Panasonic's 2025 W70B series enters the budget TV arena promising affordability across seven screen sizes, starting at $349 for the 50-inch model tested by ZDNET. The most immediately striking feature is its almost startling lightness—editor Chris Bayer noted it felt light enough to lift one-handed, a potential boon for renters or those needing portability. However, this physical characteristic foreshadowed deeper performance compromises that ultimately overshadowed the initial convenience.

Technical Shortcomings Exposed

Testing revealed significant operational frustrations:
* Painfully Slow Boot Times: Each power-on involved multiple seconds of loading screens, a noticeable lag in the modern streaming era.
* System Instability: A firmware update attempt caused a complete freeze, requiring a hard power cycle to recover.
* Subpar Visual Performance: The 60Hz refresh rate introduced visible judder during motion graphics. Deep blacks were unachievable, with noticeable 'blotching' (large clusters of shifting pixels) in dark scenes during movie playback like "Jurassic World".
* Questionable Upscaling: Despite advertising 4K upscaling, the TV struggled to convincingly enhance 2K content.
* Limited Brightness & Viewing Angles: Lab measurements confirmed a peak SDR brightness of only ~274 nits in Movie mode (below Panasonic's HDR claim of 333 nits), and brightness dropped significantly off-axis.
* Color Accuracy Issues: Testing indicated difficulties accurately reproducing colors within the BT.2020 and UHDA-P3 color spaces, particularly in Standard mode.

The lack of local dimming and reliance on a basic full-panel LED backlight—common at this price point but poorly implemented here—contributed to the underwhelming contrast and brightness.

The Verdict: Budget Isn't Enough Justification

While acknowledging the W70B's position as an entry-level model lacking Panasonic's high-end HCX Pro AI Processor MK II, ZDNET found its performance lagged behind similarly priced alternatives. The review explicitly recommends considering options like the TCL QM6K or Vizio Quantum 4K QLED, which offer better value and features like QLED technology at comparable price points. The W70B serves as a stark reminder that extreme cost-cutting often sacrifices core viewing fundamentals, making it suitable only as a basic replacement where portability is the absolute top priority and image quality is a secondary concern.

Source: Based on testing and analysis by Chris Bayer, Editor at ZDNET.