Samsung FP-T5084 Plasma HDTV Review

A closer, more personal inspection of the Samsung FP-T5084 Plasma TV reveals that it's a product that boasts good performance and notable features at a very reasonable price.

With rich colors and crisp display of details, this plasma TV could be considered a very good bargain at $2400. Housed in a sleek cabinet, the 50-inch TV set has made its way to the Best Buy section of its category.

Skin tones and other natural colors appear very realistic especially in high-definition images or scenes in programs like The George Lopez Show. Vivid tones and details are excellently displayed in animated films like the Corpse Bride. Baseball games in standard-definition mode make the oranges and greens appear more saturated giving way to a above-average score for the FP-T5084. The test also reveals that this TV is able to display fine details in dark areas. Images too, show very little hint of pixels, which is very good.

The on-screen display (OSD) shows the controls for the color temperature for easy management of display settings. This showcases a White Balance section that includes adjustable settings like RGB gain and offset controls. There is also a menu to set pink, green, blue and white separately via the My Color Control mode.

Samsung's Digital Natural Image engine (DNIe), which comes with the FP-T5084 make images sharper and more vivid with add-ons like noise reduction, color enhancement and motion processing features. When enabled, DNIe really made the picture look sharper and brighter, although it became a bit more unnatural. When enabled, the DNIe is good in a way but the TV's Standard and Movie mode presets still make viewing with the FP-T5084 more natural and thus more preferable.

When it comes to the rear-side connectors, Samsung implements them in a sleek and convenient design. They added two composites, S video hookups and video input connections. There are also three HDMI hookups which are perfect for gamers as it means less time of having to remove cords to attach game cords for select consoles.

The remote control is easy to use and designed to look like the remotes of other electronics such as a DVD player, so you may already be familiar with the layout. While the remote is easy to hold and comfortable, some of the buttons are cluttered too closely together and this can cause you to press the wrong control on many occassions. Other buttons are smaller than some consumers can bare and they may be too hard to see.

The FP-T5084 has a great menu system and placed near the bottom, it is easy to access. However, its small size may confuse some users until they adjust to its placement. Using a variety of color options such as cool and warm, you can easily set the colors to the adjustments that are best for your eyes and home.

This Samsung plasma TV also has a long list of great features that will allow you to get the picture just right. The gamma system uses a 7 code selection, while the black colors have just 3. You can also adjust the colors using the color control but amateurs may want to avoid using this option.

Although not fully featured and not state-of-the-art, the Samsung FP-T5084 is the HDTV set that has proven its quality in performance and has furthermore gained points with its inexpensive price tag.