Panasonic Z95A vs Samsung QN900F

Panasonic Z95A shows class when it comes to HDR performance. In luminance tests, it achieves a level of 1800 nits, which has a real impact on movie watching. Scenes from Life of Pi or Gemini Man look fantastic – the television effortlessly reproduces details and the intensity of bright spots, making a strong impression with its power. In more demanding moments, like the final scene from The Meg, you can see how bright light floods the screen. In such moments, brightness drops, which is typical for organic panels. Nevertheless, a result around 1000 nits can still be considered excellent, still providing very good picture quality. Additionally, the television offers great coverage of wide colour gamuts – up to 98.6% for DCI-P3 and 74.5% for BT.2020. This means that colours are not only vibrant but also deeply saturated, allowing full appreciation of the richness of details, especially in HDR scenes. Such coverage makes colours look more realistic, and the HDR effect gains intensity and accuracy. All this impressive HDR effect is thanks to MLA technology, which enables such high luminance and excellent image detail. With it, the Panasonic Z95A offers HDR at a level that truly makes a difference.

QN900F is a seriously bright TV – it can generate nearly 2000 nits, which is a level that remains unattainable for most models on the market. But the ability to achieve such brightness isn’t everything – it also matters whether the TV can make good use of it. And here it’s not always perfect. Our tests on cinematic scenes showed that in scenes like those from Life of Pi or The Meg, the QN900F can really shine – both literally and figuratively. In such moments, its greatest advantage, which is brightness, makes a huge impression. However, in more demanding scenes, things start to get tricky – similar to assessing contrast. When smaller, bright elements appear on the screen, the TV often struggles with the decision of whether to highlight them at the cost of black levels or perhaps maintain deep blacks but tone down the brightness. The result is situations where, for example, in the movie Sicario 2, the brightness dropped to just 200 nits, making details barely visible. The dimming algorithms could definitely be better, considering the class of this television.

The best picture mode on the Panasonic Z95A is undoubtedly the Filmmaker mode. This mode offers quite good image reproduction, but it is not without certain flaws that need addressing. Primarily, the white balance, for both 4K and HD content, tends to be dominated by red and blue hues. This leads to a slight pink tint in the image, particularly noticeable in bright, white scenes. Such discrepancies can be seen in the comparative image below, which illustrates the issue well. The Colour Checker test also confirms these inaccuracies, showing slight shifts of dots towards the mentioned shades.

In terms of gamma brightness characteristics, it performs very well, with only minor issues when brightening small details. A greater challenge arises with the EOTF curve, which is responsible for controlling brightness in 4K HDR content. Here, there is a slight boost in brightness above the reference value, which sometimes makes the image overly bright, especially in more demanding scenes. While the Filmmaker mode is definitely the best choice on the Z95A, these aspects require refinement to fully harness the television's potential.

Testing the QN900F in Filmmaker mode, the distinct characteristics of the image quickly became apparent, despite this mode being designed to reflect the director's vision. The white balance was not perfect – the television had noticeable deficits in blue. This caused the entire scene to take on a warmer tone, as if someone had applied a subtle filter in shades of yellow and orange to the image. In films where bright shots dominate – for example, scenes in the snow or under strong daylight – this gave an impression of a slight warmth that does not always convey the director's intention. The second noticeable element was the management of brightness. The QN900F sometimes brightened the image more than necessary. It looked as if the exposure had been slightly "pushed up," which caused the scene to lose some naturalness. Shadows could be too shallow, and contrast slightly weakened. These are not disqualifying errors, but for a television in this price range, it is clear that the Filmmaker mode has not been perfected one hundred percent. This is particularly noticeable when we compare its image to what was visible after the screen calibration.

After calibration, Panasonic Z95A showcases its full potential, delivering an almost perfect image. The television offers extensive adjustment capabilities, which we have fully utilised. The white balance post-calibration is absolutely flawless, and the errors in SDR content at 0.5 are at an exceptionally reference standard. The same goes for 4K HDR content – the screen tint has been completely eliminated, and the white balance is now exemplary.

The colour palette and Colour Checker test confirm the excellence of the calibration. Errors below 2 are a result that will satisfy both professional calibrators and cinema-quality image enthusiasts. Significant changes have also occurred in the brightness characteristics – the EOTF curve has been aligned, eliminating previous issues with excessive brightness. Additionally, a small error in gamma has been reduced.

Before calibration, the image was acceptable, but now it's in a completely different league. It's a true feast for the eyes, and the quality is hard to compare to anything else. Once fine-tuned, the Panasonic Z95A becomes a true master of colour reproduction.

After calibration, we managed to reduce the errors in white balance and adjust them to a level that can be considered acceptable. It's not perfect, but definitely better than the factory settings. Most colour errors now fall within the deltaE 2–3 range, so in practice, they shouldn't be noticeable during everyday viewing. The biggest improvement is evident in how the television handles brightness in SDR content. Shadows and details are no longer flattened, giving the image depth and naturalness. As for 4K HDR materials – colours themselves are no longer an issue, but one can still notice some imperfections in Mini-LED technology. The QN900F tends to excessively dim the smallest bright elements, causing them to sometimes disappear from view. However, it's worth noting that this is a much better solution than boosting the entire screen, which would ruin the contrast. This is more of a characteristic of the technology rather than a typical flaw, but it's worth keeping in mind. The effects of the calibration are really very good.

