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Oppo announces ColorOS 15 with new design language, focus on AI
3:32 pm | October 17, 2024

Author: admin | Category: Mobile phones news | Tags: | Comments: Off

Ahead of the anticipated launch of its Find X8 series flagships, Oppo announced ColorOS 15 – its Android 15-based skin. ColorOS 15 It features an updated look with new icons, dynamic lighting effects, natural light, and shadow elements across the UI. The new Aurora and Tidal Engine brings system-level rendering allowing you to run app animations in parallel so you can have responsive and lag-free animations when quickly switching between apps. The system features new motion effects with consistently smooth animations and several system-level optimizations...

Amazon Kindle Scribe 2024: An excellent 2-in-1 eReader gets annotation and a healthy infusion of AI
4:15 pm | October 16, 2024

Author: admin | Category: Computers eReaders Gadgets Tablets | Tags: | Comments: Off

If the main thing holding you back from buying the 2-in-1 Amazon Kindle Scribe was that it wouldn't let you scribble on books or in the margins, I have some good news for you.

Amazon's latest Kindle adds markup capabilities (of a sort) and throws in a subtle yet spiffy redesign for the big-screen eReader and notetaker and its stylus companion. There's even a small yet important helping of generative AI.

Amazon Kindle Scribe 2024 Hands On

(Image credit: Future / Lance Ulanoff)

Pricing and availability

Amazon unveiled the 2024 Kindle Scribe on October 16 along with a new Kindle, Kindle Paperwhite, and its first color E Ink device, the Kindle Colorsoft. The Kindle Scribe lists for $399.99 and will ship in December.

The look of it

Amazon Kindle Scribe 2024 Hands On

(Image credit: Future / Lance Ulanoff)

Amazon Kindle Scribe has never been your typical Kindle e-reader. At 10.2 inches, the screen is more than three inches larger than the biggest Kindle screen (currently the new 7-inch Paperwhite). In addition to touch, it supports high-precision pen input thanks to a Wacom Digitizer panel below the surface.

The new Amazon Kindle Scribe 2024 edition doesn't change any of that. Size, weight, and specs are the same as last time, but the reader does look different all the same. The metal body is now a brighter green and, in an unheard-of move, Amazon surrounded the display with a wide white border.

As Amazon's Kindle VP Kevin Keith told me, it is much harder to hide things like components and sensors behind a thick white bezel. Still, I get the intention; that white border is intended to make the thin and light e-reader look even more like a giant white piece of paper. It's a pretty good effect.

The Pen probably got a bigger redesign, with refined looks and now an elastomer eraser nub on the back end that feels like a real eraser when used on the Scribe's screen.

Display: 10.2

Storage: 16 GB, 32 GB, or 64 GB

Dimensions: 196 x 230 x 5.8mm

Weight: 433g (Pen: 17g)

Am expansive display

Amazon Kindle Scribe 2024 Hands On

(Image credit: Future / Lance Ulanoff)

The E Ink display remains a wonder. It has just enough roughness to feel like paper and that's especially effective when you put the new stylus to work on it. There's just enough friction to feel like you're dragging a real pen across paper.

When you combine it with the 300 ppi resolution and near-zero latency, it's easy to forget that you're writing and drawing on a digital panel and not real, if slightly gray, paper. These capabilities are largely unchanged from the original Scribe, though the redesigned pen does feel better in the hand, and the eraser is now fun to use. Though I was surprised that when I erased digital ink, the little rubber nub seemed to leave some actual elastomer crumbs on the display – this may be taking verisimilitude a tad too far.

While my hands-on time was brief, it was enough that I could try out writing, reading, and drawing on the large display. It's all quite satisfying, but it's also not necessarily what defines this new Amazon Kindle Scribe.

Intoducing Active Canvas

Amazon Kindle Scribe 2024 Hands On

(Image credit: Future / Lance Ulanoff)

The new Kindle introduces Active Canvas, which finally adds some in-book notetaking to the Scribe experience. It was not live yet on most of the demo units I tried, but I got a few solid demonstrations and think that this will please those who thought the original Scribe was lacking this key feature.

