The Samsung UN46C7100 is a 46-inch LCD television capable of 3D display, with an incredibly attractive frame, but it has as many performance problems as it does performance strengths. Samsung clearly spent a lot of time thinking about the visual impact of the design – including an overwrought remote control – but you should definitely be aware of the more troublesome aspects before you fall in love.

The superslim frame is due, in part, to the LED back-lighting, which doesn't require much space. But it was also clearly a conscious decision of Samsung's to take the lead on high design. The entire frame and base is made of a faux brushed aluminum and black plastic tinged with a deep brown. It's really a breed apart from every other TV on the market.

The remote control is equally different from the norm, but here the designers got carried away and function was not given equal important to form. It has a uniformly flat surface, broken only by a few ridges. There are no buttons, so it's very hard to use it without constantly looking down to see where your fingers are.

The Samsung UN46C7100 is more than simply design, of course. To try and sweeten the pot, it offers a decent selection of streaming content, which includes Netflix, Blockbuster on demand, Vudu, Pandora, Twitter, and several more services. Samsung has been good about expanding its lineup of apps since the launch of online services, so even older TVs may be applicable for updates. To connect, there's an ethernet port in the back. You can connect wireless with a separately purchased USB dongle. The USB ports also accept USB mass storage devices for playing back video, audio, and photos.

The TV has a huge list of video processing features, but we recommend simply leaving most of them disabled. In particular, features like motion smoothing and dynamic contrast cause more problems than they fix.

The Samsung UN46C7100 ready for 3D display straight out of the box, and ships with two pairs of 3D glasses. Consider yourself lucky if you already bought this set, because the active shutter glasses like these cost about $150 per pair. 

Performance (Read the full lab performance results at Televisioninfo.com)

The Samsung UN46C7100 offers a strong black level, as well as a bright white, which added up to a great contrast ratio of approximately 4052:1. That's a far cry from the ridiculous 6,000,000:1 that Samsung reports, but our numbers better reflect what you can expect in real life environments, and the score we calculated is quite good. It did, however, have a hard time maintaining consistent black levels as the amount of the black on the screen varied. The TV also produces dark blacks, but you're not necessarily going to see a lot of detail in the shadows. The blacks are "crushed," probably in order to deepen the overall black level for a better contrast ratio.

The color performance is pretty good, with smooth color transitions in all three channels (red, green, and blue). There was some loss of detail in the brightest portions of the red and blue channels. One of the weakest performance aspects was the viewing angle, which was among the narrowest we've seen on an LCD display. You can always swivel the TV panel on its base, but this might not be the best choice for a wide living room.

The 3D performance of the Samsung UN46C7100 was mediocre, at best, like all the 3D TVs we've reviewed. The glasses cut contrast ratio by 75%. There was also a lot of crosstalk, in which signals intended for one eye bleed into the other eye, ruining the 3D effect.

Comparisons (Read more in-depth comparisons at Televisioninfo.com)

To better put the Samsung UN46C7100 in context, we've pulled three TVs in for comparison. The UN46C8000 is a step up from the C71000 series. Also a 3D set, the C8000 series features a sleek, 4-legged stand and some extra processing features like local dimming – features that you don't really need. The Panasonic TC-P50VT20 is a plasma  3D TV, and we've found plasmas to be much better at producing a satisfactory 3D effect, at least in this first generation of products. The one downside was that this Panasonic was not very bright, and with the 3D glasses, the brightness was reduced even more. Finally, the Sony KDL-46HX800 is a 3D-ready TV, meaning it requires separately purchased glasses and a transmitter to sync the signal to the glasses. That said, the base performance of the Sony was excellent. 

Overall, the Samsung UN46C7100 is a very cool looking TV, but the 3D performance probably won't live up to expectations, even though that's a big piece of the price tag. The narrow viewing angle might limit what sort of room you put it in, but the color and contrast performance are strong. Weigh the pros and cons and decide if this is the right investment for you.