User Review

This panasonic product was even better than anticipated after reading all the Amazon reviews. It is the ideal lcd for the bedroom or other small room. Don’t let the 720p sway your decision to obtain one. It’s true that attaching the base can be rather challenging, but if you are prepared with a magnetized phillips head screwdriver, it becomes a no stress simple task.

The ordering procedure and shipping by Amazon can’t be any better. My Panasonic, had to go to some previous sites before its final destination, but it arrived right on schedule and the carton was in excellent condition. Once the base was on, I was viewing various channels and observing the excellent slide show feature using one of my SD cards, all within about 15 minutes.

Amazon and Panasonic are highly commended by me.

Jack H
Review by : Jack H // From : NJ // Date : 2009-12-08

We have owned a Panasonic 42″ plasma system for a couple of years, & when i purchased that one, the pix quality on the LCD’s simply did not compare very well. So, I had some serious concerns if the 26″ LCD unit would be satisfactory. It did not disappoint in any way, as the pix and sound quality was immediately superior to what I had seen before….there have been some serious improvements in the technology in a short time, it seems.

This replaced a CRT-based 19″ Toshiba unit that we had used in our bedroom for over 6 years. This is slightly wider, but still fit well in the room. the remote operations were almost identical to our larger system, and easy to understand. The digital tuner works extremely well, & the automated search even went faster than our larger system does. Picture quality is superb…cant’ say enough about just how pleased we are overall with our purchase.

Ordered it from Amazon on Tuesday, and it arrived via FedEx (an overworked driver during the holidays, to be sure) on Thursday afternoon, late. No problems with packing or shipping, and no damage to the container, either. Panasonic always packs their equipment very well.

We are considering buying another as a family Christmas present for our youngest daughter and family…..

In closing, I’d certainly recommend this unit for the right room application. Smaller screen size works well in a den or bedroom.

Review by : G. Robinson // From : West of Akron, OH // Date : 2009-12-06

We spent weeks checking reviews, checking out actual sets in various stores and finally decided on a Panasonic, despite other brands (Sony and Sharp) being maybe $20 to $30 cheaper for this size (or close to it) during Black Friday and Cyber Monday sales.

I took friends and had them say what they liked best, without telling them what we liked. Three of the three people who traipsed thru stores picked the panasonic over the sony, sharp and toshiba models that were everywhere. It’s all about what you see and it’s always gonna be a crap shoot because as everyone will tell you, what you see in the store may not be the same as what you see at home, depending on cable provider/type of input, setup options, etc.

Ironically, everyone selling Panasonic has raised their prices in last week or two. (You could get the 32 inch for $399 or lower. THen it went back up to over $500. The 26 inch had reached a low of around $329 but then went back up to $400 and over for some merchants, with $349 being the lowest that we found, from Amazon.)

We had been considering a Hannspree 28 at $299, but not only could we not see it, the day we went to order, it was sold out everywhere. THat was the day when we looked at our old set and said: Enough already. 11 year-old Sharp had served us well (old CRT) but seriously, time to enter the LCD world. We could barely see the onscreen cable guide. It wasn’t easy to bite the bullet when we needed a smaller set and the 32-inch models were so cheap. (But we have no room in our bedroom and it would have been a huge (no pun) mistake to get a 32 inch as we only have about 8 feet tops from the cabinet and our bed. And that’s the ONLY place we could place it. Heck, this unit would be big in our living room. (City living but we actually have “large” rooms, they are just not wide rooms and that’s where you get limits.)

The box did indeed have some bumps, etc on it and it made us a bit nervous that the Fed Ex guy did not have it on the cart the right way up (Why does no one look at the arrows on the boxes?)

But it seems to be intact.

Frankly, the interior packaging was worrisome. THese manufacturers don’t seem to believe in any real padding or protection for these very delicate screens. I get junk stuff that costs nothing with more secure interior packing materials and real padding than this TV. (Panasonic: Pay attention!)

The trickiest part of assembly was the small screws that held the stand in place. It would have helped to have had a magnetized screwdriver because it took us a while to get each one in the proper way.

As others have noted, it’s a very bare bones info for setup and we had it up and running in like 10 minutes (it took longer to move stuff to get at the back of our old TV and our TW cable box to unplug old set and its cable.)

