Samsung PN50A650

Samsung makes so many different varieties of flat-panel HDTVs, sometimes it's difficult to keep up. This particular plasma, the 50-inch PN50A650, was released in the spring of 2008 right around the same time as the slightly less expensive PN50A550, which we reviewed way back then. We really like both of these displays, and both exhibit the same fundamentals: good but not great black levels and highly accurate color. The more expensive version adds more color of its own, in the form of the company's trademark reddish-tinted frame, and if you appreciate the styling, the PN50A650 proves a worthy entrant in the tight 50-inch plasma race.

Design
The biggest differentiator between the PN50A550 we reviewed earlier this year and the PN50A650 is Touch of Color, Samsung's name for the reddish tinge of the television's frame. This TV isn't available in any other color, so if red doesn't work for your room, tough luck. The Touch is subtle enough in person, however, that most viewers probably won't find it objectionable, and if you've grown tired of the parade of glossy black HDTV cabinets, it might be for you. For us, we prefer the standard black of models like the A550, although the A650's other design elements, including a slick clear coating over the frame, hidden speakers and nicely rounded corners, combine for an attractive look.

We really liked the narrow pedestal of the included swivel stand, which lends the TV another dose of attractiveness. The frame around the screen is a bit thicker than on some 50-inch plasmas, and brings the HDTV's overall dimensions to 48.8 inches wide by 32.9 inches high by 12.6 inches deep including stand. Remove the stand and the panel by itself measures 48.8 by 30.2 by 3.8 inches.

Samsung redesigned its remotes for 2008, and for the most part we prefer the new clicker. The buttons are larger and every one is backlit, and we like the dedicated "Tools" menu that offers quick access to picture and sound modes, the sleep timer and the picture-in-picture controls. We don't like the glossy black finish, however, which became a grimy fingerprint magnet after a few minutes.

Samsung's menu system makeover adds improved graphics and a couple new controls, including Cell Light, which controls pixel brightness.

The redesign extends to the menu system, which is blessed with big, highly legible text set against transparent backgrounds that occupy almost the whole screen. Getting around is easy, there's helpful explanatory text along the bottom, and we dig the context-sensitive menu that pop ups occasionally to provide more options. Overall, it's one of the best-designed and most attractive menu systems we've seen on any HDTV, and it really makes setup a breeze--except the confusing picture mode arrangement (see below).

Features
The Samsung PN50A650 has one of the more complete feature sets available today among plasma TVs. A native resolution of 1,920x1,080 (aka 1080p) distinguishes it from a few of the less-expensive 50-inch plasmas out there, but in 2008 this feature is just about standard. Not that it matters; even at 50 inches it's nearly impossible to appreciate the difference between 1080p and lesser resolutions (see Performance).

Samsung added a few more picture tweaks to its already large selection, but we'll start with the basics. The PN0A650 has three adjustable picture modes that are each independent per input. That's great, but in addition there are three more picture presets, called "Entertainment Modes," that cannot be adjusted and are accessible via a separate key on the remote and the setup menu. This arrangement is unnecessarily confusing on a TV with a zillion settings anyway; we'd prefer to have all of the picture modes, both adjustable and nonadjustable, be accessible together from a single key on the remote and one area of the Picture menu. Also, if you're in Entertainment mode, you're prevented from making picture adjustments, or even selecting one of the adjustable picture modes, until you actively cancel an Entertainment mode by navigating to the setup menu (which the onscreen instructions suggest) or toggling the mode to "Off" using the remote. That's an awkward hitch in an otherwise smooth menu design.

As always, we appreciated the presence of detailed white balance controls.

In addition to the standard picture controls, there's an additional one called Cell Light that affects overall light output. It seems superfluous to add yet another control, especially since Contrast can serve the same purpose and unlike the backlight control on an LCD, Cell Light does not affect black level performance. Others include five color temperature presets along with the ability to fine-tune color using the white balance menu; three varieties of noise reduction, including an automatic setting; a film mode to engage 2:3 pulldown (it also works with 1080i sources); a seven-position gamma control that affects the TV's progression from dark to light; a dynamic contrast control that adjusts the picture on the fly; a "black adjust" control that affects shadow detail; and a new color space control that lets you tweak the Samsung's color gamut.

You can choose from four aspect ratio modes for HD sources, two of which allow you to move the whole image across the screen horizontally and/or vertically. As we'd expect from a 1080p TV, one of those modes, called Just Scan, lets the PN50A650 scale 1080i and 1080p sources directly to the panel's pixels with no overscan--the best option unless you see interference along the edge of the screen, as can be the case with some channels or programs. There are also four modes available with standard-def sources.

Like all plasmas, the PN50A650 can be subject to burn-in under certain conditions, so Samsung includes a rash of features designed to address that issue. There's an adjustable pixel shift, which moves the image slowly and imperceptibly around the screen; a choice between light and dark sidebars for 4:3 programs (light is better for preventing burn-in); and a pair of settings, one that scrolls gray bars across the screen and one that simply fills it with a white field, available to address burn-in in the unlikely event that it does occur.

We appreciated the three power-saver modes, which did cut down on the PN50A650's prodigious energy consumption (see the Juice Box). As far as conveniences, Samsung throws in picture-in-picture, a USB port that can connect to thumb drives to play back digital photos and MP3 music, and compatibility with the company's Digital Media Adapter.

Three HDMI and a PC input highlight the Samsung PN50A650's rear-panel jack pack.

Samsung's A650 series' connectivity suite is a step up from the company's less-expensive models like the PN50A550. The biggest upgrade comes from the third back-panel HDMI input, while a fourth can be found in a recessed bay along the panel's left side. There's also a pair of component-video inputs; an AV input with S-Video and composite video; a single RF input for cable and antenna; and a VGA-style RGB input for computers (1,920x1,080 maximum resolution). That recessed bay to the side offers an additional AV input with S-Video and composite video, a headphone jack, and the aforementioned USB port.

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.