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A Closer Look At Vizio’s Impressive Line Of Newly Released 2019 4K HDR TVs

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Stephan Jukic – May 23, 2019

One of the major (and surprising) innovators of 4K HDR TV technology since several years ago has been Vizio. The company holds its own firmly against even the biggest TV market name brand competitors and its premium 4K TVs are also some of the best available on the market. In 2018 especially, the flagship P-Series Quantum 4K HDR LCD TV models were easily among the absolute best LCD performers we’d seen for that year, by almost every measure. To top off these performance chops, Vizio has also firmly established a tradition of delivering its high-quality 4K TV technology at very reasonable prices that offer lots of value per dollar spent.

Now the 2019 models are finally going to the retail market and after what we saw with the 2018 editions from Vizio, we’re pretty excited to see what the company delivers this year.

Also see:
Our complete guide to today’s best 4K HDR TVs for every budget and home size
Ranking the best 4K TVs of 2019 for less than $1000

Vizio has made the announcement that all of its 2019 4K HDR TVs are now available from major retailers and according to the company, most of them will come with a number of improvements including more local dimming zones, improved brightness performance and superior color delivery. Additional features will include AirPlay 3 and HomeKit, both of which are coming a bit later in the year for both the new 2019 releases and select older models as well.

The 2019 P-Series Quantum X

The very top of the Vizio 4K HDR TV lineup for 2019 is the new P-Series Quantum X. This is Vizio’s flagship TV and if the outstanding performance of the 2018 Quantum edition is anything to guess by, the 2019 Quantum X will be downright incredible. That said, the Quantum X editions aren’t going to be exceptionally cheap; the 65 inch edition is retailing for $2,199.99 and the 75 inch model will go for $3,499.99.

Also Read:
Our guide to the absolute best 55 Inch 4K HDR TVs of 2018 and 2019
Our guide to the best performing 65 inch 4K HDR TVs of 2019

Vizio Quantum X

These prices aren’t exactly in budget territory but they’re still better than what you’d pay for similarly sized Sony or Samsung flagship 4K TVs for 2019. And more importantly, in exchange for charging a higher price for them, Vizio has made the Quantum X models even better than their already incredibly good 2018 predecessors. Just as the 2018 P-Series Quantum TVs pulled off superior performance to that of most of their 2018 flagship LCD TV rivals, the specs of the 2019 models make them powerful competitors to any possible rival 2019 4K TV. We include OLED TVs in this analysis, and that’s saying a lot.

The P-Series Quantum X TVs are going to boast between 384 and a whopping 480 local dimming zones behind their full-array LED backlit LCD panels. This means almost unparalleled levels of black level and contrast precision, to the point where the Quantum X TVs can nearly rival the capabilities of an OLED 4K TV on how well they manage blacks. This is pretty spectacular by itself but it gets an even further boost with peak brightness levels that are out of this world. The Quantum X models reportedly reach maximum display luminosity of 3000 nits or so. We can already say that no other 2019 4K HDR LCD TV we’ve reviewed so far comes close to matching this level and that alone puts the Quantum X TVs in a category of their own on performance.

Something similar was the case with the 2018 P-Series Quantum TVs, which were basically the brightest LCD TVs we saw last year but what the 2019 editions pull off is far more spectacular. Comparatively, Samsung’s best yet flagship 2019 ultra HD 4K HDR TV, the Q90, barely reaches a level of peak brightness that exceeds 1500 nits, and its contrast ratio is only moderately good.

Also Read:
Our in-depth review of Sony’s X950G 4K UHD HDR LCD TV
Our Comprehensive review of Samsung’s most affordable 2019 QLED TV, the Q60R
Our in-depth review of Samsung’s Best Performing 2019 QLED HDR TV, the Q90R

Even on the additional crucial specs of color performance, motion handling and gaming connectivity we expect the P-Series Quantum X TVs to be outstanding performers. Why? Because the 2018 models were and we haven’t yet seen Vizio create premium TVs that underperform their predecessors. We’ll verify this during a review of these televisions as soon as possible but we’d bet money on it being the result of testing.

The 2019 P-Series Quantum

Moving on to other 2019 Vizio TV releases, we have the next models down the performance chain. These are the “conventional” 2019 P-Series Quantum (no ‘X’) 4K HDR TVs and they too offer plenty of performance quality. With some 240 local dimming zones and a level of peak brightness that reaches 1200 nits, the 2019 P-Series Quantum TVs are still not exactly cheap but for levels of quality that still rival some of the best we’ve seen from Sony and Samsung, these new replacements for the 2018 non-Quantum P-Series TVs are nothing to sneeze at. They come in the same sizes as the Quantum X TVs and a 65 inch model will set you back by $1,399 while the 75 inch monster edition will go for a more or less reasonable $2,499.

Vizio Quantum X 2019

Again, these new P-Series TV models also have performance specs that are definitely on the high premium level in terms of backlighting, local dimming, HDR capacity and peak brightness. Thus, even though their prices aren’t low in more historical Vizio-style, they’re very reasonable when compared to what name brand competitors offer for similar prices.

We should note also that all of the above TVs come with Vizio’s Quantum Dot color technology and are thus expected to be exceptionally brilliant at rendering vibrant, highly accurate and broad color palettes for superb high dynamic range color quality. The 2018 P-Series Quantum TV had the same technology and its color performance was among the best we’ve ever seen in terms of wide color gamut coverage and color accuracy.

Now that we’ve covered the premium and flagship Vizio TV releases for 2019, we come down to the mid-range and budget models. These too have lots to offer despite much lower prices that finally go below $1000.

Two Versions of the M-Series for 2019

Starting off, there is the new Vizio M-Series TV. This model also comes with Quantum Dot color technology for broad HDR color, and full-array LED backlighting but in the case of the 65 inch M-Series, there are only 90 local dimming zones, as opposed to the 240 and 300+ of the P-Series Quantum and Quantum X editions. 90 local dimming zones is still insanely awesome for a price tag of just $999.99 for a 65 inch model (no Samsung or Sony 4K TV of any size has this many for a price of less than $1000), and so is the M-Series peak brightness, which is rated at a very respectable 600+ nits. The 55 inch edition of this M-Series model comes with a price of just $799.99 and the same number of local dimming zones.

Vizio M-Series

In an odd twist, Vizio is also offering a secondary, even more budget-friendly variant of the M-Series TVs with just 20 local dimming zones and a peak brightness of only 400 nits (still pretty good) which nonetheless retains Vizio’s vibrant Quantum Dot color technology. Because of these more economical specs, the lower-line M-Series goes for $899.99 for the 65 inch edition and $699.99 for the 55 inch edition. There are also 50 and 43 inch versions of the cheaper versions of the M-Series. These offer some of the best value that Vizio offers because they have the above technologies while costing only $549.99 and $399.99 respectively.

The 2019 Vizio V-Series: weak but still very decent

Finally we get down to Vizio’s ultra-budget 4K HDR TV offering, the V-Series. This TV is basically a successor to Vizio’s older D-Series models from previous years and with this edition what you don’t get is local dimming and Quantum Dot HDR color technology. The V-Series models are also pretty dim by the standards of their cousins above. That said, that Vizio only removes local dimming in its absolute cheapest 4K TV edition is impressive by the standards of what most of this brand’s competitors offer. The V-Series starts at a ridiculously low $259.99 for the 40 inch edition and from there goes up to $1,199.99 for the giant 77 inch version. One thing we’re almost sure about for even the V-Series is that it will offer excellent gaming performance and thus make for a wonderfully cheap console or PC gamer’s 4K TV.

vizio-quantum-2019-tvs

All of Vizio’s 2019 4K HDR TVs come with the SmartCast 3.0 smart platform update and users will be able to adjust onscreen app navigation for maximally easy access to their favorite content sources. Options for these include dozens of built-in apps like Netflix, Amazon, Vudu, Hulu and so forth but because there’s also a Chromecast option in the Vizio smart platform, you can cast content from any app or device that supports Chromecast right to your TV screen. Apple’s AirPlay 2 and Homekit are both also coming to all of the 2019 Vizio televisions at some point in the summer. These technologies will let users control their Vizio TVs with either Apple Siri, Google Assistant or Amazon Alexa.

In summary, all of the 2019 Vizio 4K TV releases have something to offer and in our professional opinion the value and sheer performance you can look forward to from each category of TV is incredibly, extremely competitively good for the prices these TVs retail for. Yes, the Quantum X series is expensive but no other TV (not even ultra-premium models from Samsung or LG or Sony) we’ve yet seen in 2019 offers a whopping 3000 nits of brightness, quantum dot color AND so many local dimming zones. These specs make the Quantum X TVs in particular incredible.

Story by 4k.com

The post A Closer Look At Vizio’s Impressive Line Of Newly Released 2019 4K HDR TVs appeared first on .


A Look At What Google’s 4K 60FPS Stadia Gaming Platform Means For The Market

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Stephan Jukic – June 17, 2019

Heavyweights Sony and Microsoft may have dominated the console gaming landscape for years through their respective PlayStation and Xbox devices but now tech behemoth Google is entering the same arena as a heavy hitting competitor with plenty of its own punch.

The company’s new Google Stadia could effectively be the first ever serious challenger to the domination of the gaming world’s online architecture via Sony and Microsoft with many of the same features as these brand’s platforms and some unique twists of its own.

While both the Microsoft and Sony platforms support online services as a major source of revenue via monthly fees, Sony’s PlayStation Network takes things even further by also being slated for a soon-to-arrive streaming platform that will be created in partnership with Microsoft. Thus not only are these two competitors the gaming market’s still dominant players, they’re now also starting to team up on projects in this space.

Google’s Stadia might be a serious reason why: The upcoming combo from Google cuts right through the roundabouts that Sony and Microsoft first went through and will go straight to paid monthly streaming gameplay services for $9.99 per month. These will be made available as of November 2019 for users who buy the “limited edition” Stadia platform hardware, which will include everything needed for serious streamed gaming and retail for a price of $129.99 (plus the above-mentioned monthly user fee). Users can also buy standalone Stadia controllers for $69.99.

Google-Stadia-Controller-768x518

Users who sign up for this initial offer and buy the hardware at the above price will get access to Google’s best possible streaming speeds (subject of course to any users own home internet connectivity restrictions) and priority access to choosing their own “Stadia Name”.

The above $129.99 “investment” buys you a limited-edition controller, a Chromecast Ultra, a three month subscription bonus and access to the game “Destiny 2” with a one-year subscription included. Users who already play “Destiny 2” on their Xbox will also be able to transfer their guardian from the former to their Stadia account.

Google-Stadia-Controller-Chromecast-768x448

The Stadia platform itself is quite an interesting connection of devices rig based on what’s been announced. Instead of a single full blown console like the Xbox One X or the PS4 Ultra, what you get is a connected assortment of devices that include the above-mentioned controller and which run off the Chromecast Ultra that is the core of the platform. These can be used with any (preferably 4K UHD HDR) smart TV or PC with the Chrome browser supports controllers via Bluetooth and USB while also offering mouse/keyboard compatibility.

Also see:
Our complete guide to today’s best 4K HDR TVs for every budget and home size
Ranking the best 4K TVs of 2019 for less than $1000
Our guide to the absolute best 55 Inch 4K HDR TVs of 2018 and 2019

Stadia will offer several gaming titles at launch. For now these include the already-mentioned “Destiny 2”, “Naldur’s Gate 3”, Assassin’s Creed Odyssey, Ghost Recon Breakpoint, and The Division 2 from Ubisoft; four titles from Bethesda  that consist of “Doom”, “Doom Eternal”, “The Elder Scrolls Online”,” Wolfenstein: Youngblood”, and four Square Enix games: the Tomb Raider trilogy and “Final Fantasy XV”.

Also coming are Borderlands 3 (2K) and the Stranger Things-esque GYLT (Tequila Works).

The above games will for now only be available through Stadia’s monthly subscription service but Google has stated that it will add a Stadia Base tier for users who just want to buy standalone games which interest them.

Given the enormous and highly talented talent pool that Google has at its disposal, and aside from this a huge developer community of people who might release games for the platform, we’re expecting plenty more to follow these games for the Stadia. The device will let users stream all their games in real time, in keeping with the running trend in the overall gaming landscape. Microsoft’s own Xbox 2 is going in the same direction and will also have plenty of live, real-time streaming built into it.

As for the Stadia’s specs, they include everything that the Chromecast Ultra already offers in terms of storage and connectivity and as a result of the Ultra’s 4K HDR compatibility, users who buy into Stadia can use the system for lag-free HDR gaming at up to 60fps and 4K HDR video capacity at the same speed. Pulling this off would require access to an internet connectivity speed of at least 25-30 consistent Mbps and users who can only get less than that will be stuck with 1080p or 720p gaming at 60fps. This might not be a bad thing for those players though since the 4K connection to the Stadia’s streamed games will mean massive bandwidth use from their ISP, with just a couple hours of gameplay at the Stadia’s maximum resolution costing 1 TB of data transmission.

Also Read:
Our Guide to today’s absolute best streaming media set-top boxes for all the 4K ultra HD content you can handle

stadia-connectionspeed-resolution

The most interesting aspect of the Stadia platform from Google is that it doesn’t conform to the standard idea of a game system with a distinct console. Building such a device is how Microsoft and Sony ended up carving up their gigantic and usually competing shares of the non-PC gaming landscape but Google, a company that has never been exceptionally strong on hardware, has instead focused on joining together existing light hardware already available for movie and TV app streaming and adding to it a shiny new streaming service for games at their best currently possible resolutions. Where Google excels is in massively improving and delivering new spins on online services of all kinds (including more video than anyone else via YouTube). They’ve also pulled this off with email, storage, streamed media and so many other things virtually everyone uses today. And for this reason, we suspect they’ll excel at doing the same for gaming too.

Just as importantly, what the company is capable of showing to the consumer tech world is that it’s possible to enter the streaming major games market without a huge investment in the design and construction of specific, highly specialized gaming hardware like that found in Xbox and PS4 rigs. This could mean a near future in which many more brands enter the same space to create a much more diverse and opened up streamed gaming landscape.

Story by 4k.com

The post A Look At What Google’s 4K 60FPS Stadia Gaming Platform Means For The Market appeared first on .

ATSC 3.0: Free 4K HDR Broadcast TV Is Finally Coming and Here’s What it Means for You

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Stephan Jukic – July 12, 2019

It’s been years in the planning and making, but it seems that the ATSC 3.0 standard for next generation broadcast TV will finally start being rolled out for public use on broadcast TV networks, and this rollout could mean a lot of cool things.

Promises of next generation ATSC 3.0 capability for free open-air TV broadcasts have been floating around for at least a couple years and we here at 4K.com have posted on them in the past. Now however, the new technology has finally been kicked off by several U.S TV stations and it means the capacity to deliver 4K ultra HD resolution at up to a very robust 120Hz along with HDR mastering and wide color gamut (a part of HDR basically). Best of all though, and this bears repeating, this whole package of new technology is going to be free, just like the current generation of ATSC 1.0 HD over-the-air TV broadcasts. All that consumers will need is either a 4K TV with ATSC 3.0 support or a tuner with ATSC 3.0 functionality and any tuner-supporting 4K TV. Neither of these exist yet of course, but we’ll get back to that soon.

ATSC 3.0 TEST TV

What ATSC 3.0 means for the market

Proponents of the new broadcast standard are also claiming that it will deliver better reception across the board, meaning that it should enter devices more strongly indoors or outdoors in moving objects, which could include mobile devices.

This is where a couple of major and minor catches come into play:

First of all, the new standard also comes with a certain degree of smart technology that existing broadcast TV lacks. In effect this means that broadcasters will now be able to monitor the viewing habits of their free OTA (over-the-air) consumers just like other media companies for streaming content or social media delivery can do now with digitally connected customers. In other words, your reruns of old Star Trek episodes and late-night infomercial viewing vices are going to be tracked, and used to deliver you targeted advertising content.

There’s a second major catch and it’s that no current 4K TVs actually support ATSC 3.0, so for millions of consumers who bought a UHD television and will soon (possibly) finally be able to use it for a truly broad range of free 4K content, obstacles still exist.

A solution to this is on the way though. because by 2020, new 4K TVs will almost certainly be coming out with ATSC 3.0 compatibility.  And for many older TVs, we might even be able to expect firmware updates that close the gap. Either way, external compatible tuners will start going on sale that can decode the new ATSC broadcasts to a TV without built-in compatibility. These are the promises and expectations to expect for next year, even if right now, in mid-2019, you still can’t buy either tuners or TVs that have the above capabilities.

For both consumers and 4K TV makers, there’s no rush yet anyhow though, because while ATSC 3.0 signals are already being broadcast by some U.S stations, most don’t yet even have their licenses for the new standard ready. Stations operating in the largest several dozen U.S broadcast markets in urban areas have already “committed” to broadcasting by the time 2020 ends but this is still a year or more down the road.

In other words, next-gen ATSC seems to finally be on the way with a definitive entry date that makes things much less speculative at this point.

The bottom line about all of the above is that ATSC 3.0 will make a lot of 4K UHD HDR content completely free on any 4K TV with the right technical specs or external tuner, and that will really have the potential to move massive amounts of new 4K content forward in the U.S market.  Ultra HD content that today remains limited mostly to streaming, VoD and satellite service providers on a paid basis will be distributed on a mass public level, and even with HDR integration. This means new incentives for the creation of 4K HDR content on a scale not yet seen, and the development of a broadcast TV landscape much that much more dynamic than what exists today.

Regulatory and Technical Details

On a slightly more technical level, providers of ATSC 3.0 will still support all sorts of broadcasts in lower resolutions, and deliver them to both 4K and non-4K TVs that accept the new standard. For owners of 4K TVs this means the usual internal (in the TV) upscaling of content that has been delivered over either broadcast technology and for owners of non-4K TVs it means that they’ll still get their content as usual. Furthermore, the developers of ATSC 3.0 have promised better reception indoors and in dense urban areas. The reason for this is that the new standard uses OFDM broadcast technology in place of the older 8VSB system for existing distribution. The result is a stronger delivery of signals.

As for how the ATSC 3.0 standard will manage to deliver all that data-intensive detail of 4K resolution, the most fundamental reason is that it incorporates the HEVC H.265 content compression process used in most other sources of 4K movies and content through streaming and other sources. This means limited bandwidth increases in existing stations despite the larger data loads and more importantly it means that stations across the U.S can more cheaply adopt ATSC 3.0 to quickly accelerate its rollout.

There are however still some obstacles to the rollout of ATSC 3.0 working behind the scenes. For one thing, unlike during the switch-over from analog broadcasting to digital TV in the early 2000’s when a full change to digital was mandated by the FCC, the same forced shift isn’t happening now. In this case, due to this being a switch from one digital standard (ATSC 1.0) to a new one instead of to a whole new medium, ATSC 3.0 is completely voluntary for broadcasters who can stick to ATSC 1.0 or go for both, with no obligation to shift over to it being considered by authorities at this time.

As a result, there does exist at least a possibility that many stations simply decide to not bother with ATSC 3.0 due to its additional costs and the need to share transmitters that could simply be used for ATSC 1.0 HD broadcasts. However, as we already noted, a large number of stations in 40 U.S markets have already pledged to start giving customers ATSC 3.0 content with 4K and HDR and some are already broadcasting now on an experimental basis.

The complex systems needed for ATSC 3.0 functionality

The complex systems needed for ATSC 3.0 functionality

Furthermore, given the stiff competition that broadcast providers get from cable, streaming and satellite entertainment to TVs, ATSC 3.0 is exactly the potential salvation they should come to love, because aside from offering better coverage quality and integrated safety features, it will finally let them evenly compete with other digital media sources on content picture quality and smart features that include targeted advertising capacity in a market increasingly dominated by 4K HDR smart TVs in consumers’ homes.

Smart Features and Privacy Concerns

Moving back to these very same “smart” features that ATSC 3.0 will bring to broadcast home TV, the first is the one just mentioned, by which TVs broadcasting content via this new standard will be able to monitor consumers’ over-the-air TV watching habits and deliver customized advertising based on that. For broadcasters, this is a major selling point of ATSC 3.0 and a technical dream for the increasingly stagnant broadcast advertising industry. A whole plethora of ad deals will be possible for broadcast providers who will now be able to offer new services in which they can potentially target millions of customers based on viewing habits, perceived income and even ethnicity. This has never before existed for broadcast TV and as a result, a steadily growing portion of advertising revenue has shifted from conventional broadcast TV to targeted internet platforms. This trend could now finally slow down or even reverse.

The tradeoff for you as a viewer of broadcast channels in your area is that your one remaining means of watching movies, TV shows, documentaries, infomercials and other content without having your choices monitored will now start to disappear.

The good news for privacy-conscious TV owners here is that in order for these ATSC 3.0 broadcast content viewing habits to be tracked, their TV has to also be connected to the internet so it can send BACK data about the content being broadcast to it over the air. In other words, for consumers who want to avoid this, one possible trick will simply be to disconnect their internet connectivity. Is this impractical for anyone who wants to switch between Netflix and regular channels on a whim? Of course, but that might be the price to pay, for whatever it’s worth considering just how much existing smart TV platforms already track their users.

Other exotic aspects of what ATSC 3.0 will mean for TV owners include the ability by broadcasters and authorities to remotely activate a smart TV hooked to the standard for the sake of emergency broadcasts in a given city or area. As creepy as this detail sounds, it’s being touted as a benefit for natural or man-made disasters, and might just be so.

ATSC 3.0 4K TV CONTENT

ATSC 3.0 and 4K HDR Content Beyond TVs

Additionally, ATSC 3.0 could possibly mean free TV watching right on your phone or other mobile device. How? Well, because the same TV broadcasters now investing in ATSC 3.0 adoption know that millions of Americans watch a ton of their favorite content from paid sources right from their phones. Thus, in exchange for having access to even more content completely free of charge, the incentive for consumers could be to want phones with integrated ATSC 3.0 tuners. The still powerful broadcast industry, knowing that ATSC 3.0 to phones means a guaranteed internet connection for letting these broadcasters collect targeting data for ads, will likely also push for phones to emerge with ATSC 3.0 tuners built into them.

Yes, this will obviously get fought by mobile service providers who fundamentally prefer being able to sell data to their customers (much of it in the form of video content) instead of seeing it get delivered for free but ultimately, the market, -depending on consumer demand, broadcaster clout and phone maker agreements with either broadcasters or mobile service providers- will decide what happens with ATSC 3.0 in the phone content landscape.

The possibilities around phones aside, most immediate of all is the nearly guaranteed arrival of this new 4K HDR-friendly free content broadcast standard to the next generations of 4K TVs in 2020 and beyond.

Also Read:
Our guide to the absolute best 55 Inch 4K HDR TVs of 2018 and 2019
Our guide to the best performing 65 inch 4K HDR TVs of 2019

What this means for you as a consumer

This of course brings us to the question that you as a TV owner probably want an answer to: what will this mean for your 4K TV choices and home theater budget?

Even 8K content will be deliverable via ATSC 3.0 down the road

Even 8K content will be deliverable via ATSC 3.0 down the road

The likely answer is that not much at all. If ATSC 3.0 really does go live on a major scale from 2020 onwards, owners of 4K HDR TVs from before 2020 will almost certainly be able to quickly and cheaply buy tuners geared for the new standard. At the very least, the FCC has already obligated broadcasters to run the older ATSC 1.0 HD content broadcast standard for at least 5 years after any of them adopt ATSC 3.0. So if you as a consumer will have all that time in which to either replace your TV for a new ATSC 3.0-compatible model or, much more cheaply, just go for an external tuner (assuming your 4K TV offers a tuner input) until you replace your 4K TV for other reasons.

Either way, getting all that free ATSC 3.0 content that we might be able to expect by next year shouldn’t be expensive and definitely won’t mean having to buy a whole news 4K HDR TV just because of this.

Furthermore, in the 4K TV production market, things are almost sure to move quickly: Given how quickly 4K resolution and HDR support have been integrated into digital TVs in just 5 years, televisions with ATSC 3.0 support thrown in are very likely going to pop up on the market right after wider adoption by broadcasters.

This means that any of you who do want to replace your older TV soon anyhow will probably be able to buy a model with support for the new 4K HDR version of ATSC by the end of next year. Does this then mean you should wait to buy a new 4K HDR TV until then just because of this? Well no. Enough digital 4K content from other sources is already available to make waiting for broadcast sources of it into a tedious game, and in any case, ATSC 3.0 tuners are sure to come much earlier for existing TVs.

Also see:
Our complete guide to today’s best 4K HDR TVs for every budget and home size
Ranking the best 4K TVs of 2019 for less than $1000

Whatever the details surrounding the 4K TV, content and regulatory landscape might be next year, 2020 and 2021 will at least be very interesting in terms of how much new 4K content we might start seeing.

Story by 4k.com

The post ATSC 3.0: Free 4K HDR Broadcast TV Is Finally Coming and Here’s What it Means for You appeared first on .

The 10 Best 4K HDR Gaming TVs of 2019

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Stephan Jukic – October 8, 2019

Almost all modern 4K UHD TVs are generally much better for gaming than your average TV of any kind was just a few years ago. Better connectivity specs, better display technologies and other improved display developments nearly guarantee that even a budget or mid-range ultra HD TV outperforms most older televisions at input lag, responsiveness, motion handling and most importantly of all, sheer visual quality.

This display aspect of today’s 4K UHD TVs became even more impressive with the introduction of high dynamic range to nearly every UHD TV released since 2017. Now that essentially all new TVs come with HDR, they have the ability to add a whole new element of in-game visual quality that you’d probably really want to enjoy if you’re serious about quality gaming. Also, since most newer console and PC games come with HDR options, it only makes sense to enjoy them on the best possible TVs, which are of course HDR 4K editions.

The 10 Best 4K HDR Gaming TVs of 2018 and 2019

What you’ll also notice about this list is that “best possible 4K HDR gaming TV” doesn’t at all have to mean “most expensive possible gaming TV.” Though this list is obviously a ranking of 4K HDR gaming TVs from best to least, what you’ll notice is that price isn’t necessarily a major metric of quality, and some of our absolutely best ranked editions are actually among the cheaper options available out there, starting with number 1, which is not only the best 4K HDR gaming TV we’ve ever seen across all metrics but also one of the cheapest options of its kind.

Now before we get down to the rankings themselves, one more quick explanation: We were originally going to do one list for the best 4K UHD TVs and one for the best 4K HDR TVs but since almost every newer UHD TV released since 2017 that’s worth mentioning comes with HDR technology, both rankings would include most of the same devices.

Instead we’ve created one straightforward list in which we divide the three best OLED TVs from the remaining LCD TVs and we name our hands-down overall winner at the very end.

Best OLED Gaming TVs

As far as gaming quality is concerned, both LCD TVs and OLED editions can deliver most of the exact same quality if they’re well made. However, OLEDs do add a couple special touches. For one thing, they completely outclass LCD on motion blur control and secondly, they offer perfect black levels, local dimming and contrast for even more vibrant picture quality. This is why we decided to put our best OLED picks in their own list. We should also note that the OLED TVs of 2019 have the best gaming input lag we’ve ever seen to-date from OLED technology

1. 2019 LG B9 OLED 4K HDR TV

LG’s B9 OLED is the best OLED 4K HDR TV we know of for gaming today and quite frankly it’s pretty much the best gaming TV of them all (though a couple of LCD models give it stiff competition). We say this because the B9 delivers just about everything you could want with virtually no real defects or serious weaknesses. This television’s display specs are nothing short of spectacular, with fantastic color delivery, excellent HDR color handling, superbly perfect black levels, contrast and local dimming (due to its OLED display) and of course, completely flexible motion handling with unbeatable input lag and PC connectivity.

Certain LCD 4K TVs can get brighter and LG’s own 2018 B8 OLED is nearly as good (and brighter) for en even cheaper price tag, but the B9 delivers nearly instant motion response times, even lower input lag and still comes priced very cheaply by OLED standards. Also, best of all compared to the B8, the B9 offers HDMI 2.1 for 4K rendering at 120Hz and not just the 60Hz limit of HDMI 2.0. We can’t recommend it enough for how well it balances out everything you’d need.

Minimum retail price (smallest, 55 inch model): Check out the link below

Our in-depth review of LG's stunningly good & surprisingly affordable B9 4K OLED HDR TV

Check out LG’s B9 OLED 4K HDR TV for sale at Amazon

4.7 – 4 Reviews
Also read:
Our in-depth review of LG’s stunningly good & surprisingly affordable B9 4K OLED HDR TV
2. 2018 LG B8 OLED 4K HDR TV

As far as rankings of OLED TVs go, the LG B8 gives the B9 we rank right above it some very stiff competition. This particular UHD OLED TV delivers pretty much everything that the B9 can manage in terms of display specs but also offers a slightly higher level of overall display brightness for gaming in both HDR and normal SDR color/contrast formats. What the B8 lacks, which gives it a lower rank, is the HDMI 2.1 connectivity of the B9, and the same connectivity options for hooking it up to a PC gaming rig. Also, the overall input lag of the B8 is about twice as slow as that of the B9.

This TV still delivers excellent input lag for gaming at nearly every resolution and color format you throw at it but where the B9 averages about 13 to 14 milliseconds, the B8 levels off at around 21. On a brighter note, the B8 is fantastically cheap as an OLED gaming device, with a retail price of just over $1000 for the 55 inch edition. That’s fantastic if you want top-shelf OLED visuals but need to shave as much money as you can off what you pay.

Minimum retail price (smallest, 55 inch model): Check out the link below

The 10 Best 4K HDR Gaming TVs of 2018 and 2019

Check out LG’s B8 OLED 4K HDR TV for sale at Amazon

4.7 – 4 Reviews
ALSO READ:
Our in-depth review of LG’s Excellent and highly affordable B8 OLED 4K HDR TV
3. 2019 LG C9 OLED 4K HDR TV

The LG C9 needs to be ranked here too because it’s so nearly identical to the B9 OLED but with slightly better color delivery and some better future-proofing in its connectivity specs. This TV costs a fair bit more than its two cousins that we’ve ranked a bit higher but its input lag for gaming is nothing short of fantastic and coupled with the inclusion of cutting-edge TV technologies such as HDMI 2.1, eARC, and HDMI Forum’s variable refresh rate technology for all of its HDMI ports make this model a great choice.

