Its target audience immediately becomes obvious when you review the hardware on offer, which is kept to a strict minimum: no rotating stand, no multimedia options (apart from JPEG photos) and just three HDMI ports on a screen that's 10.5 cm thick.  The HD Ready panel has a definition of 1024 x 768 pixels, and, like all plasmas, is relatively susceptible to reflections.

It can display a signal from a PC without any problems, but the limited definition means it will be restricted to use as a gaming or Home Cinema display; we still wouldn't be prepared to recommend any plasma screen for office use.  To get back to gamers, they'll be happy to learn that the input lag is only 16.5 ms, a record finding for a TV.

Image Quality

With a great contrast ratio and deep blacks, the X10 promises great results.  The colours are natural and accurate, which doesn't do anything to harm the X10's case either.  The 100 Hz removes the jerky movements that are visible at 50 Hz.

It demonstrates some other well-known features of plasma TVs: ghosting is invisible, the brightness is perfectly even across the whole screen and the viewing angles are very wide.  Unfortunately, though, it's the HD Ready panel that counts against this TV.  HD films are really lacking in detail and the upscaling of SD sources is hardly much better.  To get past these problems, you need to make sure you're a good long way away from the X10: we think at least 3.5 metres for this 42'' version is a good minimum.

It's also worth nothing that this TV doesn't include Panasonic's IFC system for smoothing out movements.

Sound Quality

The sound is muffled, echoes a little and lacks detail.  The speakers are behind the screen and point backwards, and the effect that has on the sound quality is immediately obvious.

Power Consumption

Another typical characteristic of plasma TVs is that they typically use around 50% more energy than comparable LCD screens.  The PF42X10 requires around 200 W.  Its standby mode is well controlled, with consumption falling to just 0.1 W.