Lg 65 Class 4k Hdr Super Uhd Tv With Thinq Review

Our Verdict

The SK9500 is LG's flagship Super UHD Tv set, and although it boasts an extensive set of features, an bonny design and an unrivalled smart platform, the performance is let down past poor local dimming.

For

• Accurate SDR performance
• Dolby Atmos and Vision
• All-encompassing set of features
• Land-of-the-art smart system
• Attractive design

Confronting

• Excessive blooming
• Mediocre HDR functioning
• No HDR10+ support

TechRadar Verdict

The SK9500 is LG's flagship Super UHD TV, and although it boasts an all-encompassing set of features, an attractive design and an unrivalled smart platform, the performance is let downwards by poor local dimming.

Pros

• +

  Accurate SDR performance

• +

  Dolby Atmos and Vision

• +

  Extensive set of features

• +

  State-of-the-fine art smart organization

• +

  Attractive design

Cons

• -

  Excessive blooming

• -

  Mediocre HDR operation

• -

  No HDR10+ support

These days LG is synonymous with OLED, so it's piece of cake to forget that the visitor too makes LCD TVs. Marketed nether the rather grandiose moniker of Super UHD, the SK9500 is the flagship model in the 4K LCD range for 2018.

It uses an IPS panel for wider viewing angles, has a directly LED backlight, and includes local dimming. Despite its flagship condition, nonetheless, the SK9500 runs the aforementioned Alpha 7 processor found on the B8 and terminal yr'southward top OLEDs, rather than the Alpha 9 version included in the rest of the 2018 OLED range.

The sense that LCD is of secondary importance to LG is tempered past an extensive fix of features, including well-nigh every high dynamic range format, Dolby Atmos sound, and LG'southward superb WebOS smart platform. The question is: how does the SK9500 mensurate up against the LCD competition?

Pattern

LG SK9500 Specs

Screen Sizes: 55-, 65-inches | Tuner: Freeview Play, satellite HD | 4K: Yeah | HDR: Yes | Console technology: LCD | Smart Tv: Aye, WebOS and ThinQ AI | Curved: No | Dimensions: 1452(w) x 904(h) x 283(d)mm | 3D: No | Inputs: 4xHDMI, 3xUSB, 2xRF, optical, analogue, headphones, CI slot

The SK9500 comes in 2 screen sizes: a 55-inch model (55SK9500PLA – £ane,799) and a 65-inch version reviewed here (65SK9500PLA – £ii,299, also chosen the 65SK9500PUA in the Us and runs $2,199).

The SK9500 takes its design cues from LG's OLED range, with a minimalist and contemporary appearance. The sleek lines and make clean styling are enhanced past a bezel-less screen that minimises distractions and draws the center towards the image. In that location's a black outer edge around the screen, which sports a three-strip sliver trim for a impact of elegance.

Due to the direct LED backlight, the console is slightly deeper at 63mm, but this is still an elegantly slim blueprint. The Telly sits on the same silver crescent stand up used for the B8 OLED, and the rear of the panel is finished in black with a ridged effect to give the pattern a bit of texture. The build quality is very expert, and the SK9500 feels solid and well-engineered.

There's a comprehensive ready of connections that includes 4 HDMI inputs, all of which face sideways. There are too three USB ports, with two at the side and one facing rearwards, along with a terrestrial and satellite tuner, a LAN port, a CI slot, an optical digital output, a line out and a headphone jack. On the wireless side of things, there'south born WiFi, WiDi and Bluetooth support.

The SK9500 includes the Magic remote, and this precise motion controller makes operating the Tv a pleasure. The combination of an on-screen pointer and a scroll bicycle allows for like shooting fish in a barrel access to menus, quick navigation of the smart platform and constructive command of the TV. There are universal control capabilities, and a built-in mic for vox control, making searching for content a walk in the park.

Design TL;DR: The SK9500 has the looks and build quality that is conforming a flagship Goggle box, along with plenty of connections and a very effective remote control.

Smart TV (WebOS with ThinQ AI)

The SK9500 includes WebOS, which remains an intuitive and highly responsive smart platform based around a launcher bar forth the lesser. Here you can select various streaming services and continued devices, or cull from features such as a gallery of nevertheless images, a content store, and web browser.

LG has added a handy Recommendations function that can exist accessed past moving the Magic remote cursor to the correct-hand side of the screen. This feature monitors a user'due south viewing habits, and then uses a predictive algorithm to recommend content to them - a squeamish characteristic for folks who don't listen sharing their viewing data.

