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Official Samsung 2012 Lineup and Information Thread [No Price Talk]

post #1 of 267
1/11/12 at 11:23am
Thread Starter 
Here is the 2012 line-up!

Samsung E8000 Series
The E8000 is the flagship plasma from Samsung for 2012. The new All Black Pure Filter improves contrast and black levels 10% over last year. Improved black levels also improves the color performnce. The E8000 has the new Smart Interaction that uses a camera to recognize your face and lets you interact with your TV via voice commands or motion control.
PN64E8000, PN60E8000, PN51E8000

Samsung E7000 Series
The E7000 replaces the D7000 from last year, it also has the new All Black Pure Filter that increases contrast 10% over the previous models. The E7000 has a dual core processor that allows you to multitask while using the expanded Smart TV suite that adds more apps to the app store and a full web browser to the E7000.
PN64E7000, PN60E7000, PN51E7000

Samsung E6500 Series
The E6500 is a mid tier plasma from Samsung that contains many of the features you would expect in a top tier model. It has the All Black Pure Filter for increased contrast, a 1080p 3D plasma panel, the expanded Smart TV suite with more than 1500 available apps and the new full web browser. The E6500 also has built in WiFi.
PN64E6500, PN60E6500, PN51E6500

Samsung E550 Series
The E550 presents consumers with a budget priced 1080p 3D plasma television. Available in 4 sizes ranging from 43" - 64" the E550 has active 3D and includes 2 pairs of glasses and has the expanded Smart TV online suite. If you are looking for a value priced television with many high end features the E550 is worth a look.
PN64E550, PN60E550, PN51E550, PN43E550

Samsung E490 Series
In a push to get 3D into every one's living room Samsung produces series like the E490, a 720p 3D plasma television available in 2 sizes. They replace the popular D490 from last year and should be good sellers in 2012. The E490 is improved with the Real Black Filter that was found on top tier models last year and improve the contrast of the plasma panel.
PN59E490, PN51E490
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post #2 of 267
1/11/12 at 12:43pm
Interesting that they removed the 59" and replaced it with the 60". It seems like an odd lineup, 51 to 60 and the a 4" jump for 64". The question will be is the 4" jump going to be worth the steep price premium (Not that 5" is much a of a different jump in the 2011 models) but psychologically going from 59 to 64 is much more of a jump in size then from 60 to 64".

Also surprised both Samsung and Panasonic didn't do a 69"-70" model.

Mike
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post #3 of 267
1/11/12 at 12:52pm
Anyone know when these new models would typically start shipping?
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post #4 of 267
1/11/12 at 1:26pm
Death of the small plasma continues...giving up on the 43"
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post #5 of 267
1/11/12 at 1:40pm
Yeah, having a 60" then 64" seems odd. Why not bump the 64" to 65"?
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post #6 of 267
1/11/12 at 3:17pm
I wonder if the E550 will be essentially the panel from last year's D7000? Sounds like this year's E7000 has the same panel as the E8000, so maybe the 550 gets a bit of an upgrade with the AR filter that last year's top panel had.

Also, does anyone know of any pictures out there of the E7000 and below? The only pics I've seen are of the E8000 and it looks remarkably similar to the D8000.
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post #7 of 267
1/11/12 at 3:51pm
Any mention of the OLED panel?
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post #8 of 267
1/11/12 at 3:56pm
I think pretty much the only thing we know about the OLED panel is that it's 55" and is supposed to come out this year.
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post #9 of 267
1/11/12 at 5:52pm
Interesting lineup this year. I think Samsung is getting weird on us

The 490 Series now only comes in a 51 and 59 inch but no 43 inch? Seems like an odd combo for the bottom of the line 720P models. At 59 inches 720P starts to become questionable unless you are sitting very far back. I think the 2011 490's at 43 inches and 51 inches made more sense then the 2012 line up.

Yet strangely you can now get a 43" 550 series witch I assume is now 1080P? That is kind of cool but makes little sense that you can no longer get the 43" 720P version.

I also agree its kind of pointless upping the size of the 59 inch to 60 inch. Must be some kind of marketing thing but it would have been even more cool if they had upped the 64 inch to say 65 or even better 66 inches. That way they can still push that +1 thing like the 2011 sets.

