If you are looking for good image quality, you have come to the right place with this 4K TV from Panasonic. Only the sound and the viewing angle are a bit disappointing. How does the Panasonic TX-40GXW804 television perform below the line?
Panasonic TX-40GXW804
Price € 684,-Website www.panasonic.com/en 8 Score 80
- Pros
- Image quality
- Low input lag
- Supports all HDR formats
- My Home Screen
- Negatives
- Audio Performance
- Very limited viewing angle
- Local Dimming adds little
Design & Connections
This middle class will not look out of place in your living room. It is completely finished in glossy black and stands on a sturdy brushed metal base.
The three HDMI 2.0 connections are all ready for Ultra HD and HDR, and have ALLM (Auto Low Latency Mode) for gamers and ARC. Some of the connections (including one HDMI connection) point to the wall, you have to pay attention to that when mounting it on the wall. Bluetooth is provided for your wireless headphones.
Image quality
The Panasonic HCX processor delivers very nice results, especially for upscaling and color detail. The noise reduction is fine, but it is more difficult to display heavily compressed images neatly. Slight blocking will then remain visible. Leave both noise reduction setting and in the minimum position, so you largely avoid that the screen shows color bands in dark scenes. The sharpness of movement is rather moderate. Detail is lost in fast-paced action scenes, and moving objects have a slightly blurred edge. Therefore, leave 'Intelligent Frame Creation' on the middle position.
The VA panel has excellent contrast, but a very weak viewing angle. This Panasonic also offers local dimming. However, with only two zones (left and right halves) of the image, the contrast enhancement is limited, and in dark scenes it is not impossible that half of the screen is slightly brighter. You only see that effect when it is darkened.
The calibration in the True Cinema picture mode is fine, although red and blue tones are a bit faded. All in all, we are satisfied with the image quality, skin tones are natural, the images have excellent contrast and look very nice.
HDR
In addition to HDR10 and HLG, Panasonic now also supports HDR10 + and Dolby Vision. It therefore supports all important HDR formats, a great asset. With a maximum peak brightness of 425 nits, it scores just below our limit of 500 nits, but the color range is excellent. The calibration takes away some contrast from the image and makes colors a bit too dull. To solve that, activate 'Dynamic HDR Effect'. The Panasonic then analyzes each image and optimizes color reproduction and brightness, and that delivers very beautiful and vivid HDR images.
Smart TV
My Home Screen 4 is essentially a minor cosmetic upgrade over the previous version. But that's okay, it is and remains a handy smart TV system. The Home screen appears at the bottom of the screen, where you can pin your favorite channels, sources, apps and devices for a more personal Home Screen. The search function, YouTube, Netflix, the live TV channel list and TV recordings can also be reached quickly from there.
remote
The standard Panasonic remote will remain unchanged in 2019. It has large, handy keys that feel pleasant and are easy to press. The layout is fine. There is a separate button for Netflix, and at the bottom of the remote you will find the 'My App' button, which you can assign to your favorite app (for example YouTube). Anyone who occasionally changes image mode does not have to go through the menus. The 'Picture' button at the top of the remote lets you quickly go through the different picture modes. For even more ease of use, you can configure which of the many image modes appear in the list.
Sound quality
Audio, that is not the strong side of this Panasonic. Like most mid-range models, its sound quality is fine for dialogue, but rather on the weak side for film and music. The bass reproduction is weak and as soon as you want some explosive violence (musical or cinematic) you hear the TV intervene to prevent distortion. For real cinema sounds, it is better to rely on an external solution.
Conclusion
This 40 inch model from Panasonic is a very typical middle class. He has a few minor limitations but otherwise scores excellent. It is suitable for gamers, thanks to a very low input lag, but will also provide a good image for most TV viewers.
If you often watch a lot of TV, the limited viewing angle of this model may be a difficult limitation. But apart from that you get very good contrast, excellent image processing and natural color reproduction. In this category, it delivers very good HDR performance. The smart image processing compensates for the somewhat low brightness with rich colors. In addition, it supports all HDR image formats. My Home Screen 4 is also a smooth and handy smart TV environment that offers everything you need.
