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Samsung LN52A650 Review
Samsung LN52A650 – Amazing LCD HDTV
With these exceptional and unmatched features, the Samsung LN52A650 is indeed a great buy and a must-have gadget not only for techies but for anyone who have enough idle cash.
Whether you are getting a new HDTV to replace the old tube or you simply want to have a good home theater system, you should take a look at Samsung LN52A650 52-inch 1080p 120Hz LCD HDTV. You’ll surely be amazed with its cool and modern design, picture clarity and superb features. And you’ll find yourself raving about the awesome gadget in no time at all.
Design:
The LN52A650 differs from most HDTV as it incorporates Samsung’s “Touch of Color” scheme wherein dark-red accents highlight the frame. Created using the company’s Transparent and Opaque Color technology, the ultra-smooth finish makes the translucent bezel frame sleek and shiny. The red color may not sit well with some people, especially as no other color option is available, but if you don’t mind seeing red, then this cool HDTV is definitely a nice choice.
The touch-sensitive remote which lights up the backlighting when picked up and its dedicated tools, big buttons and intuitive controls plus the easy to read and navigate on-screen menus makes using this techie toy almost effortless.
Screen/picture clarity:
The Samsung LN52A650 LCD fares relatively well compared to plasma TVs. It’s one of the best LCDs around, with its superb black level performance, crisp and accurate color rendering and astonishing level of details.
The reproduction of deep black shades is the Samsung LN52A650′s greatest strength.
The color fidelity in dark areas, which many LCDs turn into blue, is pretty close to true black. Other hues like skin tones and greeneries are rendered accurately, resulting in excellent overall saturation. Still, watching dark movies with bright light is not advised though, as the shiny screen reflects light and images. Numerous picture controls facilitate adjustments of colors, contrast, detail and white balance to suit the user’s preference.
The LN52A650′s advanced technology makes watching fast paced sports and video games a superb experience, with smooth, blur-free motion and solid 3D look resulting from the 120Hz video frame rate. Faint stuttering (judder) normally found in 24-frame material are efficiently taken care of by Samsung’s Auto Motion Plus (AMP) processor which is designed to interpolate and smooth out motion.
Features:
The LN52A650 is packed with great features, such as the Ethernet port that allows Internet connectivity for viewing RSS fees, news, stocks, weather and sports without firing up your PC. The ticker newsfeed provided by USA Today, in readable and large fonts can be placed in a corner of the screen, or expanded for reading the whole stories.
Connectivity of this model is excellent. It has 4 HDMI Simplay compliant ports, USB 2.0 port, RF input for cable and antenna, AV input with S-Video and composite video, headphone jack and VGA-style input for computers, for using the TV as monitor (for awesome 1,920 x 1,080 maximum resolution).
<< Click HERE to Read The Latest Samsung LN52A650 User Reviews >>
Best picture of all the 52″ lcds I’ve seen. Crisp, sharp, looks good even before I’ve adjusted it at all. No dead pixels.
Plays a sound when turned on/off (there might be an option to turn it off but I haven’t found it).
Color around the edge isn’t too noticeable except in bright direct light.
Can’t give arbitrary names to inputs; must select from a list and there is only one ‘Game’ selection, so if you have XBox 360, PS3, and Wii you have to guess which is which when selecting inputs (or remember the input number).
Switching inputs is not bad on this tv, much better and less annoying than other tvs I’ve used.
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.
I’ve only just got my hands on this beauty, but the 5 movies I’ve watched have been breath taking. My old Sceptre 1080p set from 2 years ago made the Blu Ray version of Layer Cake look rather disappointing with jagged motion
artifacts.
The Samsung works very much better and you get that “almost there” feeling. The touch of red is hardly noticeable, and because of the shiny screen you’ll want to keep this TV in a darkened room anyway, so you won’t notice it. That’s my one negative, the screen reelects everything.
Personally I am not bothered as I have the set back lit and in my old home movie room which is completely dark, but some thing to consider when buying.
I really have no regrets about the purchase of this television. Go with the 52 if your room can handle the extra size…there is a perceptible difference in overall experience. Sports and motion shots are outstanding. The NBA finals, Euro 2008, US Open Golf, and Wimbledon (satellite HD broadcast) were just plain amazing on this set. Not to mention Planet Earth in Blu-ray–absolutely stunning.
