Panasonic TH-50PX80U

Pros: Beautiful images, easy menus, low-profile appearance, SD card reader

Cons: Stand is a little spartan, remote works great but is not much to look at, you also have to select the input source manually

Summary: I picked this up at Best Buy as soon as it arrived. I had trouble with a Samsung unit and took it back and traded for this. The unit had just been put out on the floor when I saw it. It was clearly as good as anything around it. I compared closely to the Pioneer, Samsung and Sony. I have to say it's difficult to really quantify the differences. The images on all units were fabulous. I did feel like the Panasonic and the Pioneer were slightly better than the others. The blacks were "blacker" and the skin tones and colors were richer, more vibrant. I also really like the glare reduction screen, it seems to work better than the others. There was a lot of glare on the other screens.

Setup was incredibly easy. I simply plugged in the HDMI cables and powered it on. The unit is lighter than the previous one I had. This is 82 lbs and the previous was 99 lbs. You can really notice the difference. Sliding it around in the entertainment center is much easer.

The SD card reader and display system is killer. It was actually the first thing we used after turning on the unit. Simply slide in an SD card with pictures on it and it gives the option to run a slide show. How cool is that? My photos never looked better!

So far so good. This is a great plasma. If you're torn between 1080p and 720p, don't be. I've learned that there simply isn't a whole lot of media out there yet that is Blue-ray. All of the satelite providers are going to stay with 720p for at least 5 years. The only place you can tell the difference is when you actually play a Blue-Ray disc. The image is slightly better, but not a $1000 better. I really think the value of 720p's is hard to beat. It will be a couple of years yet until the 1080p's become reasonably priced.