The well-designed main menu gets a blue color palette.
Samsung used the same menu system as last year and we still think it's one of the best in the business. Big, highly legible text is set against transparent backgrounds that occupy almost the whole screen. Getting around is easy and there's helpful explanatory text along the bottom to describe the different selections.
The remote control is similar to last year too, aside from a sort of fin added to the back that keeps it stable on a flat surface, and we're definitely fans. The buttons are big, backlit, and easily differentiated by size and shape, and we liked the dedicated "Tools" key that offers quick access to picture and sound modes, the sleep timer, and the picture-in-picture controls. However, we didn't like the remote's glossy black finish that picked up more than its share of dulling fingerprints after a few minutes.
Features
The PNB850/850 series has the numerous features we'd expect in a flagship plasma. Samsung and Panasonic share many spec sheet bullet points, including "600Hz" panels that are said to improve motion resolution/reduce blur. The best thing we can say about this feature is to ignore it; the number was created in response to the 120Hz and 240Hz refresh rates of LCDs. Plasma technology is inherently less subject to blurring than LCD, and in any case it's really hard to see any difference with real material.
Like Panasonic, Samsung can also properly deal with 1080p/24 sources. The main difference between the PNB850 series and the PNB860 series concerns the options available with those sources. On the B860 models, there's a Cinema Smooth option in the Film Mode menu that let you manually turn on or off the 96Hz refresh rate that allows proper display of 24p signals (however, it does not introduce dejudder processing). The B850 models lack that manual setting and simply switch automatically to the proper 96Hz refresh rate when you input a 24p signal. See performance for more details.
Yahoo Widgets appear along the bottom of the screen.
Samsung's main interactive capability is supplied by Yahoo! widgets. The system gathers Internet-powered information nodules, called "snippets," into a bar along the bottom of the screen. The model we reviewed came with widgets for stocks, weather, news, and Flickr photos, plus YouTube,
Yahoo video, sports scores, games and, Twitter--and more are sure to appear in the near future. For more information, check out our full review of Yahoo widgets. That review is based on our experiences with a Samsung UN46B7000, and our impressions of the system on the PNB850/860 are mostly the same, including its relatively sluggish response time. Mainly for that reason, we still prefer VieraCast to Yahoo Widgets.
Other interactive features on this set abound. Unlike the Panasonic, it can stream videos, photos, and music from DLNA-certified devices via the network connection, as well from its USB ports--that can connect to MP3 players, USB thumbdrives, and digital cameras (we didn't test this capability). There's also built-in "content," such as recipes, games, workout guides, and a slide show of high-definition art and photos with music. We went into depth discussing the underwhelming content features last year, which are similar this time around, so if you're interested check out the Interactive section of the 2008 Samsung LN46A750 review.
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