After announcing its flagship OLED TV and 4K Blu-ray players at CES, Panasonic spilled the beans on the rest of its 2019 plans
After announcing its flagship GZ2000 OLED 4K TV and two 4K Blu-ray players at CES, Panasonic revealed the rest of its consumer electronics lineup at the brand’s annual convention in Frankfurt.
Related: Panasonic’s GZ2000 flagship OLED boasts integrated Dolby Atmos speakers
The big news is that Panasonic has doubled its OLED TV range for 2019. Instead of the two TVs released in 2018, the 2019 OLED range will now encompass four efforts. There’s the previously announced GZ2000, along with the GZ1500, GZ1000 and the GZ950.
They all come in 55 and 65in sizes, and feature the HCX Intelligent Pro chip, HDR10+ and Dolby Vision HDR. They’ll all be able to receive Dolby Atmos signals, but only the GZ2000 will incorporate upward-firing speakers. There’s support for the HLG Photo codec, and if you favour voice control over a standard remote, both Amazon Alexa and Google Assistant are included too.
Panasonic buffed up its lineup of 4K LCDs with a number of models in different sizes. There’s the entry-level GX550 and GX560 efforts (43 to 55in, and 65in respectively). Go up a level and there’s what Panasonic terms as its 4K Premium LEDs in the GX700 (40 to 65″), followed by the GX800 (also 40 to 65″). A GX900 range was mentioned, but that will be available in Europe and not the UK. The top range GX940 LCD will be available in the UK, but it will go under a different name in ol’ Blighty; that of the GX920, which comes in at 75in. No prices were confirmed, but we’ll be updating our Panasonic TV guide range for 2019 in due course.
After Samsung’s decision to leave the Blu-ray player market altogether, Panasonic reaffirmed its interest in the format by providing a few more details its 4K models. Two of these had already been announced at CES (the UB450 and UB150), but were given concrete release dates. The UB450 is on sale this month (February), while the UB150 was given a date of March 2019. We’ll update this post once we get word of prices for each. Otherwise, there’s the well-received high-end DP-UB9000 player and UB820, both of which launched late in 2018 (the former to enthusiastic reviews, us included).
Related: Panasonic introduces UB450 and UB150 Blu-ray players with HDR10+ and Dolby Vision
In terms of soundbars the most notable effort is the SC-HTB900, powered by 505W of power and featuring support for Dolby Atmos, DTS:X and DTS Virtual:X. Google Assistant is also in if you’re too lazy to operate the soundbar via the remote. The soundbar is pencilled in for June 2019 release.
We’ll be looking to put up some first-look previews of the TVs in the coming week.
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Editorial independence
Editorial independence means being able to give an unbiased verdict about a product or company, with the avoidance of conflicts of interest. To ensure this is possible, every member of the editorial staff follows a clear code of conduct.
Professional conduct
We also expect our journalists to follow clear ethical standards in their work. Our staff members must strive for honesty and accuracy in everything they do. We follow the IPSO Editors’ code of practice to underpin these standards.