The C9 offers slightly more vibrant HDR color delivery in terms of WCG color and 10-bit color gradation than the B9 or B8 alternatives from LG and its motion handling is nearly identical to those of the cheaper TVs ranked above. The one negative about this TVs visual specs is that it (oddly) doesn’t get quite as bright as the B8 OLED but the difference isn’t huge. Another factor working against the C9 OLED is that it’s about $200 more expensive than the B9 edition even though they have the same connectivity and display specs.

Minimum retail price (smallest, 55 inch model): Check out the link below

The 10 Best 4K HDR Gaming TVs of 2018 and 2019

Check out LG’s C9 OLED 4K HDR TV for sale at Amazon

4.7 – 4 Reviews
ALSO READ:
Our in-depth review of LG’s C9 4K UHD HDR OLED TV
4. Sony A8G OLED 4K HDR TV

Sony’s A8G OLED is one of the Sony company’s latest OLED 4K offerings, but the reason we include this model ate the bottom of the OLED section of our list is because it’s not quite as fine a performer as the three LG TVs above. On the one hand, this TV comes with a price that’s comparable to that of the C9 ranked just above it, but on the other hand it just doesn’t quite deliver the same motion handling or overall gaming prowess as the LG alternatives. In particular, this model’s input lag specs are nowhere near as good as those of the two 2019 LG options listed above.

The A8G OLED however does deliver up incredibly powerful color performance, on which it outclasses even the C9 or the B8 while also being a fairly luminous OLED HDR TV by OLED standards. What the Sony A8G does lack however is HDMI 2.1 connectivity for 4K video at over 60Hz, and it also comes with no variable refresh rate technology of any kind for gaming.

Sony Also released their A9G OLED Edition for 2019, which offers slightly better gaming connectivity than the A8G but we picked the cheaper Sony OLED television because it offers nearly the same performance at a price that’s several hundred dollars cheaper.
Minimum retail price (smallest, 55 inch model): Check out the link below

The 10 Best 4K HDR Gaming TVs of 2018 and 2019

Check out Sony’s A8G OLED 4K HDR TV for sale at Amazon

4.7 – 4 Reviews
ALSO READ:
Sony’s Stunningly good but reasonably priced A8G OLED 4K HDR TV

Best LCD 4K HDR Gaming TVs

LCD TVs don’t quite equal OLED displays on pixel response time and though their black levels and contrast ratios can be downright excellent, they simply can’t match how perfectly an OLED TV delivers them. On the other hand, any high quality LCD TV will deliver much better overall picture brightness than virtually any OLED edition, so if you really want the highlights to light up powerfully, LCD is the winner for that. These are the best LCD editions we know of, with both price and sheer performance balanced out.

1. Samsung Q80R 4K HDR LCD TV

Samsung’s Q80R HDR TV is the company’s “second best” 2019 QLED television in terms of overall display and motion performance for all uses, but when it comes to being a 4K HDR TV for gaming and HDR gaming, we definitely consider this model to be our number one choice. The reason why: it delivers a triple combination of superbly good display specs, a more reasonable price than its cousin the Q90R and the absolute best console gaming specs we’ve seen to-date.

The motion handling of the Q80R is nothing short of superb and this applies especially to its management of motion blur and pixel response time. Furthermore, this TV delivers some of the best low input lag we’ve ever seen when used for gameplay with both the Xbox One or the PS4 and their next-generation variants.

With these consoles, the Q80R handles a very broad range of resolution, frame rate, color and HDR settings fantastically while also offering AMD FreeSync technology as a major bonus feature for smooth frame rate synchronization. Connected to a PC rig, the Q80R also connects superbly, with the FreeSync being very handy if your PC gaming rig happens to run AMD GPUs.

Minimum retail price (smallest, 55 inch model): Check out the link below

The 10 Best 4K HDR Gaming TVs of 2018 and 2019

 

Check out Samsung’s QLED Q80R 4K HDR LCD TV for sale at Amazon

4.7 – 4 Reviews
2. 2019 Sony X950G 4K HDR TV

The Sony X950G comes with a very reasonable price tag and delivers some of the best color accuracy of all the 2019 LCD TVs released so far. Even right out of the box, this edition is wonderfully calibrated for really good color delivery and that only gets better after a bit of menu adjustment by the user. Furthermore, the X950G’s VA TV display delivers some very decent deep black levels by LCD TV standards. This couples with a capacity for extremely high display brightness to ensure maximum contrast and vibrancy with any HDR gaming content you throw at this model.

Unlike the Samsung TV’s we’ve ranked here, the X950G lacks AMD FreeSync technology but despite this it still performs extremely well at handling gaming frame rate control. Its input lag is very nicely low too and the X950G’s connectivity specs are very flexible in their support for HDR color, different resolutions, different frame rates and most PC gaming needs with very low input lag. The X950G also delivers superbly good motion handling, with one very low level of blur during even fast-moving game content.

Minimum retail price (smallest, 55 inch model): Check out the link below

The 10 Best 4K HDR Gaming TVs of 2018 and 2019

 

 

Check out Sony’s X950G 4K HDR LCD TV for sale at Amazon

4.7 – 4 Reviews
Also Read:
Our in-depth review of Sony’s X950G 4K UHD HDR LCD TV
3. 2019 Samsung Q90R QLED 4K HDR TV

This 4K HDR LCD TV is our pick for the single best overall LCD TV of 2019 and damn is it good. The Q90R is expensive, no doubt about that, and that’s why we gave it third place, since both the Q80R and Sony X950G above perform similarly enough to deliver better overall value for their cost. However, the Q90R is the better gaming and HDR gaming TV in absolute terms of specs and damn does it deliver a crapload of incredible overall connectivity, motion handling and picture quality to make its price nearly worthwhile. In other words, if you want the absolute best 2019 model 4K HDR TV for gaming outside of OLED technology, the Q90R is the model to go for hands down, so long as you don’t mind its price.

This edition delivers some of the best HDR color performance we’ve ever seen, its motion handling is superb (though the pixel response time isn’t quite as good as that of any OLED TV). The Q90R also comes with full HDMI 2.1 connectivity in its HDMI ports and in terms of handling console games at a wide range of frame rates, color settings, HDR settings and resolutions, is uniformly great when set to game mode. It also supports variable refresh rate technology in the form of AMD FreeSync, which alone makes it stand out from many other 4K TVs for both PC gaming and console connectivity. Bottom line for the Q90R: Hands down awesome as a 4K gaming TV even though it’s expensive.

Minimum retail price (smallest, 65 inch model): Check out the link below

The 10 Best 4K HDR Gaming TVs of 2018 and 2019

Check out Samsung’s Q90R 4K HDR LCD TV for sale at Amazon

4.7 – 4 Reviews
Also Read:
Our In-depth guide to todays absolute best streaming media devices and platforms
 Our In-depth review of Samsung’s ultra-bright flagship 2019 Q90R 4K HDR TV
4. Samsung Q70R 4K HDR LCD TV

Samsung once again features in our rankings with the Q70R. This is the third-tier 2019 QLED TV put out by this brand and while it doesn’t quite match the color, motion handling, contrast and general HDR display metrics of the LCD TVs ranked above from both Sony and Samsung, this model still outputs some of the best input lag specs we’ve ever seen. Where the Q70R particularly excels is in its delivery of AMD FreeSync technology and this makes it particularly robust as a gaming TV if used with PCs with AMD GPUs or with the Xbox One console and its One S and One X versions.

The Q70R is also very, very good at rendering strong contrast, excellent HDR brightness and comes with a fairly decent full array LED backlight system with local dimming for even better, more eye-pleasing contrast enhancements. While this particular TV doesn’t get as bright as Samsung’s Q90 or Q80 models we ranked above, or even as bright as the Sony X950G, it delivers more than enough power to be an extremely good choice for its price tag.

Bottom line: The Samsung Q70R is our top pick for 4K HDR gaming TV with a more moderate price.

Minimum retail price (smallest model): Check out the link below

The 10 Best 4K HDR Gaming TVs of 2018 and 2019

Check out Samsung’s Q70R 4K HDR LCD TV for sale at Amazon

4.7 – 4 Reviews
5. TCL 6-Series 4K HDR LCD TV

The 2018 Vizio P-Series R617 is hands-down the single best ultra-budget 4K HDR gaming TV we’ve seen so far if measured among both 2018 and 2019 4K TVs. Why do we say this? Because despite its wonderfully low price and slight age, the 2018 P-Series continues to impress with across-the-board great specs that include extremely good display brightness, incredibly, unexpectedly great color delivery (especially for HDR wide color gamut) and a really strong, deep contrast ratio.

The 2018 P-series also offers up excellent local dimming that’s actually much better than what you’d see in many pricier 2018 and 2019 4K UHD TVs. On a further note, the 4K HDR TV delivers very, very low input lag for HDR, 4K, 1080P and high frame rate gaming. As a 4K gaming TV for general use, the P-Series is excellent and as a budget 4K HDR gaming TV, it’s simply awesome for how little it costs.

Minimum retail price (smallest model): Check out the link below

The 10 Best 4K HDR Gaming TVs of 2018 and 2019

Check out TCL’s 6-Series 4K HDR LCD TV for sale at Amazon

4.7 – 4 Reviews
Also read:
Our detailed review of TCL’s R617 6-Series 4K HDR TV
6. Vizio P-Series Quantum 2019 4K UHD HDR TV

On a final note, we present the incredibly good Vizio P-Series Quantum 2018 4K HDR LCD TV series. This particular television is in fact one of the best we’ve ever seen on several key display performance metrics but because it’s becoming unusually hard to find, we ranked it fairly low on this list. That said, the Vizio P-Series Quantum models were some of the best LCD TV releases of 2018 and this applies to both their gaming chops and their quality for general movie/TV watching. For one thing, this TV delivers some of the absolute highest display brightness measurements we’ve ever seen in any 4K TV to-date, especially when set to display HDR games and movie or TV content. Secondly, the 2018 P-Series Quantum offers close to the best HDR wide color gamut performance we’ve ever seen so far.

In other important specs, the P-Series Quantum renders incredibly good motion handling, excellent low input lag (though Samsung’s QLEDs above and LG’s OLEDs beat it on these metrics), and very extensive connectivity options. Vizio has also released a 2019 P-Series Quantum TV lineup but their specs are too similar to those of the 2018 version for their considerably higher price.
Minimum retail price (smallest model): Check out the link below

The 10 Best 4K HDR Gaming TVs of 2018 and 2019

Check out Vizio’s P-Series Quantum 4K HDR TV for sale at Amazon

4.7 – 4 Reviews
The Single Best 4K HDR Gaming TV of 2019 (OLED or LCD)
The LG C9 OLED 4K HDR TV

Without a doubt our winner for the ranking of single best 4K HDR gaming TV for 2019 is the C9. It’s a bit more expensive than the nearly identical B9 OLED but its combination of extremely high display brightness, fantastic color performance, superbly responsive gameplay connectivity (especially the extremely low input lag) and cutting-edge connectivity specs make the C9 a hands-down winner compared to anything else we’ve seen this year, or maybe even ever. The display brightness is what really settles the C9’s ranking for us though; good gaming is always better with the bright highlights at their maximum beauty and the C9 delivers this really well along with all of its other OLED quality.

Once again:

The 10 Best 4K HDR Gaming TVs of 2018 and 2019

 

Check out LG’s C9 OLED 4K HDR TV for sale at Amazon

4.7 – 4 Reviews

 

Story by 4k.com

 

The post The 10 Best 4K HDR Gaming TVs of 2019 appeared first on .

The 5 Best OLED 4K HDR TVs on Sale in 2019

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Stephan Jukic – October 8, 2019

OLED 4K HDR TVs are exceptionally awesome. In several years of reviewing the best and most powerful 4K UHD TVs of all prices from every major brand, we’ve almost consistently ranked the OLED releases among our top 5 for any given year and they’ve only improved since the introduction of HDR TV display technology in the last 3 years.

Don’t get us wrong, there are many truly awesome LCD 4K HDR TVs on the market too and in certain ways, LCD TVs can be better than their OLED cousins, but as far as all the metrics of overall display performance and motion handling go, OLED models consistently kick ass. And before we get down to our ranking of the top 4 OLED TVs in existence, let’s explain why.

Also Read:
Our complete guide to today’s best 4K HDR TVs for every budget and home size
Ranking the best 4K TVs of 2019 for less than $1000
OLED vs. LCD/LED 4K HDR TVs

So, before we get down to our list of best to less awesome (but still great) OLEDs, we need to explain the main difference between OLED TV technology and LCD/LED TVs:

Your average LCD/LED 4K TV -with or without HDR- comes with a liquid crystal (the LCD part) display covered in individual pixels that can block or allow light through from an underlying LED backlight with assorted other electronic components built into it (the LED part). The best 4K LCD TVs will have hundreds of backlights spread across the entire back of the LCD screen and can turn off light from segments of these LEDs in what are called local dimming zones. The more dimming zones, the better the display works for high contrast, uniform black levels and quality local dimming around bright content (for the sake of minimal ugly halo effects during dark scenes). Cheaper LCD TVs usually only come with LED backlights along the interior edges of their displays and offer really weak local dimming or none at all. The light blocking filters inside an LCD TVs pixels do the dimming work instead in LCD/LED TVs without local dimming.

The 5 Best OLED 4K HDR TVs on Sale in 2019

 

OLED TVs work with a completely different and much more precise technology: OLED stands for Organic Light Emitting Diode and that’s exactly what each pixel inside an OLED TV contains, a tiny light diode that can be lit up or completely turned off individually. Again, this is located right inside each individual pixel on an OLED 4K TV screen, meaning that there are 8.29 million diodes in the display.

Because of this, local dimming in an OLED TV is precise right down to the level of individual pixels, making it totally free of halo effects and far superior to what any LCD can deliver. Furthermore, because the individual pixel light sources themselves can be completely shut off, OLED TVs can produce perfect, total black levels and infinite contrast for content. These are huge benefits of OLED 4K TVs, especially for HDR content, which partly depends on strong contrast and deep blacks.

The 5 Best OLED 4K HDR TVs on Sale in 2019

Another major benefit of OLED displays is that their pixels can respond to changes in color and lighting much quicker (up to 10x or more) than LCD TV pixels. This means that motion blur for fast-paced content can be reduced to almost nothing and for movies, sports or high-resolution games, this is a great point in favor of OLED. Motion interpolation is about the same in high quality LCD TVs as it is in today’s premium OLED TVs but because of the motion blur control that OLED does so much better, these televisions are generally better motion control performers.

The 5 Best OLED 4K HDR TVs on Sale in 2019

In all other regards; in terms of HDR color performance, upscaling, audio and connectivity, OLED TVs and their premium LCD/LED counterparts are pretty evenly matched depending on how their manufacturers decided to build them.

On the negative side of things, OLED TVs can’t get nearly as bright as the best LCD TVs simply because OLED technology hasn’t been developed to create the same maximum possible luminance as a strong backlight LED can deliver. This is a major weakness of OLED but it’s the only real weakness of the technology and OLED has improved by leaps and bounds on brightness too, to the point that today’s best OLED 4K HDR TVs can beat or at least match the maximum display brightness of all but the priciest and best LCD 4K HDR TVs.

 

So now you see why OLED rocks so much? It comes with only one moderate known defect and beats or evenly matches LCD on every other metric of 4K TV performance.

ALSO READ:
Sony’s Stunningly good but reasonably priced A8G OLED 4K HDR TV
Sony’s ultra-premium A9G OLED 4K HDR TV
Our in-depth review of LG’s C9 4K UHD HDR OLED TV
Our in-depth review of LG’s stunningly good & surprisingly affordable B9 4K OLED HDR TV
Our in-depth review of LG’s Fantastic premium E9 OLED 4K HDR TV
The 5 Best OLED TVs of 2019

Now that you know what OLED TV technology is and how it compares to LCD TV design, let’s get down to our rankings and why we ranked each OLED in its order.

The OLED 4K TV releases of the last couple years have been the best we’ve ever seen. They’re brighter than ever, more vibrant at color delivery than ever and better at motion handling than we’ve ever seen them in previous years. However, the following five editions stand out for their exceptional specific specs and value for their prices. All are LG or Sony models, because on the North American market, only these two brands really sell OLED TVs through major retailers.

(In a side note, Sony’s OLED TV panels are actually also made by LG but work with Sony picture processing technology, so even though the basic panels might be the same either way, each brand adds in its own performance trimmings)

1. LG C9 OLED 2019 Edition HDR 4K TV

Without a doubt our single favorite OLED TV of the year is the C9. It delivers pretty much everything and at a price that isn’t completely wallet crushing. What makes the C9 especially awesome is its combination of extremely high display luminosity (the highest we’ve seen of all the 2019 OLED TV releases we’ve reviewed), stunningly good color delivery, incredibly responsive gaming connectivity and the inclusion of the latest in connectivity technology with HDMI 2.1 ports across the board. The C9 OLED is very nearly a perfect console gamers 4K HDR TV and it’s also awesome for handling your favorite action movies, sportscasts or just about any ordinary content you throw at it too. We can’t recommend this model enough even if it’s not the cheapest 4K OLED TV you can get. The C9 is available in three sizes too, with a nice and compact 55 inch version that really isn’t too pricey, a robust 65 inch edition that’s more or less reasonably priced and a monster 77 inch edition that will truly take your4K HDR movies and gaming to a whole new level of immersion.

The 5 Best OLED 4K HDR TVs on Sale in 2019

Check out LG’s C9 OLED 4K HDR TV for sale at Amazon

4.7 – 4 Reviews

2. LG B9 OLED 2019 Edition HDR 4K TV

The LG B9 is pretty much identical to the LG C9 in nearly every way except that it doesn’t quite deliver the same color vibrancy, (but the difference is tiny enough to barely be noticeable), doesn’t get quite as bright for HDR content and doesn’t come in a giant 77 inch edition. In terms of all other major specs though, this particular OLED TV is just as good, with identically great motion handling, superb gaming chops, cutting-edge HDMI 2.1 connectivity and typically perfect OLED black levels and contrast. What makes the B9 particularly excellent though is that its price is at least a couple hundred dollars lower than that of the C9 for the 55 inch version and several hundred dollars cheaper for the 65 inch version. So in other words, unless you want a 77 inch OLED or need the absolute maximum that you can get on brightness, the B9 is the best 2019 OLED 4K HDR TV deal there is right now.

The 5 Best OLED 4K HDR TVs on Sale in 2019

Check out LG’s B9 OLED 4K HDR TV for sale at Amazon

4.7 – 4 Reviews

3. Sony A9F Early 2019 Edition OLED 4K HDR TV

Sony’s single best OLED TV since the company started releasing OLEDs is the A9F in our opinion. This beast really kicks ass across the board and is the best that Sony has to offer even if we compare it to the company’s 2019 OLED 4K HDR releases. That’s how good the A9F is. For one thing, the A9F is the single best OLED TV we know of for movie watching, thanks to its fantastically good color gamut, extremely high peak brightness and excellent motion handling. Secondly, it comes with Sony’s wonderful Android TV smart platform, with comes crammed with entertainment apps and access to the Google Play store, which gives you the ability to download additional apps that few other smart TV platform can deliver. The A9F is also a really good gaming 4K TV, with very decent input lag when hooked up to consoles and good connectivity options for use as a PC monitor. It may be older than Sony’s newest OLED editions but it’s still better than them and not too badly priced by Sony standards.

The 5 Best OLED 4K HDR TVs on Sale in 2019

Check out Sony’s best 2019 OLED, the A9F for sale at Amazon

4.7 – 4 Reviews

4. LG B8 2018 Edition OLED 4K HDR TV

The LG B8 OLED is hands down the single cheapest high quality ultra HD TV of its kind with HDR that we know of. It can output peak luminosity just as powerfully as our number 1 the C9 and it manages to deliver some truly spectacular color delivery for both HDR and SDR content despite being a 2018 4K TV model. The B8 is also one superb 4K or HDR gaming TV in terms of input lag if connected to any of the major game consoles. On the negative side, the B8 doesn’t come with HDMI 2.1, it has no HDMI Forum VRR (variable refresh rate) support for gaming smoothness and its processor is the 2018 Alpha 7 engine, which is just a bit less responsive than the 2019 OLED TV processor. In so many other things though, the B8 absolutely holds its own nicely and at the lowest possible price for an OLED 4K HDR TV this good. The 55 inch edition retails for just a bit over $1000 as of this posting.

The 5 Best OLED 4K HDR TVs on Sale in 2019

Check out LG’s B8 OLED 4K HDR TV for sale at Amazon

4.7 – 4 Reviews

5. Sony A8G OLED 4K HDR TV

Sony’s A8G is the brand’s second-tier 2019 OLED, with a price that’s much cheaper than that of the top-tier 2019 A9G OLED. Despite this, the A8G is just as strong a performer as the A9G and gives stiff competition to LG’s C9 and B9 models on most specs. What made us rank it in last place is that it doesn’t get quite as bright as the C9 despite its equal price tag and that it lacks the HDMI 2.1 connectivity of its LG counterparts. The Sony A8G also doesn’t deliver quite the razor responsive gaming input connectivity that LG’s two OLEDs above can offer. Additionally, it just doesn’t have the same high brightness and color delivery specs as the Sony A9F. Despite these very minor weaknesses, this OLED is a fantastic deal if you like Sony technology and smart TV functionality. And it renders contrast, black level and local dimming just as wonderfully as its LG rivals.

The Sony A9G is just a bit brighter but pretty much the same in all other metrics of performance while costing a lot more than the A8G (or the C9 or B8) so that’s why among Sony OLED TVs, we give the A8G second place instead of the A9G.

The 5 Best OLED 4K HDR TVs on Sale in 2019

Check out Sony’s A8G OLED 4K HDR TV for sale at Amazon

4.7 – 4 Reviews
 Story by 4k.com

 

 

The post The 5 Best OLED 4K HDR TVs on Sale in 2019 appeared first on .

A Review of The TCL 6-Series R625 2019 4K HDR TV (65R625) (65R625)

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Stephan Jukic – November 6, 2019

Overview

The TCL 6-Series 4K HDR LCD TV is an incredibly good budget 4K TV model with some truly impressive display performance specs and lots of great features. It also offers absolutely superb color and gaming chops. Its other strong features include a very reasonable price, excellent contrast, deep black levels and some remarkably good local dimming for such an affordable ultra HD TV with full HDR. The 6-Series also supports Dolby Vision HDR and is a fantastic successor to the also great 2018 6-Series editions. Unfortunately, it’s only available in two sizes, but the 55 and 65 inch models are both large enough to cover most users’ needs.

Positives

• Amazing gaming connectivity
• Superb motion handling
• Really strong black level and contrast performance
• Great color delivery and HDR support
• Incredible display brightness

Negatives

• Some motion handling issues
• Weak viewing angles
• Native Audio is crappy

Bottom Line

TCL’s 2018 6-Series was amazing for its price range, and the 2019 model takes things to an even higher level. While this 4K HDR TV isn’t without a couple flaws, we simply loved it and are very impressed by how much quality and genuinely premium technology it delivers for its price. For anyone who wants a hell of a 4K HDR TV at an incredibly low price, the R625 is one of our absolute favorite picks.

A Review of The TCL 6-Series R625 2019 4K HDR TV (65R625) (65R625)

Check out TCL’s premium HDR TV, the 2019 6-Series R625 for sale at Amazon

4.7 – 4 Reviews
ALSO READ:
Sony’s Stunningly good but reasonably priced A8G OLED 4K HDR TV
Our in-depth review of LG’s C9 4K UHD HDR OLED TV
Our in-depth review of LG’s stunningly good & surprisingly affordable B9 4K OLED HDR TV
Our in-depth review of LG’s Fantastic premium E9 OLED 4K HDR TV

What We Liked about the 2019 TCL 6-Series R625

Where to start? There are so many incredibly good things about the new 2019 TCL 6-Series TVs that we have to focus on the very best features of this TV to make sure we can fit everything essential into this section. This 4K UHD TV is loaded with powerful specs and on some of them it performs downright spectacularly. Seeing its color, contrast, local dimming and gaming performance was especially impressive. Here are the best aspects of these extremely affordable 4K TVs.

Gaming connectivity

To start things off, the gaming chops of the 2019 TCL 6-Series TVs are downright superb. In our recent reviews of several premium 2019 Samsung QLED 4K UHD TVs we noted outstanding gameplay responsiveness and low input lag. Well the TCL 6-Series beats Samsung on nearly all fronts except in that it’s two editions don’t offer 120Hz display and that this TV has no support for Variable refresh rate technology in the form of AMD FreeSync. In terms of overall input lag though, the R625 is fantastic.

 

Contrast Local dimming & black rendering

The contrast ratio, black level and local dimming of the TCL 6-Series editions are all downright impressive. This 4K UHD TV model renders impressively deep, uniform black levels and these get taken a few notches higher when its high quality local dimming technology is activated. On top of this and partly as a result of both the TV’s brightness (see below) and its deep black levels, the R625 also manages to reach an incredibly high contrast ratio that’s probably the best you’ll find among any LCD TV at this edition’s price range.

Color delivery

To further complement its capacity for deep, rich black levels, the 6-Series can also output absolutely outstanding color performance nearly across the board. In terms of both HDR and regular (SDR) color performance for content and games, this television absolutely shines. Furthermore, its ability to reproduce vibrant, highly saturated colors even at very high levels of brightness or during dark scenes is exceptionally good (better in fact that what we’ve seen in many much more expensive LCD 4K HDR TVs).

A Review of The TCL 6-Series R625 2019 4K HDR TV (65R625) (65R625)

Display Brightness

The TCL 6-Series 2019 TVs are incredibly bright, when set to either SDR or HDR mode, they render very high average and peak brightness that’s nearly exceptional. This of course complements both the color and contrast/black level performance that we’ve already noted as superb in the R625 TV. Average brightness in this 4K TV is very high for either SDR or HDR content but its peak brightness is what especially impresses, since it can reach or exceed 900 nits under both HDR and normal SDR content viewing modes.

overall HDR delivery

The combination of extremely good contrast/black levels, local dimming, color saturation, fantastic display brightness and support for multiple HDR formats (including Dolby Vision) in the TCL 2019 6-Series TVs means that their general HDR capabilities are nothing short of superb. If you want to watch your favorite ultra HD movies, sportscasts or TV shows in beautiful high dynamic range on these TVs, you really won’t be disappointed by how well they render the best of that content. Their capacity for high quality HDR gaming graphics is of course also great as a result.

A Review of The TCL 6-Series R625 2019 4K HDR TV (65R625) (65R625)

 

Smart TV Platform

Finally, among all the key display features of the TCL 6-Series that we particularly liked, we need to mention this 4K TV’s smart TV platform. The R625 comes with Roku TV, which is one of our favorite smart TV interfaces in terms of both usability and its extremely extensive selection of built-in apps, content options and other features. The accompanying Roku smart remote also comes with high quality voice control technology, which is pretty useful too. This year’s edition of the remote control doesn’t include a private listening earphone port but that’s its only real defect.

A Review of The TCL 6-Series R625 2019 4K HDR TV (65R625) (65R625)

Value for Price

The final all-encompassing and maybe most important thing we like about the 2019 TCL 6-Series TV is that it simply delivers so much value for its price. The 55 inch edition is absurdly affordable at less than $600 and the 65 inch model is also very nicely priced. Considering all the premium specs, high-end features and general performance that both deliver, they are easily among the best budget 4K TV choices available right now.

A Review of The TCL 6-Series R625 2019 4K HDR TV (65R625) (65R625)

Check out TCL’s premium HDR TV, the 2019 6-Series R625 for sale at Amazon

4.7 – 4 Reviews
Also Read:
Our In-depth review of Samsung’s ultra-bright flagship 2018 Q8FN 4K HDR TV

What We Didn’t Like

The TCL 6-Series 4K TVs are superb, but they’re not perfect. And while they literally outshine other pricier 4K UHD TVs and almost any similarly priced TV edition, they do have a couple of notable flaws. The first of these might even be a sale-breaker for some users.

Motion handling issues

The first and most major problem we definitely need to mention about the TCL 6-Series 2019 editions is that their motion handling isn’t excellent. It’s very good, and usually superb for gaming but these TVs max out at only 60Hz of native refresh on their display panel and that makes them useless for gamers who want to do high-frame rate gaming at 1080p or 1440p resolutions. Secondly, because they lack advanced motion handling features like FreeSync, tear-free gaming might be difficult to avoid. On a final note, the backlight isn’t flicker-free and this sometimes creates motion artifacts and brief visual duplications that are visible from time to time.

A Review of The TCL 6-Series R625 2019 4K HDR TV (65R625) (65R625)

 

Weak viewing angles

A second issue of the TCL 6-Series 4K UHD TV is its weak viewing angles. This is caused by the native vertical alignment pixel design of these TVs and since a majority of all LCD 4K TVs come with the same technology, it’s not a problem that’s unique to the R625. Avoiding VA display is tricky and IPS, the other main LCD TV display technology also has its own problems with contrast as a counterpoint. The bottom line: the R625’s screen quickly lose contrast, color and brightness quality at angles of more than 20 degrees to either side.

A Review of The TCL 6-Series R625 2019 4K HDR TV (65R625) (65R625)

Weak Audio

Like most 4K LCD TVs in all price ranges that we’ve reviewed to-date, the TCL 625 editions offer mediocre native audio. It’s no worse in these editions than we’ve seen it in almost any other similarly priced 4K TVs but this of course means that for audio more serious than what you’d need for watching casual TV content or newscasts, it’s a good idea to buy an external speaker system or soundbar.