Active Canvas is simple. If you want to annotate a book, you can just start writing right on top of the section in the book. As you write, the text under where you're writing fades away, and then a box appears, and the book text automatically flows around it. You select a check to set the box, which you can then resize, but more importantly, that annotation remains anchored to the text in the book. I watched as an Amazon rep resized the font, and the annotation held fast.

Amazon is also adding expanded margins for annotations that will similarly anchor to positions in the book. That feature, which I did see working in demos, will ship sometime after Amazon ships the Scribe.

Amazon Kindle Scribe 2024 Hands On

(Image credit: Future / Lance Ulanoff)

A dose of AI

The Amazon Kindle Scribe wouldn't be a new product in 2024 if it didn't get a little dollop of AI. In this case, it's a two-pronged attack: Refinement and Summarization.

Again, I could not try these features out for myself, but I did watch closely as another Amazon rep demonstrated them.

Refinement seems tailor-made for me and my very messy handwriting.

The Scribe has extensive note-taking features, but I find it fairly useless if all my notes are not organized or clarified in some fashion. The Refinement feature is a good first step. It uses a cloud-based generative AI to read and clean up my notes.

The process, which starts with you selecting a little quasar-like icon in the upper right corner of the screen, takes 15-to-20 seconds and sends the encrypted data to Amazon's Bedrock Gen AI server. The system returns an incredibly cleaned-up version of your notes. They look handwritten, but that's because they're now in Amazon's custom handwriting font, which can be easily resized.

Amazon Kindle Scribe 2024 Hands On

(Image credit: Future / Lance Ulanoff)

This process certainly makes the notes more glanceable, but I think it's the Summarization feature that will change things the most for avid Kindle Scribe notetakers.

It goes through the same process of selecting the AI icon, but you then have to choose if the system is to summarize the current page or all your pages in that note file. I, naturally, would always choose the latter.

What's returned looks like a brief, handwritten, and concise summarization of what can be quite lengthy and messy notes. Unlike your own handwritten notes, it's the kind of thing that you might be comfortable sharing with coworkers.

Amazon uses a variety of LLMs (large language models) to figure out all handwritten notes. When I asked Amazon Kindle VP Kevin Keith which LLMs it was employing he demurred, telling me instead, "We continually look for the best models, and that's what's great about Bedrock. You can change out different models."

There was, by the way, no mention of Alexa AI or Alexa AI integration in these new Scribe tools, which is a shame but perhaps we'll see it in future Scribe and its Gen AI updates.

The pens' the thing

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Amazon Kindle Scribe 2024 Hands On

(Image credit: Future / Lance Ulanoff)
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Amazon Kindle Scribe 2024 Hands On

(Image credit: Future / Lance Ulanoff)
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Amazon Kindle Scribe 2024 Hands On

(Image credit: Future / Lance Ulanoff)

Because Amazon Kindle Scribe uses Wacom digitizing technology, the Scribe Pencil needs no power source. So, while you can magnetically attach it to the side of the e-reader, it doesn't need that connection to juice up. The pen could be unattached for months and still work.

That's pretty impressive when you consider all this pen can do. It's got a high degree of pressure sensitivity, tilt recognition, and a newly redesigned eraser. In my experience, the latency was essentially zero. It kept up with fast and slow strokes.

It's fun to use, and that big canvas cries out for an illustration. It's also nice that the pen ships with the Kindle Scribe.

Amazon Kindle Scribe 2024 Hands On

(Image credit: Future / Lance Ulanoff)

Battery life

Amazon Kindle Scribe 2024 Hands On

(Image credit: Future / Lance Ulanoff)

Amazon Kindle Scribe is rated for 12 weeks of battery life, but that's if you keep the WiFi off. Your battery life will also vary based on how often you use the lights to illuminate the reflective screen in the dark and how much you annotate your books. Still, battery life will invariably be "weeks" and not "days" or "hours" with a Kindle.

