It must be at least two years ago now that people started to say plasma technology was finished but you’ll still find plenty of plasma screens in manufacturer catalogues. This Samsung PS50B550 is one of them. Of course with plasma you can make a large TV quite cheaply. Two good reasons to keep making them.

The kit

As the basic design of TVs becomes pretty standard (HDMI sockets, TNT HD tuner, digital audio out etc), it is the secondary equipment that is making the difference between ranges. Here for example, the remote is not backlit, there is no Ethernet connection and you can only read mp3 photos via the USB socket. All the same, unless you need it for something specific, the PS50B550’s connectivity is fine for most usage.

Image quality

As we often say, plasma screens are not as bright as LCDs, with their brightness varying according to the image displayed. The brighter the image, the more a plasma screen lacks brightness in comparison. On the other hand, with darker images, bright zones will be very bright. It varies between 50 to 150 cd/m² for whites. At 50 cd/m² it looks grey but you’ll only see this on a totally white image. Blacks are between 0.07 and 0.09 cd/m², which are excellent scores. For realistic images, the contast is between 1500 and 2100:1. This is excellent and gives nice images if you’re in a room where the lighting is controlled. However, given that it can’t go over 150 cd/m², this PS50B550 soon shows its limits in a very bright room.

With good readings overall – such as this DeltaE – this plasma only loses out on brightness, a less than convincing ''1080 Full HD Motion'' and its reflectivity.

Angles of vision are excellent as usual on plasmas.

Overall the image is good apart from a few small negative points. 1080 Full HD Motion to start with. We don’t really understand the point of this feature. In contrast to Samsung’s Motion Plus, it does not make films more fluid. Indeed the demo mode means you can split the screen in two with the filter activated on the right and disactivated on the left. We couldn’t make out any difference between them. This isn’t the first time that Samsung has made a strange choice of movement filter on a plasma screen. The PS58B850, tested here recently, didn’t have a true Motion Plus either like on LCDs, and was far from good in this area. Why didn’t Samsung retain its usual Motion Plus?

Another negative point is the shiny coating on the panel. This can be a real problem in a well-lit room. The image is certainly flattering but will only give of its best in a dark environment. It’s no coincidence that the demo areas in shops are often much darker than the rest of the sales floor. Still on the PS58B850, if you look at the video at the end of the article, you’ll see how a reflective panel can affect your viewing experience. This reflective panel means we have to remove a fourth star from our rating of the PS50B550 as it only scored 3.4 out of 5.

Sound quality

Up until now audio has never been a strong card with Samsungs. This TV is no exception. It’s ok, even good if you play around with the settings, but you won't get as good a sound as on the best models, themselves light years behind home cinema kits.

Energy consumption

At an acceptable 0.1 W on standby, it however consumes 291 W when calibrated and on. Note that with default settings and at low brightness it already consumes 250 W. Our readings seem moreover to show that plasmas generally consume more energy than LCDs.