Also Read:
Our in-depth review of Sony’s X950G 4K UHD HDR LCD TV
Our complete guide to today’s best 4K HDR TVs for every budget and home size
Ranking the best 4K TVs of 2019 for less than $1000
Our in-depth review of LG’s C8 OLED 4K HDR TV
Our in-depth review of the best Sony OLED 4K HDR TV of 2018 and 2019, the A9F

Value for Price & Bottom Line

Our bottom line assessment of the TCL R625 6-Series 4K HDR TVs of 2019 is an absolute recommendation of these editions fort anyone on a tight budget who wants superb quality. You literally can’t find better performance at these prices in any other 2019 TV we’ve examined. The R625 models are also superb televisions for ultra HD and HDR gaming as long as you don’t mind their 60Hz refresh rate limitation.

A Review of The TCL 6-Series R625 2019 4K HDR TV (65R625) (65R625)

Check out TCL’s premium HDR TV, the 2019 6-Series R625 for sale at Amazon

4.7 – 4 Reviews

Key TCL 6-Series Specs

• Screen sizes: 55 inch 55R625, 65 inch 65R625 (TV being reviewed is 55 inches)
• Smart TV: Roku TV 2019 Edition
• HEVC (H.265) Included: Yes
• VP9 Included. Yes
• HD to UHD to 4K upscaling: Yes
• HDCP 2.2 Compliance: Yes
• HDR Support: Yes, HDR10, Hybrid Log Gamma, Dolby Vision
• Refresh Rate: 60Hz native refresh rate
• Screen Lighting: LCD Display with full-array backlighting & local dimming
• Resolution: 3840 × 2160 pixels 4K UHD
• Wireless Connectivity: Yes, includes both built-in WiFi and Ethernet port
• Remotes: Roku TV remote with voice control
• Connectivity: 4 HDMI ports (all of them 2.0a and with HDCP 2.2, 3 USB ports, 1 Ethernet port, 1 Digital Audio Out
• Contrast Ratio: 8,202:1 (native, real maximum contrast)
• Absolute Maximum Peak Brightness: 1017 nits (cd/m2)
• 3D Technology: N/A

Display Performance Metrics

The following sections and subsections are the more technically detailed meat of our review of the TCL 6-Series 4K TV. This is where we describe all of the most important performance measurements of what really makes the 4K ultra HD TVs we review and the R625 specifically in this case good or bad. This means that in the details below, you’ll get a no-nonsense breakdown of how well the TCL 6-Series delivers the features and technologies that are absolutely most important for making sure that this 4K HDR TV offers up a high level of picture quality, good motion handling, powerful connectivity and other key specs.

We’ve based the following on our measurements from one or two reviewed units but the numbers and stats accurately reflect what they should be like for any normally functioning editions of the TCL R625. Only slight variations might be the case with editions of different sizes.

Black Level, uniformity, Local Dimming and Contrast:

Black level, black uniformity, contrast and local dimming (, in which backlight LEDs behind the screen are selectively turned off in specific sections for deeper onscreen black levels) are extremely important because these specs are crucial for high perceived color vibrancy, strong HDR, and good realism in how content looks on the screen. Their importance is especially high for HDR content looking vibrant and rich.

A Review of The TCL 6-Series R625 2019 4K HDR TV (65R625) (65R625)

The TCL 6-Series 4K HDR TV delivers all of these essential and interconnected specs fantastically well. This TV comes with an extremely good local dimming feature that is surprising to see in such an affordable 4K HDR TV. Because of the local dimming and in general, the 6-Series can thus deliver excellent, highly even black uniformity, deep overall black levels and consequently, very high contrast, which sits at an exceptionally high 8,202:1 with local dimming activated and manages to reach 4,700 natively, without local dimming. As a result of these specs, colors and brightness both stand out on the TCL 6-Series.

Also Read:
Our In-depth guide to todays absolute best streaming media devices and platforms
 Our In-depth review of Samsung’s ultra-bright flagship 2019 Q90R 4K HDR TV
Also Read:
Our Comprehensive review of Samsung’s most affordable 2019 QLED TV, the Q60R

Brightness:

Speaking of brightness in the TCL R625, well, it’s downright superb. These highly affordable but powerful HDR LCD TVs actually come with full-array LED backlighting (which helps make their local dimming so good) and manage to output extremely impressive levels of display luminosity for both HDR and normal SDR content. Their display brightness is high not just for specific HDR highlights on the screen but also on average, for general TV watching in both high dynamic range and normal SDR settings. The TCL 6-Series 2019 4K HDR TV doesn’t get quite as bright in its highlights as Sony’s X950G or Samsung’s best QLED’s the Q90 or Q80, but it does perform very similarly to a lower end QLED like the Q60R, and for a TV that costs only half as much as those TVs, that’s impressive.

The settings below bear out exactly what we mean about both HDR and SDR brightness.

A Review of The TCL 6-Series R625 2019 4K HDR TV (65R625) (65R625)

TCL R625 2019 Edition SDR Brightness

  • Overall SDR peak brightness for normal content: 575 nits
  • Peak 2% display area display SDR brightness: 530 nits
  • Peak 10% display area SDR brightness: 956 nits
  • Peak 100% display area SDR brightness: 545 nits
  • Sustained 10% SDR brightness: 832 nits
  • Sustained 100% SDR brightness: 541 nits

TCL 2019 6-Series 4K TV HDR Brightness

  • Overall HDR peak brightness for normal content: 675 nits
  • Peak 2% display area display HDR brightness: 560 nits
  • Peak 10% display area HDR brightness: 1023nits
  • Peak 100% display area HDR brightness: 581 nits
  • Sustained 10% HDR brightness: 879 nits
  • Sustained 100% HDR brightness: 582 nits

Color Delivery:
On color delivery, TCL has created an impressively high level of performance in its newest ultra HD TV release. The R625 delivers very high quality colors pretty much across the board. Its color performance is not only incredibly good when it comes to rendering of high dynamic range colors, it’s also fantastic at handling color in general for almost all decently mastered content. The R625 outputs a very high level of Wide Color Gamut coverage at well above 95% and it renders 10-bit color for 1.07 billion variations or Red Green and Blue really, really well. Even more impressively, this television’s performance at rendering of high color saturation and accuracy during extremely bright or shadowy scenes is well above average in its quality. Even some of Samsung’s QLEDs don’t perform as well.

Here are the TCL R625’s key color accuracy specs too. As you can see, they’re fantastically good after just a bit of picture settings calibration (the lower the delta e and gamma numbers below, the better):

A Review of The TCL 6-Series R625 2019 4K HDR TV (65R625) (65R625)

  • Pre-calibration White Balance delta-E: 4.41
  • Pre-calibration Color delta-E: 3.28
  • Pre-calibration Gamma: 2.02
  • Post-calibration White Balance delta-E: 0.21
  • Post-calibration Color delta-E: 0.4
  • Post-calibration Gamma: 2.09
  • Wide Color Gamut: 97.8%

Motion Handling & Upscaling:
One of the few areas in which the TCL 6-Series 2019 4K HDR TV editions have some problems and weakness is in their motion handling. Overall, motion is still very good in the 6-series and many owners wouldn’t even notice problems of any kind; for example this TVs response time is excellent at 7.2 milliseconds, meaning that pixels respond rapidly at how they change colors for content, resulting in low motion blur. On the other hand, the 6-Series come with no strong motion interpolation technologies, and can interpolate content at up to 60 frames per second because of their native 60Hz panels. Smooth, judder-free playback of 24p movies and content from any source is however very good in the TCL R625. The 6-Series also comes with excellent functionality in its flicker-free and black frame insertion technologies, but again, it’s limited by the 60Hz limit of these edition’s displays.

A Review of The TCL 6-Series R625 2019 4K HDR TV (65R625) (65R625)

Moving onto content upscaling, it’s excellent in the TCL 6 Series editions. Almost all 4K TV today’s upscale content from lower-resolution sources wonderfully, and this TV will do it just fine for anything that isn’t badly mastered to begin with.

Input Performance for Gaming and PC:

The TCL 2019 6-Series TV editions are absolutely fantastic performers at how responsive their inputs are for console or PC gaming. They have some of the lowest input lag we’ve seen in ANY 2019 4K HDR TV and only their 60Hz display limitation messes up their capacity for delivering things like 1080p and 1440p content at 120Hz. These TVs also lack variable refresh rate tech of the kind that Samsung’s QLED’s come with. Despite this, the input lag and versatility of gaming at different resolutions, color settings and HDR metrics are all excellent.

A Review of The TCL 6-Series R625 2019 4K HDR TV (65R625) (65R625)

Here are some of the key specific specs for the gaming performance in different console setups:

    • 4k @ 60Hz: 11.9 ms
    • 1080p @ 60Hz: 10.1 ms
    • 1080p @ 120Hz: N/A
    • 1080p @ 60Hz outside Game Mode: 76 ms
    • 4k @ 60Hz + HDR: 13.5 ms
    • 1440p @ 60Hz: 10.4 ms
    • 4k @ 60Hz Outside Game Mode : 57.2 ms
    • 4k @ 60Hz @ 4:4:4: 10.5 ms
    • 4K @ 120Hz: N/A
    • 1440p @ 120Hz: N/A
    • 1080p with FreeSync: N/A
    • 4K with interpolation activated: 98.7 ms

The TCL 6-Series is also a superb 4K TV for use as a PC monitor for gaming or other needs. These specs show its key connectivity metrics for PC.

  • 1080p @ 120Hz: No
  • 1080p @ 60Hz @ 4:4:4: No
  • 4k @ 60Hz + 4:4:4: Yes
  • 1440p @ 60Hz: Yes
  • 4k @ 120Hz : No
  • 4k @ 60Hz @ 4:4:4: Yes
  • 1440p @ 120Hz: No

Connectivity

The connectivity specs of TCL’s excellent 2019 6-Series R625 4K HDR TVs are perfectly up-to-date, ready for the essentials of content today and fully functional for HDR movies and TV programming playback from any source. This TV comes with four HDMI 2.0a ports, but only one USB port, which is our only irritation here. The R625 does however support Dolby Vision HDR via its HDMI ports, so that’s wonderful.

A Review of The TCL 6-Series R625 2019 4K HDR TV (65R625) (65R625)

  • HDMI : 4 (HDCP 2.2 & full HDMI 2.0a capacity)
  • HDMI 2.1 : N/A
  • USB : 1 (USB 2.0 x 1)
  • Digital Optical Audio Out : 1
  • Analog Audio Out 3.5 mm : 1
  • Tuner (Cable/Ant) : 1
  • Ethernet : 1
  • HDR10 support: Yes
  • HDR10+ support: No
  • Dolby Vision HDR support: Yes
  • Hybrid Log Gamma HDR support: Yes
  • Dolby Vision HDR: Yes

The TV models also offer audio connectivity in the following types.

  • 1 Passthrough ARC 5.1 Dolby Digital
  • 1 Passthrough Optical 5.1 Dolby Digital
  • 1 Passthrough ARC support
  • 1 Passthrough DTS via ARC support

Pricing

TCL is selling the 2019 R625 6-Series TV in only two editions, the 55 inch and the 65 inch model. This is a shame for fans of excellent budget TVs in the even more economical range or the giant range (this TV would be superb at 75 inches) but both models are very, very affordably priced for the equally superb quality each offers.

These two editions all sell for the following prices, found in the link below at the time of this writing. Bear in mind that these are subject to sometimes frequent downward change and it’s a good idea to click the following Amazon links for real-time pricing and all available discounts on this model.

A Review of The TCL 6-Series R625 2019 4K HDR TV (65R625) (65R625)

Check out TCL’s premium HDR TV, the 2019 6-Series R625 for sale at Amazon

4.7 – 4 Reviews
Story by 4k.com

The post A Review of The TCL 6-Series R625 2019 4K HDR TV (65R625) (65R625) appeared first on .

A Review of Samsung’s Premium 4K HDR QLED, The Q80R (QN55Q80R) (QN65Q80R) (QN75Q80R) (QN82Q80R)

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Stephan Jukic – November 8, 2019

Overview

Samsung’s Q80R (also known as the Q80) QLED 4K HDR TV is the closest thing to a successor for the brand’s 2018 Q8F QLED edition. Just like its predecessor, this model is one superb television in almost every sense of performance metrics and offers numerous features that make it into one truly ideal 4K HDR LCD TV. Additionally, it comes with some new innovations on ultra HD TV technology that take the Q80 beyond the capabilities of the 2019 Q8F and make it much more similar to Samsung’s two best 2019 UHD HDR TVs, the Q90R and the 8K Q900 model, or in a certain way, Sony’s new 2019 Master Series 4K editions. The Q80R also has its weaknesses, which we’ll cover in some detail in the sections below.

Also Read:
Our Comprehensive review of Samsung’s most affordable 2019 QLED TV, the Q60R
Our detailed hands-on review of Samsung’s incredible new 8K HDR TV, the Q900
Also Read:
Our In-depth review of Samsung’s ultra-bright flagship 2018 Q8FN 4K HDR TV

Positives

• Powerful motion handling and gaming performance
• Very bright delivery of both HDR and SDR content
• Fantastic contrast
• Excellent content upscaling for all resolutions

Negatives

• Color delivery not as great as in Q90R
• Local dimming could be better
• No Dolby Vision support
• Native Audio could also be better

Bottom Line

There’s no debating it as far as we’re concerned: the Samsung Q80R is a generally superb 4K UHD HDR TV by any normal measure of quality. The main thing about the Q80R is that it offers an ultra-premium LCD experience without devastating your bank account or credit card, and for those of you who feel unsure about spending money on something like the Q90R, the Q80R is a really strong alternative. With its price, this model has become possibly our favorite 2019 4K HDR non-OLED TV so far.

A Review of Samsung’s Premium 4K HDR QLED, The Q80R (QN55Q80R) (QN65Q80R) (QN75Q80R) (QN82Q80R)

Check out Samsung’s premium but more affordable QLED HDR TV, the 2019 Q80R for sale at Amazon

4.7 – 4 Reviews

 

What We Liked about the Q80R

There is a ton to like about the Samsung Q80R 4K HDR QLED TV. It’s literally crammed with numerous strong features. Even if it underperforms certain other 2019 4K HDR TVs in a couple of key performance metrics, it more than compensates for much of this in certain other crucial ways. The biggest selling points of the Samsung Q80 are its combination of high quality and a price that’s not too insane.

Excellent HDR and SDR performance

First and foremost, the Q80R delivers truly great HDR picture quality, in terms of both brightness and color rendering. Its particular strong point is the brightness of this particular edition, which is good not only in full blown HDR mode but also when used to play back ordinary SDR video sources, which constitute the vast majority of all TV, disc and streaming content. To top things off, the Q80R’s color and contrast delivery is rich, strong and vibrant, nicely complementing the bright highlights.

Motion handling and Gaming Excellence

Samsung’s 4K TVs have a strong history of delivering very good motion handling and accompanying this with very responsive (high quality) gaming connectivity. The 2018 and 2019 televisions have taken both of these performance categories to new heights of sharpness and the Q80R reflects this marvelously. This TV is absolutely killer at how well it delivers smooth, sharp motion for all kinds of content from all kinds of sources, and its gaming connectivity for use with consoles under all sorts of color and contrast settings is nothing short of superb. The Q80R is also a strong performer as a PC monitor and its inclusion of AMD FreeSync technology gives it excellent frame rate handling even with high-end 4K UHD games.

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Local dimming, Contrast & black rendering

Unlike most of last year’s Samsung QLED TV’s (such as the Q8FN) the Q80R, offers up superbly good local dimming. Among Samsung 4K HDR TVs this is usually a feature that only works well in the company’s absolute flagship models. Combined with the Q80R’s fantastically good contrast ratio, black levels and black uniformity (all of which this TV’s local dimming helps out immensely) what you get is an overall excellent performance on all of these essential specs. This also means that the Q80R’s HDR is given a further boost on top of its excellent color and brightness performance.

Color delivery

One further powerful complement to the Q80R’s overall picture quality is this TV’s superbly strong color performance. On this area of display quality, this particular Samsung QLED TV performs nearly as well as its pricier cousin the Q90R and by the standards of most 4K HDR LCD TVs available today, it’s an extremely competitive model. Color vibrancy, saturation and color accuracy are all really good and especially so after some easy to do calibration in the Q80’s picture settings. To top things off, color delivery is really robust for both regular content and HDR movies or games (though the TV’s HDR color delivery is exceptionally powerful). Coupled with strong contrast and high brightness, this 2019 QLED edition’s color gives one of the best HDR experiences available at the Q80R’s price point.

A Review of Samsung’s Premium 4K HDR QLED, The Q80R (QN55Q80R) (QN65Q80R) (QN75Q80R) (QN82Q80R)

 

Smart functionality

The Tizen Smart TV platform isn’t the best we’ve reviewed so far among 4K TV and streaming device OS systems but it’s very good, very easy to use and quite versatile overall. Furthermore, it’s gotten better in recent years leading up to the 2019 edition, which is the best we’ve seen so far. All the essentials are here, along with many key streaming media apps and the user interface is highly responsive. Most importantly, even users who have nearly no experience with smart TV systems can learn to use it smoothly in no time at all, minutes even.

A Review of Samsung’s Premium 4K HDR QLED, The Q80R (QN55Q80R) (QN65Q80R) (QN75Q80R) (QN82Q80R)

Check out Samsung’s premium but more affordable QLED HDR TV, the 2019 Q80R for sale at Amazon

4.7 – 4 Reviews
 Also Read:
Our In-depth review of TCL’s new 6-Series 4K HDR TV, The Most Affordable Aaesome Premium TV of 2019

What We Didn’t Like

Just as no electronic device is absolutely perfect, even really great 4K HDR TVs can’t pull perfection off either. The Samsung Q80R is no exception. While awesome in so many ways for its price, this TV has a couple of flaws, though we found surprisingly few and none that are deal breakers for buying it.

Weak Audio

The single most notable flaw of the Samsung Q80R is its native audio system. This is a small thing to worry about if you’re using the TV for casual viewing because it won’t really even be noticeable then, but if you want a rich, deep surround-sound experience, the Q80R can’t quite handle that by itself. Bass tends to be a bit weak and there’s some distortion at high volumes. All of these issues can easily be fixed by buying a decent external speaker system or sound bar though.

HDR Support Issues

The second major flaw of the Q80R QLED TV isn’t specific just to this model, it applies to all of Samsung’s 4K TVs. Simply put, this TV doesn’t come with Dolby Vision support. Its HDR quality is fantastic overall and colors look especially amazing, but all of these are also reasons why it’s a shame that Samsung doesn’t support the Dolby Vision HDR standard in its TVs, which delivers much richer quality on HDR content which supports it than the more common HDR10 high dynamic range that the Q80R comes with.

A Review of Samsung’s Premium 4K HDR QLED, The Q80R (QN55Q80R) (QN65Q80R) (QN75Q80R) (QN82Q80R)

Also Read:
Our in-depth review of Sony’s X950G 4K UHD HDR LCD TV
Our in-depth review of Samsung’s Q7F QLED 4K HDR TV

Value for Price & Bottom Line

The Samsung Q80R isn’t cheap by any means, but it costs quite a bit less than the Samsung Q90R and select rival premium 4K HDR TVs and because it performs almost as well as Samsung’s Q90 flagship TV and better than almost any other 2019 4K LCD TV we’ve reviewed so far, it’s a great choice for what it costs. This TV delivers lots of value in other words and is one of our favorites for this year.

A Review of Samsung’s Premium 4K HDR QLED, The Q80R (QN55Q80R) (QN65Q80R) (QN75Q80R) (QN82Q80R)

Check out Samsung’s premium but more affordable QLED HDR TV, the 2019 Q80R for sale at Amazon

4.7 – 4 Reviews

ALSO READ:
Sony’s Stunningly good but reasonably priced A8G OLED 4K HDR TV
Our in-depth review of LG’s C9 4K UHD HDR OLED TV
Our in-depth review of LG’s stunningly good & surprisingly affordable B9 4K OLED HDR TV
Our in-depth review of LG’s Fantastic premium E9 OLED 4K HDR TV

Key Samsung Q80R Specs

• Screen sizes: 55 inch QN55Q80R, 65 inch QN65Q80R, 75 inch QN75Q80R, 82 inch QN82Q80R (TV being reviewed is 65 inches)
• Smart TV: Tizen 2019 Edition
• HEVC (H.265) Included: Yes
• VP9 Included. Yes
• HD to UHD to 4K upscaling: Yes
• HDCP 2.2 Compliance: Yes
• HDR Support: Yes, HDR10, HDR10+, Hybrid Log Gamma
• Refresh Rate: 120Hz native refresh rate
• Screen Lighting: LCD Display with full-array backlighting & local dimming
• Resolution: 3840 × 2160 pixels 4K UHD
• Wireless Connectivity: Yes, includes both built-in WiFi and Ethernet port
• Remotes: Samsung smart OneRemote with voice control
• Connectivity: 4 HDMI ports (all of them 2.0a and with HDCP 2.2, 3 USB ports, 1 Ethernet port, 1 Digital Audio Out
• Contrast Ratio: 5,730:1 (native, real contrast with local dimming)
• Absolute Maximum Peak Brightness: 1112 nits (cd/m2)
• 3D Technology: N/A
• Processor: Quantum Processor 4K

Display Performance Metrics

This is the section in which we get to the essential measurements of what makes the 4K TVs we review good or bad. The following sections explain exactly how well the Samsung Q80R performs on the measurements that are most important for making sure that this TV delivers a strong picture quality, strong motion handling and robust connectivity to you as a user for whatever you want to use the television for.

In other words, in the following sections, we cut right through all the fluff and deliver what’s crucial for knowing just how strong a performer this television is.

A Review of Samsung’s Premium 4K HDR QLED, The Q80R (QN55Q80R) (QN65Q80R) (QN75Q80R) (QN82Q80R)

Measurements taken for one unit (the one we’re reviewing) might vary slightly from how they are on other TVs but the variation will be small enough that you can consider the following sections reliably accurate. There might also be small variation among 4K LCD TVs with different display sizes but these too are usually small. Now let’s get down to business.

Black Level, uniformity, Local Dimming and Contrast:

Black level, black uniformity, local dimming and contrast are all crucial aspects of how well a 4K TV delivers both HDR and overall picture quality. They define how crisply content renders and if these measurements are good, they also make both picture brightness and color quality stand out more vibrantly and accurately.

The Samsung Q80R delivers excellent Black levels, with hardly any light bleed in dark areas of the screen and an even better result when its local dimming technology is activated (local dimming selectively deactivates LEDs in the TV’s backlight panel). As a result, this TV’s native contrast ratio is also great at 3690:1 with local dimming off and a superb 5730:1 if local dimming is activated.

A Review of Samsung’s Premium 4K HDR QLED, The Q80R (QN55Q80R) (QN65Q80R) (QN75Q80R) (QN82Q80R)

 

The local dimming of the TV is itself also excellent, which is a bit of a surprise considering that last year’s predecessor to the Q80R, the Q8F, didn’t offer excellent local dimming. With local dimming enabled, the Q80R can really max out contrast if needed and also happens to offer up superbly strong black uniformity for dark sections of content on the screen, or if a totally dark display needs to be shown.

Brightness:

Capacity for brightness is the second vital feature of 4K TV performance that really defines how well your television display content. This is especially important in high dynamic range TVs since key parts of HDR are strong contrast and bright highlights in content. Brightness is crucial for movie, gaming and TV content in general though and generally speaking, the more brightly a 4K TV is capable to render content, the better.

A Review of Samsung’s Premium 4K HDR QLED, The Q80R (QN55Q80R) (QN65Q80R) (QN75Q80R) (QN82Q80R)

 

Fortunately, the Samsung Q80R is exceptionally capable of high brightness for both HDR video sources and regular SDR content of all types. This TV doesn’t get quite as luminous as Samsung’s flagship the Q90R, but it’s still insanely bright across the board compared to most 4K UHD TVs on sale today. It’s really unlikely that you’ll be disappointed by any aspect of its brightness performance.

Here are the crucial luminosity specs of the Q80R QLED TV for different areas of screen being illuminated in a simulation of how it would do with active content. We’ve also given its general average display brightness.

Samsung Q80R SDR Brightness

  • Overall SDR peak brightness for real content: 690 nits
  • Peak 2% display area display SDR brightness: 960 nits
  • Peak 10% display area SDR brightness: 1006 nits
  • Peak 100% display area SDR brightness: 571 nits
  • Sustained 10% SDR brightness: 962 nits
  • Sustained 100% SDR brightness: 561 nits

Samsung Q80 QLED TV HDR Brightness

  • Overall HDR peak brightness for normal content: 881 nits
  • Peak 2% display area display HDR brightness: 1112 nits
  • Peak 10% display area HDR brightness: 1112 nits
  • Peak 100% display area HDR brightness: 632 nits
  • Sustained 10% HDR brightness: 1074 nits
  • Sustained 100% HDR brightness: 620 nits

Color Delivery:
Another thing at which the Samsung Q80R truly excels is its color delivery. In this most of today’s 4K TVs are very good and Samsung’s editions in particular have a long history of performing well at how they render their color for all sorts of content. In the case of the brand’s QLED’s TVs, color reproduction has almost always been excellent for years now.

A Review of Samsung’s Premium 4K HDR QLED, The Q80R (QN55Q80R) (QN65Q80R) (QN75Q80R) (QN82Q80R)

The Q80R however still manages to surprise despite this pedigree. It’s delivery of rich, vibrant color saturation and accuracy for regular content is superb and this TV creates HDR colors for the right kind of content beautifully. Wide Color Gamut for HDR movies, games and etc is fantastic and so too is the Q80R’s 10-bit color rendering. The Q80R also delivers superb color saturation even during high brightness scenes. After calibration, it’s key metrics for color accuracy are fantastic, as shown below:

  • Pre-calibration White Balance delta-E: 3.41
  • Pre-calibration Color delta-E: 2.18
  • Pre-calibration Gamma: 2.23
  • Post-calibration White Balance delta-E: 0.41
  • Post-calibration Color delta-E: 1
  • Post-calibration Gamma: 2.1
  • Wide Color Gamut: 93.8%

Motion Handling & Upscaling:

The Samsung Q80R’s motion handling is nothing short of superb. For starters, this TV’s motion blur control is extremely strong, due to a pixel response time of just 4 milliseconds. This isn’t anywhere near as good as what an OLED TV delivers but by LCD TV standards, it’s at the top of the heap. Furthermore, the Q80R offers up excellent motion interpolation, for both content that plays at high frame rates and for lower frame-rate content from TV, disc or other media sources. Tied into this is its judder control for 24p movies from any source. The judder is kept to a minimum no matter what medium you play content from.

On a final note for motion handling, the Q80R offers up an assortment of additional frame rate improvement technologies like flicker-free capability and black frame insertion to keep motion interpolation and motion blur control working really sharply. In other words, motion smoothness in this TV is kept extremely good across the board.

A Review of Samsung’s Premium 4K HDR QLED, The Q80R (QN55Q80R) (QN65Q80R) (QN75Q80R) (QN82Q80R)

As for the Samsung Q80R’s content upscaling, well, it’s also excellent. Badly mastered content won’t work well on even the best 4K TV but if you use this television to play back movies or TV shows from any DVD, Blu-ray or streaming source that doesn’t offer 4K resolution, the result will look wonderfully sharp in comparison to how it would look on a TV with lower resolution.

Input Performance for Gaming and PC:

Moving onto the Q80’s input performance for gaming via both PC monitors and major consoles, we get another run of superb performance. Samsung’s 4K HDR TVs have a well established history of delivering excellent input responsiveness for gaming via console. We’ve noted this in both the brand’s premium editions AND it’s budget 4K TVs, making almost all of them ideal choices for gamers. The 2019 QLEDs and the Q80R, take this quality to a new level, truly, and they do it while also offering superbly strong color, HDR, contrast and resolution versatility with low input lag.

A Review of Samsung’s Premium 4K HDR QLED, The Q80R (QN55Q80R) (QN65Q80R) (QN75Q80R) (QN82Q80R)

Here are some of the key specific specs for the Samsung QLED Q80’s gaming performance in different console setups:

  • 4k @ 60Hz: 15.9 ms
  • 1080p @ 60Hz: 15.2 ms
  • 1080p @ 120Hz: 7.3 ms
  • 1080p @ 60Hz outside Game Mode: 72 ms
  • 4k @ 60Hz + HDR: 14.3 ms
  • 1440p @ 60Hz: 14.3 ms
  • 4k @ 60Hz Outside Game Mode : 56.2 ms
  • 4k @ 60Hz @ 4:4:4: 14.3 ms
  • 4K @ 120Hz: N/A
  • 1440p @ 120Hz: 8.9 ms
  • 1080p with FreeSync: 6.7 ms
  • 4K with interpolation activated: 25.7 ms

The Samsung QLED Q80 offers broad and excellent support for different resolutions, frame rates and color settings when connected to a PC rig as well. The following specs show this clearly:

  • 1080p @ 120Hz: Yes
  • 1080p @ 60Hz @ 4:4:4: Yes
  • 4k @ 60Hz + 4:4:4: Yes
  • 1440p @ 60Hz: Yes
  • 4k @ 120Hz : No
  • 4k @ 60Hz @ 4:4:4: Yes
  • 1440p @ 120Hz: Yes
Also Read:
Our In-depth guide to todays absolute best streaming media devices and platforms
 Our In-depth review of Samsung’s ultra-bright flagship 2019 Q90R 4K HDR TV
Also Read:
Our Comprehensive review of Samsung’s most affordable 2019 QLED TV, the Q60R
Our detailed review of Samsung’s best 2019 mid-range TV, the RU8000

Connectivity

The connectivity specs of the Samsung Q80R are fully modern, with several HDMI 2.0 ports, multiple USB ports and excellent audio pass-through connectivity. One major shame about this 4K TV is that it doesn’t support HDMI 2.1, as do certain rival premium 4K TVs from LG and others, but since few sources of content support 4K at more than 60Hz, the lack of HDMI 2.1 isn’t really important quite yet anyhow.

