Design
At a recent Panasonic event, head of corporate communications Takumi Kajisha said that "discussions are underway in order to make Panasonic more fashionable". He was talking about Panasonic's "brand image", but we think a good place to start would be in the company's industrial design. Case in point: the company's new S10 plasma is quite attractive, but it's not quite up-to-date — perhaps a little more Lady Madonna than Lady Gaga. It's a mix of piano black and a thin strip of silver, which is a progression from last year and seems better integrated.
The remote is typical Panasonic fare, with large, friendly buttons, but moving the oft-used Menu button to the top and replacing it with a dedicated "Viera Link" button — for the few people we'd argue use HDMI to control their devices — seems like a mistake.
Features
The TH-P42S10A is a 42-inch plasma which features, as most plasmas worth their salt now do, a 1920x1080-pixel resolution — or full high definition in other words. The S10 uses a different panel from the NeoPDP featured in the V10, G10 and Z1 above it. In use we found it to behave similarly to last year's 800 series, albeit with an AU$800 discount.
Black levels are improved on last year's 80A models with a doubling in the native contrast ratio from 15,000:1 to 30,000:1. Other picture improvements include a greater number of "gradation" level and a 550Hz Sub-Field Drive engine.
Connectivity is a little hit-and-miss with three HDMI ports (two rear, one side), a single component input, an S-Video in, four (count 'em!) AV inputs, a PC port, and an SDHC card reader. Apart from the scales being overwhelmingly in favour of SD sources, we're not big fans of the side-mounted PC input and third HDMI port: it's a little too close to the edge of the set which means you'll be able to see cables hanging out if you plug anything into them. To be fair, the side inputs are the same on the G10 as well.
At the launch of the new range earlier in the year, Panasonic was pushing its Eco friendly range of plasmas, with the S10 as one of the heroes. That said, the panel is quite energy efficient — for a plasma TV — with a 2.5-star rating.
Performance
We tested the S10 plasma in conjunction with the excellent Bowers & Wilkins Panorama, and to say that the B&W performed better sonically than the Panasonic is a no-brainer, but it did highlight one problem. We slipped the Earth Blu-ray into the Oppo BDP-83 player and found that the on-board sound of the S10 lacked authority, and not only that but it physically rattled when trying to reproduce Patrick Stewart's sonorous narration.
One problem that budget plasmas have exhibited in the past is an inability to reproduce fine "gradations" — or where one colour blends in to another. This is most noticeable on sunsets, clouds — that sort of thing. The final showdown from the King Kong DVD is great for testing this problem because the scene occurs against a spectacular sunrise. After an impressive show from its stablemate, the G10 we were cautious though optimistic about how its cheaper little cousin might perform. We're happy to say that it's not in the same league, but not the AU$1000 difference that the price tag would have you believe. The only issues were some softness in replaying the DVD — we've seen sharper, more detailed performances from competitors.
When given a high-definition source, though, the outcome is much stronger. The Panasonic's way with the Mission Impossible III Blu-ray was clean and detailed, with extraneous noise eliminated, and a faithfully reproduced picture. Black levels were also deep, as you'd expect from a plasma, with good shadow detail. As we found with the Earth Blu-ray, though, voices can be a little boomy, and Ving Rhames' mumbly delivery gets an extra layer of fog.
Like other budget plasmas the S10 shies away from the light — in a well-lit room you'll find that black areas come out a little brown. If you're looking for something that will perform better in your harbour view mansion then you may want to consider something like the Samsung 8 series.
When run through our set of "synthetic" Blu-ray benchmarks, the TV passed the jaggies, video resolution and noise tests which is a testament to the television's video capabilities. However, it did fail the film res test which seems to indicate its support for the 24p standard isn't as strong as with other sets.
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