Organizer
Gadget news
Panasonic Z85A review: a superb OLED TV that delivers on nearly every front
5:30 pm | November 17, 2024
Author: admin | Category: Computers Gadgets Televisions | Tags: , , , | Comments: Off

Panasonic Z85A OLED TV review: Two minute review

The Panasonic Z85A OLED TV is one of the entry-level models in Panasonic’s 2024 TV lineup, sitting below the Panasonic Z95A and Z90A. Along with the flagship OLED Panasonic Z95A OLED and W95A mini-LED, it is one of the first Panasonic TVs available in the US in over a decade.

The Panasonic Z85A sells for $1,599 / £1,599 and $1,799 / £1,999 for its 55 and 65-inch models, respectively, putting it in the same price range as some of the best OLED TVs such as the LG C4, Sony Bravia 8 and Philips OLED809.

Panasonic uses a standard W-OLED panel in the Z85A, which features the same HCX AI Pro II Processor found in step-up Panasonic models including the Panasonic Z95A. While its brightness levels are only average and there is some black crush in darker scenes, the picture quality on the Z85A is up there with the best TVs, with rich contrast, vibrant yet natural colors, deep blacks and realistic textures and details.

Sound quality on the Z85A is good overall. It won’t beat the best TVs for sound, but it does deliver punchy bass, clear dialogue and accurate placement of effects. Those looking for a cinematic experience may want to add one of the best soundbars, but for day to day viewing, the Z85A’s built-in sound is perfectly fine.

The Panasonic Z85A uses Fire TV as its built-in smart TV platform, and it’s a welcome change from Panasonic’s own my Home Screen interface used on previous TVs. There are fewer picture settings, but menus are more user-friendly, navigation is smoother and Amazon features such as Ambient Experience help make the Z85A feel like the complete package.

The Z85A carries many of the features we look for in the best gaming TVs. There are only two HDMI 2.1 ports, but 4K 120Hz, VRR (including AMD FreeSync Premium and Nvidia Gsync) ALLM and Dolby Vision gaming are all supported. Smooth performance and stunning graphics make the Z85A a fantastic OLED gaming TV.

The Panasonic Z85A is marginally pricier than rival mid-range OLEDs but mostly justifies its price thanks to its fantastic features and the sheer brilliance of its picture.

Panasonic Z85A with landscape on screen

Textures and details on the Panasonic Z85A are very realistic. (Image credit: Future)

Panasonic Z85A OLED TV review: Prices & release date

  • Release date: October 2024
  • 55-inch Z85A: $1,599 / £1,599
  • 65-inch: Z85A: $1,799 / £1,999

The Panasonic Z85A is one of the entry-level models in Panasonic’s 2024 OLED TV lineup. It is available in 55- and 65-inch sizes in both the US and UK. Panasonic TVs are not sold in Australia.

The Panasonic Z85A has similar specs and tech as the LG C4, Sony Bravia 8 and Philips OLED809, but is priced slightly higher than those models. Prices have since dropped, however, with the 55-inch model now available for $1,499 / £1,299 and the 65-inch model available for $1,699 / £1,699, making it more competitive with its rivals.

Panasonic Z85A OLED TV review: Specs

Panasonic Z85A OLED TV review: Benchmark results

Panasonic Z85A connection ports

The Panasonic Z85A comes with a good number of connections, but only two HDMI 2.1 ports (Image credit: Future)

Panasonic Z85A OLED TV review: Features

  • W-OLED panel
  • Dolby Vision IQ and HDR10+ Adaptive support
  • Fire TV smart TV platform

The Panasonic Z85A features a W-OLED panel similar to that found in TVs such as the LG C4 and Sony Bravia 8 as opposed to the micro lens array (MLA) panel – a type that yields higher brightness – found in the step-up Panasonic Z95A. Unlike other OLED TVs in the US, it supports both the Dolby Vision and HDR10+ high dynamic range formats.

The new Panasonic HCX Pro AI MKII processor, which analyzes the picture on screen to adjust color, contrast and clarity on the fly, is used by the Panasonic Z85A, and It also has AI features that can be activated to monitor picture and sound quality and adjust based on the content being shown onscreen and the viewing environment.

For sound, the Panasonic Z85A has a 2.1-channel speaker array totaling 50W of power. It supports Dolby Atmos but not DTS. There also aren’t as many sound features or presets as you’ll find on the flagship Panasonic Z95A, though the Z85A does support Theater Surround Pro and has a port for connection to an external subwoofer for those wanting more bass.

The Panasonic Z85A features only two HDMI 2.1 ports but otherwise has an extensive list of gaming features. It supports 4K 120Hz, VRR (both AMD FreeSync and Nvidia GSync), ALLM, and Dolby Vision and HDR10+ gaming and also has a True Game Mode to optimize picture settings and a Game Control Board where those settings can be customized.

The Z85A’s Fire TV smart TV platform replaces the my Home Screen interface – the company’s own smart TV platform – found on previous Panasonic TVs. It supports major streaming apps including Netflix, Prime Video and Disney Plus, along with Max in the US. In the UK, you get Freely, the free TV service that allows you to stream broadcast TV live over Wi-Fi rather than relying on an aerial, and it supports UK-based streaming apps including BBC iPlayer and ITVX. In the US, it additionally comes with an ATSC 3.0 tuner.

  • Features score: 4/5

Panasonic Z85A with The Batman on screen

The Panasonic Z85A has incredible contrast and very good shadow detail when viewed in dimmed conditions (Image credit: Future)

Panasonic Z85A OLED TV review: Picture quality

  • Realistic textures and details
  • Outstanding contrast and shadow detail
  • Dynamic, vibrant colors

Since the Panasonic Z85A uses a standard W-OLED panel rather than the MLA OLED panel found in the Panasonic Z95A (and LG G4) or the Samsung S95D’s QD-OLED panel, I expected it to have peak brightness levels more in line with the LG C4, B4, Sony Bravia 8 and Philips OLED809.

The Z85A’s results were roughly what I anticipated if not a little low. Measuring brightness on a 10% HDR white window pattern, the Panasonic Z85A produced 697 nits in Standard mode and 778 nits in Filmmaker Mode. Those results put it above the LG B4’s 656 nits on the same test but below the likes of the Philips OLED809’s 927 nits and the Sony Bravia 8’s 817 nits.

When measuring the Z85A’s grayscale and color accuracy by taking an average of its Delta-E values (the margin for error between the test pattern and what’s shown on screen), it achieved phenomenal results of 1.1 and 1.2, respectively (we typically look for below 3).

After cycling through the Z85A’s picture presets, I landed on Filmmaker as its most accurate mode, though True Cinema mode was an excellent picture preset as well. Both provided incredible detail and contrast, but I opted for Filmmaker due to its higher brightness.

When watching both lower-resolution and high-definition (HD) TV shows, the Z85A did a solid job of upscaling them to 4K.

Moving onto 4K movies and TV shows, the Panasonic Z85A demonstrated spectacular color reproduction. Watching a scene where the ship arrived in Numenor in season 1 of Rings of Power on Prime Video (watched in Filmmaker Mode HDR), the blues and whites of the sea and rocky landscapes dazzled while maintaining a natural look, and the gold of armor and buildings glistened in the bright sunlight.

A Dolby Vision stream of Star Wars: The Last Jedi via Disney Plus also demonstrated the Z85A’s excellent color reproduction. The reds of the throne room fight scene looked bold and vibrant, but accurate, and lightsabers had a dynamic punch. They didn’t quite have the same glossy HDR sheen as on brighter OLEDs such as the Samsung S95D, but the Z85A’s colors were nonetheless glorious. I opted for the Dolby Vision Dark picture mode here as I felt it was more accurate, but those looking for more brightness can switch to Dolby Vision IQ mode.

When measuring the Panasonic Z85A’s HDR color gamut coverage in Filmmaker Mode, it yielded results of 98.2% for UHDA-P3 and 73.6% for BT.2020. Both of these are excellent results, and they slightly top the 97% and 72.5% achieved by the flagship Panasonic Z95A.

Panasonic Z85A with Rings of Power on screen

The Panasonic Z85A's color and detail are stunning (Image credit: Future)

Black levels, shadow detail and contrast were also superb. Watching a 4K Blu-ray of The Batman in Dolby Vision Dark picture mode, light sources and lamps looked perfectly balanced with the gloomy surroundings in the opening crime scene. I did note occasional black crush in some scenes, with objects losing the odd detail, but overall The Batman looked incredibly accurate on the Z85A.

The Z85A had superb contrast in the black-and-white scenes in Oppenheimer, with an excellent balance between dark and light tones with a perfect range of grays in between.

One thing worth noting is that the Z85A fared better in dimmed or dark viewing conditions when watching darker movies since reflections could be seen on its screen in a bright room.

Panasonic’s OLEDs typically excel in showing details and textures, and the Z85A is no different. Whatever was on screen, the Z85A displayed it in a realistic manner that gave an incredible sense of depth to the image. Watching Top Gun: Maverick, close-ups of pilots revealed every facial feature – sweat, hair, pores. The natural landscapes in Rings of Power also had a 3D-like quality thanks to the intricate, fine details in the waves and mountains.

