Samsung UE32EH5000 review

The Samsung 32EH5000's main attraction isn't a complicated one: it's all about the price, plain and simple. There will doubtless be gazillions of TV buyers who simply see the Samsung badge on a 32-inch TV selling for £270 (around US$406/AU$398) and know without further investigation that this must be the TV for them.

The Samsung 32EH5000's price does come with feature strings attached, though. It's not 3D ready, it doesn't have any online streaming features, and it can't even 'chat' to a networked DLNA PC.

It does, though, support multimedia playback from USB devices, and provides a startling amount of picture tweaks for a budget TV.

What really matters, though, is that its pictures are vastly superior to anything we've previously seen from a 32-inch TV at anything like the Samsung 32EH5000's £270 current selling price.

So if you happen to value picture quality ahead of all else - which research suggests most of you still do - then the Samsung 32EH5000 represents just about the best £270 you'll ever spend.

We liked

We'd have liked the Samsung 32EH5000's incredibly cheap price even if the TV wasn't actually very good. But in fact its picture quality is ridiculously accomplished for this level of the market. The set looks nice for a budget model too, and delivers a solid degree of multimedia playback via USB.

We disliked

The set doesn't support online streaming or PC connection, and its sound is fairly average and thus comes a bit of a cropper with action scenes. Standard definition pictures, meanwhile, lose a little colour accuracy vs HD ones, but none of these problems are game-breakers on such an exceptionally cheap TV.

Final verdict

It's hard to understand how Samsung can sell the UE32EH5000 for so little. From the outside the only hint that it's a cheap set comes from its startlingly chunky rear end; from the front it looks a match for many mid-range sets.

The realisation that the TV doesn't support online features or streaming from a DLNA PC is a slight disappointment, perhaps, but you only have to watch the TV for a few minutes to realise that Samsung has deliberately sacrificed such features in order to give you the best 32-inch picture quality you can buy.

Also consider

Toshiba's 32RL958 is a decent alternative, offering surprisingly contrast-rich picture quality alongside a few online apps and streaming services while only costing around £60 more than the Samsung 32EH5000. Its picture quality isn't quite as good in all areas as that of the Samsung, though.

Another option would be the Tesco-exclusive Technika 32-270, we guess. But this isn't up there with the Samsung in design or picture quality terms, yet still costs slightly more. So it's hard to see why anyone would seriously be tempted by it unless they just wanted to be able to buy a TV as part of their weekly Tesco shop.