Panasonic Z95A vs Philips PUS7000

Panasonic Z95A demonstrates class when it comes to HDR performance. In brightness tests, it reaches a level of 1800 nits, which has a real impact on watching movies. Scenes from Life of Pi or Gemini Man look great – the television effortlessly reproduces details and the 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. Nonetheless, a result around 1000 nits can still be considered excellent, still providing very good picture quality. Additionally, the television offers excellent coverage of wide color gamuts – up to 98.6% for DCI-P3 and 74.5% for BT.2020. This ensures that colors are not only vibrant but also deeply saturated, allowing full appreciation of the richness of details, especially in HDR scenes. Such coverage makes colors appear 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. Thanks to this, the Panasonic Z95A offers HDR at a level that truly makes a difference.

Unfortunately, the PUS7000 is not suitable for watching HDR content. This screen is simply too dark. A brightness level of 200 nits is not enough to correctly display such a format. Even if a HDR signal message appears on the screen, the image will resemble a regular SDR recording. Therefore, it's better to stick with the latter format to avoid issues in displaying bright scenes, which you can read about below. The situation is not improved by the fact that this is a classic LCD model without additional layers to enhance colors, such as QLED or PFS. As a result, colors in HDR may appear washed out. Ultimately, this gives a worse effect than in the standard SDR format, which is simply better suited to the capabilities of this panel.

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

In terms of gamma brightness characteristics, it performs very well, with only minor issues when lightening small details. The EOTF curve, which is responsible for controlling brightness in 4K HDR content, poses greater difficulty. Here, a slight boost in brightness above the reference value can be observed, making the image sometimes too bright, especially in more demanding scenes. Although the Filmmaker mode is definitely the best choice in the Z95A, these aspects require refinement to fully exploit the potential of the television.

We tested the television in movie mode, which theoretically should provide the best and most natural colors. And indeed, this mode is quite correct; however, after connecting the calibration equipment, its biggest flaw became apparent. The PUS7000 has significant deficiencies in displaying red. Poorly tuned white balance and too low saturation of this color cause the image to appear too cool. As a result, one might get the impression that the displayed content is simply lacking in vibrant colors. The situation is exacerbated by the fact that both SDR and HDR content are excessively brightened. This is confirmed by the gamma curve and EOTF graphs, which show that the television displays the image brighter than it should. This causes scenes to lose their depth and may appear somewhat washed out. Fortunately, the Philips menu offers many functions to improve these aspects, so we immediately proceeded to calibration to see what could be squeezed out of this screen.

After calibration, Panasonic Z95A shows its full potential, offering an almost perfect image. The television provides great adjustment capabilities, which we have fully utilized. The white balance after calibration is presented almost perfectly, and errors in SDR content at the level of 0.5 fall within an absolutely reference standard. The same is true for 4K HDR content – any pink tint on the screen has been completely eliminated, and the white balance is now exemplary.

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

Before calibration, the image was acceptable, but now it is a completely different league. It is a true 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 color reproduction.

After professional calibration, it is clear that the PUS7000 responds well to image adjustments. In this price range, this is not a given. The effects should be assessed in two scenarios, depending on what content we plan to watch. SDR performs the best. After our corrections, the image looks really good. Most color errors fell below level 3, which is the threshold at which distortions typically become visible to the naked eye in measurements. Movies, series, sports, and regular television present themselves naturally, without unpleasant deviations. If someone primarily watches classic channels or streaming in HD quality, the difference after calibration will be noticeable immediately. However, it must be made clear that the PUS7000 is still not a television suitable for sensible HDR, and calibration does not change much here. The reason lies in the hardware: colors remain too undersaturated. The television lacks solutions that expand the color gamut, such as PFS filters or a quantum dot layer, so the panel simply cannot show the intense colors required by HDR. This is most evident in reds, which still look pale. This limitation cannot be bypassed with menu settings, as it results from the design of the backlighting and the panel itself.

In the case of lower quality materials, the "Gradient Smoothing" function 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 vibrant and pleasant to the eye, making lower quality content, such as standard television or YouTube, look quite decent. However, minor issues can be noticed, such as "jaggies" on edges, e.g. branches in the background. Nevertheless, this does not significantly impact the overall viewing experience, and the television handles this material in an acceptable manner.

The PUS7000 handles digital image processing quite well. The distortion reduction feature deserves praise, as it effectively smooths out unwanted tonal transitions even at a low setting. However, it has a flaw: if the action is too aggressive, it can introduce undesirable artifacts on the screen. It’s a good idea to experiment with this setting to find the sweet spot between a smooth image and detail clarity.

The upscaling, which is the enhancement of lower quality materials to 4K, is adequate. The image after processing is very "soft," which is typical for almost all Philips televisions. The edges are plastic and smooth, making the image look cohesive. If someone finds it too soft, it can always be adjusted with the sharpness slider in the menu to achieve a more pronounced effect.

Panasonic Z95A, with its 144 Hz panel, offers excellent image smoothness. For films, there is the "Intelligent Frame Creation" feature, which enhances fluidity and reduces motion blur. The user has 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 the motion look smoother and more natural with a "soap opera" effect.

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

In this regard, we don't really have any good news. It might seem that the biggest downside is the lack of a 120 Hz panel, but in this price range, that's actually standard, and it's hard to expect more. However, the worst part is that the TV does not have any motion smoothing features. There are no supporting systems for either movies or sports. We have to accept that the image on the PUS7000 is processed "raw." This means that during dynamic scenes or fast camera movements, the motion may appear choppy or unclear. We have no way to enable any smoother that would soften this effect.

Panasonic Z95A this year shows that the manufacturer has made a huge leap forward in terms of support for gamers. The television offers practically everything one could expect from a device in this category. 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 significant plus for gamers using various setups.

Attention should also be paid to the unique and somewhat specific "Game Bar." Its intuitive interface stands out from the competition and allows quick adjustments to key settings such as VRR, brightness level, or picture mode without interrupting gameplay.

However, in this class of device, there is a slight disappointment – the Panasonic Z95A offers only two HDMI 2.1 ports, instead of four. This is definitely insufficient for a premium television, especially at a time 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 is 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.

Although the PUS7000 is not marketed as a gaming TV, it does not perform as poorly in this category as one might expect. While there is no support for 120 Hz refresh rates, which is understandable at this price point, the manufacturer has included several important features that genuinely improve the comfort of playing on a console. The most significant of these are VRR and ALLM technologies. VRR is responsible for synchronizing the screen with the number of frames generated by the console. This prevents the image from "tearing" and keeps it consistent even during sudden frame drops in the game. In turn, ALLM is a solution that automatically switches the TV to the lowest latency mode right after detecting a signal from the console. All of these parameters are easily accessible thanks to the Game Bar feature. This is a special control panel for gamers that can be brought up on the screen at any time. It allows for a quick overview of current settings and connection status without interrupting gameplay, which is a very convenient solution.