I did strongly consider a Pioneer Elite plasma, as its black levels are the best in the business and admittedly the picture is superior. However, it’s tough to justify the premium in price (2.5 times) over the Samsung. The LN52A650 has all of the requisite ports and connections that any audio/video buff would care for, and it has performed flawlessly since CEVA delivered it to my home. Superb value and overall experience. I have to say that I even like the touch of color… it’s subtle, and up close it looks kind of like hand blown glass…
Like many of you, I did a great amount of research and “eye-tests” at local shops. I had a 50″ Sony rear-projection set (720p/1080i) that had service me well for 3 years. I thought the picture quality was pretty damn good on this set, and wasn’t sure if upgrading to a newer TV was worth it, or if it was even going to look better. But after a week of putting this Samsung through its paces, my conclusion is that its worth every dime!
I didn’t realize how much better my blurays could look with this set. The color, depth, clarity of this set is unreal. Its susbstantially brighter and crisper than my Sony. You really have to see this set in acion to appreciate it. Specifications don’t mean anything if the picure isn’t perfect. You know those bluray demo kiosks inside Best Buy? My picure looks like that, but better. I’m just blown away with the level of improvement over my Sony. Its makes my investment in the PS3 just that much more worth it.
This is a general statement, but these days, most TV’s will give you a pretty good-looking picture (especially with HD sources). Heck, my Sony TV still looks great (even though its been moved to the bedroom). However, this Samsung 650 is a few notches above the others.
Bottom line: Picture quality that rivals/exceeds Sony XBR, but priced like a 2nd tier brand (Philips, Toshiba, Sharp). Buy it! No regrets!
This TV was CNET’s editor’s choice back in the spring. It also scored highly in consumer reports.
My personal experience has been very good. For the price, this TV is a bargain. I don’t think you’ll find another 1080p 52″ for this price. It’s much bigger in the living room than on the show-room floor.
I’m no technical guru, but the picture looks great. When the 120 Hz processor is turned all the way up, it can make some shows/movies have that distorted “soap opera” look. On sports (e.g. the Olympics or football), it looks great.
I researched TV’s for almost a year before buying this one. You won’t find a better deal. The picture is great. If you’ve been looking to make the jump to a big screen TV, this one is for you.
I will keep this short. The picture is awesome. I love the fact that I can stick a USB flash drive into the USB port and it will play a slide show of photos. Sound is good, but I generally run sound through my surround sound system. The only bummer is the wheel thing on the remote control. But I think that is a dead horse here in the reviews.
I researched a lot of TV’s before buying this one. You won’t be dissatisfied.
So far I am incredibly happy with the Samsung LN52A650 52-Inch 1080p 120Hz LCD HDTV with Red Touch of Color. It looks great on the wall. Watching football on this set is absolutely awesome. Movies are better than a movie theater (if they are in HD).
This TV has exceeded my high expectations in everyway- it’s flawless. I like the red touch of color, the 120Hz, the black levels, the picture quality, the price, everything. Great value here at amazon for this set and the delivery was flawless.
This is an excellent buy, don’t have much more to say other than I recommend it above any other 52 inch tv out there.
This was a great TV. The picture is clear, everything was easy to install, and I don’t see myself buying another tv for a while. The only thing I have to say is that I have never SEEN the TV operate at 120 HZ even those it is supposedly a 120 HZ tv. Whenever I play video games it reduces the resolution even though it is a 1080p TV. I don’t know if these few negative notes are user error or Samsung’s error.
Do not buy a Samsung TV. My 40 inch Samsung LCD lasted just a little over 2 years. According to multiple internet sites
Samsung built a bunch of LCD TV’s with bad capacitors that fail after a year or more (right after warranty is over).
You can do a simple Google search and find many people who have had the same problems. After a year or two, the TV’s
no longer turn on. Samsung has been made aware of this issue, but refuses to correct the problem. There are multiple
sites that even tell you exactly how the problem is corrected. I am sure the number of people with this problem will
increase as time goes by. Even with the extended warranty, it is not worth the hassle of buying a large TV from a
company that does not support its products. I did a lot of research before choosing a Samsung, but since it was
early in the production cycle, the problem did not appear. Don’t take a chance, get another brand.
