Customer Reviews

Samsung LN52A650 52-Inch 1080p 120 Hz LCD HDTV with Red Touch of Color

5 star:		(871)
4 star:		(90)
3 star:		(18)
2 star:		(23)
1 star:		(35)

 

 

When I purchased this TV from Amazon.com I had already decided on this Samsung 52" series and was trying to decide between the 650 and the 750. At the time there was a small price difference between the two on Amazon.com. I ended up choosing the 650 because I was placing the TV inside a nook that had limited space.

The 650 has a less bulky frame around the LCD screen and therefore it was only 50.2 inches wide as compared to the 750 which is 52" wide. Both screens have the exact same visual display area. Beyond trying to accommodate my limited space, I felt that the smaller frame looked nicer on the TV than the larger frame.

The other reason I chose the 650 is that it can swivel on the base, whereas the 750 is fixed on its base. Because I have placed the TV in a nook, this swivel feature has come in very handy as I have had to get behind it from time to time to plug in cords, etc.

I have read a lot about screen reflection and was bracing myself for a potentially unpleasant experience during daytime viewing, especially since the room the TV is in has windows all the way across two walls and is full of sunlight daily. I'm happy to report that screen reflection is absolutely no problem. The TV that I was replacing with the Samsung LCD was an older 32" Panasonic Panablack analog TV with the glass screen, which had a lot of reflection. As a point of reference, the Samsung has about 20% of the screen reflection of my old TV (judging from when the TV is off). When the TV is on, the Samsung has about 5% of screen reflection compared with what I used to have with my old TV, which may be due to the incredible brightness of the display.

I spent a number of months on this decision and I feel like I hit a home run with this purchase. Samsung has certainly exceeded my expectations with this model and I have been very satisfied with my first experience of buying a TV online from Amazon.com.

DEC 20, 2008 UPDATE: I've now owned the TV for more than 6 months. No regrets. The TV has survived well in a family with 5 kids under age 10. It's taken some direct hits to the screen with toys thrown by a 2-year-old but any marks on the screen easily rubbed off. It still looks just like the day I first got it and runs perfectly. I'm very happy with this purchase.

JUNE 7, 2009 UPDATE: Still going strong after 1 year. Absolutely no problems with the TV. Best purchase I ever made. Everyone who has seen it can hardly believe the picture quality. I get positive comments all the time.

I've had this TV since very early March. I've watched HD, SD and Blu-Ray and can not find a flaw. The 650 handles motion extremely well to where blurring and other artifacts are vitually non-existant. The AMP is a very cool feature that brings a realism to film making it seem more life-like, or as if it were originally shot on HD Video. Some have said this gives off a "soap opera" effect. I can see that description, but to me it makes film based DVD's and movies look more like your watching a real-life play, viewing it through a window. It's a very cool effect!

I understand people's concern's with the glossy screens found on plasma and some LCD's. This screen is slightly less reflective than Samsung's 71 series but can still be a problem for some. It would be nice if there was an easy solution for this but there's not. Sony and other makers use a matte type of screen that certainly helps or eliminates the problem but introduces other negatives. I find colors and blacks just don't "pop" on matte screens and tend to wash out more for off-angle viewing. The 650 has a picture with great depth and color from any angle, greatly adding to the immersion effect.

Much talk has been about the TOC bezel. I think Samsung has hit it out of the park with this. I absolutely love the red. I think it adds just a touch of class. It sets this tv apart from all others(though the picture quality already does this) while still being very subtle and retaining the ability to blend in with any decor. Most people who've come to my home do not even notice the red until I point it out. I'm a little tired of every set looking the same with either a piano black bezel or flat black. This is a very welcome change.

