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  • Introduction

  • Tour & Design

  • Blacks & Whites

  • Color Accuracy

  • Motion

  • Viewing Effects

  • Calibration

  • Remote Control

  • Connectivity

  • Audio & Menus

  • Formats & Media

  • Power Consumption

  • Vs Panasonic TC P50U1

  • Vs LG 47LH90

  • Vs Sony KDL 52XBR9

  • Conclusion

  • Series Comparison

  • Introduction
  • Tour & Design
  • Blacks & Whites
  • Color Accuracy
  • Motion
  • Viewing Effects
  • Calibration
  • Remote Control
  • Connectivity
  • Audio & Menus
  • Formats & Media
  • Power Consumption
  • Vs Panasonic TC P50U1
  • Vs LG 47LH90
  • Vs Sony KDL 52XBR9
  • Conclusion
  • Series Comparison

Introduction

Tour & Design

Front


The Samsung UN46B8500 is a TV designed to look good, and you're certainly paying for that privilege. It's incredibly thin, and the materials look and feel top quality. There are no buttons anywhere. On the front, down towards the bottom, is a touch-sensitive area for the power on/off function. While it makes for a smooth profile, we do need to complain that it collects fingerprints like crazy. If you plan on keeping the slick, ultramodern look, use the remote control instead.

There's also a glowing blue light at the base of the TV that blinks every time you hit a button on the remote. It's annoying, but it can be turned off through the menu.

Back

 


The back of the Samsung UN46B8500 is large and flat. On one side, you'll see the power cord sticking out. Unlike a lot of TVs, the power cord cannot be removed from the unit. On the other side is an L-shaped array of ports. To keep the profile smooth and flat, presumably, the ports are aligned to hug flat against the back. This way, cords come in at an angle rather than sticking rudely out like you see on most TVs. Does it make much of a difference? No, but it's an interesting design choice.

For information about the ports on the back of the Samsung UN46B8500 see our Connectivity section.

Sides

 


From the side view, you can see how incredibly thin the Samsung UN46B8500 is – only 1.6 inches. With so little real estate, there's no room for onboard controls like you see on most TVs. You'll have to rely entirely on the remote. There are also no ports on the side. Instead, they're all on the back. 

Stand/Mount

 


The base that comes with the Samsung UN46B8500 is quite heavy, and gives every indication that it can effectively support the weight of the TV. It's also a swivel base, which is quite useful, considering how narrow a viewing angle the TV has. 

 

Controls


There are no onboard controls on the Samsung UN46B8500 – it's too thin to actually fit them. 

 

Remote Control


The remote control is almost perfect. Unfortunately, it's marred by the poorly designed scroll wheel in the center. We talk about it in all its gory detail in the Remote Control section of the review.

 

In The Box*(9.0)*


The Samsung UN46B8500 ships with the remote control, an additional, mini remote control, a cleaning cloth, and several small, plastic doohickies to bundle stray cables. There's also the instruction manual and a CD-ROM that includes software for a PC for media playback. 

 

Aesthetics*(7.0)*


The Samsung UN46B8500 is a very good looking TV. It's incredibly thin and not marred by onboard buttons. However, the glossy surface is prone to collecting fingerprints.

Blacks & Whites

Black Level*(8.48)*


The Samsung UN46B8500 produced black levels of excellent depth, 0.08 cd/m2 to be exact. You can expect the shadow details in a film noir to be rendered in their full glory. Granted, the black level was not quite as impressive as the top-performing Sony KDL-52XBR9 and Panasonic TC-P50U1. Granted, the latter is a plasma TV and expected to produce deep blacks. Any LCD that can get this close to a plasma is impressive in its own right.

Let's talk about local dimming (or 'Smart LED' as Samsung calls it), because it has the biggest effect on your black levels. Our official test numbers are taken with local dimming off, because we turn all special processing features off. But you should be aware of how it performs. With local dimming on, the black levels can actually go all the way down to 0.02 cd/m2. That's exceptionally impressive. However, there's a big caveat with that number. To obtain our black level number, we're looking at a relatively large block of nothing but a black signal. Real movies and TV shots rarely have that much uninterrupted black.

