Panasonic Z95A: Is this The Smartest TV ever?

Panasonic’s TV design people must have found themselves in a pickle. What could Panasonic’s TV engineers and designers do to create a new TV capable of topping the already excellent MZ2000 that Witchdoctor gave a Gold award to last year? Coming up with a telly that bettered what was already so close to perfect could only ever be described as a monumental challenge for the folks at Panasonic.

Well, we reviewers are pre-programmed towards scepticism when it comes to the annual launch of fabulous, best-ever panels, but Panasonic really have pulled out all the stops and gone for broke with the Z95A. Yes, it really is that good.

Out of the box, it’s got all the hallmarks of a Panasonic TV, with its easy-to-attach swivel stand and a simple set-up. This time, however, Panasonic has partnered with Amazon and replaced their home screen OS with the highly capable Fire TV operating system. Add to this a new generation HCX video processor and MLA OLED panel that delivers a 50% boost in brightness over the already superb MZ2000, as well as 144Hz HDMI inputs for gamers, Alexa and Amazon/Ring ecosystem compatibility, and there’s so much to like.

The Fire TV interface might not be new to anyone with an Amazon Firestick, but the Z95A is the first TV to fully integrate the OS. Anyone who has used the Firestick will find themselves instantly at home and, like me, will find themselves pleasantly surprised at how elegantly Panasonic and Amazon have pulled off the integration between Panny hardware and Amazon’s operating system.

The Z95A comes in 55- and 65-inch screen sizes and, like the MZ2000, it sits atop a swivelling stand.  As expected from one of Japan’s biggest electronic companies, build quality is top-notch, with everything feeling super solid. This fact alone makes it a stand-out product.

Powering up the Z95A showcased its new and enhanced OLED /MLA (Micro Lens Array) panel. While it’s well-known that OLED displays deliver deep blacks and excellent contrast levels, it isn’t so widely known that OLED has traditionally struggled with brightness levels. A key reason for this is the internal reflections within the OLED film, which scatters light causing less of it to reach the viewer. The answer to this takes the form of incredibly tiny convex lenses located above the OLED film. These lenses are microscopic (to give you an idea of their teensy tiny size, you’ll find a whopping 42 billion+ microlenses on a 77-inch panel) and they prevent light from scattering inside the OLED film and instead direct it out to the viewer. The results are super-bright, vivid and razor-sharp, with peeper-pleasing on-screen visuals.

The other issue that has held OLED back in the past has been heat management. Driving an OLED panel creates heat, which limits how hard the panel can be driven and, over time, heat can degrade performance. Panasonic has added a new heat management system to the Z95A that helps the panel shine like a star without the heat problem. Add in the latest generation HCX Pro video Processor MK II and the quality is nothing short of superb.

Further helping things along is universal HDR support. No matter what streaming service you’re watching, if its content is HDR encoded, the Z95A will support it. Most impressive is support for HDR10+ Adaptive, which is similar to Dolby Vision IQ. Integrated sensors pick up lighting ambience around the panel, tweaking picture/HDR detail on a frame-by-frame basis to deliver super accurate colour and detail in real-time, even if lighting conditions change. The other great thing is what Panasonic call Auto AI, which automates picture settings in real-time continuously so you don’t have to change picture modes for movies, gaming, sports and so on.

The HCX Pro AI Processor MK II video processor impressed with its upscaling chops. As UHD (4K) content is still somewhat thin on the ground in NZ, the 4K Remaster Engine’s use of AI and other mathematical cleverness saw 1080P footage looking convincingly close to native 4K content. Panasonic says that the Z95A has been tuned by Hollywood colour specialists, and while I am no expert, I wouldn’t be surprised to see it used for video mastering. Flesh tones, foliage and other features were all realistic and accurate.

Another hallmark of Panasonic TVs has long been their audio. While most OLED TV manufacturers talk about how skinny their panels are in their marketing blurb, almost none discuss how these super-thin panels leave no room for decent-sized speaker drivers. In practice, this means that while purchasers are often wowed by their new panel’s OLED video, the audio they get out of their new purchase is often on par with as my Mum’s old transistor radio.

This is where the Z95A shines. Like the MZ2000, it has an impressive set of integrated speakers that deliver some of the best Dolby Atmos sound I’ve heard from a TV. The level of bass, transparency in the mids as well as crispness in treble is something I’d never expected to hear from an OLED TV. Alongside rich and balanced audio, the soundstage on offer impresses, too. This is automatically calibrated to the TV room as part of the initial set-up process using the mic that’s built into the remote. It can also be further tweaked via Panasonic’s 360 Soundscape Pro configuration setting. The speaker set-up consists of a forward-facing left, centre, and right soundbar array, side-mounted drivers and a pair of upward-firing drivers. All of this is powered by an integrated 160W amplifier. If you want more bass, a powered subwoofer can also be connected to the headphone output.

While the added drivers make the Z95A somewhat less slim than other comparable OLED TVs, the upside is that you won’t have to add the extra bulk of a soundbar to your setup.

Integrating a third-party OS into any consumer electronics device can be a challenge. Thankfully, Amazon’s Fire TV OS is seamlessly baked into the Z95A. After unboxing and setting up, I enabled Developer Mode. This meant I could install the downloader app, which allows me to sideload apps onto the Fire TV OS that are not available via the Amazon app store. In minutes, I had installed the Kodi media player and the rather excellent SmartTube app (which automatically skips annoying YouTube adverts).

While you get a remote with the Z95A, I’ve found that the integrated Alexa voice-activated assistant can handle many of its functions. I used to sit down and spend ages fossicking through my teetering pile of remotes to find the right clicker before I could turn on the TV. Now I say, “Alexa, turn on the TV”. I can change inputs and volume levels and access the Fire TV settings menu and all the usual Alexa stuff, such as turning on lights or playing music. The user-enabled/disabled far-field mic saw Alexa having no trouble recognising my voice from across the lounge. Even when the TV is off, Alexa is still listening to the wake word and responds to any queries I put to her.

Fire TV integration also extends to Amazon’s Ambient mode. OLED TVs can experience burn-in with static on-screen images, so having the ambient mode screen saver fire up after a preset period of inactivity is great news for display longevity. I could display my Amazon photos, UHD nature scenes, or even abstract artwork with it. Ambient also supports widgets, so all my calendar appointments, weather forecasts, and shopping lists are displayed. A smart Hub function can also display a real-time dashboard for all connected smart home gear. Who would have thought something as mundane as a screensaver could be insanely handy?

I was also pleased to note that Amazon’s RING camera and smart doorbells worked well with the Z95A. I could quickly pull up a real-time video feed from any camera or the doorbell in a picture-in-picture window overlaying the show I was watching until I dismissed it with a voice command. All told the whole Fire TV experience feels seamless and almost like magic.

There are still a few Panasonic features baked into the Z95A, too. They’ve kept the Game Control Board UI accessible via the ‘My App’ shortcut on the remote. Gamers will like that it offers 144Hz refresh rate support and full Dolby Vision High Frame Rate.

If you’re already a Firestick user, dump the dongle and buy the Z95A – you won’t regret it. Video quality is the best I’ve seen from an OLED panel. Add to this seamless smart home integration,  Alexa and a thriving apps ecosystem that greatly enhances its utility, and it’s hard not to be impressed. Which is why it earns Gold. If I could score this TV an 11 out of 10 I would. If you’re looking for a new TV, you really can’t go wrong with the Z95A.

https://www.panasonic.com/nz/consumer/television-audio/televisions/4k-oled-tvs/tv-65z95agz.html