Panasonic's new flagship TV just made its CES 2021 debut, the Panasonic JZ2000 OLED TV. The successor to the HZ2000 4K OLED TV we saw last year, the JZ2000 has a few key improvements and plenty of features that make us glad it's actually going to be sold in the U.S.
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Like its predecessor, the Panasonic JZ2000 will support both Dolby Vision and HDR10+ formats, and adds ambient-aware versions of these same formats, with Dolby Vision IQ and HDR10+ Adaptive support to adjust HDR brightness in response to ambient light levels around the TV. This is especially handy for daytime viewing, when a brightly lit room would otherwise blunt the visual effect of HDR.
Audio on the Panasonic JZ2000 is also getting improvements, with not only upward firing speakers for Dolby Atmos, but side firing speakers as well, for better support of multidirectional sound. Panasonic calls it 360° Soundscape Pro, and it sounds like Panasonic's answer to Samsung's Object Tracking Sound and Sony's Acoustic Multi Audio technologies. As with past sets from Panasonic, the audio has been tuned by Technics.
The Panasonic flagship is powered by the HCX Pro AI Processor, a proprietary chip that enables AI-driven optimizations and auto calibration for the screen. Additional modes include the tweak-free Filmmaker Mode, and HLG Photo, which displays photos with HDR when the necessary metadata is present. The AI aspects also include automatic genre detection, which then automatically switches the TV to the most appropriate picture mode – sports, films and gaming all will benefit.
HDMI 2.1 capabilities include gamer friendly features like variable refresh rate (VRR) and auto low latency mode (ALLM), as well as speedy response times – reportedly as low as 14.4 milliseconds. One detail that is not yet been shared is whether HDMI 2.1 will be found on all of the TV's HDMI ports or whether it is a mix of old and new standards.
The JZ2000 also has two additional fine touches that we wish other manufacturers would adopt: A swiveling stand and the ability to connect two Bluetooth devices at once. TVs can be a pain to reposition, but the Panasonic features a swiveling stand, a unique touch when so many TVs offer no position adjustment.
Another exciting development is dual Bluetooth connection, which lets you use two devices at once, such as two pairs of Bluetooth headphones or wireless keyboard and mouse.
Finally, the JZ2000 will use Panasonic's smart TV OS, My Home Screen 6.0, which has been updated to include built-in Amazon Alexa and Google Assistant support.
The Panasonic JZ2000 OLED TV will sell in 55- and 65-inch screen sizes. Pricing and availability details have not yet been announced.