There's a downside to local dimming on the UN46B8500, as well. When watching scenes with lots of blacks, like the 'subway tunnel' scene in Cloverfield, you lose noticeable amounts of detail in the shadows. 'Kind-of' black objects become all-black objects. It's a trade-off. However, there's an unexpected benefit to this black clipping – it removes a lot of the noise from shadowy areas, because the noise becomes as black as the backgrounds.

 

Peak Brightness*(9.03)*


The Samsung UN46B8500 produced a peak brightness of 368.37 cd/m2. This is bright enough for even Arctic documentaries, though it's not quite as bright as what the Sony KDL-52XBR9 and LG 47LH90.

We looked at peak brightness with the local dimming feature on, just for comparison. It measured 345.99 cd/m2, not quite as bright as with the feature turned off.

 

Contrast*(8.96)*


The contrast ratio produced by the Samsung UN46B8500, according to our lab tests, measured 4605:1. Despite not matching up with Samsung's (absurd) claim of 7,000,000:1, the tested contrast ratio is actually quite good. This, coupled with the smooth greyscale gamma curve, indicates that the UN46B8500 should be able to produce an excellent picture, all the way up from dark shadows to bright highlights.

We also looked at the contrast ratio with the local dimming feature on, because there's so much interest around this technology. There's a big, big caveat about this number before we give it to you, though. Our testing methodologies involves us obtaining the black level and peak brightness from relatively large patches of black and white. We don't know how big each locally-dimmed panel is, or how many there are, but it could be about the size of one of our test patches. Therefore, it's going to be more impressive in our testing than in real movies and TV shows, where there's a constantly changing landscape of finely differentiated shadows and highlights. So... with that warning, we can tell you that the contrast ratio with the local dimming on is a whopping 17,300:1. Damn.

 

 

Tunnel Contrast*(9.57)*


The tunnel contrast test examines how well a TV can maintain the same black levels, no matter how much of the screen area is at its brightest white. The chart below shows that the Samsung UN46B8500 was not able to produce perfectly even blacks, but it wasn't too bad. When there is more white on the screen, the blacks get brighter than they would if the whole screen was black. 

 

White Falloff*(9.98)*


This test is the opposite of the test above. We look at how well a TV can produce evenly bright whites no matter how much black is on the screen. Fortunately, theSamsung UN46B8500 did a better job here. The whites remained more or less perfectly even. 

 

Uniformity*(5.25)*


The Samsung UN46B8500, sadly, has very bad screen uniformity. What's that mean, you ask? It means that when looking an 'all black' screen, we were actually able to see whitish splotches all over the screen. The Samsung appeared to fail this test worst than most televisions. However, when we looked at an all-white screen, we did not see as many blemishes. Practically speaking, this means your shadow details may not be perfectly even. For normal TV viewing, which is composed of a variety of ever-changing tonal values, the defect did not seem to have much of an impact. 

 

Greyscale Gamma*(10.0)*


The greyscale gamma measures how smoothly the TV can produce the transition from the darkest black to the brightest white. The slope of the curve measures the evenness, and the exact shape of the curve indicates where the TV might have hiccups. As you can see from the graph below, the theSamsung UN46B8500's greyscale response is pretty smooth, though in everyday viewing you might see more detail in the mids-to-brights (right side of the curve), and less in the shadows (left side of the curve). The slope of the curve measured 2.14, which is perfectly within the ideal range of 2.1 to 2.2. Well done, Samsung.

 

Resolution Scaling*(6.73)*


The Samsung UN46B8500 is a 1080p native TV, but will frequently be called upon to display content in other formats. Because of this, we throw each TV that comes through our labs a few challenging test patterns and videos in alternate formats to see how they fare. 

