Panasonic TV-65Z95B

Panasonic’s flagship OLED TVs are a source of excitement for serious home cinema fans every year. Their traditional use of the most premium OLED panels, proprietary heatsink hardware to help them run brighter, powerful built-in multi-speaker sound systems and ‘made in Hollywood’ tuning and processing has long made them beloved of the ‘I want to see what the director wanted me to see’ AV cognoscenti.

Pretty much every aspect of the new £2,999 65Z95B has undergone a complete overhaul from its predecessor. For starters, it’s built on radical new brightness- and colour-boosting ‘Primary RGB Tandem’ OLED panel technology. It introduces a new ‘ThermalFlow’ system that draws cooling air through the TV’s back so that it can run brighter without suffering OLED heat damage. The TV’s multi-channel Dolby Atmos sound system has been completely reconfigured, resulting in  a much slimmer, more elegant design than the Z95A received. Sounds awesome - provided, that is, that Panasonic has been able to make a success of such wholesale changes at the first time of asking.

Picture Quality

Panasonic always makes a big play of the fact its flagship OLED TVs are tuned by Hollywood, and this continues with the 65Z95B. Its presets have once more been worked on by renowned Hollywood colourist Stefan Sonnenfeld, and it’s powered by processing developed in Hollywood through Panasonic’s old Hollywood Laboratory. And it’s again deemed to be so good at reproducing creative intent that it’s set to be widely used in Sonnenfeld’s Company 3 Hollywood mastering studios. 

With all this in mind, I figure I’ll start checking out what the 65Z95B’s new ‘Primary RGB Tandem’ OLED panel can do by watching movies using the TV’s most accuracy-focused picture modes. 

And the results across the ‘Filmmaker Mode’, ‘True Cinema’, ‘Dolby Vision IQ’ and ‘Dolby Vision Dark’ presets are nothing short of mesmerising. 

There are plenty of other words I could use here - ‘sensational’, ‘spectacular’, ‘amazing’. But there’s just something about the incredible refinement, balance, cinematic quality and, for want of a better description, image intelligence on show with the 65Z95B that draws you into what you’re watching so completely that ‘mesmerising’ ultimately best captures the feeling - and it is a feeling - of watching Panasonic’s remarkable new TV. 

Breaking down what makes the 65Z95B’s pictures so stellar starts with brightness. The nearly 2,500 nits it manages to hit in its default ‘Normal’ mode is almost 25% up on the peak brightness achieved by the LG G5’s equivalent ‘Standard’ mode - a staggering, almost unthinkable achievement for an OLED screen. Panasonic’s settings don’t use this brightness for brightness sake, though - instead of its brightness just constantly blaring out with HDR sources, it’s used to focus on the ‘range’ part of the high dynamic range format, delivering seemingly effortlessly intense small light peaks at one end of the light spectrum, and beautifully deep, rich, naturally toned black colours at the other. And it paints relentlessly precise light shades between those extremes.

Using the word ‘paints’ there perhaps isn’t the best option, as it suggests a degree of creativity on the TV’s part when really what it’s about is recreating, as closely as possible, the look of professional mastering monitors. The 65Z95B uses light so gorgeously to achieve this aim that its pictures really do take on a level of beauty that feels genuinely artistic.

The 65Z95B’s stellar - arguably peerless - control of light has all sorts of gorgeous knock-on effects, too. For instance, uncompromisingly dark scenes reveal essentially flawless handling of the ‘near black’ image content that can cause even the best OLED screens to sometimes look a little noisy or compressed. Shadow detailing looks immaculate at all times, too. Colours are delivered with jaw-dropping subtlety, from the brightest to the darkest picture areas, and avoid the banding problems that LG’s G5 suffered (ahead of a recent firmware update), and help to give images an incredibly refined, three-dimensional feel. Colours look markedly more vibrant and richly saturated at the bright end of the image spectrum and less ‘faded’ in dark areas than they did on last year’s Z95As, too. 