I purchased a 2008 Samsung LCD HDTV that has already had two hdmi ports and the power board fail. The hdmi port failure causes green vertical lines to show up on one side of the tv screen (you have to switch to the cables). The power board failure causes the tv to not even turn on.
The thing particularly upsetting to me is that the manufacture of the capacity resistors they use on their power boards (which cause the early failure) said the resistors were obsolete back in 1999. Ten years ago!
Some idiot in Samsung’s supply chain must have mistakenly added another digit on his purchase order, which is why Samsung continues to use them on their boards.
Conveniently for Samsung this problem usually only surfaces after their 1 year warranty is up.
Before purchasing a Samsung peruse the internet tech/repair sites and youtube videos on hundreds/thousands of others that have the same problem as me.
After doing some research, we chose this to be our entrance into the flat panel television market. It was a mistake. For the first year, it was wonderful. Today, our TV no longer works. Why is that? It has only been in our house since June 2008!!
Turns out there are many other tv’s like ours that has the same problem. It started power cycling on and off. The trouble shooting idea Samsung gave on its website was no help. Turns out, after looking for help on the internet, it is a widespread problem that Samsung doesn’t care too much to correct. The capacitors fail after about 13-14 months, and it is conveniently out of warranty. So, now I sit here with a beautiful 52″ tv that has a black screen.
Wonderful.
I have no problems with the picture while watching regular programming or movies. The picture is absolutely great for that. I’m a big COD gamer and started noticing a difference immediately. I was gaming on my Mitsubishi rear projection before I switched to this and was straight up murdering people on COD. My kill:death ratio was well over 1 and after switching the television I noticed a huge difference. It always seemed like I was a step behind everyone else in the game and my kill:death ratio quickly dropped below 1. I eventually went back to my old TV and things are back to normal again. I tested the lag using Rockband 2 on the Samsung TV and the first results were in the neighborhood of 70ms. I adjusted the TV to the gaming setting and that brought my numbers down to around 35ms, but knowing that my Mitsubishi is a 0ms lag I can’t resist staying on that TV.
I bought this unit back in May 09′. I had indeed, looked over all of the posted comments concerning the Samsung LN52A650A1F. I purchased it anyway, and are now suffering with the rest of those poor souls that experience problems with the unit having their capacitors burning out, as well as the unit turning itself off/on sporatically! The Samsung Technician has been by here so many times, we’ve become best friends! Yes, for Pete’s sakes, DON’T BUY THIS UNIT!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
We purchased this set July 11,2008 from Amazon and have been very satisfied until recently. About one week ago, the unit started to cycle on and off a few times at start up. A little research revealed this is a very common problem with Samsung LCD sets and is frequently caused by capacitors on the power supply board going bad. Naturally, it only happens after the set is out of warranty, so the repair is several hundred dollars.
The failed capacitors are usually detectable visually and many folks have successfully completed the repair themselves for a few bucks (new caps and maybe some soldering tools), according to a tech report web site. You do have to lay the set down to take the back off in order to get to the circuit board. This site contains detailed instructions and pics and links to videos. Here is the link, although it might get deleted: [...]
I am going to see if the problem gets worse and will attempt the repair myself if needed, being adventurous (and chea – er, thrifty). I will post follow ups.
This is a real shame because we really love the set – note the attributes are all five stars.
This is as good as it gets for the year and price, I am picky and have no complaints other then a weak remote, oh well everything cant be perfect…….
I’ve had this unit for 16 months now. Though I was very happy with the image initially I now have power issues. The TV tries to turn on but can’t. I can hear it clicking to power up but never happens. It simply keeps clicking with no picture. I’ve tried unplugging the unit and then trying again but that hasn’t helped. I have seen many issues concerning this problem from other customers. The typical solution is to have it serviced and pay $500 for a new part. This is a major design flaw for Samsung not to correct. Since this is an inherent design problem they should service these as if under warranty. 16 months is far to short of operation for a $2500 product. I can’t recommend this product.