480p

When attempting 480p content, the Samsung UN46B8500 lost about 2% of the vertical and 2% of the horizontal due to overscanning. Resolution was also affected, as the TV had a hard time maintaining appropriate sharpness for fine detail. There was also some noticeable Moire patterns for high-frequency patterns. 

720p

With 720p content (frequently the choice for sports programming through HD broadcast), the Samsung UN46B8500 lost only 1% of the vertical and horizontal to overscanning, so it was better than 480p content in that regard. There was also fewer Moire issues for high-frequency patterns. 

1080i

The 1080i content created no overscan problems for the Samsung UN46B8500, thankfully. Resolution was also strong. 

 

Color Accuracy

Color Temperature*(9.35)*


This test measures how well the TV can maintain a consistent color temperature, regardless of how intense the source signal gets. In the best of cases, you'll see a chart like the one below. The picture gets a little warm or a little cool, but it rarely strays into the range of 'perceptible' to humans. Only at the end, in the very brightest signal, does the temperature spike.

 

RGB Curves*(8.07)*


This test looks at how well the TV can produce every shade of green, then red, then blue. What we're looking for here is a smooth curve, Every little stair-step is an instance where, in real life, you could expect to see color banding. And that flat bit at the top on the right-most edge... that's the Samsung UN46B8500 peaking out, unable to produce detail in the very brightest values.

Overall, this is a very good performance and a high score, compared to the top performers from other manufacturers.

The color strips below are digital recreations of how the televisions performed when required to produce the entire range of the red channel, green channel, and blue channel. What you want to look for here is evenness and enough detail in the shadows. Clearly, none of these TVs match the ideal response, but theSamsung UN46B8500 stacks up very well.

 

 

 

Color Gamut*(4.22)*


The Samsung UN46B8500's performance was matched up a popular color standard called rec. 709. As you can see from the chart below, the TV could match up to the red point of the triangle, but the green and blue were noticeably off. Also, the white point (circle in the center), leaned towards the greens. 

The chart below gives the techy details of the performance.

 

 

Motion

Motion Smoothness*(6.25)*


The Samsung UN46B8500 produced a pleasantly smooth image in our testing. As with most high-end TVs, there are a number of features included that 'help' the motion performance. Our experience is that these actually hurt the image more frequently. With the Samsung UN46B8500 specifically, there are options for a feature called Auto Pro Motion 240Hz. As we feared, it did little to improve, so we left it off for the purposes of testing.

Motion Artifacting*(5.25)*


The Samsung UN46B8500 was not entirely without motion artifacting, we're sorry to say. We saw definite instances of jaggies and distortion of objects as they pass quickly across the screen. Also, we saw that in some instances, greyscale images could produce false colors if they were in motion. 

 

3:2 Pulldown & 24fps*(9.0)*


The Samsung UN46B8500 had no problem with 3:2 pulldown and playing back native 24fps footage. In order to try and smooth out the motion in these instances, we found that altering the Film Mode feature from 'Auto2' to 'Auto1' had a small improvement. 

 

Viewing Effects

Viewing Angle*(2.48)*


The viewing angle of the Samsung UN46B8500 is quite narrow, only 37 degrees. If you're trying to buy a TV for a wide room, this is not the best choice. Granted, most LCD televisions are not great performers when it comes to viewing angle, while plasmas exceed (see the Panasonic TC-P50U1 below for proof), but the UN46B8500 is the weakest in this bunch of comparisons. 

 

Reflectance*(4.0)*


The Samsung UN46B8500, sadly, has a highly reflective screen. If you happen to be watching a dark scene, and there's a bright light shining on you, it's possible to see every detail of your clothing. It's uncannily like a mirror. There's also a problem if a light is pointing towards the screen. Like most TVs, the Samsung attempts to divert the reflection. As a result, long trails shoot off from the center of the reflection point in perfect, geometric patterns. In short... it's distracting.

If the show or movie you're watching happens to be brighter, this will not be as much of a problem. If you're watching a show in all white (like a polar bear documentary) you may never even notice the reflection problems. But that seems unlikely to us. 

