The top televisions from Panasonic are popular with film enthusiasts for their accurate color reproduction with nuanced shades, better – in the sense of more natural – picture quality is hard to find. Panasonic also has something extraordinary to offer when it comes to sound, thanks to the active support of its subsidiary Technics. The new top model LZW2004 wants to go even further in both areas and also win gamers as friends. How this is supposed to succeed is revealed by COMPUTER BILD with the first information about the new OLED television.
Master OLED Pro screen now up to 77 inches
With their special screens, OLED televisions have a number of fundamental advantages over the more widespread LCD TVs: They show perfectly deep black and thus practically infinitely high-contrast images – glistening light, for example from a spotlight, seamlessly borders on the dark black of the night sky. The high contrast is retained even when viewed from the side, the colors are stable from the viewing angle. In addition, there are ultra-fast switching times so that fast movements remain free of streaks. Panasonic has long since increased the image brightness, which was rather mediocre in previous OLED generations, with its own solutions: The company purchases – like all other manufacturers – OLED screens from LG Display, but has them mounted on a carrier with better heat dissipation and a more powerful power supply. This means that brighter images are possible – especially more brilliant highlights, according to Panasonic without any restrictions in terms of durability. The predecessor JZW2004 already trumped its competitors in the test. The new LZW2004 should go one step further. In addition, Panasonic is expanding the model series to three variants: the TX-55LZW2004 with 140 centimeters screen diagonal and the TX-65LZW2004 with 164 centimeters is joined by the 195 centimeter TX-77LZW2004.
The largest version – the Panasonic TX-77LZW2004 – has a screen diagonal of 195 centimeters.
Smart picture adjustment and extras for gamers
In order to tease out the best possible image quality in all situations, Panasonic refined the automatic image control. With the LZW2004, it not only reacts to the brightness of the room, but also to the color temperature. In the midday sunlight, rather cool TV pictures appear natural, in the cozy living room with dimmed lamps the white balance should be warmer. The new Panasonic TV reacts to this. On top of that, the playback mode should automatically adapt to image content with the help of artificial intelligence. With the new Game Control Board, gamers will find a quickly accessible menu for the most important settings in connection with game consoles and computers. Thanks to HDMI 2.1 with 4K to 120 Hertz and variable frame rates (VRR), the connection options are state-of-the-art, and Panasonic also promises a signal delay that has been shortened to around 10 milliseconds – the predecessors had a latency of 14 milliseconds.
The speakers on the back of the Panasonic LZW2004, which are aligned upwards and to the side, have already proven themselves to be very effective in the predecessor.
More speakers for surround sound
For rich surround sound, Panasonic is expanding the already lavish speaker equipment of the predecessor. On the back of the LZW2004 there is still a box with speakers pointing upwards and to the sides. Their sound reflections on the ceiling and on the side walls create sound effects from the corresponding directions and a more engaging sound. There are also two woofers. What is new in the 2022 flagship is the speaker equipment below the screen: There is a whole armada of small speakers lined up next to each other. With such so-called line arrays, the sound can be bundled in a targeted manner and directed in the desired directions – an acoustic principle that is used in a similar way by the large sound projectors from Yamaha and professional sound reinforcement systems. A single row of loudspeakers directs several sound cones in different directions. With the Panasonic television, the sound image can be aligned to the favorite place, expanded for a larger audience or the volume can be increased at one point in the room.
The Panasonic LZW2004 has a number of loudspeakers below the screen.
Lots of television comfort and streaming
The new LZW2004 has largely adopted other features and functions from its predecessors. These include, for example, the versatile options for TV reception via cable, satellite and antenna as well as via the Internet and DSL connection. Thanks to the double receiver equipment, recordings are possible while another program is running on the screen. Alternatively, a TV program can be streamed to a second TV, tablet and computer via WLAN. When it comes to streaming, Panasonic has caught up and the TV apps for Disney + and Apple TV Plus are now available. Panasonic is sticking to its own operating system with a clear app arrangement instead of bustling recommendations and preview clips.
Panasonic LZW2004: Pricing and Availability
Panasonic plans to launch the new LZW2004 in summer 2022. The manufacturer did not initially name prices. Based on the prices at the start of sales of the predecessor, the TX-55LZW2004 should cost 3,000 euros and the TX-65LZW2004 4,000 euros. With OLED televisions the prices skyrocket disproportionately for sizes over 65 inches, so for the TX-77LZW2004 you can expect 6,000 to 7,000 euros.