Panasonic crashes CES 2022 with new OLED TV that promises incredible sound

Not all the best OLED TVs on the market come from LG and Sony. Panasonic brought a new OLED model to CES 2022 that promises incredible sound, better AI optimizations and some upgraded gaming features.

The Panasonic LZ2000 OLED TV is the next-generation version of the JZ2000 launched last year. It’s coming in 55-, 65- and 77-inch configurations, delivering the brand’s largest OLED TV size offering yet. But that doesn't play a major role in Panasonic’s OLED story — instead past sets have been all about audio, targeting a typical OLED shortcoming with enhanced directional sound features. 

The LZ2000 continues the company’s efforts with built-in sound modes and overhauled the front-firing speakers with beam-forming technology.

High-end TV panels are notoriously thin, so it's difficult to pack booming speakers in the chassis. Features like Samsung's Object Tracking Sound and Sony's Acoustic Multi Audio have looked to upgrade on-board sound without pushing customers to buy one of the best soundbars. Panasonic experimenting with enhanced sound technologies could extend the same convenience to potential customers.

As for picture, the Panasonic LZ2000 supports 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 key for daytime viewing, when a brightly lit room would otherwise blunt the visual effect of HDR.

In addition to the ambient optimizations based on environment, the Panasonic LZ2000 OLED TV also features an upgrade to the Auto AI genre detection to make adjustments based on the picture. The set uses artificial intelligence to alter the ideal settings for the content you’re watching, whether that’s sport, movies, gaming, etc.

Speaking of gaming, Panasonic is making a pitch for the best gaming TVs in 2022. It’ll come with a combined settings overlay called Game Control Board, which sounds a lot like LG’s Game Optimizer menu. This would gather all the gaming toggles and controls users might need in a single interface. The LZ2000 will get NVIDIA GPU detection, improved 60Hz latency and HDMI 2.1 support, too.

The Panasonic LZ2000 OLED TV lineup is expected to launch in summer 2022, though no word on price or where the set will be on shelves to purchase. Panasonic’s OLEDs don’t always make it to North America, but we should learn more about availability in the coming months.