The loss of plasma displays could be the gain of some lucky videophiles. Case in point: Best Buy’s latest deal on a 51-inch version of Samsung’s last best plasma display, the PNF8500, can now be bagged for a mere $1,000, down from a $1,700 list price.
Want to go bigger? The 60-inch model is offered for a similar bargain of $1,500, down from a $2,400 list price. And if it’s offered at Best Buy, that means you can likely get the same deal from Amazon, which has announced it will match pricing on the majority of Best Buy’s holiday deals.
The PNF8500 is Samsung’s flagship plasma, offering premium design, killer performance, a Bluetooth remote, 4 HDMI inputs, and Samsung’s intuitive, loaded-to-the-gills smart platform.
This deal is more than just a flash-in-the-pan holiday sale, however. It might very well be your last chance to get a slice of the myriad performance benefits offered by plasma TVs, including high contrast, gorgeous color reproduction, unparalleled motion resolution, and superior off-axis viewing. That’s because all major brands have now shuttered production of plasma, looking towards the display technologies of the future, such as OLED.
Unfortunately, OLED, and other contenders for the next big thing in TVs, are priced out of reach for most viewers. The only cost effective OLED TV on the market right now, for instance, is LG’s $3,500 55-incher — not exactly bargain-basement pricing. Until new technologies make their way down from the stratosphere, all major brands will lean on LED displays, which depend on all sorts of adaptations, such as local dimming and motion interpolation, to mimic the display quality of plasma. There’s nothing wrong with LED TVs, mind you. But when you match the best against the best from each side, plasma always takes the gold.
You may be asking yourself, “Why would manufacturers quit making plasma for inferior display technology?” And to that we would say, “how much time have you got?”
The truth is, as far as we’re concerned, the multitude of reasons manufacturers ceased to produce plasma displays is inconsequential. What is important, for videophiles anyway, is getting your hands on one of these bad boys before they go the way of the dodo.
Available at BestBuy.com