A Review of Samsung’s Premium 4K HDR QLED, The Q80R (QN55Q80R) (QN65Q80R) (QN75Q80R) (QN82Q80R)

The following are the Samsung QLED QNQ80R’s ports and their specifications:

  • HDMI : 4 (HDCP 2.2 & full HDMI 2.0a capacity)
  • HDMI 2.1 : None
  • USB : 3 (USB 2.0 x 3)
  • Digital Optical Audio Out : 1
  • Analog Audio Out 3.5 mm : 1
  • Tuner (Cable/Ant) : 1
  • Ethernet : 1
  • HDR10 support: Yes
  • HDR10+ support: Yes
  • Dolby Vision HDR support: No
  • Hybrid Log Gamma HDR support: Yes
  • Dolby Vision HDR: Yes

The Samsung QLED Q80R TV models also offer audio connectivity in the following types.

  • 1 Passthrough ARC Dolby Digital
  • 1 Passthrough Optical Dolby Digital
  • 1 Passthrough eARC support

Pricing

Samsung has released the QNQ80R 4K ultra HD HDR LCD Smart TV models in four different sizes. Thus, you have the choice of a55 inch, 65 inch or 75 inch model, and a huge 82 inch version that would be just awesome for gamers and home theater fans who want a deeply immersive experience. All four models are basically identical in their specs and performance and between them only very minor screen performance variations such as those we described in our visual specs intro section above might be the case.

The Q80R editions all sell for the following prices, found in the link below at the time of this writing. Bear in mind that these are subject to sometimes frequent downward change and it’s a good idea to click the following Amazon links for real-time pricing and all available discounts on this model.

A Review of Samsung’s Premium 4K HDR QLED, The Q80R (QN55Q80R) (QN65Q80R) (QN75Q80R) (QN82Q80R)

Check out Samsung’s premium but more affordable QLED HDR TV, the 2019 Q80R for sale at Amazon

4.7 – 4 Reviews
Story by 4k.com

The post A Review of Samsung’s Premium 4K HDR QLED, The Q80R (QN55Q80R) (QN65Q80R) (QN75Q80R) (QN82Q80R) appeared first on .

A Review of The LG SM9000 LCD 2019 4K HDR NanoCell TV (55SM9000) (65SM9000) (75SM9000) (86SM9000)

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Stephan Jukic – November 7, 2019

Overview

LG’s 4L LCD TVs (as opposed to the brand’s exquisite OLED models) are all IPS editions. The IPS stands for their type of LCD display technology, which delivers excellent viewing angles but low black levels and contrast. This is what the SM9000 offers and while its low contrast and black uniformity are problems of this TV, it is nonetheless an excellent LCD TV model in almost all other regards, with great color performance, strong motion handling and powerful HDR delivery. The SM9000 is also very bright, which helps offset the weak blacks. The inclusion of HDMI 2.1 is a great bonus too.

Positives

• Excellent gaming connectivity
• Strong motion handling
• Solid color performance
• Excellent viewing angles
• Incredible display brightness

Negatives

• IPS contrast and black levels
• Poor dark room performance
• Native Audio is mediocre

Bottom Line

IPS TVs are great for users who want wide viewing angles without having to spend extra money on OLED technology. The SM9000 is an exceptional 4K TV by IPS standards and if those viewing angles are what you prefer to deep, rich black levels, we seriously recommend this model because it’s really good in almost all of its other specs for color, brightness and motion. It’s also decently priced.

A Review of The LG SM9000 LCD 2019 4K HDR NanoCell TV (55SM9000) (65SM9000) (75SM9000) (86SM9000)

Check out LG’s Excellent Nano Cell 4K HDR LCD TV, the 2019 SM9000 for sale at Amazon

4.7 – 4 Reviews

Also Read:
Our Comprehensive review of Samsung’s most affordable 2019 QLED TV, the Q60R
Our detailed hands-on review of Samsung’s incredible new 8K HDR TV, the Q900
Our comprehensive review of Samsung’s excellent premium Q80R QLED 4K HDR TV
Also Read:
Our In-depth review of Samsung’s ultra-bright flagship 2018 Q8FN 4K HDR TV

 

What We Liked about the 2019 SM9000 4K TV

Despite its black level and contrast performance, the SM9000 4K HDR TV has a ton to like about it. This 4K HDR TV does indeed deliver great HDR support via its strong color performance, excellent brightness and other specs. It’s also a wonderful HDR, 4K and regular gaming TV for consoles or PC. In other words, there’s lots to recommend about it. Here is our breakdown of the most important things.

Gaming connectivity & motion handling

One thing we noticed very quickly about the SM9000 is that it sticks to LG’s 2019 pattern of giving its 4K TVs excellent gaming connectivity. At maintaining extremely high responsiveness and superbly low input lag for console gaming at assorted frame rates, color settings and HDR or resolution modes, this TV absolutely excels. The overall result is very impressive and easy to enjoy. The SM9000’s gaming smoothness is further augmented by excellent motion handling, which while not being as strong as what LG’s OLED TVs deliver with their razor-sharp pixel response time, is still fantastic by LCD TV standards.

A Review of The LG SM9000 LCD 2019 4K HDR NanoCell TV (55SM9000) (65SM9000) (75SM9000) (86SM9000)

Smart TV Platform

Moving on, the smart TV platform of all LG TVs today is definitely worth mentioning here. We love WebOS and the latest, version 4.5 is particularly superb for its ease of use, elegance and the sheer quantity of smart TV functionality it comes with, including support for voice control, Google Assistant and access to a huge selection of 4K and other media apps. WebOS is also really fluid, with few pauses or freeze-ups.

Solid color performance

The LG SM9000 delivers strong color performance on most fronts and this dramatically helps this TV at offsetting its weak black levels and contrast. Colors look nicely saturated, accurate and support for wide color gamut and 10-bit color in HDR mode is generally great. Deep shadowy color scene playback in this TV is also remarkably decent despite the SM9000’s weak black levels and light-bleed due to the IPS display technology.

A Review of The LG SM9000 LCD 2019 4K HDR NanoCell TV (55SM9000) (65SM9000) (75SM9000) (86SM9000)

Powerful brightness and overall HDR capability

The most impressively useful spec of the SM9000 HDR TV is its high level of display brightness. This is one robustly bright 4K TV when set to HDR mode and it also delivers fairly decent SDR brightness. The HDR brightness of the SM9000 is particularly effective at mitigating the effects of this editions low contrast ratio and black level, and at its brightest, the SM9000 can exceed 900 nits of light output for strong HDR highlights. Color conserves well during bright scenes too, which is nice to see.

Excellent viewing angles and movie watching usability

One of the great benefits of IPS display technology in 4K TVs is the very wide, clear viewing angles it provides. Typical 4K LCD TVs with VA panels may deliver much more beautiful deep black levels but if you have a room layout in which some of the seating is spread wide before where the TV sits, then IPS is an excellent choice. For this reason, the SM9000 is a great TV for living rooms or dens in which lots of people will be watching at the same time. By IPS TV standards, it’s a fantastic choice.

A Review of The LG SM9000 LCD 2019 4K HDR NanoCell TV (55SM9000) (65SM9000) (75SM9000) (86SM9000)

Check out LG’s Excellent Nano Cell 4K HDR LCD TV, the 2019 SM9000 for sale at Amazon

4.7 – 4 Reviews
Also Read:
Our In-depth review of TCL’s new 6-Series 4K HDR TV, The Most Affordable Awesome Premium TV of 2019
Our In-depth review of Samsung’s ultra-bright flagship 2018 Q8FN 4K HDR TV

What We Didn’t Like

There are also a few weaknesses in the LG SM9000 editoon 4K TV, but most of them are surprisingly minor. The most obvious and possibly problematic of this editions weaknesses is its poor black/contrast performance but if you take these aside, we’re talking about a surprisingly problem-free 4K HDR TV.

Weak black levels and contrast

The most obvious and important weakness of the SM9000 IPS 4K UHD TV is the black performance it renders. With IPS technology this is a given, so it sort of comes with the territory, but it’s worth mentioning if you want a 4K TV that does indeed render deep, rich blacks and strong contrast. If that’s the case, you’re definitely better off spending your cash on an OLED edition from LG itself or on a 4K HDR TV with VA display technology (there are many to choose from since most TVs come with VA display). The contrast in the SM9000 is almost abysmally low by modern 4K TV standards.

A Review of The LG SM9000 LCD 2019 4K HDR NanoCell TV (55SM9000) (65SM9000) (75SM9000) (86SM9000)

Crappy local dimming technology

Local dimming is the ability to selectively deactivate LED backlights by zone behind a TV’s outer display for the sake of deeper, stronger black levels. In an IPS 4K TV it would be an especially useful feature to have but because strong local dimming depends on many specific, precise dimming zones across a full array of many LEDs, the SM9000 falls flat on this technology. Its backlight can’t provide nearly enough dimming precision to decently increase contrast despite this TV having local dimming as a “feature”.

Weak Audio

Like most 4K LCD TVs in all price ranges that we’ve reviewed to-date, the LG SM9000 editions offer mediocre native audio. The sound quality is better than we’ve seen it in many similarly priced 4K HDR TVs and it works great for casual TV viewing, but for audio more serious than that, like rich movie sound and deep bass, it’s a good idea to buy an external speaker system or soundbar.

Also Read:
Our in-depth review of Sony’s X950G 4K UHD HDR LCD TV
The absolute best 4K UHD HDR Gaming TVs of 2019

Value for Price & Bottom Line

For its fairly reasonable price tag, the LG SM9000 is a great TV with a ton of value inside it. For anyone who wants wide viewing angles as a priority and doesn’t mind some weakness on contrast, this 4K TV is a superb deal, better than any IPS 4K TV we’ve reviewed in a long while, and worth its price. We usually recommend VA TVs over IPS editions, but again, if you want wide viewing angles without spending on OLED prices, this is your best choice.

A Review of The LG SM9000 LCD 2019 4K HDR NanoCell TV (55SM9000) (65SM9000) (75SM9000) (86SM9000)

Check out LG’s Excellent Nano Cell 4K HDR LCD TV, the 2019 SM9000 for sale at Amazon

4.7 – 4 Reviews
ALSO READ:
Sony’s Stunningly good but reasonably priced A8G OLED 4K HDR TV
Our in-depth review of LG’s C9 4K UHD HDR OLED TV
Our in-depth review of LG’s stunningly good & surprisingly affordable B9 4K OLED HDR TV
Our in-depth review of LG’s Fantastic premium E9 OLED 4K HDR TV

Key LG SM9000 Specs

• Screen sizes: 55 inch 55SM9000, 65 inch 65SM9000, 75 inch 75SM9000, 86 inch 86SM9000 (TV being reviewed is 55 inches)
• Smart TV: WebOS 4.5 2019 Edition
• HEVC (H.265) Included: Yes
• VP9 Included. Yes
• HD to UHD to 4K upscaling: Yes
• HDCP 2.2 Compliance: Yes
• HDR Support: Yes, HDR10, Hybrid Log Gamma, Dolby Vision
• Refresh Rate: 120Hz native refresh rate
• Screen Lighting: LCD Display with direct backlighting & local dimming
• Resolution: 3840 × 2160 pixels 4K UHD
• Wireless Connectivity: Yes, includes both built-in WiFi and Ethernet port
• Remotes: LG smart TV remote with voice control
• Connectivity: 4 HDMI ports (all of them 2.1 and with HDCP 2.2), 3 USB ports, 1 Ethernet port, 1 Digital Audio Out
• Contrast Ratio: 970:1 (native, real maximum contrast with local dimming)
• Absolute Maximum Peak Brightness: 920 nits (cd/m2)
• 3D Technology: N/A

Display Performance Metrics

In the following sections and subsections, we get down to the more technically detailed meat of our review of the SM9000 LG 4K TV. This is where we describe all of the most important performance measurements of this TV and explain how they make it a great performer or a not so good edition. This means that in the details below, you’ll get a no-nonsense breakdown of how well the SM9000 delivers the technologies that are the most important for making sure that this 4K HDR TV offers up a high level of picture quality, good motion handling, powerful connectivity and other key specs.

A Review of The LG SM9000 LCD 2019 4K HDR NanoCell TV (55SM9000) (65SM9000) (75SM9000) (86SM9000)

 

We’ve based the following on our measurements from our reviewed unit but the numbers and stats below accurately reflect what they should be like for any normally functioning editions of the LG SM9000. Only slight variations might be the case with editions of different sizes, and if an edition you buy seriously deviates from these metrics, it might be mis-calibrated or possibly even defective.

Black Level, uniformity, Local Dimming and Contrast:

Black level, black uniformity, contrast and local dimming (, in which backlight LEDs behind the screen are selectively turned off in specific sections for deeper onscreen black levels) are extremely important because these specs are crucial for high perceived color vibrancy, strong HDR, and good realism in how content looks on the screen. Their importance is especially high for HDR content looking vibrant and rich. That said, these specs are also what the SM9000 is weakest on, partly without fault and partly because LG screwed up a bit.

As an IPS TV, the SM9000 simply can’t match the sheer rich black levels, strong contrast ratios and black uniformity of LCD TVs with VA panels. That’s not a defect so much a tradeoff of a display technology that’s designed for much better viewing angles instead of strong black levels. On this we don’t blame LG but if you do indeed want those strong black levels and high contrast ratios, then the SM9000 is not a good choice. This TV manages a native contrast ratio of no more than 950:1 and even with local dimming activated, it never gets above 970:1.

A Review of The LG SM9000 LCD 2019 4K HDR NanoCell TV (55SM9000) (65SM9000) (75SM9000) (86SM9000)

Where we can blame LG is on how they built the SM9000’s local dimming technology. This is one feature that, if done well, could allow for an IPS TV –with its excellent viewing angles- to also still offer excellent, deep black levels and contrast. Unfortunately, because the SM9000 doesn’t have full-array LED backlighting with precise multi-zone local dimming, even activating its available local dimming doesn’t really improve anything on contrast or black depth all that much.

Also Read:
Our In-depth guide to todays absolute best streaming media devices and platforms
 Our In-depth review of Samsung’s ultra-bright flagship 2019 Q90R 4K HDR TV
Also Read:
Our Comprehensive review of Samsung’s most affordable 2019 QLED TV, the Q60R

Brightness:

Where the SM9000 does really compensate for its IPS black levels is in the level of brightness it can output. This TV delivers only modestly good peak and sustained brightness for ordinary content, but when set to HDR mode, it can get very luminous indeed, with a peak brightness of over 900 nits at one point. High brightness is especially crucial for high quality HDR content rendering and for display of vibrant colors in all content, so on this front the SM9000 does a very good job. Also, its high brightness offsets the perception of weak contrast and black levels when you’re watching a movie or playing games on this particular 4K HDR TV.

A Review of The LG SM9000 LCD 2019 4K HDR NanoCell TV (55SM9000) (65SM9000) (75SM9000) (86SM9000)

The settings below bear out exactly what we mean about both HDR and SDR brightness.

LG SM9000 2019 Edition SDR Brightness

  • Overall SDR peak brightness for normal content: 345 nits
  • Peak 2% display area display SDR brightness: 160 nits
  • Peak 10% display area SDR brightness: 255 nits
  • Peak 100% display area SDR brightness: 334 nits
  • Sustained 10% SDR brightness: 263 nits
  • Sustained 100% SDR brightness: 345 nits

LG SM9000 4K TV HDR Brightness

  • Overall HDR peak brightness for normal content: 474 nits
  • Peak 2% display area display HDR brightness: 459 nits
  • Peak 10% display area HDR brightness: 923 nits
  • Peak 100% display area HDR brightness: 420 nits
  • Sustained 10% HDR brightness: 324 nits
  • Sustained 100% HDR brightness: 432 nits

Color Delivery:

The SM9000 4K UHD TV from LG is capable of very vibrant, good color delivery for both SDR colors and HDR settings. For HDR content, this particular LG LCD TV offers strong performance without being exceptionally good and its 10-bit color rendering is great. Color vibrancy for ordinary SDR content of the kind found in a majority of TV programming, streaming media or broadcast TV sources is also rendered very well, with rich colors showing when they should and quite accurately. In terms of color accuracy across the board, the SM9000 is strong performer after a bit of calibration, though its rendering of color during dark, shadowy scenes is a bit weak, along with its rendering of the color blue in particular during very bright onscreen content.

A Review of The LG SM9000 LCD 2019 4K HDR NanoCell TV (55SM9000) (65SM9000) (75SM9000) (86SM9000)

Here are the LG SM9000’s key color accuracy specs too. As you can see, they’re quite good after just a bit of picture settings calibration (the lower the delta e and gamma numbers below, the better):

  • Pre-calibration White Balance delta-E: 4.43
  • Pre-calibration Color delta-E: 3.20
  • Pre-calibration Gamma: 2.04
  • Post-calibration White Balance delta-E: 0.19
  • Post-calibration Color delta-E: 1.4
  • Post-calibration Gamma: 2.09
  • Wide Color Gamut: 93.4%

Motion Handling & Upscaling:

The LG SM9000 obviously can’t come close to reproducing the razor sharp motion blur control of an LG OLED TV, which offers 10 times the pixel response speed of any LCD TV, but it still delivers excellent response time for shifting colors in pixels by LCD TV standards. As a result, this TV handles fast-paced content crisply and with very little motion blur. The SM9000’s native 120Hz display panel also smoothly handles all sources of content at lower frame rates, and its capacity for judder-free playback of 24p movie content is great whether the movie came from a disc, streaming app or cable/broadcast source. We also love the SM9000’s black frame insertion feature, which works exceptionally well in this TV at further smoothing out motion interpolation for content of all kinds. On the other hand, where the SM9000 falls flat by LCD TV standards is on how well its flicker-free technology works. It fails at times, with visible flicker in certain types of content, partly because of the specific flicker free technique that LG uses.

A Review of The LG SM9000 LCD 2019 4K HDR NanoCell TV (55SM9000) (65SM9000) (75SM9000) (86SM9000)

Moving onto content upscaling, it’s excellent in the LG SM9000 LCD editions. Almost all 4K TV today’s upscale content from lower-resolution sources wonderfully, and this TV will do it just fine for anything that isn’t badly mastered to begin with.

Input Performance for Gaming and PC:

The LG SM9000 is a fantastic 4K HDR TV for console and PC gaming. In terms of its responsiveness and exceptionally low input lag, this 4K HDR TV delivers quality that’s on par with what LG’s OLED TVs can manage and also comparable to the performance of Samsung’s QLED 4K HDR TVs. In more specific terms, the SM9000 is very good at maintaining low input lag when used for gaming at multiple frame rate, resolution and color profile combinations if set to its Game Mode. It’s also a superb TV for connecting to a PC as a monitor or PC gaming display.

Unfortunately, LG gave the SM9000 no variable refresh rate technology such as the AMD FreeSync found in Samsung’s high-end 4K TVs, but this isn’t a major loss for most gamers. On the other hand, the SM9000 does come with HDMI 2.1, meaning that it can handle 4K graphics at above 60Hz, if your gaming rig is capable of sustaining the same thing.

Also Read:
Our detailed review of Samsung’s best 2019 mid-range TV, the RU8000

A Review of The LG SM9000 LCD 2019 4K HDR NanoCell TV (55SM9000) (65SM9000) (75SM9000) (86SM9000)

Here are some of the key specific specs for the gaming performance in different console setups:

    • 4k @ 60Hz: 13.9 ms
    • 1080p @ 60Hz: 15.1 ms
    • 1080p @ 120Hz: 14.5 ms
    • 1080p @ 60Hz outside Game Mode: 86 ms
    • 4k @ 60Hz + HDR: 13.5 ms
    • 1440p @ 60Hz: 13.4 ms
    • 4k @ 60Hz Outside Game Mode : 87.2 ms
    • 4k @ 60Hz @ 4:4:4: 12.5 ms
    • 4K @ 120Hz: 15.2 ms
    • 1440p @ 120Hz: 17.1 ms
    • 1080p with FreeSync: N/A
    • 4K with interpolation activated: 88.7 ms

Again, the LG SM9000 4K HDR TV is also a superb 4K TV for use as a PC monitor for gaming or other needs. These specs show its key connectivity metrics for PC.

  • 1080p @ 120Hz: No
  • 1080p @ 60Hz @ 4:4:4: Yes
  • 4k @ 60Hz + 4:4:4: Yes
  • 1440p @ 60Hz: Yes
  • 4k @ 120Hz : Yes
  • 4k @ 60Hz @ 4:4:4: Yes
  • 1440p @ 120Hz: Yes

Connectivity

The connectivity specs of the LG SM9000 are fantastically good. We say this not only because LG decided to give all of its 2019 4K HDR TVs the usual run of necessary and up-to-date connectivity specs but also because the brand also gave them all HDMI 2.1 technology, which allows for gaming and 4K content at more than 60Hz (though we know of no consumer media that currently stream 4K video at faster than 60Hz for now).

A Review of The LG SM9000 LCD 2019 4K HDR NanoCell TV (55SM9000) (65SM9000) (75SM9000) (86SM9000)

  • HDMI : 4 (HDCP 2.2 & full HDMI 2.1 capacity)
  • HDMI 2.1 : Yes
  • USB : 3 (USB 2.0 x 3)
  • Digital Optical Audio Out : 1
  • Analog Audio Out 3.5 mm : 1
  • Tuner (Cable/Ant) : 1
  • Ethernet : 1
  • HDR10 support: Yes
  • HDR10+ support: No
  • Dolby Vision HDR support: Yes
  • Hybrid Log Gamma HDR support: Yes
  • Dolby Vision HDR: Yes

The TV models also offer audio connectivity in the following types.

  • 1 Passthrough ARC 5.1 Dolby Digital
  • 1 Passthrough Optical 5.1 Dolby Digital
  • 1 Passthrough ARC support
  • 1 Passthrough DTS via ARC support

Pricing

LG released the SM9000 4K HDR LCD TV in four editions. These consist of a 55 inch model, a 65 inch edition, a 75 inch giant and a monstrous 86 inch version of the TV. All offer the same specs as those we described in our review above. Their performance should also be pretty much equal regardless of size.
These four editions all sell for the following prices, found in the link below at the time of this writing. Bear in mind that these are subject to sometimes frequent downward change and it’s a good idea to click the following Amazon links for real-time pricing and all available discounts on this model.

A Review of The LG SM9000 LCD 2019 4K HDR NanoCell TV (55SM9000) (65SM9000) (75SM9000) (86SM9000)

Check out LG’s Excellent Nano Cell 4K HDR LCD TV, the 2019 SM9000 for sale at Amazon

4.7 – 4 Reviews
Story by 4k.com

The post A Review of The LG SM9000 LCD 2019 4K HDR NanoCell TV (55SM9000) (65SM9000) (75SM9000) (86SM9000) appeared first on .


A Review of Samsung’s Mid-range 4K HDR TV, The RU8000 (UN49RU8000) (UN55RU8000) (UN65RU8000) (UN75RU8000) (UN82RU8000)

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Stephan Jukic – November 7, 2019

Overview

Samsung’s RU8000 is one of the brands highest-priced mid-range non-QLED 4K UHD TVs. Thus, it offers a very good level of performance with strong essential picture quality specs but without including some of the more premium display specs that characterize most of the QLED TVs from this year. With that said, this 4K HDR TV does indeed deliver plenty of quality, with very strong, uniform black levels, good dark room performance, very decent peak brightness and vibrant color rendering. Like all Samsung TVs we’ve reviewed for this year, the RU8000 also offers excellent motion handling and gaming connectivity. Importantly, this TV is fairly reasonably priced.

Positives

• Wonderful gaming performance
• Excellent motion handling
• Fantastic black level and contrast performance
• Good color delivery
• Excellent content upscaling for all video sources

Negatives

• No local dimming
• Weak HDR brightness
• Color performance issues
• Native Audio is crappy

Bottom Line

The Samsung RU8000 is a very good 4K HDR TV at a fairly decent price. Compared to Samsung’s own lowest-tier QLED, the Q60R, it performs slightly better in many ways while also being cheaper. We especially recommend it a fantastic all-round gaming TV for its excellent motion and input specs.

A Review of Samsung’s Mid-range 4K HDR TV, The RU8000 (UN49RU8000) (UN55RU8000) (UN65RU8000) (UN75RU8000) (UN82RU8000)

Check out Samsung’s best mid-range 4K HDR LCD TV, the 2019 RU8000 for sale at Amazon

4.7 – 4 Reviews
Also Read:
Our Comprehensive review of Samsung’s most affordable 2019 QLED TV, the Q60R
Our detailed hands-on review of Samsung’s incredible new 8K HDR TV, the Q900
Our comprehensive review of Samsung’s excellent premium Q80R QLED 4K HDR TV

What We Liked about the RU8000

There is plenty to like about the Samsung RU8000. In particular, this 4K HDR TV delivers a superb level of performance for gaming fans and its picture quality for most content is very good. Some of its strongest display features include very strong black level performance, high contrast, decent color delivery and excellent motion handling across the board.

Gaming connectivity

The absolute best part of the RU8000’s performance is its overall quality as a 4K HDR TV for gamers. This model delivers excellent quality for this use and this it pulls off first of all by being fantastically responsive when connected to consoles or PCs for gameplay at multiple resolutions and assorted color and HDR formats. Like the QLED TVs the RU8000 also offers AMD FreeSync, which is awesome. Secondly, due to its superb motion handling, the RU8000 really kicks ass during fast-paced action sequences (which applies to content played on the TV as well). If you also take its price into consideration, the RU8000 is one of Samsung’s best models for serious gamers.

A Review of Samsung’s Mid-range 4K HDR TV, The RU8000 (UN49RU8000) (UN55RU8000) (UN65RU8000) (UN75RU8000) (UN82RU8000)

Contrast & black rendering

The black levels, black uniformity and contrast ratio of the RU8000 are all really great, which is all the more impressive considering that this TV doesn’t come with any local dimming technology. Since these features are so essential to perceived picture brightness and HDR, they really help the RU8000 deliver strong picture quality despite its fairly modest peak brightness and lack of QLED color performance.

Motion handling

Another of the really strong, highly effective performance qualities of the RU8000 are its motion handling specs. These are almost uniformly good across the board and this 4K HDR TV manages to deliver them as well as any of Samsung’s considerably more expensive QLED TV editions. In other words, for motion interpolation, playback of content at different, lower frame rates than that of its native 120Hz display (except for the 49 inch edition that only goes up to 60Hz) and pixel response time for reducing blur in fast-paced content scenes, the RU8000 is nearly as fine a performer as even the much more expensive Samsung QLED Q80R, for example.

overall HDR delivery

Overall HDR delivery in the RU8000 is quite good. This TV doesn’t get anywhere near as bright as its cousins the QLEDs from Samsung but it still delivers similar color performance and its strong black levels, contrast and HDR color technologies compensate quite decently.

A Review of Samsung’s Mid-range 4K HDR TV, The RU8000 (UN49RU8000) (UN55RU8000) (UN65RU8000) (UN75RU8000) (UN82RU8000)

Check out Samsung’s best mid-range 4K HDR LCD TV, the 2019 RU8000 for sale at Amazon

4.7 – 4 Reviews
Also Read:
Our comprehensive review of the best IPS TV we’ve ever reviewed, LG’s powerful new SM9000 4K HDR edition
Our In-depth review of TCL’s new 6-Series 4K HDR TV, The Most Affordable Aaesome Premium TV of 2019
Our In-depth review of Samsung’s ultra-bright flagship 2018 Q8FN 4K HDR TV

What We Didn’t Like

While the RU8000 has a lot of high quality and nearly premium features to offer a user, it also comes with its share of flaws, some of which might be deal breakers for buyers who want serious HDR kick and stunning picture quality. The following are the main issues of the RU8000 television.

HDR Brightness and lack of local dimming

Possibly the biggest, single most notable defect of the RU8000 is the overall display brightness that this particular HDR TV delivers. This applies especially when it’s set to display HDR content itself. Even the RU8000’s average and peak brightness for regular TV, movie and game content is fairly decent (but not great), the low level of screen luminosity is really noticeable when you set the TV to display HDR video sources. It improves very little at this setting. Samsung’s QLED TVs are much brighter, though the RU8000’s strong black levels help even things out.

A lack of local dimming is also annoying, though this technology isn’t necessary for high quality picture performance, it really does help keep contrast edges in content much crisper.

Color Performance details

The RU8000 delivers good color performance and it comes with a full host of the essential high dynamic range color specs, which consist of wide color gamut, 10-bit color and performance at high levels of brightness, but none of these emerge nearly as vibrantly as they do in Samsung’s QLED TVs. Color accuracy during bright and very dark scenes is particularly weak, and the RU8000’s wide color gamut isn’t as exceptional as we’ve seen it in the 2019 QLED editions. Furthermore, the RU8000’s low brightness means that strong colors don’t leap out of the screen as they do in 4K UHD TVs such as the Sony X950G or the latest and brightest OLED TVs from brands like LG.

A Review of Samsung’s Mid-range 4K HDR TV, The RU8000 (UN49RU8000) (UN55RU8000) (UN65RU8000) (UN75RU8000) (UN82RU8000)

 

Viewing Angles

Since the RU8000 4K HDR TV comes with a Vertical Alignment display panel (VA), it delivers the strong black levels we already mentioned. On the negative side, this also means narrow effective viewing angles. This however is a problem that you’d have even with most of Samsung’s QLED TVs and with any other 4K LCD TV with a VA panel from any other brand, so it’s not an issue that’s unique to the RU8000.

Weak Audio

Finally, and not surprisingly, the audio of the RU8000 isn’t all that great. We weren’t expecting much on this front, since few 4K TVs can cram really heavy sound power into their slim bodies but in the RU8000, native audio is weaker than we saw it in any of the brand’s QLEDs. This 4K TV is fine for casual content viewing (news, background TV etc) but if you want strong surround sound and so forth, you’d definitely need to hook up an external sound system.

Also Read:
Our in-depth review of Sony’s X950G 4K UHD HDR LCD TV
The absolute best 4K UHD HDR Gaming TVs of 2019

Value for Price & Bottom Line

The Samsung RU8000 4K HDR TV has its share of minor to moderate defects but it also offers plenty of great quality, and as a 4K or HDR gaming TV it’s fantastic. What also makes it a strong choice is this edition’s very reasonable price, which allows it to deliver strong value for what you spend on it. Overall, we really do recommend the RU8000 for users who want quality on a budget. We especially recommend this 4K HDR TV to gaming fans though. The RU8000 is ideal for this use because it offers nearly everything that Samsung’s QLEDs do but at a much better price. The TV even comes with AMD FreeSync technology for PC and console use.

