Best Plasma Televisions
With the advent of the LED, OLED and UHD televisions, there has been speculation that plasma is on its way out. That may be the case in the future, but at the moment there is still a market for this type of technology in a television. However, the number of models available – as well as vendors selling them – remains small compared to LEDs. In Australia, only Samsung, LG and Panasonic are selling models – and even Panasonic has declared that it will be leaving the plasma market by 2014.
By Mike Wheeler
With the advent of the LED, OLED and UHD televisions, there has been speculation that plasma is on its way out. That may be the case in the future, but at the moment there is still a market for this type of technology in a television. However, the number of models available – as well as vendors selling them – remains small compared to LEDs. In Australia, only Samsung, LG and Panasonic are selling models – and even Panasonic has declared that it will be leaving the plasma market by 2014.
So why buy a plasma? They still have better colour saturation (although that is changing) and offer deeper blacks, than its LED counterparts. However, this is something that only true television train spotters would notice, not your average run-of-the-mill consumer who just wants a good television. It will come down to personal preference and of course price point. The main criteria for our selections is value for money, married with other features that give it that extra edge. As of this writing all models are available at most popular consumer electronics retailers.
Samsung
Samsung has four models to choose from ranging from 51- to 64-inch screens. There’s the more recent 8500 series or the slightly older 5500. We’d go for the 64-inch F5500 mainly due to its $1,899 price point. That is a huge television for fantastic price. It features a duel core processor; Samsung’s S recommendation, which saves your viewing preferences for a later date; the Smart Hub entertainment port; as well as Allshare, which allows you to stream content from compatible portable devices like your PC or smartphone.
LG
LG has a much more extensive range of plasmas going from 42 to 60 inches. You would think with so many to choose from this would be a hard ask. Not at all. The one model that glaringly stands out from the rest is the 60-inch 60PH6700, which is not only fairly new to the market but will only set you back $1,799. Amongst other things it has the 600Hz Max feature, which rolls over 600 images per second; the ability to share your picture, music and video files via compatible devices like tablets and smartphones; and the ability to record to a hard drive.
Panasonic
Panasonic falls somewhat in between LG and Samsung with the number of units to choose from. It has them available in 50-, 55-, 60- and 65-inch configurations. If you are keen on the latest 65-inch model, you won’t get much change out of $4,500, so we thought we’d stump up $1,799 for the 60-inch TH-P60S60A model. As well as all the bells and whistles you would expect, you can connect to the web; have swipe and share with compatible tablets and PCs via its built-in wifi; and there is an array of connectivity ports.
Next: UHD TV Guide
