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The Panasonic TX-L32E6B is one of the easiest TVs to set up and operate, though there are plenty of options for those who want to customise the whole experience.
Unlike most apps for TVs, Panasonic's free Viera Remote 2 app - available for Android or iOS smartphones and tablets - also includes two-way file swaps. Yes, it has a virtual remote screen, gesture control, an app launcher and even a gamepad option for app-based games on Viera Connect, but what most impresses is Swipe & Share 2.0.
Uniquely this is a two-way relationship, so that once the app has found the Panasonic TX-L32E6B sitting on the same home network (wired or Wi-Fi), photos, music and video on your phone or tablet can be selected and played on the TV.
File types are limited to MP3, JPEG and MOV videos, but it works well enough with music and home-produced fare, too. Slideshows and music are the most polished, though video is stable, albeit after about a 10-second wait.
Swipe & Share 2.0 works in reverse, too, enabling you to watch anything on your smartphone or tablet from devices physically attached to the Panasonic TX-L32E6B.
For this review we attached a USB flash drive packed full of digital media to one of the Panasonic TX-L32E6B's two USB slots, and managed to fetch MPEG and MP4-based videos, music and photos.
Of course, this feature would be more handy if the Panasonic TX-L32E6B indulged in making recordings from its Freeview HD tuner to an external HDD. It doesn't do this, but its big sisters do (and in MPEG format). It's impressive nonetheless.
Another dimension to Swipe & Share 2.0 is its use as a web browser that can push web pages to the TV (and thereby circumvent the messy cursor-led controls and awkward text entry of the hard-button remote). It's great for occasionally sharing a website with everything else in the room.
What Viera Remote 2 doesn't have - at least, not when it's used on the Panasonic TX-L32E6B - is second screen skills. There's only one Freeview HD tuner in this TV, so there's no chance that you'll be able to watch other TV channels fed to a phone.
Nor is it possible to engage 'clone' TV channel viewing. Despite that, Viera Remote 2 is probably the most advanced app we've yet seen, especially for a small TV.
Elsewhere, the Panasonic TX-L32E6B handles digital media reasonably well. In our tests from both a docked USB flash drive and from a networked PC we managed to play WAV, MP3, M4A, FLAC and WMA music files.
And while the music plays it's possible to use the Viera Remote 2 app to switch off the TV screen.
The television also managed to play AVI, MKV HD, AVC HD, MPEG-4 and WMV video files.
However, all of these features are only made usable by some fast processing. Menu screens swipe and transit, fold and disappear in milliseconds, while the hard-button remote - complete with large buttons - makes the Panasonic TX-L32E6B one of the easiest TVs to use.