A Review of Samsung’s Mid-range 4K HDR TV, The RU8000 (UN49RU8000) (UN55RU8000) (UN65RU8000) (UN75RU8000) (UN82RU8000)

Check out Samsung’s best mid-range 4K HDR LCD TV, the 2019 RU8000 for sale at Amazon

4.7 – 4 Reviews
ALSO READ:
Sony’s Stunningly good but reasonably priced A8G OLED 4K HDR TV
Our in-depth review of LG’s C9 4K UHD HDR OLED TV
Our in-depth review of LG’s stunningly good & surprisingly affordable B9 4K OLED HDR TV
Our in-depth review of LG’s Fantastic premium E9 OLED 4K HDR TV

Key Samsung RU8000 Specs

• Screen sizes: 49 inch UN49RU8000, 55 inch UN55RU8000, 65 inch UN65RU8000, 75 inch UN75RU8000, 82 inch UN82RU8000 (TV being reviewed is 55 inches)
• Smart TV: Tizen 2019 Edition
• HEVC (H.265) Included: Yes
• VP9 Included. Yes
• HD to UHD to 4K upscaling: Yes
• HDCP 2.2 Compliance: Yes
• HDR Support: Yes, HDR10, HDR10+, Hybrid Log Gamma
• Refresh Rate: 120Hz native refresh rate (Except 49 inch edition)
• Screen Lighting: LCD Display with edge-lit backlighting, no local dimming
• Resolution: 3840 × 2160 pixels 4K UHD
• Wireless Connectivity: Yes, includes both built-in WiFi and Ethernet port
• Remotes: Samsung smart OneRemote with voice control
• Connectivity: 4 HDMI ports (all of them 2.0a and with HDCP 2.2, 3 USB ports, 1 Ethernet port, 1 Digital Audio Out
• Contrast Ratio: 8,060:1 (native, real maximum contrast)
• Absolute Maximum Peak Brightness: 365 nits (cd/m2)
• 3D Technology: N/A
• Processor: Quantum Processor 4K

Display Performance Metrics

This is where we cover all of the most essential performance measurements of what really makes the 4K ultra HD TVs we review good or bad. This means that in the descriptions below, you’ll get a no-nonsense breakdown of how well the Samsung RU8000 delivers the features and technologies that are absolutely most important for making sure that this or any TV offers up a high level of picture quality, good motion handling, powerful connectivity and other key specs.

A Review of Samsung’s Mid-range 4K HDR TV, The RU8000 (UN49RU8000) (UN55RU8000) (UN65RU8000) (UN75RU8000) (UN82RU8000)

The following are based on metrics from one or two reviewed units but their accuracy is exact enough to reflect what they should be like for any normally functioning editions of the Samsung RU8000. Slight variations might be the case with editions of different sizes.

Black Level, uniformity, Local Dimming and Contrast:

The following specs are crucial for high perceived color vibrancy, accurate picture realism and strong contrast delivery during HDR content playback, among other things:

Among the very strongest and best specs in the Samsung RU8000 are its black levels and contrast. This TV completely lacks local dimming, which is unfortunate because local dimming technology, in which backlight LEDs behind the screen are selectively turned off in specific sections for deeper onscreen black levels really improves both contrast and overall picture quality in a 4K HDR TV (especially for playback of movies).

A Review of Samsung’s Mid-range 4K HDR TV, The RU8000 (UN49RU8000) (UN55RU8000) (UN65RU8000) (UN75RU8000) (UN82RU8000)

Oddly though, despite the lack of local dimming, the RU8000, compensates for the absence with a very strong contrast ratio of well over 5700:1 and an overall black uniformity that is superbly good considering the same lack of local dimming. The RU8000 doesn’t offer very high display brightness but its high quality black levels compensate for this enormously during content viewing or gaming, especially in dark rooms.

Also Read:
Our In-depth guide to todays absolute best streaming media devices and platforms
 Our In-depth review of Samsung’s ultra-bright flagship 2019 Q90R 4K HDR TV
Also Read:
Our Comprehensive review of Samsung’s most affordable 2019 QLED TV, the Q60R

Brightness:

Simply enough, the Samsung RU8000 gets decently bright for regular TV content in the SDR range, while falling pretty flat as a 4K TV for HDR brightness. In fact, it’s specs for HDR brightness at different content settings are WORSE than they are for its SDR (normal content) brightness levels. This is pretty disappointing even if it’s offset by the RU8000’s excellent black levels, which allow for a great contrast ratio. The Samsung QLEDs get much brighter on all levels and brightness is what most sets the RU8000 apart from them.

Overall though, for the vast majority of content, this 4K TV is perfectly fine, and most users who haven’t already been spoiled by ultra-bright, ultra-premium 4K TVs won’t have any problems with the RU8000s average and peak brightness. For regular content, this 4K TV does a perfectly decent job of keeping things luminous though viewing the RU8000 in a bright room might cause onscreen visuals to be a bit harder to enjoy. By contrast, Samsung’s QLED TVs and especially the Q80R or Q90R, are so bright that they shine no matter the ambient brightness in the room they’re used in.

A Review of Samsung’s Mid-range 4K HDR TV, The RU8000 (UN49RU8000) (UN55RU8000) (UN65RU8000) (UN75RU8000) (UN82RU8000)

The settings below bear out exactly what we mean about both HDR and SDR brightness.

Samsung RU8000 SDR Brightness

  • Overall SDR peak brightness for normal content: 348 nits
  • Peak 2% display area display SDR brightness: 200 nits
  • Peak 10% display area SDR brightness: 366 nits
  • Peak 100% display area SDR brightness: 366 nits
  • Sustained 10% SDR brightness: 366 nits
  • Sustained 100% SDR brightness: 363 nits

Samsung RU8000 TV HDR Brightness

  • Overall HDR peak brightness for normal content: 342 nits
  • Peak 2% display area display HDR brightness: 195 nits
  • Peak 10% display area HDR brightness: 363 nits
  • Peak 100% display area HDR brightness: 363 nits
  • Sustained 10% HDR brightness: 363 nits
  • Sustained 100% HDR brightness: 355 nits

Color Delivery:

Unlike the QLED Samsung TV editions, this brand’s lower-tier mid-range models like the RU8000 don’t come with quantum dot color filter technologies. This doesn’t mean they don’t offer powerful HDR color performance, but it does mean that they tend to not be quite as vibrant as their QLED cousins. The RU8000 fits this profile in its color performance: it’s color delivery is very good, and it has full HDR color capacity, but for each of the major metrics, the RU8000 doesn’t quite match QLED performance. 10-bit color quality is good but there is a bit of visible banding for the 1 billion+ tones of RGB colors, Wide color gamut is in the HDR range but not to an exceptional level of 98% or more, and the RU8000 isn’t very good at delivering saturated colors during high brightness or very shadowy scenes in content. Color accuracy in this TV is however excellent after a bit of calibration.

A Review of Samsung’s Mid-range 4K HDR TV, The RU8000 (UN49RU8000) (UN55RU8000) (UN65RU8000) (UN75RU8000) (UN82RU8000)

  • Pre-calibration White Balance delta-E: 3.41
  • Pre-calibration Color delta-E: 3.18
  • Pre-calibration Gamma: 2.02
  • Post-calibration White Balance delta-E: 0.21
  • Post-calibration Color delta-E: 1.4
  • Post-calibration Gamma: 2.12
  • Wide Color Gamut: 90.8%

Motion Handling & Upscaling:

NOTE: THE 49 inch edition of the RU8000 only offers 60Hz screen refresh.
The motion handling capabilities of the RU8000 are nothing short of superb. In these specs, this particular 4K HDR TV performs almost exactly as well as even the best of its Samsung QLED cousins even though they’re all much more expensive. Motion blur control is wonderful by LCD TV standards, with a pixel response time of just 3.9 milliseconds, and the RU8000 can smoothly interpolate motion from all sources of content that play back at lower frame rates. Its judder control for 24p movies is excellent no matter the source of these movies (streaming, disc media or broadcast/cable). The RU8000 also comes with interpolation technologies like black frame insertion and flicker-free control that strongly augment its interpolation capabilities.

Input Performance for Gaming and PC:

The gaming chops of the Samsung RU8000 are superb. In fact, this is possibly one of our favorite Samsung 4K TVs or 4K TVs from any brand (outside OLED) for high-performance console or PC gaming. For one thing, we say this because the RU8000 offers nearly everything that Samsung’s pricier QLED TVs do (except for high brightness). This means that it offers a great 120Hz refresh rate, fantastically responsive input lag for connectivity at assorted frame rates, HDR, color and resolution settings, and that it also comes with the same AMD FreeSync technology that the QLEDs have. This makes it ideal for smooth, tear-free frame rate handling in both Xbox One games and PC rigs with AMD GPUs. Secondly, the RU8000 offers all of the above at a price that’s a fair bit lower than those of its QLED cousins.

A Review of Samsung’s Mid-range 4K HDR TV, The RU8000 (UN49RU8000) (UN55RU8000) (UN65RU8000) (UN75RU8000) (UN82RU8000)

Here are some of the key specific specs for the Samsung RU8000’s gaming performance in different console setups:

  • 4k @ 60Hz: 14.9 ms
  • 1080p @ 60Hz: 15.1 ms
  • 1080p @ 120Hz: 6.3 ms
  • 1080p @ 60Hz outside Game Mode: 56 ms
  • 4k @ 60Hz + HDR: 14.5 ms
  • 1440p @ 60Hz: 15.4 ms
  • 4k @ 60Hz Outside Game Mode : 37.2 ms
  • 4k @ 60Hz @ 4:4:4: 13.5 ms
  • 4K @ 120Hz (Except 49 inch model): 15.5 ms
  • 1440p @ 120Hz: 9.9 ms
  • 1080p with FreeSync: 6.1 ms
  • 4K with interpolation activated: 28.7 ms
  • 1080p @ 120Hz: Yes
  • 1080p @ 60Hz @ 4:4:4: Yes
  • 4k @ 60Hz + 4:4:4: Yes
  • 1440p @ 60Hz: Yes
  • 4k @ 120Hz : No
  • 4k @ 60Hz @ 4:4:4: Yes
  • 1440p @ 120Hz: Yes

Connectivity

While the Samsung RU8000 4K HDR TV doesn’t have the HDMI 2.1 technology that we’ve started seeing in some 2019 4K UHD TV models from brands like LG, it does include all the full, up-to-date connectivity chops that it needs for completely solid performance. Thus, you get a full complement of HDMI 2.0a ports, USB ports, audio pass-through and full internet connectivity with high-speed Ethernet and WiFi.
The following are the Samsung RU8000’s ports and their specifications:

A Review of Samsung’s Mid-range 4K HDR TV, The RU8000 (UN49RU8000) (UN55RU8000) (UN65RU8000) (UN75RU8000) (UN82RU8000)

  • HDMI : 4 (HDCP 2.2 & full HDMI 2.0a capacity)
  • HDMI 2.1 : N/A
  • USB : 3 (USB 2.0 x 3)
  • Digital Optical Audio Out : 1
  • Analog Audio Out 3.5 mm : 1
  • Tuner (Cable/Ant) : 1
  • Ethernet : 1
  • HDR10 support: Yes
  • HDR10+ support: Yes
  • Dolby Vision HDR support: No
  • Hybrid Log Gamma HDR support: Yes
  • Dolby Vision HDR: Yes

The Samsung RU8000 TV models also offer audio connectivity in the following types.

  • 1 Passthrough ARC Dolby Digital
  • 1 Passthrough Optical Dolby Digital
  • 1 Passthrough eARC support

Pricing

Samsung is selling the RU8000 4K ultra HD HDR LCD Smart TV models in five different sizes. Thus, you have the choice of a really economical 49 inch edition without a couple features (no AMD FreeSync or 120Hz display panel), a full-powered 55, 65 inch or 75 inch model, and a huge 82 inch version that would be just awesome for gamers and home theater fans who want a deeply immersive experience.

These editions all sell for the following prices, found in the link below at the time of this writing. Bear in mind that these are subject to sometimes frequent downward change and it’s a good idea to click the following Amazon links for real-time pricing and all available discounts on this model.

A Review of Samsung’s Mid-range 4K HDR TV, The RU8000 (UN49RU8000) (UN55RU8000) (UN65RU8000) (UN75RU8000) (UN82RU8000)

Check out Samsung’s best mid-range 4K HDR LCD TV, the 2019 RU8000 for sale at Amazon

4.7 – 4 Reviews
Story by 4k.com

The post A Review of Samsung’s Mid-range 4K HDR TV, The RU8000 (UN49RU8000) (UN55RU8000) (UN65RU8000) (UN75RU8000) (UN82RU8000) appeared first on .

A Review of Samsung’s Premium 4K HDR QLED, The Q70R (QN55Q70R (QN65Q70R) (QN75Q70R) (QN82Q70R)

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Stephan Jukic – November 7, 2019

Overview

Samsung’s 2019 4K HDR TV lineup of QLED editions has shown itself to be an across-the-board winner As we demonstrated in our reviews of the brand’s Q90R, Q80R and Q60R TVs, high quality and seriously above-average performance have been their trademark for this year, all of the TVs not only outperform their own 2018 predecessors, they’re also above average for their price ranges among 2019 models. The Q70R, the last of the series that we’ve managed to review turns out to be the same. This TV is an excellent performer and while its overall specs don’t quite match those of its more expensive cousins the Q90 and Q80, it delivers really well on almost everything, while also being fairly reasonably priced.

Now let’s get down to what we liked about the Q70R, what we didn’t like and after that, we’ll cover its key specific performance metrics.

Also Read:
Our Comprehensive review of Samsung’s most affordable 2019 QLED TV, the Q60R
Our detailed hands-on review of Samsung’s incredible new 8K HDR TV, the Q900
Our comprehensive review of Samsung’s excellent premium Q80R QLED 4K HDR TV

Positives

• Really great gaming performance
• Superb motion handling
• Truly great black level and contrast performance
• Robust brightness capability
• Excellent content upscaling for all resolutions

Negatives

• Local dimming not as great as in Q80R
• No HDMI 2.1
• No Dolby Vision support
• Native Audio could be better

Bottom Line

The Samsung Q70R is one really good premium-but-not-too-expensive 4K HDR TV for mixed use. It’s a particularly strong performer when it comes to 4K or HDR gaming (or gaming of any kind for that matter) and as a home theater TV it’s an excellent choice for anyone who hasn’t already been spoiled by something much more expensive, or maybe by OLED technology. The Q70R also competes really well against nearly every rival 4K TV in the same or similar price range, particularly, Sony’s alternatives such as the X950G.

Also Read:
Our in-depth review of Sony’s X950G 4K UHD HDR LCD TV

A Review of Samsung’s Premium 4K HDR QLED, The Q70R (QN55Q70R (QN65Q70R) (QN75Q70R) (QN82Q70R)

 

Check out Samsung’s more affordable QLED 4K HDR LCD TV, the 2019 Q70R for sale at Amazon

4.7 – 4 Reviews

 

What We Liked about the Q70R

There is a ton to like about the Samsung Q70R, and this applies especially for buyers who have never before owned a premium 4K ultra HD TV with HDR before. This edition delivers strong performance on nearly every important metric of performance and is also laden with lots of special features such as variable refresh rate for gaming smoothness. In basic terms, while not being priced very heavily, the Q70R has just enough premium performance to be great at what it does. The following key good things illustrate what we mean.

Gaming connectivity
The single best part of the Q70R’s performance is its gaming connectivity. This particular 4K HDR TV delivers superbly low input lag for most combinations of frame rate, resolution, color specs and high dynamic range while also offering AMD FreeSync technology for tear-free variable refresh rate gaming on PCs with AMD GPUs or on Xbox One editions. The VRR tech in the TV works with all major resolutions, including 1080p, 1440p and even 4K, though at 4K resolution it’s limited to just 60Hz due to a lack of HDMI 2.1 connectivity (see below). Overall, the gaming input performance of this TV combined with its really rich display specs makes the Q70R into one ideal gamer’s TV, for PC or console. (Note that the 49 inch edition of the Q70R does NOT support AMD FreeSync variable refresh rate tech).

A Review of Samsung’s Premium 4K HDR QLED, The Q70R (QN55Q70R (QN65Q70R) (QN75Q70R) (QN82Q70R)

Strong brightness

The Q70R doesn’t manage to get nearly as bright as Samsung’s flagship QLED TV, the Q90R, and it doesn’t even quite match the Q80R on luminosity, but this model still outputs plenty of strong brightness for both HDR and SDR content, and its peak brightness when being used with HDR movies or other video sources is especially strong. It’s an above-average performer as far as brightness goes.

Motion handling

The motion handling of the Q70 QLED TV is nearly as good as that of the Q90R and Q80R QLED editions, which is to say that it comes close to being perfect. In fact, in terms of pixel response time for low motion blur during fast-paced content, the Q70R very slightly outdoes the Q80R according to our measurements. In addition to this it also performs wonderfully at motion interpolation of almost all sources of content played at frame rates below its native 120Hz display (on all models except the 49 inch edition, which only offers a 60Hz display).

Contrast & black rendering

A further feature that the Q70R particularly excels at is delivery of deep, rich black levels and strong black uniformity. It doesn’t have the same quality of local dimming as Samsung’s pricier QLEDs for 2019 but what it does offer is decent. In other words, it’s still an excellent performer and its contrast ratio is in fact quite a bit higher than that of any other 2019 QLED TV except the Q90R flagship edition -That’s right, oddly enough, the Q70R delivers better contrast than the pricier Q80R.

overall HDR delivery

While the color delivery of the Q70R is generally inferior to that offered by the QLED Q90R and Q80R editions, it’s still great and well above average. This TV delivers especially strong HDR wide color gamut and decent 10-bit color gradation. Most importantly, these features blend with the above features such as strong black levels, high brightness and high contrast to deliver an excellent general HDR experience in the Q70R. For 4K HDR Netflix and Blu-ray movies, or for HDR gaming, the Q70R excels.

A Review of Samsung’s Premium 4K HDR QLED, The Q70R (QN55Q70R (QN65Q70R) (QN75Q70R) (QN82Q70R)

Check out Samsung’s more affordable QLED 4K HDR LCD TV, the 2019 Q70R for sale at Amazon

4.7 – 4 Reviews
Also Read:
Our comprehensive review of the best IPS TV we’ve ever reviewed, LG’s powerful new SM9000 4K HDR edition
Our In-depth review of TCL’s new 6-Series 4K HDR TV, The Most Affordable Aaesome Premium TV of 2019
Our In-depth review of Samsung’s ultra-bright flagship 2018 Q8FN 4K HDR TV

What We Didn’t Like

While we think there’s plenty to like about Samsung’s Q70R QLED ultra HD TV, this edition does also have its share of minor to slightly moderate flaws. We don’t consider any of them at all to be serious deal-breakers but this particular QLED TV edition is definitely not quite as close to high excellence as the Samsung Q80R manages to be, or a comparably priced OLED 4K HDR TV from LG. Here are the notable defects of the Q70.

Local Dimming weakness

The Q70R has local dimming technology and this alone is an improvement over what Samsung used to offer for many of its lower-tier QLED TVs in previous years. Furthermore, the local dimming in this model doesn’t work nearly as poorly as we’ve seen in other TVs with the technology included. That said though, the technology isn’t nearly as robustly precise and sharp as we saw its delivery in the Q80R or the Q90R, or even a rival edition TV like the Sony X950G. This isn’t a major flaw, but it’s notable when compared to these rival alternatives.

Color Performance details

Overall, the color performance of the Q70 QLED TV is really quite good. We mentioned this above and this television delivers fully robust color gamut coverage and other features such as 10-bit color, as well as vibrant general color rendering for normal content. However, compared to many rival 4K TVs, the Q70R does fall a bit flat. Its 10-bit color in particular shows some visible banding for HDR movie color gradations, and its capacity for rendering of vibrant colors during scenes with high brightness is only modestly decent.

A Review of Samsung’s Premium 4K HDR QLED, The Q70R (QN55Q70R (QN65Q70R) (QN75Q70R) (QN82Q70R)

No HDMI 2.1 and still no Dolby Vision support

Two things that still annoy us a bit about Samsung’s 4K HDR TVs (and this applies to all of the 2019 editions) is that they continue to lack Dolby Vision HDR support. We know that there really isn’t much Dolby vision 4K HDR content out there anyhow (at least for now) but considering how great the QLED TVs in particular are at delivering HDR specs, having Dolby Vision would be awesome too.

The second annoying thing is a lack of HDMI 2.1 support. Almost no current commercial 4K content offers frame rates above 60Hz so this doesn’t really matter for movies but for gaming, the Q70R would be great if it also had support for 4K video at above 60Hz, given its support for AMD FreeSync technology and its native 120Hz display.

Weak Audio

Finally, we come down to the audio power of the Q70R. Like the Q80R, this TV delivers what could only be called modest native sound power. Bass is weak and audio distortion occurs at high volumes. The Q70R delivers very decent audio for casual TV watching, but if you want a truly deep, bass and volume-rich surround sound experience for your favorite sportscasts or movies, you’ll need an external speak system or sound bar.

Also Read:
The absolute best 4K UHD HDR Gaming TVs of 2019

Value for Price & Bottom Line

Overall, the Q70R offers very good value for its price. Despite a few minor to moderate flaws, this TV offers a fully premium 4K HDR TV experience with plenty of emphasis on high dynamic range and powerful picture quality. Compared to most similarly priced or even slightly pricier alternatives, the Q70R is a great choice if you don’t want to spend just a bit too, too much.

A Review of Samsung’s Premium 4K HDR QLED, The Q70R (QN55Q70R (QN65Q70R) (QN75Q70R) (QN82Q70R)

 

Check out Samsung’s more affordable QLED 4K HDR LCD TV, the 2019 Q70R for sale at Amazon

4.7 – 4 Reviews
ALSO READ:
Sony’s Stunningly good but reasonably priced A8G OLED 4K HDR TV
Our in-depth review of LG’s C9 4K UHD HDR OLED TV
Our in-depth review of LG’s stunningly good & surprisingly affordable B9 4K OLED HDR TV
Our in-depth review of LG’s Fantastic premium E9 OLED 4K HDR TV

 

Key Samsung Q70R Specs

• Screen sizes: 49 inch QN49Q70R, 55 inch QN55Q70R, 65 inch QN65Q70R, 75 inch QN75Q70R, 82 inch QN82Q70R (TV being reviewed is 55 inches)
• Smart TV: Tizen 2019 Edition
• HEVC (H.265) Included: Yes
• VP9 Included. Yes
• HD to UHD to 4K upscaling: Yes
• HDCP 2.2 Compliance: Yes
• HDR Support: Yes, HDR10, HDR10+, Hybrid Log Gamma
• Refresh Rate: 120Hz native refresh rate (Except 49 inch edition)
• Screen Lighting: LCD Display with full-array backlighting & local dimming
• Resolution: 3840 × 2160 pixels 4K UHD
• Wireless Connectivity: Yes, includes both built-in WiFi and Ethernet port
• Remotes: Samsung smart OneRemote with voice control
• Connectivity: 4 HDMI ports (all of them 2.0a and with HDCP 2.2, 3 USB ports, 1 Ethernet port, 1 Digital Audio Out
• Contrast Ratio: 8,060:1 (native, real maximum contrast)
• Absolute Maximum Peak Brightness: 780 nits (cd/m2)
• 3D Technology: N/A
• Processor: Quantum Processor 4K

Display Performance Metrics

In the following sections and subsections, we’re going to cover all of the most essential performance measurements of what really makes the 4K ultra HD TVs we review good or bad. This means that in the descriptions below, you’ll get a no-nonsense breakdown of how well the Samsung Q70R delivers the features and technologies that are absolutely most important for making sure that this or any TV offers up a high level of picture quality, good motion handling, powerful connectivity and other key specs.

A Review of Samsung’s Premium 4K HDR QLED, The Q70R (QN55Q70R (QN65Q70R) (QN75Q70R) (QN82Q70R)

All measurements and descriptions below are based on a review of a single unit but they will be so close to what you’d get from most other units of this TV that they can be considered very accurate. If a particular Q70R 4K TV seriously deviates from what’s noted below, there’s a good chance it’s mis-calibrated or simply defective. TV editions with different display sizes might also have slight variations.

Also Read:
Our detailed review of Samsung’s best 2019 mid-range TV, the RU8000

Black Level, uniformity, Local Dimming and Contrast:

The following specs are crucial for high perceived color vibrancy, accurate picture realism and strong contrast delivery during HDR content playback, among other things:

A Review of Samsung’s Premium 4K HDR QLED, The Q70R (QN55Q70R (QN65Q70R) (QN75Q70R) (QN82Q70R)

The black levels offered by the Samsung Q70R are excellent. With local dimming activated, this TV’s contrast is actually the second best among the 2019 QLED TVs at 8060:1 and one of the best we’ve seen this year from any LCD TV. Even without local dimming, contrast is still high at 7260:1 and black level is very high too. Almost as importantly, black uniformity is excellent (with local dimming in particular).

A Review of Samsung’s Premium 4K HDR QLED, The Q70R (QN55Q70R (QN65Q70R) (QN75Q70R) (QN82Q70R)

That said, the Q70R does not offer excellent local dimming precision (local dimming selectively deactivates LEDs in the TV’s backlight panel). The number of dimming zones in the TV’s screen is small and lacks precision, leading to persistent (but still very light) halo effects around brightly lit content. The Q80R and Q90R both offer much better local dimming.

Brightness:

Brightness is crucial to a 4K UHD TV of any kind because a brighter image that still renders colors and black levels richly is an image that’s much better looking for content viewing. It also looks more realistic. This applies especially to HDR content, which depends on high display brightness to truly impress.

The Q70R offers up superb display brightness that’s nearly as good in regular (SDR) content mode as it is for this TV’s HDR mode. Under either setting, the Q70R doesn’t get as luminous as its more expensive 2019 QLED cousins but it’s still a very bright 4K UHD TV by any average measure. We were really happy with the overall result and it really plays into the Q70’s content display performance for movies/programming and for games.

A Review of Samsung’s Premium 4K HDR QLED, The Q70R (QN55Q70R (QN65Q70R) (QN75Q70R) (QN82Q70R)

The following are the Q70R’s brightness settings for different section sizes of the screen, simulating how bright the display would get during playback of content with both bright highlights and content that saturates the screen with light.

Samsung Q70R SDR Brightness

  • Overall SDR peak brightness for normal content: 451 nits
  • Peak 2% display area display SDR brightness: 685 nits
  • Peak 10% display area SDR brightness: 748 nits
  • Peak 100% display area SDR brightness: 436 nits
  • Sustained 10% SDR brightness: 725 nits
  • Sustained 100% SDR brightness: 429 nits

Samsung Q70 QLED TV HDR Brightness

  • Overall HDR peak brightness for normal content: 751 nits
  • Peak 2% display area display HDR brightness: 630 nits
  • Peak 10% display area HDR brightness: 778 nits
  • Peak 100% display area HDR brightness: 441 nits
  • Sustained 10% HDR brightness: 760 nits
  • Sustained 100% HDR brightness: 453 nits

Color Delivery:

The Q70R QLED TV delivers very good color rendering even if it doesn’t quite match its Q80R cousin. Samsung’s QLED TVs have always been great at color quality and the Q70R is of course no exception.

Specifically, this 4K HDR TV delivers very decent (but not fantastic) wide color gamut for HDR video sources; it offers strong 10-bit color performance for smooth gradation of 1.07 billion tones or RGB core colors and these two HDR color rendering specs result in very accurate, rich reproduction. Even for non-HDR content, the Q70R is an excellent performer and you can expect a rich, realistic level of color accuracy, vibrancy and saturation from any game or content played back on this edition. This especially applies after a bit of light calibration, as our measurements below show:

A Review of Samsung’s Premium 4K HDR QLED, The Q70R (QN55Q70R (QN65Q70R) (QN75Q70R) (QN82Q70R)

  • Pre-calibration White Balance delta-E: 2.41
  • Pre-calibration Color delta-E: 3.18
  • Pre-calibration Gamma: 2.22
  • Post-calibration White Balance delta-E: 0.51
  • Post-calibration Color delta-E: 1.4
  • Post-calibration Gamma: 2.12
  • Wide Color Gamut: 93.8%

Motion Handling & Upscaling:

NOTE: THE 49 Inch edition of the Q70R only offers a native 60Hz display, all other sizes offer 120Hz.

The motion handling that the Samsung Q70R is capable of is nothing short of superb. Its 3.6 millisecond pixel response time for smooth, blur-free playback of fast-paced content is really, really good by LCD TV standards and this TV does a fantastic job of interpolating content played back from all sources at slower frame rates than those of its native 120Hz display. Thus, 24p movie content from disc, streaming or cable TV plays back wonderfully, while most streaming media at 60Hz or less does as well. The Q70R comes with highly effective black frame insertion and flicker-free technologies that work well in this edition.

A Review of Samsung’s Premium 4K HDR QLED, The Q70R (QN55Q70R (QN65Q70R) (QN75Q70R) (QN82Q70R)

 

As for the content upscaling capabilities of the Samsung Q70R, well, they’re excellent. Unless you use the Q70R to play back some truly crappy, blurry old movies you downloaded from a torrent site or streamed from YouTube, it will absolutely deliver very sharp picture quality for well-mastered 480p, 1080p, 1440p and of course 4K UHD video or game graphics.

