Samsung UE22D5003 22-inch Widescreen Full HD LED TV with Freeview [Electronics] (Old model)

I searched internet for a really good 22" lcd tv for my mother in law, who's philips lcd 22" tv stopped working after just one year. I didn't buy it from Amazon as I could get it slightly cheaper elsewhere. As I write this the tv is now the same price on Amazon. So, having read the technical specifications on this tv I decided to buy two at the same time (one for me). I have absolutely no regrets, it is an excellent tv and does everything you need. Also, one of the visual features I really like and was not expecting to have is: If you are reclining whilst watching the tv or the tv is placed higher than your eye level (Example on a chest of drawers like mine), there is a mode to set the viewing angle. What it does is alter the colours to compensate your viewing to sharpen the picture and improve the colours. You need to manually reselect the viewing angle if you need to change it back for watching at eye level. This can be done by one click restore default visual settings or enter the angle mode and turn it off. Really easy to set up. You can opt to either install analogue and digital channels or just digital channels. Tv channels install very quickly and its ready to go in a couple within approximately 5 minutes. Picture and sound quality are really excellent, and it even works well with an indoor HD tv ariel (in East Kent). Tv channel menu system is bright and clear and you can see your current tv program in the top left hand corner, whilst you check what's on other tv channels. I can't find any faults with this tv it is excellent.

PS For indoor hd viewing I purchased a Lloytron active HD indoor ariel 50Db gain. Cost approx £30.00 (Description black box with no telescopic antenna) - everthing all built inside, it uses coaxial fitting or usb.

This TV cost £179 and is a steal at this price.

Picture is amazing. I am using it primarily for gaming and the PS3 and 360 in 1080p look stunning on it. Sound is good, contrast is great and with built in freeview and 100htz refresh rate it feels like this should have cost more. Very happy with my purchase.

Most things I buy I check out reviews on the web and mostly things have been good thanks to the many people here who write great reviews.

I don't think I've ever written a particularly bad review about a product. On looking at this TV it looks nice with the piano black surround and the screeen itself looks OK - pretty average I'd say these days. I've only just got it so not had time to set it up yet but the picture looked.....ok so again pretty average.

BUT the massive let down (which is the same on many small TVs) is the sound - Utter garbage is the way I'd describe it. I have a small samsung LCD in the kitchen and I didn't particularly like the sound from that but this is even worse despite being around 2 or 3 years newer! Just sounds hollow and tinny and that is with me switching on the surround setting and amending the pretty useless equaliser. I'll be looking to see if I can add a pair of speakers to this TV.

I would normally send it back but the hassle isn't worth it and with external speakers it should improve the experience. Will perhaps review again when I've done that (will try my ipod speakers later :) )

Surely TV manufacturers should be looking at this and providing speakers that allow you to enjoy watching the TV?

It's replacing a 17" 1st generation LCD panel from JVC that I bought quite a few years ago that I think is on its last legs.... A shame because I like it better!

I'm sure there must be better TV's at this price on the market..... Don't get this.

EDIT
Ok so adding a little to this review. I was given a cheap pair of Logitech Z130s (cost £10) and they really improve the sound a lot. This is how a TV should sound as a default (not outstanding but perfectly useable).... Just a basic pair of speakers but a massive step up in sound quality. If you read any of the comments attached to this review you will see that the Logitech Z-140s are probably a far better purchase and for only £15 these are the speakrs to buy.

I'm going to upgrade the rating to 3* because I do like the TV. Picture is decent, it's quite fast in operation and the menu system is pretty good and simple to use and despite the screen real estate, it's much slimmer than most televisions.

However I do still have the massive gripe that I have to buy speakers to make this ound ok. I think manufacturers should at least make you aware of the sound being substandard on small TV's (instead of advertising it with "SRS TheaterSound HD" which makes it sound great - but is instead rediculous).

I do like the TV that apart.

PS Thanks to Bertie for his help :) Read more ›

Like most people, I wanted a small TV to fit in the bedroom and didnt want to spend a kings ransom on a bedroom tv. the Samsung name is well known, and I know they produce some very good tv's, so with that in mind, I invested in the 22d5003 at a local wholesalers. Having got home and set it up, OH DEAR,.. the first thing that hits you is how bad the sound is. I dont expect Hi-Fi, but this is more like a tranny radio from the 1960's. And then there is the picture.. well if you like your highlights blown out, and blacks in a shade of grey, then fine. very poor colour fidelity with red's in a shade of pink only. I am a retired TV and electronics engineer of 30 years standing and know what makes a good TV. This is not a good TV. Compared to my other LCD TV's (3) it looks like a very poor relation. Safely back in the box and back to whence it came. I will look for a different make next and check it out in a shop first.

I too ignored the other reviews regarding the sound quality and purchased the tv from another retailer at £156.00. Absolute bargain, or so I thought. I had just taken a LOGIK 22'' set back to you know who due to it having a couple of faults. Bit of a shame really as it was a nice tv for the price of £139.99 including a built in dvd player and timeshift with usb record. It's sound wasn't brilliant but thought for the money it's ok. It was doing my head in though not being able to obtain a sky remote code for the tv so decided my next choice had to be Samsung or LG as their codes are readily available.

