Panasonic’s all-singing OLED flagship gets a brightness-boosting MLA upgrade
65in 4K TV | £2999| whf.cm/Panasonic_MZ2000
Panasonic has developed a reputation for producing some of the most authentic and accurate TVs available. So much so that some Hollywood studios import Panasonic sets for professional use (the company no longer sells TVs in the US). It’s that sort of reputation that has also made Panasonic TVs the go-to for AV enthusiasts looking to watch movies in the way the creator intended, and it also makes the annual launch of Panasonic’s flagship TV a serious cause of excitement for the What Hi-Fi? reviews team.
Panasonic has in recent years stuck with a flagship formula that involves combining the best OLED panel available at the time with the most sophisticated processing in its repertoire, fine-tuning by the company’s own engineers in conjunction with Hollywood colourists, and a chunky, multi-speaker Dolby Atmos sound system. It’s a formula that has won it many plaudits over the years and, in fact, the LZ2000 was probably the best TV of last year, if you took value for money out of the equation.
The MZ2000 is Panasonic’s flagship TV for 2023. The formula remains the same but there is a big upgrade on the OLED panel front courtesy of brightness-boosting MLA technology. Does it make a big difference, and has Panasonic managed to implement it without deviating from its traditional values of authenticity and accuracy? The answers are ‘yes’ and ‘yes’. But there are new rivals to consider, too…
The 65in Panasonic MZ2000 launched at a price of £3599, which is more or less the same launch price as rivals such as the LG G3, Samsung S95C and Sony A95L. The MZ2000 has now dropped to £2999, but the LG G3 and Samsung S95C, which have been available for longer, have dropped further and are now available for significantly less. The Sony A95L, on the other hand, has dropped very little and is £500 more expensive than the Panasonic MZ2000. That final price difference is an important one.
Panasonic has long pursued a function-over-form design philosophy. The MZ2000 is thick to an extent that at first glance makes it look like a backlit TV, though there are some small sections of more typical OLED super-slimness. Most of the thickness is due to the sound system, which features not only forwardfacing speakers arranged underneath the TV’s bottom edge but also dedicated side-firing and up-firing