Here’s the best part for us, as Time Warner-dependent folks: The pix quality with just the regular cable input on back (and three component in connections) is fantastic. Which makes us wonder how astounding the HDMI will be (We would need a new box and we’ve heard about lots of problems with all of the HDMI-equipped boxes that Time Warner uses, which are all Scientific Atlanta (now Cisco?). Tons of online forums filled with complaints.)

We were concerned that pix quality would be compromised without another box. Now, we can wait. (And we’ll see how HDMI works by connecting our new Sony laptop to the HDMI connection on the set.) We really don’t want to mess with another box as we have lots of other stuff attached, including Slingbox.

Setup was fast. The options are relatively limited, but really, how much do you need if the pix looks good?

The onscreen setup is fairly intuitive (if you’ve ever used a cable company remote), so you can access features easily.

The two things we loved about this model were the iPod dock (for select iPods, nanos, touch and phones–don’t waste your time calling the Apple stores. THey can’t tell you which units work. They refer you to Panasonic.) because we have friends who have lots of stuff on their units and this is a quick way to share (video, photos). We haven’t tested that yet.

The other feature is the easily accessed on left side SD card. We love this, especially for friends and family who want to share photos. Very quick and easy. Small lag time between accessing photos (their is a slideshow feature).

A word of caution: We don’t know if it’s just our unit, or all of them, but you have to be very careful taking the SD card out. It seems to stick and you have to try the in/out bit a few times and then gently pull it out. (This has never happened on our computer or our camera, so…)

My only gripes, as it is about all these models: Speakers should be upfront, not underneath, but sound quality is still more than OK. (We’re not looking for theater quality in this size room.) And the bases should turn.

The other thing is this whole shiny black cabinet. HATE that quite frankly and it does pick up glare due to the windows and lights we have in the apartment.

But the viewing angles are good enough that we can watch the TV from the bathroom about 12 feet away and it’s not all that bad in terms of color or “depth.”

The DVDs (regular, not blue ray) we’ve played so far look outstanding. (Almost as great as they do on our Toshiba laptops, which have exceptional resolution. We often watch on the fly while traveling.)

One last thing: We could not mount this on a wall so it’s on a stand that raises it so its now about 46 inches off the floor, which is maybe a foot or more higher than our bed. So we can’t vouch for how it looks when you look “up” as you do with a wall mount.

All in all, we’re pretty satisfied. Now, let’s hope for some long-term reliability and several years of use out of this. (We’re spoiled. We had Sony and Sharp units, big ones, over the years that each lasted over a decade. We had smaller models that lasted 15+ years! We’re not big on buying just to have New New New.) Only time will tell.

FYI: I believe this model was one recommended by Consumer’s Report.

Review by : IRG // From : NYC // Date : 2009-12-04

Blind faith purchase. Walked through the stores, compared everything but not a 26″ Panasonic. For whatever reason the Panasonics were not on the shelves. Thought the Sony 26″ to be the best of what I compared with the reviews being mostly favorable. However, the reviews for the Panasonic were 5 stars across the board. Blind faith trust in the heavens and ordered it. Arrived on time with box slightly crunched here and there. However, interior packaging was excellent. No issues. Setup was simple. Instruction booklet straight forward. TV frame/stand looks good and appears sturdy. Plug in panel on back is understandable. Picture is great. Sound is OK. Sigh of relief, thank you heavens.

Two months later and all is still good. I’ve re-compared the brands on the store shelves and I believe the Panasonic to be the best of the group. The picture quality is equal to that of the Sony. The little speakers in the Panasonic sound better than the little speakers of any other 26″ on the shelf. For general use, the little speakers are just fine with the receiver being utilized for ‘real’ sound.

I’m not an electrical technician or anything of the sort. I can’t discuss the fine tech details of why this is better than or less than any other 26″ TV. What I can say is I’m very satisified with this purchase. I feel a little lucky to buy without seeing first and ending up with what I would have bought had I seen it first. Strange.

As of this time, from what I know, have seen and read, I would recommend this Panasonic 26″ and 5 stars are warranted.
Review by : R Reynolds // From : Sacramento, CA // Date : 2009-12-04