According to a recent report, in the last year Samsung finally managed to snag the largest share of the worldwide flat-panel LCD market. Taking a look at the new Samsung LN-T5265F 52-inch LCD HDTV, that's easy to understand. Not only does this TV have future-ready HDMI 1.3 connectivity and Deep Color compatibility, it offers a very impressive range of picture tweaks, including an auto-contrast mode that delivers some of the deepest blacks I've seen yet on an LCD. And the best part of the story is that Samsung delivers all this at an extremely competitive $3,000 street price ($4,800 list).

With a uniform black bezel and a tabletop stand, this set seems designed to disappear into any space it's placed in. The glossy and glassy front is a departure from other LCD TVs (which typically use a nonreflective matte surface for the screen), and though it looks good, it also reflects room light like crazy. Suffice to say, this Samsung will perform best in a room where you can exercise tight control over ambient light. Fortunately, its stand swivels left or right up to 45° — a feature that could come in handy for reducing glare. Some basic control buttons are tucked away on the top surface, while a convenience jackpack with an HDMI input and a USB port for viewing digital photos are on the side.

With Blu-ray Disc and HD DVD players fast becoming standard weapons in the high-def arsenal alongside cable and satellite set-tops, a total of three HDMI inputs has become the minimum for new HDTVs. Samsung's got you covered here, along with a pair of component-video jacks and a VGA computer input on the back panel. However, the TV's remote is similar to those that come with the company's Blu-ray players — skinny, wandlike, and packed with buttons, most of which aren't backlit. I probably don't have to add that, in a dark room, I had trouble finding specific buttons without using a flashlight. To switch sources, you press the Source button repeatedly to toggle through the set's active inputs. Pressing the P.Size button cycles through the aspect-ratio options; high-def options include Just Scan (displays 16:9 HDMI signals with no overscan), 16:9 (16:9 format images with modest overscan), 4:3, and Wide Fit. With standard-def programs, two additional picture-zoom modes are available.

SETUP
The LN-T5265F offers three picture presets: Movie, Standard, and Dynamic. Individual settings for each preset can be customized for any one of the TV's inputs, and the set will store your adjustments. The Color Tone option provides five color-temperature presets, with Warm2 being the most accurate. And a user-accessible White Balance adjustment gives you all the tools required to more precisely tweak grayscale — something I took advantage of (see Test Bench).

The Short Form

Price $3,000 ($4,800 list) / samsung.com / 800-726-7864

Snapshot

Samsung's newest big-screen LCD looks to be its best yet.

Plus

•Dynamic Contrast setting delivers impressively deep blacks for an LCD TV •Strong shadow detail •Great high-def picture detail •Good value

Minus

•Glassy screen reflects ambient room light •Colors can look overly vivid •Crowded remote-control keypad not backlit

Key Features

•1,920 x 1,080-pixel screen •Deep Color-compatible HDMI 1.3 inputs •Side-panel HDMI and USB inputs •Inputs: 3 HDMI and 2 composite-, component-, and S-video; VGA; 2 RF (antenna and cable); 5 analog stereo audio; minijack stereo audio; USB •52.2 x 31 x 4.4in; 65.3 lb

Test Bench

With the Movie and Warm2 presets selected, the Samsung's grayscale displayed a blue bias, tracking approximately +900 K of the 6,500-K standard. User menu adjustments brought that to within ±362 K from 30 to 100 IRE — about average for an LCD set. The set's red, green, and blue color points all showed significant oversaturation compared with the SMPTE HD spec. And color-decoder tests also revealed a severe —25% green error, as well as a —5% red error, on the HDMI inputs. Overscan measured 0% in Just Scan mode with high-def signals and 5% in 16:9 mode. 1080p and 720p test patterns displayed very cleanly and with full resolution via HDMI, but the same patterns delivered as 1080i looked slightly softer. Both 1080i and 720p patterns via component video looked slightly soft and displayed a degree of moiré. Screen uniformity was good when viewed head-on or from off-center seats. However, low-level full-field patterns (30 IRE and under) looked lighter at the edges than at the screen's center, the effect of which could occasionally be seen on regular programs. Full Lab Results

Digging further into the Samsung's menus, I unearthed a handful of adjustments for coaxing out deeper, richer blacks. An HDMI Black Level setting lets you properly set video dynamic range according to the input signal (component or RGB), while the backlight adjustment can be used to modulate the brightness coming from the panel's fluorescent backlight. There are also Black Level, Gamma, and Black Adjust settings, although I didn't find much use for them. One thing I did find useful was the Samsung's Dynamic Contrast setting. Typically, settings of this sort tend to mess up my fine-tuned picture adjustments. But when I set the Dynamic Contrast option to the Low position, the picture was immediately transformed from ordinary to exceedingly punchy, with little harm done to the TV's black level or color balance.

PERFORMANCE
Director Darren Aronofsky's The Fountain is saddled with a baffling, New Agey premise — but having seen the film in a theater, I thought I'd check out the new Blu-ray Disc release on the Samsung. The TV did an excellent job delivering the deep blacks of outer space when one of Hugh Jackman's characters meditates on what looks like an asteroid surrounded by star clusters (don't ask; see the movie for yourself). And there was strong contrast between the pinpoints of celestial light and their black background. The only problem I saw here was a slight uniformity issue: The screen's sides looked lighter and had a faint purple tint in very dark shots such as this one.

Shadow detail on the Samsung was also very good. In an earlier scene where Spanish conquistadors enter a Mayan temple, I could see details in the soldiers' dark armor as they moved along the temple's gloomy interior. Not surprisingly, the range of displayed dark shades was limited compared with that of my theatrical experience, but it wasn't bad at all for an LCD set.

Detail on the Samsung was excellent, particularly when fed a 1080p source via an HDMI connection (1080i images viewed through the set's HDMI and component-video inputs looked slightly softer). In a shot where the asteroid-dwelling Jackman examines a dark impression on his finger where a ring used to be, I could clearly see fine skin creases and wiry hairs covering his hand. And the set's vibrant color reproduction brought out the full range of gold and yellow tones that crop up in almost every scene of The Fountain, from shots of the intricate star clusters to the interior of the cloister-like home that Jackman shares with his wife, played by Rachel Weisz. Skin tones looked both natural and varied; the difference between Weisz's porcelain complexion and Jackman's darker, ruddier face was always apparent. Even so, I found that on some other programs, especially high-def sports, colors looked too vivid, with grass in particular displaying a somewhat fake-looking hue.

BOTTOM LINE
At its $3,000 street price, the Samsung LN-T5265F 52-inch LCD HDTV is a seriously good deal. Not only does it cost less than many other 1080p LCDs at this size, it readily outperforms most of them. And the TV's other highlights — three HDMI 1.3 inputs, Deep Color compatibility, and extensive video adjustments — help make it a standout in a growing sea of big-screen flat-panels. If you've ever felt compelled to walk by the Samsungs on your way to checking out other name-brand LCDs, slow down. The LN-T5265F deserves its space on the top shelf.

Full Lab Results
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