I like many other suffered the shut-off issue. As has been mentioned it appears Samsung has fixed the issue with a firmware update. I've updated the FW and so far so good. It was annoying but not a huge deal to me. Samsung should be commended for how quickly they addressed the issue. I received several calls from upper level officials that were very concerned with my problem. I've never had this level of service from any other manufacturer. Well done Samsung! A side effect of the FW update is that the AMP processing received a boost. Before the FW update I usually had AMP on low at all times and would occasionally put it on High. Now, I still use it at the low setting most times but will put it on Medium occasionaly, and find the High setting a bit much for me. I can put it on High without most of the annoying artifacts people have desribed the 71 series has, which is nice, nut the actual effect is bit much for me.

Overall, this is best the LCD on the market. I can't see Sony or any of the other manufactures making a better TV this year. They may match it perhaps, but certainly won't surpass it. For those that were on the fence waiting to buy until the shut-off issue was fixed, your wait is over. Buy with complete confidence and enjoy one of the best TV's out there!

I've been doing the research and visiting the brick and mortar locations and I've concluded the Samsung features are the best on the market currently. I've been concerned about the auto shut-off problem I've been reading. I called Samsung Customer Support and was told it is not an issue but they didn't mention the firmware update which is indeed posted on their Web site today. Go to the Samsung Web site and look under "SUPPORT/NEWS & ALERTS" - A650 Series LCD TV Auto Off Firmware Update. A small number of Samsung A650 series LCD TVs turn off automatically. The following models are affected:

* LN40A650A1F
* LN46A650A1F
* LN52A650A1F

Samsung has released a firmware update that fixes the problem. If you have one of these models, Samsung recommends that you install this firmware update on your TV, even if you are not experiencing the auto off problem. If you have a USB memory drive, you can download the firmware from our website. For complete instructions on downloading and installing the firmware update, go to [...]. If you do not have a USB memory drive, Samsung can send you a drive containing the firmware. To have a copy of the firmware sent to you, call Samsung Customer Care at 1-800-Samsung (1-800-726-7864). Have your model and serial numbers on hand when you call.

After 3 weeks of gruelling research, I shortlisted Samsung LN52A650, Panasonic Th-50PZ800U and the Sony XBR series. After watching them all side by side, I dropped Sony off the list as it is simply not worth the price & it wasn't as bright as the other two. And since I had owned a Panasonic EDTV for last 4 years, I was ready to test waters with an LCD TV. After watching the picture quality of the Samsung 6 series, I was blown away. I can confirm to you that this unit offers the best picture quality in LCD, bar none. Also, it comes really close to the Pioneer Kuro in black levels.

A few basics. I have used all HDMI 1.3 connections. I have an Onkyo TX-SR705 A/V receiver which is great.

HD Content from DirecTV with DVR - Watching HD content from DirecTV is pure pleasure to eyes. Eventhough I am sitting just 7-8 feet from this huge TV, I see breathtaking picture quality that I did not notice in any other HDTVs.

Blu-Ray on PS3 - I downloaded a few HD trailers from Sonystoreonline using my PS3 and also watched Spider-Man3 on Blu-Ray. This was simply spectacular.

Non-HD content - I am quite disappointed with the quality of picture with non-HD content on this TV. My old Panasonic plasma did a much better job at this. My only hope is that most channels would make the switch to HD in the coming years.

120 Hz experience - May be its me but I couldn't see a visible difference between keeping this feature on versus off.

6 series versus 7 series - The extra pre-loaded content and a better integrated speaker weren't worth $400 premium for the 7 series. I would suggest you stick to the 6 series. But watch out the amazon price fluctuations, you shouldn't be paying more than $2270 for the 6 series.


White Glove Delivery - The CEVA shipping took about 7 business days and I had to be proactively calling them to schedule the delivery and track shipments. A lone fellow showed up at my doorstep struggling to lift the TV up my front porch. I had to help him bring the TV inside. Onbce he got in, after a little effort in helping me place the TV on the stand, I could see his desperation to leave. Hence, I had to sign him off and call a pal in to help me with the rest. I am satisfied with this service but not super-excited like some others.

