Panasonic, one of the oldest Japanese tech companies, stopped shipping TVs to the U.S. market more than eight years ago.
Now , it’s back to selling TVs in North America , a harder task than when it left. It’s starting small with its Z85A and Z95A OLEDs plus the W95A mini-LED. So, what has Panasonic been up to in the past decade? Training in Siberia like Sylvester Stallone in Rocky IV ? Obviously, nothing as extreme as that.
Judging solely by the W95A 4K mini-LED TV, Panasonic has managed to keep up with the times as it sold its TVs in Europe and Asian markets, but you shouldn’t expect a shining example of pure viewing bliss. It’s solid, and if it hits your price point, then I wouldn’t feel you need to look too far in another direction for a bright, colorful, easy-to-use TV. Our review unit of the 55-inch W95A stands up to this year’s other mid-range mini-LED offerings, though it’s not as flashy as the Z95A with built-in 360 sound.
It’s also not as pricey or high-falutin as quantum dot LED TVs like Samsung’s 4K NEO QLEDs , LG’s QNED , or Sony’s Bravia 7 . Unlike its competitors, I did not have to do nearly as much fiddling in settings to get a picture that felt true to the intended cinema experience. There were occasions I started watching, and “Intelligent Frame Creation” would automatically offer that awful soap opera smoothing effect.
My suggestion is to turn it off completely. The base “Standard” picture mode was good enough for watching films.