Samsung PND7000, Sony NX720 TVs win CNET's 2011 Editors' Choice Award

Samsung's PND7000 is our top recommendation overall among 2011 HDTVs.

(Credit:
Sarah Tew/CNET)

After reviewing many of the best TVs of 2011, I've decided to give this year's Editors' Choice to the Samsung PND7000 plasma and the Sony KDL-NX720 LED-based LCD TV. Here's why.

Samsung PND7000 series: For the last couple of years our Editors' Choice TVs have been Panasonic plasmas, which have managed to eke out a win against TVs from archrival Samsung. In 2011, the PND8000 and PND7000 plasmas from Samsung showed significant improvement, delivering better black levels than ever before, along with reference color.

When I compared them directly with Panasonic's best plasma, the TC-PVT30 series, I again liked the Panasonic's picture just a bit better, saying, "The PVT30 has superior black-level performance and shadow detail, as well as arguably better video processing. The Samsungs win for color accuracy, 3D performance, and bright-room picture. All three TVs were quite close in nearly every picture quality characteristic I test, and all three rightly earn performance scores of 9."

That said, there's more to my Editors' Choice than just picture quality, and with a virtual tie like this I'll turn to the other category I consider most important: value.[Read more]