Panasonic Viera TC-PS2

One of the big advantages of plasma compared to LCD and LED-based TVs has nothing to do with off-angle viewing or picture uniformity--it centers on simple bang for the buck. The S2 series from Panasonic offers plenty of said bang, with mostly solid...

Relatively inexpensive; decent black-level performance; solid grayscale accuracy; fingerprint-resistant finish; energy-efficient for a plasma.

Inaccurate primary colors and gamma; subpar bright-room quality; last year's Panasonic plasmas lost black-level performance over relatively short periods of time; sparse picture controls; uses significantly more power than LCDs.

Though it's not without its performance gaffes, the midrange Panasonic TC-PS2 series of plasma TVs still offers very good image quality for the price.