I am Ty Pendlebury and this is a review of the Samsung F5500 plasma TV.
If you want a good television for little money, the best way to go is usually a plasma.
But they're definitely getting rarer.
The Samsung F5500 is one of only 3 models released by the company this year, but it's still considered entry level under a $1000.
Design wise, it's a standard looking Samsung with a plastic bezel and a plastic stand which is unfortunately not very
well-constructed.
It visibly flexes in your hands.
This is one of the least expensive TVs in Samsung's line-up to feature smart TV.
And it includes the company's new 5-panel layout and cable box integration.
The TV also comes with a touch-pad remote which is handy for writing channel numbers directly and also comes with a mark phone for voice search.
But I do wish they'd included the standard remote in the box as well for ease of use.
Picture quality is good in some respects and not so good in others.
In a dark cinema setting,
blacks are fairly deep.
They're still not as good as [unk] level Panasonic plasmas and color is pretty decent.
But put the TV in a semi-lit room like this studio, and the picture goes to heck.
Blacks go brown and the screen gets very reflective.
This was a problem with plasmas several years ago, but most other competitors have fixed this problem now.
Given that a number of plasmas is shrinking this TV, almost gets a recommendation by default.
But if you are willing to watch the TV in the dark, the F5500 can offer you a high quality picture.
This has been Ty Pendlebury for CNET.com.