As you’d expect from OLED, the Z85A’s motion handling is very good overall. When watching a stream of a soccer game, I found that most picture modes worked well, though I stayed away from the Sports mode due to its oversaturated colors. The most effective was Normal mode with the IFC (Intelligent Frame Creation) in picture settings set to Min (with Mid, Max and Off being the other levels). With these active, long, panning shots up and down the pitch were generally handled very well with only incredibly minor stutter from time to time.

Motion handling with movies was excellent throughout, even with motion settings turned off. WatchingTop Gun: Maverick, swooping camera shots during training missions and Maverick’s bike rides through the desert were displayed with no visible judder.

  • Picture quality score: 4.5/5

Panasonic Z85A with La La Land on screen

The Panasonic Z85A has decent sound quality and does well with movies like La La Land, but it struggles with Dolby Atmos reproduction (Image credit: Future)

Panasonic Z85A OLED TV review: Sound quality

  • Punchy bass
  • Accurate sound placement
  • Sound confined to screen

The Panasonic Z85A’s 2.1-channel, 50W speaker array is a significantly smaller system than the one found in the flagship Panasonic Z95A, which boasts a 5.1.2-channel speaker system totaling 160W. There is still support for Dolby Atmos and something that Panasonic calls Theater Surround Pro, but more advanced sound features such as the Z95A’s Space Tune are not featured in the Z85A.

One thing I found interesting is that there is no preset intended for movies among the Z85A’s sound modes. Instead, I opted for the Stadium preset which promised the biggest sound.

The Z85A’s dynamic bass made the rumble of the Batmobile’s engine in the car chase scene in The Batman come through with plenty of power and punch, and plenty of control as well. Dialogue was consistently clear and well-presented and sound placement was accurate, with the sounds of swerving cars and tire screeches in The Batman and soaring jets in Top Gun: Maverick directly connected to the action on screen. I did find the Samsung QN90D and Samsung S95D’s sound presentation to be more accurate when I tested those TVs, however

The Z85A’s sound demonstrated a good balance when watching La La Land, reproducing the bright, jazzy score and the more delicate piano-led moments with the same level of detail. Due to its more limited speaker array, Dolby Atmos soundtracks weren’t given the same level of accuracy or space as on the step-up Panasonic Z95A. Pounding rain in The Batman was rarely audible throughout my viewing, and while the sound did extend beyond the screen on occasion, it still seemed somewhat contained.

  • Sound quality score: 4/5

Panasonic Z85A stand

The Panasonic Z85A has a light, sleek design but its stand feels a little cheap. (Image credit: Future)

Panasonic Z85A OLED TV review: Design

  • Solid, yet lightweight build
  • Stand feels a little cheap
  • Dated remote

The Panasonic Z85A’s design is solid and dependable, if not a little safe in places. While the top of its frame is trim enough, the bottom part is on the bulkier side to accommodate the larger built-in subwoofer. Its screen lacks the bezel-less design of other premium OLEDs but is still suitably trim. It feels sturdy when installed with its stand but is also very light for easy movement.

Speaking of the stand, the Z85A’s is a mixed bag. While it has a sleek look that blends well with dark furniture and is well-made, the plastic and metal materials don’t feel as premium as on rival OLEDs, its predecessor the Panasonic MZ1500, which comes with a weighty, swiveling, all-metal stand, included.

The Z85A’s supplied remote continues what has become a somewhat sore subject for me with Panasonic TVs. It is long, bulky, covered in a load of buttons, and feels outdated. While better than the standard Fire TV remote provided with the flagship Panasonic Z95A, it still doesn’t look or feel like the premium remote you expect for an OLED TV like this – especially when compared to the USB-C rechargeable, light-up, metal remote that Philips stocks with its TVs like the Philips OLED809.

  • Design score: 4/5

Panasonic Z85A with Fire TV home screen on display

Panasonic Z85A uses Fire TV as its smart TV platform, replacing my Home Screen 8.0 (Image credit: Future)

Panasonic Z85A OLED TV review: Smart TV & menus

  • Fire TV smart TV platform
  • Intuitive and responsive navigation
  • A good number of picture settings for calibration

Panasonic has opted to switch from its own my Home Screen smart TV platform in favor of Amazon’s Fire TV in the majority of its TVs this year and while the number of settings for picture and sound have taken a hit, the experience overall is an improvement.

Signing in with an Amazon account means the home page provides not only recommendations for movies and TV shows but an easy way to jump back into viewing, with the ability to sign in with and switch between multiple profiles for a more customized home screen. Unsurprisingly, these recommendations are almost entirely centered on Amazon’s Prime Video platform. Thanks to the Z85A’s faster processor, navigation of different menus and apps is smoother than my experience with the Amazon Omni QLED TV and also easy and intuitive.

The Panasonic Z85A comes with other Amazon features such as Alexa voice control and the Ambient Experience (a similar concept to Samsung’s Ambient mode on its TVs) which lets you display static and dynamic images and videos on the screen when the TV enters idle mode, rather than turning off. You can add your personal photos after uploading them via the Amazon Photos app on your phone, and widgets for weather, news, sports and more can be added to the Ambient screen as well.

Despite not having as many picture or sound settings as the previous my Home Screen interface, there are still a good number of settings for those looking to tweak their TV’s picture.

  • Smart TV & menus score: 4/5

Panasonic Z85A with Battlefield V on screen

The Panasonic Z85A has a good number of gaming features and great performance. (Image credit: Future)

Panasonic Z85A OLED TV review: Gaming

  • 12.7ms input lag time
  • Extreme Game Mode featuring Game Control Board
  • Only two HDMI 2.1 ports

The Panasonic Z85A has only two HDMI 2.1 ports but is otherwise a well-equipped TV for gaming, supporting 4K 120Hz, Dolby Vision gaming, VRR (AMD FreeSync Premium and Nvidia GSync) and ALLM.

Similar to other Panasonic TVs, the Z85A has the Game Control Board, where settings such as Shadow Enhancer allow for easy customization while playing. For non-Dolby Vision games, there are also two game picture modes, Game and True Game, with True Game serving as the Filmmaker or Movie picture mode equivalent by opting for a warmer color palette and more accurate textures that will better suit certain games.

Gaming on the Z85A is responsive and smooth, with fast-paced gameplay well handled. When playing Battlefield V at 4K 120Hz, targeting, movement and animations were all fluid and seamless. It doesn’t beat the best 120Hz TVs such as the LG C4, but the Z85A’s 12.7ms input lag time is still very good and below the 15ms threshold most gamers look for.

Graphically, the Z85A carries across the same picture quality it brings to movies, with plenty of vibrant color, rich contrast, realistic textures and fine details that give games an extra sense of realism.

  • Gaming score: 4.5/5

Panasonic Z85A remote

Panasonic's remote, shown here, feels outdated compared to other remotes supplied with OLED TVs (Image credit: Future)

Panasonic Z85A OLED TV review: Value

  • Prices have dropped since launch
  • Still slightly pricier than rival mid-range OLEDs
  • Very good picture for price range

Since launching at $1,599 / £1,599 for the 55-inch model and $1,799 / £1,999 for the 65-inch model, the Panasonic Z85A’s prices have dropped to $1,499 / £1,299 for the 55-inch model and $1,699 / £1,699 for the 65-inch model. That’s still pricier than other mid-range OLEDs such as the LG C4 ($1,199 / £1,199 for 55-inch and $1,499 / £1,599 for 65-inch) but generally fair value for the picture quality and performance you’re getting.

Although a brightness boost similar to the mid-range LG C4 would have been nice, the Panasonic Z85A is still an excellent OLED that delivers in key areas. It still may exceed some budgets, but its picture quality and gaming features alone make it a worthy mid-range OLED contender.

  • Value score: 4/5

Panasonic Z85A with butterfly on screen

(Image credit: Future)

Should I buy the Panasonic Z85A OLED TV?

Buy it if...

You want superb picture quality
The Panasonic Z85A delivers spectacular contrast and color and realistic details and textures, bringing movies and TV shows to life.

You want a great OLED TV for gaming
The Panasonic Z85A is well stocked for gaming, with 4K 120Hz, VRR, ALLM and Dolby Vision gaming all supported. Plus, it delivers great performance.

Don't buy it if…

You watch in bright rooms
The Panasonic Z85A does suffer from reflections when watching darker content in bright rooms. Look at brighter OLEDs such as the LG C4 if you want a brightness boost.

You want the best value OLED TV
While it is still a brilliant TV, the Panasonic Z85A doesn't deliver the same value overall as the LG C4, the best mid-range OLED available.

Also consider

LG C4 OLED
The LG C4 has higher brightness and more gaming features than the Panasonic Z85A, including four HDMI 2.1 ports and 144Hz support. In terms of picture and sound quality, it's close between the two. This is the Panasonic Z85A's closest rival.

Read our full LG C4 OLED reviewView Deal

Sony Bravia 8 OLED
The Sony Bravia has bolder colors than the Panasonic Z85A, but the Z85A takes the crown for contrast and detail. Sound is another area where the Bravia 8 has the Z85A beat. In terms of gaming features, they're even.