I have recently had the misfortune of purchasing the Samsung LN52A650. There is an inherent problem with the model I purchased, which is the television turns on and off repeatedly in rapid succession. This obviously renders the television set useless. It was impossible to fix this problem on my TV by downloading the suggested update becuse the television will not power on long enough to load the update. Samsung refuses to be proactive in addressing this issue. This Samsung "wait and see" attitude inconveniences customers such as myself who have to wait upwards of two weeks while the part is ordered by their service contractor prior to scheduling a repair date. Customers are further inconvenienced by having to take a day off from work to accommodate the scheduled repair date. Obviously Samsung's position is that it makes much more fiscal sense to place this burden on the consumers as opposed to recalling the sets prior to end user purchase. When it comes to discretionary spending consumers do not like to be inconvenienced, especially in today's economic climate. When I voiced my complaints with Samsung's customer support staff my impression was that they felt the only reason I was complaining was because I am without the television during the holiday season (kids at home, bowl games, etc.). While the timing certainly magnifies the problem, under no circumstances do I feel that this business practice is acceptable. Prior to the malfunction of the set I was extremely satisfied with the quality of your product. I felt I had made a wise decision concerning the purchase. My experience with the customer support and repair process has diminished my satisfaction with the product.

I hesitated buying this TV until I read that a firmware update fixed the shut-off issue. I bought mine today - hooked up a Samsung (DVD-HD860)unconverting DVD player (HDMI) and Wow. The DVD player is only a 1080i - I'm gonna get the 1080p version or wait for Blu-Ray (read below). The picture on this TV is simply amazing. If you're thinking about this TV, just do it. I've been researching and waiting for 3 months. Incredible PQ. HD channels look great and DVDs are fantastic. I'll be getting a Blu-ray player as soon as the new versions come out later this summer (I hope).
I played a home movie DVD that I made and saw colors and detail I hadn't seen in the same movie on another (DLP)TV/DVD player.
BTW, I called Samsung for the firmware update - the gal told me it would be harmful to my TV unless it had the shut-off problem and advised against it.
To say the least - I'm impressed. Strong buy recommendation here. I just hope my initial enthusiasm isn't ruined by any problems down the road.
There is some glare from a large bay window on the wall perpendicular to the TV (if I'm watching TV, the window is on my right hand side) - but it's not terrible when the TV is displaying something. If it's blank, the darn thing almost looks like a mirror (during bright daylight).
Nice styling on the TV also. Comes with a cloth to keep the bezel clean and finger-print free.
Oh, and playing-back (JPEG) pictures using the built-in USB drive and slide-show with music - I'm seeing my high res photos jump-out at me. Wow.
Not sure what the Ethernet port is good for yet. Perhaps some future functionality. Can't even use it for firmware upgrades I believe.
Good luck with your purchase decision. I'm very pleased so far with mine.
If you have any questions, feel free to ask. I'll be as honest and objective as I can. Heck, I'm an engineer - I can't lie ! Wish they had a 58 inch model ( my DLP is a 61 inch and I'm trying to get used to a "smaller" screen now). I haven't even played around with most of the settings ( AMP ? what's that do? ) - but I'll be experimenting over the next few days. My wife told me while I was raving about the golf on TV "Golf ALWAYS looks good on TV" - so I guess I need to see another sporting even with faster action to comment further :-)
TT

Two week update: Installed the firmware upgrade. Hasn't shut-off since (yet).
The picture on this TV is like looking thru a picture window at the image - sports or movies - incredible clarity and colors. I have not seen a better picture anywhere. What a great TV. Incredible detail and sharpness.

I won't say anything about the picture because I agree with the consensus. There is a minor audio problem at least with my setup. I'm using the TV's optical out with a receiver and my TV speakers are set to OFF. I have a PS3 connected to HDMI-3. However, if my PS3 hasn't finished the power up sequence before the TV switches to HDMI-3, the TV speakers turn ON. When I look at the TV settings, it shows the TV speakers are OFF. I have to change the TV speaker setting to ON and then back to OFF for the TV speakers to turn OFF. The work around is to make sure the PS3 is completely turned on before the TV switches to HDMI-3, but it's a bit of an inconvenience if you own a Harmony 890 or similar remote. The default sequence and a delay needs to be programmed into the remote to prevent the issue I've mentioned. Anyway, I give the TV 4 stars for this issue. It makes no sense the TV speakers would come on for any reason when set to OFF, much less the TV speakers turn ON and the setting still shows OFF.

