Samsung UN55B8500

I believe in concise reviews so I'll keep mine short and sweet. I would consider myself a typical home buyer. I am by no means an expert in TV technology. Pros: * What a picture! * Slim * Light * Games… look great (I use XBOX 360 w/ HDMI - Halo 3 and now Modern Warfare 2 w/ game mode on) * Standard def is decent and watchable although I rarely watch standard def anymore * Sports look great (I watch NBA and college football) * Blacks are WOW * No motion blur * Plenty of ports - DVI, multiple HDMI, optical audio, and more * Sound is fine although I'm trying to figure out an easy way to hook it and my other devices such as the Xbox, HDVR box, etc. into my older audio receiver. I'm hoping the Logitech Harmony remote will solve a lot of my source problems (i.e. using 3+ remotes and changing sources, volumes, etc.) Cons: * Expensive * Out of the box, the picture looks a little to 3D'ish or cartoony but that is easily fixed using CNet's recommended settings * Widgets are cool in theory but are slow in reality so I don't use them. Conclusion If you can afford it, I would say pull the trigger! You won't be disappointed unless you're very hard to please in the first place. :-)

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The UN55b8500 is Samsung's current flagship model and is the successor to the LN55A950. Picture Quality A full LED backlit LCD offering a stunning 7 million:1 contrast seperates the B8500 from other LCDs… by reaching deep into pitch black, formely only possible with plasmas. Some LCDs turn off pixels to achieve inky blacks - ok for still pictures, but too slow to work with most video - basically a gimmick to inflate contrast numbers. The B8500 however, masters the darkest blacks and brightest whites to produce a bold three dimensional effect or "pop." In a dark room, the b8500 outperforms every LCD on the market, shy of the coveted pioneer plasmas. In a moderate to bright environment however, the B8500 absolutely dominates. The highly reflective screen can be annoying for those with unfortunately placed light sources or windows without blinds. A matte screen, as on the LG 55LH90, might be a better fit for some, but a matte screen diffuses the light causing the entire screen to lose those desirable inky blacks. I can't say one is better than the other, but for a TV that can produce such dark blacks, I think the glossy screen makes more sense. Motion handling is the best of any LCD I've seen thanks to seperate blur and judder adjustments and very few motion artifacts. Blu ray discs will exhibit perfect cinema-like panning or, if you want, a more smooth and clear pan similar to a home video. My verizon fios hd occasionally shows judder when there should a smooth flow of movement. The b8500 can help minimalize this, but it is not powerful enough to eliminate it and if set poorly, it can be made worse. After some quick, basic calibration colors are vivid and mostly accurate. Noise and artifacts are very minimal on 720p and nonexistant on 1080p. Haloing (i.e. white text on black background cause background to lighten near text) is only visible rarely unless viewing from greater than 30° off center and increases in severity as viewing angle increases. Viewing from greater than 30° off center vertically or horizontally also causes a slight loss in contrast and color depth. Viewing from greater than 50° off causes a significant loss in contrast and color, creating a flat image and showing major haloing effects. The ideal viewing range is within 15° of center, though if centered vertically, image is barely degraded at all up to 30° off center. Ideal viewing distance is roughly 8 to 14 feet for 720p and 5 to 10 feet for 1080p, though don't take those numbers too seriously, you can obviously enjoy this tv from just about any distance. At 3 feet or less, the distance between the pixels becomes noticeable causing a window pane effect. If you are considering sitting that close, the 46" model is a better choice. Ease of Use The preset picture modes are all quite good for those who aren't picky and just want to watch their tv and the b8500 does a decent job of assigning settings automatically based on the input. Of course, high-end buyers are more likely to calibrate sources to their liking or hire a pro. The tv will remember settings for dynamic, natural, standard and movie profiles for each source. That gives you a lot more flexibility than only having one or two, but it is complicated by a confusing lockout of various settings depending on how the source is identified. You can change the name of a source and find more or less settings available for adjustment, but how this works should be clearly documented. Also, there is a little lag when navigating menus, making constant adjustments of the many, many, many settings somewhat slow and annoying. The layout of the menus themselves and the amount of adjustments available is wonderful. The remote control works using RF so you don't have to point the remote at the tv. The remote is a little bulky, but offers all the buttons you'd want for operating the television easily. The scroll wheel is inaccurate for navigating menus and only really works as a directional pad. Design While, I prefer the touch of grey on some other samsungs, the small blue light on the bottom of the b8500 is stylish, attractive and best of all, can be turned off. The bezel is attractive, thin, and highly glossy, but can be distracting when it picks up too many reflections. The 1.6" thick screen is amazing, but how often do you look at the side of your tv? The 61 lb. weight without stand is quite light for a 55" tv, but again how often will you move it? It does seem to use fairly little power and creates much less heat than a plasma tv. The swivel stand works well, also quite attractive with a brushed gunmetal finish. Sound I did not play around much with the sound as I use a 5.1 setup. I assume most people purchasing this tv will use external speakers, but the internal ones sounded just fine for what they are. Comparisons Competing models include the LG 55LH90/55LHZ, Toshiba 670u, Pioneer 500m/600m, Samsung 52B750/55B650/58B860, Sony xbr8 and Panasonic V10. My personal experience with display models showed the plasma screens to perform poorly in bright environments. Given the open layout and 20' ceilings of my living room, plus my wife's preference for at least dim lighting, this ruled out plasmas. The 58B860 in paricular lacked the light output to produce bright enough whites in all but a pitch black environment. The 55LH90 seemed to be the closest competitor and much cheaper, with the xbr8 and 52B750 being close behind. The LH90 however, seemed to produce too many motion artifacts, couldn't deliver quite as much "pop," along with a slew of more minor negatives. Misc. Upgrading from a Syntax Olevia 37 hvs (matte screen LCD), this tv has truly blown me away. While the perfect (OLED?) TV is still out of reach, the b8500 leaves little room for improvement. Input lag, a major concern for video gamers, runs a tolerable 45ms according to my Rock Band 2 manual calibration with game mode turned on. With game mode off, the input lag increases to 140ms, which is easily noticeable. Game mode disables some processing but not the LED backlighting. The picture with game mode on even using a component connection (1080p) is incredible, though in need of some anti-aliasing on occasion. Turning off extra processing not disabled by game mode seems to have little effect on further decreasing lag. I'm still trying to figure out the best motion settings. The B8500 also has a ethernet port for connecting to the internet and your home network (including DLNA or Anynet). A cd included with the tv helps you play media from your PC. Widgets will automatically update to display weather, sports, news, etc., but are a little slow and less convenient than popping open a laptop. Still, it's a good idea to plug in the tv to your router at least occasionally for firmware updates. Conclusion For those in the market for a 55" HDTV, the b8500 is the most versatile and polished product out there. While a couple extremely high end plasmas beat out the b8500 in a dark room, no other LCD performs as well and the plasmas quickly lose out as you increase ambient light. The attractive and practical design and feature rich menus complete this incredible package. While the 55LH90 is easy to recommend to those focused on price vs. performance or in love with matte screens, the UN55B8500 is clearly a step up and would make a remarkable addition to any loving home. Prices should come down as we head into the holiday season and onto the super bowl, however these seem to be selling as fast as they arrive for now.

