Samsung previews new 55″ Series 8 LED TV

A new 55″ Samsung Series 8 LED TV is coming out and they’ll still be as thin as 1.2 inches. We’ve had the Series 7 before and this new one adds new features that could well replace a separate media player.

Well, that’s if you consider the fact that you can now hook up an external HDD via USB to the LED TV and play movies from there or use the internal storage that’s been bumped up to 2GB.

Despite Samsung’s claim that their LED TVs are internet-ready, I still think it’s a little crippled. There’s ethernet connection and WiFi but internet services are currently available via widgets. These “TV Widgets” include a “YouTube widgets”, “Accuweather widget” and “USA Today widget”.

The Series 8 has all that the 7 has, and more. One big improvement from the Series 7 is that the frame rate of the Series 8 has been doubled from 120MHz to 240MHz (can be significantly noticed when playing fast-action console games on the TV).

Since the introduction of the Series 8 LED TV, the older models had to be re-priced accordingly. Check the pricing table below:

Samsung UA-55B8000 (55″ Series 8 ) – Php215,000USD 3,664INR 310,589EUR 3,489CNY 26,682 (Php239,900USD 4,088INR 346,560EUR 3,894CNY 29,772 at 0% 12m)
Samsung UA-55B7000 (55″ Series 7) – Php190,900USD 3,253INR 275,774EUR 3,098CNY 23,691 (Php211,900USD 3,611INR 306,111EUR 3,439CNY 26,297 at 0% 12m)
Samsung UA-46B7000 (46″ Series 7) – Php133,900USD 2,282INR 193,432EUR 2,173CNY 16,617 (Php148,900USD 2,537INR 215,101EUR 2,417CNY 18,478 at 0% 12m)
Samsung UA-46B6000 (46″ Series 6) – Php125,900USD 2,145INR 181,875EUR 2,043CNY 15,624 (Php139,900USD 2,384INR 202,100EUR 2,271CNY 17,362 at 0% 12m)
Samsung UA-40B7000 (40″ Series 7) – Php116,900USD 1,992INR 168,874EUR 1,897CNY 14,507 (Php129,900USD 2,213INR 187,654EUR 2,108CNY 16,121 at 0% 12m)
Samsung UA-40B6000 (40″ Series 6) – Php105,900USD 1,805INR 152,983EUR 1,719CNY 13,142 (Php119,900USD 2,043INR 173,208EUR 1,946CNY 14,880 at 0% 12m)

More on this when (and if) I’d get a review unit.