The Panasonic TX-L42ET50B is a beautifully designed LED LCD TV with good picture performance and a great lineup of “Smart TV” internet features. Its key strengths and weaknesses are completely predictable for an LCD television using the IPS panel type – although the viewing angle performance is better than many LCD competitors, black levels are not a strong point of this technology, meaning that instead of absolute darkness, the ET50 can instead only display a dark greyish-purple shade.
However, the TX-L42ET50 has enough strengths in other areas for it to justify its existence in the marketplace. Compared to the LED LCD competition, it performed very well with regards to screen uniformity, with only a mild “mottled” effect visible with test screens, and basically no screen unevenness apparent with real-world content, meaning that it avoided the common edge-lit LED LCD flaw where the sides of the image appear brighter than the middle. And like all of the LED LCD TVs we’ve reviewed, it can produce a great amount of light in return for incredibly low power consumption, making it a good choice for exceptionally bright, sun-filled rooms. Its out-of-the-box picture accuracy was serviceable, and after calibration it was brought up another level – although nearly every name-brand HDTV on the market now does well in these areas, meaning these achievements aren’t unique.
It doesn’t reach the heights of Panasonic’s excellent 2012 Plasma range, but if you’re looking for an incredibly eco-friendly display with great internet features that can produce enough light to hold its own in a bright room, the TX-L42ET50B represents a good choice. And, once you get over the fact that IPS LCD technology isn’t capable of the same rich black levels, the 3D picture quality is actually better than the company’s Plasma range from the point of view of being free from artefacts. Accordingly, we decided upon a rating of “Recommended” based on the 3D strengths and the ET50′s other favourable attributes. If you don’t care for the third dimension, though, there are other LCD televisions with better black levels (allowing for a richer picture) for the same, or less money.
