Panasonic TX-32LX800

‘Panel made in Japan’ said a prominent sticker on this LCD TV, and it made me smile, as few realize what that harmless marketing statement implies. Not that I’m pointing fingers, but Japanese companies have trumped their neighbors when it comes to electronic items... and I say this as a consumer, not as a reviewer. The TV in question is the Panasonic 32-inch LCD TV, model TX-32LX800.�

Design
This TV is unique in that it contains two distinct colors in its aesthetic scheme: aluminum and glossy black. The luster on the black parts is not as much as in Samsung TVs, though enough to make it look classy. The metallic part is on the bottom panel, shaped as a downward pointing arch, while the rest of the bezel is as rectangular as a geometry text book. The bezel is quite broad, noticeably more than in any other 32-incher in the market, but overall the unit exudes a certain ‘digital age’ beauty.

Features
The 16:9 32-inch screen has a native resolution of 1366 x 768 pixels. The back panel is quite bare, again with a different connection layout. The HDMI ports are separated, with HDMI 1 & 2 isolated in their own corner; with the rest of analog/low-def connection placed in an I/O window in the center of the back panel. Other TVs usually have the connections tucked away at the right hand corner.

Connections include only 2 HDMIs (one less than what I expected), and the side panel only has composite in, S-video and headphone out. Besides, there is a PC-in (VGA cable) and a couple more composite and component-ins. And yes, also an SD card slot for viewing JPEG photos. The manual is way more intuitive and illustrated than usual; it makes setting up and understanding the TV easier.

The native PC resolution to use is 1024 x 768. There is no rated mention of contrast, response etc. though some sources state a 10,000:1 ratio which is not as high as some of today’s extravagant ratings. Specs don’t mean much anyway, so we shall rely on the subjective results of our tests.