Unlike some of the smaller Kindles like the new Paperwhite and Colorsoft, the Scribe is not water resistant, so just keep that in mind if you take it to the pool or beach.

Amazon Kindle Scribe 2024 Hands On

(Image credit: Future / Lance Ulanoff)
Panasonic Z95A review: a stunning, bright OLED TV with best-in-class Dolby Atmos sound
6:00 pm | October 12, 2024

Author: admin | Category: Computers Gadgets Televisions | Tags: , , | Comments: Off

Panasonic Z95A: Two-minute review

The Panasonic Z95A is the company’s flagship OLED TV, sitting above the company’s mid-range Z90A and entry-level Z85A in the company’s 2024 OLED lineup. There are two big changes for Panasonic TVs this year. The first is that the company has switched from its own My Home Screen smart TV interface to Amazon Fire TV. The second is that Panasonic has re-entered the US TV market, though the selection of models and screen sizes is more limited in the US than in the UK and Europe.

The Panasonic Z95A arrives stateside exclusively in a 65-inch screen size, though a 55-inch model is also available in the UK. Pricing is set at $3,100 / £3,899, putting the Z95A very much in the premium TV camp, but if you have the cash, its performance and features rank it among the best OLED TVs.

The Z95A’s 'Master OLED Ultimate' display panel uses the same micro lens array (MLA) tech found in the flagship LG G4 OLED TV and features a new HCX Pro AI Processor MK II to enhance HDR tone mapping, color accuracy, detail, and motion handling. Images on the Z95A are bright, with strong contrast and rich color – it looks every part the premium TV.

Sound is also a standout Z95A feature. It has a 5.1.2-channel 160W speaker system with front and side-firing speakers, along with up-firing ones to deliver Dolby Atmos height effects. The Z95A’s sound is powerful and immersive enough that you could easily get away without using one of the best soundbars, and there’s also a clever and effective Sound Focus mode to ensure people sitting off-center still get great sound. It's probably the best TV for sound if money is no object. Packing in so many speakers adds to the TV’s bulk, but its design is otherwise appealing and it sits on a sturdy circular stand that can swivel in either direction.

The Z95A’s Fire TV interface isn’t the best smart TV platform, because it’s edged out by more sophisticated systems like LG’s webOS and more streamlined ones like Roku, but it gets the job done for streaming and features a new Ambient Experience that displays a wide range of pre-installed images when the TV is in sleep mode and also lets you upload your own images as well as create new ones using AI. There are plentiful settings to dial in the TV’s picture and sound – perhaps too many depending on your level of patience for tweaking.

Gaming is well represented on the Z95A, which has two HDMI 2.1 ports with 4K 144Hz, VRR (including Nvidia G-Sync and AMD Freesync Premium), and Dolby Vision Gaming (up to 144Hz). A Game Control Board menu overlay lets you make quick gaming-related settings, and it can be assigned to the remote control’s My App button for easy pop-up access.

The Panasonic Z95A earns its high price compared to even the best TVs, and if you want a single unit that delivers elite sound as well as pictures, it's hard to beat. But the magnificent Samsung S95D is available for a lot less, so you need to want its particular mix of sound and visuals.

Panasonic Z95A review: Price and release date

Panasonic Z95A OLED TV showing image of a landscape

(Image credit: Future)
  • Release date: 4 September 2024 
  • 65-inch: $3,100 / £3,899
  • 55-inch: NA / £2,999

Panasonic’s Z95A is the company’s flagship OLED TV for 2024. It is available in 55- and 65-inch screen sizes in the UK and 65 inches in the US. Panasonic TVs are not sold in Australia.

The Z95A series sits above the company’s Z85A series, which is available in 55- and 65-inch screen sizes in both the US and the UK, with the 65-inch model priced at $1,799 / £2,499. 

As a flagship OLED TV sold in both the US and the UK, the Z95A’s key competitors are the Samsung S95D ($3,399 / £3,399) and LG G4  ($3,399 / £3,299) – however, both those TVs are available for much less than their asking price now. You can find them both for around $2,600 / £2,600, so they offer a big saving compared to the Z95A.