 

Video Processing*(8.0)*


There are a boatload of special processing features on the Samsung UN46B8500. A few are useful, while others make the picture look terrible. If in doubt, leave a feature off. The TV's performance is quite good all on its own.

 

 

Calibration

Calibration


[

](http://www.displaymate.com/)We began calibration by putting the Samsung UN46B8500 in Movie mode, then using DisplayMate software and a colorimeter to make adjustments from there. 

 

Video Modes


There are four video modes on the Samsung UN46B8500 that have drastic effects on how the image appears. 

 

 

Remote Control

Ergonomics & Durability*(7.0)*


The remote control for the Samsung UN46B8500 is mostly good, save for one bad feature. Let's explore it. To begin with, it's a large remote control, measuring nearly 10 inches long. As we've seen with other Samsung remotes, there's a weird, skinny dovetail at the base that adds nothing to ergonomics or functionality. But it doesn't hurt, either.

The buttons on the remote are backlit. To make it even more convenient, there's a motion sensor that auto-illuminates the buttons when your hand is groping to find the remote. After a few seconds, the lights dim. It's a great feature that adds to the premium feel of the television.

The problem with the remote is the big scroll wheel in the center. A scroll wheel, by definition, is not a bad thing, but this is quite poorly designed. First of all, the wheel has almost no friction when it spins, so you have no tactile feedback that indicates how far you have to spin it to get an effect. It's easy to undershoot or overshoot your selection. In addition to spinning, the area is also supposed to double as a 4-directional touch pad (in other words, up, down, left, right – like a Nintendo pad). But the wheel spins so freely, you sometimes attempt to push 'left,' only to have the wheel spin around underneath you.

 

Button Layout & Use*(5.5)*


All the other buttons on the remote control are great. We like Samsung's design approach, generally. The volume and channel up/down buttons are easy to reach and distinguish without looking. The Menu button is clearly marked and easy to find. The wheel/directional pad, discussed above, may function poorly, but at least it's well-placed in the overall layout.

 

Programming & Flexibility*(1.0)*


The remote control cannot be programmed for universal compatibility. However, you can use it to control other Samsung devices that are connected via the proprietary Anynet+ network.

 

Connectivity

**

Input Ports***(4.0)*


The Samsung UN46B8500 has a surprisingly few number of ports, considering how large and expensive it is. There are two factors that may explain this. First, the UN46B8500 is very, very thin, which leaves less room for connection points. The second is more of a supposition, but we think it's possible that people in the target market have already converted their lives to digital, and do not have need for many analog ports.

All the ports on the Samsung UN46B8500 are arranged in an L-shape on the back of the unit. But rather than sticking straight into the back, the ports are aligned to sit flat against the surface. It's a little weird, and the cables end up poking out in the same way they would have on any other TV.

Input ports include: 4 HDMI and a VGA with an accompanying 1/8' audio jack. Then there's the component AV series of ports (for HD video), which doubles as the composite AV (for standard def). That's right, you don't even get a dedicated set of component and composite. Samsung assumes that most of the incoming signals are HDMI. You're either living at the state of the art, or you're out of luck.

The USB, LAN, and output ports are discussed below and in the Streaming Playback section.

 

Output Ports*(2.0)*


The Samsung UN46B8500 has two output ports, an analog audio out and a digital audio out. Both are located along with all the other ports on the back. 

 

Other Connections*(4.0)*


In addition to the standard AV-type of ports, the Samsung UN46B8500 has a LAN port for internet connectivity. This opens up a whole new world of content acquisition, which we talk about in more detail in the Streaming Playback section of this review. It also offers the ability to connect to a home network through the DLNA support.

 

Media*(2.0)*


The Samsung UN46B8500 has not one, but two USB ports. Such a wealth of connectivity? Seriously, you may be asking why you need two USB ports. Well, it's simple. You can leave a hard drive plugged into one port, and plug thumb drive into the other. You cannot, however, connect iPods, iPhones, or Zunes.

