Panasonic Z95B OLED TV Review: Glorious Performance, One Small Catch

Impeccable representation prime and surface uniformity. Next-gen brightness. Perfect achromatic levels with large glare reduction. Top-notch colour rendering and shadiness detail. Improved upscaling. Support for each large HDR formats. Solid gaming features. ATSC 3.0 support. Excellent onboard sound, including Dolby Atmos.

Fire TV is inactive frustrating. Only 2 HDMI 2.1 ports.

There are four existent TV models with representation prime that rises supra each others we’ve tested. It’s astir apt nary astonishment they're each OLEDs, which not lone power each tiny constituent of airy astatine the pixel level, but person besides gotten brighter and amended successful each of the past fewer years. What mightiness astonishment you if you haven’t shopped TVs successful a portion is that Panasonic present joins the accustomed suspects from Samsung, Sony, and LG with its caller flagship, the Z95B. It’s a doozy.

As with past year’s Z95A that marked Panasonic’s awesome US return, the Z95B provides near-flawless performance, from cleanable achromatic levels to pristine item and colors. It’s brighter and much striking, acknowledgment to skillful deployment of the aforesaid breakthrough RGB tandem sheet utilized successful the stunning LG G5, and its built-in dependable is easy the champion I’ve heard from immoderate TV each year.

The biggest downside is that its premium show is again paired with a fund astute interface; Panasonic’s mentation of Fire TV is awkwardly laid retired and flooded with Amazon ads, close down to the remote. But for well-heeled buyers who'd alternatively sub successful a streaming instrumentality implicit a soundbar oregon speakers, the Z95B is 1 of the champion TVs I've laid eyes (or ears) on.

Screen connected a Swivel

Setting up the Z95B’s hardware is joyously elemental erstwhile you pry it escaped from its jigsaw of foam and cardboard. The industrial-strength swivel basal comes successful 1 portion and attaches successful seconds, keeping the 65-inch exemplary I tested unchangeable and accessible with 4 tiny screws. The TV looks the portion of a premium flagship, with bladed bezels and fabric-wrapped acoustic accents.

The circular basal is slim capable to enactment an add-on soundbar, but this TV functions champion arsenic an all-in-one. One crushed is the HDMI selection, which includes conscionable 2 ports with HDMI 2.1 enactment for features similar ALLM and VRR astatine up to 144 Hz, 1 of which is the eARC/ARC larboard wherever a soundbar oregon talker strategy would connect.

The built-in dependable strategy supports Dolby Atmos (but not DTS:X), with up-firing and side-firing speakers, a beforehand talker array, and a backside woofer. Panasonic adjacent offers Sound Focus bundle to supply much directional audio. The Z95B sounds large for a TV, with awesome extent and a amazingly immersive soundstage. My lone complaints are that treble effects tin occasionally get tinny, and the bass sometimes caused immoderate console buzzing for me.

The TV adds plentifulness of gaming extras, including speedy input response, a built-in crippled bar, and enactment for AMD FreeSync Premium and Nvidia G-Sync. You’ll besides get video streaming implicit AirPlay and Google Cast, ATSC 3.0 for Nextgen channels from TV antennas, and enactment for each large HDR flavors, including HDR10+ and Dolby Vision—something nary premium rivals offer.

Fire TV Is Not Fire

For each it offers, the Z95B's Fire TV acquisition is frustrating compared to favorites similar Google TV oregon Roku. That starts with a engaged homescreen that someway allows for conscionable six streaming apps astatine a time, with a drop-down for others—not perfect successful the bifurcated streaming landscape. As with the Z95A, aggregate apps loaded dilatory oregon froze for maine implicit Wi-Fi. Moving to Ethernet fixed it, truthful it could beryllium a web issue, but I trial a lot of TVs implicit Wi-Fi without trouble.

The afloat setup requires an Amazon account, oregon you tin take the Basic homescreen, but that cuts your streaming options to conscionable 5 apps. In either case, I recovered the Settings layout unintuitive, including immoderate options that whitethorn request to beryllium manually changed to usage a connected dependable system, specified arsenic the One Touch Play setting—another crushed this TV works champion arsenic a stand-alone.

As for the remote, it isn't backlit, offers nary input cardinal by default, and 2 of its 4 speedy keys are Amazon services. Even the crippled barroom needs to beryllium manually assigned to the lone speedy cardinal for access. If you similar Alexa, she tin beryllium summoned from some the distant and the TV, but if you don’t privation her listening, you’ll request to crook disconnected the mic power hidden astatine the TV’s near flank.

In Fire TV’s defense, it's beauteous speedy to navigate, its default surface savers are gorgeous, and determination are aggregate ways to leap backmost into content, including a coagulated Continue Watching option. Plus, if you similar to fine-tune your experience, determination are plenty of ways to bash so.

That’s a Lotta Picture Modes!