First I will say that hands down for the price this set has one of the finest pictures around.
And now the bad news – either the quality control or effort in design is horrible.
A very common problem with Samsung electronics is to use cheap components and in some cases undervalued components.
The Power Supply board is known to generally fail within thirteen or so months due to blown capacitors. In the circuit where 16 to 25 volt caps should be placed Samsung selected to put just 10 volt and the results are blown caps in a very short time frame.
The fix for anyone familiar with how to replace board components is relatively easy as this board in question is very accessible from the back of the set. But for the majority it means shelling out a few hundred dollars to get fixed.
Will I buy another Samsung – cannot say for sure if it is worth the trouble.
By comparison I have a smaller Vizio LCD quite a few years old that is on all the time and has a nice picture – not once has it ever given us a problem. I think the next round is going to be reliability vs. picture quality.
Samsung LN52A650 52-Inch 1080p 120 Hz LCD HDTV with Red Touch of Color
I bought this TV back in July of 2008 for $2000. I have to say that this TV has proven to be a great product that has kept pace with the 2010 LCD models. Other than the new 2 inch LED models coming out this TV has a great picture quality whem combined with a good HD source (PS3, HD Set-top-box). Obviously this model has been replaced by the 750 and even the LN52B650 but when doing a side by side comparison the picture appears just as good. Samsung has released new features to the newer models but most of them are either marketing gimmicks are can be done with external hardware like a PS3. My only issue with this TV was the speakers, prior to setting up my receiver/5.1 setup the audio was very weak. I felt I had to set the audio to 60+ (TV was in a large open room), this is a minor issue as I would imagine most people purchasing a TV of this price have matched it up with at least a HT in a box.
I bought this set in January 2009. The picture quality has been great, and it is a good TV set in general. However, after about 10 months, the TV started to have power cycle problems. When we tried to turn the TV on or off, it will keep turning on and off repeatedly. When this happens, we have to unplug the power supply, and wait for some time before we can plug it back and use the TV again. I contacted Samsung service, and got the latest firmware. You know what? My TV was built in late 2008 and it has already the latest firmware. The firmware Samsung service sent me is identical to what my TV has. So it is not the firmware problem. Here I made a critical mistake: I didn’t follow through and request a repair service from Samsung while it was still under warranty. I thought the issue was still manageable, so it was not worth wasting time to get the service. Big mistake. Now 3 months later, the power problem got worse, and we can no long even turn the TV on.
The TV looks great when it is working. But there are fundamental quality/design issues with its power supply. A great TV without power is useless, and you will be better off with a lesser TV that is more reliable.
I will wait and see how the service/repair works out and comment more afterward.
This has been a great bedroom tv so far with no problems (had it for over a year)
This has been a great bedroom tv so far with no problems (had it for over a year)
This has been a great bedroom tv so far with no problems (had it for over a year)
This has been a great bedroom tv so far with no problems (had it for over a year)
This has been a great bedroom tv so far with no problems (had it for over a year)
This has been a great bedroom tv so far with no problems (had it for over a year)
This has been a great bedroom tv so far with no problems (had it for over a year)
This has been a great bedroom tv so far with no problems (had it for over a year)
This has been a great bedroom tv so far with no problems (had it for over a year)
We bought LN52A650A 52″ Samsung LCD TV for Christmas in December of 2008. We have never purchased a Samsung product and were surprised that Consumer Reports rated this TV as number !. We researched this product endlessly and saw little to no negative reviews. We bought the TV from Amazon, had great delivery and set up service and loved the tv until now (which is 16 months later). In February 2010, just after it’s warrenty period ended, (during Superbowl!!) we had an episode of the TV turning itself on and off once or twice. We thought it was the DVR. IT stopped and we didn’t think too much of it. For the past 3 days (now April, 2010) we can barely keep the TV on because it is constantly powering off and on and, of course, it’s now hocky play off time. We had to connect our 3 year old 19″ REFURBISHED Magnavox LCD that we use in our kitchen to our living room cable. It has been one of the most reliable tv’s we have ever had. Thank you, PHILIPS. So much for high end!
