Samsung LN-S4096D

With a nice picture quality and an attractive exterior, the Samsung LN-S4096D is beautiful on the inside and the outside. It comes in a slick black frame with speakers expertly masked at the bottom of the screen.

The Samsung’s command center is an unassuming black remote control with universal abilities. However, the remote does lack backlighting, which makes it difficult to use in low light settings. The menu options, while somewhat slow are easy to use. It features a handy indexing feature, which displays all menu choices on one screen so they are easy to lookup.

With an overabundance of connections, the unit has a port for almost any gadget. Included in this mix is a CableCard slot, which allows the user to do away with an extra black box in their entertainment center. The unit also boasts two HDMI inputs, two component-video inputs and a PC port. In addition, the Samsung features an ATSC tuner and a USB port to view photos or play MP3 files on the screen.

While many plasma televisions have trouble showing depth in black footage, the Samsung did not have any problems. However, the set did have inconsistent grayscale tracking and tended to show some green tones, but the colors temperatures were reasonably true. The picture quality can be adjusted with one of four pre-set modes or a custom setting. Additionally, when viewing the television from a side angle, the colors and clarity still remain accurate, a trait that is not true in many plasma televisions.

Samsung has a winner on its hands in the LN-S4096D, with a streamlined appearance, excellent picture and suburb bundle of extra features.