Panasonic's 2021 OLED TV lineup finally includes gaming-optimized 48-inch models

When it comes to picture quality, OLED panels are clearly superior to LED backlit LCD ones, and with the introduction of the HDMI 2.1 standard that enables VRR and ALL for consoles and PCs, gamers have been asking for more affordable OLED panels that could act as monitors. Back in 2020, LG, Sony and Philips realized that tapping the gamer demographic could really boost sales and eventually introduced 48-inch OLED panels. Of all the major OLED makers, Panasonic was the only one not catering to gamers with smaller screens, but the situation is changing this year. The freshly announced complete 2021 OLED lineup from Panasonic comes with not one, but three OLED models that have the 48-inch size option.

Like the flagship JZ2000 OLED screens announced at CES this year, the new JZ1500, JZ1000 and JZ980 models include color profiles tuned by Company 3 post-production specialist Stefn Sonnenfeld and come equipped with the HCX Pro AI Processor that delivers class-leading colour, contrast, clarity and Auto AI mode. Aside from the 48-inch size that is dedicated to gamers, the three new models also come with 55-inch and 65-inch options. However, only the JZ1500 model feature the Master HDR OLED Professional Edition panels with higher peak brightness from the JZ2000 flagship.

Gamers will be happy to find that all three new models include support for lower latency via the Game Mode Extreme feature, which lowers input lag to only 2.5 ms for 60 Hz signals. The VRR support is a bit tricky, though. It looks like VRR is not fully supported for all resolutions. Panasonic will release an update for 120 Hz VRR in 4K later on.

No pricing info on these three models as of yet, but expect to see them available at specialized retailers around June.

Buy the LG CX 48-inch OLED on Newegg