Panasonic's 2025 flagship OLED TV is a true stunner — and it might beat LG and Samsung
In a twist no one saw coming, Panasonic returned to the US TV market last year, bringing with it not one but two OLED TVs — and even a budget Mini-LED model. The Panasonic Z95A OLED was a surefire hit and one of my personal favorite TVs of 2024. That's why I got excited when Panasonic debut the Z95A's successor at CES 2025.
Last week at a closed door briefing, Panasonic let me see its new OLED TV for myself at its Newark, New Jersey office. Even from this cursory look, the Z95B OLED TV is already shaping up to be one of the best TVs of the year, largely stemming from a set of enhancements in design that give it a proper edge against the LG C5 OLED and Samsung S95F. These include a special four-stack OLED panel, tweaked airflow for better cooling, and enhanced audio.
I'm not ready to give it a full review yet, but I'm impressed with these early results and can't wait to see more of it in action. Here's why I think it's set to be a top contender this year and may well beat even some of the best LG TVs, like the LG G5 OLED.
As we've said before, LG's four stack OLED is a game changer for TVs, and it comes to life like never before on Panasonic's new flagship OLED. Essentially, the new design takes over for last year's MLA (a three-stack layer) panel adding a fourth layer to the OLED stack, which not only aims to minimize production costs but boost brightness.
What stood out most on the Z95B when I saw it in person was a deeper level of color vibrancy, with reds, greens, and blues truly popping off the screen. Of course, an important tidbit is that some of the content was played in Dynamic mode, but we did get to see a slew of assorted clips in Filmmaker mode with HDR enabled.
For the demonstration, Panasonic had last year's Z95A OLED TV set up right next to the new display, so you could see all the major changes in real time. They are slight, but most noticeable in color accuracy and minimized artefacting in certain scenes.
We won't know just how much brighter it is until we get the new Z95B in for testing, but a substantial increase in peak brightness wouldn't surprise me.
Even if you disregard the performance upgrades offered by the newest panel, there are plenty more features that give the Panasonic Z95B a leg up on the competition.
The other major upgrade from last year's model is an enhanced and redesigned cooling system, which Panasonic called ThermalFlow. Panasonic explained that it put hundreds of hours into reworking the internals and speakers to make the new cooling system work as intended.
Panasonic claims that this makes it easier for hot air to dissipate, equating to improved picture quality and a longer lifespan.
The design is best equated to a chimney. Instead of there being a more complicated airflow system with multiple thermal exits, the new Z95B has just two pathways situated at the top and bottom at the rear of the display. Panasonic claims that this makes it easier for hot air to dissipate, equating to improved picture quality and a longer lifespan.
Based on what I heard from Panasonic, the upgraded cooling technology could have major effects if there is improved luminance, but I think the biggest advantage for the everyday viewer is that this TV will last longer than a rival OLED from Samsung or LG.
It's hard to really know how much Panasonic's ThermalFlow design might prevent burn-in, but it's definitely something we'll test over the course of a few months. That alone could be a major selling point for the Z95B if it turns out to have some merit.
One of the coolest features on last year's Z95A was its sophisticated speaker system underpinned by a robust software suite, which Panasonic called Sound Focus. It's back on the Z95B and it sounds even better.
While the software hasn't changed too much over last year's model, the internal hardware got some big improvements — not that it really needed them to begin with. The Z95A boasted a 5.1.2-channel system built on a 160W output, and the Z95B amplifies this with new line array, side, and up-firing speakers, plus a 30W subwoofer and passive radiator.
Panasonic has also kitted the display with improved stereo and 5.1-channel upmixing, which essentially gives you a broader digital surround sound without the need for additional speakers. I got a taste of this at the briefing and while I didn't quite hear anything behind me, I did notice a big improvement in audio quality over last year's model.
Panasonic is riding high on the success from its breakout return to the US last year, but the Z95B could be Panasonic's last for the US market. I reported earlier this year that Panasonic might already be eyeing the exit sign, and the upcoming tariffs on electronics could be the final nail in the coffin.
Last year's Z95A, which was only available in 65-inch, rolled out at $3,200 (it's now down to just $1,997 at Amazon). At the time, it beat out major competitors like the LG G5 OLED ($3,399) and Samsung S95D OLED ($3,399), but not by a lot. Tariffs now could make the Panasonic the priciest of the three models. Though, at this point, pricing is anyone's guess.
To that end, we'll just have to wait until we get it in for testing to see just how well it stands against the best OLED TVs, but I've got a feeling that Panasonic's Z95B is about to give Samsung and LG a serious run for their money.
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Based on which ones you select, the wizard learns what kind of picture and sound settings you like the most, and then creates custom modes for you. Again, I highly recommend just using the TV's Filmmaker mode and Standard audio mode to get the most accurate playback, but if you're unhappy with how the G5 looks or sounds, this is worth playing around with. LG's remote also emphasizes AI more this year, as the microphone button has been rebranded as the AI button. Pressing it pulls up LG's AI concierge. This is supposed to present smart content recommendations based on your viewing habits, but I didn't find them to be all that useful. Holding down the AI button allows you to search with your voice or speak commands to control the TV. The G5 also supports hands-free voice search. I'm not sure what the issue was, but during my first week or so with the TV, I ran into a lot of server errors and "voice not recognized" messages when using the G5's voice search. 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