Panasonic Z95B vs Haier Q80FUX

The quality of HDR in the Panasonic Z95B belongs to the absolute elite. Thanks to the latest generation panel, named by the manufacturer Primary RGB Tandem OLED, the television can achieve over 2000 nits of brightness in movie scenes. The effect is impressive and can amaze with the intensity of light, giving a sense of contact with the screen that goes beyond previous experiences. Similar sensations accompanied us only during tests of the LG G5, Samsung S95F, or Philips OLED910. Of course, there are moments when the device's algorithms decide to limit luminance – this especially applies to full-screen bright sequences, such as the closing credits in the movie The Meg. Even then, the Z95B maintains a level of around 1500 nits, which is still a result that makes a huge impression. One can say that HDR in this model has been brought to a masterful form. A significant step forward is also visible in the reproduction of the color palette. The new tandem OLED panel does not yet match the best QD-OLED screens in terms of full gamut coverage, but the gap between these solutions has significantly narrowed. When watching movies, the differences are subtle enough that it's hard to notice them under normal conditions, and the colors remain vivid and saturated.

Alright, let's move on to the topic that generates so much discussion, namely the capabilities of the TV in HDR mode. Let's make it clear right away: the Haier Q80FUX is certainly not a brightness demon. The panel of this receiver can generate about 350 nits at peak, which in today’s reality is an absolute minimum to even talk about the presence of extended HDR tonal dynamic range. On the plus side, this power is at least stable – regardless of the test pattern or movie scene we used, the measurements invariably oscillated around 300-350 nits. These are therefore at best adequate results, definitely far from the stunning showcase of capabilities that we know from more expensive models. Fortunately, there is one aspect in which the Q80FUX makes up for these shortcomings and does so abundantly. After all, we are talking about a QLED TV (or more precisely, PFS LED), which means that thanks to the quantum dot filter applied to the matrix, it can generate really juicy, vibrant colors. These are not empty promises – a DCI-P3 color gamut coverage reaching nearly 95% is an impressive result that directly translates into very pleasant, saturated colors for the eye.

The factory color reproduction in Filmmaker mode, my friends, is a true phenomenon in the case of the Panasonic Z95B. I'm talking about our test unit, but the result was so good that it's hard to believe. The only detail to nitpick is a slight lack of blue in the white balance, but other than that, the television, right out of the box, displayed an image like we've never seen in factory mode. Color palette tests, Color Checker – everything pointed to values below Delta 2. This is a much lower result than the threshold of human eye perception, which means, quite frankly, that the viewer stands no chance of noticing serious deviations. It looks as if Panasonic really calibrated this model at the factory stage. Of course, we cannot rule out that we got an exceptionally well-set unit, but the result is still impressive. We are very strict in our assessments of factory calibration, and here our jaws simply dropped.

Factory settings for film mode are rarely perfect, but in the case of the Q80FUX, we encountered a noticeable imbalance. In SDR content, the image was definitely too warm, which resulted from an excessive amount of red in the white balance, giving it a slightly sepia tone. Contrarily, in HDR materials, the television fell into the other extreme—the excess of blue created an unnatural, cold effect. However, it wasn’t the whimsical white balance that was the biggest problem with this TV. The real culprit, responsible for the previously described issues, was hidden deeper. It turned out that the Q80FUX had completely misaligned gamma values and, crucially for HDR, a poorly managed EOTF curve. It was these erroneous factory settings that caused notorious clipping of the brightest parts of the image, applying that characteristic milky filter over them. Thus, we found the source of the problem. This state of affairs led to overall, significant color errors that were easy to catch even for an untrained eye. Like every television we tested, we decided to calibrate this model as well, and you can find the results of those adjustments in the next paragraph.

The color reproduction after calibration in the Z95B is a topic that is difficult to elaborate on for long because there simply wasn't much to be done here. A slight adjustment of the white balance was enough to eliminate the lack of blue, and at that moment the picture jumped to an almost reference level. I must admit that we haven't had such a small scope of work in a long time. If any of you are particularly observant, you might notice minimal deviations in the EOTF curve, but this is more related to the operation of the dynamic tone mapping function that we mentioned earlier. Really, this is not a flaw, but rather a feature of this solution, which intentionally changes the brightness characteristic depending on the scene. In summary, we are extremely impressed. The Panasonic Z95B is a television that already looks great right out of the box, and after calibration, it reaches a level where it is really hard for us to find anything to improve.

The results of our calibration efforts must, unfortunately, be considered twofold. Overall, the image is indisputably better than before the corrections, but the biggest winner of this process turned out to be SDR content. It is here, after clarifying the gamma and white balance graphs, that we obtained results that can confidently be called very good. After the setup, the Q80FUX truly shines in standard dynamics, showing only slight errors in the most challenging skin tone reproductions. Unfortunately, the weakest link still remains HDR content. And here lies the paradox: even though we managed to calibrate the white balance almost to perfection, the overall color errors still remain at a fairly high level. The reason is that the television still interprets the static HDR10 metadata "in its own way," stubbornly enforcing that unfortunate washed-out image effect, which inevitably leads to significant distortions. Although we successfully eliminated the factory excess of blue color, due to this electronic interference, the screen can still tend to fall into somewhat too cold tones. This television just has it this way.

