A First Rate Mini LED TV

Design

• 55- and 65-inch sizes
• Decent viewing angles
• Quick to assemble

Assembling the Panasonic W95A is even quicker than its predecessor at under two minutes. Screw the feet in and you’re off to the races.

The feet are inserted towards the edges of the TV. The lack of a central stand means you’ll need a wide enough space to plant the TV on. The feet are tall enough to slot a soundbar in beneath.

The bezel is thin, which gives the illusion that the W95A is a slim TV, but the actual depth is chunky at 71mm.

Viewing angles are solid, but colours lose intensity and luminance once off-axis. Blooming becomes more noticeable too.

Connectivity

• Two HDMI 2.1 inputs
• AirPlay 2 streaming

Connections range from four HDMI inputs – input 1 and 2 support the 2.1 standard. It’s on these HDMI inputs where you’ll find VRR, High Frame Rate and AMD FreeSync Premium for gaming. All the HDMI inputs support ALLM.

Otherwise, there are three USB inputs (one 3.0, two 2.0), Ethernet, CI+ 1.4 slot, digital optical output, and a headphone output that can also be used for a sub output. What seems to be missing from the MX950 is the analogue input.

Wirelessly, there’s Bluetooth (Panasonic doesn’t specify which version), Wi-Fi (supporting AirPlay 2), and Easy Mirroring to cast the screen from your mobile to the TV.

User Experience

• Fire TV interface
• Freely support
• Alexa voice control

Panasonic’s My Home Screen has been replaced by Amazon’s Fire TV interface. There’s both good and bad about this change.

The good is that there’s a wider variety of entertainment apps to tuck into. If you felt My Home Screen was lacking, that’s not the case with Fire TV.

Fire TV, however, is overwhelming. The relative simplicity of My Home Screen is replaced by rows of rows of content, most of which favours Amazon’s streaming services. If you’re subscribed to Netflix and Disney+, it’s difficult to easily discover content from those services.

There’s also more advertising to deal with. They’re not too intrusive aside from the sneaky pull-down ad at the top, which turns into a full-screen ad if you leave the TV alone for a few seconds.

Fire TV is at least fluid and quick to use, and Alexa voice control is responsive, but the amount of content to wade through is vast.

The UK catch-up apps are delivered through Freely, the free over-the-Internet platform that brings all live, catch-up and on-demand content in one place, effectively replacing Freeview Play.

There are a few changes made to the menus which slightly differ from the usual Amazon TV menus.

I actually find what Panasonic has done to be more sensible, with the Picture and Sound settings at the top rather than the bottom where it usually is. If you like to tinker, that’s more convenient.

The remote is still massive and still requires batteries. I’d prefer if it was a) smaller and b) relied on USB-C charging. I like the feedback, though, and I think it’s better to use than Amazon’s own Fire TV remote.

American customers get the Fire TV remote, but regardless of which one you do get, the amount of time it takes to update during the setup process is way too long.

Gaming

• Game Mode Extreme
• Refresh rates up 144Hz

For the fastest gaming experience, Panasonic presents Game Mode Extreme and True Game mode. The latter acts as Panasonic’s version of Filmmaker Mode in its reproduction of colours accurately.

There’s been a small improvement in input lag, as I measured it at 13ms. That’s the same as the LG C4 and G4 OLED TVs.

Latency can be reduced with HDMI VRR support, while AMD FreeSync Premium reduces screen tearing with compatible PC games. Refresh rates have been boosted to 144Hz for PC titles – 120Hz remains the max for PS5 and Xbox consoles.

There’s ALLM support that automatically puts the TV into its game mode when the TV detects a gaming signal. The Game Control Board allows for customisation of the TV’s performance, with the ability to adjust the type of gaming mode (Standard, RPG) or the TV’s sound mode.

Features

• New HCX Pro AI Processor MK II
• Full HDR support
• Dynamic Theater Surround system

The W95A continues Panasonic’s approach to supporting all HDR formats for its premium TVs with HDR10, HLG, HDR10+ Adaptive, and Dolby Vision IQ. There’s no mention of HLG Photo, but as far as I can tell, that’s supported too.

The W95A’s processor has been bumped up to the HCX Pro AI Processor MK II, using artificial intelligence to produce accurate colours, contrast and sharpness as well as running its digital eye across fast-moving action across sports, film and gaming titles.

It can also convert SDR images to HDR with its AI HDR Remaster feature (whether you’ll use that is another question). Upscaling is done through Panasonic’s 4K Fine Remaster feature, while Auto AI detects the incoming signal and adjusts the TV’s picture and sound without you having to lift a finger.

The accurate out-of-the-box Filmmaker Mode is meshed with Panasonic’s Intelligent Sensing to adapt its performance for both bright and dark rooms. In fact, the TV’s light sensor will perform that function across all SDR and HDR modes.

Audio is provided through the 50W Dynamic Theatre Surround system with support for Dolby Atmos, although there’s no built-in DTS support like there is on Sony TVs. The Mono Woofer – visible on the TV’s back – provides some oomph to low frequencies. Panasonic has been good at delivering sound with its premium TVs – here’s hoping it can achieve the same here.

Given this is a Fire TV there’s no room for Google – not even through a connected speaker. You get built-in Alexa voice control through the remote, and there’s also Apple HomeKit if you have other devices within that smart ecosystem.