Read our full Sony Bravia 8 OLED reviewView Deal

Philips OLED809
Both the Philips OLED809 and Panasonic Z85A are close to one another in terms of picture quality and gaming features, but the Philips has the added benefit of Ambilight and marginally better sound. If you're in the UK, it'll be a close call between these two.

Read our full Philips OLED809 reviewView Deal

Panasonic Z85A with testing equipment attached

(Image credit: Future)

How I tested the Panasonic Z85A OLED TV

  • Tested in varying lighting conditions
  • Tested using both SDR and HDR sources
  • Measurements were taken using Portrait Displays' Calman calibration software

Before testing, I did some casual viewing with the Panasonic Z85A to establish the most accurate picture mode and after scrolling through presets, I decided on Filmmaker Mode as the most accurate, with True Cinema mode a close second.

After this, I began my critical testing using SDR sources, such as broadcast TV and standard Blu-ray and HD movies, and HDR sources, such as 4K streaming and 4K Blu-rays. 4K Blu-rays were played using the Panasonic DP-UB820 4K Blu-ray player.

For critical testing, I used reference scenes from movies and TV shows. I tested picture quality, focusing on color, contrast, black levels, motion, detail, and upscaling, as well as the audio quality of the built-in speakers.

I also tested the Panasonic Z85A's gaming features and performance using an Xbox Series X.

After subjective testing, I moved onto objective testing, taking measurements using specialized equipment. This consisted of a test pattern generator, a colorimeter and Portrait Display's Calman calibration software to record the measurements.

The measurements taken included HDR and SDR brightness, measured on white window patterns ranging from 1-100% in size, with a focus on 10% for peak brightness and 100% for full-screen brightness.

I took measurements for HDR color gamut, analyzing the BT.2020 and UHDA-P3 color spaces. I also took measurements for color accuracy and grayscale in HDR, taking an average of each's Delta-E values (the margin for error between the test pattern and what's shown on screen).

Finally, I measured the Z85A's input lag using a Leo Bodnar 4K HDMI Input Lag Tester.

Honor X60 and X60 Pro arrive with 108MP cameras, Pro model has a curved OLED display
6:43 pm | October 16, 2024
Author: admin | Category: Mobile phones news | Tags: | Comments: Off

Honor unveiled two new models in the X60 series and they diverge more than their X50 counterparts. There is a Pro model with a fancier screen and more processing power (which also has an effect on the camera capabilities). The Honor X60 Pro has a curved OLED display, a 6.78” 120Hz panel with 1,224 x 2,700px resolution (19.9:9). It has 10-bit colors and can reach a peak brightness of 3,000 nits, which are controlled with 3,840Hz high-frequency PWM dimming. The display can work with wet fingers (the phone itself is waterproof but without an official IP rating). X60 Pro with a curved...

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.

iPhone 17 Slim to feature a new kind of OLED display
5:00 pm | October 5, 2024
Author: admin | Category: Mobile phones news | Tags: | Comments: Off

With the diminishing iPhone Plus sales over the years, Apple is looking to substitute the Plus lineup with something more exciting. Or that's at least according to the rumors this year. Enter the iPhone 17 Slim, a new iPhone lineup, rumored to be even more expensive than the Pro Max series. New information coming from DigiTimes suggests the upcoming iPhone 17 Slim will feature a new kind of OLED display that could allow an extremely thin build. A lesser-known Taiwanese brand, Novatek, recently introduced a new TDDI OLED panel that combines the touch sensor layer and the display driver...

GoPro Hero review: the action camera king goes back to basics
8:01 pm | October 3, 2024
Author: admin | Category: Action Cameras Cameras Computers Gadgets | Tags: | Comments: Off

The GoPro Hero is GoPro’s new entry-level action camera. At half the price of the company’s Hero 13 Black flagship, and about half the size, it’s a small, cheap and rugged mountable camera that keeps the price down by keeping things simple. Perhaps too simple.

While I genuinely appreciate how simple and easy this camera is to use, the fact that it offers little control over image quality, only three recording modes, no way to record audio except via the internal mic, and no way to swap out a battery meant that I butted up against limitations and disappointments all too frequently during my review shoots.

GoPro Hero

(Image credit: Future | Sam Kieldsen)

Image quality isn’t terrible, but the 8-bit footage is a long way below what’s possible with the Hero 13 Black and other higher-end action cameras. The Hero also isn’t the smallest action camera around, with DJI and Insta360 offering even more compact, lightweight alternatives.

The bright spots here are the affordable price tag, reliable image stabilization and solid battery life, which make the Hero a camera that retains some appeal despite its weaknesses. If you’re looking for a cheap, simple action camera (one you could hand over to your kids, perhaps) that slots nicely into GoPro’s vast ecosystem of mounting accessories and apps, the Hero is that camera.

GoPro Hero: price and release date

  • $199.99 / £199.99 / AU$349.99
  • Available now

The GoPro Hero is available to buy now, priced from $199.99 / £199.99 / AU$349.99. That’s half the price of GoPro’s current flagship Hero 13 Black action camera, and quite a bit cheaper than the mini action cameras offered by competitors too: the aging DJI Action 2 costs $229 / £215 and the Insta360 Go 3 and Go 3S cost $319.99 / £319.99 and $399.99 / £349.99 respectively.

That makes the Hero one of the most affordable current action cameras around at launch, and you’ll probably only find something cheaper by buying secondhand or during sales.

  • Price score: 4/5
Image 1 of 4

GoPro Hero

(Image credit: Future | Sam Kieldsen)
Image 2 of 4

GoPro Hero

(Image credit: Future | Sam Kieldsen)
Image 3 of 4

GoPro Hero

(Image credit: Future | Sam Kieldsen)
Image 4 of 4

GoPro Hero

(Image credit: Future | Sam Kieldsen)

GoPro Hero: design and handling

  • Small, lightweight and sturdy build
  • Quick-release magnetic mounting system
  • Waterproof to 20m without a case
  • Front and rear OLED touchscreens

Like all GoPro action cameras, the Hero is rugged and waterproof. The tough plastic casing feels like it could take a beating, and is sealed against water up to a depth of 16ft / 5m. The camera lens is given extra protection in the form of a toughened, water-repelling glass cover, which can be replaced in the event it gets damaged.

It comes with GoPro's fold-out mounting fingers on the bottom, allowing it to be attached to over 35 GoPro-made (and countless third-party) accessories like selfie sticks, helmet mounts, bicycle mounts and the like. In the box you get a single curved adhesive mount, one mounting buckle and one screw.

The Hero is very small and lightweight, especially by GoPro standards. It weighs just 3oz / 86g, and makes the other ‘tiny’ GoPro model I have to hand, the 2022-released Hero 11 Black Mini, feel quite bulky and awkward in comparison. There are smaller action cameras around, however; the excellent Insta360 Go 3S springs to mind, being half the Hero’s weight and size and able to record 4K video too.

GoPro Hero key specs

Sensor: 1/2.8-inch CMOS
Video: Up to 4K/30fps, 2.7K/60fps
Photo: 12MP
Screens: 1.76-inch LCD touchscreen
Video modes: Standard, Slo-Mo
Connectivity: USB-C, Bluetooth LE 5.2, dual-band Wi-Fi
Weight: 86g

Despite its small proportions, the Hero has room for a touchscreen on the back (the 11 Black Mini had no screen at all). There’s nothing outstanding about the screen’s quality – it’s LCD rather than OLED – but it does its job well, giving you just enough space to swipe though the shooting modes, adjust settings in the menu screens and review the shots stored on the camera.

Physical controls are nice and simple, with just two large, easy-to-press rubber buttons: one to start and stop image capture, and one to power the camera on and off and for switching quickly between the shooting modes. That, really, is it. There are status lights on the front and back of the camera too, so you’ll know when it’s recording or recharging.

Image 1 of 3

GoPro Hero

(Image credit: Future | Sam Kieldsen)
Image 2 of 3

GoPro Hero

(Image credit: Future | Sam Kieldsen)
Image 3 of 3

GoPro Hero connectivitiy

(Image credit: Future | Sam Kieldsen)

Storage comes courtesy of a microSD card slot, and without one in the box you’ll have to supply your own. It’ll need to have a V30 or faster UHS-3 rating too.

Alongside the card slot is a USB-C port, which can be used for charging the battery or transferring files; GoPro supplies a short USB-C to USB-C cable in the box. Annoyingly, I wasn’t able to use this to drag and drop files from the Hero onto my Mac, just from my PC. The GoPro Quik app running on a Mac recognized that the camera was connected, but instructed me to use a card reader to import the files. Adding unnecessary steps to the process isn’t a smart design choice in my opinion, especially if they require the user to own another piece of hardware.

The battery, incidentally, is built into the camera and is non-removable. Pricier GoPro models support battery swapping, but the Hero’s streamlined approach means you’re stuck with what's in there.

  • Design score: 4/5

GoPro Hero: features and performance

  • 80-minute battery life
  • Voice controls
  • Image stabilization applied by Quik app

Battery life is solid, mind you. I set up my fully charged Hero review sample to record 4K/30p video continuously and it lasted an impressive 80 minutes. In the low-power battery-saver mode, recording at 1080/30p, it’ll record for over 2.5 hours. When recharging, the indicator light doesn’t change color or turn off to show that the battery is fully charged, so it was difficult for me to gauge how long it takes to go from empty to full – but from periodic checking of the battery levels it seems acceptably fast.