Also Read:
Our In-depth guide to todays absolute best streaming media devices and platforms
 Our In-depth review of Samsung’s ultra-bright flagship 2019 Q90R 4K HDR TV
Also Read:
Our Comprehensive review of Samsung’s most affordable 2019 QLED TV, the Q60R

Input Performance for Gaming and PC:

Samsung’s 4K UHD TVs have a long history of being fantastic performers at gaming connectivity and excellent, low input lag. The Q70R is no exception to this and in fact outshines many rival or older 4K UHD TV models. This TV is one of our favorite 2019 choices as a relatively inexpensive 4K gaming TV and its handling of game inputs from consoles or via PC connectivity is great for both its versatility and low input lag. The Q70R also comes with AMD FreeSync technology, making it ideal for use with Xbox One consoles and PC rigs with AMD GPUs for tear-free gaming at variable refresh rates.

A Review of Samsung’s Premium 4K HDR QLED, The Q70R (QN55Q70R (QN65Q70R) (QN75Q70R) (QN82Q70R)

Here are some of the key specific specs for the QLED Q70’s gaming performance in different console setups:

  • 4k @ 60Hz: 14.8 ms
  • 1080p @ 60Hz: 15.2 ms
  • 1080p @ 120Hz: 6.3 ms
  • 1080p @ 60Hz outside Game Mode: 56 ms
  • 4k @ 60Hz + HDR: 14.8 ms
  • 1440p @ 60Hz: 14.4 ms
  • 4k @ 60Hz Outside Game Mode : 57.2 ms
  • 4k @ 60Hz @ 4:4:4: 13.5 ms
  • 4K @ 120Hz (Except 49 inch model): 15.5 ms
  • 1440p @ 120Hz: 9.9 ms
  • 1080p with FreeSync: 6.2 ms
  • 4K with interpolation activated: 25.7 ms

The Samsung QLED Q70 offers broad and excellent support for different resolutions, frame rates and color settings when connected to a PC rig as well. Its use of AMD FreeSync is handy for PCs with AMD GPUs too. The following specs show its capabilities:

  • 1080p @ 120Hz: Yes
  • 1080p @ 60Hz @ 4:4:4: Yes
  • 4k @ 60Hz + 4:4:4: Yes
  • 1440p @ 60Hz: Yes
  • 4k @ 120Hz : No
  • 4k @ 60Hz @ 4:4:4: Yes
  • 1440p @ 120Hz: Yes

Connectivity

The connectivity features of the Samsung Q70R are perfectly functional and modern for the latest in consumer market content, gaming and general media plugging. One thing we don’t like about Samsung’s 2019 TVs is that they lack HDMI 2.1 but for most users this won’t be important at all. This TV offers up several HDMI 2.0a ports, multiple USB ports and a number of audio pass-through specs for its ports.

A Review of Samsung’s Premium 4K HDR QLED, The Q70R (QN55Q70R (QN65Q70R) (QN75Q70R) (QN82Q70R)

The following are the Samsung QLED QNQ70R’s ports and their specifications:

  • HDMI : 4 (HDCP 2.2 & full HDMI 2.0a capacity)
  • HDMI 2.1 : N/A
  • USB : 3 (USB 2.0 x 3)
  • Digital Optical Audio Out : 1
  • Analog Audio Out 3.5 mm : 1
  • Tuner (Cable/Ant) : 1
  • Ethernet : 1
  • HDR10 support: Yes
  • HDR10+ support: Yes
  • Dolby Vision HDR support: No
  • Hybrid Log Gamma HDR support: Yes
  • Dolby Vision HDR: Yes

The Samsung QLED Q70R TV models also offer audio connectivity in the following types.

  • 1 Passthrough ARC Dolby Digital
  • 1 Passthrough Optical Dolby Digital
  • 1 Passthrough eARC support

Pricing

Samsung has released the QNQ70R 4K ultra HD HDR LCD Smart TV models in five different sizes. Thus, you have the choice of a really economical 49 inch edition without a couple features (no AMD FreeSync or 120Hz display panel), a full-powered 55, 65 inch or 75 inch model, and a huge 82 inch version that would be just awesome for gamers and home theater fans who want a deeply immersive experience.

The models all sell for the following prices, found in the link below at the time of this writing. Bear in mind that these are subject to sometimes frequent downward change and it’s a good idea to click the following Amazon links for real-time pricing and all available discounts on this model.

A Review of Samsung’s Premium 4K HDR QLED, The Q70R (QN55Q70R (QN65Q70R) (QN75Q70R) (QN82Q70R))

Check out Samsung’s more affordable QLED 4K HDR LCD TV, the 2019 Q70R for sale at Amazon

4.7 – 4 Reviews
Story by 4k.com

The post A Review of Samsung’s Premium 4K HDR QLED, The Q70R (QN55Q70R (QN65Q70R) (QN75Q70R) (QN82Q70R) appeared first on .

A Review of the Spectacular Vizio P-Series Quantum 2019 2019 4K UHD HDR LCD TV (P659-G1, P759-G1)

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Stephan Jukic – December 25, 2019

Overview

Vizio’s 2019 P Series Quantum TV is one of the brand’s top three premium editions for the year and its overall performance really reflects this. In really basic terms, this 4K TV is awesome almost across the board and aside from a few minor issues, we could easily rank it in a high spot among the best 4K HDR LCD TV models from all brands for 2019 and early 2020. The P Series Quantum offers up superb peak brightness, excellent HDR quality, beautiful color rendering and some spectacular gaming capability as well. Its major defects are few and definitely not deal-breakers for this edition.

Positives

• Incredibly good gaming performance
• Superb motion handling
• Fantastic black level and contrast performance with local dimming
• Outstanding color delivery
• Surprisingly good native audio
• Very good HDR capability

Negatives

• Native smart TV platform isn’t great
• Black uniformity could be better
• No ability to download new apps

Bottom Line

It’s difficult to find much to dislike about the 2019 P Series Quantum TV. This television not only offers excellent overall performance, it’s also priced at a remarkably good level, costing much less than a Samsung 4K HDR QLED TV like the Q70, with its comparable specs. We like it a lot and really recommend it as a good premium option that won’t break your bank account.

A Review of the Spectacular Vizio P-Series Quantum 2019 2019 4K UHD HDR LCD TV (P659-G1, P759-G1)

Check out Vizio’s Affordable and awesome P Series Quantum 2019 4K HDR LCD TV on sale at Amazon

4.7 – 4 Reviews
Also Read:
Our Comprehensive review of Samsung’s most affordable 2019 QLED TV, the Q60R
Our detailed hands-on review of Samsung’s incredible new 8K HDR TV, the Q900
Our comprehensive review of Samsung’s excellent premium Q80R QLED 4K HDR TV
Also Read:
Our In-depth review of Samsung’s ultra-bright flagship 2018 Q8FN 4K HDR TV

What We Liked about the Vizio P-Series 2019 Quantum

There are many qualities that we loved about the Vizio P Series Quantum 2019 edition. Among them are its excellent display specs, superb color rendering, fantastic gaming performance and others. In basic terms, this TV has much, much more about it worth liking than disliking. Let’s get down to the key features of the Quantum 2019 in order of importance.

Superb contrast, local dimming & brightness

The powerful combination of black level, local dimming, contrast and high brightness is absolutely crucial to a 4K HDR TV being great at delivering amazing content and at handling HDR video mastering robustly. The Vizio P Series Quantum excels at all of these specs. Its native black uniformity isn’t especially great but because this 4K TV has an extremely high quality local dimming feature due to its full-array LED backlighting, black level can be made almost perfect.

As a result, contrast is also incredibly good and its black uniformity superb. To top this off, the Quantum gets very bright in both HDR and normal SDR content modes for excellent vibrancy. We should also note again that the Quantum’s local dimming is fantastically good, with many dimming zones.

A Review of the Spectacular Vizio P-Series Quantum 2019 2019 4K UHD HDR LCD TV (P659-G1, P759-G1)

Incredible color performance

Brightness and black level aren’t all that important without the added quality of high quality color rendering capacity. Fortunately, the 2019 Quantum excels at this too. This 4K HDR TV offers up incredibly high level HDR color with a near 100% wide color gamut coverage. It’s 10-bit color support is also amazingly smooth and the 2019 P Series delivers great color volume even during playback of shadowy scenes or very bright imagery. It delivers great color accuracy and vibrancy with non-HDR content too.

 

Also Read:
Our In-depth review of TCL’s new 6-Series 4K HDR TV, The Most Affordable Aaesome Premium TV of 2019
Our deep review of TCL’s insanely affordable 2019 4-Series 4K HDR TVs

Incredibly good HDR capability

The above combinations of strong color performance, very high brightness, excellent contrast and deep black levels with local dimming work together wonderfully to let the 2019 P Series Quantum 4K HDR TV create a brilliantly executed level of HDR picture rendering for any high dynamic range content you care to throw at it. To make sure this TV can show off its best with any HDR movie or TV show, Vizio has also given the P Series Quantum support for all major HDR formats, including HDR10, Dolby Vision and HLG. Any dynamic range content you find from any source will almost certainly be mastered in at least one of the three.

A Review of the Spectacular Vizio P-Series Quantum 2019 2019 4K UHD HDR LCD TV (P659-G1, P759-G1)

Excellent motion handling

Visual performance doesn’t end with color, contrast and brightness. It also extends to how smoothly a 4K TV delivers motion. The Vizio P Series Quantum excels at this too though. This 4K HDR TVs motion handling for smooth, fairly blur-free content playback is extremely strong, and the 2019 P Series also delivers wonderful motion interpolation and judder control on its 120Hz screen.

Responsiveness for gaming

To top off the Vizio Quantum’s great motion specs, we have the new P Series’ capacity for handling console and PC gaming connectivity. The 2019 P Series Quantum excels at this too, with fantastically low input lag during sessions on Xbox or PlayStation consoles and with great resolution, color and frame rate support if hooked up to a PC rig.

A Review of the Spectacular Vizio P-Series Quantum 2019 2019 4K UHD HDR LCD TV (P659-G1, P759-G1)

Surprisingly good native audio

4K HDR TVs of any kind or price range rarely offer really, truly awesome audio. The P Series Quantum 2019 edition is no exception to this tendency but despite this it still surprises. This 4K HDR TVs native speaker system is not at all that bad for casual movie, news and TV watching. It will improve enormously with an external speaker or soundbar but if you can’t afford to buy either, the 2019 P Series delivers enough volume power on its own to be perfectly usable without external sound devices.

A Review of the Spectacular Vizio P-Series Quantum 2019 2019 4K UHD HDR LCD TV (P659-G1, P759-G1)

Check out Vizio’s Affordable and awesome P Series Quantum 2019 4K HDR LCD TV on sale at Amazon

4.7 – 4 Reviews
Also Read:
Our comprehensive review of the best IPS TV we’ve ever reviewed, LG’s powerful new SM9000 4K HDR edition
Our In-depth review of Samsung’s ultra-bright flagship 2018 Q8FN 4K HDR TV

What We Didn’t Like

The 2019 Vizio P Series is exceptionally good at what it delivers, but it’s not without its flaws either. None of the things we disliked about this 4K HDR TV are intenesly bad or what we would consider to be deal-breaking factors, but a couple of them are noteworthy enough to be described in more detail.

Smart TV platform almost sucks

Probably the single most disagreeable aspect of the P Series Quantum (and all of Vizio’s new 4K HDR TVs for 2019 and early 2020) is the Vizio smart TV platform. It’s called Smartcast and quite frankly it sort of sucks. For one thing, there’s the interface. It’s easy to use but also annoyingly slow and sometimes even stuttery. Secondly and much more annoyingly, the selection of apps is fixed in this TV. Yes, there are many of them but you have no option for downloading any additional ones.

Fortunately, this whole problem can be easily fixed by simply plugging your favorite external streaming media device with its own smart OS into one of the Quantum’s HDMI ports.

A Review of the Spectacular Vizio P-Series Quantum 2019 2019 4K UHD HDR LCD TV (P659-G1, P759-G1)

Some black uniformity issues

This issue with the Vizio 2019 Quantum is pretty minor but it might as well be mentioned: Though this TV has excellent contrast and black level delivery when local dimming is activated, without local dimming the black uniformity goes right down the hill. There’s visible clouding throughout the screen due to light bleed and obviously black inkiness isn’t complete across large sections of the display. Again though, activate local dimming and this issue disappears in an instant.

Upscaling of low resolution content isn’t great

On a final note, we mention something we’ve noticed in Vizio’s 4K TVs of all types since we started reviewing them in 2014. For some reason we can’t quite figure out, the brand’s processing engines never seem to upscale low resolution content quite right. Samsung, Sony, LG and even Toshiba and TCL seem to have no problem upscaling 480p and 720p video but Vizio still underdoes it a bit. The problem is mild but some users might notice when watching old DVDs or broadcast content.

A Review of the Spectacular Vizio P-Series Quantum 2019 2019 4K UHD HDR LCD TV (P659-G1, P759-G1)

Also Read:
Our in-depth review of Sony’s X950G 4K UHD HDR LCD TV
Our in-depth review of Samsung’s Q7F QLED 4K HDR TV

Value for Price & Bottom Line

In terms of value for price and overall quality, we almost can’t recommend the Vizio P Series Quantum TV enough. It’s just great in terms of both quality and price tag. The value per dollar spent here is excellent and no Sony, LG or Samsung 4K UHD TV matches it among this year’s 4K UHD HDR TVs. Only TCL’s 6 Series 2019 editions deliver similarly great performance for such a low price.

A Review of the Spectacular Vizio P-Series Quantum 2019 2019 4K UHD HDR LCD TV (P659-G1, P759-G1)

Check out Vizio’s Affordable and awesome P Series Quantum 2019 4K HDR LCD TV on sale at Amazon

4.7 – 4 Reviews
ALSO READ:
Sony’s Stunningly good but reasonably priced A8G OLED 4K HDR TV
Our in-depth review of LG’s C9 4K UHD HDR OLED TV
Our in-depth review of LG’s stunningly good & surprisingly affordable B9 4K OLED HDR TV
Our in-depth review of LG’s Fantastic premium E9 OLED 4K HDR TV

Key Vizio P Series Quantum 2019 2019 Specs

• Screen sizes: 65 inch P659-G1, 75 inch P759-G1 (TV being reviewed is 65 inches)
• Smart TV: Vizio smart TV 2019 Edition
• HEVC (H.265) Included: Yes
• VP9 Included. Yes
• HD to UHD to 4K upscaling: Yes
• HDCP 2.2 Compliance: Yes
• HDR Support: Yes, HDR10, HDR10+, Dolby Vision, Hybrid Log Gamma
• Refresh Rate: 60Hz native refresh rate
• Screen Lighting: LCD Display with edge-lit backlighting, no local dimming
• Resolution: 3840 × 2160 pixels 4K UHD
• Wireless Connectivity: Yes, includes both built-in WiFi and Ethernet port
• Remotes: Vizio smart remote with voice control
• Connectivity: 4 HDMI ports (all of them 2.0a and with HDCP 2.2, 3 USB ports, 1 Ethernet port, WiFi, 1 Digital Audio Out
• Contrast Ratio: 9,450:1 (native, real maximum contrast)
• Absolute Maximum Peak Brightness: 895 nits (cd/m2)
• 3D Technology: N/A

Display Performance Metrics

In the following sections and subsections we cover the detailed measurements of the Vizio P-Series Quantum 2019 TV’s quality that really matter. Here we’ll be going over the specific metrics that are the most relevant for judging how well this TV delivers on quality home theater handling. They cover the essentials of brightness, color, motion handling, connectivity and gaming/PC use performance and other specs for using this particular UHD TV for movies, TV shows, broadcast content, gaming and even as a PC monitor if you prefer. We also make sure to cut out all the fluff and marketing jargon that doesn’t really explain genuine quality in a practical home use sense.

All of the specs below are based on metrics from one or two reviewed units but their accuracy is exact enough to reflect what they should be like for any normally functioning editions of the Vizio P Series Quantum 2019. Slight variations for some of the specs in the sections below might be the case with editions of different sizes and with different specific units. If your particular TV deviates heavily from the following metrics, it’s possibly wither defective or mis-calibrated in some way

Black Level, uniformity, Local Dimming and Contrast:

Black level, uniformity and contrast are three crucial specs of 4K TV display performance. They’re also extremely important for the high quality rendering of HDR content. Thus, we cover them together because they’re interrelated.

A Review of the Spectacular Vizio P-Series Quantum 2019 2019 4K UHD HDR LCD TV (P659-G1, P759-G1)

The 2019 P Series Quantum TVs black level is generally good and becomes great when local dimming is activated. The same goes for this TV’s black uniformity; it’s nearly perfect if local dimming is on and set to medium or high, and it’s crappy if local dimming is turned right off. In either case, the Vizio P Series Quantum TV offers up excellent contrast. Even with local dimming off, the contrast ratio sits at a very good 4,345, and when local dimming is on, the contrast ratio leaps right up to an excellent 9,450:1.

A Review of the Spectacular Vizio P-Series Quantum 2019 2019 4K UHD HDR LCD TV (P659-G1, P759-G1)

The local dimming in this 4K HDR TV is also absolutely great, with many local dimming zones across a full-array LED backlight all working together to create deep, rich contrast and black levels with minimal light bleed and resulting halo around the dark edges of bright onscreen content.

The bottom line: these four specs work well in the P Series Quantum and they help the TV’s HDR be even more excellent when needed.

Also Read:
Our In-depth guide to todays absolute best streaming media devices and platforms
Our In-depth review of Samsung’s ultra-bright flagship 2019 Q90R 4K HDR TV
Also Read:
Our Comprehensive review of Samsung’s most affordable 2019 QLED TV, the Q60R

Brightness:

The Vizio P Series Quantum is one very bright 4K UHD TV. It doesn’t get exceptionally luminous like the best ultra-premium 4K TVs from rival brands and even Vizio itself do, but it still outputs plenty of very bright light. The interesting thing about the 2019 Quantum 4K HDR TV is that it delivers slightly better SDR brightness specs than it does HDR highlights. In either case though, this 4K UHD TV performs superbly at being luminous. This too helps dramatically improve the quality of the P659-G1 P Series TVs overall content rendering and HDR content performance.

A Review of the Spectacular Vizio P-Series Quantum 2019 2019 4K UHD HDR LCD TV (P659-G1, P759-G1)

The following SDR and HDR measurements bear out what we say about the P Series Quantum 2019:

Vizio P Series Quantum 2019 SDR Brightness

  • Overall SDR peak brightness for normal content: 445 nits
  • Peak 2% display area display SDR brightness: 683 nits
  • Peak 10% display area SDR brightness: 855 nits
  • Peak 100% display area SDR brightness: 453 nits
  • Sustained 10% SDR brightness: 735 nits
  • Sustained 100% SDR brightness: 419 nits

Vizio P Series Quantum 2019 TV HDR Brightness

  • Overall HDR peak brightness for normal content: 582 nits
  • Peak 2% display area display HDR brightness: 669 nits
  • Peak 10% display area HDR brightness: 895 nits
  • Peak 100% display area HDR brightness: 424 nits
  • Sustained 10% HDR brightness: 610 nits
  • Sustained 100% HDR brightness: 418 nits

Color Delivery:

The Vizio P Series Quantum has exceptionally good color rendering performance in every sense of the word and by every relevant metric. It’s that good on this front. In terms of both wide color gamut and 10-bit color support for HDR video sources, this TV performs incredibly well, with one fantastic level of WCG coverage that exceeds 98%. The 10-bit color side of the Quantum’s HDR color specs is also exceptionally smooth and finely gradated. These two together mean great HDR color dynamism under any of the major content mastering formats.

A Review of the Spectacular Vizio P-Series Quantum 2019 2019 4K UHD HDR LCD TV (P659-G1, P759-G1)

Additionally, the 2019 P Series Quantum delivers superbly good color volume on the Rec 2020 spectrum (even wider color) during both playback of content that’s very shadowy and content that’s extremely bright. Colors are nicely conserved in both cases during movies, shows and gameplay.

Finally, the color accuracy for all content that the P Series Quantum offers is superbly good. It’s decent right out of the box but with a bit of calibration in this TV’s picture settings menu, color accuracy for Delta E, white balance and gamma are all incredibly close to dead-on accuracy. This means realistic, vibrant color delivery for the visuals you play on the screen.

A Review of the Spectacular Vizio P-Series Quantum 2019 2019 4K UHD HDR LCD TV (P659-G1, P759-G1)

Here are the Vizio 2019 P Series Quantum’s main color accuracy settings before and after calibration. These cover the key metrics for accurate color and the lower the numbers, the better. In post-calibration readings, they’re very good:

  • Pre-calibration White Balance delta-E: 3.78
  • Pre-calibration Color delta-E: 2.18
  • Pre-calibration Gamma: 2.35
  • Post-calibration White Balance delta-E: 0.22
  • Post-calibration Color delta-E: 0.9
  • Post-calibration Gamma: 2.02
  • Wide Color Gamut: 98.8%

Motion Handling & Upscaling:

Just as it performs so well in nearly every other major metric of quality, the Vizio P Series Quantum 2019 also handles motion extremely well. This 4K HDR TV delivers wonderfully sharp pixel response time for minimal motion blur during playback of even the most fast-paced, dynamic and complex content, and its handling of motion interpolation is excellent on the native 120Hz display. The P Series also offers full judder control for 24p content from any source. It comes with high quality black frame insertion technology for additional motion smoothing as well.

A Review of the Spectacular Vizio P-Series Quantum 2019 2019 4K UHD HDR LCD TV (P659-G1, P759-G1)

Input Performance for Gaming and PC:

Where the Vizio P Series Quantum 2019 absolutely excels is at how well it delivers low input lag for gaming purposes, especially with consoles. The input lag of the P Series Quantum is superbly low in game mode for gaming at 60120Hz or less in 1080p or 4K UHD resolution (2160p). This also applies to gaming in HDR mode, with 10-bit color, with 4:4:4 and so forth. This TV also comes with a great Low Latency mode that lets it deliver low input lag outside game mode, in any picture mode. On the other hand, the Quantum doesn’t support 1440p resolution at any frame rate, either with consoles or PC display, which is a shame.

The resolutions and color settings supported by the P Series Quantum when hooked up to a PC are also great, with easy handling of 1080p and 4K resolutions at frame rates of up to the TV’s 120Hz limit. Connected to a PC, the Quantum doesn’t support 1440p at any frame rate though.

A Review of the Spectacular Vizio P-Series Quantum 2019 2019 4K UHD HDR LCD TV (P659-G1, P759-G1)

The metrics below bear out the P Series Quantum TV’s performance:

  • 4k @ 60Hz: 12.8 ms
  • 1080p @ 60Hz: 13.8 ms
  • 1080p @ 120Hz: 10.6
  • 1080p @ 60Hz outside Game Mode: 89 ms
  • 4k @ 60Hz + HDR: 12.5 ms
  • 1440p @ 60Hz: 13.6 ms
  • 4k @ 60Hz Outside Game Mode : 87.2 ms
  • 4k @ 60Hz @ 4:4:4: 13.8 ms
  • 4K @ 120Hz: N/A
  • 1440p @ 120Hz: N/A
  • 1080p with FreeSync: N/A
  • 4K with interpolation activated: 88.7 ms

PC Gaming Input Support

  • 1080p @ 120Hz: Yes
  • 1080p @ 60Hz @ 4:4:4: Yes
  • 4k @ 60Hz + 4:4:4: Yes
  • 1440p @ 60Hz: No
  • 4k @ 120Hz : No
  • 4k @ 60Hz @ 4:4:4: Yes
  • 1440p @ 120Hz: No

Connectivity

The Vizio P Series Quantum 2019 TV offers all the essentials of functional, latest ultra HD HDR TV connectivity. This means that it comes with full 4K HDR HDMI 2.0a connection ports, USB, WiFi (high-speed) and Ethernet connectivity. On the other hand, it falls a bit flat on the number of ports available. While there are 5 HDMI ports, There’s only 1 USB slot. Most 4K TVs even in the budget range offer 4 HDMI connections and at least 2 or 3 USB ports.

A Review of the Spectacular Vizio P-Series Quantum 2019 2019 4K UHD HDR LCD TV (P659-G1, P759-G1)

The following are the VIZIO S Series P Series Quantum’s ports and their specifications:

  • HDMI : 5 (HDCP 2.2 & full HDMI 2.0a capacity)
  • HDMI 2.1 : N/A
  • USB : 1 (USB 2.0)
  • Digital Optical Audio Out : 1
  • Analog Audio Out 3.5 mm : 1
  • Tuner (Cable/Ant) : 1
  • Ethernet : 1
  • HDR10 support: Yes
  • HDR10+ support: Yes
  • Dolby Vision HDR support: Yes
  • Hybrid Log Gamma HDR support: Yes

The VIZIO P Series Quantum 2019 TV models also offer audio connectivity in the following types.

  • 1 Passthrough ARC Dolby Digital
  • 1 Passthrough ARC
  • 1 Passthrough Optical Dolby Digital
  • 1 Passthrough DTS via ARC
  • 1 Passthrough DTS via Optical
  • 1 Passthrough eARC support

Pricing

VIZIO is selling the P Series Quantum TVs in only two sizes, much like Samsung, Sony and LG’s ultra-premium 4K TVs. Thus, you have the choice of a really big 65 inch edition that’s wonderfully priced at less than $1000 or a giant 75 inch model that’s still amazingly affordable for its quality and size.

These editions all sell for the following prices, found in the link below at the time of this writing. Bear in mind that these are subject to sometimes frequent downward change and it’s a good idea to click the following Amazon links for real-time pricing and all available discounts on this model.

A Review of the Spectacular Vizio P-Series Quantum 2019 2019 4K UHD HDR LCD TV (P659-G1, P759-G1)

Check out Vizio’s Affordable and awesome P Series Quantum 2019 4K HDR LCD TV on sale at Amazon

4.7 – 4 Reviews
Story by 4k.com

The post A Review of the Spectacular Vizio P-Series Quantum 2019 2019 4K UHD HDR LCD TV (P659-G1, P759-G1) appeared first on .

A Review of the Ultra-Affordable TCL 4-Series 2019 4K UHD HDR LCD TV (43S425, 49S425, 50S425, 55S425, 65S425, 75S425)

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Stephan Jukic – December 25, 2019

Overview

The TCL 4-Series 2019 S425 4K HDR TV is just about a standard issue ideal of a budget 4K TV that performs very decently, costs very little and delivers good enough but in no way spectacular capability. In other words, it’s a great choice as an ultra-budget 4K UHD TV for students, bedrooms, work spaces and anywhere else where you want 4K UHD resolution, placidly decent picture quality and some basic HDR on a tight budget. If these are your criteria for buying a new 4K TV, we recommend the S425 highly. It also happens to offer excellent response time as a gaming TV. On the other hand, this is definitely not a premium television with outstanding performance on most visual specs.

Positives

• Wonderful gaming performance
• Excellent picture response time
• Fantastic black level and contrast performance
• Decent color delivery
• Surprisingly good native audio
• Excellent content upscaling for all video sources

Negatives

• No local dimming
• Very weak overall brightness
• Color performance issues
• Some serious motion handling defects

Bottom Line

Except for having an outstanding gaming performance, the TCL S425 doesn’t offer anything special in terms of 4K HDR picture quality. It’s strictly decent and little more on picture quality. But that’s also part of its charm in a way. This TV doesn’t pretend to be spectacular and it’s price is just as decent as its quality. If you want perfectly okay for the essentials on a budget, this is a good enough choice. As a low-priced 4K TV we recommend it.

A Review of the Ultra-Affordable TCL 4-Series 2019 4K UHD HDR LCD TV (43S425, 49S425, 50S425, 55S425, 65S425, 75S425)

Check out TCL’s ultra affordable 4 Series S425 2019 4K HDR LCD TV on sale at Amazon

4.7 – 4 Reviews
Also Read:
Our Comprehensive review of Samsung’s most affordable 2019 QLED TV, the Q60R
Our detailed hands-on review of Samsung’s incredible new 8K HDR TV, the Q900
Our comprehensive review of Samsung’s excellent premium Q80R QLED 4K HDR TV
Also Read:
Our In-depth review of Samsung’s ultra-bright flagship 2018 Q8FN 4K HDR TV

What We Liked about the TCL 4 Series

There is a surprisingly large number of good qualities to the TCL 4 Series 2019 edition. All of them make this particular budget 4K TV all the more attractive as a starter edition or extra television for the home.

Gaming connectivity

The single most outstanding feature of the TCL 4-Series 2019 TV is its capacity for handling gaming connectivity to consoles. This TV is lightning fast at keeping to low input lag at all possible resolutions, frame rate settings and color settings when hooked up to a console. In other words, it’s a great low-priced gameplay 4K HDR TV. And while it lacks the 120Hz panel necessary for high frame-rate gaming, it handles all frame rates of 60fps or lower quite nicely and quickly. As long as you’re not bothered by these details or a lack of deep HDR brightness, the S425 is great.

A Review of the Ultra-Affordable TCL 4-Series 2019 4K UHD HDR LCD TV (43S425, 49S425, 50S425, 55S425, 65S425, 75S425)

Contrast & black rendering

The black level, contrast and black uniformity of the 2019 4-Series are all either decent or great. This TV’s black uniformity is decent enough considering that this edition lacks local dimming technology, but the contrast ratio of the S425 is downright great at well over 6000:1. The black level that the TV is capable of is also very good when concentrated on sections of darkness in content. It makes a big difference and definitely helps this TV out for HDR content.

Very good response time

While the S425 doesn’t deliver generally good motion handling, its pixel response time for low motion blur is superbly good. In other words, the individual pixels on the screen change color very quickly by 4K TV standards as content movement occurs. The resulting levels of motion blur are very low and this makes the S425 very good for playback of fast-paced action movies and sportscasts in particular.

TCL 4 Series (right) compared to TCL 6 Series

TCL 4 Series (right) compared to TCL 6 Series

 

Decent color delivery

As far as color delivery goes, the S425 2019 4 Series TV is a perfectly decent performer. It doesn’t deliver high level wide color gamut of over 90% of the WCG spectrum for HDR video, but it comes close, and its 10-bit color for smooth gradation of 1.07 billion colors is very strong. Furthermore, and surprisingly, the 4 Series handles colors very nicely during both dark and bright scenes. Many pricier 4K HDR TVs fail to pull this off.