Panasonic Z95A review: Specs

Panasonic Z95A review: Benchmark results

Panasonic Z95A review: Features

Panasonic Z95A OLED TV back panel ports

The Z95A has two HDMI 2.1 ports with 4K 144Hz support. (Image credit: Future)
  • MLA OLED panel and HCX Pro AI Processor MK II
  • Dolby Vision IQ and HDR10+ adaptive HDR
  • Two HDMI 2.1 inputs with 4K 144Hz support

The Panasonic Z95A features a 'Master OLED Ultimate' display panel equipped with the same brightness boosting micro lens array (MLA) tech used in LG’s G4 OLED TV, along with a heat-management configuration developed in-house by Panasonic engineers. It also has Panasonic’s new HCX Pro AI Processor MK II, which uses dynamic 3D LUTs (Look-Up Tables) to display accurate colors in bright and dark images and a 4K Fine Remaster and Smooth Motion Drive Pro feature to enhance detail and motion clarity.

The Z95A has comprehensive HDR support, with Dolby Vision IQ, HDR10+ Adaptive, and HLG all accounted for. In the US, this is the only OLED TV range to offer both advanced HDR formats (in the UK, Philips does as well). A Filmmaker Mode with intelligent sensing optimizes that picture mode for a range of room lighting conditions using the TV’s built-in sensors, and there’s also a Netflix Adaptive Calibrated Mode that’s meant to accurate display programs streamed from Netflix.

Sound quality is given special attention on the Z95A, which features '360 Soundscape Pro tuned by Technics.' This basically is a built-in 5.1.2-channel 160W speaker system with a dedicated center speaker and up-firing drivers for Dolby Atmos height effects. There are extensive settings for tuning the Z95A’s sound, and it has a beam-forming feature that lets you direct the TV’s sound output with Pinpoint, Area, Spot, and Ambient modes.

For its new TVs, the Z95A included, Panasonic has swapped its unloved My Home Screen smart TV platform for Amazon’s Fire TV. This uses a Voice Remote with Alexa for control, and it now features the Fire TV Ambient Experience, which lets you add various information widgets to the TV’s ambient mode screensaver, and even create your own custom images using generative AI.

Gaming is also a highlight of the Z95A, which supports 4K 144Hz, VRR (including Nvidia G-Sync and AMD Freesync Premium), and Dolby Vision Gaming (up to 144Hz) and also has a Game Control Board pop-up menu for making quick gaming-related settings. The Z95A only has two HDMI 2.1 inputs, however, which is less than the four HDMI 2.1 ports we look for on the best gaming TVs.

  • Features Score: 4.5/5

Panasonic Z95A review: Picture quality

Panasonic Z95A OLED TV showing image of a landscape

The Z95A's picture is bright enough for viewing in well-lit rooms and it has an anti-reflection screen. (Image credit: Future)
  • High brightness for an OLED TV
  • Excellent overall picture quality
  • Anti-reflection screen

With an OLED MLA panel similar to the one used in the LG G4 OLED TV, I expected the Panasonic Z95A to have similarly high brightness and my measurements proved that. Brightness on a 10% HDR white window pattern in Filmmaker Mode was 1,495 nits and a full-screen pattern measured 221.8 nits. Those numbers match what we measured on the G4, though they fall a bit short of the Samsung S95D’s 1,688 nits and 318 nits in the same picture mode.

In other measurements, the Z95A’s UHDA-P3 color gamut coverage in Filmmaker Mode was 97.0 and its BT.2022 coverage was 72.5%. Again, those results match what we measured on the LG G4, though the Samsung S95D with its QD-OLED display panel managed full P3 coverage and an impressive 87.9% BT.2020 coverage. Grayscale and color accuracy  (see “How I tested” section for details) in the same mode were 3.3 and 1.7, respectively – again matching the G4’s performance.

