Panasonic has just announced its flagship TV for 2021 – the JZ2000. Available in 55-inch and 65-inch variants, the JZ2000 is the successor to 2020's HZ2000, which was itself preceded by the GZ2000.
This 2000-series has always stood out from the rest of Panasonic's OLEDs by featuring a custom OLED panel and a Dolby Atmos-capable speaker system with dedicated upward-firing speakers, and while the panel technology seemingly hasn't changed, Panasonic is this year boosting picture performance through AI and sound performance through the addition of yet more drivers.
At the heart of the JZ2000 is the brand new HCX Pro AI Processor, which analyses the content being played and adjusts picture and sound accordingly. You can still tweak the settings if you wish, but if you leave the TV in its Auto AI mode it will work to automatically get the best out of everything you watch, from movies to sports and games.
Speaking of games, Panasonic is finally catching up to the pack by offering input lag that it says is "amongst the very lowest in the industry" (Panasonic's own live demo produced an input lag measurement of 14.4ms, which is indeed very low), as well as adding HDMI 2.1 specs such as HFR (aka 4K@120Hz) and VRR (Variable Refresh Rate) on top of the ALLM (Auto Low Latency Mode) that its sets already have.
Panasonic has long supported both Dolby Vision and HDR10+, and this year it's adding HDR10+ Adaptive. Like Dolby Vision IQ (which Panasonic has supported since 2020), this new format adjusts HDR10+ picture characteristics in accordance with ambient lighting conditions. If it works as anticipated, it should result in better dark detail when viewing in a well-lit room. This is the first TV to be announced with both Dolby Vision IQ and HDR10+ Adaptive on board.
Previous 2000-series TVs have featured speaker systems with dedicated front-firing and upward-firing drivers, as well as a rear-mounted subwoofer. For the JZ2000, Panasonic has added a pair of side-firing speakers with the intention of making the sound even wider and more room-filling. This sound setup, which Panasonic is calling '360° Soundscape Pro', has once again been developed with the help of the company's Technics engineers.
The JZ2000 also brings with it a new version of Panasonic's super-simple My Home Screen. On top of a revised layout and fully integrated voice services, My Home Screen 6.0 introduces 'my Scenery', which appears similar to Samsung's Ambient mode but apparently with a focus on "restful" images and videos.
What we don't yet know about the JZ2000 is when it will arrive in shops or how much it will cost. That said, last year's HZ2000 appeared around the end of May with a price of £3295 for the 55-inch version, and there's no reason to think its successor will differ greatly on either count.
And what about Panasonic's other 2021 TVs? We expect those to be announced in February, as is the company's usual approach.
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