Panasonic TC-P55ST50 3D Plasma HDTV Review

Performance

Panasonic is trying out a few new technologies with the Panasonic TC-P55ST50. The 2500 Focused Field Drive is a feature the pulses the activation of the plasma cells to create an overdrive refresh rate of essentially 2500Hz, which we found work great for our motion tests. This TV also comes equipped with a 16.1 built-in speaker system, a pair of 8-train, 8mm speakers on either side of the screen, and a sub woofer around the back. The audio quality was there, but these low watt speakers were too quiet for a big audience.

We saw a very deep black level, one that was at times too dark for our testing equipment, often dropping below 0.01 cd/m2. Even paired with a low peak brightness, this black level yielded an excellent contrast ratio over 3000:1. The color gamut proved to be fantastically accurate, but the detail throughout the brightness spectrum in both the primary colors and the grayscale tested sub par. It's a good panel, with some improvements on last years ST30 model (as well as some regressions), but not the best we have seen, even this year.