Panasonic Viera TX-32LZD85 review

This 32in TV costs more than double that of Hannspree's 32in model, but Panasonic provides some convincing justifications.

Its 1,920x1,080 resolution displays 1080p footage from Blu-ray discs in all its glory. There are three HDMI inputs, plus an SDHC card reader for displaying digital photos onscreen. The latter was pretty slow to sort and open photos, but it was fine once we got going with a slideshow. Sound quality was full-bodied and clear, and the onscreen menus are smart and friendly. As with the other Panasonic TVs here, power consumption isn't so impressive, at 148W in use and 17W in standby.

The default picture quality settings were too saturated and contrasted for our liking, but after adjustment this TV became the yardstick by which other sets' colours were measured. Skin tones looked incredibly lifelike and subtle details were visible in vivid colours, shadows and highlights. The black level was the darkest of the 32in TVs, although whites were brighter on Samsung's LE32A436. There was occasional slight banding in dark gradients, but this was infrequent enough not to be a serious concern.

In our standard-definition tests, we had to reduce the sharpness setting to avoid blocky gradients, but after doing so DVDs still looked impressively detailed. However, scrolling credits were strangely discoloured and blurred. Switching from a SCART to an HDMI connection cured the problem. Freeview picture quality was excellent with the sharpness setting reduced, but text and other block-colour graphics were sharper on Toshiba's and Samsung's 32in TVs. The TX-32LZD85 fared poorly as a PC monitor. We failed to get a sharp 1,920x1,080 picture over VGA. When connected with a DVI-to-HDMI cable, the picture was sharp but image processing created a slight ghosting effect around text.

Panasonic's Viera TX-32LZD85 is a superb TV, but we're not sure it's worth £780. We'd consider paying a premium for the colours, but the extra detail afforded by the native 1080p resolution is hard to appreciate on a 32in TV when viewed across a living room.