Oddities aside the 2012 line up looks pretty solid and improved over the 2011 models. I have been searching for a deal on a leftover 2011 but so far I have not seen a deal worth biting on. Also concerned about the brightness pop issue witch I have noticed in my 490 at times. Unless I find a really screaming deal on a 2011 beyond what we have already seen I think I will wait for the 2012's. Sounds like the improvements might be worth the wait witch hopefully is not really that long now.
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post #10 of 267
1/12/12 at 10:46am
Hmm... I was thinking of picking up a PN64D8000, but now I may wait and see some more info on the PN64E7000. I don't care about the motion control (would rather have the qwerty remote), and if the panels are the same (vs. the minor differences between the -D7000 and -D8000), the enhanced Smart TV stuff may just be worth the wait.
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post #11 of 267
1/12/12 at 10:56am
Thanks for this informative post OP. I was having trouble finding info on the lower-end Samsung plasmas.

Quote:
Originally Posted by longhaul747 View Post

The 490 Series now only comes in a 51 and 59 inch but no 43 inch? Seems like an odd combo for the bottom of the line 720P models. At 59 inches 720P starts to become questionable unless you are sitting very far back. I think the 2011 490's at 43 inches and 51 inches made more sense then the 2012 line up.

Yet strangely you can now get a 43" 550 series witch I assume is now 1080P? That is kind of cool but makes little sense that you can no longer get the 43" 720P version.

I think all the plasma manufactures are giving up on the sub-50" displays. LCD prices for those sizes have come down dramatically these days. Also, there's a flood of cheap/low-end Taiwan/China LCD displays for the 42" and under 720p range.

There's no point to compete in the low end anymore for plasma. I also think people are finally getting the message that plasmas have a better picture quality than LCDs, and Samsung will probably price that PN43E550 at a premium for those who need the smaller size and want the better picture quality of a plasma.

I'm actually very interested in the PN59E490. I'm on a tight budget and would love to get a 59" set for a cheaper price by giving up some resolution. I don't need 1080p as most of the stuff I watch is 720p, and most PS3/Xbox games are actually rendered lower than 720p.

Several years back, Panasonic had made a 58" 720p class plasma for their professional line TH-58PH10UK. I think there were some owners of that set in this forum and they were fine with the display. No idea if there was a 58"+ 720p consumer TV available. Wasn't checking consumer TV in those days.
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post #12 of 267
1/12/12 at 1:09pm
Should we expect to see these new displays hit the stores around March?
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post #13 of 267
1/12/12 at 4:59pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by weedeater View Post

Any mention of the OLED panel?

2013 if we are lucky.........

The line from Samsung looks impressive ! CES was pretty good this year The Samsung where supposed to have a all new black filter in them. So, there are some big changes to come. In the end we will have to see what happens when they come out and testing is done The units had a real nice bezel, tiny I say!
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post #14 of 267
1/12/12 at 5:12pm
Whatever the black filter they're using for this panel, it's impressive. The cnet video for the 8000 series about kicked the s@$% out of the video for the VT50. While it was a better feed, the filter was excellent- not that it would matter for how I view movies. If they fixed the floating black issue and this reference color thing continues, these will be hot sets. The picture quality in store at Magnolia always impresses me more than Panasonic- if only they could get the blacks deeper.
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post #15 of 267
1/12/12 at 5:39pm
Anyone have any links to the new models at CES? Thanks in advance...
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post #16 of 267
1/12/12 at 6:30pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by Cleveland Plasma View Post

2013 if we are lucky.........

Samsung has said it will be for sale in the 2nd half of 2012.
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post #17 of 267
1/12/12 at 7:30pm
I can't help but think that the sizes listed are either inaccurate, or just plain don't make sense, in the case of the E490. There have not been consumer plasmas in 720p above a 50/51" size for years, I don't understand why they would start in 2012 of all years. I can only imagine how gigantic the pixels will be...yikes!! Also it doesn't make sense that every other model is getting a 60" while the E490 is stuck at 59"; it would make sense if they were using old 2011 panels but like I said a 59" 720p panel did not exist in 2011.

A 43" E550 would be nice since Panasonic has been the exclusive mfg. of 1080p in a 42" size.

I'm also not quite sure how accurate this info is overall since CNET pages for new Samsung plasmas still list a 59" size for the E8000/E7000.
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post #18 of 267
1/12/12 at 7:40pm
I thought Sammy had a 75" coming out this year? Not sure if it was LED or Plasma.
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post #19 of 267
1/12/12 at 8:26pm
^^ Correct, LED. Although they have said this for two years so far and no 75".
Quote:
Originally Posted by halo0 View Post

Samsung has said it will be for sale in the 2nd half of 2012.