In keeping with GoPro’s bare-bones approach to the Hero, the feature set is limited. The Hero’s menu screen features only six options: voice control on/off; beeps on/off; screen saver on/off; orientation lock on/off; battery saver on/off; screen lock on/off. The voice controls work fine, allowing you to stop and start recordings, take a photo, and turn the power off by saying “GoPro…” followed by a command. It recognized my accent and responded accordingly almost every time.

Image 1 of 3

GoPro Hero

(Image credit: Future | Sam Kieldsen)
Image 2 of 3

GoPro Hero

(Image credit: Future | Sam Kieldsen)
Image 3 of 3

GoPro Hero

(Image credit: Future | Sam Kieldsen)

GoPro’s HyperSmooth electronic image stabilization is available, but it can't be applied in-camera, only externally via the GoPro Quik app. If you want stabilized videos you’ll need to export your videos to a mobile device or Mac computer (there’s currently no Quik app for Windows PCs; GoPro says it’s ‘coming soon’). The good news is that, once you’ve exported them, videos are automatically stabilized very effectively.

The Quik app itself is generally well designed and easy to use, although it did crash on my iPhone 13 several times while exporting large files to my photo roll, and I did bristle a little at the way it was constantly nudging me to buy a GoPro subscription.

The subscription, which costs $49.99 / £49.99 / AU$69.99 a year (or half that if you’re a new subscriber signing up for your first year) comes with some useful benefits, though: unlimited cloud storage and automatic uploading at full quality for all your photos and videos; automatically edited clip videos, ‘directed’ by AI; money off accessories purchased through the GoPro website and off your next GoPro camera; and up to two replacement cameras per year if your GoPro is lost or damaged. If you own more than one GoPro, I’d say it’s definitely worth it.

  • Features and performance score: 3.5/5
Image 1 of 4

GoPro Hero

(Image credit: Future | Sam Kieldsen)
Image 2 of 4

GoPro Hero and rival action cameras

(Image credit: Future | Sam Kieldsen)
Image 3 of 4

GoPro Hero and Insta360 Go 3S

(Image credit: Future | Sam Kieldsen)
Image 4 of 4

GoPro Hero

(Image credit: Future | Sam Kieldsen)

GoPro Hero: image and video quality

  • 12MP stills and 4K/30p video
  • 8-bit color depth and 50Mbps maximum bitrate
  • Built-in microphones

When I say that GoPro has kept things simple with the Hero, I mean it. There are just three shooting modes available: Slo-Mo, Video and Photo. There’s no room for live streaming, time lapse, burst photos or any of the other modes you find on most action cameras.

And, within the modes you do get, there’s really no way to adjust the settings. The only way to change how image capture works is to flick the camera into battery-saver mode, which reduces video quality in the name of squeezing more juice out of the camera: 4K/30p video becomes 1080/30p and 2.7K/60p slow-motion video becomes 1080/60p; the 12MP still photos remain the same.

Video is captured at 8-bit quality with a maximum bitrate of 50Mbps. There are no options to shoot in a ‘flat’ log color profile for more post-production control; the Hero really is designed to keep things super-simple. As a result, the video quality is poor by GoPro’s standards, and if you’re used to the excellent colors and detail that come out of its flagship models, you’ll immediately notice that the Hero lags a long way behind.

The electronic stabilization may be impressive, but the image quality itself is dull and lifeless in 4K, and noticeably soft in 1080p. And that’s in good lighting. In low light, the quality takes a dive, with increased noise and decreased detail. I’ve edited together a short video to demonstrate the quality in daylight, so that you can see for yourselves what it’s like, and below I’ve posted a few 12MP still photos. I’ve tweaked these photos slightly with Adobe Lightroom to give them more pop, as they look flat straight from the camera.

The Hero limits video clip times. When I left it continuously recording 4K/30p until the battery died it split the resulting video into several files, each about 10 minutes long. You can edit these together to make a single video later, of course, but it does require more work.

Image 1 of 9

GoPro Hero sample shot

(Image credit: Future | Sam Kieldsen)
Image 2 of 9

GoPro Hero sample shot

(Image credit: Future | Sam Kieldsen)
Image 3 of 9

GoPro Hero sample shot

(Image credit: Future | Sam Kieldsen)
Image 4 of 9

GoPro Hero sample shot

(Image credit: Future | Sam Kieldsen)
Image 5 of 9

GoPro Hero sample shot

(Image credit: Future | Sam Kieldsen)
Image 6 of 9

GoPro Hero sample shot

(Image credit: Future | Sam Kieldsen)
Image 7 of 9

GoPro Hero sample shot

(Image credit: Future | Sam Kieldsen)
Image 8 of 9

GoPro Hero sample shot

(Image credit: Future | Sam Kieldsen)
Image 9 of 9

GoPro Hero sample shot

(Image credit: Future | Sam Kieldsen)

So overall, I found the image quality disappointing. Yes, the Hero is cheap by big-name action camera standards, but there are plenty of old models from Insta360, DJI and GoPro that you might be able to pick up at cheap prices and which offer more options and better performance.

I should also talk about audio recording, which really isn’t great. The Hero doesn’t support external microphones, even USB mics, so the only options for recording live audio for your videos is the 2-mic internal setup. It’s far from terrible in good conditions, but on a blustery day there’s nothing to reduce the interference from wind.

  • Image quality score: 3/5

GoPro Hero: testing scorecard

Should I buy the GoPro Hero?

Buy it if...

You’re invested in the GoPro ecosystem
For those who already own GoPro cameras, use the Quik app and pay for a subscription, the Hero will slot neatly into their video creation workflow.

You want a cheap, simple camera
With few options, few controls and no add-ons, this is as basic as decent 4K action cameras come. It's also affordable though, making it great for kids or in risky situations where losing a pricier camera would hurt.

Don't buy it if...

You need crystal clear audio
With no way to hook up an external microphone, you’re stuck using the Hero’s built-in mic for all audio recording. Not ideal if you’re using the camera for vlogging.

You want butter-smooth 4K video
The Hero limits 4K video to 30fps, and requires a drop down to 2.7K quality for a slicker 60fps frame rate. Maximum bit rate is 50Mbps too

You want the smallest action cam around
There are several lighter, more compact options on the market – albeit at a higher asking price than the Hero.

DJI Osmo Action 5 Pro: also consider

Insta360 Go 3S

Tiny and flexible, this camera can go to places other action cams can’t. With easy magnetic mounting and a weight and size that makes the GoPro Hero look positively porky, the Go 3S a great way to grab 4K footage from unconventional angles. It does have limited battery life though, requiring frequent recharges.

Read our Insta360 Go 3S review

DJI Action 2

There have been three generations of DJI Action camera released since the Action 2 arrived in 2020, but it remains part of the company’s current range. A modular camera made up of one of two cube-shaped elements, it can be very small and light if required, and records stabilised video at up to 4K resolution.

Read our DJI Action 2 review


GoPro Hero

(Image credit: Future | Sam Kieldsen)

How I tested the GoPro Hero

  • Battery stamina tests
  • Vlogging and cycling outdoors

I spent a few days using the DJI Hero at home and in my neighborhood, testing out its video and photo performance in a variety of locations and conditions and mounting the camera on selfie sticks, mini tripods and my bike.

I also tried out GoPro's Quik app on both my iPhone 13 and MacBook Air, and edited footage both using the app and later with DaVinci Resolve Studio 19.

First reviewed October 2024

Sony Inzone M10S review: beautiful design, uncompromising performance
7:00 pm | September 24, 2024
Author: admin | Category: Computers Gadgets Gaming | Tags: , | Comments: Off

Sony Inzone M10S: Two-minute review

The Sony Inzone M10S is a major departure from the rest of the Sony Inzone monitor lineup. Known for PlayStation-oriented products and closely associated with many of the best monitors for PS5, it might come as a surprise that this 27-inch OLED display has been designed specifically for competitive PC gaming. Its sleek black aesthetic is a major shift from the PS5-inspired white panel look of the Sony Inzone M9 and Sony Inzone M3 too, potentially pointing towards a more standalone future for the brand.

If that is the new trajectory of the Sony Inzone name, then it's off to an incredibly promising start. This first foray into the PC esports market is a huge success. The Sony Inzone M10S is expensive compared to most of the competition, but that high price tag is reflected in almost every facet of the monitor’s top-notch overall design, features, and performance.

The 1440p OLED panel offers a lightning-fast 0.03ms gray-to-gray response time and a wonderfully smooth 480Hz refresh rate, ensuring that no part of your performance in intense competitive first-person shooters like Counter-Strike 2 and Valorant is held back by your monitor’s technical specs. It also offers some genuinely useful visual settings, including a dedicated 24.5-inch display mode that accurately simulates a tournament experience by mirroring the standard tournament monitor size.

A close-up shot of the Sony Inzone M10S monitor.

(Image credit: Future)

The FPS Pro+ mode is also a surprising highlight. By default, it creates an almost gray, desaturated-looking picture but seems to significantly boost the appearance of primary colors like Red and Green. This helps key UI elements, like the red enemy indicators in Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3 stand out, improving your ability to see vital information when it counts.

