Monster By Day, Beauty By Night: Samsung F8500 Plasma
Review by AVS Forums (64” UK Version; PS64F8500)
Review by Cnet
Flat Panels HD
Review by HDTV Test UK (64” UK Version; PS64F8500)
Review by Rtings
Review by Sound & Vision (PN60F8500)
Review by Tom’s Hardware
The Samsung PN51F8500 is considered by TV reviewers to be one of the best plasma's ever made, and I agree, however, using the words spoken by Anthony Hopkins in the Wolfman from 2010 to remind readers that the past is a wilderness of horrors. The Wolfman is a monster at night, and can be beautiful in the day, especially in the case of Hugo Weaving:
The opposite is true of all plasma displays since they’re monsters by day and beautiful at night when no light is shining on them and making them look very washed out. The image used in the upcoming comparisons is from the PS4 game The Order 1886 released in 2014:
This photo was taken during the afternoon when there were no clouds in the sky which allowed the sun to shine unimpeded on the PN51F8500 which was calibrated with a SpectraCal C6 HDR2000 Colorimeter:
The next photo was taken with the window curtains closed less than a minute after the above photos:
The Samsung looks much better since less light is shining on it, however, it still looks very washed out compared to the bottom photo which was shot at night with the window curtains closed in a light-less room:
Samsung PN51F8500 TO 1886 Lights Off 15s
Now black looks inky and the image looks much more vibrant since no light is shining on it. For comparison, here is a photo of a calibrated HP 24 Envy which uses an LG AH-IPS panel with 1,000:1 contrast at night in a light-less room:
Lastly, here's a high quality TN panel in the BenQ Zowie RL2460: