Panasonic Z85A vs SHARP JP7765E

The Panasonic Z85A is an OLED television, so one can immediately expect great effects in films. And indeed – our tests have shown that the WOLED panel can achieve around 800 nits of peak brightness in optimal conditions. This is a solid result that performs well in most demanding HDR scenes, allowing viewers to enjoy a dynamic and detail-rich image. However, like any OLED, the Z85A has its limits. In very bright scenes covering the entire screen – such as the final sequence from the film The Meg – the television reduces brightness to around 400 nits. This is standard behaviour for this technology, so if someone plans to watch films in a brightly sunlit living room, it is worth keeping this in mind. The coverage of the DCI-P3 colour gamut at 98% also deserves high praise. Thanks to this, the television reproduces a wide range of colours that stand out with vibrancy and depth, and details in HDR scenes are sharp and precise. In short – the Panasonic Z85A delivers a solid HDR effect that will satisfy any film enthusiast.

So how does the brightness of the Sharp JP7 fare in the most demanding titles? Honestly, at first, we were quite surprised. The television is capable of achieving over 1000 nits of brightness, which is an outstanding and rare result for a device costing just under 2000 PLN (for 55 inches). Watching bright, full-screen scenes, one might feel they are dealing with really good equipment. Unfortunately, though, we have to return to the problem we mentioned earlier regarding local dimming management. When small bright areas appear on a dark background (as in the test scenes from the films Life of Pi or Sicario 2), it is evident how poorly the JP7 handles zones. The television dims them almost to the maximum, crushing the entire HDR effect, which in such moments resembles a flat SDR image (less than 200 nits). This instability means that in demanding, contrast-heavy films, the image on the JP7 unfortunately loses its appeal.

As a consolation, it is worth noting that the panel has the potential for good colour display. It features a PFS (phosphor) filter, which allows for a solid 94% coverage of the DCI-P3 palette. The manufacturer calls its product a “QLED,” even though it is primarily based on the aforementioned PFS filter. Given the recent market battles of manufacturers over what may or may not be called QLED, we leave the question of the correctness of this naming to your assessment. However, it remains a fact that the potential for reproducing saturated colours in this panel is simply good.

The Panasonic Z85A offers many picture modes, but the Filmmaker mode definitely stands out from the rest. It is rare for a television to be so well tuned straight out of the box, and the unit we had the opportunity to test really surprised us positively.

However, there were a few minor shortcomings. In the SDR signal, we noticed a slight deficit of red and blue, which resulted in the image having a cooler hue than it should have. This is especially noticeable in the comparative photo. Conversely, in 4K HDR content, the situation was the opposite – an excess of red made the image appear warmer than the creators intended. In terms of brightness characteristics (gamma) and the maintenance of the appropriate EOTF curve, it's hard to find fault. There are slight deviations, but they are so minimal that the average viewer is unlikely to notice them.

It is also worth emphasising that our observations pertain to a specific unit of the television. Two identical models may differ from each other due to natural production variances. Nevertheless, the unit we had in our hands looks really solid and deserves praise. Now it's time for our calibration – we'll see if we can extract even more from this screen!

When it comes to out-of-the-box colours, the Sharp JP7 was tested in Film mode, which traditionally offers the most consistent image compared to the yellowed “Eco” mode or the glaring blue of the “Dynamic” mode. Although this is the best choice among the available settings, the results are still far from ideal. The white balance clearly lacked red and blue components, causing many scenes to take on an unnatural greenish tint. Another issue was the gamma – during full-screen scenes, the television provides excessive brightness, which completely diminishes its cinematic character. All of this resulted in colour reproduction errors, especially in shades of grey, which exceeded a value of Delta E 10. For reference: errors above 2-3 are already visible to the human eye, so we are dealing with a significant distortion of reality here.

In HDR mode, the situation is reversed, but not any better. Here, the blue colour dominates the white balance, which gives the image an unnatural, almost “retail” sharpness, reminiscent of aggressive demonstration modes. Furthermore, measurements of the EOTF curve emphasise the retail character of the image. The graph clearly shows that the television generates an image significantly brighter than the standards predict, resulting in an artificially boosted and unrealistic final effect. The Sharp JP7 is evidently trying to appear stronger than it actually is, but it does so at the cost of fidelity to the content.

The Panasonic Z85A offers truly wide possibilities when it comes to image settings, so we enthusiastically set about calibration. Although we mainly focused on correcting the white balance, the final result exceeded our expectations. Both HD and 4K HDR content now display nearly perfect colour reproduction, with minimal errors that are hard to catch with the naked eye. Well-calibrated televisions are a rarity, and we must admit – it is truly gratifying. Although the gamma and EOTF curve did not require drastic adjustments, it was possible to further stabilise their characteristics across the entire brightness range. After calibration, the Panasonic Z85A is a true gem for home cinema enthusiasts. The image is precise, the colours are natural, and every scene looks exactly as the director intended.

We subjected the JP7 to our standard calibration procedure and really... the television gained a new lease of life thanks to it, particularly with SDR content (YouTube, classic television, series, or older films). As a result of our precise adjustment of the white balance and stabilisation of the gamma, colour errors fell to a value of below 3. This is a level at which the human eye has difficulty detecting distortions. In this scenario, the Sharp JP7 delivers an image with truly excellent colour precision, which is a significant advantage in this price class. However, content with HDR turned out to be much more problematic. Here, despite our efforts and interventions in the settings, the television simply would not cooperate. In the JP7 menu, we don't find any option that would allow for real control over brightness management (EOTF). Although a significant portion of the colour errors was reduced, the image still remained unnaturally oversaturated. It's a bit of a shame, as the potential of the mini-LED backlit panel is great, but the software presents a clear barrier here.