We called Samsung who has set up a repair technician to call us back and will post results after we deal with them. We went on this website tonight to research whether or not anyone else had this problem and are appalled at how many customers have had the same issue and their lack of success dealing with Samsung! Bottom line, DON’T BUY THIS PRODUCT. No TV that costs as much as we paid for it should have these problems.
Went in with my roommate to get this TV about 2 years ago. At the time it was going for $3600, but we bought it from Circuit City for $2100 before the stores closed. I mounted this puppy on the wall of our apartment and never once had an issue with it. The controller that comes with the unit is crappy, but we used a universal one so that didn’t matter. I did a good amount of shopping around and no set came close to consideration compared to this one.
I can tell you right now, this is a steal at just $1k. The gimmicky sellpoints are so mundane now. There has hardly been any noteworthy advances in the television industry in the past two years. Especially to warrant considering a new model upwards of $2k when you would be hard-pressed to notice any clarity difference or quality improvement over this set. 240-hz is just a selling point and hardly makes any difference. And the notion that 3D is going to take over soon is ridiculous. Common consumers were just forced to upgrade their tube TVs to flat panels over the past 5 years. Whoever believes that they would be willing to shell out more big bucks for a 3D-compatible TV is kidding themselves. 3D isn’t even on the horizon at the moment.
Anyone looking for a large flat panel with a beautiful picture, great contrast, and reliable construction…do yourself a favor and pick this baby up. Your wallet will thank you.
Although the LN2A650 is discontinued, there are newer generations of Samsung TV’s that still get pretty good ratings. I have no reason to believe that their design and/or build quality is worth your time, money, and piece of mind. Don’t be fooled like I was…
I have not owned any other Samsung products and was reluctant to purchase a Samsung TV to begin with, but it came highly rated from reputable consumer and electronics evaluators (i.e. CR, CNET, etc) for picture quality, adjustability, and the like. On October 21, 2008, I was excited to finally be getting rid of my 10 year old 32″ tube and decided to go for the then-well regarded LN52A650. I enjoyed it thoroughly with my 7.1 surround sound system, HD cable channels, PS3 games, and Blu-ray discs. Then on May 27, 2010, it began rapidly cycling on/off for no apparent reason.
A little online research reveals that this has not been an isolated problem. After the TV began cycling on/off, I tried various fixes as directed by Samsung (all to no avail): upgraded the firmware, unplugged it for 30 seconds, removed it from the surge protector and plugged directly into wall outlet, etc. They offered to cover the cost of the replacement of the capacitor, but would not cover anything else. (As a side note, the capacitor was not an issue with my TV in particular, but had been an issue with other Samsung TV’s.)
Samsung tech support, customer service, and repair people were all very friendly, but that does not make up for the fact that the TV was out of warranty and they weren’t inclined to do anything about it. The earliest appointment was two weeks out and the window was an utterly inconvenient seven hours. I took a day off from work, paid $95 for the repair guy to spend no more than 15 minutes with the TV, before I was informed that it needed the LCD panel replaced because of the backlight overloading. The panel with labor would cost nearly a grand and it would take at least a week for the part to ship from California. He emphasized that this LCD replacement panel is “popular” and might be on back order. Even if I were to do the repair there is no guarantee that I wouldn’t have the same problem again.
It is sad that the reliability with these TV’s has been so bad. The repair guy acknowledged that they do give him a fair amount of job security. He also noted that most people choose to buy a new TV rather than have it fixed. It is even more disappointing that Samsung doesn’t stand behind their products more — there is clearly an issue with many of their TV’s (almost seems like they’re following the old Toyota play book).
I guess if I had less faith in Samsung from the start, I’d have gotten an extended warranty. I just thought they had better credibility after having done all of my research before the big purchase. Now all I’m left with is a $2,000 paperweight and the solace of knowing that as the “go-to guy” for all things electronics with my family and friends that I can effectively prevent a few others from purchasing Samsung products in the future.
Excellent television, picture quality is unsurpassed. Very large, perfect size for a living room. We don’t use the built-in speakers, so I cannot comment on them. Don’t bother using the included remote, spend a little extra money on a Logitech Harmony.