PANASONIC

Company Unveils Full OLED And LCD TV Range For 2024 - Including First TiVo Models

Panasonic has finally taken the wraps off its full 2024 TV range for the UK and Europe - and it turns out that the introduction of the Fire TV operating system first announced at the CES back in January is far from the only surprise Panasonic has up its TV sleeve this year.

For instance, as well as Panasonic’s latest revelations revealing that the Fire TV operating system is going to be coming to far more of the brand’s new TVs than I’d expected, it turns out that Fire TV is not the only new smart platform to appear in the range; two of the new TV series are going to sport a new TiVo platform.

It also looks as if Panasonic is getting more serious about LCD again despite its obvious love for OLED technology. The new range includes both a seemingly much-improved, highly specified new Mini LED TV premium LCD offering, and something conspicuously absent from its previous range: A serious full array LED display.

Let’s dig into the range in more detail, starting with Panasonic’s beloved new OLED models.

The Z95A/Z93As...Sitting at the top of the tree are the Z95A/Z93A models Panasonic previously unveiled at the CES in January. All I’ll say here is that they use the new Fire TV smart system, feature a true multi-speaker Dolby Atmos audio system and carry a new HCX Pro AI Processor Mark II processor. Plus, crucially, the 55- and 65-inch Z95A models use the latest Master OLED Ultimate panels equipped with both micro lens array and Panasonic’s heat sink technologies to produce what Panasonic claims should be the highest brightness of any WRGB OLED TV yet.

The 77-inch Z93A still gets a heat sink and the new Fire TV interface, but unfortunately (given how much AV enthusiasts are moving to really big screens these days) this one doesn’t get Micro Lens Array technology.

The Z95A and Z93A bring the surprisingly effective Dolby Vision Precision Detail feature for making Dolby Vision sources look sharper to Panasonic TVs for the first time, and a far-field mic built into the TV means you can control it with your voice without needing to use the provided remote control.

The Z90As...Stepping down from the Z95A/Z93As brings us to the Z90A OLED range. Available in 65, 55, 48 and 42-inch sizes, these Master OLED Pro panels lose the MLA technology, but keep the heat sink brightness booster (in the 65 and 55-inch screens) and the same new HCX Pro AI Mark II processor used by the flagship Z95A/Z93As. The main new components of which are a Sharpness Booster, and a system for delivering smoother colour gradations to remove the colour banding issues sometimes seen over colour blends with previous Panasonic TVs.

The Panasonic 65Z85A OLED TV, showing the brand's new Fire TV implementation. PHOTO: PANASONIC

The Z90As join the Z95A/Z93As in offering advanced gaming features including support for gaming refresh rates up to 144Hz, ultra low input lag times, variable refresh rates (including Nvidia G-Sync and AMD FreeSync), and Panasonic’s Game Control Board gaming-focused onscreen menu.

The Z90A series don’t retain the full multi-channel Dolby Atmos sound system of the Z95As, but there’s still what Panasonic calls a Dynamic Theatre Surround Pro system that includes front-firing speakers attached to the screens’ bottom edges. All four of the 65, 55, 48 and 42-inch Z90A screen sizes get these front-firing speakers this year, where they only showed up on the two biggest models with last year’s equivalent MZ1500 range.

The Z85As...Another step down the OLED range gets to the new Z85As. Available in 65 and 55-inch versions, these lose the Master OLED panel status and heat sink system, but retain the new mark II HCX Pro AI Processor and 120Hz (but not 144Hz) gaming support. The audio is another step down, too, with no forward facing speakers.

The Z80As...Rounding out Panasonic’s new OLED range are the Z80As. These are available in 65 and 55-inch screens (plus an extra 48-inch version outside the UK), and feature another step down in audio power. Crucially there’s a step down in picture processing, too, to a more basic HCX Processor. These sets do still retain Panasonic’s latest game features, though, up to 120Hz refresh rates.

The LCD models...Panasonic’s LCD range for 2023 seemed a little confused in some ways in retrospect, but its 2024 range seems to make a whole lot more sense - as well as raising hopes of better performance and introducing the surprise TiVo smart operating system.

The Panasonic 65W90A LCD TV features a full array with local dimming lighting system. PHOTO: PANASONIC

The W95As...The most premium Panasonic LCD series for 2024 will be the W95A series. These are lit by mini LEDs and a local dimming engine, and are promisingly powered once more by Panasonic’s HCX Pro AI Processor Mark II tweaked to get the best from LCD rather than OLED technology. The W95As use Fire TV to provide their smart features, and promisingly get back to offering 144Hz and Nvidia G-Sync/AMD FreeSync VRR gaming support.

