Panasonic Z8 Series (2025) 77-inch OLED 4K Ultra HD Smart Fire TV, Dolby Vision IQ, HDR10+ Adaptive, 144Hz Refresh Rate, Hands-Free Alexa 77Z8BAP

Panasonic just made a new fan with this OLED!
When I decided to upgrade my 42″ LED TV this year and chose the Panasonic Z8BA, I had hoped I’d be really pleased with the picture and sound. I didn’t expect to use words like “stunning”, “stellar”, or “jaw-dropping”… but here we are. It’s seriously that good!It’s hard to know where to start when reviewing a TV, so I’ll hit some high points. I believe Panasonic is currently the only TV brand on the market to support both Dolby Vision and HDR10+, and you really see it when it kicks into gear. It feels like the TV is suddenly painting with such a wider array of colors. (The photo of the zebra I’m attaching was from YouTube in Dolby Vision.) It also handles standard HDR super-well. (The photos from Corpse Bride were from a 4k Blu Ray disc in standard HDR, but were some of the prettiest visuals I’ve seen on it yet.) It also makes HD (1080p) look outstanding when it upscales, and it’s sometimes indistinguishable from native 4k content. The only thing I’ve thrown at it that it struggles with a little is SD (480p and below like DVDs) — more on that later. The brightness is also excellent and should not be a problem unless you have this TV setting in a fundamentally silly amount of direct, unfiltered sunlight. (And even then, it might be okay. This thing can get VERY bright when it wants/needs to!)The sound is also fantastic on this TV, with effectively a built-in front-facing soundbar that replicates the feel of a much bigger system. You can add an optional stand-alone subwoofer, but I don’t know that it’s necessary.The Fire TV operating system is okay. I came to this TV as a Roku fan and will be buying one to add to it, but Fire does contain a lot of the same good stuff and is very zippy to navigate. I imagine I will start using both in the future and will just swap between them. The build quality of the remote control is “okay” too. I do appreciate its solid click feel which pairs nicely with the zippiness of Fire TV, but I wish the remote had more traction on the bottom and some curve to indicate the top of the remote from the bottom by feel.In terms of build and size, this TV is definitely solid and should last a very long time, but be advised that it is LARGE and HEAVY. I was shocked at the gargantuan size of the cardboard TV box (packaged for safe shipping, thankfully) and the weight of the TV. I strongly recommend lining up a buddy with a good back to help you unbox it and place it on its final perch. The OLED screen may be thin, but thanks mostly to the sound system and metal stand, it weighs easily 80-100 pounds and is awkward to lift due to its size. On the plus side, I love that it has a central stand (like a computer monitor) rather than legs. It means you don’t have to find a super-wide console to place it on — just something wide enough to fit the central stand.As more of a quirk than a negative, I do find that swapping between Panasonic’s different picture presets for different kinds of content is both rewarding and important to get the best picture experience with this television. Whenever it swaps itself into Dolby Vision, HDR10+, or HDR, leave that alone and trust the TV and let it do its thing. When watching most movies made after 1970, I prefer “Cinema” mode with the motion smoothing (under “Motion”–>”Intelligent Frame Creation”) set to “Min”. This negates “soap opera effect” smoothing for the most part while still reducing choppiness where it’s natively bad, and it looks very crisp with great contrasts. For older movies, go with “Filmmaker Mode”. For sports and nature documentaries, go with the “Auto AI” preset. And for anime, cartoons, and most video gaming, go with “Normal” mode with “Intelligent Frame Creation” (under “Motion”) adjusted down to “None”. For anime in particular, the colors will be delightfully vibrant while remaining accurate and not blown-out.Now to discuss for SD content, this TV’s one minor weakness. I suspect that the main issue is that between stretching a 480 pixel image onto a 4k OLED, and the TV’s huge screen size of 77″, there was no way that it won’t start exposing all of the source material’s flaws… but this is a thing. SD cartoons often show artifacts, and SD video often shows either artifacts or “color crush”. The best way I have found around this is to go with one of the darker picture presets; it hides many of those artifacts while keeping the color natural. I went with the “Professional 2″ picture preset, adjusted the sharpness to 10, and adjusted the brightness (luminance) to 50. The end result probably isn’t as great as on an older TV display this type of signal was originally planned for, but it isn’t half-bad and looks solid. Again, though, I suspect most people aren’t buying a huge 4k OLED to use it as a dedicated DVD machine or strictly to watch the news. And as previously mentioned, it handles 1080p or higher like a world champion.All told, at the price I bought it for ($1500), I don’t think you can find a better overall television anywhere. Panasonic’s image processing is on par with Sony’s, and its brightness and HDR capabilities are right up there with LG. Add to that the perfect contrast of an OLED television and the relatively gigantic (for OLEDs) screen size of 77”, and you aren’t making compromises anywhere with this television. Shock your friends, delight yourself daily, and pick up the Panasonic Z8BA. It’s a genuinely wonderful TV.

Hands Down the Best Value For a Large Panel OLED
This TV is absolutely amazing. I had absolutely no intention of dropping $1500 on a TV, but after stumbling across this one in my research I determined that there is no better bang for your buck with a large panel OLED. The black levels look like the TV isn’t even turned on. The whites are bright and vivid. The sound is incredible and while some people don’t like the aesthetic of the built in sound bar, I think it’s great. You’d have to invest a good amount into a home theater or high end sound bar to be able to measure up to what this Panasonic provides out of the box. Is the Fire TV the best OS? Probably not, but you could always add a streamer of your choice. The amount of picture and sound settings Panasonic has included is absolutely astonishing and if you’re into tweaking everything just so, then you’re going to be delighted. I love how easy it ease to adjust and save settings for each individual input so you can really dial in each device you have plugged in. If you just want to go with one of the included settings, you also have a huge variety to choose from and can probably find one you like without messing around too much. My only concern before purchase was that I saw some reviews mentioning that this TV doesn’t really excel in a bright room, but I angled the wall mount down slightly and haven’t had any trouble at all. I have not been this pleased with a purchase in a long, long time and cannot recommend this TV highly enough! If you’re on the fence I’d get off it and just do it.