Samsung LT24B750 review

Big-screen TVs are ideal for a living room, but you aren’t going to fit a 50in screen in a kitchen or second bedroom. Unfortunately, smaller TVs often lack the features, connectivity and smart TV functions we’ve come to expect from their bigger brothers. Samsung is looking to reverse this trend with the new LT24B750, a 24in, 1080p TV that still has room for integrated Wi-Fi, DLNA media streaming and access to the Smart Hub online portal.

Smaller TVs rarely look as good as the ones you might put in your living room, but Samsung hasn't compromised on design at all. The asymmetrical curved stand looks gorgeous, although you can only tilt the screen rather than pivot it, and the glossy black finish provides an attractive contrast. The screen itself has a matte finish, which is perhaps more suited to a PC monitor than a TV, but it should help reduce screen glare if you decide to put it under a kitchen's strip lights or somewhere in direct sunlight.

Despite the TV's small stature, you still get a full complement of ports, including component, SCART, VGA and two HDMI inputs, as well as digital optical and 3.5mm audio outputs. Unfortunately you don’t get DVI or DisplayPort connections, which limits its usefulness as a PC monitor. There's also Ethernet and a Common Interface slot, along with two USB ports that let you play multimedia files locally from a USB flash drive, or record live TV to an external hard disk. Recording functions are fairly basic, and with only one tuner you have to watch the same program you're recording, but file format support was excellent - all our multimedia files played perfectly.

Once connected to the internet, the LT24B750 shows even greater potential. It has the full version of the Smart Hub portal, which lets you stream movies from Netflix and LoveFilm, catch up on missed programs with BBC iPlayer or watch online videos through Vimeo, DailyMotion and YouTube. You can keep track of your social networks using Twitter and FaceBook, and even surf the web with the built-in web browser. USB mouse and keyboard support makes using these features much easier than on other smart TV systems we've used, to the point that you could use it instead of a PC or laptop for checking your email or Facebook page.