After much research I was left with 3 choices. The Samsung D5003, LG 2622 and the Sharp LE510. Seeing the Sharp at £119.99 + VAT made it very desirable and it had USB record and timeshift. I went and viewed both the Sharp and the Samsung in my local store and was heading for the Sharp when I noticed it's remote. It was quite small and hard to see the names on the buttons, unlike the LG and Samsung remotes which are nice and clear. I was unable at that time to find the LG which I could look at and listen to. I also noticed the Sharp remote was identical to a Toshiba and Digihome and then questioned as to who actually made these sets. So a bit more research on here and REVOO and thought a lot more people have given a good review on the Samsung compared to bad reviews and decided to go and buy one. After all it has a good spec with 100hz and being a fairly recent model should be an improvement on earlier types. I was a little concerned with the stand of the tv as it wobbled and looked a bit small in length to support the length of the tv but just thought it maybe hadn't been assembled properly....

Purchased the tv on the Wednesday and was disappointed first at the lack of connections on the tv. No component or AV connections, just scart, RF, 2 x HDMi and headphone. This is different to some websites, including Samsung's own. Switched it on and then spent the next two nights trying to get the picture and sound right. Now the picture is stunning but I found the colours too vibrant on some stations whilst it was perfect on others. The bright purples and bright greens seemed to be exaggerated. Can't fault that really but it just looked like I was watching a cartoon all the time on certain stations. Screen did not seem quite as sharp as the LOGIK but that could just have been the individual settings. This was also my view in the shop too. The TV also seems very bright compared to my living room LG tv which gives a more natural picture. Lots and lots of settings on the Samsung so maybe a bit more tweaking would have got it perfect. Not knocking Samsung here as the quality of the screen is amazing and it was only on freeview. If I was judging the tv on screen quality it is 5 stars.

So onto the sound. As another review said it is diabolical and he's right. It really is terrible and needs external speakers. Now this is a real shame because I believe the only reason Samsung and other manufacturers fitted tiddly 3 watt speakers is that they cannot physically fit anything bigger in there due to us all wanting slimmer screens. This is ridiculous. Just make the case bigger where the speakers need to go or make speakers that work. I have an old Samsung Syncmaster 940 LCD which has the speakers in the front, projecting to the viewer. Far better than projecting down and the tv is only 15mm thicker than the current 22" Samsung LED V's. My wife heard the tv and said immediately that's going back. I played about with it for ages on all of the settings and there are quite a few. The sound was CR*P. like it was coming out of a hollow tube. What a let down. Ok some other reviewers have fitted external speakers which cured the problem and I would have been happy to do that but for the stand. The stand is too small for the tv. It's not long enough/heavy enough to support the tv. Maybe there was something wrong with it. Other sets including Samsung are far better with some bases reinforced with light steel. Mine wobbled like a piece of jelly if you knocked it lightly. Ok if it's going on a wall bracket. Such a let down. I was so disappointed after all of the research. Nobody else has commented on the week stand problem yet I have seen it like this in two different stores now.

Purchased on the Wednesday and it was returned on the Saturday. So so disappointed. Needed to find a store with an LG now lol, or so I thought.

Called in at my local A**A on the way home to see what they had. Some LG LED model that the soft touch buttons on the front wouldn't work properly, a LUXOR similar to the LOGIK I had bought previously and a Samsung LE22D450. Managed to get all the sound working on all 3 and immediately decided the LUXOR had the same speakers as the Samsung I had just returned!! as it sounded like it was performing in a biscuit tin. Didn't want another Samsung as I was thinking it will be just the same as the D5003 so looked at the LG first. Not bad but then I tried the Samsung and thought hey that's pretty goof, far better than I was expecting. Hmm, was going to be food shopping next morning with the one who must be obeyed!! So next morning I managed to pull her away from the cheese counter and over to the tv's and she agreed that the Samsung sounded ok but was out of stock. Out of stock on line too but at another one of our stores they had a shelf full and I bought one. It's a good choice. Excellent picture, maybe not quite as good as the 5 series D5003 on paper but sound was a HUGE improvement although I did have to tweak the equalizer from it's standard treble bias setting. Picture on standard setting with 2 extra tweaks of back light and 2 tweaks less of colour and it was perfect. Happy at last and in my opinion it looks nicer with it having the Rosewood black finish. Ok so it's not 100hz and it's 61mm thick compared to 40mm and 28mm wider than the D5003 but you know I don't care and it doesn't wobble. It's a far better tv compared to one I had bought.

Ended up with a Samsung, not the model I thought a week ago but my advice is if you want to buy the UE22D5003 then put it on a wall and plug some external speakers into it otherwise buy something else. One thing that does concern me slightly is the number of high reviews on the D5003. Could it be that certain models have been fitted with inferior speakers.

Screen / Picture rating = 5 stars
Sound Rating = 1 star
Overall = 3 stars Read more ›