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Sorry to say that I am guilty of only writing reviews when i am dissatisfied. you know the ol saying, "When we do right, no one remembers, but when we do wrong, no one forgets" hahaha. First, let me say… that I paid ~$3400 +TAX for this TV. A GREAT deal .. and I would be totally satisfied if it were not for the fact a month earlier I purchased a UN55B8000 for ~$2400 and i like the less expensive one more. I have them sitting, side by side, and the pictures on the 8000 are clearer, less noise(meaning less grainy) etc. Now, that being said, there are differences where the 8500 is superior. But even at the great prices i got on both TV's, im saying, not $1000 better ... some might say I have no taste, its possible ... I drink Beer and whisky, not wine .. hahahah I would have to speculate, from my observation, that the 8500 is more sensitive to cable signal fluctuations and "noise" than the 8000. YES could be my cable, but not the point .. side by side, 8000 looks better / cleaner , channel for channel ... in "my" home. I have had the cable dudes out to check it .. they say all is good, of course, hahaha ..what else would they say .. BUT, if your input is so clean that any TV would not see any reception issues you are very lucky. PRO's It's a very nice TV looks very good ... very life like at times ... even old movies etc look good. Very easy to set up yourself. Can hang on the wall and display photos of your choice, or canned artworks (yeah, I got's class real good) No Flash lighting from the sides VERY black blacks ( what good is it if ya cant see anything in the dark area, I ask myself) GREAT colors CON's The 8500 suffers from the same lack of picture detail that the 8000 has, during dark seines. I expected better. The Widgets are pretty much worthless. For that much money, I expected better quality picture than my 8000 THE HEAT that is generated from this TV you can feel just by walking in front of the display. IT RADIATES several feet. my 8000 doesn't do that. I have the Impression that this 8500 TV is more sensitive to signal than my 8000. Go look at them side by side, with simular settings, and make up your own mind.

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I am a proud owner of this bad boy and I am so glad I waited 3 years to buy a new TV. I have watched Planet Earth on Blu-Ray and it looks georgeous. Playing video games looks really great too, Uncharted 2… looked amazing on this set. I still have yet to find the best settings for picture quality but the one I got from Cnet works just fine. I highly recomend this set for the price being offered isn't too bad.

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I have to echo Bearcat's rating as he is very thorough and accurate, but I want to throw my 2 cents in. When coupled with Samsung's own super-slim wall mount, which is just a glorified cable hanging on two… sturdy disks, the TV sits amazingly close to the wall. Another neat feature that I found hard to believe--When watching movies from an external hard drive, the TV can read a large variety of video CODECs. It can read MP4, AVI, WMV, and MPG files. I'm not sure about the Audio support, but I haven't had any luck finding a movie file that I have that won't play right off an external USB hard drive. The TV also has about 1GB of internal storage to keep files on. All the Widgits are slow, but they are sill usable with the exception of the Video-based widgets, which I find way too slow to load to be of any use. I'd rather power up my computer if I'm going to be doing any internet-based activities. Of course, I'd be remiss not to mention how amazed I am with the picture quality. I'm upgrading from a 55" CRT-based TV, and watching this TV, for me, is like watching TV for the first time. The major selling point on this TV over Samsung's similar 55" offerings is the local-dimming feature. Many HDTV's I've seen over the years simply adjust the entire backlight to achieve deeper blacks and brighter whites, but they simply can't do both at the same time. It is very distracting for me to watch the backlight on those TV's ratchet up and down while watching a scene with a varying brightness. This is where the local dimming feature comes in. This TV can do both brights and darks, at the same time! I have waited for many years to find an TV that isn't distracting to watch. My wait was over with the release of the Sony XBR8, but it wasn't as affordable as I'd like. Once I saw the crisp visual quality of the Samsung 8000 series, and read of the local dimming feature of the 8500, I was sold on this TV and I ordered it without even sampling the picture. I could not be happier.

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