Then on the other hand, LG also manufactures numerous non-OLED 4K LCD T models, most of them with flat screens, which are largely disappointing in comparison to rival LCD 4K TVs from all of the other major brands, particularly Sony, Samsung and Panasonic. With the exception of sharing the same superb webOS 2.0 (and webOS 3.0 for 2016 LG models) smart TV platform, the LCD 4K ultra HD TVs in LG’s lineup almost seem as if they were made by a different, inferior company with the sort of lower quality they deliver.
This applies particularly to LG’s more economical models and it’s particularly strange considering that rivals like Sony and Vizio, as well as even Samsung manage to produce cheaper LCD TVs which still retain some great highlights, highlights which are often decidedly better than those of their LG LCD 4K counterparts.
In other words, while LG’s OLED 4K TV models are absolute market winners in terms of quality, their LCD 4K models are TVs we rarely recommend over comparable Sony or Samsung models.
Types
LG’s 4K UHD TVs for 2015 can be divided down into five broad categories, of which we’ve reviewed three to-date. In essence, they consist of LG LCD 4K TVs, LG curved OLED 4K TVs, LG’s flat late 2015 OLED 4K TVs, LG’s Super UHD LCD TVs for 2016 and finally, their newest OLED 2016 4K TV models. All of the 2015 models –OLED or LCD—share the same smart TV platform in the form of webOS 2.0 and all of the 2016 models come with webOS 3.0. In terms of connectivity, all of LG’s 2015 TVs are also essentially identical. Where they dramatically differ is in the quality of their display specs, their internal processing capacities and in their finer display rendering features.
Here is a brief rundown of each main LG TV type
2015 4K UHD OLED TVs (curved and flat screen)
LG’s OLED 4K televisions from 2015 (and the company’s 2014 models as well) were simply the best TVs on the market since they emerged. This is our opinion of these TVs and it’s a viewpoint that many other reviewers and consumers alike have shared. Sony and Samsung, as well as Panasonic could all create some truly superb LCD televisions but none of them quite compared to the picture quality that LG’s OLED models could spin out at the viewer.
While most of LG’s OLED TVs were built with what we think to be a rather pointless and gimmicky curved design, they certainly do look good because of that curvature when sitting in a living room and in late 2015, the company also released some new flatscreen OLED televisions with their EF9500 models, which also include HDR technology to boot.
It’s also worth mentioning that LG’s OLED 4K TVs were and remain some of the priciest 4K UHD TVs on the market today, though their prices have dropped somewhat since early 2015.
LG 8k 98″ Super UHD TV at CES 2016
2015 4K UHD LCD TVs
From the visual marvel that are LG OLED 4K TVs, we then move down to the rather underwhelming LCD TVs released by LG in 2015. This may seem like a bit of an exaggeration based on unfair comparison to the beauty of OLED but we don’t think so. With their LCD TV TVs, in the form of the UF-Series LED/LCD 4K models, LG sells TVs that aren’t bad by any means but simply don’t measure up not only to their OLED cousins but also to other comparable LCD/LED models from major rival brands like Sony, Samsung or Panasonic.
The connectivity and smart TV platform technologies on these TVs are essentially the same as those of the OLED models, but internal processing power and display specs are quite different. Furthermore, in terms of price, these models from LG are still relatively expensive, though some very affordable models can be found among them.
We can’t quite yet say too much about LG’s brand new 2016 LCD/LED 4K TV lineup except to say that these TVs have been branded by the company as their new “Super UHD” models and that LG seems to have finally gotten in on the uptake and dramatically improved their development of quality LCD/LED technology for 2016’s 4K models. We’ll update this section as we manage to review one or two of these TVs but for now, preliminary viewings of the LG 2016 LCD/LED TV models indicate that they’re much better than their 2015 cousins, with a display quality which rivals the best of Samsung or Sony LCD/LED 4K TV technology.
Key Features
The following are some of the key features found in LG’s assorted TV models. Not all of these exist in all of the 4K TVs produced by the company and OLED, Perfect Black and HDR in particular are exclusive to the premium models.
OLED display
New LG OLED 4k TV at CES 2016
- The showpiece of LG’s premium 4K ultra HD TV models is without a doubt OLED display technology, which up until very recently was completely exclusive to LG televisions in the entire market. This has now changed due to Panasonic’s unveiling of their own OLED 4K 2016 TV models but LG still maintains major dominance in this areas.
- OLED stands for organic light emitting diode technology and in basic terms, it allows for pixel-precise control of light and dark in a 4K TV right down to the ability to turn off all light or activate it to full brightness right within the scope of single individual pixels on the screen. This means two things above all others:
- First, that OLED displays can generate perfect, complete black tones due to a total (okay, down to virtually undetectable even to sensors 0.0005 nits of “brightness”) ability to cut off light in individual pixels or whole sections of the screen.