 

Placement*(6.5)*


The placement of the ports is good, but not great. The Samsung UN46B8500 is on a swivel base, but not one that swivels too widely. Without too much work, you can see the ports that run along the vertical axis, but the ports that run along the horizontal axis on the bottom are tough to reach and the labels are harder to read. 

 

Audio & Menus

**

Audio Quality***(6.5)*


The Samsung UN46B8500 offers surprisingly good audio performance, considering how low we've discovered the bar really is. When we began reviewing TVs, we frequently asked ourselves how well any given TV compared to a true surround sound system. In truth, we now find ourselves asking more frequently if a TV's performance matches that of a little pair of battery-powered speakers that plug into your iPod for the beach.

While the Samsung UN46B8500's bass response can never match that of a real subwoofer, and ends up sounding a little muffled. But it's not nearly as bad as what we've seen from some TVs. We were even more impressed with the Samsung's attempts at surround sound processing. Many lower-end TVs do a real hatchet job with this feature, but the UN46B8500's sounded genuinely 'surrounding.' Well done, Samsung.  

 

Menu Interface*(8.0)*


The Samsung UN46B8500 is a big TV, with a big array of features. That means lots of menus, and not all of them can be great. Let's break it down and see what works and what doesn't. 

For the relatively straightforward exercise of simply watching TVs and movies, the menus on the Samsung are simple and straightforward. It's an aesthetically pleasing and well laid out list of menus and submenus, and it's always easy to find your way back to the start.

The problems with menu navigation can occur once you start getting deeper into the multimedia and online content. These systems were clearly designed by other engineers, because it lacks consistency. It was particularly confusing when we explored the pre-loaded content libraries, where there was no regularity between button functions, navigation, or even the volume.

Once again, the ugly issue of the scroll wheel on the remote control rears its head. There's no consistency between when you can and cannot use the wheel. Sometimes it does what you want, sometimes is does something unexpected, and frequently is does nothing.

 

Manual*(7.0)*


The instruction manual for the Samsung UN46B8500 is pretty good, but it could have been better. At the very least, there's a decent table of contents, and the manual does a cursory job of explaining most of the features. However, it lacks an alphabetical index at the back, and that just burns us up. You pay a lot of money for this TV, it has a lot of features, and there's no fast, simple way to learn how they work. That's just lazy product support, in our book. Try harder, Samsung.

You can find the Samsung UN46B8500's manual online here.

 

 

Formats & Media

Formats*(10.0)*


The Samsung UN46B8500 is a native 1080p television, the highest and best possible format for HDTV. It has no trouble playing 480p, 720p, and 1080i content, as well. 

 

Photo Playback*(7.0)*


The Samsung UN46B8500 can play back photos via the two USB ports, able to interface with thumb drives or hard drives. There are plenty of features to control the slideshow, including the transition speeds and styles, as well as customizing music files for the soundtrack. 

 

Music & Video Playback*(6.0)*


The Samsung UN46B8500 can play back music and videos via the USB ports, and can play them from thumb drives or hard drives. Unfortunately, it can't read music files from iPods or Zunes. The interface with the on-screen menus is not too bad, and certainly not as bad as the Internet widgets, which we eviscerate in the next section of the review.

 

Streaming Playback*(4.0)*


We only have one question to ask Samsung about its internet features on the UN46B8500: 'Why did you bother?' The internet capabilities are clearly something the company is pushing hard on this unit, and as far as we can tell, the experience is so overwhelmingly frustrating, it would be better had the features never been born.

It's hard to know where to begin, because there are so many features loaded on the UN46B8500, and hardly any of them are worth a damn. Let's go through them one by one.

First, there's a section called Content Library, accessed by the Content button on the remote control. Here, you'll find a collection of categories: Gallery, Cooking, Game, Children, Wellness, and Others. The actual contents of these categories are poorly conceived 'multimedia' items like recipes that require tedious clicking from one screen to the next, and abysmal games that belong on cheap cell phones, not a $3000+ TV. You can go online and add more content to these categories, but only those items that Samsung has approved.The only feature we liked here is the art gallery, though the playback controls are a complete guessing game.

