Panasonic presents new OLED top models with Fire TV

Panasonic presented its new top OLED models for 2024 on Monday: the Z95A of 55″ and 65″, and the Z93A of 77″. The two televisions use Amazon’s Fire TV as a smart platform. The Z95A also has a micro-lens array for a clearer image.

Last year, Panasonic already equipped a few TV models with Amazon’s smart TV platform and the Japanese electronics manufacturer will continue to do so in 2024. New, says Panasonic, is the Alexa ‘far-field voice control’ function, which allows you to talk to the TV from across the living room to launch apps, play music, search for titles or control your smart home . You wouldn’t need the remote control for that. The TVs also use Alexa widgets to display all kinds of things when you are not actively watching. For example, photo galleries can be played and calendar notifications can be shown.

Just like Panasonic’s top OLED model from last year, the MZW2004, the Z95A is equipped with a micro-lens array, also known as MLA. Mla adds an extra layer that prevents internal scattering of light within the substrate of the panel. As a result, a larger part of the light is actually radiated towards the viewer. This means higher brightness for the same electrical input, while the viewing angle of the screens does not suffer. Just like last year, the largest top model, the Z93A of 77″, has to make do without MLA.

Furthermore, the Z95A and Z93A are equipped with a new image processing processor, the HCX Pro AI Processor MK II. According to Panasonic, the chipset ensures better 4k upscaling of video streams and smoother color gradients. Both TVs can display refresh rates up to 144Hz. It is not yet known when and at what prices they will come onto the market.