Panasonic just unveiled its new TV lineup for 2025 at CES 2025, and I had the opportunity to see the latest models up close. The new offerings include flagship OLED and mini-LED TVs, along with a budget LED TV series that’s exclusive to the US market.
It was a surprise to see new TVs arrive from Panasonic so soon following the launch of the Panasonic Z95A OLED, along with other new TVs including a flagship mini-LED model, last September. But progress marches quickly on, and the company’s new TVs boast several innovations that make them a worthy upgrade over last year’s still-fresh models.
As for those upgrades, the key picture quality ones are a next-generation Primary RGB Tandem Panel and ThermalFlow aerodynamic cooling system. The new panel design appears to be similar to the “4-stack” one that’s apparently used in LG’s new G5 OLED TV, which foregoes the MLA tech was used to boost picture brightness in the LG G4 OLED TV. Panasonic’s new cooling system, meanwhile, is “inspired by aerodynamic techniques seen in race car design,” and is meant to boost brightness by maximizing panel efficiency.
The new TV uses the Amazon Fire TV smart interface, and there’s a new Prime Video Calibrated Mode that optimizes the picture for streamed Prime Video programs based on content types like movies and sports.
Similar to last year’s Z95A, the new Z95B uses Panasonic’s HCX Pro AI Processor MK II processor, supports Dolby Vision IQ with Precision Detail, and has an ATSC 3.0 tuner to receive Next-Gen TV broadcasts in the US. Gaming features include AMD FreeSync Premium and Nvidia G-Sync with support for up to 144Hz refresh rates (including Dolby Vision).
The Z95A’s already impressive sound quality gets a boost in the new Z95A with a speaker redesign that’s been tuned by Panasonic’s Technics audio design wing. This has been achieved via a “repositioning of elements to widen the soundstage, and enhanced spatial audio processing to further improve Panasonic’s renowned built-in immersive 360-degree sound experience,” according to the company. A new woofer configuration is also used, and it gets a boost from 20W to 30W on the Z95B.
The Panasonic Z95B will be available in 55, 65, and 77-inch sizes, including in the US.
The best and brightest OLED TV yet?
When I reviewed last year’s Z95A, I found it to have excellent overall picture quality. Brightness was a match for the LG G4, topping out at around 1,500 nits peak and 221 nits fullscreen in Filmmaker mode. According to Panasonic, the OLED panel used in the Z95B has a “four-layer emission structure that refines the wavelength of light and increases color purity, thus enhancing light efficiency by 40 percent,” enabling a “significant increase in brightness and a broader color volume”.
It’s impossible to avoid comparing that 40 percent efficiency claim to LG’s claim that its new G5 OLED TV will yield a 40 percent fullscreen picture brightness boost over last year’s G4. OLED TVs typically have much lower fullscreen brightness than mini-LED models, and that can make them a less-than-optimal choice for viewing programs like sports in bright rooms. But when you consider that the new Panasonic Z95B will likely have 40% higher fullscreen brightness than the Z95A, that means a whole different ball game when it comes to daytime sports viewing.
I saw the Z95B in two different environments at CES 2025, both in comparison with last year’s Z95A. One was a dim room, where the TVs were showing footage of a dancer wearing a white dress against a black background. Highlights on both TVs were powerful and detailed, and the blacks looked deep. Although the content that I had a chance to look at was limited, I really couldn’t see much difference between the two TVs.
The second environment was brighter, and there was a wide range of colors in the images being displayed. In this case, I could see a brightness advantage to the Z95B, specifically in the dancers’ bold, monochrome outfits. Equally important, I didn’t see much in the way of onscreen glare from overhead lights, an effect that can detract from picture contrast. (According to a Panasonic rep I spoke with, the Z95B’s screen coating had been redesigned to account for the switch away from the Z95A’s MLA tech.)
My first take on the Panasonic Z95B? Its picture quality is superb, and even though I didn’t get to hear its new built-in speakers, I’m betting they sound great as well. Overall, it doesn’t appear to be such a major upgrade that you should toss away your Panasonic Z95A, but it will undoubtedly be one of the best OLED TVs of 2025.
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al.griffin@futurenet.com (Al Griffin)
