Panasonic made a triumphant return to the U.S. TV market late last year with two new OLED TVs and a MiniLED TV. We were big fans of Panasonic’s plasma TVs back in the mid 2000s to early 2010s (here’s my review of the VT25 Plasma TV from 2010), but the company’s big bets on 3DTV and plasma technology didn’t really pay off. LED/LCD TVs, with their higher brightness and lower manufacturing costs began to dominate the US market in around 2012 and Panasonic wasn’t able to keep up. The company stopped making plasma TVs in early 2014 and exited from the US TV market shortly thereafter. But they didn’t get out of the TV business entirely.
Panasonic actually continued making LED/LCD TVs for the local Japanese market and for other markets including Europe and even introduced its first OLED TV (with a panel manufactured by LG Display) way back in 2015. They’ve kept the TV business going in several markets and continued to refine their picture processing beyond where it was in the plasma days (which was already quite good, thank you very much). In September, Panasonic decided they were ready to return to one of their previously strongest markets: the good ole U.S. of A.
The first batch of three TVs arrived on US shores in September, 2024 and received enthusiastic reviews. And now that the company is preparing a new batch of OLED and MiniLED TVs for 2025, you can actually find some deals on these late 2024 models, like the 4K Z85A OLED TV.
Originally introduced for $1,799 (MSRP), Amazon is currently closing out remaining inventory of the Z85A for the lowest price we’ve seen for a name brand 65-inch 4K OLED TV: $999.99 with free shipping. This matches an earlier deal on LG’s B4 OLED TV, another 2024 model that has been seeing some blowout deals this spring.
Here’s the link for those who may be interested. Price is current as of May 6, 2025. Click through to Amazon to view current pricing and availability (note: eCoustics may make a commission on any purchase made using our links):
Similar in many respects to LG’s B4 and C4 OLED TVs as well as Samsung’s S85D, Panasonic’s Z85A uses the same type of W-OLED panel as seen in those other three models, but instead of the proprietary WebOS smart TV interface of the LG TVs or the Tizen interface of the Samsung, Panasonic has chosen to base their Smart TVs on Amazon’s FireTV platform. Personally, I think this is a great move as Panasonic’s previous home grown smart TV interface never really advanced to the point that it could keep up with WebOS or Tizen (not to mention Roku, Fire TV or Google TV). We’ve been using a FireTV 4K stick as our primary streaming device for several years so I’m expecting the Z85A will be pretty straight forward to set-up and use.
Yes, I said “expect to” because even though I review and write about TVs and other tech gear for a living, I’ve never actually seen the Z85A in person. Coming out at an odd time of the year, there weren’t too many professional reviews of the Z85, at least not here in the US. But I trust my counterparts and yes “competitors” at places like RTings and Tech Radar, both of whom had very nice things to say about the Z85A. And that was at its list price of $1,799.99. At $999.99, I’m sure they’d like it even more.
It’s got those deep OLED blacks that I love, top-notch color accuracy right out of the box, and outstanding contrast. And for $999, that’s pretty much all I need to know. Its native 120 Hz panel and support for gaming features like VRR and ALLM should make it a good match for gaming but really it’s mostly going to be movie and series watching for me, with the lights turned down low. (It’s apparently not the brightest bulb, er, panel in the bunch). But turning down the lights a bit is a small price to pay to enjoy those gorgeous OLED blacks and rich OLED colors.
The fact that it supports both HDR10+ and Dolby Vision HDR make it compatible with virtually all 4K/HDR content on streaming services, on Kaleidescape and on physical media like UHD Blu-ray Disc. And the built-in ATSC 3.0 (Next Gen TV tuner), will make watching the local networks a breeze (not to mention: FREE).
So yeah, I’m excited. My first new TV purchase in 13 years. Sure hope it’s a good one. If it sucks, then I’m definitely gonna have a few words with those guys from RTings and Tech Radar next time I see them. Stay tuned.
Are you also grabbing a deal on a 2024 Model year TV while the deals are hot? Let us know in the comments.
Related Reading:
LG 65-inch B4 OLED TV Drops to $999.99 (update: it went back up to $1199)
Ian White
May 6, 2025 at 2:58 pm
The price is right on this one. Let us know if it’s worth the investment. My 50″ Panny ZT still works just fine. But I did see this one at the Technics speaker/turntable event 9 months ago and it looked great.
ORT
May 7, 2025 at 2:28 pm
Congratulations, Chris! I eagerly await your thoughts on this new Panasonic. TVs have improved a LOT over the last few years and I think you were smart to treat yourself to this one!
The more things change, so long as they change for the better, the less expensive they may become. Except of course the Mustang Dark Horse Edition…Dammit!
I recall my brother’s 40” CRT Sony TV at 720p and roughly 300lbs. We thought it a technomological wonder given to us by the Tall Greys because they couldn’t lift the damn things and were already making the jump to 8K screens. He had a Panasonic Plasma that I helped him hang on the wall and no matter what I told him of the exquisite picture quality of a solid source fed 4K TV he refused to buy one.
His plasma finally went the way of the Dodo and he, like our older brother, bought a new 4K TV and like our older brother whose Plasma had also became extinct, proceeded to Mr. Miyagi (i.e., WAX OFF!) about his latest technological jump to light speed as if I hadn’t been cattle-prodding both of them for years to do so.
Now I just do a “Madagascar Penguins”. “Just, smile and wave boys…Smile and wave”.
ORTson Welles
Kirk T
May 10, 2025 at 1:09 am
I also purchased this TV as well without seeing it. I should get it in the next few days. I still have a 60″ panasonic plasma tcpst60 going strong it’s fantastic however, i’ve been wanting to upgrade to 4k and at this price point I couldn’t pass it up. I have also been using a fire stick. So I believe this TV will be pretty easy to use. I believe the picture quality will look like some of the sony’s.I have seen at best buy i love my plasma, but all I hear about is how good 4k looks, I guess we will see.
Chris S.
May 14, 2025 at 9:25 pm
Has it arrived yet? What are your thoughts?
Chris Boylan
May 15, 2025 at 6:14 am
Yes. I will say I haven’t tweaked the picture much yet but right out of the box, the colors (and the black levels) look fantastic and it’s actually brighter than I was expecting. There are a few apps missing (like Tidal) because it’s Fire TV-based, and TIDAL recently dropped support for the Fire TV platform. Also, I’ve gotten kind of inconsistent results from Dolby Atmos music tracks in the Amazon Music app, but I haven’t determined yet whether that’s a TV problem or an issue with soundbar that I’m currently testing which is hooked up to it.
There are some ergonomic issues I don’t love. The remote is Bluetooth-based (not IR) but the TV does respond to older Panasonic TV IR codes, so I was able to get my old Harmony remote activities working by using an older model Panasonic TV code in the app. Switching inputs is a bit annoying as there’s no button for that on the remote – it’s an option within the Fire TV home menu which requires a couple of steps.
Overall, for $999, I think it’s a total win. But some of the settings and menu procedures will take some getting used to.