Panasonic VIERA TX-P50VT65B Pro Reviews

The Panasonic TX-P50VT65B is without doubt the finest 50in flat-screen television you can buy on the market at this time of writing. It features some of the inkiest blacks ever seen on a large-sized HDTV, and can be calibrated to deliver wonderfully accurate greyscale and colours. Sampling a few of our favourite Blu-rays on the 50VT65, we couldn’t help but marvel at the amount of “pop” and insight on show. That such a high level of picture quality is available to consumers at such an affordable price (relative to 4K Ultra HD or OLED TVs) not only is a testament of Panasonic’s engineering prowess, but also brings into question how much more improvement can we expect from plasma display panel (PDP) technology, and at this price point. We suspect the answer is very little.

The best picture quality you can get from a plasma without spending thousands of pounds more

Panasonic’s new approach to making its suite of Smart features more accessible is immediately apparent when first setting up the VT65, with the My Home Screen proving a duly simple and clean interface that gets the balance just about spot-on. In fact Panasonic’s GUI now feels very streamlined and it’s all the better for that. The outward appearance of the VT65 matches what goes in with a sleek and chic one-sheet of glass design wrapped in a silver trim. It’s a touch wider than your average flagship TV coming out in 2013, but that’s thanks to a pair of slender front-firing speakers that deliver the goods in fine style, instead of proving an embarrassment so many flat panel TVs prove to be on the audio front.