To clarify this is my tv and not just basing this review on time spent in a store navigation. This TV has been difficult to find and the only place I found that he had in stock was my local Best Buy with a Magnolia section.
Design: Samsung is known for their elegant design and this TV is no exception. Samsung says it has a touch of charcoal, but really I have not noticed any color of the bezel. And ‘black and goes to clear the outer edge. He sits on a metal support with a clear neck holding the TV. In the lower half of the television below where it says Samsung is a blue light that can be turned off. I noticed the light blinking ever so slightly when a command is sent from the remote control being used. The TV is very thin. Only 1.6 “is more fat to the point. This is amazing considering this TV unit is a fully backlit with LED local dimming. Truly surprising and a design that will have your friends jealous.
Image Quality: This is the best looking LCD TV made today. I saw many other LCD televisions including the XBR8 Sony and Samsung A950 last year and this is the best work I’ve seen. In terms of image quality The XBR8 is closer but not quite up to par with 8500. Realistically, if you had one of these sets in the house would look spectacular. The blacks on the 8500 so dark it approaches the level of blacks in the best plasma TV. In a dark room I could not tell where the TV screen bezel is finished and started because the screen was so dark. The colors are excellent and can be modified many ways to your liking. I like how “Natural for everyday use and how to” Movie to watch Blu-ray. 240Hz The update is nice, but the best thing is that you can control independently and Blue settings Judder. Raising the 240Hz tends to produce what some call “work” effect soap, but this can easily be removed tweaking. There is also a game mode that I use when I play on my PS3.
One interesting thing I discovered is that the movie mode with Warm 2 setting is set on nearly a right view to setting out of the box. I say this because I have a calibration Spears & Munsil Blu-ray and when I went to the TV through the calibration process using the Movie mode on warm 2 I literally just had to change a single setting of one or two points. I have seen many people simply turning back and forth between natural and Movie mode, depending on what you are watching, and not worry about calibrating the tv looks great pretty much out of the box.
I also remember that the standard definition looks good on this TV. Is not it as good as HD, but it is perfectly acceptable in my view.
Sound: Having a profile that I think I expected the sound horrible. Surprisingly it was quite acceptable. While I would recommend a surround sound system I’ve never felt like the TV speakers were so bad. My wife never said anything and I’m never watching a TV show and thought, “Oh, the smell of the sound.” I would say that this is media that is ok for me considering the small amount of Samsung had space to work on. While audio-philes might not like the TV speakers and audio I think a lot of people would be absolutely fine with it.
Viewing angle: I sit on 9 ‘and 10′ away from the screen and have not noticed real problems with viewing angle. Of course not LCD LEDs have a viewing angle as good as a plasma, but unless you are sitting at an angle that will probably not worry too much about this. I think this is more of a personal preference … certainly the best picture is right in the middle of the screen, but I do not think that sits to the right or left makes the picture a few meters dramatically different. Maybe a video-phil noticing, but my wife does not notice and never said a thing.
Reflection: Be aware that this is NOT a matte screen is a reflective screen. If you have Windows in front of the TV so make sure you have curtains or blinds to block the light enough to not disturb her. I do not think it is more reflective than other Samsung TV, but from an opaque screen before this was a big change for me.
Widgets: the TV is equipped with Internet connectivity for Yahoo Widgets, YouTube, Twitter, Sports USA Today and many others. You can buy a wireless USB stick Samsung to connect wirelessly to a TV network or you can connect an Ethernet cable directly into the back of the TV. I have an ethernet cable connected directly to the back. First, the widgets do not load quickly. I do not know why, but even with a direct cable to the Internet TV that still do not load quickly. No idea why but slooow. Slow enough for me to be bothered and do not use them much. It’s strange because when I went to VI widget Tube and watched a video Played quickly and was regular. Hopefully Samsung will have a software upgrade to allow the widgets to load faster. At this moment I would say that it is just a novelty. If they can decrease load times and add additional applications, such as Facebook, then I think this has potential. But people are not buying this TV because of the widgets, they’re buying for the image.
In general I think this is a great TV. And ‘costly, yes. Has the best picture of any LCD available, yes. If you have money it is a great TV. I use a Harmony One remote and works perfectly with this TV. PS3 games and Blu-ray movies look incredible. The only quibble I have with TV is the reflectivity of the screen and that is a consequence of my room setup than the TV itself. If I’m watching football in HD, a PS3 game, watching a Blu-ray movies or watching the office I was blown away by the picture this TV can provide.
UPDATE:
I wanted to clarify something that seems to be a bit ‘of confusion. I refer to this as a LCD TV that is. Samsung refers to this as a TV LED. In essence, this TV uses an LCD panel (so it is an LCD TV), but use LED backlighting (as opposed to traditional CCFL backlight). Samsung had a marketing success with the term “LED TV,” but in reality it is still an LCD TV but use LED backlighting purposes. I just wanted to make sure nobody is confused when Samsung refers to it as a TV LED LCD screen and wonder …. in a way they are both right, but this can be confusing for the consumer.
Also wanted to comment that I have now had this TV for almost 5 months and has performed admirably. I had an event that some people had called “Crop Circles”, but this was remedied with a firmware update so no problem since. Overall I’m still blown away by this TV every day. Whether it’s watching the Super Bowl, the Olympics or lost this TV is spectacular.
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