The Z95A did a good job upconverting standard-definition broadcast TV channels, and high-definition ones looked super-clean and finely detailed. The TV’s anti-reflection screen also effectively reduced glare from overhead lights in my room when I had them switched on. With sports such as football, the Z95A displayed punchy colors and crisp-looking highlights, though I preferred the TV’s Normal picture preset here rather than Filmmaker Mode, which looked comparatively muted with non-HDR content including broadcast TV.

One note about Filmmaker Mode on the Z95A: The intelligent sensing feature it uses automatically turns on the TV’s ambient light sensor for adjusting picture brightness based on room lighting. For this reason, I preferred to use the True Cinema preset when available, which has similar settings to Filmmaker Mode minus the intelligent sensing.

Another picture mode worth discussing is Netflix Adaptive Calibrated Mode, which needs to be enabled in the TV’s picture setup menu. When streaming Ripley from Netflix, I strongly preferred the TV’s Netflix Adaptive Calibrated Mode to its Dolby Vision Dark mode, which compressed highlight and shadow detail to a degree. Otherwise, I used Dolby Vision Dark for viewing most programs with Dolby Vision HDR, making tweaks to the Black Level and Black Expansion adjustments in the Brightness menu to optimize pictures.

The Z95A’s bold, detailed color reproduction is beautiful for movies such as I Saw the TV Glow, which regularly uses a neon-like color palette in dark, nighttime scenes. Watching one such scene where smoke billows out from an ice cream truck, the bright green of the truck and the lurid purple smoke looked vivid and intense.

Motion handling is also impressive on Panasonic’s top OLED TV. When I watched a scene from No Time to Die where James Bond traverses a rocky hilltop cemetery, there was only a faint level of judder visible as the camera tracked his motion, and details in the landscape remained intact. And the same thing held for sports, with a Bills vs Ravens football game looking completely solid and blur-free.

As you’d expect from a flagship OLED TV, blacks looked deep and there was a high level of shadow detail visible in dark images from shows like The Penguin on Max. As mentioned above, I found myself regularly making adjustments to the TV’s advanced brightness settings to dial this in just right, but even without making black-level tweaks, shadows generally were well-defined. 

  • Picture quality score: 5/5

Panasonic Z95A review: Sound quality

Panasonic Z95A Sound Focus screen

The Z95A's Sound Focus interface. (Image credit: Future)
  • 5.1.2-channel 160W speaker system
  • Effective Dolby Atmos presentation 
  • Sound Focus mode

Panasonic calls the Z95A’s built-in speaker system '360 Soundscape Pro tuned by Technics.' This is a 5.1.2-channel 160W array that uses dedicated left, center, right and side-firing speakers, along with a pair of up-firing drivers for Dolby Atmos height effects and a built-in subwoofer plus two passive bass radiators. A subwoofer output jack is also provided on the TV if you want make a hard-wired connection to an external sub.

Packing that many speakers into the TV’s frame adds to its depth and height, with a thick grille running beneath the full width of the screen where the front speaker array is located. And while it increases the TV’s bulk, the benefit to the Z95A’s audio hardware is that it can play loud and clear enough that you can easily do without a soundbar. 

Dialogue is consistently clear, and Atmos soundtracks have a true sense of spaciousness, with sound effects such as rain falling in a scene from I Saw the TV Glow literally sounding like they were falling from the ceiling. Bass depth and impact is very good for a TV, and it noticeably improved after running Space Tune, a feature that uses the mic built into the remote control to analyze your room’s acoustics and adjust the sound accordingly.

Along with Space Tune, another key audio feature is Sound Focus, which lets you adjust the direction of the sound for off-center seating. There are four settings, Pinpoint, Area, Spot and Ambient, which each one providing a different range of soundfield width. To test it out, I selected Pinpoint and adjusted it to align with a seating position at the far end of my sofa, and the TV’s sound clearly shifted 30 degrees over from the center. Impressive!