Picture Quality

• Natural-looking, colourful picture
• Strong upscaling skills
• Good dark room performance

An aspect I felt the Panasonic MX950 was reserved in was its levels of brightness. You’d expect that a high-quality Mini LED backlight with QLED panel would let the brightness and colour performance flow, but the MX950’s performance was more restrained. The same is true of the W95A.

In its Normal mode, I measured the brightness on 5 and 10% HDR windows at 1309 and 1380 nits respectively, similar to the MX950. On a full-screen window, the W95A registered 777 nits, which is comfortably more than any OLED can manage.

So while the Panasonic W95A is slightly brighter than its predecessor, its brightness isn’t blinding. It’s very much a measured approach to HDR, but the picture quality still impresses.

Starting with Disney’s Soul, there’s solid depth to black levels at first glance. But in the scene where Joe falls to the Great Beyond, whenever there are multiple characters on screen, the W95A struggles slightly casting these bright blue characters against the black background.

There is a deliberate haze around the characters, but some slight blooming from the W95A’s backlight raises the blooming effect ever so slightly. There’s more blooming visible from an angle, which is always the case with any Mini LED TV, but the Panasonic handles blooming better than the similarly bright Samsung QN90D.

Having an Amazon Fire TV Omni Mini-LED TV at the same time gives a good case for comparing the two. Surprisingly, the Amazon offers a richer sense of colour and brighter white tones with HDR content over the Panasonic.

But where the Panasonic W95A is better is that it showcases a wider range of colours and tones. There’s more variety to the W95A’s colour performance than there is on the Amazon, which has a tendency to over-embellish colours in 4K Blu-rays of Soul, First Man and Across the Spider-Verse.

If you come across the Amazon and Panasonic during your search for a new TV, the more authentic colours of the Panasonic W95A would be the main reason to buy over the Amazon. It’s a much more cinephile-friendly TV.

Moving to Alien: Romulus (4K Blu-ray) and the Panasonic proves it can reveal detail in the darkest parts of the image as well as more expensive OLED TVs (LG G5 OLED).

The TV’s light sensor adapts the image to provide detail in both bright spots and dark areas, and I found it doesn’t succumb to as much black crush (loss of detail) as the Amazon Mini LED TV. It’s more deft in terms of shading, more natural and consistent with its black levels.

The oranges, reds and yellows of the film’s palette are more naturally conveyed on the Panasonic but lack the punch of the Amazon. Skin tones strike me as more nuanced and accurate, and the Panasonic reveals finer details of clothing and the dark interiors of the Romulus and Remus space station.

It’s not a spell-binding image – like many Panasonic TVs before it, it’s a natural, unshowy presentation that puts the emphasis on accuracy.

Panasonic’s Dynamic mode tilts the TV’s performance to its max, and it’s a brighter image but still balanced. With Disney’s Cinderella, complexions err towards sandy-looking, while detail and definition levels are a bit loose, creating a waxy appearance. It’s not the mode I’d go for, but it also doesn’t go over the top.

Sticking World War I drama 1917 into the Panasonic UB820 4K player, it’s a test for Panasonic’s Intelligent Frame Creation (motion smoothing).

Nothing much has changed from previous years. The Min settings offer the most filmic presentation, but look darker – there was some posterization and banding in the HDR10 layer of 1917. I also noticed some banding in Civil War in its Dolby Vision layer too.

The Max setting produces a soft, blurry image with judder (a shaking effect) as the characters move; while the Mid setting is more natural in movement with less judder and blurriness.

It doesn’t feel as if Panasonic has made many gains with its motion processing. There was a time when I would have thought it was class-leading alongside Sony, but I think LG has moved past it.

Upscaling

• Strong, rich colours with SDR content

In terms of upscaling, Panasonic delivers a strong colour performance in its Cinema mode, as seen in a stream of Invincible on Prime Video.

Colours are rich and saturated – especially reds and blues – but levels of brightness aren’t that strong. The W95A seems to reproduce 1080p content as the creator intended, but it does mean that, at least in its Cinema mode, it can look dimmer.

Levels of clarity, sharpness and detail are good, and the level of its colour accuracy is better than the Amazon Mini LED TV, which, with a DVD of Hellboy, skews skintones to a pinkish hue. Like with HDR content, the Panasonic W95A comes across as the more nuanced and accurate performer.

Sound Quality

• Good bass output
• Expansive soundstage
• Decent dialogue reproduction

Bass has always been a sore area for flatscreen TVs, but Panasonic’s efforts over the last few years have been as good as any in getting decent bass from its speakers.

Starting with Dune: Part Two, I’m impressed by the weighty, low-end performance that opens the film, but when the W95A has to dig deeper with the more demanding scenes – like the worm-riding sequence – the Panasonic suffers from distortion.

Dialogue is towards the warm side but loud, clear, and naturally reproduced. Enabling Dialogue Enhancement raises the noise floor slightly, but dialogue remains clear and avoids sounding thin.

There’s a good sense of background detail with Civil War (Dolby Atmos), adding depth to scenes but also capturing detail other TVs have struggled with. It’s a good sound system, but in terms of bass reproduction, you’ll want to consider adding one of the best Dolby Atmos soundbars to this TV.

Should you buy it?