- And second, that OLED displays can literally create 8.3 million illumination and dimming zones on the screen since each of the 8.3 million pixels can be controlled on an individual level. No LED/LCD TV, even one with hundreds of local dimming/active LED zones can match this sort of precision.
- On the other hand, OLED TVs don’t generate quite as much luminance as their LED counterparts but this is more than compensated for by their ability to create perfect contrast via perfect dark and thus give the impression of greater brightness in the lit sections of the screen.
- Finally, with OLED technology, colors can also be generated to a much greater degree of realism thanks to certain qualities imparted by OLED. This means that not only does OLED create beautiful contrast refinement, it also does a fantastic job of generating highly realistic colors.
Award Winning New LG OLED at CES 2016
HDR
- With LG’s 2016 OLED and late-2015 EF9500 OLED flat screen 4K models, LG upped the ante on these television’s already extraordinary contrast precision and depth by adding HDR to the televisions. This is achieved mainly by first allowing the OLED TVs in question to decode HDR metadata from a source of HDR 4K contentand then also upping the potential luminance of the display panels and expanding the range of dynamic contrast levels possible over the already impressive levels found in LG’s “conventional” OLED television models.
HDR display compared to SDR contrast on left side
Perfect Black
- This technology is pretty self-explanatory and a feature found only in LG’s OLED models. The manufacturer bills it as its own separate feature but “Perfect Black” is in essence a specific name for the core total light emission capacity of OLED display panels.
Tru-4K Upscaler
- 4K UHD upscaling in LG’s 4K TVs of all types –LCD or OLED—is generated by what LG calls their Tru-4K Upscaler engine. From what we’ve seen it works very nicely at its job. Full HD and 720p content resolutions scale up to look crisper and more 4K UHD-like in a wonderful way and even SD video that has been decently mastered by its producers gets a rather nice boost to some remarkably sharp levels of detail. In other words, what we’re saying is that in essence, LG excels at upscaling non-4K UHD content and this means good things for those using any LG 4K UHD TV at all to view their overwhelming majority of non-4K UHD movies, sportscasts and TV shows.
ColorPrime Technology
- ColorPrime is LG’s version of the color augmenting technology formed by quantum dot color expanding film or phosphor coating of LEDs for a more vibrant, broader color spectrum. While LG is still rather secretive about which it uses in its 4K ColorPrime TVs, the bottom line is that this particular feature results in more vibrant, wider and more realistic color combinations across the board. While LG’s OLED 4K TVs don’t come with ColorPrime (partly because they don’t need it and partly because they can’t use it thanks to the physical nature of their OLED panels) The company’s highest grade LCD TVs from both 2015 and 2016 do indeed come with ColorPrime. In either case, LG’s top-shelf 2015 LCD TV models may offer weak contrast but they don’t lack for great colors.
2016 4K UHD OLED TVs
Like their 2016 LCD counterparts, the 2016 OLED lineup is still unavailable for serious review but we do know that they come with LG’s new webOS 3.0 smart TV platform and will incorporate more of the flat screen design we started to see in the last OLED 4K models of 2015. Also, these TVs offer some dramatic new physical changes in their appearance with an ultra-thin glass panel display that’s said to be the thinnest on the consumer market, at just 2.67 mm, or less than an eighth of an inch.
Key Features
The following are some of the key features found in LG’s assorted TV models. Not all of these exist in all of the 4K TVs produced by the company and OLED, Perfect Black and HDR in particular are exclusive to the premium models.
Smart TV Platform
webOS is LG’s non-display showpiece technology. In 2015 webOS 2.0 emerged and it impressed us and many others as the single best smart TV OS platform on the whole 4K television market, and now the newest version, called webOS 3.0 is just around the corner and likely to improve even further on what LG managed with the 2015 edition.
LG WebOS 3.0 at CES 2016
When it comes to webOS, LG has created a superb, highly intuitive, nicely web-connected and content-friendly piece of TV interface software that’s very easy to use and wonderfully light on its feet as far as speed goes. Best of all, webOS 2.0 is available in all of LG’s 2015 4K TVs, even the most economical models, meaning that even with certain display quality flaws, you can at least enjoy some superb usability.
We expect the same quality for webOS 3.0 and will be looking forward to it in all of LG’s 2016 television models.
Display Characteristics
Display-wise, LG’s 4K TVs are all over the place, so the best way to break down their pros and cons is by doing it individually for each type of 4K TV:
2015 LCD/LED 4K TVs
As we’ve already mentioned, LG’s LCD/LED 4K TVs from 2015 were something of a disappointment in terms of their display qualities. Maybe it’s because LG was so busy with OLED that they sort of disregarded the LCD branch of their 4K TV production but either way, in terms of contrast and also even motion control, the display characteristics of LG LCD models definitely underperform their Sony, Samsung, Panasonic and even Vizio counterparts. With the top-shelf LCD UF8500 and UF9500 “ColorPrime” televisions, colors look excellent but the contrast in particular remains poor and this somewhat spoils a lot of that color vibrancy as a side effect.