Content-wise, there's a lot to recommend. LG's smart TVs include all the UK catch-up services thanks to Freeview Play, as well equally Now TV, Rakuten, Netflix, Amazon, and YouTube. The latter 3 include support for 4K, HDR and, in the case of Netflix, both Dolby Vision and Dolby Atmos.

The Magic remote is a great mode to command the SK9500 simply if you lot're looking for alternatives, LG offering an splendid remote app. Equally mentioned there's besides voice control, which has been upgraded this year with natural language processing, making interaction more 'conversational'.

Another new feature this yr is ThinQ AI, a proprietary artificial intelligence engineering science based on the Internet of Things (IoT). LG uses open up-standard command protocols to enable its TVs to communicate with other devices that back up ThinQ.

Speaking of communicating with other devices, ThinQ as well works with Amazon Alexa, and in a recent firmware update LG has fifty-fifty added Google Assistant as a built-in characteristic. In that location's no uncertainty that the smart features on LG'due south TVs remain comprehensive and cutting edge.

Smart TV TL;DR: LG continues to improve its already impressive WebOS smart platform, offering a comprehensive set of streaming services, ThinQ, voice control, and built-in Google Banana.

HD/SDR Functioning

The SK9500 does a lot right when it comes to its Hd/SDR performance, with detailed images that are reasonably accurate. Fifty-fifty amend, LG's employ of an IPS panel means yous tin view the screen at a fairly farthermost angle without the colours and contrast washing out. This does touch on the native blackness levels, just cheers to the straight LED backlight and local dimming that isn't really an effect.

As with all LG TVs there are a number of picture show modes to choose from, with the Technicolor and ISF presets delivering natural colours and authentic whites, while turning off whatever unnecessary processing. For those who adopt their TV picture with a bit more punch, the Standard mode delivers images that are detailed and vibrant, thanks to the bright console.

The Alpha 7 processor is perfectly adequate, only doesn't include certain features establish on the more avant-garde Alpha 9 such as de-contouring or more accurate colour tables for the the auto-calibration feature. Nevertheless the Alpha 7 tin still finer upscale HD images to match the native 4K resolution of the panel.

In fact the results were quite impressive when the SK9500 was fed proficient quality HD sources, with the processing able to retain fine detail and avoid unwanted artefacts. However it also handled lower quality HD images very well, cleaning them and removing any noise, to produce a natural-looking image.

LG has improved the motion handling since final yr - although, for movies and Idiot box dramas, we would still recommend turning TruMotion off equally you may feel some judder with 24p content. That said, however, TruMotion can be genuinely effective with fast sports action, and then feel free to experiment.

Speaking of move handling, LG has also added Motion Pro, which is a 'black frame insertion' (BFI) feature that, as the name suggests, literally adds a black frame between every other frame. This approach can outcome in better movement without it looking too smoothen, but the image will darken and some people may see flicker caused by the black frames, so it's not for everyone.

LCD TVs often make cracking choices for gamers, and the SK9500 is even improve than average thanks to an extremely responsive 14ms input lag. That'south incredibly low, and even the near demanding gamer is certain to be pleased by such a responsive Tv.

The use of LEDs directly behind the console - and LG'south Nano Cell applied science - results in an fifty-fifty backlight and a pleasing lack of banding on camera pans across football pitches. Unfortunately, though, the implementation of the local dimming algorithm is fairly poor, resulting in blooming around bright objects which is particularly obvious in a darkened room.

Hard disk drive/SDR Operation TL;DR: An authentic picture, good motion handling, depression input lag, and some decent processing is allow downward past poor local dimming that suffers from excessive blooming.

4K/HDR Performance

The SK9500 supports just about every version of high dynamic range imaginable, including HDR10, Hybrid Log-Gamma (HLG) and Dolby Vision. The simply version of HDR it doesn't back up is HDR10+, but that's not much of a loss at the moment.

The SK9500's panel is reasonably bright, hitting over 1500nits in testing, and the local dimming can deliver deep blacks at the aforementioned time. However the console'south colour gamut isn't as wide as information technology could exist with HDR, and the accuracy left a lot to be desired.

The tone mapping was also poor, and as a result in that location was some obvious clipping in sure test scenes. The Dynamic Tone Mapping characteristic is supposed to meliorate the performance, analysing each frame and adjusting the effulgence appropriately, only failed to improve matters.

All the same all of these bug stake (pun intended) into insignificance when compared to the haloing around brilliant objects in HDR. The fact that the backlight, contrast, and local dimming are maxed out when displaying HDR content, only exaggerates the blooming that was fairly obvious in SDR.