The stand of the Sony Inzone M10S is also superb. It combines an impressively small, disk-like base constructed from durable metal with an attractive monitor arm that offers a full 360-degree rotation. The base takes up very little desk space and can easily fit underneath an elevated keyboard, allowing you to easily achieve a wide range of positions and focus entirely on your game rather than trying to fit everything on a single surface.

It also has plenty of elevation options, with 30 degrees of tilt and an adjustable height of up to 12 cm. Although plainer than other Sony Inzone models, the Sony Inzone M10S looks fantastic overall thanks to its seriously thin side profile and understated, classy aesthetic. From an esports perspective, the Sony Inzone M10S delivers in all respects and is easily one of the best gaming monitors out there today.

That said, there are more suitable, cheaper options for those who want something geared towards general gaming. The Sony Inzone M10S does not feature any in-built speakers and fans of sprawling adventures like Horizon Forbidden West may prefer a lower refresh rate but a higher 4K resolution panel to really soak in all the details. Although the Sony Inzone M10S does have an automatic in-built PS5 mode, which works well on the whole, dedicated console players will also be better off with alternatives as the console is unable to make full use of this model’s 480Hz refresh rate.

The Sony Inzone M10S being used to play Counter-Strike 2.

(Image credit: Future)

Sony Inzone M10S: Price and availability

  • $1099.99 / £1,199
  • Pricey for 1440p
  • Available via Sony

The Sony Inzone M10S is avaiable for $1,099.99 / £1,199 via Sony. This is towards the higher end of what you would expect to pay for a 1440p OLED monitor, though there are few points of comparison due to the lack of many other 1440p models at 480Hz. Still, there are some slightly cheaper alternatives with similar specs out there, like the Asus ROG Swift PG27AQDP which costs $999 / £949.

Whether the Sony Inzone M10S is worth it for you will come down to just how willing you are to pay extra for its esports features and more premium design. Of course, the monitor is also likely to receive discounts sometime after launch as we’ve typically seen from other Inzone models. If you’re able to find it around the price of other 480Hz OLED 1440p displays in a few months time, then it’s a no-brainer.

If you’re willing to sacrifice the refresh rate, you can easily find 4K OLED monitors like Alienware AW3225QF for around the same price as the Sony Inzone M10S. While 1440p (or lower) is the preferred resolution of competitive gamers to maximize performance, these would be better options for more general players and PS5 (or soon to be PS5 Pro) owners who want to make the most of their console’s visual capabilities.

Sony Inzone M10S: Specs

The Sony Inzone M10S with its in-built crosshair mode visible on screen.

(Image credit: Future)

Sony Inzone M10S: Design and features

  • Near-perfect stand
  • Useful visual modes
  • OLED burn in protections

The star of the Sony Inzone M10S’s design is easily its stand. It’s an impressive piece of engineering that is incredibly stable despite its distinctive shape. It features a small integrated cable tidy, which I found offered more than enough room for two HDMI cables, a display port cable, and the monitor’s power cable at the same time.

The base of the stand is a 4 mm thin metal disk with a 15.9 cm diameter, which is brilliantly compact compared to the large profile of most gaming monitors. The base is thin enough to sit beneath a keyboard, freeing up desk space and allowing for a wide range of possible playing positions. It also offers a smooth 360-degree pivot, making it easy to adjust viewing angles or change the position of the display. You can also tilt the panel down by 5 degrees or up by 25 degrees for even more precise adjustment.

No matter your choice of position, the stand remains perfectly balanced and stable which means no annoying wobble if you slam down on keys while you play. The fact that the LED power indicator, located on the right-hand side of the monitor, is invisible when viewed from the front helps further reduce distractions.

On the back of the monitor, you will find a large power button and a small thumbstick for editing the settings. This is accomplished through an on-screen menu, with a range of intuitive tabs for all your picture modes, gaming assist, and other settings options. The interface is nothing groundbreaking, but it all works well and offers a high degree of customizability. At launch, the Sony Inzone will also be compatible with the existing Inzone Hub PC software which will offer another way to adjust these settings.

The small base of the Sony Inzone M10S

(Image credit: Future)

In terms of dedicated gaming features, you get full Nvidia G-sync support in addition to Vesa Certified Adaptive Sync. The monitor also offers Display HDR True black 400 HDR, allowing for more vibrant colors. It is worth noting that some visual settings, including the brilliant FPS Pro+ mode, are not compatible with HDR though. The in-built brightness equalizer does a formidable job eliminating the slight unevenness associated with OLED panels and the optional black equalizer increases the brightness of dark scenes to improve visibility.

Like some other gaming monitors, there’s an in-built frame rate counter, timer, and series of green or red on-screen crosshairs that are a lot of fun to play around with if you’re trying to land some no-scope AWP hits in Counter-Strike 2. There’s also a dedicated 24.5-inch display mode, which introduces black bars around the screen to simulate the 24.5-inch size of a tournament display.

The possibility of burn-in is always a worry with any OLED monitor, but the Sony Inzone M10S offers a good selection of settings to combat it. This ranges from a mode that automatically dims your screen after a few moments, to one that targets and dims static images and a pixel shift that almost unnoticeably moves your screen picture by a row of pixels every few hours. They all work as expected, but I did quickly disable the setting that dims static images as the occasional change in brightness of the taskbar was quite distracting.

Image 1 of 3

The base of the Sony Inzone M10S.

(Image credit: Future)
Image 2 of 3

The in-built crosshair function.

(Image credit: Future)
Image 3 of 3

The thin side profile of the Sony Inzone M10S

(Image credit: Future)

Sony Inzone M10S: Performance

  • Leading performance
  • 480Hz is beautifully smooth
  • Ideal for Counter-Strike or Valorant

There is no way to fault the performance of the Sony Inzone M10S. The 480Hz refresh rate and 0.03 GtG response time create a wonderfully smooth experience. Going from a 75Hz and a 144Hz display, the difference was immediately noticeable and made for a much more responsive experience in Counter-Strike 2. Rocket League was also a delight, as were Tom Clancy’s Rainbow Six Siege, and Valorant. A lot of this excellence will depend heavily on your PC specs though, and I had to spend a little while tweaking settings in order to achieve anywhere close to a solid 480 fps at 1440p in most esports titles.

The default color configurations are all solid, but the monitor was quite dim out of the box presumably as a power-saving measure. This was quickly remedied by increasing the brightness to around the 80% mark, which I found hit the perfect balance of brightness and clarity. Throughout my testing, I observed zero ghosting no matter what I threw at the monitor. On top of the excellent FPS Pro+ mode, there’s a more conventional FPS Pro mode that offers a less drastic version of the same effect in addition to a MOBA/RTS setting and your usual range of Cinema and Game modes. Outside of FPS games, I would recommend keeping the monitor on either the Standard or sRGB setting for the most accurate and well-balanced color profiles or enabling HDR.

Although it looks nothing like previous Sony Inzone monitors, the Sony Inzone M10S does still offer some PlayStation-specific features. This includes an automatic PS5 mode, which is enabled when the monitor detects that it’s connected to a PS5. PC gaming is definitely the focus, but everything that I tested on PS5 from Grand Theft Auto 5 to Star Wars Outlaws and Doom Eternal also looked absolutely stunning with HDR and the vibrant OLED colors. This isn’t a model that you should buy specifically for PS5 gaming, but this will be good for those players who rely on a PC for competitive shooter titles but prefer to experience games like RPGs or adventure games with a console.

The Sony Inzone M10S in 24.5-inch mode.

(Image credit: Future)

Should you buy the Sony Inzone M10S?

Buy it if...

You’re an esports player or aspiring competitor
The Sony Inzone M10S offers everything that a professional or aspiring esports player would need. This includes a 480Hz refresh rate and snappy 0.03ms GtG response time in addition to a useful FPS Pro+ profile.

You want a compact stand
The stand of the Sony Inzone M10S is easily one of the best on the market. It’s compact, leaving plenty of room for your keyboard and mouse, but still comes packed with a huge number of useful features.

Don't buy it if...

You want something for more general gaming
The Sony Inzone M10S has been designed with a very specific audience in mind. There are cheaper 4K options out there that are better suited for more general gaming, especially if you’re playing on PS5.

Also consider

If you’re not sure whether the Sony Inzone M10S is for you, then consider these two strong alternatives.

Alienware AW3225QF
The Alienware AW3225QF is a premium monitor that comes in larger than the Sony Inzone M10S and boasts the same response speed, in addition to HDR and a 4K resolution for around the same price. It is half the refresh rate, though.

Read our full Alienware AW3225QF review

Gigabyte M32UC
If you want a more budget-friendly but still quite high-spec option, consider the Gigabyte M32UC. It’s less suited to esports due to its 1 ms response time but offers a 32-inch 4K display at a fraction of the price of the 1440p Sony Inzone M10S.

Read our full Gigabyte M32UC review

The Sony Inzone M10S after being removed from its box.