  • Sound quality score: 5/5

Panasonic Z95A review: Design

Panasonic Z95A TV close up of stand

The Z95A's circular swiveling stand. (Image credit: Future)
  • Sturdy, swiveling stand
  • Wide array of input and control ports
  • Flimsy remote control

OLED TVs typically have a thin form factor, but at 2.7 inches (69mm),  the Z95A’s frame is necessarily deep owing to its built-in 5.1.2-channel speaker array, and there is a wide grille running along the bottom of the screen where the TV’s front-firing speakers are located. It’s balanced on a sturdy, swiveling stand, which is a great feature if you want to position the TV’s screen to accommodate different seating situations.

The Z95A has an impressive array of input and control ports. There are four HDMI ports (including two HDMI 2.1), optical digital and 3.5mm headphone/subwoofer audio outputs, two powered USB, and an antenna input for the TV’s ATSC 3.0 digital TV tuner (US-only). On the control side, it has an Ethernet port and IR blaster output.

Panasonic’s remote control is disappointing given the Z95A’s otherwise premium build quality (and price!). It’s the same type you’d get with any cheap Amazon Fire TV set, with a thin plastic case, limited button array, and no backlighting. Its main feature is a blue button at the top to summon Alexa for voice commands, which, to be fair, is a key feature of the Fire TV smart TV platform.

  • Design score: 4/5

Panasonic Z95A review: Smart TV and menus

Panasonic Z95A Fire TV smart interface

Panasonic has switched to the Amazon Fire TV smart interface for its 2024 TVs. (Image credit: Future)
  • Amazon Fire TV is great for streaming service support
  • Fire TV Ambient Experience with AI image generation
  • Extensive picture and sound adjustments

Amazon’s Fire TV smart TV interface hasn’t changed much since we reviewed the Amazon Fire TV Omni QLED. The home screen is divided up into a top panel with ads, mostly for shows on Amazon’s Prime Video and Freevee free TV platforms and other streaming services, while a grid of recommended movies and TV shows takes up the bottom half. In between is a horizontal bar with a row of apps that you can customize, along with Inputs, My Stuff, Search, and Live tabs.

When on the Live screen, you’ll find a wealth of options, including news channels and other live TV programs that are free to stream. You can also select a grid format that displays a cable TV-style time-based guide that can be populated with programs available on local broadcast TV channels when using an antenna.

The Fire TV Ambient Experience is a recent addition, and it’s one of the platform’s most appealing features. When the TV hasn’t been in use for a certain period of time (you can specify how long in the setup menu) it will display a curated range of images and artworks, or your personal photos (via the Fire TV Photos app after uploading using the Amazon Photos app on your phone). You can add weather, news, sticky notes, and other widgets to the Ambient screen, and even create your own images using AI. Be careful with this, however: I prompted Amazon’s AI with “clowns juggling pineapples on a soccer field,” and the terrifying image it generated cannot be unseen.

One area where Fire TV on the Panasonic goes well beyond Amazon’s own TVs is the picture and sound settings, which can be accessed by pressing a gear icon button on the remote control. There are extensive picture presets, including numerous ones to adjust HDR tone mapping and black detail in dark images. The same goes for sound settings, which include a range of Sound Field Creation options, Space Tune room EQ, and the Sound Focus mode described above in the Sound Quality section. If anything, there may be too many options provided for tweaking the TV’s picture and sound.

  • Smart TV & menus score: 4/5

Panasonic Z95A review: Gaming

Panasonic Z95A Game Bar screen

The Z95A's Game Control Board pop-up menu. (Image credit: Future)
  • Two HDMI 2.1 ports
  • Game Control Board menu
  • 12.6ms input lag

The Panasonic Z95A provides two HDMI 2.1 ports that support 4K 144Hz, VRR (including Nvidia G-Sync and AMD Freesync Premium), and Dolby Vision gaming (up to 144Hz). While we generally look for four HDMI 2.1 ports on high-end TVs to accommodate multiple gaming consoles plus a soundbar connection, the Z9A’s excellent built-in sound makes its limited HDMI 2.1 port count less of an issue.

