Samsung PS50P96 review

Samsung PS50P96 Review

Reviewed by: Ian Morris

Reviewed on: 3 September 2007

When it comes to a movie experience, having faithful black reproduction is really important. It's not much of a secret that the current range of LCD TVs struggle with producing deep black, because of the way they work. Their pixels don't generate any light and so a light is projected from behind them. This process means that it's never possible to have total black on screen. Plasma TVs, on the other hand, use pixels that glow, so creating black is as simple as turning the pixels off.

Until now, there really weren't very many 1080p plasmas on the market, meaning, if 'Full HD' was your thing, you were forced to go with LCD, and probably a smaller screen size. Fortunately, Samsung has popped to the rescue with a plasma TV that can show HD in its full glory.

Design
The styling of Samsung TVs seems to evolve with every new generation. That's not to say that there's anything wrong with past models, but each time a new range is released, subtle tweaks make all the difference.

The P96 is finished in piano black -- no great surprise there -- with subtle silver 'wings' at the side. These wings sit in front of the concealed speakers and are designed to direct the sound to the front of the TV. At the bottom an LED glows in a subtle blue. This can be turned off through the menu system if you don't like it, or left on -- either way, it's nice to have the choice of disabling it.

The PS50P96 has a number of subtle design improvements from its predecessors

On the right-hand side of the screen is a set of touch-sensitive controls that blend in with the bezel. These can be used to switch the TV in and out of standby, and to change channel and increase the volume -- handy if the sofa has eaten the remote.

The P96 has plenty of inputs. There are three HDMI sockets, two at the back and one on the left-hand side of the screen. The latter is useful for games consoles, which may be moved to different TVs, and saves faffing around at the back of the screen.

The remote control supplied is identical to all the other Samsung TV remotes. If we're honest, we're a little tired of this design -- it doesn't do the TV justice, it's not especially comfortable or responsive, and it's well overdue for a reworking.

Features
As well as being a 1080p screen, the P96 offers a whole bunch of other features to make it a more attractive proposition. While we've never felt that Samsung screens are especially well set up out of the box, we can't fault them for including plenty of picture control options to get the image looking perfect.

The Movie Plus Mode is a somewhat controversial feature that you'll either love or hate. What it does is add processing to movies that can reduce the traditional 'film judder' that some people don't much care for. It works by adding interpolated frames between each actual frame, smoothing the transition and reducing judder.