(Image credit: Future)

How I tested the Sony Inzone M10S

  • Tested with a variety of competitive games
  • Used as my primary monitor
  • Available profiles and settings tested

I tested the Sony Inzone M10S for over a week. During that time, I used the monitor as my main display for both PC and PS5 gaming. I played a wide variety of esports titles, including Counter-Strike 2, Valorant, Rocket League, Fortnite, Tom Clancy’s Rainbow Six Siege, Counter-Strike: Source, and more. I also tried a few older titles, including some multiplayer matches of Quake 2. I played predominantly in 1080p and 1440p in the 27-inch mode, though I also played a handful of matches with the 24.5-inch setting enabled.

During my time with the monitor, I endeavored to test each of its available features. This included the various display profiles and the in-built crosshair settings. I played a broad mix of games on PS5, including Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3 and a few hours of Horizon Forbidden West. I compared my experience to my hands-on testing of other gaming monitors and TVs throughout.

Read more about how we test

First reviewed September 2024

DJI Osmo Action 5 Pro review: a seriously feature-packed action camera
4:00 pm | September 19, 2024
Author: admin | Category: Action Cameras Cameras Computers Gadgets | Tags: , | Comments: Off

DJI might be the market leader in consumer drones, but when it comes to action cameras the company remains leagues behind GoPro – at least in the public consciousness. That won’t be the case for long though if it keeps turning out products like the Osmo Action 5 Pro.

Even if nobody should get too excited about the ‘Pro’ moniker – this is currently the only model in the range, so there’s no ‘amateur’ model as yet – the Action 5 Pro is a very impressive action camera, and I had a lot of fun reviewing it. Not only is its image quality superb (in daylight, at least – and even at night it’s still better than a GoPro), but it has long-lasting battery life, effective image stabilization, a rugged lightweight build, two beautifully color-rich OLED screens, and genuinely brilliant compatibility with the DJI Mic 2.

DJI Osmo Action 5 Pro

(Image credit: Future | Sam Kieldsen)

And while it isn’t as mod-friendly as the recent GoPro Hero 13 Black, the Action 5 Pro’s quick-release magnetic mounting system works with all manner of accessories, from helmet and bike mounts to extendable selfie sticks and mini tripods. It can even be used as a webcam.

This versatility means it’ll suit everyone from food vloggers to divers to mountain climbers, and the sheer range of improvements over the Osmo Action 4 suggests that DJI is deadly serious about surpassing the likes of GoPro and Insta360 to establish itself as the leading action camera brand. There’s still a long way to go if that’s going to happen, but if we keep getting cameras like this, it’s a clear possibility.

DJI Osmo Action 5 Pro: release date and price

  • Priced at $349 / £329 / AU$599 for the Combo bundle
  • Available from September 19 2024

The DJI Osmo Action 5 Pro is available to order now, priced at $349 / £329 / AU$599 for the Standard Combo bundle, which includes the camera, one battery, one protective frame, one quick-release adapter mount, one curved adhesive base, one locking screw, one rubber lens protecter, one glass lens cover, one anti-slip pad and one USB-C to USB-C cable). There's also an Adventure Combo bundle, which is priced at $449 / £409 / AU$769 and includes all of the above plus a mini quick-release adapter mount, one battery case and one 1.5m extension rod.

DJI has priced the Action 5 Pro aggressively: it’s $50 cheaper than the GoPro Hero 13 Black and Insta360 Ace Pro. Given the specs and performance, which I’ll get into below, that’s impressive. (You can read more about how the Action Pro 5 compares to GoPro's latest in our GoPro Hero 13 Black vs DJI Osmo Action 5 Pro article.)

Additionally, a wide range of optional accessories, each sold separately, is available alongside the Action 5 Pro, including mounts, extension rods, GPS units and microphones.

  • Price score: 4.5/5
Image 1 of 3

DJI Osmo Action 5 Pro

(Image credit: Future | Sam Kieldsen)
Image 2 of 3

DJI Osmo Action 5 Pro battery charger

(Image credit: Future | Sam Kieldsen)
Image 3 of 3

DJI Osmo Action 5 Pro

(Image credit: Future | Sam Kieldsen)

DJI Osmo Action 5 Pro: design and handling

  • Small, lightweight and sturdy build
  • Quick-release magnetic mounting system
  • Waterproof to 20m without a case
  • Front and rear OLED touchscreens

When it comes to rugged reliability, the Osmo Action 5 Pro feels reassuringly well made. The camera itself is small, lightweight (145g) and sturdy, with few protruding parts and a removable, replaceable cover to help prevent damage to the surface of the lens.

It also comes with a frame to further protect the camera body from impact and, while use of this is optional, it adds little to the weight or size of the setup, and leaves buttons and the USB-C chamber fully accessible. In other words, you might as well leave it on all the time. The frame also features mounting points for horizontal and vertical mounting options, allowing you to quickly detach and reattach the camera to magnetic mounts and change orientation for 16:9 or 9:16 shooting as required.

DJI Osmo Action 5 Pro key specs

Sensor: 1/1.3” CMOS
Video: Up to 4K/120fps
Photo: 40MP
Screens: 2 x OLED touchscreens
Video modes: Standard, Slo-Mo, SuperNight, Hyperlapse, Subject Tracking
Connectivity: USB-C 3.0, Wi-Fi 6.0, Bluetooth
Weight: 145g

The Action 5 Pro supports the same ‘fingers’ mounting method as GoPro (which means it should be compatible with hundreds of third-party and GoPro-made mounts) while maintaining the magnet-and grip-based quick-release system that previous DJI action cams have used. This setup meant I could unclip the Action 5 from one mount and attach it to another in seconds, rather than having to fuss around with screws and the like. During my review I used a few different mounting systems, including DJI’s own extendable selfie stick and a trio of bike-friendly mounts the company sells. Being able to quickly switch between them all is a godsend.

DJI has buffed the camera’s case-free water resistance even beyond the Osmo Action 4’s impressive 18m depth. The company says the Action 5 can go to 20m (or 65 feet) without a dive case, and 60m with one. That’s double the case-free depth of a GoPro Hero or Insta360 Ace Pro. I wasn’t able to fully test this out myself, but can confirm that it'll take a dunk in the ocean without any ill effects.

The Action 5 Pro also supports a wider range of operating temperatures than its close rivals too, working all the way from -4F / -20C to 113F / 45C. If you’re looking for an all-weather, all-environment consumer camera, this is about as hardy as they come. DJI’s Care Refresh protection plan is available for the camera too, which ensures that you can get a repair or replacement (up to two on a one-year plan, or four on a two-year plan) if the camera suffers accidental damage.

Image 1 of 2

DJI Osmo Action 5 Pro

(Image credit: Future | Sam Kieldsen)
Image 2 of 2

DJI Osmo Action 5 Pro

(Image credit: Future | Sam Kieldsen)

The controls are simple, with only two physical buttons on the camera: a power/mode button on the side and a large shutter/video button on the top. Other settings are accessed either through the touchscreen menus, which are accessible on both the front and rear screens, or via the DJI Mimo mobile app and a paired smartphone. Having tried both methods, I don’t have a preference; both work well and suit different shooting situations, although those with larger fingers might prefer the app due to the small size of the Action 5’s touchscreens.

The screens are in general excellent, though. Now upgraded to OLED, they’re sharp, clear and colorful, and having one on each side of the camera means that properly framing and composing images and videos never feels like a chore; no matter whether you’re self-shooting or filming something in front of you, there’s a screen right there.

  • Design score: 4.5/5

DJI Osmo Action 5 Pro: features and performance

  • 1950mAh battery
  • 47GB of on-board storage plus microSD slot
  • RockSteady, RockSteady+ and HorizonSteady image stabilization
  • 48kHz Bluetooth recording via DJI Mic 2

DJI makes some bold claims about the Osmo Action 5 Pro’s battery life, saying that a single fully charged 1950mAh battery allows the camera to record up to four hours of video. That’s a 50% improvement over the Osmo Action 4, and DJI says it’s managed this due to the more power-efficient 4nm processor, improvements to battery capacity, and a ‘new algorithm’ that optimizes energy use.

Keen to put these boasts to the test, I set the camera up to record continuously in two video modes: first, 4K at 60fps with RockSteady image stabilization on; then 1080p at 30fps with all stabilization turned off. With the former, a full battery lasted just under two hours – not bad given the relatively high-performance settings. With the latter, it lasted a shade under four hours, just as billed, which is really strong. I should also say that, while the camera was a bit warm to the touch after its two-hour 4K/60fps recording session, it never overheated to the point where it stopped recording.

The Action 5 Pro features a USB-C 3.0 port for in-camera battery charging and file transfer (it also allows the camera to be connected to a computer and used as a plug-and-play webcam). There’s Wi-Fi 6.0 for fast wireless file transfer of up to 80MB/s, which is a big improvement on the Wi-Fi 5.0 of the Action 4; it can also be used for livestreaming, in conjunction with the Mimo mobile app.

Image 1 of 1

DJI Osmo Action 5 Pro

(Image credit: Future | Sam Kieldsen)

On the subject of the Mimo app, while I won’t get too much into it in this review for reasons of space, it’s the same app you may have used with older DJI cameras. It’s basically a great remote control for the Osmo Action 5 Pro, giving you not only access to all the settings and controls but the ability to compose and review your photos and videos on a much larger screen than the camera’s own display. It also lets you share your content quickly via social media and messaging apps.

