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The 47AS740 is Panasonic's attempt to fit into that increasingly tricky area of the TV marketplace: the premium HD TV space.
In some ways it succeeds pretty well. Its smart features and interface are both excellent, especially the inclusion of Freetime to deliver a full suite of UK catch up channels in an easy to use interface.
It's impressively customisable too, its suite of picture adjustments is pretty high level for an HD TV, and its 3D picture quality is outstanding. Unfortunately, though, all the features and ease of use in the world can't hide the fact that contrast problems mean its picture quality is bettered by some similarly sized but significantly cheaper rivals.
We liked
The 47AS740 is a marvel with 3D, and building Freetime into a TV turns out to be every bit as good as an idea as you might expect. It's exceptionally easy to use too, and its colours are strong and believable.
We disliked
Various contrast issues let the overall picture quality down, something that means the set also starts to look expensive when you think you can get bigger 4K TVs for the same money now, or better-performing 47-48in HD TVs for substantially less.
Verdict
The 47AS740 benefits from arguably the most feature-rich smart system currently available and is exceptionally easy to use and customise (though LG's webOS system has made Panasonic's interface start to look a little dated). However, its picture quality is flawed, which in turn makes it look alarmingly over-priced.
