Panasonic TX-55EZ952B
“Everything is serious, from the straight-laced design to the complex menus, which contain more options than there are wines at Claridges”
FOR Detailed, natural picture; OLED blacks; good for gamers AGAINST HDR short on punch and contrast; complex set-up
Everything about the EZ952 is serious, from the straight-laced design to the complex menus, which contain more picture-tweaking options than there are wines at Claridges.
This is the most affordable member of Panasonic’s new OLED family, and is clearly intended for the more dedicated enthusiast or, as Panasonic says in its own literature, ‘pro’. That doesn’t necessarily make it a bad choice for the more casual buyer, as long as you don’t mind a complicated first-time calibration.
Not-so-high dynamic range
But there is one area in which the EZ952 is a long way behind its rivals: HDR. The Panasonic supports HDR in both the HDR10 and HLG formats, so we gravitate towards that first. At the time of testing, the Amazon Instant Video app wasn’t available (it should be in July), but Netflix was onboard to display all its high dynamic range glory.
Or at least, it should have been. Despite being an Ultra HD Premiumcertified set, the EZ952 appears to lack the contrast and brightness necessary to deliver the kind of punch we’ve come to expect from HDR content. Play Daredevil on this set and it’s significantly flatter and less exciting than on the LG B7.
Sunlight and reflections aren’t as bright, and flames stand out only dimly in a darkened room. Characters tend to blend into the background more than they should, too. It’s not much of an improvement on SDR, and that’s not good enough from a TV costing £3000.
The EZ952’S edges are a touch softer than those of the LG B7, too and, combined with the relative lack of punch, the result is landscapes and scenery shots that look less threedimensional and realistic.
Naturalness and detail
It’s a shame, because there’s a lot that this TV gets right. Colours may not be as punchy as they are elsewhere, but they’re natural and realistic. Skin tones are well judged, with natural colour and genuine subtlety. There’s a good amount of detail in the 4K picture, too, provided the scene is fairly well lit – the EZ952 doesn’t have its rivals’ insight into darkness.
The motion processing is set too high out of the box, lending everything that uncanny, over-defined movement and introducing artefacts to fast action, but turn it down and you get a useful bit of sharpening without the soap-opera effect. It’s not as spot-on as the Sony A1 in this regard, but isn’t far off.
Interestingly, when you feed the same 1080p Blu-ray to the Panasonic EZ952 and LG B7 you get a very similar performance from the two sets, proving that HDR is the Panasonic’s weakness.
Both the Panasonic and the LG are quite a long way behind the dynamism and three-dimensionality of the Sony, but Blu-ray images are sharp, detailed and supremely natural.
With standard-definition content, the picture is surprisingly clean, controlled and stable, boasting balanced, natural colours. Here the Panasonic is an improvement on the Sony A1, but it’s still short of the quite astonishing standarddef delivery of the LG B7.
Game on
Hardcore gamers out there should be impressed by the Panasonic’s input lag of just 25.7ms. True, the Samsung Q7F and LG B7 are faster, but any score under about 40ms should be fast enough for you to register no lag at all in action. Games also look great on the EZ952, with crisp edges and plenty of detail.
In terms of set-up advice, we’d recommend immediately disabling the Ambient Sensor and dropping Intelligent Frame Creation to minimum. We also find, via the THX Optimizer disc and a whole load of real-world testing, that adding a few extra points of Sharpness, Colour and Brightness helps to unlock some more of the Panasonic’s potential.
There’s also a whole Advanced Settings menu that becomes accessible when you choose one of the other modes, such as Custom, but we’d suggest leaving these options alone unless you’re an experienced TV calibrator.
The EZ952, as with Panasonic’s smart TV range as a whole, is underpinned by Firefox OS. It’s not as flashy or well integrated as the LG and Samsung operating systems, but it is very clear and simple to use. It also offers almost every on-demand service you could need – or will do when Amazon is added.
For navigation you get two remotes: a smartly dressed but ultimately oldschool clicker, and a smaller, more ergonomically shaped zapper with a touchpad. That touchpad can be a little bit inaccurate, skipping left through menus when you mean to scroll down, and for that reason you’ll probably find yourself using the bigger remote most of the time – not least because it has a dedicated button for Netflix.
No-nonsense styling
When it comes to the look of the TV itself, the Panasonic is decidedly no-nonsense. The super-slim panel section is pretty much identical to that of the LG B7, rounded edges and all.
Stuck to the back of that panel is the plastic enclosure that contains the TV’S processing components, connections and speakers. This section is much larger than that of the LG, which makes the super-thin portion of the chassis look a little less striking. The stand is more basic and less elegant than the LG’S too.
It should come as no surprise that we’d recommend buying a separate sound system to partner the EZ952, but sticking with the built-in speakers gives you a performance that’s a little more direct than that of the LG B7, but also a touch sibilant and harsh in the treble.
The surround modes (Virtual Surround and Virtual Surround+) are decent, adding greater width and spaciousness to the presentation.
Are you serious?
The Panasonic TX-55EZ952B is aimed at the serious enthusiast rather than the average consumer. As such, it’s tricky to get the most out of it, but with a bit of perseverance you’ll get the picture set up as you like it. However, the EZ952B has two major issues. The first it shares with the LG B7 – the Sony A1 is just a clear step above in terms of detail, definition and dynamism. The second is that its HDR performance is relatively weak, images lacking the expected contrast and punch.
If you only ever watched SDR content you’d find it hard to choose between this TV and the LG, but HDR is very much the future of television, and in this regard the Panasonic is a fair way behind.