The camera comes with 47GB of built-in storage (enough for about 80 minutes of 4K/60fps or three hours of 1080p/30fps video), as well as a microSD card slot for expansion. That’s a nice setup in my opinion, as users on the more casual side of things can rely on the internal storage, while the more demanding, heavier users can supplement that with extra cards to ensure they never run out of space.

There are three types of electronic image stabilization on board, as well as the option to turn it off (which, as I’ll get into, you may have good reason to do at times). RockSteady is the basic level; RockSteady+ ups the ante at the cost of a larger crop to the frame; and HorizonSteady keeps the video aligned horizontally (to a point) while applying an even larger crop. They’re all very effective at smoothing and/or levelling video, and I have no complaints about them – even with the crops applied, the field of view remains quite wide.

The camera also embeds non-stabilized videos with gyroscope data, allowing you to stabilize clips yourself in post-production (if you’re wondering why you might do this, it conserves battery life while giving you more control over how stabilization is applied). I tried this using the free GyroFlow plugin for DaVinci Resolve 18 and it works brilliantly (you can see the results in my sample videos). For some reason, you need to select the ‘Wide’ field of view when recording though – the stabilization won’t work if you’ve shot using other settings.

Image 1 of 1

DJI Osmo Action 5 Pro and DJI Mic 2

(Image credit: Future | Sam Kieldsen)

A new feature that social media creators will love (but the rest of us probably won’t touch) is the ability to track and frame a subject (with a TikTok-friendly 9:16 frame) as it moves around in the camera’s field of view. This seems to work with humans only (my cat didn’t register a response), but it does a good job of recognizing someone and keeping them framed. The output 9:16 video then crops out the rest of the frame.

The final feature worth mentioning is the camera’s superb compatibility with the DJI Mic 2. You can wirelessly link up to two DJI Mic 2 transmitters with it via Bluetooth and have them record pristine 48kHz audio, which I found a great way to record clean, clear voiceover or vlog audio, even in windy conditions. It’s the only action camera that currently allows this – other cameras that support the Mic 2 will only support a 16kHz sampling rate, which won’t sound as clear.

  • Features and performance score: 5/5

DJI Osmo Action 5 Pro: image and video quality

  • Video up to 4K/120fps
  • 4K SuperNight mode for low-light shooting
  • 10-bit, D-Log M and HLG color profile options

The Action 5 Pro uses the same size 1/1.3-inch sensor as the Action 4, but I found its image quality is a clear step above, with strong dynamic range (DJI claims up to 13.5 stops), and beautifully clean colors and excellent detail in good daylight conditions. Rather than wax lyrical about the image quality, I’ll let you watch the embedded videos (below) and see for yourself. I shot most of the footage here in 4K/60fps using the ‘flat’ D-Log M color profile, color-correcting in post-production with Davinci Resolve 18.

The one exception is the 4K SuperNight sequence, which doesn’t allow D-Log M shooting and limits 4K clips to 30fps; I’ve left this footage untouched to demonstrate how it looks direct from the camera. I wasn’t blown away by SuperNight, and when shooting at night in future I’d be tempted to dial the resolution back to 1080p as the 4K footage doesn’t look particularly sharp. But it does a serviceable job of providing clearer images in low light – a situation where action cameras traditionally struggle.

The fact that the Action 5 Pro doesn’t shoot 5.3K or 8K footage doesn’t bother me much, as in my experience 4K is plenty of resolution for an action camera. That being said, those who like cropping their footage might find the extra detail offered by rival cameras like the GoPro Hero 13 Black or Insta360 Ace Pro handy.

Aside from low-light shooting, the one area where DJI could make improvements in the future is by implementing GoPro-style lens mods. The ability to shoot macro images or insert ND filters could add some extra flexibility to what’s already a very impressive action camera.

  • Image quality score: 4/5

DJI Osmo Action 5 Pro: testing scorecard

Should I buy the DJI Osmo Action 5 Pro?

Buy it if...

You want great reliability
Waterproof to 20m, freeze-proof to -25ºC and offering up to four hours of battery life, the Osmo Action 5 Pro is unlikely to let you down.

You own a DJI Mic 2
The pristine 48kHz recording compatibility between this tiny wireless mic and the Action 5 Pro is a game-changer for live voiceover recording. You can even link two mics.

Don't buy it if...

You want crystal-clear night-time footage
DJI’s SuperNight mode may produce better low-light video than most action cameras, but it’s still grainy and lacking in detail compared to video from a mirrorless camera.

You want super high-res footage
4K is fine for 90% of users, but those who need more should look at Insta360 and GoPro’s higher-resolution alternatives.

DJI Osmo Action 5 Pro: also consider

GoPro Hero 13 Black

GoPro’s flagship is a polished performer, recording excellent 5.3K video and supporting a wide range of accessories – including the auto-detected Lens Mods that dramatically widen its creative options. It also features built-in GPS, and finally supports the faster magnetic mounting system already used by rival action cam makers.

Read our GoPro Hero 13 Black review

Insta360 Ace Pro

The Ace Pro is something of a resolution master, offering 8K video (at 24fps) and 4K slow-mo at 120fps from a 1/1.3-inch sensor. Video enthusiasts won’t like the lack of log recording options, however. Design-wise, it sports a large 2.4-inch flip-up touchscreen, eschewing the dual-screen setup favored by GoPro and DJI.

Read our Insta360 Ace Pro

DJI Osmo Action 5 Pro

(Image credit: Future | Sam Kieldsen)

How I tested the DJI Osmo Action 5 Pro

  • A week of vlogging and biking
  • Paired with DJI Mic 2
  • Footage edited using DaVinci Resolve Studio 18.6

I spent a week using a pre-release version of the DJI Osmo Action 5 Pro, capturing vlog-style videos using the including extendable selfie stick and, at times, a paired DJI Mic 2 lavalier microphone. I used DJI’s road cycling mount kit to attach the camera to various points on my bike. I also tested battery life by allowing the camera to continuously record until the battery died.

I recorded video at different resolutions and frame rates, using different color profiles and video modes, and with the various forms of stabilization on or off. Footage was later edited on my PC using DaVinci Resolve Studio 18.6 software, which I used to color-grade and stabilize some clips.

First reviewed September 2024

Wacom Movink review: impressively thin, with a beautiful OLED screen
5:40 pm | September 13, 2024
Author: admin | Category: Computers Computing Gadgets Peripherals & Accessories | Tags: | Comments: Off

One-minute review

Wacom’s latest drawing tablet has arrived, focusing on the mobile market by offering an impressively lightweight form factor that makes hardly any compromises when it comes to performance. Hardware advances like its vibrant OLED screen, touch technology and singular USB-C to USB-C connectivity make it one of the best drawing tablets available right now, especially given its surprisingly low price. 

The result is a near-perfect mid-range drawing tablet, albeit one that probably won’t cut it for serious pros. For me, the Movink is also an iPad killer, and even beat Apple to the punch for delivering the drawing-friendly portable OLED screen found in the iPad Pro 2024. 

I’ve often used the iPad as my main sketchpad, preferring its portability so I don’t need to shuffle around my desk setup. However, the Movink offers the perfect balance, delivering the portability and accessibility of the iPad Pro and the artist-first features and drawing experience of purpose-made drawing tablets. 

The Movink is 4mm at its thinnest and 6.6mm at its thickest, weighing just 420g. It can easily connect to one of the best laptops and tablets for drawing and artwork, so it can access more sophisticated programs for photo and video editing or the best digital art and drawing software compared to general-use tablets such as the iPad. As that would suggest, Movink isn’t a pen computer, meaning you’ll still need to lug around your laptop if you want to draw on the go; but given the advanced drawing specs of the Movink and its surprisingly approachable price point.

Wacom Movink in use

(Image credit: Future)

It’s specifically designed to work with some of the latest Wacom pen technology, too, coming with a tailor-made version of the Wacom Pro Pen 3. This stylus is fully customizable (although you’ll have to buy parts separately), meaning you can choose for yourself the thickness of the grip, adjust its balance, and add or remove the side switches. However, if that’s not your speed, the Movink is also Wacom’s first professional creative pen display to incorporate Dual Pen technology and will work with a variety of Wacom and third-party styluses.

However, it might not cut it as the sole tablet for professional use. Its max resolution is 1080p – and, as of right now, there’s only one size available: a 13.3-inch screen, which might not cut it if you’re used to larger displays. On-device, there are only two physical shortcut keys; but you can also use the top corners of the screen as shortcuts, plus the three on the included stylus.

There are some other niggling issues. There’s no pen case or loop holder on the stylus, so it’s easy to lose when you’re on the go, plus it doesn’t come with any case or cover to protect the screen – an essential addition if you’re releasing a product with portability as its unique selling point. There’s also no stand included, and nary a built-in kickstand in sight.

Still, I’m splitting hairs. The Movink is a fantastic option that breaks new ground for Wacom, and it will meet at least most of the needs of artists at all levels – especially if portability is key.

