The UN46B8500 LCD HDTV is one of the latest LED TV from Samsung.  The company has released a series of thin and sexy LED TV’s with the 6000, 7000 and 8000 series – the 8500 being the latest.

This TV features a very stylish and elegant design combined with very good performance in color reproduction, accuracy, white and black levels and lots of connectivity option.  Audio performance is average as well as its power consumption and energy saving performance.

It makes use of Samsung’s LED backlight technology enabling the company to construct thinner LCD TVs.  It supports 1080p display format and it has a refresh rate of 240Hz.  Its LCD response time is at two milliseconds.  The fast refresh rate and LCD response time enables the TV to display fast moving pictures and videos with excellent clarity and without any judders.  The 240Hz refresh rate of this TV is four times faster than most entry level LCD TV’s like the Vizio VA370M.  Motion images played in this TV will relatively show smooth transition and motion.  There is also an Auto Pro Motion feature to enhance motion performance further.

Color performance is excellent.  The Samsung UN46B8500 can accurately reproduce colors without over saturation or loss in details.  With its backlit technology, this TV can maintain the same vibrant color performance in both bright and dark environments.

This TV also performs above average in both deep black and peak brightness performances.  This TV can produce deep black details without any greyish tint that are noticeable in many LCD TVs.  Only the Panasonic TC-P50U1, a high-end plasma TV, can rival its deep black performance.  Its excellent performance in both deep black and peak brightness performances gives it a very high actual contrast ratio of about 4605:1 enabling the TV to provide details from the darkest shadow to the brightest highlight in both movies and pictures.  Although based on its specs the rated contrast ratio is 7000000:1.  It is also equipped with a local dimming (called Smart LED) feature that can boost the contrast performance of the TV to about 6000000:1 or higher.

The rated viewing angle for this TV is about 178 degrees but this is far from the actual effective viewing angle.  When viewing the TV at an angle, typically, the details and color accuracy will start to degrade at a certain degrees of viewing the image – this is the TV’s effective viewing angle.  Beyond this angle, the TV’s picture quality will start to deplete.  For the Samsung UM46B8500 TV this effective viewing angle is at 39 degrees only.  When viewing movies and images beyond 39 degrees you may notice a slight loss in the vividness and color representation.  This is one aspect that this TV falls short in performance.

Audio output is thru the TV’s built-in speakers mounted at the right and left of the panel.  Audio output is in stereo mode.  The TV has an SRS TruSurround HD capability that adds depth to the stereo sound output giving it a surround sound effect.  Each speaker rates at 10 Watts.  There are controls for Balance, Bass and Treble.  The audio controls are relatively easy to navigate with its simple menu.

A wide array of connections is available for the Samsung UN46B8500 at rear of the panel in an inverted L-shaped orientation.  The TV has two USB, four HDMI, VGA (with accompanying 1/8-inch audio jack), component AV series (for HD videos), Analog audio out, Analog digital audio out, LAN (for internet connection) ports.  The USB ports can accommodate thumb drives and hard drives but don’t support iPods or iPhones.  If you are an avid iPhone/iPod user, you may want to check the Panasonic VIERA X1 Series TC-L26X1 that has an integrated iPod Entertainment kit.

The TV is ENERGY STAR qualified.  Operational power consumption is about 200 Watts and during stand by or sleep mode it only consumes about 0.09 Watts.  There are several power settings available in this TV to provide you control on the average power the TV consumes when in operation.  When the backlight setting is set to about 10, the TV consumes about 200 Watts.  At about five, it consumes 138.7 Watts of power, and at zero, it consumes about 76.4 Watts.  The package also comes with a tabletop stand that swivels.  Dimensions of the TV are 55.5 x 7.8 x 31.9 inches (W x D x H) and weighs 76.3 lbs.

There are few competitions in the category and price range of the Samsung UN46B8500.  One of them is the Panasonic TC-P50U1.  The Panasonic TV measures about 50-inches and is makes use of Plasma technology compared to LED-LCD by Samsung.  One main advantage of the Panasonic TV is its cost – at almost half the price of its Samsung counterpart.  The Panasonic TV with its Plasma technology can achieve deeper blacks than the Samsung TV.  Both support 1080p formats.  The Panasonic TV, however, doesn’t have an available internet connectivity option and only offers three HDMI ports compared to the Samsung’s four.  The Panasonic TV may hold the edge in terms of effective viewing angle with about 77 degrees compared to the Samsung’s 39 degrees.

Another TV in this category is the Sony KDL-52XBR9.  This 52-inch LCD TV is also a high end TV geared towards home theatre use.  Both are excellent TV with excellent deep black and peak brightness performances.  The Sony TV may hold the edge in color accuracy and in producing smoother motion pictures and images.  Connectivity options compare well with the Sony getting a small advantage of having an S-Video port while the Samsung TV doesn’t.  The Sony TV also holds the edge in internet connection use and user-friendliness.  The Sony TV has a more user-friendly interface and easier menu to navigate compared to the Samsung TV.  The Samsung’s internet menu has a tendency to be sluggish and unresponsive at times.  The Sony KDL-52XBR9 may seem to be a better choice than the Samsung UN46B8500 – and it costs about $1000 less too.

The Samsung UN46B8500 HDTV is definitely a high end TV packed with many features and fancy add-ons.  Its video performance is top notch.  Its multi media features, however, may fall short of many consumer expectations.  No doubt, it has an excellent color performance, great contrast ratio, average audio output and excellent deep black and peak brightness performance but the cost may be a little daunting to many consumers.  In addition, if you are looking for a larger HDTV to fill a large room you may want to check another 8500 series model – the UN55B8500.  It has the same features and performance as the UN46B8500 but with a huge 55-inch screen that will definitely attract your guest’s attention.

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