The major feature is called Media Play, accessed by the Media.P button on the remote control. There are three categories of media here: Photo, Music, and Movie. None of these categories have any content in them when you buy the TV. But when you plug a compatible device into the USB ports, this is how you access them here. USB thumb drives are fine, but iPods and Zunes don't read, so there goes 95% of the media players in the world. However, the TV is able to handle any hard drive you plug in, provided it's in the FAT16, FAT32, or NTFS format. Thankfully, the interface is not quite as bad or sluggish as other features on the TV.

The third and worst feature is the Internet@TV content, which consists of a series of widgets. There's no browser, so Samsung's claim that the 'world wide web just got wider' is actually the opposite of true. You will not have access to the vast majority of the web's content – only that which works in accordance with the widgets. The overall interface with the Internet@TV is painfully, cruelly, and intolerably slow. In some cases (this is not an exaggeration), I could have left the office and purchased a newspaper outside faster than the time it took for me to turn on the TV, scroll through the ridiculously laggy menus, and update the contents from the Yahoo News widget. Don't bother!

Finally, the Samsung UN46B8500 has the ability to connect with a local network through DLNA (Digital Living Network Alliance) support. There instructions for setting up the network are included in the manual, and there's a program on a CD-ROM that comes with the TV (PC only, sorry Mac users). If you don't like the included software, there are dozens of applications online that can do the job.

**

Other Media***(0.0)*


There is no other media.

 

Power Consumption

Power Consumption*(8.65)*


The Samsung UN46B8500 is expected to cost around $27.09 a year in power consumption. This is about average compared to other TVs in this price/size class. You have the ability to reduce the power consumption by lowering the backlight, something most LCD televisions offer. The table below details how much power was drawn at different backlight levels. 

 

Vs Panasonic TC P50U1

Value Comparison Summary


The Panasonic TC-P50U1 is a plasma TV with a big screen, a great viewing angle, and capable of deep, deep black levels. However, there were weaknesses in the performance, particularly the contrast ratio. Due to the DLNA support, LAN connections, and multiple USB ports, the Samsung is a better for for high-end home theaters.

Blacks & Whites


The Panasonic TC-P50U1 was not able to produce sufficiently bright whites, which hurt its contrast ratio. The black levels were impressively dark, but it's not likely to give the same grand contrast ratio as the Samsung UN46B8500.

 

Color Accuracy


Both the Panasonic TC-P50U1 and the Samsung UN46B8500 offer excellent color temperature consistency, regardless of the signal intensity. By contrast, neither TV was matched up all that well to the rec. 709 color standard. 

 

 

 

Motion


The Samsung UN46B8500 and Panasonic TC-P50U1 are pretty evenly matched when it comes to motion performance.

 

Viewing Effects


The Panasonic TC-P50U1, as a plasma TV, completely blew away the competition with its viewing angle. It maintains better than 50% of its contrast as wide as 77 degrees from center. Compare that to the Samsung UN46B8500, which reached the same threshold at only 19 degrees. 

 

Connectivity


The Panasonic TC-P50U1 has a lot of ports, far more than the Samsung UN46B8500. It's a bit strange that such a high-end TV as the Samsung has so few ports, but all the necessary holes are there. The Samsung, however, has a LAN port for internet connectivity. 

 

Other Comparisons


The Samsung UN46B8500 has a lot of bonus features, including all the internet and extra digital content add-ons. These unquestionably drive up the price. However, you may never end up using these features if you're limiting yourself to normal TV and movie watching. Consider that before you spend all the extra money on the Samsung.

Vs LG 47LH90

Value Comparison Summary


The LG 47LH90 is much less expensive than the Samsung UN46B8500. Much of the performance couldn't quite match the Samsung's, mostly because the processing engine on the Samsung is so good. The additional cost can be accounted for by the Samsung's slender profile, internet connections, and high number of multimedia ports. As we said elsewhere in the review, the internet features on the Samsung are pretty bad, but the overall viewing experience on the Samsung is better. 

