In the ever-evolving landscape of home entertainment, where stunning visuals and captivating sound are paramount, Panasonic has once again thrown its hat into the ring with its latest flagship, the Z95B OLED TV. As a seasoned journalist immersed in the world of A/V, I’ve witnessed countless displays, but the Z95B stands out, not just for its breathtaking picture but also for an audio experience that redefines what’s possible from a television.
For those who crave the absolute pinnacle of visual fidelity, the Z95B is a true contender. It joins the elite ranks of the most impressive TVs we’ve tested, a club dominated by OLED technology. OLED panels, renowned for their ability to control light at the pixel level, have seen remarkable advancements in brightness and clarity in recent years. Panasonic’s Z95B leverages these innovations, and then some.
This isn’t just an incremental upgrade; it’s a significant leap forward. Following in the footsteps of last year’s Z95A, which marked Panasonic’s strong return to the US market, the Z95B delivers near-flawless performance. From the inky depths of its perfect black levels to the exquisite detail and vibrant, true-to-life colors, every frame is a testament to cutting-edge display technology.
What truly sets the Z95B apart is its enhanced brightness and striking visual impact. This is achieved through the skillful implementation of a breakthrough RGB tandem panel, the same groundbreaking technology found in LG’s highly acclaimed G5. This panel allows the Z95B to achieve next-level luminosity without compromising its signature OLED blacks, resulting in a dynamic range that is simply captivating.
But the Z95B isn’t just a feast for the eyes; it’s also a triumph for your ears. The built-in sound system is, quite frankly, the best I’ve encountered in any TV this year. Panasonic has integrated an impressive array of audio technologies, including Dolby Atmos support, up-firing and side-firing speakers, a dedicated front speaker array, and a discreet rear-mounted woofer. This sophisticated setup creates an immersive soundstage that pulls you into the action, offering a depth and clarity that typically requires a separate soundbar.
Unboxing and Initial Impressions: A Premium Experience Awaits
Setting up the Z95B is a refreshingly straightforward affair, a welcome contrast to the often-cumbersome assembly of high-end electronics. Once you liberate the TV from its protective packaging, the industrial-strength swivel stand is a marvel of simple engineering. Attaching it to the 65-inch model I tested took mere seconds, secured with just four small screws, ensuring stability and easy accessibility. The Z95B exudes premium quality, with ultra-thin bezels and elegantly fabric-wrapped acoustic accents that blend seamlessly into any modern living space.
The circular base is thoughtfully designed, slim enough to accommodate an add-on soundbar if you so choose. However, the Z95B’s inherent audio prowess means it truly shines as an all-in-one entertainment solution. This is further reinforced by its connectivity options. While it boasts two HDMI 2.1 ports – crucial for gamers seeking features like ALLM (Auto Low Latency Mode) and VRR (Variable Refresh Rate) at up to 144Hz – one of these is dedicated to eARC/ARC, typically used for external audio systems.
Audio Excellence: Beyond Expectations
The Z95B’s audio capabilities are truly remarkable. While it supports Dolby Atmos, it omits DTS:X. Nevertheless, the combination of up-firing, side-firing, and front-facing speakers, coupled with the rear woofer, creates a surprisingly expansive and detailed soundscape. Panasonic’s proprietary Sound Focus software further enhances the directional audio, allowing you to fine-tune the sound experience to your preferences. For a built-in TV audio system, the Z95B delivers impressive depth and an immersive quality that will satisfy many users. My only minor quibbles were occasional tinny treble effects and some subtle console buzzing during particularly bass-heavy scenes, but these were infrequent and did little to detract from the overall stellar audio performance.
Gaming Ready: A Dream for Enthusiasts
Gamers will find themselves well catered for with the Z95B. The TV offers exceptionally low input lag, ensuring responsive gameplay. A built-in game bar provides quick access to essential settings, and support for AMD FreeSync Premium and Nvidia G-Sync further enhances the smooth, tear-free gaming experience. Beyond gaming, the Z95B supports video streaming via AirPlay and Google Cast, and crucially, it features ATSC 3.0 for next-generation over-the-air broadcasts. A standout feature for cinephiles and HDR enthusiasts is its comprehensive support for all major HDR formats, including both HDR10+ and Dolby Vision – a rarity among premium competitors.
The Achilles’ Heel: Fire TV’s Frustrations
Despite its stellar picture and sound, the Z95B falters in one significant area: its smart TV interface. Panasonic has opted for Amazon’s Fire TV, and unfortunately, it remains a point of frustration. Compared to more intuitive platforms like Google TV or Roku, Fire TV’s user experience on the Z95B feels cluttered and less streamlined.
The busy homepage, which strangely limits you to displaying just six streaming apps at a time (with others relegated to a dropdown menu), feels restrictive in today’s fragmented streaming landscape. During my testing, several apps loaded slowly or even froze when connected via Wi-Fi. While switching to an Ethernet connection resolved these issues, suggesting a potential network-related hiccup, it’s a significant performance detractor for a premium device. Many other TVs I test perform flawlessly over Wi-Fi.
Setting up the TV requires an Amazon account, though a ‘Basic’ homescreen option exists, it drastically reduces your streaming app count to just five. Both interfaces felt unintuitive, with settings menus that could be confusing to navigate. For example, adjusting audio output for an external sound system might require manually changing options like ‘One Touch Play,’ further underscoring why the Z95B excels as a standalone unit.
