Panasonic Z95A vs LG QNED80A6A (VA)

Panasonic Z95A showcases 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 renders details and intensity of bright spots, impressing with its power. In more demanding moments, like the final scene from The Meg, one can see how bright light floods the screen. In such moments, brightness drops, which is typical for organic matrices. Nevertheless, a result around 1000 nits can still be considered excellent, still providing very good image quality. Additionally, the television offers excellent coverage of wide colour palettes – as much as 98.6% for DCI-P3 and 74.5% for BT.2020. Thanks to this, colours are not only vivid but also deeply saturated, allowing for a full appreciation of the richness of details, especially in HDR scenes. Such coverage makes the hues look more realistic, and the HDR effect gains in intensity and accuracy. All this impressive HDR effect is thanks to MLA technology, which enables achieving such high luminance and excellent image detail. Because of this, the Panasonic Z95A offers HDR at a level that truly makes a difference.

Let's now talk about how this television shines. If you are expecting dazzling light effects, we need to temper your enthusiasm. The LG QNED80A is a moderately bright television. Our measurements in most movie scenes indicated values around 350-400 nits. This is not enough to speak of a full, cinematic HDR experience and the sense of that famous "high dynamism" offered by flagship products. However, brightness is not everything. Although the QNED80A is not a "light monster," it makes up for it in another crucial category: colours. This is where PFS technology comes into play, which LG marketers disguise under the name QNED/NanoCell. Thanks to this approach, the television offers a much wider colour palette than classic LCD designs. In our tests, coverage of the cinematic DCI-P3 palette reached a solid 93-94%. What does this mean for you? That even with lower brightness, when watching movies in HDR, colours will be vivid, deep, and appropriately saturated. The image is not washed out but rather juicy, which is a significant advantage in this price range.

The best picture mode on the Panasonic Z95A is undoubtedly the Filmmaker mode. It offers quite a good image reproduction, but it is not free from certain issues that require improvement. Firstly, the white balance, for both 4K and HD content, tends to have a dominance of red and blue hues. This causes a slight pinkish tint to the image, particularly noticeable in bright, white scenes. Such deviations can be seen in the comparative photo below, which illustrates this issue well. The Colour Checker test also confirms these discrepancies, showing slight shifts in the dots towards the mentioned shades.

In terms of gamma brightness characteristics, it performs very well, with only minor problems when brightening small details. A greater challenge is posed by 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 too bright, especially in more demanding scenes. Although the Filmmaker mode is definitely the best choice on the Z95A, these aspects require refinement to fully utilise the television's potential.

It might seem that since the QNED80A is one model, regardless of the version, it should offer the same picture. However, practice shows something completely different. Analyzing the variant with a VA panel in the best factory setting – that is, in Filmmaker Mode – we noticed a specific characteristic. This television, “out of the box,” serves us a picture with a clear dominance of red and a deficiency of blue. Overall, it is very warm, even hot. Many users may describe this as a picture that is “too cinematic,” leaning towards sepia. Additionally, there is the issue of the gamma curve – the television has a tendency to slightly artificially brighten scenes (gamma is too low), causing the picture to lose some depth. The good news is that these are not panel errors, but merely software issues. As always in our tests, we conducted professional calibration, which completely eliminated these shortcomings, restoring the natural white balance and correct saturation.

After calibration, Panasonic Z95A shows its full potential, offering an almost perfect picture. The television provides immense adjustment capabilities, which we have fully utilised. The white balance after calibration is positively perfect, and errors in SDR content at the level of 0.5 place it in an absolutely reference standard. The same is true 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 enthusiasts of cinematic picture quality. Significant changes have also occurred in the brightness characteristic – the EOTF curve has been flattened, eliminating previous issues with excessive brightness. And a small gamma error has been reduced.

Before calibration, the picture was decent, but now it's an entirely different league. It's a real feast for the eyes, the quality of which is hard to compare to anything else. Panasonic Z95A, after fine-tuning the settings, becomes a true master of colour reproduction.