Blacks & Whites


The LG 47LH90 had no problem producing bright whites, but it could not match the great black level performance of the Samsung UN46B8500. Because the Samsung's black level was so low, it ended up garnering a great contrast ratio, far better than the LG.

 

Color Accuracy


In our battery of color tests, we found the Samsung UN46B8500 to be pretty evenly matched with the LG 47LH90. It maintained a more consistent color temperature than the LG. The RGB color curves were more or less the same, and the LG had a slight lead in matching up to the rec. 709 color standard.

 

 

 

Motion


The LG 47LH90 offers better motion performance than the Samsung.

Viewing Effects


Neither the Samsung UN46B8500 or the LG 47LH90 performed very well in the viewing angle test. The LG's was a little wider, though, at 23 degrees. 

Connectivity


The LG 47LH90 has more ports than the Samsung UN46B8500, especially for analog signals. The Samsung is better geared for an ultra-modern home theater system, where most of the connections are digital. The Samsung also includes all the internet connectivity, though it's quite bad. 

Other Comparisons


The Samsung UN46B8500 has a slew of multimedia and Internet features, which the LG lacks. Some of the Samsung's features are pretty cool, but others are terrible, so you have to ask yourself if the steep buy-in is worth it. 

Vs Sony KDL 52XBR9

Value Comparison Summary


The Sony KDL-52XBR9 is a very good television – excellent performance, outstanding online content, and all the right ports for home theater connection. It's also cheaper than the Samsung. For its part, the Samsung is thinner than the Sony, and has two USB ports if you really need to jam in the thumb drives and hard drives. Fundamentally, though, the Sony is probably the better buy.

Blacks & Whites


The Sony KDL-52XBR9 is a tough TV to beat when it comes to black & white performance. The TV offers an incredible contrast ratio, due to impressively deep blacks and bright whites. The Samsung UN46B8500 is a good performer, in its own right, but nothing can stand up to the Sony.

 

Color Accuracy


The color performance between the Sony KDL-52XBR9 and the Samsung UN46B8500 is evenly matched. Both TVs managed to produce consistent color temperatures, smooth color curves, and matched up in similar ways to the rec. 7090 color standard. 

 

 

 

Motion


The Sony KDL-52XBR9 produced better, smoother motion than the Samsung.

 

Viewing Effects


The viewing angle on the Samsung UN46B8500 is pretty bad, and therefore not difficult to beat. The Sony's viewing angle measured 22.23 degrees, compared to 18.59 degrees on the Samsung.

 

Connectivity


The Sony KDL-52XBR9 offers more ports than the Samsung, which may or may not be important to your home theater setup. Both TVs have LAN ports, and excel at online content, which we discuss below. 

 

Other Comparisons


It comes down to the multimedia features between the Samsung UN46B8500 and the Sony KDL-52XBR9. You might think that both TVs access the 'same internet,' but the gawky interface and strictly controlled content in no way mirror the way you would interface with a regular computer and browser. That said, the Samsung's interface is particular terrible due to incredibly sluggish menus and maddening scroll wheel on the remote control. Sony wins this round.

Conclusion

 

 

 

 

Series Comparison

UNxxB8500 Series


Both TVs in this series are LED-backlit LCD televisions, measuring only 1.6 inches thick. Both include the bundle of Yahoo and other Internet widgets, which we found to be forgettable, at best. However, both are extremely well-equipped for a high-end home theater system.

Meet the tester

David Kender

David Kender

Editor in Chief

@davekender

David Kender oversees content at Reviewed as the Editor in Chief. He served as managing editor and editor in chief of Reviewed's ancestor, CamcorderInfo.com, helping to grow the company from a tiny staff to one of the most influential online review resources. In his time at Reviewed, David has helped to launch over 100 product categories and written too many articles to count.

See all of David Kender's reviews

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