The 65Z95B’s colour and light finesse join forces with what is easily Panasonic’s best picture processing engine to date to deliver awesome amounts of detail with native 4K images. This latest processor also upscales HD, and even SD, images to the screen’s 4K resolution with gorgeous sharpness and naturalism. 

Motion within a frame is handled cleanly and crisply without any motion-processing assistance. Judder can look a little excessive and uneven during camera pans with 24p sources, but if this bothers you the ‘Minimum’ setting for Panasonic’s ‘Intelligent Frame Creation’ system gently smooths things out without turning films into EastEnders or generating distracting digital artefacts. The picture always looks almost preternaturally stable too. 

All of this means that, in most of the 65Z95B’s picture preset modes, you get images that do essentially nothing, ever, that looks out of place or might distract you from the dazzling subtlety and insight on offer. This is, for me, pretty much the Holy Grail of TV picture quality.

While the 65Z95B’s focus on delivering incredibly accurate pictures will be its main attraction for many AV fans, I personally also love its willingness to push the boat out for those who want to exploit the cutting-edge screen’s more extreme capabilities. The set’s default ‘Normal’ mode with the ambient sensor off delivers much more baseline brightness than the accurate modes, as well as unlocking a new level of colour volume and punch. Yet it does so without losing the impeccable sense of balance and subtlety that seems to be essentially baked into its DNA. So while the resulting images might not be accurate anymore, they’re still immensely watchable - making them a great bright room option as well as a great demonstration of just what the latest ‘Primary RGB Tandem’ OLED technology can do. 

The only picture presets to avoid are the ‘Dynamic’ and new ‘AI Mode’. The former goes too nuts with its brightness and colour saturation, while the AI mode also looks over-bright unless you leave the ambient sensor on. It applies motion-smoothing processing too aggressively, and also causes a strange wide-banding instability issue with some background colours. 

There are a couple of small general 65Z95B niggles to report, too. First, skin tones in very dark scenes can look a touch green. Second, the ‘Filmmaker Mode’ plays brightness down a bit more significantly than some viewers may like. This does seem to contribute to the TV delivering class-leadingly accurate colour measurements, though, and doesn’t cause any shadow details to become crushed during dark scenes. You just need to darken your room for it. And in any case, either of these little niggles dent the almost emotional sense that you’re often watching something close to perfection at work.

Sound Quality

The 65Z95B’s ‘360-degree Soundscape Pro’ audio overhaul isn’t quite as successful as its picture quality one - though the involvement of premium audio brand (and sister company) Technics ensures it still sounds better than most integrated TV sound systems.

Focusing on what hasn’t worked perfectly first, the new rear-mounted subwoofer design lacks nimbleness - relatively percussive bass sounds tend to blend into each other, losing their rhythmic quality. The sub’s contributions can also sound ‘phutty’ at low volumes, too. Also, specifically placed sound effects and voices, especially deep male voices, sometimes seem to be coming from beneath the screen, rather than being attached to the onscreen action. 

Dolby Atmos height effects, though, are actually more pronounced and thrown further than they were on 2024’s Z95A, and there’s a generally more three-dimensional and immersive feel to the sound stage. 

Bass reaches much deeper and remains more consistently involved on the 65Z95B than it does with most TVs - and it does so without sounding coarse or muddy. High-frequency sounds are handled cleanly, without shrillness or thinness, and there’s enough power to handle even the most dense soundtrack moments without crumbling, distorting or turning soupy. 

Mix details are plentiful and cleanly delivered and, finally, that forward-facing bar beneath the screen injects a sense of directness and impact that leaves most TVs sounding muffled and drab by comparison. Panasonic’s unique ‘Sound Focus’ feature means that the forward-facing soundbar’s sound can be steered directly towards different seating positions and areas. 

Living with the Panasonic TV-65Z95B

The 65Z95B’s new, relatively slimline, design is way easier to accommodate and much easier on the eye than that of its predecessor. The centrally attached circular metal foot looks premium and elegant, and allows you to place the TV on relatively narrow pieces of furniture. You can rotate the screen around on this mount too.

