Best Panasonic TV: The best 4K LED and OLED sets

The LZ2000 is Panasonic’s flagship TV or 2022 and as we’ve come to expect from the Japanese brand, it’s exceeded expectations yet again with superb image quality and impressive Dolby Atmos audio.

The design is typically understated and not intended to draw much attention to itself but simply melt into its surroundings. In terms of features there’s Freeview Play for catch-up and on-demand TV, and Panasonic has added the likes of Disney+ and Apple TV+ to its My Home Screen interface.

It’s also a respectable choice for gamers after a high-end panel. We measured input lag at 14.5ms (no improvement over the JZ2000), and with the Game Control board there is the ability to optimise gaming settings on the fly. HDMI 2.1 features are supported too with the likes of variable refresh rate, auto low latency mode and 4K/120Hz all onboard.

All HDR formats are included too, such as HDR10, HLG, Dolby Vision IQ and HDR10+ Adaptive. The image quality is finely-tuned for bright and dark rooms with the help of the TV’s light sensor, and we found colour volume has improved, especially the colour blue. The low light performance has also been improved, with more detail visible in the darkest parts of the image.

With the OLED EX panel from LG Display (but made to Panasonic’s custom specs), we benchmarked brightness at 966 nits in Standard mode, which makes the Panasonic one of the brightest OLEDs on the market and certainly among the brightest we’ve reviewed from Panasonic. In general, the average picture level is brighter, which helps to make all types of content pop off the screen.

The Dolby Atmos speaker system has had a few more tweaks over the JZ2000 model, and again it’s an area where we found the LZ2000 to be an improvement over the older model, the 360° Soundscape Pro system yielding plenty of width and height with Atmos soundtracks.

Reviewer: Steve May
Full Review: Panasonic LZ2000

With the Panasonic LZ2000 taking the honours of Panasonic’s flagship mode the TX-55JZ2000 from 2021 is still available and remains an excellent choice for those wanting a brilliant high-end OLED TV at a price that’s not as expensive.

This level of performance is down to the HCX AI processor that advances in Panasonic’s picture and sound processing. What this results in is some magnificent gradation of colour tones and fine detailing. HD upscaling is excellent, as is this panel’s HDR performance, with its near 1000 nits of measured peak brightness better than what competing LG, Philips and Sony OLEDs can muster.

The My Home Screen interface simple to use with a good selection of apps to pick from. The inclusion of Freeview Play provides all the UK catch-up and on-demand apps such as BBC iPlayer, ITVX and All4, whilst the streaming apps offer the usual suspects of Amazon Prime Video, Netflix and Disney+.

The inclusion of HDMI 2.1 alongside VRR and ALLM means this Panasonic panel is good choice for high-end gaming, the 4K 120Hz support makes the JZ2000 a good partner for the Xbox Series X or PS5. Input lag is low, though rival TVs offer slightly faster latency. We measured this TV’s response time at 14.5ms, which is snappy enough to handle fast-twitch games.

The built-in speaker system is particularly powerful with its 125W output, which ensures you should be able to take in a blockbuster film with equally great audio. Dolby Atmos offers up an incredibly wide soundstage, especially thanks to 360 Soundstage Pro and its additional side-firing drivers that provides more width to the overall experience.

Reviewer: Steve May
Full Review: Panasonic JZ2000

Like LG with its OLED42C2, Panasonic has been courting gamers with its small OLED sets, and the TX-42LZ980 is a great if more expensive alternative to LG’s models.

Just like the rest of the TVs in this list, it’s a minimalist looking set with its gunmetal finish, tiny bezels but a central stand instead of feet to support the screen. The stand doesn’t swivel, unfortunately, but our reviewer found it to be compact enough to not require a big surface to sit on.

We found connectivity to be good for a small screen with two HDMI 2.1 ports, one of which supports eARC for passing out lossless audio to a compatible sound system. Gamers have auto low latency mode, variable refresh rate, AMD FreeSync Premium and Dolby Vision Gaming (up to 60Hz) to enjoy. We measured latency at around 14ms.

With its My Home Screen interface, Panasonic offers an excellent interface, once that’s clean and features every high-profile video streaming and catch-up service whether it’s through individual apps or through Freeview Play.

Like the JZ2000 and LZ2000 above, the LZ980 supports all the main HDR formats, carrying Dolby Vision IQ and HDR10+ Adaptive to help adapt its visuals to match the lighting conditions any room (therefore preserving detail no matter the lighting conditions).