Let's start with what works well. The upscaling in the Z95B is at a very high level – the picture in lower resolutions is clear and sharp, with only minor drawbacks being slight aliasing in some areas of the image. It's also important that the television does not crop the material in any way and maintains its aspect ratio, which is not always an obvious fact even in 2025.

The situation is worse when it comes to digital processing. Features such as "gradation smoothing" or "block noise reduction" practically do not work – the tested material looked identical regardless of the settings. We might as well point out that this function simply doesn't exist. This is somewhat disappointing, especially since Panasonic strongly promotes its HCX Pro AI II processor, boasting of the presence of artificial intelligence that improves picture quality. Meanwhile, in such a basic matter, the television does not deliver a real effect and looks worse than one might expect from top-of-the-line equipment.

If there is one area where Haier clearly shows that it has quite a bit to catch up on compared to the market leaders, it is digital image processing. The upscaling, well... is just okay. And that's about all that can be said about it. It does what it is supposed to do: it ensures that lower resolution signals don't scare you with harsh pixelation on the screen and don't look like an overly enlarged postage stamp. However, it is far from the finesse and "intelligent" sharpening that more experienced players in this market have developed over the years. The biggest drawback of the Q80FUX software, however, is the almost complete lack of additional "cleaning" and smoothing functions for the image. The receiver does not offer any noise reduction or gradient enhancement mechanisms. This means that with older or more heavily compressed materials, we simply have to accept that any imperfections in tonal transitions or color blending, which we mentioned earlier, will constantly accompany us during the viewing.

The OLED matrix with a very high refresh rate already provides an extremely sharp image even in dynamic sports scenes, such as soccer or basketball matches, and the Z95B is no exception. It's also very important that the television is equipped with the proprietary image smoothing system "Intelligent Frame Creation." Among the available sliders, the most important one turns out to be the one named "film smoothness," because it allows adjusting the motion to personal preferences when watching 24-frame material, that is, movies – from a more "frame-like" appearance to a smooth, almost theatrical effect. It's a bit of a shame that Panasonic did not choose to push the latest OLED matrix to 165 Hz, as Samsung did with the S95F or LG with the G5, because we know the panel is technically capable of it. On the other hand, this is mainly an advantage for PC gamers, so for everyday viewing this is not a significant drawback as we are limited to 120Hz.

The issue of motion fluidity and blurring is largely predetermined by the use of a 60Hz panel, which naturally makes it difficult to recommend this receiver to enthusiasts of very dynamic content. Fortunately, in the Q80FUX, we find a few options (though, as we will see shortly, actually only one) designed to improve the experience with older film productions. There is a "De-Judder" slider available, which indeed affects the smoothness of the image and allows us to adjust it to our preferences: from raw, cinematic frame rates to a more theatrical, smoothed presentation. However, a genuine surprise awaits us right next to it in the menu. There is also a second slider, supposedly dedicated to eliminating blur – this is a feature we usually encounter in 120Hz panels, aimed at combating motion blur in sports. However, as expected, recalling memories from testing the K85F model, here too this slider is merely a facade. Moving it does absolutely nothing to the image and it simply looks like an oversight by the product engineers who left a non-functional option in the software for this type of panel.

The Panasonic Z95B is completely equipped for gaming. Two HDMI 2.1 ports with full bandwidth of 48 Gb/s guarantee support for everything you can expect from a modern screen. There is VRR frame synchronization, an automatic game mode (ALLM), and full compatibility with HDR formats used in games. The TV supports both Dolby Vision for Xbox and the popular HGiG, which has been implemented correctly in this case, so it actually works as it should.

Although the brand is mainly associated with home cinema and equipment for filmmakers, there is also a place here for conveniences for gamers. It comes with Game Bar (or rather Game Circles) – visually it looks a bit unusual, but it does its job and allows you to quickly check the most important image parameters. What it really lacks for complete happiness is actually just four HDMI 2.1 ports instead of two. It's a minor issue, but one would expect a full set in a TV of this class.

Stepping into the gaming territory, the Haier Q80FUX proves to be quite a decent companion for the "casual gamer." On board, we find today’s highly desired features like VRR (variable refresh rate) and ALLM (automatic low latency mode). However, the biggest surprise is something else. Although we are not dealing with a 4K@120Hz panel, the TV can accept and display a 120Hz signal at a lower resolution (Full HD). This is a very useful feature, allowing the conscious switch of the console to a lower resolution mode in exchange for significantly higher fluidity, which is a perfectly acceptable compromise in the gaming world.

We won’t particularly complain about the lack of extras like the "Game Bar," as it’s just a nice addition. The most concerning issues arise when we enter the world of HDR in games. Due to the fact that the TV constantly adapts the signal "in its own way," setting the brightness on the console according to the HGIG standard is nearly impossible to accomplish as per the instructions. Worse still, in the Dolby Vision mode for games, the input lag rises to about 50 ms, which is a high enough value that essentially makes this mode unusable. However, generally, we wouldn’t recommend gaming on this TV in HDR mode, so these aren’t such serious shortcomings. The most pleasing aspect is the presence of 120Hz in Full HD, which makes the Q80FUX quite a nice TV for the occasional gamer.