A nice gaming feature on the Z95A is its Game Control Board pop-up menu. This can be activated via the setup menu when in Game mode (it can also be assigned to the remote control’s My App button), allowing you to make gaming-related picture adjustments such as Dark Visibility.

The Z95A’s input lag as measured with a Leo Bodnar 4K Input Lag meter was 12.6ms. That’s a perfectly good result, although the best TVs for gaming typically yield a result under 10ms.

  • Gaming score: 4/5

Panasonic Z95A review: Value

Panasonic Z95A remote control held in hand

Panasonic's remote control is notably flimsy for a premium-priced TV. (Image credit: Future)
  • Priced higher than premium OLED competition in practice
  • Good mid-range OLEDs available for much less
  • Great performance and features enhance the value

At $3,100 / £3,899 for the 65-inch model, the Panasonic Z95A sits at the premium end of the TV price spectrum, beyond even the LG G4 and Samsung S95D due to their price cuts.

You can now buy a mid-range 65-inch OLED TV such as the LG C4 for around $1,699, and it will also have great picture quality plus a better overall set of gaming features. Paying more for a flagship OLED TV such as the Z95A will get you better picture brightness, however, and that’s going to make a difference when viewing in rooms with a high level of ambient lighting, and it also gives 4K movies with HDR a more dynamic look.

Ultimately, the Z95A ranks the same for value as its flagship OLED competitors. Like them, it has powerful built-in audio for a TV – but here it's further cut above the rest – and when you combine that with its top-notch picture quality and features, it’s a sound investment if you can afford it.

  • Value score: 4/5 

Should I buy the Panasonic Z95A?

Panasonic Z95A Live TV grid guide

The Z95A's Live TV grid guide. (Image credit: Future)

Buy it if...

Don't buy it if…

Panasonic Z95A review: Also consider...

How I tested the Panasonic Z95A

Panasonic Z95A OLED TV showing colorful abstract image

(Image credit: Future)
  • Tested over the course of two weeks
  • Measurements were made using Calman color calibration software
  • A full calibration was made before proceeding with subjective tests

When I test TVs, I first first spend a few days or even weeks using it for casual viewing to assess the out-of-box picture presets and get familiar with its smart TV menu and picture adjustments. I next select the most accurate preset (usually Filmmaker Mode, Movie or Cinema) and measure grayscale and color accuracy using Portrait Displays’ Calman color calibration software. The resulting measurements provide Delta-E values (the margin of error between the test pattern source and what’s shown on-screen) for each category, and allow for an assessment of the TV’s overall accuracy.

Along with those tests, I make measurements of peak light output (recorded in nits) for both standard high definition and 4K high dynamic range using 10% and 100% white window patterns. Coverage of DCI-P3 and BT.2020 color space is also measured, with the results providing a sense of how faithfully the TV can render the extended color range in ultra high-definition sources.

I used the Calman ISF workflow, along with the TV’s advanced picture menu settings, to calibrate the image for best accuracy after I'd assessed its out-of-the-box performance. I also watched a range of reference scenes on 4K Blu-ray discs to assess the TV’s performance, and 4K HDR shows streamed from Max, Netflix, and other services.

You can read an in-depth overview of how we test TVs at TechRadar for more information.

vivo details OriginOS 5: faster, more efficient, AI features on the go, at home and in the car
12:35 pm | October 10, 2024

Author: admin | Category: Mobile phones news | Tags: | Comments: Off

vivo and iQOO are due to start rolling out Android 15 beta to select phones soon (mid-October is the official timeline) and today vivo did a formal introduction of OriginOS 5, the new version of its OS that is based on the latest Android version. It promises improvements across the board, from 15% faster application startup and 30% faster app switching time to reducing CPU power consumption by 26%. The new system also intelligently allocates GPU and RAM resources to keep the foreground app running as smoothly as possible. OriginOS 5 will let you customize the lockscreen by adding...

