Panasonic TX-50CS520

Panasonic’s revival continues apace with this remarkable achievement for the money

Often we agonise for days over the final outcome of a group test. The entire What Hi-fi? team locks itself in a room and bickers until smoke comes out the chimney. Okay, maybe that’s exaggerating a bit, but arriving at a verdict and deciding on a winner is sometimes a tricky process. Not this time, however. The clear winner for us is the outstanding Panasonic TX 50CS520.

After an unstable 2014,the last year has seen the Japanese company climb back up the television manufacturer foodchain, and what they have achieved with the TX 50CS520 is seriously impressive for the money.

It wasn’t that the Panasonic wasn’t pushed hard either, and it had some very able competition in the Philips 40PFT6550 and the Finlux 43UT3E310B T. The offering from Philips is flawed, but overall it still puts out the second-best video performance of this bunch, thanks to excellent sharpness and good contrast.

We are very impressed by the amount of features on the Finlux – especially its 4K compatibility – but we feel there are too many flaws to ignore, chief of which is its poor shadow detail.

Lastly, and in this case, most definitely leastly, we have the Hitachi – or rather the Hitachi-branded offering from a Turkish manufacturer. This disappoints in too many departments to recommend, even at the low price. It’s a shame, because we were hoping for something special. Back to the drawing board it is.