Grabe ang hirap pala mamili ng LED compared to Plasma. With Plasma, you either get a model that is too glary or has got an effective anti-glare filter (for a premium). With these LEDs, you really have to play around with the settings a lot and find what your eyes like better.
Wala na kasing Panasonic Plasmas so I've been playing around with the VA panels of Samsung and Sony and comparing those with the IPS panels of LG and Panasonic. Kitang-kitang ngang madilim ang kadiliman ng Samsung VA pero ang ganda naman ng color saturation ng LG and Panasonic IPS once tweaked. No way to test dark room conditions inside BB but I could imagine na the LGs and Panasonic blacks may look "grayer" nga as the room gets darker. I don't know how much difference that would make in my TV viewing experience, but certainly under some lights, I personally think the LGs and Panasonics are better than Samsungs - mas malapit ang dating sa Plasma - nagkataon na a Samsung 4500 plasma was in between the Samsung 6030 and the LG5700 showing high-def broadcast at Sochi. Tweaked both the LEDs based on cinema/movie mode and everyone around me who witnessed agreed that the LG5700 turned out closer to the image of the Plasma (minus the strong reflection). And then I tried to play around with the setting of the IPS Panasonic ET60 and I even liked it better. Kaso, kung dark room nga DAW, mas maganda DAW ang contrast ng Samsung/Sony VA panels because their black is blacker. Now Im still confused.
Then direct lit vs edge-lit. Oh well pareho lang meron weaknesses and I don't think there is any difference in picture quality judging from the direct-lit Samsung 6030 vs the edge-lit Samsung 6300/6400. The only major difference is the cool factor of the super thin & slim bezel/structure of HDTVs using edge-lit. And since edge-lit is more expensive due to its more complex mechanism of spreading the backlight, mas mahal nga yung models with edge-lit. Personally if you don't mind the fatter direct-lit models (which are not exactly that fat anymore anyways), bang for the buck ang direct-lits like the Samsung 6030 and the LG5700.
Smart or not Smart - never used the Smart features of my current Plasmas so I don't really care - kung meron ay meron, kung wala ay ok lang.
To 3D or not - well it's a good bonus feature.
Ang hirap pumili kaya all these models of Samsung, LG, Sony and Panasonic models are in my cart right now. hehehe
Recommendations based on price performance: Samsung6030, Samsung 6200/6300, LG5700, Panasonic ET60, SonyR550A and Vizio M series. I don't know about game mode though because dyan naman papasok yung input lag and perhaps the relevance of having dual-core processor.