The Samsung PN58B860 is Samsung’s flagship Plasma HDTV model. Although its picture quality is not as impressive as the Panasonic TC-P58V10, it is still an excellent HDTV with many great features, proving that Plasmas are still in the race.

Design. The design of the Samsung PN58B860 alone is something to be liked. Contrary to the belief that LCD HDTVs are thinner than Plasmas, the PN58B860 is just as slim as its LED-lit counterparts, measuring only 1.2 inches thick at its deepest point. It sports a sleek, glossy black frame without the reddish Touch of Color many Samsung HDTVs come with, making it suitable for anyone’s taste and has a thin transparent edge that lends it the right touch of sophistication. Its matching stand swivels from side to side.

Picture. Are you looking for an HDTV that offers inky blacks, accurate colors, minimum reflections and sharp detail? Look no further. The PN58B860 offers all these. Indeed, its black levels and color accuracy are among its strong points, resulting in popping images, while its Ultra FilterBright Plus screen is as glare-free as can be, so you won’t get distracted from your viewing pleasure even in very bright environments.

Processing. Refresh rate is not so much an important feature when considering a Plasma model since Plasmas don’t have any problem with blurring or motion resolution. If you’re curious, though, you’ll be glad to know the PN58B860 is equipped with a 100Hz MotionPlus dejudder processor and a 600Hz subfield drive.

Interactive Suite. As a flagship model, the PN58B860 is quite expensive and to help justify its price, it is packed with a lot of interactive features. These include Yahoo widgets for news headlines, weather reports and stock market updates, as well as those for Yahoo videos, sports scores and select online games. There are also widgets for Twitter and Flickr, and access to free videos on YouTube, although access to Amazon Video on Demand would have been even better. The PN58B860 is also DLNA compliant which means you can access media files like movie clips, songs and pictures on your networked computers, plus it comes with the built-in content library found in many Samsung HDTV models.

Picture Tweaks. If the initial picture quality is not good enough to meet your standards, go ahead and head to the on-screen menu, which is still the easiest to navigate because of its neat lay-out and helpful explanatory text. You will find four adjustable picture modes to choose from, all independent per input, five color temperature presets and four aspect ratio selections among others.

Power Consumption. The Samsung PN58B860 also comes with an Eco Mode, in which the light output is slightly lower than the other picture modes for less power consumption. There are also three power-saving modes to keep this Samsung HDTV energy efficient, though not enough to rival LCD sets, particularly those which use LEDs.

Connections. The connectivity suite of the Samsung PN58B860 can be either impressive or lacking depending on the kind of devices you wish to connect to it. If your devices are mostly digital, you will be impressed by the four HDMI inputs - you won’t have a hard time finding them since they are all side by side. There’s a PC input and a component video connection, too. If your devices are mostly analog, though, you will have to buy a switch since the options are limited or better yet, switch to digital devices to make use of the superb video and audio quality of your HDTV. Two USB ports are also provided.

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