Surprisingly good native audio

One of the most surprising things about the TCL 4 Series TV is that its audio works as well as it does. Over the years we have reviewed many, many 4K UHD TVs and only a scant few of them really deliver decent sound, the majority being premium Sony and LG OLED editions, so it’s surprising to see sound this decent in such a low-cost television. But there it is. For deep, robust sound the 4 Series will still need an external speaker system but if you’re casually watching a sitcom or news channel, it’s pretty great as far as its internal sound goes.

 

Smart TV platform

All of TCL’s 4K HDR TVs run the Roku TV 2019 smart OS and quite frankly, we love it. Roku TV is easy to use, smooth-running and comes absolutely crammed with thousands of media apps of all kinds. You’re unlikely to need an external streaming media box with the 4 Series native smart TV system.

A Review of the Ultra-Affordable TCL 4-Series 2019 4K UHD HDR LCD TV (43S425, 49S425, 50S425, 55S425, 65S425, 75S425)

Check out TCL’s ultra affordable 4 Series S425 2019 4K HDR LCD TV on sale at Amazon

4.7 – 4 Reviews
Also Read:
Our comprehensive review of the best IPS TV we’ve ever examined, LG’s powerful 2019 SM9000 4K HDR edition
Our In-depth review of TCL’s new 6-Series 4K HDR TV, The Most Affordable Aaesome Premium TV of 2019
Our In-depth review of Samsung’s ultra-bright flagship 2018 Q8FN 4K HDR TV

What We Didn’t Like

Right off the bat we need to state that if you’re looking for premium display performance and special features like deep HDR or perfect motion handling, the 4 Series is not the TV to go for. This model is not premium and has no pretenses of being high-end. With that said, we can judge it more fairly. In other words, its decent performance isn’t a flaw by itself, but some aspects of it could definitely have been improved. Here they are.

HDR Brightness and lack of local dimming

As far as overall display luminosity goes, the TCL 4 Series 2019 edition is an almost abysmally poor performer. In both HDR and SDR modes, this 4K TV delivers subpar results even by the standards of budget 4K UHD TVs of any kind, and its HDR brightness in particular is almost laughably weak since it never even exceeds 210 nits. In SDR mode for normal content, the S425 doesn’t even break 200 nits. Brightness isn’t dynamic at all either and if you’re watching this TV in a bright room, it will give you viewability problems. The strong contrast ratio nonetheless saves the S425 from underperforming too much.

A Review of the Ultra-Affordable TCL 4-Series 2019 4K UHD HDR LCD TV (43S425, 49S425, 50S425, 55S425, 65S425, 75S425)

Color Performance details

The color delivery of the S425 isn’t actually all that bad overall. However, since most 4K HDR TVs these days offer wide color gamut regardless of price, the S425 could have raised its WCG bar a bit higher. This is our main complaint about its color delivery, because in terms of 10-bit color, the 4 Series performs pretty robustly.

Motion handling deficiencies

The second major defect of the TCL 4 Series is its general motion handling. This TV does deliver superbly good motion blur due to its high pixel responsiveness but this is the only part of its motion control that’s strong. The TV’s native display only reaches 60Hz but in any case there is no motion interpolation to speak of in this television. For people who prefer natural looking movement in their content, this won’t be a problem, but if you like the soap opera effect that motion interpolation inevitably creates, it’s not available. In addition to this, the S425 doesn’t offer judder control for 24p movies from any source except for DVDs or Blu-rays.

A Review of the Ultra-Affordable TCL 4-Series 2019 4K UHD HDR LCD TV (43S425, 49S425, 50S425, 55S425, 65S425, 75S425)

Also Read:
Our in-depth review of Sony’s X950G 4K UHD HDR LCD TV
Our in-depth review of Samsung’s Q7F QLED 4K HDR TV

Value for Price & Bottom Line

On the whole, we actually do recommend the S425 despite its flaws and very modest 4K HDR TV performance qualities. The simple reason why is that this 4K TV doesn’t do anything too terribly while delivering a couple things exceptionally well, and costs very little (the 50 inch model retails for well below $300 and that’s great). What more could you want from an obvious budget TV from a recognized brand?

A Review of the Ultra-Affordable TCL 4-Series 2019 4K UHD HDR LCD TV (43S425, 49S425, 50S425, 55S425, 65S425, 75S425)

Check out TCL’s ultra affordable 4 Series S425 2019 4K HDR LCD TV on sale at Amazon

4.7 – 4 Reviews
ALSO READ:
Sony’s Stunningly good but reasonably priced A8G OLED 4K HDR TV
Our in-depth review of LG’s C9 4K UHD HDR OLED TV
Our in-depth review of LG’s stunningly good & surprisingly affordable B9 4K OLED HDR TV
Our in-depth review of LG’s Fantastic premium E9 OLED 4K HDR TV

Key TCL 4 Series Specs

• Screen sizes: 43 inch 43S425, 49 inch 49S425, 50 inch 50S425, 55 inch 55S425, 65 inch 65S425, 75 inch 75S425 (TV being reviewed is 55 inches)
• Smart TV: Roku TV 2019 Edition
• HEVC (H.265) Included: Yes
• VP9 Included. Yes
• HD to UHD to 4K upscaling: Yes
• HDCP 2.2 Compliance: Yes
• HDR Support: Yes, HDR10, Hybrid Log Gamma
• Refresh Rate: 60Hz native refresh rate
• Screen Lighting: LCD Display with edge-lit backlighting, no local dimming
• Resolution: 3840 × 2160 pixels 4K UHD
• Wireless Connectivity: Yes, includes both built-in WiFi and Ethernet port
• Remotes: Roku TV smart remote with voice control
• Connectivity: 3 HDMI ports (all of them 2.0a and with HDCP 2.2, 1 USB port, 1 Ethernet port, WiFi, 1 Digital Audio Out
• Contrast Ratio: 6,060:1 (native, real maximum contrast)
• Absolute Maximum Peak Brightness: 209 nits (cd/m2)
• 3D Technology: N/A

Display Performance Metrics

This is where we come to the more detailed measurements of performance quality that are the meat of our review. In the following sections and subsections, we’ll be going over the specific metrics that matter the most for judging how well this TV delivers on quality home theater handling. They cover the essentials of brightness, color, motion handling, and other specs for using this particular UHD TV for movies, TV shows, broadcast content, gaming and even as a PC monitor if you prefer. We cut out all the fluff and marketing jargon that doesn’t really explain genuine quality anyhow.

A Review of the Ultra-Affordable TCL 4-Series 2019 4K UHD HDR LCD TV (43S425, 49S425, 50S425, 55S425, 65S425, 75S425)

The following are based on metrics from one or two reviewed units but their accuracy is exact enough to reflect what they should be like for any normally functioning editions of the TCL 4 Series. Slight variations for some of the specs in the sections below might be the case with editions of different sizes.

Also Read
Our comprehensive review of the stunningly good but affordable Vizio 2019 P-Series Quantum 4K HDR TV

Black Level, uniformity, Local Dimming and Contrast:

The overall black level of the TCL S425 4K HDR TV is good but not great. There is some light bleed along the edges and a bit of clouding is visible in a dark room when the TV shows all dark content. Furthermore, the TV lacks the local dimming technology found in its pricier cousins the 6 Series and 5 Series, which would have heavily improved its black uniformity and black level. That said, the S425’s black level isn’t all that bad, since it gets deep enough to create a very good native contrast ratio of 6,090:1 despite this TV’s very low peak brightness in HDR or SDR mode.

A Review of the Ultra-Affordable TCL 4-Series 2019 4K UHD HDR LCD TV (43S425, 49S425, 50S425, 55S425, 65S425, 75S425)

Also Read:
Our In-depth guide to todays absolute best streaming media devices and platforms
Our In-depth review of Samsung’s ultra-bright flagship 2019 Q90R 4K HDR TV
Also Read:
Our Comprehensive review of Samsung’s most affordable 2019 QLED TV, the Q60R

Brightness:

Overall and peak display brightness is where the TCL 4 Series S425 most underperforms. This is one of the dimmest 4K HDR TVs we’ve reviewed in the last couple years and even in HDR mode it completely flops. When viewed in a dark room, the S425 still delivers decent luminosity that shouldn’t bother anyone who doesn’t mind this being a budget 4K TV but if you use the S425 in a well-lit space, expect some problems with clear viewing of content.

A Review of the Ultra-Affordable TCL 4-Series 2019 4K UHD HDR LCD TV (43S425, 49S425, 50S425, 55S425, 65S425, 75S425)

Even when outputting absolute peak brightness during playback of HDR content, the S425 underperforms badly with a peak reading of just 209 nits, which is downright crappy. When set to SDR content viewing mode, this TV does even worse and never outshines 200 nits or anything really close to it.

TCL 4 Series SDR Brightness

  • Overall SDR peak brightness for normal content: 171 nits
  • Peak 2% display area display SDR brightness: 177 nits
  • Peak 10% display area SDR brightness: 178 nits
  • Peak 100% display area SDR brightness: 178 nits
  • Sustained 10% SDR brightness: 178 nits
  • Sustained 100% SDR brightness: 178 nits

A Review of the Ultra-Affordable TCL 4-Series 2019 4K UHD HDR LCD TV (43S425, 49S425, 50S425, 55S425, 65S425, 75S425)

TCL 4 Series 4K TV HDR Brightness

  • Overall HDR peak brightness for normal content: 199 nits
  • Peak 2% display area display HDR brightness: 195 nits
  • Peak 10% display area HDR brightness: 209 nits
  • Peak 100% display area HDR brightness: 208 nits
  • Sustained 10% HDR brightness: 208 nits
  • Sustained 100% HDR brightness: 207 nits

Color Delivery:

In terms of color delivery, the S425 is a good 4K HDR TV that doesn’t quite meet the level for minimal full HDR color performance. The reason why is that this television can’t quite reach the 90% coverage of DCI P3 Wide Color Gamut spectrum coverage necessary for that. Instead it falls a bit short at 87.5%. On the other hand, it does two things which keep color vibrant, rich and lovely on the screen during movies, TV shows, games and HDR content playback of any kind.

First, the S425 delivers very smooth, nice 10-bit color gradation of 1.07 billion tones of the RGB spectrum (red, green blue) essential for all other color blends. Secondly, the 4 Series delivers very good color accuracy for both HDR and SDR content after a bit of color settings calibration even though it’s inaccurate right out of the box.

A Review of the Ultra-Affordable TCL 4-Series 2019 4K UHD HDR LCD TV (43S425, 49S425, 50S425, 55S425, 65S425, 75S425)

The bottom line for the S425’s color performance is that it’s good even though it doesn’t quite match the levels created by most of the full HDR TVs of 2019. Most content color will reproduce richly, vibrantly and fully despite this TV’s lack of high brightness. The deep contrast ratio helps things out further.

Here are the TCL S425’s main color accuracy settings before and after calibration. These cover the key metrics for accurate color and the lower the numbers, the better. In post-calibration readings, they’re very good:

A Review of the Ultra-Affordable TCL 4-Series 2019 4K UHD HDR LCD TV (43S425, 49S425, 50S425, 55S425, 65S425, 75S425)

  • Pre-calibration White Balance delta-E: 3.48
  • Pre-calibration Color delta-E: 5.18
  • Pre-calibration Gamma: 2.45
  • Post-calibration White Balance delta-E: 0.49
  • Post-calibration Color delta-E: 1.9
  • Post-calibration Gamma: 2.02
  • Wide Color Gamut: 87.8%

Motion Handling & Upscaling:

The TCL S Series 4K HDR TV lineup delivers excellent pixel response time for reduced motion blur during playback of fast-paced content from movies, TV shows, games or sportscasts. This is great, and it compensates for this TV’s complete lack of motion interpolation technology, which also serves to create minimal blur during playback of content at differing frame rates. That said, the TV has no motion interpolation, and if you want this for your sports or movies, you’re out of luck. On a further note, the S425’s judder control for 24p movie content (the formatting for most movies on disc, streaming or hard media) is poor, being available only for DVD or Blu-ray films.

A Review of the Ultra-Affordable TCL 4-Series 2019 4K UHD HDR LCD TV (43S425, 49S425, 50S425, 55S425, 65S425, 75S425)

Input Performance for Gaming and PC:

Where the TCL S425 absolutely excels is at how well it delivers low input lag for gaming purposes, especially with consoles. While this TV can’t deliver more than 60Hz on its display and is thus unable to handle high frame-rate gaming at above 60fps, the input lag of the S425 is superbly low in game mode for gaming at 60Hz or less in 1080p, 1440p or 4K UHD resolution (2160p). This also applies to gaming in HDR mode, with 10-bit color, with 4:4:4 and so forth.

The resolutions and color settings supported by the 4 Series when hooked up to a PC are also great, with easy handling of 1080p, 1440p and 4K resolutions at frame rates of up to the TV’s 60Hz limit.

A Review of the Ultra-Affordable TCL 4-Series 2019 4K UHD HDR LCD TV (43S425, 49S425, 50S425, 55S425, 65S425, 75S425)

The metrics below bear out the 4 Series TV’s performance:

  • 4k @ 60Hz: 12.8 ms
  • 1080p @ 60Hz: 13.2 ms
  • 1080p @ 120Hz: N/A
  • 1080p @ 60Hz outside Game Mode: 45 ms
  • 4k @ 60Hz + HDR: 12.4.5 ms
  • 1440p @ 60Hz: 13.4 ms
  • 4k @ 60Hz Outside Game Mode : 47.2 ms
  • 4k @ 60Hz @ 4:4:4: 13.5 ms
  • 4K @ 120Hz: N/A
  • 1440p @ 120Hz: N/A
  • 1080p with FreeSync: N/A
  • 4K with interpolation activated: 68.7 ms

PC Gaming Input Support

  • 1080p @ 120Hz: No
  • 1080p @ 60Hz @ 4:4:4: Yes
  • 4k @ 60Hz + 4:4:4: Yes
  • 1440p @ 60Hz: Yes
  • 4k @ 120Hz : No
  • 4k @ 60Hz @ 4:4:4: Yes
  • 1440p @ 120Hz: No

Connectivity

A Review of the Ultra-Affordable TCL 4-Series 2019 4K UHD HDR LCD TV (43S425, 49S425, 50S425, 55S425, 65S425, 75S425)

The TCL 4 Series TV offers all the essentials of functional, latest ultra HD HDR TV connectivity. This means that it comes with full 4K HDR HDMI 2.0a connection ports, USB, WiFi (high-speed) and Ethernet connectivity. On the other hand, it falls a bit flat on the number of ports available. There are only 3 HDMI ports and only 1 USB slot. Most 4K TVs even in the budget range offer 4 HDMI connections and at least 2 or 3 USB ports.

The following are the TCL S Series S425’s ports and their specifications:

  • HDMI : 3 (HDCP 2.2 & full HDMI 2.0a capacity)
  • HDMI 2.1 : N/A
  • USB : 1 (USB 2.0)
  • Digital Optical Audio Out : 1
  • Analog Audio Out 3.5 mm : 1
  • Tuner (Cable/Ant) : 1
  • Ethernet : 1
  • HDR10 support: Yes
  • HDR10+ support: No
  • Dolby Vision HDR support: No
  • Hybrid Log Gamma HDR support: Yes

The TCL S425 4 Series TV models also offer audio connectivity in the following types.

  • 1 Passthrough ARC Dolby Digital
  • 1 Passthrough ARC
  • 1 Passthrough Optical Dolby Digital
  • 1 Passthrough DTS via ARC
  • 1 Passthrough DTS via Optical
  • 1 Passthrough eARC support

Pricing

TCL is selling the 4 Series TVs in a wide range of sizes, which is great for any budget and spaces requirements. Thus, you have the choice of a really economical 43 inch edition, a 49 inch model, a 50 inch model and moving into more “big screen” territory; 55 and 65 inch editions are also available. There’s also a giant 75 inch version of the S425 for a more deeply immersive home theater experience eon a budget.

These editions all sell for the following prices, found in the link below at the time of this writing. Bear in mind that these are subject to sometimes frequent downward change and it’s a good idea to click the following Amazon links for real-time pricing and all available discounts on this model.

A Review of the Ultra-Affordable TCL 4-Series 2019 4K UHD HDR LCD TV (43S425, 49S425, 50S425, 55S425, 65S425, 75S425)

Check out TCL’s ultra affordable 4 Series S425 2019 4K HDR LCD TV on sale at Amazon

4.7 – 4 Reviews
Story by 4k.com

The post A Review of the Ultra-Affordable TCL 4-Series 2019 4K UHD HDR LCD TV (43S425, 49S425, 50S425, 55S425, 65S425, 75S425) appeared first on .

A Review of the LG NanoCell SM8600 4K HDR LCD TV (49SM8600, 55SM8600, 65SM8600, 75SM8600)

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Stephan Jukic – December 25, 2019

Overview

LG’s SM8600 4K HDR LCD TV is one of the brand’s 2019 NanoCell editions and like all of this brand’s LCD TVs (as opposed to their best-selling and extremely famous OLED 4K HDR TVs), it comes with IPS display technology. This means wide viewing angles but it also comes with a negative tradeoff in terms of weak dark levels and contrast. That said, the SM8600 is a very decent 4K HDR TV by that standards of televisions with IPS display and it also offers especially good visual performance on several key measurements of quality.

Positives

• Very strong gaming performance
• Really good motion handling
• Great color delivery
• Excellent viewing angles
• Great smart TV platform

Negatives

• Lackluster Black levels and contrast (because of IPS display)
• Weak HDR brightness
• Weak local dimming technology
• Native Audio is really bad

Bottom Line

LG’s SM8600 is a good 4K UHD TV choice if you’re specifically looking for an HDR TV that offers wide viewing angles while also not being anywhere near as expensive as an OLED TV (which also offer wide viewing angles). By IPS 4K TV standards, it’s not a bad edition, but these are its two main selling points. If you just want a great 4K LCD TV at a good price and don’t care about wide viewing angles, there are better options available from several brands.

A Review of the LG NanoCell SM8600 4K HDR LCD TV (49SM8600, 55SM8600, 65SM8600, 75SM8600)

Check out LG’s ultra affordable SM8600 NanoCell 2019 4K HDR LCD TV on sale at Amazon

4.7 – 4 Reviews
Also Read:
Our Comprehensive review of Samsung’s most affordable 2019 QLED TV, the Q60R
Our detailed hands-on review of Samsung’s incredible new 8K HDR TV, the Q900
Our comprehensive review of samsung’s excellent premium Q80R QLED 4K HDR TV
Also Read:
Our In-depth review of Samsung’s ultra-bright flagship 2018 Q8FN 4K HDR TV

What We Liked about the SM8600

There are several major aspects of 4K TV performance that the LG SM8600 either excels at or does quite well. These go a long way towards compensating for its few but notable flaws and make this edition into a great TV by the standards of editions with IPS display.

Gaming connectivity & performance

The LG SM8600 is a surprisingly awesome 4K TV for gamers. While its HDR quality isn’t stellar and the black level/contrast issues we discussed affect gaming just as much as content, what this LG model really delivers superbly is strong support with very low input lag almost across the board for all color, resolution, HDR and frame rate settings. It also works wonderfully as a PC monitor, with great support for different frame rates, resolutions and color settings while hooked up to a PC too. LG’s SM9000 surprised us with the same specs and the cheaper SM8600 delivers them nearly as well.

A Review of the LG NanoCell SM8600 4K HDR LCD TV (49SM8600, 55SM8600, 65SM8600, 75SM8600)

Those awesome viewing angles

The one big thing working in favor of IPS display technology is the viewing angles it provides. This is why 4K TV makers still put out IPS TV editions, and for users who need to fit their home theater system into a wide space with narrow viewing distance, this is great. As far as IPS 4K TVs go, the SM8600 is a very good example, with decent enough contrast and great color. These combined with its wide viewing angles make it an ideal choice if viewing angles are what you need without spending money on an OLED TV or one of Sony and Samsung’s ultra-premium, insanely expensive flagship TVs with special viewing angle technology in their VA panels.

A Review of the LG NanoCell SM8600 4K HDR LCD TV (49SM8600, 55SM8600, 65SM8600, 75SM8600)

Motion handling

The motion handling of the LG SM8600 is very almost excellent. This TV definitely delivers the results on high pixel response time for low motion blur and its motion interpolation works great at handling content with a lower frame rate than that of the SM8600’s native 120Hz display. Furthermore, it offers great judder control for content from most sources and comes with a number of extra technologies for smooth, blur and artifact-free picture performance during gaming or any kind of content viewing.

Vibrant color performance

In terms of color delivery for both HDR and SDR (ordinary) content, the SM8600 NanoCell 4K TV is a fine performer. Color accuracy is excellent in this TV after a bit of calibration and the combination of wide color gamut and 10-bit color that it offers combine to deliver excellent, vibrant color delivery during playback of HDR video sources, especially with content mastered in Dolby Vision HDR, which the SM8600 also supports.

A Review of the LG NanoCell SM8600 4K HDR LCD TV (49SM8600, 55SM8600, 65SM8600, 75SM8600)

LG’s superb smart TV platform

To finish off our section of major things we liked about the LG SM8600, we come down to its smart TV platform. This 2019 4K HDR TV comes with WebOS 4.5 and it’s better than it’s ever been before. The TV’s selection of apps is extremely extensive, picture settings are easy to use and the overall WebOS interface is extremely user-friendly while also being exceptionally smooth. The SM8600’s smart remote comes with voice control and supports Google Assistant along with other voice control technologies.

A Review of the LG NanoCell SM8600 4K HDR LCD TV (49SM8600, 55SM8600, 65SM8600, 75SM8600)

Check out LG’s ultra affordable SM8600 NanoCell 2019 4K HDR LCD TV on sale at Amazon

4.7 – 4 Reviews
Also Read:
Our comprehensive review of the best IPS TV we’ve ever reviewed, LG’s powerful new SM9000 4K HDR edition

What We Didn’t Like

The funny thing about the SM8600 is that, IPS panel aside, it’s actually a pretty good 4K TV overall. Thus, the things we dislike about it are fairly mild. In basic terms, if an IPS TV is something you specifically feel you need, this television is one of the best choices available on the market right now. That said, here are some of its major negatives:

Black/contrast levels and local dimming

The greatest weaknesses of the LG SM8600 consist of a combination of weak black levels, low contrast and a local dimming technology that’s too crappy to really improve either of the first two. Both weak black levels and poor contrast are very typical of IPS 4K TVs, and quite frankly the SM8600 delivers much better on both than we’d normally expect from a TV with this display technology but the bottom line is that it’s still not very good at these specs. This is of course a tradeoff that normally comes with the wide viewing angles of IPS TVs but to make things worse, the local dimming that this TV has, which should normally improve these specs considerably, fails dismally at doing so. It’s just not good enough. Unless you really need wide viewing angles on a budget, we’d suggest going for a TV with VA display. Samsung’s mid-range models and TCL or Vizio’s editions are great alternatives.

A Review of the LG NanoCell SM8600 4K HDR LCD TV (49SM8600, 55SM8600, 65SM8600, 75SM8600)

Overall display brightness

The overall display brightness of the LG SM8600 is also a major defect of this edition. When set to output SDR brightness levels for normal TV and movie or gaming content, the SM8600 is only barely decent at luminosity and even when switched over to HDR brightness for the content that needs the feature, this LG NanoCell TV performs only modestly well. We’ve seen much brighter peak and sustained luminosity from cheaper 4K UHD TVs and it really helps with picture quality, especially if a 4K TV’s black levels and contrast are bad, which of course they are with the SM8600.

A Review of the LG NanoCell SM8600 4K HDR LCD TV (49SM8600, 55SM8600, 65SM8600, 75SM8600)

Weak native audio

The native audio technology of most 4K UHD TVs isn’t usually exceptional, but in the SM8600 it’s downright crappy. This TV’s speakers are fine for casual news watching and running sitcoms during a lazy evening but if you want to do anything that requires immersive sound and kick on the SM8600, we really, really recommend a pair of external speakers or a decent soundbar.

Comparison to other TVs

Compared to other IPS 4K UHD HDR TVs, the LG SM8600 performs well. It’s in fact one of the better IPS display choices available among 2018 and 2019 4K UHD TVs. However, if wide viewing angles aren’t that important to you, there are several 4K HDR LCD TV alternatives we’d recommend more than this edition, which all come with VA display technology and much better black levels, contrast and superior peak brightness.

Also Read:
Our in-depth review of Sony’s X950G 4K UHD HDR LCD TV
Our in-depth review of Samsung’s Q7F QLED 4K HDR TV

Value for Price & Bottom Line

We recommend the LG SM8600 NanoCell 4K TV if you want a better than average IPS TV and need its wide viewing angles without having to splurge on an OLED TV, but otherwise, if these things aren’t important, many 4K TV alternatives offer better performance at similar prices.

A Review of the LG NanoCell SM8600 4K HDR LCD TV (49SM8600, 55SM8600, 65SM8600, 75SM8600)

Check out LG’s ultra affordable SM8600 NanoCell 2019 4K HDR LCD TV on sale at Amazon

4.7 – 4 Reviews
ALSO READ:
Sony’s Stunningly good but reasonably priced A8G OLED 4K HDR TV
Our in-depth review of LG’s C9 4K UHD HDR OLED TV
Our in-depth review of LG’s stunningly good & surprisingly affordable B9 4K OLED HDR TV
Our in-depth review of LG’s Fantastic premium E9 OLED 4K HDR TV

Key LG SM8600 Specs

• Screen sizes: 49 inch 49SM8600, 55 inch SM8600, 65 inch SM8600, 75 inch SM8600 (TV being reviewed is 55 inches)
• Smart TV: WebOS 4.5 2019 Edition
• HEVC (H.265) Included: Yes
• VP9 Included. Yes
• HD to UHD to 4K upscaling: Yes
• HDCP 2.2 Compliance: Yes
• HDR Support: Yes, HDR10, Dolby Vision, Hybrid Log Gamma
• Refresh Rate: 120Hz native refresh rate (Except 49 inch edition)
• Screen Lighting: LCD Display with edge-lit backlighting, no local dimming
• Resolution: 3840 × 2160 pixels 4K UHD
• Wireless Connectivity: Yes, includes both built-in WiFi and Ethernet port
• Remotes: LG smart OneRemote with voice control
• Connectivity: 4 HDMI ports (all of them 2.0a and with HDCP 2.2, 3 USB ports, 1 Ethernet port, 1 Digital Audio Out
• Contrast Ratio: 1,176:1 (native, real maximum contrast)
• Absolute Maximum Peak Brightness: 429 nits (cd/m2)
• 3D Technology: N/A

Display Performance Metrics

In the following sections and subsections, we cover all of the most important metrics of real 4K HDR TV performance in the LG SM8600 NanoCell TV. These are the specs that matter most for judging how well this TV delivers on quality home theater handling. They cover the essentials of brightness, color, motion handling, and other specs for using this particular UHD TV for movies, TV shows, broadcast content, gaming and even as a PC monitor if you prefer. We cut out all the fluff and marketing jargon that doesn’t really explain genuine quality anyhow.

The following are based on metrics from one or two reviewed units but their accuracy is exact enough to reflect what they should be like for any normally functioning editions of the LG SM8600. Slight variations for some of the specs in the sections below might be the case with editions of different sizes.

A Review of the LG NanoCell SM8600 4K HDR LCD TV (49SM8600, 55SM8600, 65SM8600, 75SM8600)

Also Read:
Our In-depth review of TCL’s new 6-Series 4K HDR TV, The Most Affordable Aaesome Premium TV of 2019
Our deep review of TCL’s insanely affordable 2019 4-Series 4K HDR TVs
Our comprehensive review of the stunningly good but affordable Vizio 2019 P-Series Quantum 4K HDR TV

Black Level, uniformity, Local Dimming and Contrast:

As we already clarified earlier, the LG SM8600 is an IPS 4K HDR TV. This essentially means that this TV has a display design in which pixels have much greater horizontal width, IPS (In-plane Switching) TVs bleed a lot of light through their darkened pixels. This of course means really weak contrast and crappy black levels that both become especially noticeable in a dark room. The benefit of IPS is that it also happens to let a TV offer very wide viewing angles, but only some users will care about this more than they do about their 4K TV having great contrast deep black tone capability

A Review of the LG NanoCell SM8600 4K HDR LCD TV (49SM8600, 55SM8600, 65SM8600, 75SM8600)

Because of its IPS display panel, the SM8600 thus only manages a very modest maximum contrast ratio of 990:1 and its overall black uniformity across a fully dark screen and darkest possible black level are both extremely weak. Both of these are unfortunate effects of this TVs IPS screen because both contrast and black level are crucial aspects of good HDR video. But if you want wide viewing angles on a budget, IPS is the way to go. What really does annoy us in all of this however is that the SM8600 also lacks local dimming. This technology -which selectively dims LEDs behind the screen for better dark levels- would have gone a long way towards making an IPS TV like the SM8600 deliver much better picture performance. TCL and Vizio have made local dimming a standard feature of their very affordable 4K HDR TVs, LG apparently won’t for some reason.

A Review of the LG NanoCell SM8600 4K HDR LCD TV (49SM8600, 55SM8600, 65SM8600, 75SM8600)

 

Also Read:
Our In-depth guide to todays absolute best streaming media devices and platforms
Our In-depth review of Samsung’s ultra-bright flagship 2019 Q90R 4K HDR TV
Also Read:
Our Comprehensive review of Samsung’s most affordable 2019 QLED TV, the Q60R

Brightness:

Brightness-wise, the LG SM8600 does reasonably well for its price when set to view HDR content but in terms of delivery of SDR video sources (which make up the vast majority of content that you’ll view), it’s a really crappy performer. In HDR mode this 4K TV supports all major HDR formats and its combination of strong color performance and decent brightness makes the quality of said high dynamic range rendering fairly decent. However, the maximum peak and sustained HDR brightness of the SM8600 isn’t excellent either and we’ve seen much better from a number of similarly priced HDR LCD TV models. LG’s own SM9000 IPS NanoCell TV gets much, much brighter, for example, even though it costs more. The SM8600 is further hampered by its weak black levels and contrast, which make its bright highlights stand out less than they could.