Well see.......
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post #20 of 267
1/13/12 at 4:28am
Why are they still manufacturing 720p panels? Is anybody else left in the world who would want such low resolution?
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post #21 of 267
1/13/12 at 8:58pm
Most can not even see the difference from 720P-1080P. They will be around for a while.
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post #22 of 267
1/13/12 at 8:59pm
The only thing is, 1080p panels generally have better color and blacks. But, I agree about a lot of people not seeing the resolution difference especially given how far they are sitting back.
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post #23 of 267
1/13/12 at 9:08pm
Most people can't tell the difference, but whenever I have seen 1080 vs 720 tvs if I ask the person I usually guess it right which resolution it is. It just looks a little different to me.
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post #24 of 267
1/14/12 at 4:45am
Samsung announced their entire Smart TV lineup would be RVU compliant this year. Any word if that means plasma Smart TVs as well as their LED LCD sets?
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post #25 of 267
1/14/12 at 8:28am
Samsung made a statement that 2012 panels will not only be software and firmware upgradeable, but also hardware upgradeable. Anyone know what parts can be upgraded, if it's a DIY job, and what may be the benefits?

The only things I can think of would br being able to upgrade the TVs inputs (mainly HDMI) in case a beneficial new spec comes out for it and being able to upgrade the processor to maybe handle the higher sourced signal that may come through HDMI.
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post #26 of 267
1/14/12 at 8:55am
These sets look MUCH nicer than Panasonic's new line. Design wise they are close to perfect, as long as 6000/7000 series have a normal rectangular stand. Just a simple black bezel like most of us want.

In the videos I've seen, the new black filter is indeed better than Panasonic's filter, which still have that green tint. And this year even the 6000 series has it, so Samsung's performance/price ratio could seriously embarrass Panasonic's.

I'm also glad Samsung never copied Panny's idiotic "one sheet of glass" design from the VT series and kept the bonded filter structure. Totally ruins bright room performance.

If contrast improvements are to believed, this year's line could go as low as .005 fL, same as GT30 and basically equal to 8G Kuros.

Some nice videos from CES showing how good the new filter and design are:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZfAJEC72RcE
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d-Da10nD3eg
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XiEkUsLII-I
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post #27 of 267
1/14/12 at 9:10am
Any information if this new line includes 3 GHz HDMI receiver(s) for 1080p60 3D input support?
120 Hz 2D maybe?
Displayport?
-------------
Effective as of January 1, 2012, all non-cable products cannot make any reference to HDMI version numbers.
So, we probably wouldn't see something like "hdmi 1.4b" in specs
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post #28 of 267
1/14/12 at 9:29am
Quote:
Originally Posted by H_Prestige View Post

These sets look MUCH nicer than Panasonic's new line. Design wise they are close to perfect, as long as 6000/7000 series have a normal rectangular stand. Just a simple black bezel like most of us want.

In the videos I've seen, the new black filter is indeed better than Panasonic's filter, which still have that green tint. And this year even the 6000 series has it, so Samsung's performance/price ratio could seriously embarrass Panasonic's.

I'm also glad Samsung never copied Panny's idiotic "one sheet of glass" design from the VT series and kept the bonded filter structure. Totally ruins bright room performance.

If contrast improvements are to believed, this year's line could go as low as .005 fL, same as GT30 and basically equal to 8G Kuros.

Some nice videos from CES showing how good the new filter and design are:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZfAJEC72RcE
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d-Da10nD3eg
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XiEkUsLII-I

To each their own, and i'm not trying to start a debate back and forth, but personally I like panasonics vt50 a little better. Don't get me wrong, both are great, but I like the one sheet design.

As for filters, The samsung clearly has better anti-glare filtering on their panel, but panasonic has a better anti-ambitent light filter. So basically lower blacks in a bright environment on the sammy, but less glare. More glare on the panasonic, but better blacks. Hard to say which is the better trade off.
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post #29 of 267
1/14/12 at 11:43am
Cant wait to see how these and the 2012 Panny's perform. Need some ideas for this time in 2013
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post #30 of 267
1/14/12 at 12:44pm
I was reading one av site, apologies as I can't recall which one, that mentioned this new filter makes the picture dim off axis vertically- just like the 2011 panasonics. Samsung always seems to be about a year behind. For 2011, they had floating blacks. The one thing there were ahead on was a thinner bezel and getting rid of the extra sheet of glass.
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AVS › AVS Forum › Display Devices › Plasma Flat Panel Displays › Official Samsung 2012 Lineup and Information Thread [No Price Talk]