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Flying the flag for premium Full HD flatscreens is a thankless task in the face of curved and 4K models, and models such as the UE46H7000 are in danger of being tarred with the outdated brush. It doesn't exactly push the envelope of Full HD, but putting aside comparisons with these nascent technologies for a second, the UE46H7000 features a slew of innovations designed to enhance the user experience.
These include a point-and-click remote, streamlined Smart TV interface, dual picture display and a faster processor. In terms of picture and sound processing it doesn't offer anything beyond previous generations but is more of a consolidation of existing technologies.
We liked
The UE46H7000's picture quality, whilst not spectacular, has good contrast, accurate colours and plenty of verve and clarity. It takes a bit of tweaking with some of the picture settings to get the best out of it and overcome some issues with noise and softness, but perseverance is amply rewarded. Moving pictures from Blu-rays look awesome in terms of clarity and smoothness.
The Smart TV offering is excellent, with plenty of video on demand and catch-up services to choose from, including Netflix and Blinkbox. It's also a breeze to access multi-media content and presentation of USB or network connected devices is attractive.
The Football Mode's highlights feature is great fun, although it isn't entirely reliable in its automatic mode, sometimes mistaking general crowd noises for excitement.
Operating the screen with the pebble-shaped Smart remote is fun and quick if you use the point-and-click device.
We disliked
The design of the UE46H7000 is not as scintillating as you might expect from a screen costing over £1,000 and for a high-end screen the motion resolution and shadow detail aren't quite good enough. Sometimes, there's too much 50Hz judder and, as stated above, it takes a fair bit of effort to extract the best quality pictures with all sources.
If you want to take advantage of the Football Mode you're forced to endure a picture that's much brighter than England's chances of winning the World Cup, with sound that emphasises the crowd rather than the commentary (although this is arguably a good thing when Clive Tyldesley is on duty).
Verdict
The UE46H7000 is the proverbial mixed bag. Bountifully specced in terms of connections, it's a pleasure to operate thanks to its tried and testing menu and operating system, with one or two innovations to aid the process. It's capable of serving up some highly engaging pictures but can't be said to be a roaring, runaway success, especially in terms of shadow detail and motion resolution.
Also consider
If you can live without the re-configured Smart TV interface or the super slick Smart remote with its clever pointer, you could do a lot worse than chase down a sample of the outgoing Samsung UE46F7000, which is now being sold for around £1,000.
For pure picture quality, and a few more inches of screen to boot, direct your interest towards the 50-inch Sony KDL-50W829, an absolute corker of a screen in terms of its pictures, for less than £900.
LG's 47-inch 47LA860W is also selling for around £900 and is particularly pleasing to use, plus has the benefit of unusually good sound for an LED TV.