In the case of lower quality materials, the "Gradation Smoothing" function is responsible for smoothing tonal transitions. The best results are achieved with an intermediate setting – while they are not spectacular, the function works correctly and does not introduce unwanted effects into the image. It can be evaluated as average, but sufficient for improving the quality of tonal transitions.

As for digital processing, or upscaling, the picture looks surprisingly good. It is flexible and pleasant to the eye, which makes lower quality content, such as standard television or YouTube, look quite decent. However, minor issues can be observed, such as "aliasing" on edges, e.g. branches in the background. Nevertheless, this does not significantly affect the overall viewing experience, and the television handles these materials in an acceptable manner.

If we want to get rid of awkward tonal transitions that can be annoying, for example, while watching YouTube, we can use a feature called noise reduction. It works really effectively – it eliminates issues with colour blending when set to Standard level. However, as with most Samsung TVs, this comes with some compromises. Although we didn't notice this feature having a significant impact on the structure of objects in the image, it unfortunately reacts quite aggressively to film grain. Most people will likely appreciate this effect – the noise is simply removed – but if someone is looking for an image as close as possible to reference settings, we definitely recommend turning this option off.

When it comes to upscaling, or dealing with very low-quality content, the QN900F performs really well. On the test pattern with a model, the image looked clear, with only slight jaggedness that shouldn't bother most viewers. However, it’s worth mentioning one issue – the TV sometimes struggles with so-called overscan, which means older content may be slightly cut off. This can manifest, for example, with disappearing subtitles at the bottom of the screen.

Panasonic Z95A, with a 144 Hz panel, offers excellent image smoothness. For movies, there is an "Intelligent Frame Creation" feature that allows for improved smoothness and reduction of blurring. Users have two sliders at their disposal: "Motion Blur Reduction" – responsible for clearer and sharper details in fast-moving scenes. "Film Smoothness" – adds smoothness by creating additional frames between the originals, making motion appear more fluid and natural with the effect of "soap opera"

As a result, viewers can adjust the settings to their own preferences. Movies and less dynamic content look smooth and natural, which should satisfy most users.

There’s really nothing to nitpick here – the QN900F looks great when it comes to motion. Thanks to its 165 Hz panel in 4K, you can confidently say that this TV is suited for both watching sports and gaming. The motion smoother plays a key role here. It works brilliantly – not just with sports broadcasts, where it can eliminate blurring and image judder, but also in games, where animation becomes clearer and more fluid. And of course, if someone likes to experiment with movies – they have that option as well. At lower settings, you can see a slight graininess and a filmic quality, while higher settings introduce a soap opera effect. So everyone can tailor the picture to their preferences, and the TV has the power to handle it.

Panasonic Z95A this year shows that the manufacturer has made a huge leap forward in support for gamers. The television offers practically everything you can expect from a device in this range. Support for ALLM (Auto Low Latency Mode) and VRR (Variable Refresh Rate) ensures smoothness and no tearing in dynamic games. The 144 Hz panel allows for incredible fluidity, and the additional support for resolutions other than 4K provides greater flexibility, which is a big plus for gamers using various configurations.

Also noteworthy is the unique and rather specific "Game Bar." Its bubble interface stands out from the competition and allows quick adjustment of key settings such as VRR, brightness level, or picture mode, without the need to interrupt gameplay.

However, in this class of devices, there has been a slight disappointment – Panasonic Z95A only offers two HDMI 2.1 ports instead of four. This is definitely too few for a premium television, especially in times when many people have more than one device requiring full HDMI 2.1 support, such as a next-gen console or a high-end computer. In this category, it's hard to accept, especially given the high aspirations of this model. Despite this, the television is an excellent choice for gamers, offering versatility and functionality at the highest level.

It's really good here. The QN900F offers a full set of features that we would expect from a top-notch gaming TV – we have VRR, ALLM, Game Bar, as well as cloud gaming apps. However, the biggest standout is its proprietary motion smoother, which also works in games and – importantly – does not add noticeable input lag. This is something we won't find in other competitors.

Unfortunately, there is also something concerning. This year, Samsung has clearly messed up something with its TVs. During the testing of the QN900F before its update, it had the HGIG feature, which allowed for perfect adjustment of HDR settings for consoles. However, according to our procedures, we always update the hardware to the latest version – to give the manufacturer a chance to fix any issues. And here… it went the other way.

After the update, the HGIG feature disappeared from the menu, making proper configuration of the console for HDR practically impossible. It was supposed to be complete – 165Hz, four HDMI 2.1 ports, a full gaming package… but unfortunately, it turned out to be a little mishap. What a shame.