surfing the web. For streaming content it worked really great too.

Appearance

The 4 legged quadrapod stand of the UN40H6450 has a chrome metallic finish. The stand also allows 25 degrees of swivel in either direction. This is an excellent addition that really helps with the functionality of the design. The glossy black plastic bezels measures half an inch with a clear acrylic plastic on the outside to frame them up nicely. It's hard to notice the clear frame without looking for it. The overall depth is just under 2 inches.

The familiar quad leg desing of the H6450 isn't a stranger to mid-level Samsung LED TVs

^{Jack Burden has been reviewing and writing reviews in the consumer electronics category for 7 years with CEAG. He considers grayscale gradation, film patterned retarders, and focus field drives to be fun topics. Read more about Jack}