Meta AI is now available in the UK and five more countries, on track to be most used AI assistant
7:01 am |

Author: admin | Category: Mobile phones news | Tags: , | Comments: Off

Meta AI is expanding its reach to six more countries today. Alongside the UK, it's also newly available in Brazil, Bolivia, Guatemala, Paraguay, and the Philippines, including support for Tagalog. And, "coming soon", Meta AI will also roll out to Algeria, Egypt, Indonesia, Iraq, Jordan, Libya, Malaysia, Morocco, Saudi Arabia, Sudan, Thailand, Tunisia, United Arab Emirates, Vietnam, and Yemen with support for Arabic, Indonesian, Thai, and Vietnamese. Following this expansion, Meta AI will be available in 43 countries and a dozen languages. It can be used on the web at meta.ai as well as in...

Oppo Find X8 stars in video detailing its AI features powered by the Dimensity 9400
1:21 am |

Author: admin | Category: Mobile phones news | Tags: | Comments: Off

Earlier today MediaTek officially unveiled the Dimensity 9400, its new flagship chipset. This has already proven to be quite remarkable in AI tasks, and now a new video highlights some of the AI features it will power. The video stars Oppo's upcoming Find X8, which will use the Dimensity 9400. The device is getting official on October 24 and will launch with ColorOS 15 on board, based on Android 15. This is the software that will power all of the AI features you can see demoed in the video below (in Chinese). Although it's unclear exactly which of these will make it to international...

A quick recap of Samsung Developer Conference 2024 – One UI, Tizen OS and AI
2:30 pm | October 5, 2024

Author: admin | Category: Mobile phones news | Tags: | Comments: Off

During this year's Samsung Developer Conference, the company announced its upcoming One UI 7 based on Android 15. Arguably, this is the most interesting bit of the whole keynote. Still, there are other developments with Samsung products, like Tizen OS, for example. As a quick reminder, One UI 7 will arrive in early 2025, while a beta version of the software will be seeded to users by the end of this year. The new OS will feature a UI redesign, more customization options and deeper AI integration that will be more contextual—depending on location, surroundings, etc. Speaking of AI,...

Windows 11 24H2 update now rolling out with Wi-Fi 7 support, Recall and plenty of AI features
4:53 pm | October 3, 2024

Author: admin | Category: Mobile phones news | Tags: | Comments: Off

Microsoft has started rolling out the Windows 11 24H2 update, which is known simply as “Windows 11 2024 update”. This version improves security, brings new connectivity options and adds more AI capabilities to Copilot+ PCs. One handy change is that the Quick Settings is now a scrollable list, which you can customize by reordering the various options. The Wi-Fi selection UI has a Refresh button, so that you can easily re-scan for nearby networks. If your PC has the right hardware, this update adds Wi-Fi 7 support for much faster data transfers. Additionally, Windows 11 now works with...

Windows 11 24H2 update now rolling out with Wi-Fi 7 support, Recall and plenty of AI features
4:53 pm |

Author: admin | Category: Mobile phones news | Tags: | Comments: Off

Microsoft has started rolling out the Windows 11 24H2 update, which is known simply as “Windows 11 2024 update”. This version improves security, brings new connectivity options and adds more AI capabilities to Copilot+ PCs. One handy change is that the Quick Settings is now a scrollable list, which you can customize by reordering the various options. The Wi-Fi selection UI has a Refresh button, so that you can easily re-scan for nearby networks. If your PC has the right hardware, this update adds Wi-Fi 7 support for much faster data transfers. Additionally, Windows 11 now works with...

One UI 7 to bring more AI features to Gallery, but another delay looms
6:59 pm | October 2, 2024

Author: admin | Category: Mobile phones news | Tags: | Comments: Off

Samsung's Developer Conference 2024 is about to kick off tomorrow in California, USA and we are all waiting to see the new One UI 7 based on Android 15. However, a renowned Samsung tipster suggests its release isn't very close. Ice Universe's post on X says that Samsung isn't ready with the One UI 7 and it "won't be released for quite some time." He stopped short of revealing a timeframe for it though. Among other improvements, One UI 7 is tipped to bring more AI features to the default Gallery app. AI-powered search is the features mentioned. We should get all the details and...

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