Sometimes, you don't have to lift a ï¬nger to ï¬nd a killer TV deal – one comes to you instead. And that's the case with the new Samsung PS50A556 plasma television.

Offering 50ins of screen real estate and a Full HD resolution for a little over £1,000, it's guaranteed to get some people's attention, especially when compared to the 50in 1080p-compliant Pioneer PDP-LX5090, which, at around £2,500, is more than twice the price.

Okay, so the Pioneer is an exceptionally good TV, but the point still stands: on paper, this is a similarly-equipped plasma at less than half the cost.

Solid start

It certainly doesn't look or feel like a budget option. The set is well-made; solidly constructed and competently styled in standard-issue high-gloss black (the slightly pricier PS50A656 model comes in a ï¬ery red ï¬nish, for those who are into that sort of thing).

I'm not personally a fan of the build- quality of Samsung's LCD TV range – they've got more plastic on show than Jocelyn Wildenstein – but have no such complaints about its plasmas, which are heavier, sturdier and much less likely to attract scratches and dust.

There are a couple of nice instances of design flair on display too, namely the nifty touch-sensitive controls on the right hand side of the screen and the slim blue power light.

Extensive connectivity

Connectivity is similarly impressive, with Samsung including three v1.3 HDMI ports (one on the left side panel), plus component video, a pair of Scarts and a PC input.

Also at the back is an optical audio output for hooking the TV to an external sound system, while at
the side you'll ï¬ nd S-video and composite inputs, a CI card slot for adding Setanta Sports and a USB port.

The latter can be used for MP3 music and JPEG photo playback from a USB stick; it doesn't work with external hard disk drives, unfortunately. All in all, that's as good an array of sockets as you could expect, and it means you can connect up several HD sources with a minimum of fuss.

Adjusting brightness

I found myself pleasantly surprised with the picture quality straight away. While the black levels can't touch the epic, super-clean bottomlessness of Pioneer's Kuro screens, they're sufï¬ciently inky to give the picture a pleasing sense of depth.

I spun up the opening scene of Sunshine on Blu-ray, where the Icarus II spacecraft is shown sweeping past the camera: the unending blackness of space in the background actually looks fairly convincing here, rather than washed-out and slightly grey.

The cell brightness can be adjusted, which is fairly unusual for a plasma. This lets you reduce the overall brightness behind the picture, which helps maintain the darkness of the blacks when you're watching in an unlit room. That said, there's still a bit of 'bite' lacking in the very darkest areas.

Bold and beautiful

1080p24 material on Blu-ray is fully supported, so ï¬lms can be played at their native speed if you wish.

You can also enable xvYCC-expanded colour space if you've got a source capable of outputting it. That said, colour reproduction isn't this TV's strong point, and while there's a nice vibrancy to oranges, reds and greens, gradation from light to dark isn't as smooth as I'd have liked – for example, the sun in the opening scene of Sunshine looks a little like an archery target, rather than a massive ball of ï¬re, indicating a lack of bit-depth.

Gaming goodies

Motion is handled well. There's little sign of ghosting, even with the quick-panning, high-tempo footie fest that is Pro Evolution Soccer 2008 on the Xbox 360 – but then you wouldn't expect to see any real issues with that on a plasma screen.

Samsung's Movie Plus technology also proves effective when it comes to removing judder, particularly on ï¬lm content, although it doesn't measure up to the standards of technologies like Philips' Perfect Natural Motion, and becomes totally unavailable when you're watching a Blu-ray ï¬lm in 1080p24 – which is why I noticed plenty of judder as Icarus II made that fly-by in Sunshine.

I also spotted some minor motion artefacts appearing during very quick pans; shimmering areas, usually visible in character's faces.

Razor's edge detail

As you'd expect from a large, 1920 x 1080 resolution screen, detail from a hi-def source is almost sharp enough to slice open your eyeballs. Total Recall (recently released on Blu-ray) has never looked so good – the deï¬nition available from this Arnie favourite is often jaw-dropping.

It's not always clean, sadly – the backgrounds in the ï¬rst episode of BBC HD's aerial photography showcase Britain from Above were surprisingly busy with noise, even with the TV's reduction tech cranked up – but objects are crisp and sharp-edged.