Panasonic Viera TX-55AX902B review

For 3D, Panasonic uses passive technology and comes with two pairs of glasses in the box. We’ve had problems with Panasonic’s 3D in the past, primarily from the amount of crosstalk it generates from certain viewing angles, but as long as we sat around 2m away from the AX902, the 3D seemed to be more stable than other Panasonic sets we’ve tested. The Na’vi subtitles in Avatar, for instance, were also much sharper, and we only saw a bit of crosstalk start to appear when looking at the TV further to the side. Luckily, you can adjust the depth of the 3D effect to your liking, making it more pronounced or relatively subtle.

Unfortunately, the AX902B doesn’t come with Panasonic’s new Firefox OS interface, but we were pleased to see its old My Home Screen UI has received a few essential tweaks and updates. For instance, when you now turn on the TV, it defaults straight to the Freetime home screen, which gives you a large window of your current source as well as shortcuts to Freetime’s TV guide, on-demand channels, a search bar and Showcase, which collects all the best TV from the week into one handy location.

Previously, you could only use Freetime by having Freesat installed, but nearly all of Panasonic’s newest TVs come with it built it, giving you the full range of British TV catch-up services without the need for a satellite or additional set-top box. This includes BBC iPlayer, ITV Player, 4OD and Demand 5, and they’re all presented in Freetime’s familiar scrolling TV guide interface. 

You’ve also got Netflix and Amazon Instant Video in the traditional apps menu (which can be accessed quickly by a handy shortcut on the remote) as well as YouTube, Crunchyroll and Wuaki.tv. This compares well with other TV manufacturers, although Samsung still has the widest range of smart TV services while LG has the bonus of built-in Now TV.

Round the back, you’ve got an excellent supply of ports, including four HDMI 2.0 inputs that are HDCP 2.2 compatible, one DisplayPort, an adapter for SCART and component inputs, a CI slot, an SDXC card reader, an optical S/PDIF output, three USB ports (one of which is USB3) and a headphone jack. There’s also an Ethernet port, but with built-in wireless on board, you shouldn’t need it.

Panasonic’s TX-50AX802 was a fantastic TV once 4K Netflix arrived, but the TX-55AX902 betters it in almost every way. At just under £2,000 at time of writing, it’s certainly not cheap, but has best-in-class black levels, fantastic image quality and excellent contrast controls. It’s also cheaper than LG’s current OLED set, the 55EC930V, which only has a Full HD resolution, making the AX902 an attractive choice for anyone who doesn’t want to wait for 4K OLED. With its superb upscaling and outstanding image quality, the AX902 is our new favourite 4K TV. 

Buy Now: Panasonic Viera TX-55AX902B