Getting an close (and beautiful) representation tin beryllium arsenic elemental oregon progressive arsenic you desire, depending connected however persnickety you are. All the film-forward modes (and determination are several) look good. As with the Z95A, I similar Professional 1 for basal HD/SDR broadcasts, arsenic it’s brighter than modes similar Filmmaker oregon True Cinema portion inactive looking large successful immoderate mounting by default. The TV’s HDR/SDR Sync diagnostic means HDR10 and HDR10+ volition lucifer whichever mode you take (unless you crook it off), and the HDR modes are adjacent much alike, but I similar that Professional 1 turns disconnected ambient airy sensors and question smoothing by default.

There is 1 unusual wrinkle successful that each of the astir close HDR10 representation modes person the backlight acceptable to 70/100 alternatively than the accustomed 100. Interestingly, mounting it to 100 created immoderate clipping successful opposition tests and overbrightening successful others. As Panasonic’s engineers confirmed, the TV performs champion astatine 70, and should decently airy up the brightest highlights successful 4K HDR Blu-rays. Those who privation other popular are invited to crank it, but it shouldn’t beryllium indispensable to get the goods.

Dolby Vision HDR is simply a antithetic entity, acceptable astatine 100 backlight by default. Even the default Dolby Vision IQ mode looks fantastic, but I similar the somewhat dimmer but much close Dark Mode, which looks virtually flawless by default, nary notes.

Stunning Payoff

When it comes to performance, the Z95B handles similar a dream, letting you beryllium backmost and bask the ride. I kept calling it the “Avatar of TVs,” acknowledgment to its quality to bring a taxable parkland vibe to my favourite shows and movies. Before changing a azygous setting, I was stopped successful my tracks arsenic I passed my wife’s Boba Fett catch-up connected Disney+. Flawless achromatic levels, glittering stars, and beaded ruby cockpit lights shone beautifully against the pearlescent gleam of Mando’s helmet arsenic helium swooped done the depths of space.

Space is the close situation for a TV with this level of staggering contrast, and it’s not conscionable the melodramatic moments, but besides the much subtly lit scenes that basal out. Guardians of the Galaxy Volume 2 is afloat of searing highlights and colorful bursts of abstraction glow, but moments similar the crisp sunrise connected the Guardians’ plumb-brown shirts oregon the acheronian corridors of their tiny vessel were conscionable arsenic awesome acknowledgment to the Z95B’s masterful colour gradients and shadiness detail.

That meticulous interaction comes done successful everything you watch, including plain aged HD sitcoms similar The Office, wherever I recovered myself oddly enamored with moments similar the auburn highlights of Jim’s hairsbreadth oregon the gleam of Andy’s tie. This whitethorn not beryllium the crushed you bargain a premium TV, but it’s beauteous to find joyousness successful the small things. Skin tones look astir touchably earthy and clean, enhanced by the TV's knockout representation processing, and adjacent lower-quality video looks bully with its improved upscaling.

That’s not to accidental you won’t find plentifulness of bombast here; the Z95B gets arsenic agleam arsenic anyone should request erstwhile decently tasked. Playing Mad Max: Fury Road connected 4K HDR Blu-ray with the Panasonic DP-UB9000 elicited the cleanable dichotomy betwixt the dull godforsaken backdrop and the catastrophic lightning storm. The storm’s jagged bolts divided the entity with precision, erupting with blistering shocks of orangish and white, close down to that sputtering white-hot flare.

Part of the Z95B’s potency comes from its fantabulous glare reduction. Like the LG G5, it’s capable to trim everything but nonstop reflections portion preserving its obsidian backdrop for a much melodramatic opposition successful brighter rooms than Sony’s rival Bravia 8 II QD-OLED. I deliberation the Bravia beats some TVs for representation clarity, but it’s close. Only Samsung’s akin S95F offers a much potent mode to termination the glare portion inactive preserving contrast.

The Z95B and G5 are unsurprisingly similar, fixed that they stock the aforesaid panel. The Z95B feels somewhat much earthy successful its colour and lighting, and a spot amended for off-axis viewing, but that whitethorn beryllium recency bias. I’d request to spot them back-to-back to constituent to immoderate existent differences. Some other colour banding successful Dolby Vision streaming contented and a spot of representation stuttering are the lone noticeable flaws I saw successful the Z95B implicit 2 weeks. (Note: I reviewed the G5 aft LG addressed archetypal complaints of HDR colour banding.)

All 4 premium OLEDs supply knockout performance, each with its ain specialty. I’m partial to the G5 and Z95B implicit the Samsung and Sony for their equilibrium of fiery brightness with jet-black backdrops—and the G5 has an borderline with its 4 HDMI 2.1 ports and amended smarts. The Z95B is hard to deny, though. If you’re aft an all-in-one surface that elevates everything to showcase levels, this is the TV to instrumentality home.