Samsung UN65D8000 - 65 Class ( 64.5 viewable ) LED-backlit LCD TV

The Samsung UND8000 LED-based LCD TV shows the company's considerable technological know-how brought to bear on a simple design goal: to make the "TV" itself disappear as much as possible when turned on, leaving nothing but the picture. The design is a spectacular visual success that will command attention and be worth the exceedingly high price to some buyers with cash to burn. And despite its compact dimensions, the UND8000 also manages to squeeze in more features than just about any TV we've ever reviewed.

Other buyers, however, will have a hard time overlooking its principal weakness: picture quality. Its screen lacks the brightness and color uniformity required for peak performance, apparently a casualty of that awesome design. The UND8000 represents a simple choice between a quality picture and the best design and features. We think that buyers who can afford this TV shouldn't have to make that choice, but for now they do.

HDMI gets precedence while analog connections are scarce and require breakout cables.

The remote included with Samsung's flagship TVs like the UND8000 is a flipper. The top side of the wedge-shaped rectangle offers standard TV controls that shoot infrared commands to the TV, while the bottom gets a full QWERTY keypad along with a screen, and works via Bluetooth (which doesn't need line-of-sight).

Here are the optional SSG-3700CR glasses, which are sleeker, lighter, rechargeable, and expensive ($219 list). The hood around the top and sides can be removed for a more stylish look.

Samsung's spider-legged stand is still weird.

We've long lauded the "all-picture" look as the pinnacle of TV design, and Samsung's newest high-end LED comes closer than any TV so far. It doesn't have much of anything around the screen, and the measurements are as sexy as any to TV design aficionados: the "bezel" is 0.2 inch by Samsung's count, and the distance from the edge of the picture to the edge of our 55-inch review sample's panel is 0.375 inch according to our tape measure.

Samsung includes the extra cables needed to connect analog gear.