Panasonic has a solid reputation as a brand that makes handsome and richly equipped TVs with excellent image quality. It uses OLED technology exclusively for its top models, in the mid-range this TX-55LXW944 LCD TV leads the lineup.
Panasonic TX-55LXW944
Price: 1,199,-
What: Ultra HD LCD TV (local dimming)
Screen size: 55 inches (139 cm)
Connections:
- 4x HDMI (2x v2.0 (18 Gbps), 2x v2.1 (40 Gbps)
- ARC/eARC, ALLM, VRR, HFR 4K120)
- 1x composite video + stereo mini jack
- 1x optical digital out
- 1x Headphone/Subwoofer
- 3x USB
- 3x antenna, Bluetooth
Extras:
- HDR10, HLG, Dolby Vision IQ, HDR10+
- WiFi (802.11ac) built-in
- My Home Screen 7.0, USB/DLNA Media Player
- DVB-T2/C/S2, dual tuner, dual CI+ slot
- HCX Pro AI Processor
Dimensions: 1,231 x 778 x 270 mm (incl. foot)
Weight: 18.5 kg (incl. foot)
Consumption: SDR 79 (G) / HDR 167 watts (G)
Website: www.panasonic.nl 8 Score 80 
- Pros
- Good and refined image processing
- Comprehensive operation of the light sensor
- 120 Hz display with and motion sharpness
- Support for HDR10+ and Dolby Vision IQ
- Dual TV tuner, two CI Plus slots
- 2x HDMI 2.1 connections suitable for next gen gaming
- Negatives
- Moderate contrast display
- Not an efficient anti-banding solution
- My Home Screen offers fewer default apps than competitors
Slim screen, subtle frame, those are the watchwords for any TV that aspires to a luxurious appearance. A mission that Panasonic is already successfully completing. Although the housing at the back has a somewhat deeper profile, the top third of the device still accentuates that slim screen. A dark silver frame provides a subtle border.
You simply click the feet into the bottom of the device, no screws are required. Panasonic gives you two options, by the way. With the feet in the middle, the screen is just above your TV cabinet. With the feet at the ends, you lift the screen a little more than six centimeters above the furniture, for example for a soundbar.
The TV is richly equipped with connections. The connectors all point to the side or down, so a tight wall mounting is easy to achieve. Of the four HDMI connections, two provide HDMI 2.1 bandwidth (40 Gbps). They support ARC/eARC, ALLM, 4K120 and VRR. Furthermore, we find three USB connections, a composite video and stereo cinch input, and an optical digital audio output.
You can switch the headphone jack in the menus so that you can connect a subwoofer to it. For smart functions there is Ethernet, WiFi and Bluetooth. Finally, the TV is equipped with a double TV tuner and two CI Plus slots, a remarkably wide range that allows you to watch TV and simultaneously record another channel to an external USB hard drive.
Image quality
Panasonic chose a 120 Hz IPS-type panel for the LXW944. That choice clearly points in the direction of a family TV. After all, the IPS screen only provides a very modest contrast, but in return it gives a fairly wide viewing angle so that even those who are not sitting directly in front of the television still enjoy correct colors. The screen uniformity was good, and no dirty-screen effect was visible. With its high refresh rate, the screen can deliver very good motion sharpness, useful for sports and games. To do this, activate ‘Intelligent Frame Creation’ in the lowest setting.
To improve the contrast, the backlight can be dimmed in eight columns. That is of course too limited in many scenes to have a strong impact, especially because Panasonic controls the zones very carefully, a matter of avoiding visible zone boundaries as much as possible.
When we look at our test fragments, that becomes very clear. Yes, in a lot of images you notice a nice improvement, but for really dark scenes there is no escaping that somewhat grayish look, especially if you darken the room a bit. The Filmmaker mode is very well calibrated. We activated the ‘Dark Visibility Enhancer’ to reveal a little more shadow nuances. Do not set it too high, otherwise you will accentuate the moderate contrast even more.
In HDR we also opt for the Filmmaker Mode for the most natural images. The TV combines a good peak brightness of 590 nits (both on 10% window and on a completely white screen) with a modest P3 color gamut of 80%. Especially in HDR10 + and Dolby Vision content, he can produce very nice images with it. But the LXW944 also holds its own in HDR10, the tone mapping only clips away a minimum of white detail.
A lot of black detail and excellent color reproduction are strong points, but due to the limited number of dimming zones, we do see that light accents in a dark background lose much of their impact. That robs some HDR scenes of their typical sparkle.
Top level image editing
As far as image processing is concerned, this TV can boast of the Panasonic HCX Pro AI processor, which you can also find in the OLED top models. So you certainly don’t have to worry about lower performance. In fact, the TV scores excellent results in this regard. Using AI, the processor detects what you’re watching and adjusts the image for sports, movies or games. The light sensor adjusts the image based on the ambient light. You can of course also disable both functions.
Upscaling, noise reduction or deinterlacing, the processor always works with a relatively soft hand, so that the image never looks too processed. The processor only struggles with color bands that are sometimes visible in very soft gradients. They remain visible, even with a lot of noise reduction. Panasonic offers very extensive menus, so the image fanatic can also tinker a lot.
Typical audio
On the audio side, the Panasonic can only present moderate performance. The 2x 15 Watts seem a bit more than the average middle class, but in practice it does not really deliver. As long as you don’t turn the volume up too high, the results remain good, although some bass reproduction is missing. That’s why he misses some punch. This can be solved with an external subwoofer.
Dolby Atmos provides a beautiful surround experience. But as soon as you turn the volume knob up a bit too much, or try out some more aggressive soundtracks, the processor intervenes rather harshly to avoid distortion. Very counterproductive, because you hear that very clearly. So it’s better to choose a soundbar for a solid game or movie soundtrack.
My Home Screen 7.0
Panasonic still uses its own smart TV system, My Home Screen. That has both advantages and disadvantages. The main limitation is in the app offer. That was expanded last year to include Disney+ and Apple TV so that it can now offer the main international streaming services. But with the local apps, we see that almost all competitors have something more to offer.
We miss the Belgian VTM Go, VRT Nu and Streamz and the Dutch RTL XL. The big advantage of My Home Screen is that it has not jumped on the trend to overload the viewer with recommendations. The interface remains relatively simple, and offers a series of tiles at the bottom of the screen that you can personalize yourself and with which you can quickly and easily choose another source. The system is also very responsive.
For gamers, the ‘Game Control Board’ is provided, a compact menu at the bottom of the screen where you can find information about frame rate and VRR condition, as well as adjust some settings, such as the ‘Dark Visibility Enhancer’. The TV supports HDMI VRR and AMD Freesync (48 to 120 Hz) and has an excellent input lag of 8ms in 2K120 and 17ms in 4K60.
Remote control
Panasonic is not a trailblazer when it comes to the remote. The layout and keys are solid and showed no annoying flaws, but apart from an integrated microphone for the Google Assistant or Amazon Alexa, it has no modern features. The ‘My App’ button is handy, which you can link to your favorite smart TV app yourself.
Conclusion
The TX-55LXW944 is at its best in a slightly lit living room and with bright colorful images. Then he can best use his excellent brightness and natural color reproduction. Games and sports benefit from the excellent motion sharpness. The top image processor and the extensive HDR support also make HDR content a great experience. It is only less suitable for dark film images, or watching in eclipse.
It provides good equipment, especially the double TV tuner with two CI Plus slots stands out for a model in this category. However, the price shows the plight for LCD mid-ranges. With the hot breath of last year’s OLED models on its neck, it seems a bit too expensive to us.
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