We don’t think LG’s LCD TVs are bad televisions, and many users might be perfectly happy with their display quality but when measured up against what we know 4K LCD TV technology to be capable of, they disappoint.
2016 LCD/LED Super UHD TVs
While it’s still early to say anything concrete about the qualities of these new non-OLED models from LG, the early reports from trade show floors and previews are indicating that LG has definitely changed its tune for 2016’s LCD models. In other words, at least so far, the new Super UHD 2016 televisions are looking like stiff competition for the best LCD models from rival manufacturers.
LG DIsplay at CES 2016
Connectivity
In terms of connectivity, LG is a winner across the board. It’s 4K UHD TVs of all types come with all the essentials for full access to the latest and best conventional 4K and non-4K content sources, such as HEVC, VP9, HDCP 2.2 and HDMI. Additionally, the webOS 2.0 smart platform has practically been built to excel at web browsing and easy internet access in general. Furthermore, the latest LG models are also built to accept 4K content with HDR encoding built into it.
On the other hand, we did find ourselves annoyed by one small detail that a number of both OLED and non-OLED LG models lacked. This was the absence of a fourth HDMI 2.0 port. Most televisions on the market offer between 4 and 5 HDMI Ports and in this one thing, LG for some reason decided to only go with three ports on select models. Even the company’s top-rated 2015 OLED, the EG9600 came with just three HDMI ports, oddly enough.
The Best Models
For starters, we have the 2015 and 2014 LG OLED and LCD 4K TVs. Of these, the four best models, two in the LCD class and the other two in the OLED class are the LG UF8500 and UF9500 ColorPrime TVs, and the EF9500 and the EG9600 OLED 4K TVs on the premium side of the spectrum.
Without a single doubt, the two OLED models blow their LCD LG cousins right out of the water in terms of display quality and they’re no longer even as extraordinarily expensive as before, with the EF9500 flat screen OLED costing just under $3,000 for the 55 inch version and the 55 inch EG9600 being sold for $3,997.
Then there are the absolutely stunning 2016 LG OLED 4K TVs. These offer levels of peak luminance we’ve never before seen in an OLED TV and a new class of HDR that’s better than even what we saw in the cutting edge EF9500 from late 2015. These new 2016 OLED HDR 4K TV models are the Flgaship G6 Signature HDR TV and below that by just a slight bit in terms of specs, the E6 and B6 OLED 4K models. All offer the same extraordinary 2.5mm thick glass panel screen design and calibration for both HDR10 standards like those used by the UHD Alliance but also Dolby Vision high dynamic range.
LG’S G6 Signature 2016 HDR OLED 4K TV
Price Analysis
In terms of pricing, LG’s 4K ultra HD TVs are across the spectrum. The company’s top shelf 2016 OLED 4K TVs cost several thousand dollars at the very least and can go for as high as $10,000 for the largest models, while the smallest, lowest budget 4K LCD TV models retail for well below $1,000.Obviously however, between these two ends of the price spectrum, there’s a whole vast abyss of difference in display quality.
In between the two extremes, you have the premium LCD ColorPrime 4K televisions, which are much more affordable than their OLED counterparts but still overly costly in our view given their display flaws. In this range, a good average example is the 65 inch UF9500, the very top of the LG 2015 LCD line, which sells on Amazon.com for $2,797.99.
Overall, we’d argue that price-wise, LG doesn’t keep things as competitive as it should, particularly for its less than stellar LCD 4K models.
Positives, Negatives and Final Opinion
In our final opinion, we’re mixed on LG’s 4K selections but we do have lots of praise to give to their best televisions, the OLEDs. Furthermore, our hopes for better prices and better non-OLED picture quality in 2016 are very high. For now however, while we absolutely recommend this company’s OLED 4K models for those who have the money and want the best picture quality bar none, we think that at least the 2015 LCD LG televisions are just not good enough to win a recommendation if comparable Sony, Vizio, Panasonic or Samsung models are available.
Positives
- Absolutely fantastic OLED models
- Lots of excellent new OLED nad LCD TVs coming in 2016
- Absolutely superb webOS smart TV platform
- Great connectivity and content compatbility
- Excellent color in OLED and ColorPrime LCD models
- HDR in select OLED and non-OLED 2016 TVs
- Great upscaling engines
Negatives
- 2015 LCD TVs offer weak contrast across the board
- Most LG 4K TVs are overpriced, especially the LCD models, oddly enough
- Somewhat inferior motion control in lower-end models.
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