Samsung PN50A650 review (50" plasma TV)

The Samsung's side panel includes the fourth HDMI input and a USB port, among other connections.

Performance
We expected the Samsung PN50A650 to perform very much like the excellent PN50A550 we reviewed earlier, and that's pretty much what happened. The 650 delivered acceptable black levels, although they were not on a par with the best plasmas from Panasonic and Pioneer. Color accuracy was its major strength. We were also guardedly impressed by the 650's improved anti-glare screen.

Prior to our standard calibration, the Samsung's Warm 2 color temperature preset came quite close to the standard--see the Geek Box below--so we didn't have to do much to bring it into line. We were a bit disappointed that the grayscale varied more than expected after calibration, tending toward red in mid-dark areas (25-40 percent) and blue in brighter ones (85-90 percent), but overall it wasn't too bad. The A650 offers a color management system, but we didn't even have to use it since the default Auto color space came quite close to the HD standard. Click here for our full picture settings.

For the PN50A650's side-by-side comparison we enlisted a few similar-size plasmas, including the Panasonic TH-50PZ800U and the Pioneer PDP-5020FD for color and black-level reference, respectively, as well as the LG 50PG20 plasma and a big-screen LCD, the Samsung LN52A650. We spun up the Forbidden Kingdom Blu-ray Disc on the PS3 for the bulk of our image quality tests.

Black level: The Samsung PN50A650 produced a relatively deep shade of black compared to most displays, but it couldn't match the depth delivered by the Panasonic or, especially, the Pioneer plasmas. During Chapter 5 when Jackie Chan and Jason flee a tea house at night, the letterbox bars, night sky, and shadows all appeared lighter on the Samsung than on those two plasmas, although they were still darker than the black areas of the Samsung LCD or the LG plasma. Shadow detail, such as the ornate carvings in the armor of the Jade Warlord as he gazes over his troops, again wasn't up to the two better plasmas, but surpassed the level of detail we saw on the LCD and the LG plasma.

Color accuracy: Primary and secondary colors were superb on the A650. The verdant hillsides looked as natural as on our reference Panasonic plasma and Samsung LCD displays, with greens that didn't appear overly yellowish or intense, as we saw on the LG and, to a lesser extent, the Pioneer. Skin tones were also accurate-looking in most cases, although we detected a bit of ruddiness, which we chalk up to the slightly less linear grayscale, in skin tones indoor and other dimmer areas such as the face of Jackie Chan in the teahouse after he meets Jason.

We also noticed than very dark areas, such as the shadows of Chan's robe, dipped into blue, whereas the same shades on our reference plasmas remained true. While the Samsung's colors didn't appear quite as rich or saturated as on those plasmas, they were noting to sneeze at, and still had a good deal of punch.

Video processing: The Samsung PN50A650 we reviewed failed to properly deinterlace film-based sources according to our HQV tests. Samsung is aware of the issue, however, and in typical fashion it released a firmware update in early August that causes the TV to pass the test (check out this tip for more information). Since the majority of PN50A650 models in the field lack the update and thus fail the test, however, our Geek Box results still indicate failure for film-based 1080i deinterlacing. As usual, we had a difficult time telling the difference between success and failure using regular program material, so this isn't a deal-breaker by any stretch.

The 1080p Samsung had no trouble resolving every line of 1080i and 1080p sources, but compared directly to the lower-resolution 720p LG, we had a very difficult time detecting any difference in raw detail between the two displays from our seating distance of eight feet. Fine areas like the thousands of cherry blossoms and the strings on Golden Sparrow's instrument at the beginning of Chapter 5 appeared equally sharp on both displays, an only when we looked at some text, like the Chinese take out-style letters of the Blu-ray menu, did we notice some softness in the lower-resolution plasma.

Bright lighting: The biggest picture quality-affecting difference between the Samsung PN50A650 and the PN50A550 we reviewed earlier comes in the form of screen coating. The A550 has the company's standard FilterBright screen, while the A650 gets the Ultra FilterBright variety. While we didn't have the 550 on hand to directly compare, we don't remember it being as good as the 650 at combating in-room reflections. The Panasonic and especially the Pioneer plasmas still did a better job than the Samsung at making reflections less distracting in our brightly lit room, however, although the Samsung did preserve its depth of black in bright lighting better than the Panasonic. The A650's antireflective screen is definitely improved, but it could still be better.

Standard-definition: The Samsung turned in a good standard-def performance. It resolved every detail of the DVD format, and details in the grass and stone bridge looked relatively sharp. It did an excellent job of smoothing jaggies from moving diagonal lines, including the stripes on a waving American flag. Although the Auto noise reduction setting was a bust, choosing any of the three manual options worked well, removing progressively more noise from low-quality shots of sunsets and skies. The highest setting still wasn't as effective as that of the Pioneer or even the Panasonic, however, which was a surprise since NR on the Samsung 550 was very good. Annoyingly, the default setting for Film Mode in the Movie picture setting is "Off," which causes the set to fail the 2:3 pulldown test; as usual, engaging Film Mode manually allowed it to pass.

PC: Via the VGA input, the set resolved ever detail of a 1920x1080 source, and text was quite crisp and legible--in short, as good as we've seen from any plasma via VGA. The results were the same with HDMI sources, so overall the PN50A650 makes an excellent PC monitor.

Juice box

Samsung PN50A650	Picture settings
	Default	Calibrated	Power Save
Picture on (watts)	380.58	337.77	292.3
Picture on (watts/sq. inch)	0.36	0.32	0.27
Standby (watts)	1	1	1
Cost per year	$118.42	$105.17	$91.09
Score (considering size)	Poor
Score (overall)	Poor

*Cost per year based on 2007 average U.S. residential electricity cost of 10.6 cents per kw/hr at 8 hours on/16 hours off per day.

How we test TVs