Visit a showroom and check out both the TV's side by side, everyone keeps talking about the Bravia's BE3 engine but i spent close to 4hrs looking at them side by side playing SD content and I couldn't figure out any difference at all :ashamed: (was expecting the sony to be better since it only had to upscale to 720p and not 1080p)
The only Bravia I found worth was the W series.
About the panel, adder had posted info about recognizing the type of panel used in the Samsung in one of the other threads ... just make sure to avoid the CMO panel at all cost.