Was it worth spending time on calibration? Definitely yes. We managed to tame the initial, too warm white balance and, most importantly, correct the gamma curve. The television stopped artificially brightening scenes, which gave the image depth. The greatest improvement is noticeable in SDR content, that is, while watching regular television, YouTube, or playing games without HDR. Here the QNED80A shows its class – colour reproduction errors (DeltaE) have dropped below a value of 2. In technical terms, this means that the errors are virtually unnoticeable to the human eye. The image in everyday use has simply become very attractive, natural, and correct. The difficulties begin with HDR content. Although we managed to improve the white balance, the EOTF curve graph (responsible for brightness at various levels) shows that the television still "interprets" the image in its own way. This stems from the nature of the edge-lit backlight with local dimming and the fact that LG gives the calibrator very little control over this parameter. In short: the television struggles to hide its hardware shortcomings, sometimes ignoring our commands. Nevertheless, the final image is significantly more accurate and pleasant to behold than with factory settings, even if it falls a bit short of studio perfection.

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

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

In this category, the QNED80A proves to be a true "dark horse." It is an excellent, affordable television for those who frequently watch lower-quality content – for example, traditional cable TV. The processor used here handles upscaling, that is, enhancing low resolution to native 4K, exceptionally well. The image after processing is natural, smooth, and, most importantly, not overly jagged or artificially sharpened. In the menu, we also find a dedicated option for smoothing tonal transitions in low-quality content. This feature works really effectively, eliminating annoying "banding" of colours under heavy video compression. However, we must remain vigilant. Remember that we are not dealing with a top-tier processor known from flagship OLED models. In more challenging scenes, the system may struggle and introduce minor artefacts or distortions. Nonetheless, it is definitely worth giving this feature a chance, as in most cases the quality improvement is visibly apparent.

Panasonic Z95A, thanks to its 144 Hz panel, offers excellent image fluidity. For films, there is an "Intelligent Frame Creation" feature that enhances fluidity and reduces motion blur. The user has two sliders at their disposal: "Motion Blur Reduction" – responsible for clearer and sharper details in rapidly moving scenes. "Film Smoothness" – adds fluidity by creating additional frames between the originals, making motion appear smoother and more natural with a "soap opera" effect.

Thanks to this, viewers can adjust the settings to their own preferences. Films and less dynamic material look smooth and natural, which should satisfy most users.

We move on to a matter that may be decisive for many. Unfortunately, here we must point out the biggest "Achilles' heel" of the QNED80A model. This television is equipped with a panel featuring a native refresh rate of 60Hz. There is no denying it – at this price, we expected more as we know that Chinese manufacturers can offer 120Hz screens for a similar price. Due to this parameter, dynamic scenes in sports or fast-paced games are not the strongest aspect of this display. Fortunately, LG has equipped the television with a proven motion smoothing system called TruMotion. It works quite effectively with film material (24 frames). We suggest playing around with the De-Judder slider – from our experience, setting it in the range of 2-4 provides the best compromise: the motion becomes smoother, yet still looks natural, without the artificial "television theatre" effect.

Panasonic Z95A this year shows that the manufacturer has made a huge leap forward in terms of support for gamers. The television offers virtually everything one could expect from a device in this bracket. Support for ALLM (automatic low latency mode) and VRR (variable refresh rate) ensures smoothness and eliminates tearing in dynamic games. The 144 Hz panel allows for incredible fluidity, and additional support for resolutions other than 4K provides greater flexibility, which is a significant advantage for gamers using various configurations.

A unique and quite specific feature is the "Game Bar." Its ball-shaped interface stands out from the competition and allows for quick adjustments of key settings such as VRR, brightness level, or picture mode, without having to interrupt gameplay.

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

Now that we have established that the QNED80A is a television with a 60Hz panel, we must say it plainly: we will not be playing here at 120 frames per second at any resolution. Does this disqualify the equipment in the eyes of gamers? Not necessarily, especially those "casual" ones. LG has decided to sweeten this technical limitation by packing quite a few useful functions inside. We have support for VRR (variable refresh rate) in the range of 48-60Hz and automatic game mode ALLM, which instantly reduces input lag upon detection of a console. All of this is managed from a very convenient, purple Game Optimizer menu, which has already become LG's hallmark. A big plus goes to the manufacturer for consistency regarding HDR. Although the television does not support Dolby Vision in games on Xbox consoles, LG adds a well-implemented HGiG standard. Thanks to this, even on a moderately bright screen, playing in HDR is clear, and the details in shadows and highlights are accurately reproduced, rather than "cut off".