The accompanying remote also leaves something to be desired. It lacks backlighting, doesn’t have a dedicated input key by default, and two of its four quick-access buttons are dedicated to Amazon services. Even accessing the game bar requires a manual assignment to the single customizable quick key. While Alexa voice control is available from both the remote and the TV itself, users concerned about privacy will appreciate the discreetly placed microphone mute switch on the TV’s left flank.
To be fair, Fire TV on the Z95B does offer some redeeming qualities. Navigation can be relatively quick, the default screen savers are undeniably gorgeous, and there are multiple avenues to pick up where you left off with a solid ‘Continue Watching’ feature. For those who enjoy deep customization, Fire TV does provide ample options to tweak the user experience.
Picture Modes: Tailoring Your Visual Feast
Achieving the perfect picture on the Z95B can be as simple or as intricate as you desire. The TV offers a multitude of picture modes, catering to various preferences and content types. All of the ‘film-forward’ modes, designed to present content as the creator intended, look excellent. I found myself gravitating towards the ‘Professional 1’ mode for standard HD/SDR broadcasts. It strikes a great balance, offering superior brightness to modes like ‘Filmmaker’ or ‘True Cinema’ while still delivering exceptional image quality in any lighting condition.
The Z95B’s ‘HDR/SDR Sync’ feature is a clever addition, allowing HDR10 and HDR10+ content to conform to your chosen picture mode settings. This consistency extends to HDR modes, though I particularly appreciated ‘Professional 1’ for its default disabling of ambient light sensors and motion smoothing.
An interesting quirk emerged when testing the most accurate HDR10 picture modes: the backlight was set to 70 out of 100, rather than the full 100. Interestingly, pushing the backlight to its maximum setting resulted in minor clipping in contrast tests and over-brightening in others. Panasonic’s engineers confirmed that the TV performs optimally at 70, capable of illuminating the brightest highlights in 4K HDR Blu-rays. While enthusiasts can certainly push it further, it’s rarely necessary to achieve stunning results.
Dolby Vision HDR operates on a different calibration, with the backlight set to 100 by default. Even the default ‘Dolby Vision IQ’ mode is visually arresting, but the ‘Dark Mode’ offers a slightly dimmer yet more accurate picture that, in my experience, was virtually flawless straight out of the box.
A Stunning Payoff: The Z95B in Action
When it comes to pure performance, the Panasonic Z95B is an absolute dream to watch. It possesses an uncanny ability to transform your favorite shows and movies into immersive, almost theme-park-like experiences. Even before diving into calibration, I found myself captivated by scenes on Disney+. The show’s depiction of space, with its impossibly black backgrounds, glittering stars, and the subtle gleam of Mando’s helmet, was rendered with breathtaking precision and contrast.
Space, as a backdrop, is the perfect stage for a TV with this level of contrast. But it’s not just in dramatic, high-contrast scenes where the Z95B excels. In films like "Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2," amidst the explosions of light and vibrant nebulae, the Z95B masterfully captures the subtler details – the crisp sunrise casting a warm glow on the Guardians’ shirts, or the dark, shadowy corridors of their ship. The TV’s masterful color gradients and shadow detail ensure that no nuance is lost.
This meticulous attention to detail extends to all forms of content. Even something as mundane as "The Office" on HD broadcast became a joy to watch, with the auburn highlights in Jim’s hair and the subtle gleam on Andy’s tie rendered with surprising realism. While these might seem like minor details, they contribute to an overall sense of polish and refinement that elevates the viewing experience.
Skin tones are rendered with an almost touchable naturalness and clarity, further enhanced by the TV’s exceptional image processing. Even lower-quality video content benefits from the Z95B’s improved upscaling capabilities, looking noticeably sharper and more refined.
For those who crave explosive HDR, the Z95B delivers in spades. Playing "Mad Max: Fury Road" on 4K HDR Blu-ray, paired with Panasonic’s own DP-UB9000 player, produced a perfect dichotomy between the desolate desert landscapes and the catastrophic lightning storms. The jagged bolts of lightning split the sky with incredible sharpness, erupting with blistering oranges and whites, down to the intense, white-hot flares of exploding vehicles.
Glare Reduction and Direct Comparisons
A significant contributor to the Z95B’s potency is its excellent glare reduction. Similar to the LG G5, it effectively minimizes all but the most direct reflections, preserving the deep, inky black levels even in brighter rooms. This offers a more dramatic contrast compared to some competitors, like Sony’s Bravia 8 II QD-OLED, although I found the Sony to offer slightly superior image clarity. Samsung’s S95F remains the benchmark for glare elimination while maintaining contrast.
Given their shared panel technology, the Z95B and LG G5 are unsurprisingly close in performance. I found the Z95B to exhibit slightly more natural color reproduction and lighting, and potentially better off-axis viewing. However, these differences are subtle, and a direct side-by-side comparison would be necessary to definitively identify any variations. The only noticeable flaws I encountered during my two-week review period were minor color banding in some Dolby Vision streaming content and occasional image stuttering.
The Verdict: A Premium Choice with Caveats
All four of the current premium OLED TVs offer exceptional performance, each with its own strengths. For me, the LG G5 and the Panasonic Z95B stand out for their superb balance of vibrant brightness and true black levels. The G5 holds a slight edge with its four HDMI 2.1 ports and a more refined smart interface. However, the Z95B is incredibly difficult to fault. If you’re seeking an all-in-one television that elevates every piece of content to showcase quality, the Z95B is an outstanding choice that is truly hard to deny.