I stood in front of the 37A550 for a while in BB today. It never crossed my mind to verify the stand swivel, but I will another day.
They told me that the settings were "out-of-the-box" after verifying "Dynamic". I didn't change anything but that general mode and came away thinking it looked a little bright/cloudy/washed compared to other nearby sets, but, then again, it looked very sharp at times with good color. I know that sounds like a contradiction, but that's the impression I got.
I believe I would turn down the brightness and mess with the contrast and have a very nice picture...by my new-owner standards. BB doesn't automatically give me the types of things that I'd like to see to judge motion performance, but I didn't see anything terrible in what there was. Part of the issue at this (if not all) BB locations is the massive coax feed system they are using. I did bounce around a few channels and thought the digital non-hd looked VERY good on this set. The analog was beyond horrible, but seemed to be really bad signal more than the set; it was very noisy.
The screen was somewhere between the 69 and 71 and I just don't think there's any other way to describe it. I see that others seem to identify the panel and, for those that can relate it to some other brand/model, that seems to explain it. The surrounding finish IS bright and reflective and that will give pause to some; it should be considered by the 650/750 afficianados. The remote is the same and screams "Disney World", but seemed responsive and was not critical to my judgement.
To my thinking, the 37A550 is going to be a high-volume champ for Samsung. Even the MSRP hits a price point that's going to give fits to the stacks of 40" non-120 sets and has to seriously hurt the 32" bedroom and "720 will do" crowd. It's certainly gonna quickly kill the 4061 and/or create some real deals on that set to clear inventories. Not to break the rules and talk price, but Samsung might create their own gap with this and either have to pick between it and the 40" or we'll see deep discounts on the 40A650 soon. They can't even sneak a 4069-type in there unless the 650 screen is really 71-like. It's a long way between $1400 and $2200 (?) with only the 40A550 offering little beyond the 37". If I were Samsung, I'd be encouraging the guy noting the difference in panels between the 37 and 40.
Bottom line: Samsung might have a hit here with the "want one" types like me. The more knowledgeable here are going to rip it to shreds, but it's going to sell and many of you are going to have one in the bedroom/basement/etc., I think. You might as well work on the calibration and response time benefits posts to keep the interest of we poor wantabes....Smile.
