The name “LED TV” sounds simple enough, but it’s important to remember that these inch-thin sets are actually otherwise normal LCD (liquid-crystal display) TVs that use LEDs (light-emitting diodes) instead of the standard fluorescent backlights. But it gets even more confusing. We’ve reviewed LED-based LCD displays before, most recently the Sony KDL-55XBR8 and Samsung LN46A950–the two best-performing LCD TVs we’ve ever tested. A lot of the credit for those TVs’ excellent picture quality can be attributed to their local dimming technology; groups of LEDs behind the screen can be dimmed or turned off to achieve those deep, inky blacks we all love so much.
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The 2009 Samsung LED TVs we’re previewing here do not utilize local dimming, so we don’t expect them to match the picture quality of the local dimming sets. Of course, we’ll know more once we can review one. In the meantime, we’ll refer to the new displays as “edge-lit LED-based LCDs.” More complex, we know, but also quite a bit more accurate.