While it doesn’t boast the same OLED EX panel that features in the LZ2000, our reviewer found that it produced a remarkably accomplished picture performance, with white tones that are bright and cleanly described along black tones that are deep and convincing producing an excellent sense of contrast.

The overall colour palette is wide-ranging, vibrant and convincing. Skin-tones are life-like, motion is handled extremely well and in terms of upscaling lower quality content it’s a very competent effort. In terms of the audio it’s far weaker than its picture performance, sounding stressed and thin. We’d recommend getting a soundbar to give it a boost.

Reviewer: Simon Lucas
Full Review: Panasonic LZ980

The LZ1000 sits in the middle of Panasonic’s OLED fleet, and is arguably the biggest surprise in the line-up with its picture performance.

Our reviewer felt this was a great screen for home cinema fans, thanks to cinematic picture modes that blend excellent colour fidelity with punchy contrast. It’s able to deliver a consistent and balanced picture, with very good near-dark shadow detail, excellent reproduction of skin tones and a HDR performance that offers good levels of of peak brightness, measuring 900 nits on a 5% HDR window. HDR support also expands to Dolby Vision IQ and HDR10+ Adaptive.

There’s nothing outlandish about the design, which by all accounts should suit any décor it’s in. We did find the swivel stand useful to avoid the glare of ambient light or when there’s a need to tilt the screen to a seating position that’s off-axis. There’s 4K/120Hz support but only two of its HDMI inputs support the 2.1 standard with eARC on input 2. If you have more than two compatible HDMI 2.1 devices, you’ll have to decide which ones go into where.

The Game Mode Extreme Control Board is new, and is a dedicated UI that gathers relevant gaming info in one place. There’s Dark Visibility adjustment, to help you see better in the shadows, plus frame rate, VRR, and resolution details. We measured input lag at a good 14.5ms.

The My Home Screen interface remains simple to use, unobtrusive and easy to customise. There’s a solid selection of apps to pick from (though not as many as the Android-toting LX800B). Support for Freeview Play brings all the UK catch-up and on-demand apps such as BBC iPlayer, ITVX and All4.

The least noteworthy aspect about the LZ1000 is its built-in speaker system. It’s nowhere near as powerful as the LZ2000 with only 30W available, and while it’ll do a job, you’ll want to add a soundbar system to really give this TV’s audio some oomph.

Reviewer: Steve May
Full Review: Panasonic LZ1000

The LX800B is Panasonic’s midrange LCD TV, the type of model that looks offer a good balance of value and performance, and for the most part we feel it achieves it..

There’s not much to write home about in terms of its looks, It hits the same utilitarian vibe the rest of Panasonic’s 2022 line-up hits, melting away into a room rather than standing out. It is easy to assemble, our reviewer managed to put it together in less than three minutes, a case of screwing in the feet. Those feet are placed at either ends of the TV, which is not too helpful if you don’t have a wide piece of furniture to place it on.

The biggest change from previous models is the adoption of Android TV for the interface. However, despite the wealth of apps it offers, we found the speediness of the interface to be disappointingly slow. That and HDR and Atmos support for the apps isn’t as comprehensive as other interfaces, with Disney+ only supporting 5.1 audio. Freeview Play is include for UK catch-up and on-demand apps.

We wouldn’t necessarily recommend this screen as one for gamers after a high-end panel either. Though input lag is a pacy 10.5ms, there’s no support variable refresh rates or 4K/120Hz gameplay. That said it should be a good choice for most gamers or simply want a good gaming experience.

Google Assistant is supported for voice control and there are three HDMI inputs, which is less than we expected, and there’s no eARC support either, so the TV can’t pass through lossless Dolby Atmos audio to a connected a soundbar.

The TV’s peak brightness is another area that’s less than we expected. We measured Cinema mode to be quite dim (342 nits) with Filmmaker mode hitting 507 nits. The LX800B does support both Dolby Vision and HDR10+ to help its HDR performance, but black levels aren’t the strongest with some backlight bleed noted. Upscaling of less than 4K sources is good, with natural colour reproduction and good levels of detail.

The TV’s Dolby Atmos compatible sound system is an aspect that’s better than we expected. It’s spacious, high frequencies are sharp, the midrange is clear and detailed and bass is decent. A soundbar would best it but we wouldn’t say there’s a rush to add one.

Reviewer: Kob Monney
Full Review: Panasonic LX800B