Samsung B85x Plasma (2009) Series

100% of the reviews on Amazon.co.uk give this product a positive rating.

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Thin panel design. Excellent color. Very good SD picture quality. Energy efficient. Tons of media features.

Below-average picture contrast in a dark environment. Some white-balance inconsistencies. No de-judder feature.

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It's hard to come up with any real conclusions on the PN58B850 without the biggest piece of buying information: price. Samsung have not revealed the price of this model yet, but we do know that it will be available in the first quarter of this year....

Good black levels (improved compared to last year) ; Highly accurate colors (better than Panasonic models) ; Solid video processing ; Solid standard definition processing

No S-video input ; Relatively expensive, being a slim model ; Though anti-glare performance is good, other models are better

As mentioned earlier, there is not much improvement over the 650 series from Samsung, when we talk about these models from the top of the line series. There are even tests that show that the black levels on 650 models are a tad better than on Samsung...

Good black levels ; Very accurate colors ; Very good video processing ; Solid standard definition processing

No S-video input ; Relatively expensive because it is slim ; Anti-glare performance is good but other models are better

Even if it does not match the performance of Panasonic top of the line products, Samsung PN58B850 does not come short in terms of performance. Its black levels are more than decent, the colors are as accurate as they come, and its video processing...

Great contrast, super-thin design, great motion handling, decent power consumption for a plasma

Expensive

Samsung's Series 8 (PS50B850) plasma television is a brilliant product. Almost-peerless picture quality, a great design and a range of integrated features make it yet another new Samsung TV we heartily recommend. You do pay for the privilege, but...

Great contrast, super-thin design, great motion handling, decent power consumption for a plasma

Expensive

Clean, sharp visuals ; Good blacks and natural colours ; YouTube playback ; DLNA network multimedia streaming ; Wi-Fi-ready ; Backlit remote ; Ultraslim, attractive design

Bezel rattles with strong bass ; Tight port placement incompatible with thick cables ; Stain magnet and scratch-prone ; Mismatched metal stand ; Slight buzzing noise

If you're willing to overlook the sound quality and the soft buzzing of the set in operation, the AU$4299 PS50B850 is good value for money. Unfortunately, it's still not a Kuro killer.