The 65Z95B’s smart features are provided by Amazon’s Fire TV system. While the 65Z95B’s menus retain that familiar Fire TV look and feel, though, Panasonic’s integration of its own TV settings and features into the Fire TV interface is deeper and more helpful than usual. Plus, of course, the Fire TV connection means that the 65Z95B carries all the world’s main video streaming services. Even all of the main UK terrestrial broadcaster catch up services are present and correct - though they’re not provided within the Freeview Play ‘wrapper’ app. 

The lack of Freeview Play is easily forgiven thanks to the fact the Z95B supports the new Freely platform, which lets UK viewers live stream many of the channels that make up the Freeview broadcast platform as well as access tens of thousands of hours of on-demand content.

The 65Z95B’s connections are headed up by four HDMI ports. Only two of these support the full gamut of full bandwidth gaming features, but at least those gaming features include high frame rates up to 144Hz and variable refresh rate support that includes both the AMD FreeSync Premium and NVIDIA G-Sync standards. In ‘Game’ mode the 65Z95B renders 60Hz images in just 12.6ms. 

One final great feature of the 65Z95B is its support for all four of the main HDR formats: HDR10, HLG, Dolby Vision and HDR10+. So it will always take in the best available version of any source it’s presented with.

Conclusion

Concerns that Panasonic may struggle to immediately get to grips with the new opportunities and challenges presented by the latest premium OLED panels are emphatically squished by the 65Z95B’s glorious, luminous, dazzling but also (if you so require) almost supernaturally accurate pictures. It’s enough to make even a grizzled old TV reviewer get a bit emotional, quite honestly.

Test Samples

Better Man 4K Blu-ray
Even if you’re no fan of either Robbie Williams or his music, Better Man is a criminally under-watched biopic that deserves to find an audience on 4K Blu-ray. And its consistently dazzling visuals and pulsating Dolby Atmos soundtrack are both delivered with blistering intensity by the 65Z95B. Especially during the remarkable Knebworth concert performance/massacre set piece.

‍The Greatest Showman 4K Blu-ray
The Greatest Showman 4K disc is so widely used as demo content that it’s almost become a cliché. But honestly, it’s hard to think of a film that’s taken to a whole other level so effectively by the 65Z95B’s combination of sublime, spectacular picture quality and mostly rockin’ sound. And yes, I’ve just realised I’ve accidentally highlighted two films directed by Michael Gracey. Hey ho.

‍Spartacus 4K Blu-ray
The 4K Blu-ray of Stanley Kubrick’s Spartacus is so detailed, so sharp, so beautifully coloured and so clean you’d swear the film must have come out last year rather than 1960. Such a beautiful restoration of a timeless classic is a match made in heaven for a TV that sweats the small stuff and leans into accuracy as blissfully hard as the 65Z95B does.

Panasonic’s flagship OLED TVs always deliver excellent ‘made in and for Hollywood’ picture quality. What Panasonic’s engineers have been able to achieve with the 65Z95B’s latest OLED panel technology, though, raises ‘excellent’ to ‘holy sweet Lord baby Jesus’ territory. The fact that such irresistible picture glories are delivered in a much more attractive design doesn’t exactly hurt proceedings, either.

While the 65Z95B’s presets and general image intelligence enable it to adapt well to pretty much any content you feed it, for me this TV just has to be partnered with a good quality 4K Blu-ray player. Handily Panasonic itself makes two of the best around: the sublime £999 DP-UB9000 flagship, or if that’s a bit rich for your blood, the excellent £349 UB820.

I’d also recommend adding a Sky Stream or Sky Q system with a 4K HDR movie and sport subscription attached, just to further bolster the amount of premium looking content you can provide such a fantastic TV with.

The 65Z95B’s integrated multi-channel Dolby Atmos sound system is designed to make the addition of a soundbar unnecessary, of course. I do think, though, that it would be worth adding a decent external subwoofer, even it’s quite a small one, via the provided 3.5mm sub line output.