The conclusion is simple: when watching less demanding content (SDR) on the JP7, you can expect an image that is more than satisfactory, but in HDR, you must come to terms with a certain degree of "artificiality" that cannot be circumvented even with professional equipment.

Now that we know how the Panasonic Z85A performs with tonal transitions in 4K content, it’s time to take a look at its "Gradation Smoothing" feature. It works, but unfortunately not entirely effectively. Regardless of the chosen value – whether it’s low, medium, or high – we were unable to achieve perfectly smooth tonal transitions in our test sequence. We recommend setting this feature to an intermediate level. Although it may slightly blur fine details, at least the issue of film grain loss does not occur, which for many viewers can be crucial when watching classic productions.

As for image scaling, the television performs quite well. It’s noticeable that the image is slightly sharpened, and slim lines may at times appear a bit jagged. However, this is standard in most TVs, and fortunately, it can be adjusted using the sharpness slider. This gives us complete control – we can achieve a more plastic, blurred image or a clearer one, although it may be more “harsh” and artificially sharp. It all depends on user preference and the type of content we are watching. Overall, the scaling is at a solid level and should satisfy most users who are using lower resolution materials.

In the case of lower quality materials and how the Sharp JP7 handles them, the situation is ambiguous. Let's start with the upscaling itself – here we have no major objections. The process of scaling the image to a higher resolution is correct; the picture remains readable and sharp, without the overscan effect, meaning no cropped edges. Of course, it is not at the level of top models, and at times one can notice slight jaggedness on the contours, but in this price range, the effect is fully acceptable.

However, the actual digital image processing performs significantly worse, which, apart from the upscaling, effectively does not exist. In the JP7 menu, we will not find any option that would effectively smooth out unwanted tonal transitions or reduce noise in the image. As a result, the signal reaches the panel in a very raw form, which, with heavily compressed materials (e.g. from YouTube), leads to visible posterisation. Either it is a flaw in the software or a very strange design decision, because in earlier Sharp models this function was available and, crucially, worked with noticeable effect. Here, we are left to deal with whatever the source provides us, without any digital support from the image processor.

The Panasonic Z85A features a 120 Hz panel, which will certainly please both gamers and sports fans. Admittedly, it is not 144 Hz like some gaming TVs, but in practice, the difference is really hard to notice. In games, the image is stable and clear, and during fast action, there is no sign of any blurring. The same applies to sports – a fast-running footballer or a dynamic car manoeuvre looks smooth and natural. The TV also has the “Intelligent Frame Creation” function, which is a motion smoother. There are two sliders here – one is for reducing blur, and the other is for motion smoothness. With these, you can adjust the image to your own preferences – whether it be more of a cinematic effect with gentle transitions between frames, or a maximally smooth image ideal for watching sports.

The motion fluidity on the Sharp JP7 is quite mediocre, and the reason is simple: the television uses a 60Hz panel. This instantly makes it difficult to recommend for watching sports or serious gaming, where higher refresh rates are already the standard. The only real plus is the presence of a smoothness feature, which we can control in films using a slider called De-judder. Lower settings provide a more raw, "cinematic" (framey) image, while higher settings add artificial smoothness. We suggest setting it somewhere in the middle of the scale, that is in the range of 3-5 – this is the best compromise to avoid the soap opera effect while also eliminating the tiring stuttering of the image. Interestingly, in the menu, we also find a "motion blur removal" slider, which usually indicates the presence of a 120Hz panel. However, with the JP7, it does not enhance the image at all and serves rather as a dummy – it is meant to look good in the settings, but technically it has no right to operate on this panel.

Panasonic is mainly associated with home cinema televisions, but the Z85A demonstrates that it can also step into the gaming world with a really strong impact. This hardware can easily be called a gaming beast – it has everything needed for comfortable gameplay.

Although there are only two HDMI 2.1 ports, both operate at full bandwidth, so we can easily connect both a next-gen console and a gaming PC. All key features are supported: ALLM automatically switches the television to game mode, VRR ensures smooth images without stuttering or tearing, and with correctly implemented HGIG and Dolby Vision, HDR games look really good – colours are vivid, details are sharp, and dark scenes are clear. We also find a Game Bar in the form of a clear, circular menu. It may not look as impressive as the competition's, but it is intuitive and contains all the important settings we would like to have at hand during gameplay.

In summary – the Panasonic Z85A is equipment that truly surprises with its gaming capabilities. It is a television on which both console gamers and PC players will feel at home. It is smooth, dynamic, and simply good.

As we mentioned earlier, the 60Hz panel is not a feature that will attract gamers to the Sharp JP7. Perhaps for the casual player, whose console still generates most titles at 60 frames per second, there might be something interesting? When it comes to specific additions, we find here:

• ALLM Mode: Automatically switches the television to low latency game mode (input lag).

• Game Menu: Which is hard to call a full-fledged “Game Bar,” as the functionality here is minimal. Aside from enabling ALLM, there’s only a game-specific motion smoother which we recommend avoiding as it introduces very noticeable artifacts and worsens responsiveness.

• Dolby Vision Gaming: For Microsoft consoles.

Unfortunately, the list of shortcomings is significantly longer and more painful than the positives. The biggest disappointment is the lack of support for 120Hz, even when reducing the resolution to Full HD. The presence of 120Hz would allow for performance modes to be activated in many games on PS5 or Xbox Series X. Another shortcoming is VRR, which means that during frame drops, we are exposed to screen tearing. The lack of proper implementation of the HGiG standard is also very problematic. This results in the fact that during HDR calibration in the console menu, it is very easy to "overshoot" the brightness settings. As a result, instead of clear details in the highlights, we end up with an unnaturally over-bright image with cut-off details. Sharp JP7 is a proposition solely for very casual gamers.