Panasonic’s latest 4K OLED TVs series EZ950 and EZ1000 are now available in New Zealand. Panasonic experimented quite long with its own OLED technology, but now employs a panel supplied by LG. The 55-inch model Panasonic TH-55EZ950U is the more affordable one, while the 65-inch flagship model Panasonic TH-65EZ1000U costs almost $8,000.

Image quality

Panasonic is one of the leaders in terms of colour management and applying the most suitable colours at any given point of time. Thus, movies rendered on a Panasonic OLED screen are likely to be very close to the original and how the movie director intended the scenes to be presented. For example, Panasonic TH-55EZ950U sports an advanced processor, which handles all image processing. A sophisticated 3D colour decoder Look-Up Table (LUT) ensures optimal colour rendering. The colour quality that Panasonic has accomplished is obvious in a movie like Planet Earth 2, where the viewer can compare colours with those found in the real world. The EZ950-series also excels at motion handling. The smart interpolation feature Intelligent Frame Creation yields smooth and realistic motions without any “digital video” effects.

Firefox OS

Panasonic TVs run on Firefox OS unlike competitors like Samsung and LG that have opted for Android. Firefox OS is a more basic platform lacking advanced features and apps. However, Panasonic has equipped the new models with popular apps like YouTube and Netflix. One advantage of using Firefox OS is that it’s very intuitive and doesn’t interfere with the user experience. The EZ1000 series features My Home Screen 2.0, which allows for storing content in favourite folders and customisations of shortcuts for faster access.

Connectors

There are four HDMI ports, but only two of them support UltraHD signals at full-bandwidth. Hence, choose the correct one if you require UltraHD.

Pricing

The recommended retail price is quite high for these two models, but the current online price in New Zealand is considerably lower. The TH-55EZ950U TV costs about $4,900 and the more high-end TH-65EZ1000U retails at $7,900. Is it worth spending $3,000 more for the more expensive model? In my view, probably not. The main differences between the two models are:

• integrated soundbar
• Absolute Black Filter
• Smart Home 2 UI.

These add-ons, I believe, hardly justify such a huge price difference for an OLED LCD TV.