Samsung 64″ F8500 Series 8 Smart 3D Full HD Plasma TV review

Switching from film trailers to Blu-ray discs, the F8500 creates fantastic-looking images thanks to the plasma panel. Colours are vibrant and everything looks pin-sharp, but the real talking point is the black levels; they’re simply phenomenal. In darker scenes, the blacks are truly black, even when placed side-by-side with brighter objects, which look astonishingly white when the cell brightness is at its maximum setting. Unlike increasing backlight brightness on an LCD TV, turning up the cell brightness doesn’t diminish black levels, so you can increase cell brightness for viewing in a brightly lit room without any side effects.

In motion, we noticed a small amount of dithering, but Samsung’s Motion Resolution image processing still does an excellent job of avoiding stutter. You can also disable noise reduction completely, previously not an option on Samsung’s plasma TVs, to get an untouched picture when watching Blu-ray video.

Standard definition content is upscaled smoothly, although there’s naturally only so much detail Samsung’s image processor can generate based on the input signal. Broadcast television looks soft and fairly muted, so you’re better off sticking with HD video.

Whereas Panasonic plasma TVs favour better colour gradation when displaying 3D content, Samsung’s TVs are more focused on producing a 3D image free of jagged edges. By scanning every 3D frame at 1080p, rather than intermediate frames at a lower resolution, the F8500 produces impressively crisp 3D video which really pops out of the screen. In practice, this means less jagged edges around moving objects and clearer Z-axis images, although colours aren’t quite as vibrant in 3D mode. This is beyond the reduction you get when wearing 3D glasses, but it’s only a minor complaint and not enough to spoil 3D films. We also noticed a small amount of motion stutter too, but only with 50Hz content from Sky 3D.

The 64in F8500 has more room for speakers inside than most, but Samsung has stuck with its tried and tested 2x10W driver setup. They produce reasonable sound, but they aren’t as immediate as other plasma sets, such as those from Panasonic, because they fire backwards rather than forwards. There’s plenty of volume here, but no real bass presence.

As Samsung’s flagship plasma TV for 2013, the F8500 manages to impress; it has all the features we’ve come to expect from the company, along with excellent picture and sound quality. However, it’s very expensive and only available in large screen sizes, which makes it impractical for many. Panasonic has also just launched its own 2013 range of plasma sets, which includes mid-range as well as high-end models. Even so, right now Samsung’s F8500 is one of the best TVs out there.