Panasonic celebrated their 100th anniversary with the release of their 4K and premium OLED TVs. 4K TVs that were once expensive are affordable now, whereas OLED TVs will take more time before they can become mainstream. Panasonic’s FX series of 4K smart TVs are wonderfully designed. We got a chance to review the 43-inch Panasonic FX600D 4K TV. Priced at Rs. 52,990*, this TV features improved aesthetics and comes well-equipped with advanced features. The Panasonic FX600D has gone through several tests and this review tells how well it performed.
Design and Build
The Panasonic FX600D is a good looking TV. The 43-inch screen is surrounded by a glossy plastic bezel and a Panasonic logo at the bottom. Most of the FX series of TVs feature similar designs. This TV is a little bulkier and takes some space when wall mounted. You also get an option to attach two angular stand bundled along with the TV to place it on a flat surface.
The back of the TV has a strong plastic construction. Most of the connectivity ports are towards the left, while some ports are at the back. You need to struggle a little bit to reach the USB port on the back if the TV is wall mounted. The Panasonic FX600D has two down-firing speakers at the bottom.
The TV is bundled with a standard remote, full of navigation and playback buttons. There are dedicated buttons for Netflix and Apps on it for quick access.
Features
The 43-inch Panasonic FX600D smart TV runs a 4K resolution of 3840 x 2160. This TV is HDR10 compatible, promising wide-ranging colours and improved brightness. Panasonic also promises a 4K Dimming Plus feature that automatically optimizes light output for dark and bright scenes.
The Panasonic FX600D runs on My Home Screen 3.0, their TV user interface which is quite simple to use. There are very few pre-installed apps, but you can choose to download more from the Apps Market. Besides this, the TV has screen mirroring and DLNA support, which lets you stream content from multiple devices such as your phones or laptops with ease.
In terms of connectivity, there are three HDMI ports including one HDMI ARC. You can connect a set-top box, laptop and a soundbar to the TV. Also, there are two USB ports to connect external devices such as a pen drive or a hard drive. You can also connect the TV to the internet using Wi-Fi or an Ethernet LAN cable.
The Panasonic FX600D comes with two down firing speakers rated at 20W power. These two speakers should be enough to fill the room with sound.
Performance
The Panasonic FX600D runs on Panasonic’s own My Home Screen 3.0 smart TV platform. The UI looks very basic but there are some interesting functionalities and good app provisions. The home screen launches three default options – Live TV, Apps and Devices. You can even add your favourite apps or a specific input on the home screen. There are a number of pre-installed apps such as Netflix, YouTube and Amazon Prime Video where you can browse through high-quality and even 4K content. We noticed that loading of apps and switching between them takes time.
We tested the Panasonic 43-inch FX600D with a set of sample 4K photos and videos. On default settings, colours looked very bright and saturated, making the picture look artificial. To get the picture close-to-perfect, we had to spend some time. The Menu button on the remote gave us access to the TV settings. No, the remote does not have a dedicated Settings button. Once there, all the settings are neatly categorized with very fine picture settings and picture enhancing options. Switching between the picture settings was annoying at times, because we were able to tweak one item at a time. While doing this, we noticed a few seconds of delay in the interface.
We also played a sample HDR clip. The Panasonic FX600D detects HDR content in no time and the quality is really good. The colours didn’t pop as much, and the picture had a good balanced look with saturation. We also had an option to make changes to the default HDR picture settings.
The Panasonic FX600D 4K TV is packed with a standard remote. As we have mentioned, this remote looks cluttered and has a different layout than others. When using it for the first time, we ended-up pressing the wrong buttons since there is a very less space between the buttons. Typing and scrolling with this remote was a pain.
We tried out the Easy Mirroring feature that lets you cast from your phone to the TV. The connection between the phone and the TV was really fast, but the screening was not really smooth. One thing we liked about the Panasonic FX600D is that the TV detects USB and HDMI sources in no time. Talking about the sound quality, the two down-firing speakers on the 43-inch Panasonic FX600D are loud enough, producing clear vocals.
Verdict
The 43-inch Panasonic FX600D 4K smart TV is a decent overall performer. The picture and the sound quality of the TV is above average, but not great. Talking about the design, this TV has a basic look. Also the interface remains an area of improvement for Panasonic. It is simple to use, but not optimized neatly. If you are purely looking for an HDR compatible 4K TV, that too at a reasonable price, the 43-inch Panasonic FX600D can be one for your list of considerations.
