Samsung PN59D7000

Samsung PN59D7000

Earlier this year we called Samsung's most-expensive plasma TV, the PND8000 series, the "Best overall TV of 2011 (so far)." Now that we've tested its less expensive brother, the PND7000 series reviewed here, that designation isn't as certain. Sure the PND8000 has a few extra features, chiefly a QWERTY keyboard remote and Web browser, but the two have basically the same picture quality: outstanding, second among this year's TVs only to Panasonic's much more expensive TC-PVT30 series, and better overall than the Panasonic GT30 and ST30 models. If you're in the market for a high-performance plasma TV and want the best blend of picture quality and value, the Samsung PND7000 is our new go-to recommendation. We performed a hands-on evaluation of the 59-inch Samsung PN59D7000, but this review also applies to the other screen sizes in the series. All sizes have identical specs and according to the manufacturer should provide very similar picture quality. That said, we've heard reports that the smaller 51-inch model may have worse black-level performance than the size we tested, although we won't know for sure until we can evaluate one ourselves.