Photos: Is the Samsung BD-P3600 the best Blu-ray player yet?

By Ian Morris on 27 March 2009, 5:43pm

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Photos: Is the Samsung BD-P3600 the best Blu-ray player yet? Image 1

We've previously given you an exclusive hands-on look at Samsung's wall-mountable Blu-ray player, the BD-P4600. Now, dear reader, we're happy to be able to provide another exclusive look -- at the company's BD-P3600. This player is aimed at a more conservative market, and doesn't have the 4600's unusual shape.

There are benefits to choosing the 3600, though. For a start, it has the crucial 7.1 analogue audio out, which means it can easily be connected to an older AV receiver. This is terrific news for people with much-loved equipment that perhaps can't decode Dolby TrueHD or DTS-HD MA.

The 3600 also comes with a Samsung Wi-Fi dongle, which means you'll be able to access online content via BD Live, without the need for messy cables. Hurrah, we say.

The 3600 has the same innards as the 4600, however, so you can expect the same speedy load times for Blu-ray movies. That said, using our reference disc Vantage Point we saw a load speed of 40.89 seconds. This is actually slightly faster than the 4600 -- which loaded the disc in 43.35 seconds. However you look at it, this player is faster than your average bear.

The terrific news is all of this functionality costs just £250. Really, this could be the most exciting Blu-ray player we've ever seen. Is it the best? Well, that will really depend on what you want from a player, but this certainly brings more to the party than most.