Demonstrations of the W95As’ picture performance showed significant improvements over their 2023 mini LED predecessors in terms of brightness, backlight control (in particular, there’s much less blooming around stand out bright objects) and colour/greyscale gradation. The demo of the W95A didn’t reveal as much shadow detail in dark areas in the side by side with its predecessor, it has to be said. This may be rectifiable via some of the TV’s settings, though, and in any case wasn’t enough to stop the W95As from looking like much more interesting premium LCD options than their predecessors. The W95As will be available in 75, 65 and 55-inch versions.

The W90As...The ‘step down’ W90A LCD models in Panasonic’s 2024 range offers a similarly potent upgrade over their equivalent predecessors by using a Full Array LED (though not Mini LED) backlight system and switching to the new Fire TV operating system. They also impressively retain the latest HCX Pro AI Processor MK II chipset, and now support the same full suite of Panasonic game features - including 144Hz support - as Panasonic’s most premium new TVs. The W90As will be available in 65, 55, 50 and 43-inch sizes.

The Panasonic 65W90 LCD TV, showing its Fire TV smart system. PHOTO: PANASONIC

The W80As...The W80As, meanwhile, lose the FALD panel specification and no longer support the full range of gaming features that the W95A and W90As enjoy. They also no longer get Panasonic’s new HCX Pro AI MK II processor, dropping back to a less potent HCX Processor with no AI component. They do still benefit from the new Fire TV smart system integration, though, and continue to offer - like all the other Panasonic TVs covered to this point, in fact - support for both the Dolby Vision and HDR10+ premium HDR formats.

The W80As will be available in 65, 55, 50 and 43-inch versions.

The W60As...While there’s a W70A range coming to the European market, this is being skipped by the UK because it carries the Google TV operating system (which doesn’t support a couple of the UK’s most important catch up TV apps). So the next series down to get a UK release is the W60As. These 60Hz TVs switch to a more basic 4K HDR Bright panel, and a relatively simple 4K Colour Engine processor. They still support Dolby Vision and Dolby Atmos sound, though, and deliver a big surprise by switching from Fire TV to a TiVo operating system.

This makes them the first TVs in the UK to use the TiVo OS - and based on a brief demonstration at Panasonic’s unveiling event, I was pretty impressed by it. As a fan of the original TiVo platform and PVR a couple of decades back, I enjoyed seeing that you can still give content a simple TiVo-style thumbs up or thumbs down rating to help the platform home in on the sort of content you like. The system’s voice recognition system also seemed impressive in how easy it makes it to ‘burrow down’ through different response ‘layers’ when using voice recognition to search for things to watch, and in its fun ability to find films based on you simply saying famous quotes from them.

The Panasonic 65W60A LCD TV is the brand's cheapest 4K TV option. PHOTO: PANASONIC/ASMA - STOCK.ADOBE.COM

The W60As (and their store-specific W63A variations, which get silver rather than black stands and bottom edges) will be available in 65, 55, 50 and 43-inch screen sizes.

The S55A/S50A and S45A/S40As...The W60As represent the cheapest 4K TVs in Panasonic’s 2024 TV range, with the step down S55A/S50A and S45A/S40A models switching to a combination of full HD and HD Ready LED panels. To be precise, the 40 and 32-inch S45A and S55A models are full HD, while the 32 and 24-inch S50A and S40A models are HD Ready.

The S45A/S40A and S55A/S50As all get an unsurprisingly relatively basic ‘HD Colour Engine’ processor - though the S55A/S50As benefit from the Fire TV operating system, while the S45A/S40As get the new TiVo smart engine.

The N30As...Bringing up the rear of Panasonic’s 2024 TV range is the N30A series. Available in 32 and 24-inch sizes, the N30As appear to get the same ‘Bright Panel’ specification as the S series, as well as the same HD Colour Engine. They feature a more basic design, though, and, crucially, don’t benefit from any built-in smart features.

Panasonic hasn’t yet confirmed any pricing for its new TV range, and hasn’t offered any more precise release date information than ‘this summer’ (likely July). I’ll publish an update story on my Forbes channel once pricing is confirmed.

Reporter: John Archer--https://www.twitter.com/bigjohnnyarcher