Samsung has taken the lead with producing and promoting what is being widely referred to as an LED television – terminology that implies that these TVs are fundamentally different from LCD sets. But they actually are still LCD TVs. The difference is that the Samsung LED TV uses light emitting diodes (LEDs) as a backlight for the screen. Conventional LCDs use Cold Cathode Flourescent Lamps or CCFLs as the screen’s light source. Having said that, there are some real advantages to these LED televisions, or as they probably should be called, LCD LED televisions.

One very visible difference between a Samsung LED TV and its conventional LCD counterpart is the very slim depth that’s achievable with LED backlighting. This is more pronounced with sets that use LEDs around the edge of the screen (called edge-lit) as opposed to those that spread the LEDs across the entire back (back-lit)

LED backlighting can also allow the LED television to achieve much blacker blacks than has been possible with LCD sets before. This is true mostly of back-lit sets as opposed to edge-lit. You can get Samsung LED TVs with backlighting, but they also offer models that are edge-lit, so be sure to look at the ones that meet your needs. Till now, the lack of truly black blacks has been one of the LCD set’s main disadvantages versus a plasma TV. LCD sets have usually defaulted to a very dark grey

Another advantage of the Samsung LED television is its eco-friendly nature, mostly due to it’s reduced power consumption, averaging on the order of 40%. These sets easily meet the latest most stringent Energy Star v3.0 requirements. Also, there is no mercury contained in most LEDs, as opposed to fluorescent tubes, almost all of which contain some mercury. Another small victory for the environment is the fact that the thinness of the LED TVs allow for use of less material in every unit, and small savings add up to a lot less plastic, and a lot less weight having to be shipped around the world.

However, Samsung has run into some backlash regarding the fact that they have been advertising these units as a ‘Samsung LED TV’ since, as I stated earlier, they’re not true LED TVs, rather LED back-lit LCD TVs. Britain’s Advertising Standard Authority has informed Samsung that they are no longer allowed to advertise these sets as an LED TV. Samsung’s response was that they will continue using the term ‘LED TV’, but will add additional information to their advertisements in the UK and the US to clarify more precisely the technology that’s being used.