After writing this review a few minutes ago, I noticed this issue happens with my Tivo unit too which is connected to HDMI-1. If I select the Tivo menu option to "restart system", the TV speakers turn ON and stay ON following the brief time that no HDMI signal is being sent to HDMI-1. I again have to go to the TV menu and change speaker OFF to speaker ON and then back to OFF again.

Can someone else try what I've mentioned and see if it happens to them too please? I called Samsung and they said they haven't heard of this issue before. They setup a service appointment for me, but I'll return the TV to Amazon if it cannot be fixed here in my house (and yes, I'll get a replacement, if this is just an isolated issue since I do like the picture quality a lot).

UPDATE: According to avsforum dot com, other TVs were having this issue. Samsung tech support didn't even know that the audio issue was resolved in Firmware version 2001.3 which was just released on May 13th, 2008. The firmware resolved my issue.

I buy a lot of stuff on Amazon and always look at the personal reviews so I thought it was time I did a review myself. I love this TV! I've only had a week now but so far it's been fantastic. I was really on the fence about this TV and was thinking of waiting for the new Sony XBR6 thru 8 to come out and compare before buying. My biggest issue with the Samsung was the big glossy screen and I have several large windows behind the couch that I was afraid would cause a terrible reflection. I'm very pleased to tell everyone that is worried about this as well that it really isn't a problem The screen is so bright itself that you hardly see any reflections. If you watching a very dark movie during the day you might have some small problems with it because if the screen is showing black that is the one time when you get some reflection. Either way it's definitely not something that should cause you problems or concern. The reason I didn't wait for the new Sony is because whenever Sony comes out brand new their TV's tend to be very expensive. I would of loved to get the 55" XBR8 when it comes out but it mostly likely will be about $5,000.00 to $6,000.00. I was able to get this Samsung for $2,199.00 from Circuit City! It's actually a pretty wild story on how this came about , I'll tell it only because I think other people might benefit from it.
I went to Best Buy to get this TV because it was on sale for $2,399.00 but it turned out that it wasn't in stock and they wouldn't get it in for about 5 days. I didn't want to wait so I called Circuit City while there and they had it in stock. The B.B. salesman didn't want to lose the sale so he took $150.00 off the price for me to wait. I bought it but then went to Circuit City and asked them if they would match the price. At first they said they would only do it if it was an advertised price (company policy) but I pushed it a little and asked for a manager. It didn't make any sense to me that they would match an ad price but not an actual sales receipt from their competition. Finally the manager said he would beat the price by $50.00. I got the TV there and drove it home myself- plus I got 3 free Blue Ray movies because of a promotion they were running. The crazy part of this story is when I went back to B.B. to cancel the order and get a refund the salesman asked if there was anything they can do to keep the sale- I said no but then he offered me another $200.00 off! Now I didn't really want to deal with having to take a TV back to C.C. so I said no- but man, it was very tempting. Both these stores offer free returns at no cost within 30 days which is the only reason why I purchased there vs. Amazon. Well, that's my price story- hopefully it benefits someone else out there.
Either way you'll love this TV. The picture is incredible. My only complaint about the TV is the sound. I used to have a Sony LCD rear projector which had very good sound out of speakers on the sides of the TV. I'm assuming most LCD's and Plasma flat panels have the sound coming out the back to keep the size down. The problem is I didn't even think about this and I have the TV sitting in a built in wood cabinet. Because the sounds is going into the cabinet the sound echos. I know that most people will be using a home theatre set up for this TV but I sometimes actually prefer to just listen to normal TV with the TV speakers. I can't do this anymore and we'll need to run all sound through the audio receiver. Not a big deal but wanted to point it out in case anybody else had the same issue.

