Samsung UN55C6500 55 inch Series 6 LED TV
Jan 22nd, 2011 | By SimonI know many people are jealous that I get to test different TVs but let me tell you that it is hard work. ;) I’ve got to subject myself to hours of use! In order to fully enjoy a TV you have to be able to see it. Not every room allows you to have a TV stand where you sit directly in front of the screen. In cases where you need to rotate the panel a few degrees to the left or right the 55C6500 allows you to do so. You have approximately 15 degrees clockwise and counter-clockwise movement.
This allows you to maximize your viewing angle. In cases where you still don’t sit perpendicular to the screen the 55C6500 has a decent viewing angle. Even at 160 degrees you can still make out fine details and colors.
To test out the TV I enjoyed a variety of sources: TV, PC, HDMI and network sources. All of them came out crystal clear.
Early in the review you may have recognized a few pictures of Fringe being shown on the TV. This was a very low resolution source, only 652×352. The 55C6500 is a 1080p TV and we need some 1080p source! Below we have a trailer capture of I am Legend in 1080p. The detail is very sharp and the color is very vibrant. In dark scenes the C6500 had some issues making out the details. In order to rectify this you really need to watch videos in the dynamic mode where the contrast ratio adjusts in order to improve picture quality. The regular standard is just not good enough for movies. The movie mode isn’t bad either. With the 120 Hz Auto Motion Plus technology you don’t have any blurring effects. The transitions are seamless to the naked eye, a camera can still catch the subtleties.
I enjoy using my TV as the monitor for my computer. The 55C6500 has a native resolution of 1920 by 1080 and that gives you plenty of desktop space. The screen size is also large enough that from a distance the text of most websites are still readable; the exception goes to fine print found on some pages. As I noted to earlier, the color range is huge so if you need to edit photos or work on CAD files, the 55C6500 makes for a great alternative. The big screen allows you to show things off to clients without having them to squint at a tiny little monitor.
Testing a TV is subjective, what you interpret will be different than what I interpret. I always recommend to friends that when you’re shopping for a TV you find a retailer that has them all out on display. This way you can stand in front of a few different models and see if your eyes like it. To take away from some of the subjectivity, I like to have a look at two technical subjects.