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Panasonic has begun a swing away from its mainstay plasmas towards thinner, more power-friendly LED TVs in 2012, although its top television is still a plasma — but the range-topping VT50A is at least $3799 for the 55-inch with battery like panasonic CGR-V610 Battery, panasonic CGR-V620 Battery, panasonic CGR-V14 Battery, panasonic CGR-D08 Battery, panasonic CGR-D120 Battery, panasonic CGR-D320 Battery, panasonic CGR-D220 Battery, panasonic CGR-D16S Battery, panasonic CGR-D28 Battery, panasonic CGA-DU06 battery, panasonic CGA-DU21 battery, panasonic CGA-DU14 battery, and a painful $5999 for the 65-inch model.
Enter the VIERA ST50A: it’s one step down from the VT50A in Panasonic’s plasma hierarchy, but comes with a massive reduction in price. The 50-inch model we’re testing here is a mere $1749 RRP, while the 55-inch and 65-inch variants are $2799 and $3999 — cheap by comparison. We’ve even seen the 50-inch model for less than $1300 at some online retailers.
The VIERA ST50A isn’t especially thin (or especially attractive) when you compare it to LED TVs like the LG LM9600 or Samsung Series 8, but it’s not bad for a plasma. At around 45mm thick, with a 35mm bezel, it’s much more svelte than the plasmas of yesteryear, although the new Samsung Series 8 plasma is more attractive and thinner. The stand of the ST50A has around 30 degrees of swivel built in, so it’s versatile.
The screen of the Panasonic ST50A has a moderately glossy coating, but it’s good at keeping reflections to a minimum. It’ll still reflect a bright light source that’s directly in front or to the side, but the screen coating dissipates the reflection somewhat — it’s not a Pioneer-esque mirror finish.
Three HDMI ports is a backward step from the four offered on 2010’s V20A, although last year’s ST30A was when the cut was made. The ST50A can also input composite and component video, and has built-in Wi-Fi as well as a wired Ethernet network port. These connection options are standard for a TV of this size and price point.
There's also three USB 2.0 ports, to which a Skype camera or USB flash drive or hard drive can be connected. The TV can play music, audio and video — we tried AVI, MKV, MP3 and JPEG files successfully.
When we turned the VIERA ST50A on and on a black screen, we didn’t notice any buzzing — a problem that persists with plasma TVs — on our test 50-inch set. Sitting directly in front or to the sides of the TV, we didn’t pick up any undue noise. With an ear directly against the back top of the TV’s chassis we could hear an electrical buzz, but it was very very quiet and became quieter as the TV warmed up. With any audio at all playing, any hint of a buzz was imperceptible.
We’re shocked that you can buy this TV for $1300. Its picture quality performance is very, very close to the Pioneer LX509A that cost $6500 just a few years ago. We have to question how much better the top-of-the-line VT50A is, though, at such a price premium. We don’t love the middling Smart TV feature-set, but this can be resolved with a $200 Samsung, Sony or LG Smart-enabled Blu-ray player.
We have to conclude that given its excellent picture quality, the Panasonic VIERA ST50A is extremely good value for money. This is particularly true for the 50-inch model ($1300 is a bargain), although the 60-inch at ~$2200 and 65-inch for ~$3400 are also very appealing.
Even disregarding price tags, the ST50A performs favourably against the top-tier [artnid:421882|LG LM9600]], Samsung Series 8, and Sony BRAVIA HX850. When we bring price into the equation, Panasonic’s VIERA ST50A is the TV that we would buy this year.