Information technology isn't all doom and gloom, with the SK9500 able to pull all of the particular out of a native 4K image. A disc like The Revenant looks fantastic, and an LCD panel's ability to evangelize a brighter paradigm across the entire screen compared to an OLED, means that the snowscapes of the film look great.

Unfortunately the poor tone mapping is evident when watching the arriving in Neverland scene in the picture show Pan. There should be a clearly divers lord's day setting behind a mountain as the Jolly Roger flies into Neverland, but this is detail is missing due to clipping.

The blooming was besides axiomatic on most content, peculiarly darker scenes. The hyenas at night sequence from Planet Earth II is a tough examination for whatever local dimming system, and one that the SK9500 fails, with plenty of halos effectually the hyenas every bit they move around against the night sky.

4K/HDR Performance TL;DR: A direct LED backlight doesn't compensate for inaccurate colours, poor local dimming, and more blooming than a botanical garden.

Sound

LG packed a surprisingly powerful sound system into the SK9500, despite its slim proportions. The TV uses downwardly-firing drivers in a 2.ii-channel configuration that's powered past 40W of built-in distension, and it really sounds quite good.

The 65-inch screen size provides a greater sense of stereo separation, resulting in a wider and more expansive front soundstage. The mid-range is well represented, while the higher frequencies are delivered without sounding shrill.

More than practiced news is that the SK9500 can also go very loud without sounding strained or distorting ... but despite the congenital-in woofers, bass is understandably limited. Overall this is a solid audio operation, with nicely reproduced music, well-rendered effects, and clear dialogue.

The Goggle box tin decode Dolby Atmos processing, and then uses psychoacoustics to create a more immersive soundstage from ii speakers. This setup does work to a caste, just don't expect the the SK9500 to compete with a soundbar when information technology comes to sonic pyrotechnics.

Sound TL;DR: The SK9500 sounds surprisingly good for a modernistic slim TV, with 2.two-channels, enough of power, and fifty-fifty Dolby Atmos support.

The Samsung Q9FN is the TV to crush in 2018.

Other panels to ponder...

When it comes to flagship LCD TVs, Samsung's excellent Q9FN is the one to beat. This QLED model uses a directly LED backlight and highly effective local dimming to deliver near-OLED blacks with virtually no blooming. The SDR performance is superb, likewise, thanks to impressive processing and a highly accurate epitome.There's too a very high meridian brightness, a wide colour gamut and fantabulous tone mapping, making this Tv ideal for HDR.

There's also a host of cool features, neat audio, an excellent smart platform, and an incredibly low input lag, all of which make the Samsung Q9FN QLED very tempting.

If y'all're a fan of Sony, then the XF90 (called the Sony X900F in the US) is another great LCD TV to consider. This competitively priced model too uses a direct LED backlight with local dimming, and while not as good as Samsung'south implementation, it'due south definitely improve than LG's. The SDR performance is first-class cheers to the X1 Extreme processor, and at that place's some decent movement handling as well.

The HDR images are equally as impressive, with a brilliant panel, authentic colours, and precise tone mapping. There'due south no HDR10+ support, simply like the SK9500 there is Dolby Vision. The only existent criticism of the Sony is its implementation of Android TV, which can be slow and buggy. Otherwise, this is a great-value TV and definitely worth considering.

Verdict

The LG SK9500 has a lot to like, including an attractive pattern and excellent build quality. There's a state-of-the-fine art smart platform and a host of features, including back up for both Dolby Vision and Dolby Atmos. Even so these are all features that also grace LG'southward OLED range, so it's adequately obvious that this is where the company'southward efforts are focused.

By comparison, the LCD line-up feels almost second class. The SK9500 has a less capable processor in the shape of the Alpha 7, rather than the Alpha 9 used on almost of the OLED range. The panel is adequately brilliant, but the express colour accuracy and poor tone mapping suggest that LG hasn't been pushing development of its LCD TVs to the aforementioned extent as its OLEDs.

However, what really lets the SK9500 downwards is the quality of it local dimming. Despite the use of a direct LED backlight and nearly 100 zones, there was excessive blooming with SDR content, let alone HDR. If you desire to purchase an LG TV, yous actually should be looking at its OLED line-upward but if you have your heart gear up on an LCD screen, then have a look at Sony or Samsung instead.

• Like to comparison store? Here'southward the entire LG Tv set 2018 line-upwardly

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Source: https://www.techradar.com/uk/reviews/lg-sk9500-series-65sk9500

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