Expert review of the Panasonic JZW984 OLED TV

For this review, I test the 55-inch version of the JZW984. When I unbox the television, I notice the screen isn't very heavy. The sturdy steel stand is though. I screw it onto the back of the television with 4 screws. The installation doesn't go as smooth. It takes a little while before the TV boots, and when I want to enter the WiFi password, the 'OK' button is the same as the 'Back' button on the remote. This causes a moment of confusion.

After the installation, I start a Netflix series that supports Dolby Vision. I select the display mode 'Dolby Vision lively'. I notice directly that the brightness is very high with light scenes, especially for an OLED television. This has a great advantage for the display of HDR images. Because of the high brightness, the TV has a powerful contrast and there's a lot of room for a wide color gamut between the lightest and darkerst part of the image. Thanks to this, HDR images look realistic and detailed.

An OLED screen has pixels that are controlled individually. They light up and dim by themselves. This means that black parts of the screen are really black. The pixel in this part just turns off. In combination with the high brightness, this ensures a realistic contrast. I can see a large difference between light parts and dark parts in dark scenes, without a glow around the bright parts. Even in shadows, I can see many color details.

Because the pixels of an OLED TV light up individually and are located closely to the screen surface, the viewing angle of these TVs is always very good. When I sit in front of the JZW984 at an angle, the colors remain clear and the contrast strong. Thanks to the high brightness, I don't see many reflections on the screen with light scenes. Darker images do show a reflection of bright lights, but only when they're pointed directly at the screen. You probably won't be bothered by this in a normally lit livingroom.

With the introduction of the newest consoles, the speed of the HDMI inputs is becoming more important. Luckily, Panasonic takes this into account, because the JZW 984 has 4 HDMI ports. Two of those support the newest HDMI version. This version, 2.1, is especially attractive for gamers. Thanks to this, you can receive 4K images from your PlayStation 5 on your TV with a 100Hz refresh rate. I didn't test this, but it promises fast and smooth images during intense games.

The sound of the Panasonic JZW984 is good enough for normal use, but the quality might be an obstacle for the real move lovers. That's because the TV doesn't have a subwoofer, so the bass tones are missing. When you watch a thrilling movie or series, the sound doesn't sound very immersive due to this. Live television, like talkshows or the news, sound loud and clear. For a realistic and rich sound for movies and series, I recommend a separate soundbar.

The appearance of the smart menu by Panasonic has barely changed. My Home Screen 6.0 is a row of circle-shaped icons at the bottom of the screen. I notice it's slightly smoother to navigate. I easily scroll through the menu and quickly find the apps I'm looking for. When I stay on an app, like Netflix, a row of suggestions for movies and series appears above the icons.

The remote of the JZW984 is slightly slimmer than the previous versions. I like that Panasonic doesn't follow the trend of less and less buttons on a remote. Even though it might look old-fashioned, I like to have all the buttons at hand when I control the TV. At the top of the remote, there's a number of shortcuts for apps and a microphone for voice control.