Representing OLED in our high-end TV tussle is this curved, 4K style icon from LG
OLED technology has finally gone from being the stuff of AV fantasy to a living, breathing reality you can actually buy. What’s more, you can actually already buy it for less than you might imagine. The 55in 55EG960V costs £3,800, despite being only the second native 4K/UHD OLED TV we’ve seen. That makes it the most affordable set in this roundup, albeit at a smaller screen size. Expect to pay £6,000 for the 65in model of the 960V series.
So what does your money get you? Good looks, for starters. The combination of an insanely thin body (an OLED trademark) and distinctive curved screen make this the prettiest TV in town.
The 55EG960V ticks the right connections boxes, too, with its three HDMIs, three USBs and the now essential Ethernet and Wi-Fi network options. The USBs support external recording from the set's tuners, the HDMIs support 4K sources up to 60Hz, and the network options let you stream multimedia from DLNA devices or go online with LG’s walled garden of content. Apps include Amazon, Netflix and Now TV, but the BBC iPlayer and Demand 5 catch-up apps aren’t joined by 4OD or the ITV Player. There’s no sign of the integrated YouView or Freetime services now off ered by some rival Smart TVs, either.
The 55EG960V has a Smart TV ace up its sleeve, though: LG’s webOS 2.0 system (versus the old webOS iteration found on the previously tested 65EC970V LED TV). Despite not advancing significantly from its 2014 debut, the webOS 2.0 mixture of slick, overlaid menus and laser-like focus on streamlining access to your favourite content makes it the system to beat.
Blacks you can believe in
Spend time setting up the 55EG960V and it delivers on OLED’s contrast promise (since it uses self-emissive pixels rather than a shared external backlight) spectacularly well. At least when it comes to the black end of the contrast spectrum.
Take, for instance, the infamously dark scene where The Bride is buried alive in Kill Bill: Volume 2. There’s no hint of the grey mist effect that’s always present to some extent on any LCD TV, and this groundbreaking black level is achieved without any backlight inconsistency or clouding.
What’s more, when The Bride manages to get her torch on, the 55EG960V does an incredible job of rendering the torchlight with a degree of intensity its LCD rivals just can’t match – while at the same time keeping the dark picture that surrounds the torchlight looking beautifully rich and natural. Self-emissive pixels, we salute you!
The 55EG960V is also capable of serving up gorgeously punchy colours. The vibrant sequence where The Bride fights Vernita Green in Kill Bill: Volume One is a riot of colour, and for the most part, this riot doesn’t tip over into an unruly free-for-all of unbalanced, unnatural tones.
Also easy on the eye is the way LG’s OLED TV delivers the detail and depth we’ve come to associate with native 4K content. You can see every blade of grass, every bead of sweat and every tattoo on our stunning 4K World Cup footage. It's a respectable upscaler of non-HD material, too. It doesn’t reproduce HD sources with quite as much detail and sharpness as our other two contenders, but it does do a fine job of kicking source noise into touch.
None too bright
The simple pleasure of seeing a screen able to deliver a contrast range as extreme as the 55EG960V may have some of you already reaching for your wallets. But before you hand your cash over, there are a few issues to report.
The strangest of these concerns that phenomenal black level response. Bizarrely, despite OLED technology's self-emissive nature, if you push the TV’s brightness setting too high – anywhere beyond its mid point – those blacks suddenly dissolve into a most unOLED-like greyness. Increasing the brightness past the 50 per cent ‘safe zone’ also causes the appearance of a distracting banding effect, where the screen’s brightness reduces in clearly defined steps from the centre outwards. You can occasionally notice this issue even with the brightness restrained, in the form of a slight vignetting effect at the edges of bright, motion-packed content.
For the most part you can calibrate out the 55EG960V’s unexpected problems – but only, of course, at the expense of a chunk of brightness versus the sort of luminance levels we’re now seeing radiating forth from the best new LCD TVs – including, especially, the Samsung UE65JS9500, reviewed over the page...
So the 55EG960V is perhaps a slightly unsatisfying option for a bright room. Also, the need to limit its brightness may compromise it with HDR (High Dynamic Range) content once a promised HDR update for the TV goes live. It could equally be that its profound contrast is perfect for HDR. There’s no way of knowing until we see it for ourselves. One seemingly definite limitation to the 55EG960V’s HDR abilities, however, is that it won't play ball with forthcoming HDR UHD Blu-rays; LG tells us that only HDR internet streams will be supported. This is a shame when Sony and Samsung both claim their contenders will handle HDR from external sources.
Other odd things about the 55EG960V’s pictures include the way parts of darkish images can occasionally look infused with vague pink or green tones, and tonal blends that sometimes lack the subtlety I usually see with 4K screens.
Firing up The Box Trolls in 3D on the 55EG960V results in one of the best 3D performances I’ve seen. There’s no serious flicker or crosstalk, while the screen’s 4K panel counteracts the reduced resolution usually associated with passive 3D. Motion suffers slightly with judder, but otherwise the 55EG960V’s 3D performance is stellar.
Unlike its audio. It doesn’t sound bad for an insanely thin TV, but the lack of the Harman/Kardon audio system found on the 2014-era 65EC970V leads to a lack of bass extension and mid-range clarity. I also found some occasional lip-sync timing issues when watching 3D.
Specifications
3D: Yes. Passive
ULTRA HD: Yes. 3,840 x 2,160
TUNER: Yes. Freeview HD, satellite
CONNECTIONS: 3 x USB; 3 x HDMI; CI slot; RF in; Scart; composite video in; component video in; optical digital audio out; PC audio input; Ethernet; RS-232C; headphone out; integrated Wi-Fi
SOUND: 20W
BRIGHTNESS (CLAIMED): N/A
CONTRAST RATIO (CLAIMED): N/A
DIMENSIONS (OFF STAND): 1,226(w) x 719(h) x 49.9(d)mm
WEIGHT (OFF STAND): 15.3kg
FEATURES: USB multimedia playback; DLNA support; OLED self-emissive pixel technology; webOS 2.0 Smart system; Tru HD Ultra Engine; ColourPrime panel; Dynamic Colour Enhancer