Panasonic Viera VT50A plasma smart TV review

By Stephen Fenech On Feb 10, 2013

Plasma has always been one of Panasonic’s main strengths so it’s no surprise its 55-inch VT50A Viera smart TV is one of the best plasma TVs on the market.

This flagship panel has upped the ante in terms of design, picture quality and features.

And being a smart TV, the VT50A Viera has plenty of connectivity options – both wired and wireless – for use inside your home network and on the internet.

DESIGN

One of the first things that will strike you is the sleek minimalist design that features a single pane of glass framed by a thin bezel.

All of the other elements have been stripped away so all the viewer is presented with is a clear full high definition screen.

There is also a matching table top stand for those who don’t want it wall-mounted.

PICTURE QUALITY

There is a long list of technology features built into the Panasonic VT50A Viera and the best evidence of this is the incredible picture quality it produces.

We’ve always been a fan of plasma with its natural colours and smooth picture and the VT50A has only made us favour it even more.

Under the hood is an Infinite Black Filter and a Focused Field Drive which combine to create the deepest blacks we’ve seen on a plasma in years.

And, as we’re used to seeing with Panasonic plasma panels, there is still plenty of detail to be seen within those black areas of the screen.

On the colour side we were presented with rich tones that weren’t garishly bright but natural and true. This was especially evident with flesh tones.

There are plenty of picture settings to play with including modes for Dynamic, Normal, Cinema, Game, THX 3D (which is like cinema mode with boosted brightness) plus two Pro modes which can be utilised for professional calibration.

On the 3D side, the Viera VT50A performs well with only a little crosstalk or blurring when watching fast motion.

Brightness took a slight hit when watching 3D but it hardly affected viewing.

There is also 2D to 3D conversion but the resulting 3D isn’t in the same ballpark as watching native 3D content but it’s a fun feature to use for games and some of your old favourite movies and TV shows

On the downside, there’s only a single pair of the active 3D glasses that come with the panel and if you need more they will set you back an extra $99 a pair.

The Viera VT50A’s active 3D glasses connect to the panel with Bluetooth rather than infrared.

FEATURES

As a smart TV the Viera VT50A offers lots of connectivity options and can connect users to added content like YouTube, Bigpond movies, Quickflix, ABC iView ands SBS On Demand to name a few.

On top of that the panel can also access Facebook, Twitter and even make Skype calls with the addition of a communication camera.

Users can also browse the web on the big screen and the inclusion of smaller Viera Touch Pad controller makes navigation just as easy as it would be on a laptop.

It’s also possible to communicate with devices on your home’s network like smartphones and tablets and stream content wirelessly to the screen.

VERDICT

The Viera VT50A is an excellent illustration of Panasonic’s strength in plasma TVs.

If you’re after amazing picture quality, attractive design and connectivity features in one product – the Panasonic Viera VT50A truly ticks every box.

Panasonic Viera 55-inch VT50A plasma smart TV

Price: $3,799