Wacom Movnik drawing pad stylus

(Image credit: Future)

Price and availability

  • List price: $749 / £729 / AU$1,299 
  • Available in the US, UK and Australia 
  • Launched May 2024 

Priced at $749 / £729 / AU$1,299, the Wacom Movink comes in at the higher end of the mid-range spectrum. However, given some of its specs toe the line of pro-grade devices, that’s a surprisingly affordable price for a typically expensive brand. It’s available directly from Wacom as well as through some third-party retailers.

Its approachable price also means I can forgive some of the omissions that other brands typically include with their tablets. In addition to the tablet, there’s just one 1m USB-C to C cable, the Wacom Pro Pen 3 with its built-in nib holder, three replacement nibs (one standard and two felt), and the paperwork to help get you started.

It’s disappointing that there’s no case included for this mobile powerhouse, no stand, and no pen holder or built-in means of attaching the stylus to the tablet. Wacom sells a carry case for $44 / £43 / AU$129 , as well as a foldable stand for $79 / £74 / AU$129.

Value: 4.5/5

Specs table

Design

  • Slim, lightweight and durable – thus perfect for travel 
  • Four customizable shortcut keys, two physical and two touch 
  • Requires just a singular USB-C connection 

Edge of the Wacom Movnik drawing pad

(Image credit: Future)

The clue for the key design ethos behind the Movink is in the name; in case you hadn’t picked up on it, it’s pronounced “Move-ink”. 

Measuring in at 12.6 x 8.1 x 0.16~0.26 inches / 319.5 x 205.2 x 4~6.6mm (w x h x d), the Movink is wonderfully petite and sports a subtle wedge shape. In hand, it feels just like drawing on a pad of A4 paper. It weighs just 420g, making it a no-brainer for slipping into your laptop backpack or bag when you’re out and about – and just a whole lot easier to grab for a quick drawing session in front of the TV.

The Movink boasts Wacom’s slimmest bezel yet, allowing for an active drawing area of 11.6 x 6.5 inches / 294 x 165mm. However, that does mean there’s little-to-no wrist room. Given there’s no included or built-in stand, you’ll likely want to consider the ergonomics of your workstation. On its underside, a rubber footing runs along the top and bottom edges of the tablet to keep it stable when used on a tabletop. I really wish Wacom had included a kickstand or feet for the tablet, as your only option to improve the viewing angle is by buying a stand. Thankfully, its light weight meant I was able to comfortably cradle it while seated.

Both sides of the Wacom Movink feature a USB-C connector, as well as one of the two physical programmable keys. There are a further two touch-enabled shortcut keys on the screen itself as well, bringing the total to four. This won’t be enough for a fully established pro at their main workstation, but more than sufficient for drawing on-the-go or for amateurs.

Overall, the Moveink is wonderfully thought-through and purpose-built for its mobile application, but I’m still a little frustrated that Wacom didn’t at least include a pen loop to keep the tablet and stylus together, especially considering there’s no included case.

Design: 4.5/5

Wacom Movink in use

(Image credit: Future)

Performance

  • Bright and beautiful OLED screen 
  • 1080p maximum resolution is a slight let down 
  • Lovely drawing experience 

It’s rare to come across a Wacom tablet that doesn’t perform well in tests, and the Movink is no different. It’s loaded with the latest and greatest hardware from the esteemed brand, paired with easy-to-use Wacom drivers to make for a seamless and pain-free experience.

On test, the Movink proved to be a delight, with its 16:9 OLED screen offering 350 nits of max brightness and a 60Hz refresh rate. The Movink also boasts DCI-P3 100%, AdobeRGB 95%, with both Pantone Validated and Pantone SkinTone Validated certifications to round out its accomplished color gamut. It’s a little disappointing, then, that the resolution is just 1080p; I feel that a minimum of 2.5K is necessary for any device marketed at professionals. Plus, for navigating software such as Photoshop, I found I had to practically press my nose to the screen to read some of the extensive menus. 

The OLED technology also means there’s no need for a backlight in the Movink, which means it stays cool even with extended use – and there’s no light leakage, which makes working on darker canvases much easier. 

The drawing experience is wonderful, too, with the surface providing the perfect level of bite to replicate that satisfying pen-to-paper feeling. Its anti-glare and anti-fingerprint coatings effectively address some of the drawbacks of portability-first devices, especially given the Movink is a touch display.

On that point, the touch display is a real boon – and I’d say an almost essential one to get the most out of your Movink. You can disable the functionality, but if you’re used to extensive shortcut keys or using an iPad, then a touch display can be useful for navigating different software applications and moving around your canvas. So much so that I scarcely needed to reach for my mouse and keyboard while drawing. 

Performance: 4.5/5

Close up of Wacom Monvik stylus

(Image credit: Future)

Stylus

  • 8,192 pressure levels 
  • Built-in nib holder and remover 
  • Customizable, but basic in its given configuration 

Included with the Wacom Movink is the Wacom Pro Pen 3, and it comes with a twist. It’s an almost entirely customizable stylus, allowing you to change the grip thickness, adjust its balance, and add or remove the side switches. The flipside of this is that the model included with the Movink is very basic and pencil-like, with no provided grip. It’s lightweight, and the lack of grip didn’t bother me too much. However, if you’re drawing all day, have bigger hands or are used to a grippier pen, you might want to invest in those stylus accessories – or make use of the dual-pen technology in the Movink, which allows you to seamlessly use a variety of Wacom and third-party styluses.

Clad in all-black, the Pro Pen 3 is cylindrical and slim. The top can be unscrewed to reveal storage for three nibs (pre-loaded with two felt and one standard nib) in a rubberized holder, which can be removed to reveal the built-in nib remover. Further down the stem are the three shortcut keys on a removable panel, allowing you to customize the number of buttons from zero to three. 

Wacom Movink stylus next to an older Wacom stylus

(Image credit: Future)

I also noticed the nib was slightly more proud from the tip than I’ve seen on other styluses such as the LP-190K included with the One by Wacom, an intentional choice for the specific Pro Pen 3 model paired with the Movink. It’s only by just over a millimeter, but that can really make a difference when it comes to honing in on fine detail.

In terms of specs, it offers 8,192 pressure levels with a 60-degree tilt, meaning it matches industry standards. Its sensitivity and accuracy proved impressive and consistent through my brushstroke testing, and I didn’t notice any parallax.

Stylus: 4.5 / 5 

Should I buy?

Buy it if...

You need something portable

The Movink offers near-unparalleled portability thanks to its thin and light frame and the minimal cables needed to use it.

You don’t want to compromise on performance

Paired with the Wacom Pro Pen 3, the Movink is a powerhouse as far as mobile drawing tablets go – especially with its new OLED screen.

Don't buy it if...

You’re a pro who wants a new main workstation

The Movink is absolutely good enough for pros – but not as their main slate for creative work. The lack of shortcut keys, low resolution and medium-size active drawing area likely won’t cut it for everyday professional use.

Also consider

How I tested the Wacom Movink

  • I used the Wacom Movink as my main drawing tablet for one month 
  • I used it for editing images as well as drawing on software such as Photoshop and Krita 
  • I tested the stylus responsiveness  

To test the Wacom Movink, I used it as the main drawing tablet in my amateur digital art setup for one month, using it to fulfil all of my drawing and editing needs.

I used the supplied Wacom Pro Pen 3 stylus and cables exclusively, completing a variety of tests to assess how accurate, powerful and comfortable the Movink was in a variety of settings. I drew in a cafe, at my desk, on the sofa – everywhere I could think of – to see how easy it was both to move around with and use in different environments.

While I’m no professional artist, I’ve been drawing and painting regularly for over a decade, and have been using graphics tablets and general-use tablets for years as part of my digital art journey. I referenced my previous experiences with tablets such as the Wacom One, XPPen Artist Pro 16 and Huion Kamvas 16, in order to compare the screen quality and drawing experience.

Realme P2 Pro debuts with curved OLED and 50MP main cam, the Realme Pad 2 Lite tags along
12:01 pm |
Author: admin | Category: Mobile phones news | Tags: | Comments: Off

Realme launched its latest P-series phone in India with the P2 Pro today. It’s headlined by a curved AMOLED screen, Snapdragon 7s Gen 2 chipset and a 50MP main cam using Sony’s LYT-600 sensor. Alongside the new phone, Realme also introduced a budget Android tablet – the Realme Pad 2 Lite. That device features a 10.95 LCD, Helio G99 chipset, and an 8,300 mAh battery. Realme P2 Pro Realme P2 Pro is built around a 6.7-inch curved OLED screen with FHD+ resolution and a 120Hz refresh rate. The panel is protected by Corning Gorilla Glass 7i, features 2,000 nits peak brightness and packs a...

The next iPhone SE will have an OLED screen, another report confirms
7:41 pm | September 3, 2024
Author: admin | Category: Mobile phones news | Tags: | Comments: Off

Apple took its sweet time switching to OLED display panels for its mainline iPhones, but the iPhone SE stuck with the cheaper LCD technology. That will, however, change when the next iPhone SE is released, most likely next year. According to a new report out of Asia, the next iPhone SE will have an OLED panel as well. This confirms many previous rumors. Thus, Apple will no longer be making any smartphone using LCD panels, which will hurt Japan Display and Sharp, as they were the suppliers for those and neither makes OLED panels for phones (JDI supplies small OLEDs for the Apple...

Next Page »