Can not be beat even close to this price point! December 01, 2009

Buy this TV, I did, and I am thoroughly happy, excited, thrilled... and so on!

If you love watching movies at home, HD television, or sports then you will be thoroughly happy, excited, thrilled... and so on as well!

I have had this TV (or should I say window into amazingness) for about a week.  Right out of the box, and set up in less than 5 minutes the TV picture was fantactic without changing a thing.  I have only made a couple minor adjustments to the factory settings just for personal preference, and it is perfect.  The picture looks so life like it is almost 3D.  The colors are vibrant!  The whites are bright white!!  And the blacks, well they are truly black, not some greyish form of black!!!  Screen glare which can be an issue on some plasmas is a non-issue with this plasma, the only time I notice reflections is when the screen is off.

The TV's menu looks awesome, and is very user friendly.  All your options are described in detail, I have not even felt like I need to look at the manual.

I wish I had a PS3 so I could tell you how amazing it looks, because I am sure it would, but that is in the works.

If you are planning to get this TV, and do not have a Blu Ray Player, do yourself a favor and get a Samsung Blu Ray player as well, they instantly work together when connected with HDMI, which of course is what will give you your HD picture anyway.  Besides, when Samsung made their Blu Ray Players they had their TVs in mind, so why not match them up!?  Needless to say I have both, and the picture from Blu Ray on this TV is unbeatable.

In closing, happiness will abound, excitement will be had, thrillification is forthcoming when you bring this TV home.  Just try not to shed a tear when you first see your favorite movie, Monday Night Football, or for that matter the evening news on this TV.  Thank you for your time, now go buy the TV already!

Beautiful picture, intuitive setup, great menu interface. November 25, 2009

Great color and picture quality adjustability were major pluses. Very nice backlit remote. Menus are easy to use and understand. Plenty of guidance on internet for video setup, but setup straight out of box is great, if a little too colorful. I feel no need for calibration which would cost a couple hundred dollars.  You either like ToC around bezel or not. We like the wine red color and feel like TV looks better with it. Very easy to perform firmware update which alleviates an issue referred to in other reviews regarding use of HDMI hookup with Bluray or DVD player in Cinema Mode. This was very important to me and the reason to step up to 650 model over 550, which is less expensive. If you are not watching Bluray with eye toward filmlike quaity vs video then stick to 550 and save money. Only issue we have is sound quality through TV alone is not that great, but that is similar problem with Panasonic and Sony as well. You really need a home theater or other sonic solution such as a sound bar to get maximum benefit. That said, we still watch most of our TV without cranking up home theater, so its not that bad. Plasma looks great from different angles, so we get better picture from different areas of the room than on old LCD. We use the stand and like how it looks and allows ability to rotate TV, which is especially  nice for hooking things up. Most other stands look chintzy in comparison. Overall I am very pleased with TV. I feel plasma is still way to go until LED/LCD's drop in price. Sears is great place to purchase. I have looked at prices on this model for several months. Careful shopping convinced me that you would be hard pressed to get a better deal anywhere, especially on a Samsung. I believe that the ability to return to a real store if needed, would outweigh a small potential price difference from some place I never heard of. Fortunately no problems. I picked it up to save delivery charge, and that may be a factor for some. It was ready much faster than "anticipated date." I have no connection to Sears other than as a customer. 

Best Bang for your Buck July 30, 2009

After extensive research, both online and in-person, I ended up with this world-class TV. The picture quality on the B650 is as good as any TV you can currently buy. The color reproduction is in fact THE BEST available. The feature set, specifically picture adjustments, are extensive and unmatched by competitors like Panasonic. The video processing is also as good as you can get. And, of course the exterior styling is better than the rivals by a long shot. Now that professional reviews have starting coming in, it has been confirmed that this TV is world-class. If you're considering an LCD or LED, stop and check out this plasma, it completely blows other technology out of the water. If you watch movies and sports there is no competition for plasma, and Samsung hit a home run with the B650 plasma. Highly recommended.

Excellent while it worked June 25, 2009

Purchased tv on 6/2/09. Got it home and hooked it up. WOW!!! The picture was excellent. LCD's do not compare with this tv. This tv has 3,000,000 to 1 contrast ratio and the blacks are black and the whites are white. The colors on this plasma is natural, does not look fake as on LCD. I am not knocking LCD's as they have their advantages. True SRS was excellent also. I have not noticed any glare on screen unless tv is off. I researched for two years and could not have made a better purchase. Don't worry about burn in. Samsung has several features on this tv that shifts the pixels and also has a burn in fix if it happens. You would have to fall asleep for days to have burn in. My only concern is, that two weeks after purchase my wife was watching the tv and the screen went green and then turned itself off and on several times. Troubleshooted and found out the HDMI connections was not being recognized. Took back to sears and they glady exchanged the tv. I am still waiting on my unit since my store did not carry them in stock. I hope I don't have the same problem with the new unit. I assume I just got a bad panel. But all features lived up to the test. Overall I would purchase this tv again assuming I do not have the same issue as noted above.