A local retail salesman once told me that many of the first HP plasma TVs were made by Panasonic. He said it was an easy sell because the Panasonic plasmas were very highly rated at the time, and you could buy an HP for a much lower price that was basically the same plasma.

Now, however, I've heard that Hewlett Packard makes almost all the components in their 42" and 50" plasma TVs. Needless to say, I was interested to find out how HP is doing.

Upon inspection the HP plasma has no discernable similarity to the Panasonic, except great image quality. Below are the details of my review, following hours of watching (and, I admit, enjoying) the 42" plasma in action. I will break my review into the following categories: 1. Picture quality 2. Sound quality 3. Design 4. Ease of Use 5. Reliability 6. Overall Value.

1. Picture Quality
The picture is very natural on the HP plasma. I have seen some plasma TVs that are so saturated that it gives an unreal effect. Instead of natural shades of different colors and believable tones, especially skin tones, some plasmas display what appear to be patches of color that just don't look real. I'm pleased to report that this is not a problem on the HP plasma. Of course different results can be gained by adjusting the color, sharpness, contrast, etc., and it actually took several minutes of adjustment to get the desired effect. Once adjusted, however, the colors are rich, bright, and surprisingly natural. Fast motion is smooth, whether from a digital or analog source, and high definition picture is impressively sharp. Make sure you don't turn the sharpness too high, or you will create some undesired noise from over-sharpening.

2. Sound Quality
(For those of you who have a surround sound and plan on removing the speakers, you may skip this section if you wish.) Although not incredibly loud, the speakers on the side of the plasma put out good, natural sound. There is good bass response, and conversation is easily understood. I've heard louder speakers from a flat panel TV, but I appreciate that you can max the volume to a reasonably loud level with good bass and treble, but without distortion. The sound certainly has a lot of room to resonate in that big speaker box.

3. Design
What was HP thinking putting those ugly, hulking speakers on the side of the plasma like that? I have to say, if you take off the base, and the speakers, this plasma looks sleek and sexy on the wall. It's almost all screen, and the matte black finish doesn't distract at all from the picture. I would've suggested a subtler speaker, but I like the fact that you can completely detach the speakers. The $4000 Pioneer plasma has detachable speakers, but most of the plasma TVs under that price range have speakers that can't be removed. It's nice to see that feature in a lower-priced plasma, especially since the speakers are so ugly.

4. Ease of Use
From the get-go these plasmas are easy to setup. The menu interface - although just slightly sluggish – is informative and easy to configure. Picture settings are easily adjusted. The auto scan for channels is sufficiently effective. The remote is comfortable in the hand and buttons are logically arranged. People will have no trouble operating this television. Connections are in a logical placement on the rear of the TV, facing downward. This might be advantageous in some wall-mounting situations.

5. Reliability
One of the reasons I held off on posting this review was due to the newness of these TVs to the market. Now that some time has passed since they have been released we have more reliability on them. So far, repairs happen more than average with this model, and its 50” counterpart. Common problems range from dying tuners, shorted out speakers, to other image display problems. Local repairman I have consulted report above average amounts of service calls of these TVs in our region, and they also complain about the difficulty in receiving parts or repair support for the HP plasmas. Often, customers have had to wait as long as one and a half months to get their TVs back from service.

6. Overall Value
Even thought the performance, image quality, and price are all very competitive, I would hold off on purchasing one of this line of HP’s plasma TVs due solely to the repair issues. It does provide good performance for the price, but it’s reliability track record has so far been below average.



Recommended: No

Amount Paid (US$): 1499