What is the Panasonic TX-40AS640?
The 40AS640 is a 40-inch full HD TV from roughly the middle of Panasonic’s range. It’s got Panasonic’s latest Smart TV features, including the excellent Freetime catch-up TV system, but without doubt its most attractive feature is its current £399 price, which is frankly a steal for what’s on offer.
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Panasonic TX-40AS640 – Design and Features
The 40AS640 is unusually attractive for a sub-£400 40-inch TV. Its bezel's exceptionally thin – barely more than a centimetre across on three of the edges – and its combination of a gleaming silvery metallic finish on the top and bottom edges and glossy black for the sides gives it a premium look. The set’s build quality is nothing to write home about, but the design does an effective job of disguising that.
Connections on the 40AS640 get the job done well enough. Three HDMIs do digital video duties, there are two USBs for playback of photo, music and video multimedia files from USB storage devices, and the set supports network connection via Wi-Fi or LAN port.
The HDMIs are built to the v1.3 standard, reflecting the fact that the 40AS640 supports 3D playback. This 3D playback is of the active rather than passive variety, with two pairs of glasses included free with the TV.
The fact that it’s an active 3D set reveals that, unlike numerous other Panasonic TVs this year, it isn’t using an IPS-type LCD panel at its heart. This is good news, as we’re finding it increasingly difficult to tolerate the lack of black-level response associated with IPS panels.
The 40AS640 is one of the ‘smarter’ sets around thanks to its combination of a highly intuitive and personalisable on-screen menu system and the Freetime TV platform. Freetime makes using catch-up TV a doddle by integrating it into an electronic programme guide that scrolls back through time as well as forwards.
The 40AS640 lacks a few other video streaming services found on rival smart platforms, but Freetime is a pretty big draw for mainstream services. Read our dedicated review for more details on the current Panasonic Smart platform.
For such a budget set, the 40AS640 is pretty well equipped with picture technology. Motion should benefit from a ‘1200Hz’ system created through a combination of a native 100Hz panel, frame interpolation processing and a scanning backlight, while video processing is driven by Panasonic’s powerful Hexa engine, fuelled by a Dual-Core Plus processor. And as already noted, the use of a non-IPS panel should result in a superior black-level response versus many mid-range rivals this year.
Panasonic TX-40AS640 – Setup
The 40AS640 doesn’t get the colour and white balance management tools found further up Panasonic’s TV range, which means it doesn’t enjoy the endorsement of the Imaging Science Foundation (ISF). Due to the set’s innately good picture quality, low price and decent specification, though, it seems churlish to moan about limited calibration tools.
Our main tips would be that you should heavily reduce the backlight setting to around 45 when you’re watching in a dark room, and that you should leave all noise reduction turned off when watching HD. We also mostly preferred leaving the IFC motion processing turned off, though activating it on its lowest setting did prove occasionally effective at reducing judder during 3D viewing.
Don’t leave the contrast set to the maximum level preferred by some of the set’s picture presets either, as this can elevate noise levels and leave peak whites and bright colours looking a touch strained.