I was initially taken aback from all the 5 * reviews at amazon. So I went to BestBuy (at Day & then Night) to check this out myself and compare this with Aquos (which I was leaning towards). I was actually SHOCKED!!
I have very high regards for SAMSUNG (given that SONY is a faint image in SAMSUNG's rear view mirror now)but I could not believe that this will happen with SHARP!! This is the best LCD TV with the most flexible connectivity options. Picture is breathtaking. I did not have a SAT and my HD Receiver was outdated and I was still enjoying the picture. HOWEVER, when I received my latest SAT HD receiver, I simply can't take my eyes off the TV when viewing Discover HD, CBS HD, CNN HD...so on. DVDs play great. I am not convinced with Blu-Ray is even needed for me with such high quality image with regular DVD. Anyway, if you split between multiple TVs, then be sure to check this out SIDE-BY-SIDE with others at BestBuy.

I purchased the LN52A650 and received it two days before Christmas '08. Since the family was all here we did not do anything more than set it on a stand and hook it up to out satellite box via coax. We all were thrilled with the picture. It was not until the second week in Jan. that my wife and I hung it on the wall and began to connect components to it using RCA cables. The rear RCA jacks only produce a fuzzy black and white picture. The side RCA jacks work fine. Also the Samsung Wireless Info-link (that you must purchase separately) does not work.

So I started calling Samsung's customer service number. After folowing their sugestions for a week or so I finally convinced them I had a real problem. In order to use my components I have to keep connecting them to the side and disconnecting something else.
On Jan. 27 they Finally issued a repair order and gave me a phone number of the repair shop that I was to call to set up a time for them to come and service my TV, which I did. The repair man said I was outside their service territory and that I should call Samsung back.
I called Samsung back and was told the problem would be assigned to their Service Dispatch Team who would be calling me in a few days. After a week and 1/2 passed I called Samsung again and was told they wrer working on the problem.

The next day I called Amazon.com to complain and see if they could maybe help me with getting Samsung to do something. It was then I found that had Samsung not given me the run-a-round for so long Amazon would have simply replaced the TV. But now I wasd a week past that time.
Amazon customer service made a three-way call with me to Samsung. At that time i found that Samsung had simply cancelled my repair order due to inactivity!!! I was issued a new repair order number and had to start over.
The customer sevice person at samsung gave me the phone number of the repair shop that refused to work on my TV the first time. When I informed him of this he said he would assign it to their Service Dispatch Team. Sound familiar?
So by this time I was steamed. Yesterday I wrote the following email to Samsung's Consumer Complaint Dept :


"I have been calling since before Jan. 27 about my TV problems (rear rca jacks and Wireless Info link which have not worked since the start.) and finally on JAN 27 a repair order was issued (4003102008). I was told to contact Action TV which I did the next day. They informed me I was outside their territory. I called Samsung back and was told it would be assigned to the service dispatch team and they would be getting back with me in a few days.
I gave them well over a week and called back yesterday and found that no progress had been made about getting my TV fixed.

And today I found my repair order has been cancelled. I have to start over!!!! New repair order
4003109377.
The old one was cancalled due to inactivity!!! The service guy wanted me to call Action TV again!!!

So today I called my dealer, Amazon.com, and found that since Samsung has been giving me the run around I am now a week past the time that Amazon would have just exchanged the TV with a new one for me!!!!

I am very unhappy with the level of service I am receiving from Samsung. I researched Samsung before I purchased and found you had a great reputation."


This is the reply I received today:

"For any inquiries regarding an existing service request, please call 1-800-SAMSUNG to speak to a live agent who can assist you. Please have your transaction number ready when you call."

This answer puts me right back on the same treadmill. I wonder why they even give you the opportunity to complain via email? I am truly sorry I purchsed this TV.

A great product is not only rated by it's performance but by the service after the sale.