Samsung LN46B500 And Other Black Friday Deals Not That Great

Samsung announced last week that it will be offering Black Friday deals on five HDTV sets during the entire week from November 22 to November 30. The models  are the LN46B500, LN40B500, LN22B350, PN50B400 and the PN42B400. The discounted prices range from $249 for the 22-inch 720p LN22B350 to $849 for the 46-inch 1080p LN46B500. While those prices might sound great on the surface, the New York Times warns that buyers should beware.

According to an article posted in the Gadgetwise section of the Times, depending upon where consumers live, the Samsung deals might not be that good at all. According to the report, the models being offered for sale at stores like Best Buy are low end models with shaved down specs.  The LN40B500 has a Black Friday sale price of $600 while the regular LN40B530 model, which has  higher contrast ratio, can be found for $714 on Amazon. In all but a handful of states, the customer will have to pay tax on the sale prices, making them just barely lower than the regular prices of comparable, superior standard models. In some cases, customers can get the better model for just a few dollars more.

Moral of the story: shop carefully and thoroughly and don’t jump the gun on “great” offers. [via NY Times]