I’m within the means of reviewing the brand new Panasonic Z95B OLED, and at first look, it’s a really spectacular TV, and one which takes OLED expertise to the following degree through its new Primary RGB Tandem structure OLED display panel.
A giant benefit of the Z95B’s new OLED panel, which the corporate sources from LG, is enhanced brightness. The Z95B’s measured brightness is on the identical degree because the brightest examples of the best TVs, and it is also one of many brightest OLED TVs TechRadar has ever examined.
High brightness is one factor that contributes to the Z95B’s impressive picture. Unfortunately, you wouldn’t know Panasonic’s new flagship OLED held such highly effective brightness reserves if you happen to had been to solely use its Filmmaker Mode, an image preset we typically suggest as offering essentially the most correct picture high quality on all method of TVs, Panasonic fashions included.
By the numbers
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The Z95B’s peak brightness in its default Filmmaker Mode is surprisingly low. And that’s with both standard dynamic range (SDR) and high dynamic range sources. Simply how low? I’ll cite some numbers from my preliminary measurements of the Z95B.
On a ten% HDR white window sample, the Z95B measured 992 nits, and 347 nits on a full-screen (100%) HDR white window sample. Switching to straightforward dynamic vary, the Z95B measured 78.8 nits on a ten% sample, and 78 nits on a full-screen sample.
To place these numbers in context, the LG G5, a TV that makes use of the identical Main RGB Tandem construction OLED show panel because the Z95B, managed 2,268 and 331 nits, respectively, on the identical HDR brightness checks, and 327 and 286 nits, respectively, on the identical SDR checks.
Hashing out these numbers, in Filmmaker Mode, the LG G5 delivers an HDR image that’s greater than twice as vibrant because the Panasonic Z95B, and the G5’s image is 4 occasions as vibrant with SDR sources.
That’s a substantial distinction, and it actually reveals when evaluating the 2 TVs aspect by aspect, as my TechRadar colleague James Davidson did in his Panasonic and LG flagship OLED TV comparison. James set each TVs to their default Filmmaker Mode settings, and when viewing reference clips from 4K Blu-rays, he discovered the image to be “far brighter and extra vibrant on the G5, with way more sensible whites and highlights.” The Z95B’s image, in distinction, “seemed very correct, however dim as compared.”
One other TV check TechRadar not too long ago carried out equally discovered the Panasonic Z95B at a brightness drawback in comparison with its flagship OLED TV competitors. In our flagship OLED TV showdown, we in contrast 2025 fashions from Samsung, LG, Sony, and Panasonic.
In that check, the principally non-expert panel was typically much less impressed with the Z95B – and the Sony Bravia 8 II as effectively – with one panelist commenting, “Each Panasonic and Sony look super-dull,” in comparison with the Samsung S95F and LG G5 competitors.
A brightness boost – but is it worth it?
In our recent Panasonic Z95B vs LG G5 OLED TV comparison, the Z95B’s Luminance (brightness) adjustment, which was set to 70 by default in Filmmaker Mode, ended up being boosted to its maximum 100 setting after the initial comparison. At this setting, the Z95B’s picture looked equally bright compared to the G5, but it was also observed that the brightness boost came at the expense of picture accuracy.
To confirm exactly how bright the Panasonic Z95B’s picture gets in Filmmaker Mode with its Luminance adjustment set to maximum, I conducted another round of measurements. In this case, the Z95B’s HDR peak brightness had climbed up to 2,240 nits – approximately the same level as the LG G5 in its default Filmmaker Mode settings.
Okay, so the Z95B can get equally as bright as the G5. But at what cost? As part of my second round of measurements, I compared the Z95B’s EOTF (the HDR equivalent of gamma) tracking in Filmmaker Mode with Luminance set to 70 (the default) and next to 100 (maximum).
With Luminance set to maximum, the Z95B’s EOTF tracking was notably less accurate, with higher Delta-E values (the margin of error between the test pattern source and what’s shown on-screen) across the full brightness range. The default 70 setting, in contrast, showed mostly accurate EOTF tracking and a considerably lower Delta-E values.
For me, those measurements confirm the loss of picture accuracy my colleague experienced when viewing the Z95B with its Luminance setting boosted to better match the G5.
Does that mean the Panasonic OLED’s picture doesn’t look good when running at maximum brightness? Not necessarily, and it’s entirely possible that the Z95B would have done better in TechRadar’s flagship OLED TV showdown with its Luminance setting boosted from the default.
However, the measurements do reveal the limitations that presets like Filmmaker Mode, which was created to provide viewers with a simple method for obtaining an accurate picture that matches what a movie’s director approved in the mastering suite, can bump up against in the new world of super-bright TVs.
Filmmaker Mode is something I’d still recommend using, but don’t expect your pricey new TV to be flexing its full brightness potential, and be prepared to dim the lights for movie time.
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