 

 

LG SM8600 SDR Brightness

  • Overall SDR peak brightness for normal content: 256 nits
  • Peak 2% display area display SDR brightness: 107 nits
  • Peak 10% display area SDR brightness: 190 nits
  • Peak 100% display area SDR brightness: 234 nits
  • Sustained 10% SDR brightness: 194 nits
  • Sustained 100% SDR brightness: 274 nits

A Review of the LG NanoCell SM8600 4K HDR LCD TV (49SM8600, 55SM8600, 65SM8600, 75SM8600)

LG SM8600 TV HDR Brightness

  • Overall HDR peak brightness for normal content: 310 nits
  • Peak 2% display area display HDR brightness: 440 nits
  • Peak 10% display area HDR brightness: 415 nits
  • Peak 100% display area HDR brightness: 342 nits
  • Sustained 10% HDR brightness: 283 nits
  • Sustained 100% HDR brightness: 351 nits

Color Delivery:

Fortunately, the LG SM8600 delivers great color almost across the board. It fully supports HDR color specs and delivers strong 10-bit color gradation while also being very good at delivery of wide color gamut to a reasonably high range. This TVs rendering of vibrant colors during playback of bright scenes is a bit weak but since the SM8600 doesn’t output extreme luminosity anyhow, this isn’t a huge problem. On the other hand, color accuracy is also great in the SM8600 as long as its picture settings receive a bit of calibration. Right out of the box, the TV is pretty inaccurate at delivering realistic, vibrant colors though.

A Review of the LG NanoCell SM8600 4K HDR LCD TV (49SM8600, 55SM8600, 65SM8600, 75SM8600)

Most importantly in a general sense, the SM8600 will output strong and rich colors that look realistic when it’s used to play both ordinary TV content and vibrant HDR video sources. The color vibrancy of the SM8600 is spoiled a bit by the weak blacks produced by its IPS display but if you bought it knowing you wanted wide IPS viewing angles, this is a fair tradeoff. Furthermore, because of its IPS display, the SM8600 delivers excellent color saturation even when viewed from way off dead center. Typical LCD TVs with VA display can’t deliver that.

Here are the SM8600’s key color delivery specs:

A Review of the LG NanoCell SM8600 4K HDR LCD TV (49SM8600, 55SM8600, 65SM8600, 75SM8600)

  • Pre-calibration White Balance delta-E: 5.41
  • Pre-calibration Color delta-E: 3.48
  • Pre-calibration Gamma: 2.22
  • Post-calibration White Balance delta-E: 0.45
  • Post-calibration Color delta-E: 0.92
  • Post-calibration Gamma: 2.12
  • Wide Color Gamut: 92.8%

Motion Handling & Upscaling:

The LG SM8600’s motion handling is more than adequate for most buyers. We’ve seen much better from a number of other mid-range LCD 4K HDR TVs but this model does a very decent job at most motion metrics. For starters, its pixel response time is great at 4.1 milliseconds, which measures how quickly pixels change color as content shifts across the screen. This of course means low motion blur.

Secondly, the SM8600 comes with a native 120Hz display panel and can interpolate motion with slower frame rates very smoothly on this screen. This is great for both movie/TV show playback and gaming. When it comes to judder control for 24p content, the SM8600 performs extremely well too, and can handle judder-free content delivery from disc media, broadcast, streaming and HDMI sources without a problem.

A Review of the LG NanoCell SM8600 4K HDR LCD TV (49SM8600, 55SM8600, 65SM8600, 75SM8600)

On the other hand, the SM8600 doesn’t have any variable refresh rate technology like FreeSync or G-Sync for smoother gaming. In general though, this particular 4K TV delivers very good motion handling.

In terms of content upscaling, like virtually all modern 4K UHD TVs, the SM8600 offers excellent sharpening of any well-mastered content from just about any source. 1080p video sources look wonderfully sharp on this TV and even 720p and 480p video is rendered sharply.

Input Performance for Gaming and PC:

The gaming and PC connectivity chops of the LG SM8600 are really good for the most part. The native 120Hz panel of this TV lets it handle high frame-rate gaming adequately and the TVs input response time under most resolution, HDR, color and frame rate settings is great during console gaming. Input lag in game mode is superbly low almost across the board. One flaw is the lack of frame rate smoothing technology like FreeSync or G-Sync but unless you’re very serious about gaming, this isn’t a huge problem. Because the SM8600 lacks HDMI 2.1, it can’t deliver 4K at 120Hz. LG’s OLED TVs can do this however.

A Review of the LG NanoCell SM8600 4K HDR LCD TV (49SM8600, 55SM8600, 65SM8600, 75SM8600)

Here are the SM8600’s important input and PC connectivity specs:

  • 4k @ 60Hz: 13.9 ms
  • 1080p @ 60Hz: 13 ms
  • 1080p @ 120Hz: 6.8
  • 1080p @ 60Hz outside Game Mode: 33 ms
  • 4k @ 60Hz + HDR: 14.5 ms
  • 1440p @ 60Hz: 13.4 ms
  • 4k @ 60Hz Outside Game Mode : 37.2 ms
  • 4k @ 60Hz @ 4:4:4: 33.5 ms
  • 4K @ 120Hz: N/A
  • 1440p @ 120Hz: 6.9 ms
  • 1080p with FreeSync: N/A
  • 4K with interpolation activated: 88.7 ms

PC Gaming Input Connectivity

  • 1080p @ 120Hz: Yes
  • 1080p @ 60Hz @ 4:4:4: Yes
  • 4k @ 60Hz + 4:4:4: Yes
  • 1440p @ 60Hz: Yes
  • 4k @ 120Hz : No
  • 4k @ 60Hz @ 4:4:4: Yes
  • 1440p @ 120Hz: Yes

Connectivity

In terms of connectivity ports, the SM8600 is fully hooked up with the usual essentials. It comes with four HDMI ports with 4K capability at 60Hz and offers three USB ports. There’s also full high speed WiFi connectivity and an Ethernet port. It’s only real defect is a lack of HDMI 2.1 but since this isn’t yet important for any commercial 4K content anyhow, it won’t be a problem for most users.

8 4

The following are the LG SM8600’s ports and their specifications:

  • HDMI : 4 (HDCP 2.2 & full HDMI 2.0a capacity)
  • HDMI 2.1 : N/A
  • USB : 3 (USB 2.0 x 3)
  • Digital Optical Audio Out : 1
  • Analog Audio Out 3.5 mm : 1
  • Tuner (Cable/Ant) : 1
  • Ethernet : 1
  • HDR10 support: Yes
  • HDR10+ support: No
  • Dolby Vision HDR support: Yes
  • Hybrid Log Gamma HDR support: Yes

The LG SM8600 TV models also offer audio connectivity in the following types.

  • 1 Passthrough ARC Dolby Digital
  • 1 Passthrough Dolby Digital via ARC
  • 1 Passthrough Optical Dolby Digital
  • 1 Passthrough DTS via Optical
  • 1 Passthrough ARC

Pricing

LG is selling the SM8600 4K ultra HD HDR LCD Smart TV models in four different sizes. Thus, you have the choice of a really economical 49 inch edition, a sizeable 55 or 65 inch version and a huge 75 inch model that would be particularly excellent for home theater fans who want a deeply immersive experience.

These editions all sell for the following prices, found in the link below at the time of this writing. Bear in mind that these are subject to sometimes frequent downward change and it’s a good idea to click the following Amazon links for real-time pricing and all available discounts on this model.

A Review of the LG NanoCell SM8600 4K HDR LCD TV (49SM8600, 55SM8600, 65SM8600, 75SM8600)

Check out LG’s ultra affordable SM8600 2019 4K HDR LCD TV on sale at Amazon

4.7 – 4 Reviews
Story by 4k.com

The post A Review of the LG NanoCell SM8600 4K HDR LCD TV (49SM8600, 55SM8600, 65SM8600, 75SM8600) appeared first on .

A Review of the Sony X800G 4K HDR Wide View Angle IPS TV (XBR43X800G, XBR49X800G, XBR55X800G, XBR65X800G, XBR75X800G)

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Stephan Jukic – December 25, 2019

Overview

Every year, Sony puts out at least a couple of 4K UHD HDR TVs with IPS display technology, and the Sony X800G is one of the brand’s 2019/early 2020 IPS editions. What does IPS mean? Well, simply put, it means wide viewing angles without paying the price of a much more expensive OLED television, but the tradeoff is an inability to create deep, rich black levels. This basically sums up the X800G, which is a good, solid performer in many ways that count for some users, but with contrast and black level performance that’s mediocre at best. That said, there’s plenty working in the X800G’s favor and this includes its fairly lean price.

Positives

• Superb viewing angles
• Great physical design for a budget 4K TV
• Wonderful color performance
• Good performance in brightly lit rooms
• Excellent content upscaling for all video sources
• Strong color performance

Negatives

• No local dimming
• Weak HDR brightness
• Fairly weak contrast ratio and black levels (for dark, shadowy scenes)
• Native Audio is poor
• Motion handling problems

Bottom Line

If you want a fairly cheap name-brand 4K HDR TV with excellent viewing angles and generally good display performance, the X800G is a very good choice. This applies especially if the wide viewing angles are something you really need but don’t want to spend a lot of money. Otherwise, we’d definitely recommend certain other 4K TVs over this model in terms of both performance and price range.

A Review of the Sony X800G 4K HDR Wide View Angle IPS TV (XBR43X800G, XBR49X800G, XBR55X800G, XBR65X800G, XBR75X800G)

Check out Sony’s 4K HDR X800G 2019 4K HDR LCD TV with IPS Wide Viewing Angles on sale at Amazon

4.7 – 4 Reviews

 

Also Read:
Our Comprehensive review of Samsung’s most affordable 2019 QLED TV, the Q60R
Our detailed hands-on review of Samsung’s incredible new 8K HDR TV, the Q900
Our comprehensive review of Samsung’s excellent premium Q80R QLED 4K HDR TV
Also Read:
Our In-depth review of Samsung’s ultra-bright flagship 2018 Q8FN 4K HDR TV

What We Liked about the X800G

Despite a number of notable weaknesses at its current price, the Sony X800G has plenty going for it too. Most of its key display performance metrics are either decent, good or in a couple cases actually great and because of the IPS display with its onscreen pixel layout, the X800G is a particularly good budget UHD HDR TV choice for people who want a TV that can deliver high picture quality even from way off center. The X800G also has decent gaming chops and very good color performance. Now let’s get down to some concrete details.

Superb viewing angles

The really big selling point of 4K HDR TVs with IPS display is that they deliver superbly good viewing angles. Most LCD TVs on today’s market come with VA display panels and basically this means that their pixels are aligned in a way which creates excellent black levels and contrast but very weak picture quality if these TVs aren’t viewed from close to the in front of the screen. IPS display on the other hand spreads its pixels in such a way that the screen renders an excellent picture even when viewed way off to either side but at the cost of strong contrast and black levels. It’s a major tradeoff between one and the other but if you need a 4K HDR TV that can let you enjoy whatever you’re watching even if you’re sitting way off to the left or right of it, the X800G is a good, fairly affordable choice.

A Review of the Sony X800G 4K HDR Wide View Angle IPS TV (XBR43X800G, XBR49X800G, XBR55X800G, XBR65X800G, XBR75X800G)

Great color delivery in HDR and SDR

Another very strong feature of the Sony X800G is its overall color delivery. This 4K TV comes with full HDR color specs, which include both 10-bit color and WCG wide color gamut parameters. This of course means that weak contrast/black levels or not, the X800G can really deliver the vibrancy of any HDR content you throw at it just as its creators intended. Furthermore, the X800G’s color accuracy is very good, not right out of the box, but after a bit of light calibrating in the picture menu settings, this particular television delivers impressive performance for its price.

A Review of the Sony X800G 4K HDR Wide View Angle IPS TV (XBR43X800G, XBR49X800G, XBR55X800G, XBR65X800G, XBR75X800G)

Very decent motion handling

Where the X800G also happens to be a strong performer is on motion handling. It’s good overall and the pixel response time on the screen for color changes as content shifts is downright excellent by LCD TV standards. There’s also no backlight flicker as content dims and motion interpolation in the X800G is nothing to sneeze at either, which means that it can nicely, and smoothly, handle motion from content sources that run at slower frame rates than those of the X800G’s native 60Hz display. The bad side here of course is that the X800G doesn’t deliver frame rates above 60FPS.

Overall HDR delivery

So long as you accept the inherent contrast weakness of IPS TV display, the HDR delivery of the Sony X800G isn’t bad at all overall. Considering this 4K UHD TV’s price and the presence of the IPS display, colors look vibrant and in brightly lit rooms, even the weak black levels and contrast aren’t too noticeable, making high dynamic range content look pretty rich. In darkened rooms, the X800G starts to reveal its weak contrast and black levels quite a bit but even then, rich color performance and decent overall picture brightness compensate a fair bit for the X800G’s low black levels and contrast.

A Review of the Sony X800G 4K HDR Wide View Angle IPS TV (XBR43X800G, XBR49X800G, XBR55X800G, XBR65X800G, XBR75X800G)

Strong physical build

It’s also worth noting that, budget 4K TV or not, the Sony X800G has a very decent, robust built. It’s sturdy, simple but also just far enough away from looking clunky to be somewhat elegant and at home in any home theater setting. Connectivity ports are easily accessible and the X800G can be mounted to walls with its VESA mounts.

A Review of the Sony X800G 4K HDR Wide View Angle IPS TV (XBR43X800G, XBR49X800G, XBR55X800G, XBR65X800G, XBR75X800G)

Check out Sony’s 4K HDR X800G 2019 4K HDR LCD TV with IPS Wide Viewing Angles on sale at Amazon

4.7 – 4 Reviews
Also Read:
Our comprehensive review of the best IPS TV we’ve ever reviewed, LG’s powerful new SM9000 4K HDR edition
Our In-depth review of TCL’s new 6-Series 4K HDR TV, The Most Affordable Aaesome Premium TV of 2019

 What We Didn’t Like

The negative aspects of the Sony X800G are unfortunately plentiful, but a major caveat has to be noted here too: This is an IPS TV and for some users that’s exactly why they’d want the X800G even with the inherent black level weaknesses that IPS means, so this particular flaw is only a flaw if wide viewing angles aren’t important for you.

HDR Brightness and lack of local dimming

The most major defect combo of the X800G is its lack of local dimming coupled with the TVs weak display brightness when set to HDR content mode. An IPS 4K TV isn’t going to deliver the same strong contrast as your typical VA panel edition, that’s fine, but local dimming technology, which selectively shuts off LED backlights for deeper blacks, goes a long way to mitigating IPS light bleed. The X800G lacks this and that’s a major disappointment. Budget 4K TVs CAN have high quality local dimming; TCL and Vizio have both proven this with their 4K HDR TV editions during the last few years, so we’re not sure why Sony didn’t include it. To make the issue worse, the X800G also outputs notably low brightness when set to view HDR content. Coupled with its low black levels, this TV’s level of HDR luminosity makes contrast look even weaker.

A Review of the Sony X800G 4K HDR Wide View Angle IPS TV (XBR43X800G, XBR49X800G, XBR55X800G, XBR65X800G, XBR75X800G)

Gaming input issues

Sony’s 2019 4K HDR TVs generally deliver excellent input connectivity for gaming via consoles or PCs, and the X800G doesn’t do a bad job of supporting multiple HDR, color, resolution and frame rate settings when hooked up via HDMI to your favorite console. However, what we did notice about this TV is that its input lag could definitely be better across the board, especially for serious, response-conscious gamers. Many very affordable 4K HDR TVs from Samsung, Vizio, TCL and even LG offer gaming responsiveness that’s far better than the X800G. If you’re a casual gamer, this TV’s average response time of 30+ milliseconds will be fine, but if you want the best possible smoothness, affordably priced alternatives exist.

Weak Audio

Most 4K TVs come with what we’d at best call decent native audio performance, so we didn’t expect much from the X800G either. That said, this TV’s native sound system is pretty crappy. It’s fine for casually watching the news or whatnot but if you want robust sound for your movies and games, you’ll definitely need to hook up an external sound system of your own.

Also Read:
Our in-depth review of Sony’s X950G 4K UHD HDR LCD TV
Our in-depth review of Samsung’s Q7F QLED 4K HDR TV

Value for Price & Bottom Line

The Sony X800G TV isn’t the best or even the cheapest IPS 4K UHD TV on the market for 2019 edition TVs. However it is reasonably priced and performs better than some IPS TVs we’ve reviewed. Overall,, we recommend LG’s SM8600 or SM9000 editions on quality but if you’re a Sony fan, then this is a good economical Sony option.

A Review of the Sony X800G 4K HDR Wide View Angle IPS TV (XBR43X800G, XBR49X800G, XBR55X800G, XBR65X800G, XBR75X800G)

Check out Sony’s 4K HDR X800G 2019 4K HDR LCD TV with IPS Wide Viewing Angles on sale at Amazon

4.7 – 4 Reviews
ALSO READ:
Sony’s Stunningly good but reasonably priced A8G OLED 4K HDR TV
Our in-depth review of LG’s C9 4K UHD HDR OLED TV
Our in-depth review of LG’s stunningly good & surprisingly affordable B9 4K OLED HDR TV
Our in-depth review of LG’s Fantastic premium E9 OLED 4K HDR TV

Key Sony X800G Specs

• Screen sizes: 43 inch XBR43X800G, 49 inch XBR49X800G, 55 inch XBR55X800G, 65 inch XBR65X800G, 75 inch XBR75X800G (TV being reviewed is 55 inches)
• Smart TV: Android TV 2019 Edition
• HEVC (H.265) Included: Yes
• VP9 Included. Yes
• HD to UHD to 4K upscaling: Yes
• HDCP 2.2 Compliance: Yes
• HDR Support: Yes, HDR10, Hybrid Log Gamma
• Refresh Rate: 60Hz native refresh rate
• Screen Lighting: LCD Display with edge-lit backlighting, no local dimming
• Resolution: 3840 × 2160 pixels 4K UHD
• Wireless Connectivity: Yes, includes both built-in WiFi and Ethernet port
• Remotes: Sony smart Remote with voice control
• Connectivity: 4 HDMI ports (all of them 2.0a and with HDCP 2.2, 3 USB ports, 1 Ethernet port, 1 Digital Audio Out
• Contrast Ratio: 990:1 (native, real maximum contrast)
• Absolute Maximum Peak Brightness: 397 nits (cd/m2)
• 3D Technology: N/A

Display Performance Metrics

The following sections and subsections go into the detailed performance measurements for the most important specs and features that make the X800G 4K HDR TV from Sony really perform (or not). They are the specs that matter, the ones that actually count for how high the quality of your viewing, using and gaming experience will be on this 4K UHD TV under most conditions. Here we take aside all the fluff, marketing jargon and anything that doesn’t really matter to explain how well this TV delivers on the good things.

The following are based on metrics from one or two reviewed units but their accuracy is exact enough to reflect what they should be like for any normally functioning editions of the Sony X800G. Slight variations for some of the specs in the sections below might be the case with editions of different sizes.

A Review of the Sony X800G 4K HDR Wide View Angle IPS TV (XBR43X800G, XBR49X800G, XBR55X800G, XBR65X800G, XBR75X800G)

Black Level, uniformity, Local Dimming and Contrast:

As we have repeatedly mentioned above, the Sony X800G is an IPS 4K HDR TV. By virtue of their inherent design, in which pixels have much greater horizontal width, IPS (In-plane Switching) TVs bleed a lot of light through their darkened pixels. This of course means really weak contrast and crappy black levels that both become especially noticeable in a dark room. The benefit of IPS is that it also happens to let a TV offer very wide viewing angles, but only some users will care about this more than they do about their 4K TV having great contrast deep black tone capability

A Review of the Sony X800G 4K HDR Wide View Angle IPS TV (XBR43X800G, XBR49X800G, XBR55X800G, XBR65X800G, XBR75X800G)

Because of its IPS display panel, the X800G thus only manages a very modest maximum contrast ratio of 990:1 and its overall black uniformity and black level are both extremely weak. Both of these are unfortunate effects of this TVs IPS screen because both contrast and black level are crucial aspects of good HDR video. But if you want wide viewing angles on a budget, IPS is the way to go. What really does annoy us in all of this however is that the X800G also lacks local dimming. This technology -which selectively dims LEDs behind the screen for better dark levels- would have gone a long way towards making an IPS TV like the X800G deliver much better picture performance. TCL and Vizio have made local dimming a standard feature of their very affordable 4K HDR TVs, Sony apparently won’t for some reason.

A Review of the Sony X800G 4K HDR Wide View Angle IPS TV (XBR43X800G, XBR49X800G, XBR55X800G, XBR65X800G, XBR75X800G)

Also Read:
Our In-depth guide to todays absolute best streaming media devices and platforms
Our In-depth review of Samsung’s ultra-bright flagship 2019 Q90R 4K HDR TV
Also Read:
Our Comprehensive review of Samsung’s most affordable 2019 QLED TV, the Q60R

Brightness:

The brightness specs of the Sony X800G are decent enough and especially so when the TV is being used to view non-HDR content. The X800G does get brighter still on average when set to HDR video sources but the increase in brightness is small and thus we consider it’s high dynamic range luminosity to be pretty weak. This isn’t an IPS issue either; other IPS TVs on the market, such as some of LG’s LCD editions can indeed get exceptionally bright.

A Review of the Sony X800G 4K HDR Wide View Angle IPS TV (XBR43X800G, XBR49X800G, XBR55X800G, XBR65X800G, XBR75X800G)

Also Read: Our review of LG’s wonderfully affordable SM8600 IPS 4K UHD HDR TV

That said, for the vast majority of content, the X800G is a perfectly decent performer by budget UHD TV standards. Most users using it to casually watch their favorite movies or TV shows will be reasonably happy with this TV’s brightness. What does however make brightness look weaker than it is, especially in a dark room, is the X800G’s weak contrast ratio due to its IPS pixel layout. Much better peak brightness specs are available from similarly priced TCL 4K LCD TVs like the 2019 6-Series.

The measurements below bear out exactly what we mean about both HDR and SDR brightness in the Sony X800G.

Sony X800G SDR Brightness

  • Overall SDR peak brightness for normal content: 301 nits
  • Peak 2% display area display SDR brightness: 334 nits
  • Peak 10% display area SDR brightness: 333 nits
  • Peak 100% display area SDR brightness: 334 nits
  • Sustained 10% SDR brightness: 332 nits
  • Sustained 100% SDR brightness: 331 nits

A Review of the Sony X800G 4K HDR Wide View Angle IPS TV (XBR43X800G, XBR49X800G, XBR55X800G, XBR65X800G, XBR75X800G)

Sony X800G TV HDR Brightness

  • Overall HDR peak brightness for normal content: 342 nits
  • Peak 2% display area display HDR brightness: 392 nits
  • Peak 10% display area HDR brightness: 393 nits
  • Peak 100% display area HDR brightness: 393 nits
  • Sustained 10% HDR brightness: 391 nits
  • Sustained 100% HDR brightness: 391 nits

Color Delivery:

The Sony X800G delivers some of its strongest performance metrics when it comes to color quality. This is something we’ve come to expect from Sony’s 4K UHD TVs of all types and price ranges so it wasn’t a surprise even in this otherwise moderately good television.

For starters, this UHD TV supports full HDR color delivery specs in terms of both wide color gamut and 10-bit color. It also offers excellent color accuracy after a bit of calibration even though its out-of-the-box color metrics aren’t very good and definitely need to be tinkered with for optimal performance.

A Review of the Sony X800G 4K HDR Wide View Angle IPS TV (XBR43X800G, XBR49X800G, XBR55X800G, XBR65X800G, XBR75X800G)

 

One a final note, the X800G is bright enough for its color saturation to be quite vibrant and though it delivers less than stellar color accuracy during extremely bright content playback, it usually doesn’t even get bright enough for this to be a problem.

Below are its color accuracy and WCG settings:

A Review of the Sony X800G 4K HDR Wide View Angle IPS TV (XBR43X800G, XBR49X800G, XBR55X800G, XBR65X800G, XBR75X800G)

  • Pre-calibration White Balance delta-E: 3.41
  • Pre-calibration Color delta-E: 3.38
  • Pre-calibration Gamma: 2.22
  • Post-calibration White Balance delta-E: 0.71
  • Post-calibration Color delta-E: 1.4
  • Post-calibration Gamma: 2.12
  • Wide Color Gamut: 92.8%

Motion Handling & Upscaling:

The motion handling in the X800G TV is good but not exceptionally so. This 4K UHD TV delivers excellent motion blur control due to its very sharp pixel response time of 4.3 milliseconds but when it comes to motion interpolation of content with varying frame rates and motion handling for fast-paced gaming, the X800G falls flat. For one thing, this Sony model only delivers a native refresh rate of 60Hz, so gaming or content playback at 61+fps frame rates is out the window. Secondly, for playback of 24p movie and TV content, the X800G can only handle it judder-free from a limited range of sources. Content from apps, cable boxes or broadcast TV isn’t included among these.

A Review of the Sony X800G 4K HDR Wide View Angle IPS TV (XBR43X800G, XBR49X800G, XBR55X800G, XBR65X800G, XBR75X800G)

Input Performance for Gaming and PC:

The Sony X800G offers decent but not outstanding input performance for console or PC gaming. It supports multiple resolution, color format and frame rate settings at very good speeds but if you want ultra-fast gaming with really low input lag, the rival models of LG, Samsung, Vizio and especially TCL completely outshine what the X800G can handle.

A Review of the Sony X800G 4K HDR Wide View Angle IPS TV (XBR43X800G, XBR49X800G, XBR55X800G, XBR65X800G, XBR75X800G)

  • 4k @ 60Hz: 32.9 ms
  • 1080p @ 60Hz: 33 ms
  • 1080p @ 120Hz: N/A
  • 1080p @ 60Hz outside Game Mode: 58 ms
  • 4k @ 60Hz + HDR: 34.5 ms
  • 1440p @ 60Hz: 35.4 ms
  • 4k @ 60Hz Outside Game Mode : 67.2 ms
  • 4k @ 60Hz @ 4:4:4: 13.5 ms
  • 4K @ 120Hz: N/A
  • 1440p @ 120Hz: N/A
  • 1080p with FreeSync: N/A
  • 4K with interpolation activated: 68.7 ms

PC Gaming Input Support

  • 1080p @ 120Hz: No
  • 1080p @ 60Hz @ 4:4:4: Yes
  • 4k @ 60Hz + 4:4:4: Yes
  • 1440p @ 60Hz: Yes
  • 4k @ 120Hz : No
  • 4k @ 60Hz @ 4:4:4: Yes
  • 1440p @ 120Hz: No

Connectivity

The Sony X800G 4K HDR IPS TV comes with all the essential connectivity ports you’d find in most of today’s 4K UHD TVs. These include 4 HDMI ports, 3 USB ports and connectivity for internet via WiFi or Ethernet. One negative aspects of its connectivity specs is that this TV doesn’t come with HDMI 2.1 (unlike some of Sony’s more advanced 4K TVs) but to balance things out a bit, the X800G does include one USB 3.0 fast charging port, which is something that most 4K UHD TVs lack.

A Review of the Sony X800G 4K HDR Wide View Angle IPS TV (XBR43X800G, XBR49X800G, XBR55X800G, XBR65X800G, XBR75X800G)

Also Read:
Our In-depth review of TCL’s new 6-Series 4K HDR TV, The Most Affordable Aaesome Premium TV of 2019
Our deep review of TCL’s insanely affordable 2019 4-Series 4K HDR TVs
Our comprehensive review of the stunningly good but affordable Vizio 2019 P-Series Quantum 4K HDR TV

 

The following are the Sony X800G’s ports and their specifications:

  • HDMI : 4 (HDCP 2.2 & full HDMI 2.0a capacity)
  • HDMI 2.1 : N/A
  • USB : 3 (USB 2.0 x 2, USB 3.0 X 1)
  • Digital Optical Audio Out : 1
  • Analog Audio Out 3.5 mm : 1
  • Tuner (Cable/Ant) : 1
  • Ethernet : 1
  • HDR10 support: Yes
  • HDR10+ support: No
  • Dolby Vision HDR support: No
  • Hybrid Log Gamma HDR support: Yes
  • Dolby Vision HDR: No

The Sony X800G TV models also offer audio connectivity in the following types.

  • 1 Passthrough ARC Dolby Digital
  • 1 Passthrough Optical Dolby Digital
  • 1 Passthrough ARC
  • 1 Passthrough DTS Via Optical

Pricing

Sony is selling the X800G 4K ultra HD HDR LCD Smart TV models in five different sizes. Thus, you have the choice of a really economical 43 inch edition without a couple features, a 49 inch version, a good-sized 55 or 65 inch model and a giant 75 inch version that would be especially ideal for home theater fans who want a deeply immersive experience and exceptionally wide viewing space.

These editions all sell for the following prices, found in the link below at the time of this writing. Bear in mind that these are subject to sometimes frequent downward change and it’s a good idea to click the following Amazon links for real-time pricing and all available discounts on this model.

A Review of the Sony X800G 4K HDR Wide View Angle IPS TV (XBR43X800G, XBR49X800G, XBR55X800G, XBR65X800G, XBR75X800G)

Check out Sony’s 4K HDR X800G 2019 4K HDR LCD TV with IPS Wide Viewing Angles on sale at Amazon

4.7 – 4 Reviews
Story by 4k.com

The post A Review of the Sony X800G 4K HDR Wide View Angle IPS TV (XBR43X800G, XBR49X800G, XBR55X800G, XBR65X800G, XBR75X800G) appeared first on .

A Review of the Surprisingly Excellent TCL 5 Series 2019 4K UHD HDR LCD TV (43S525, 50S525, 55S525, 65S525)

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Stephan Jukic – December 30, 2019

Overview

The TCL 5 Series 2019 S525 4K HDR TV mostly doesn’t get exceptional, but it is one very strong budget TV for the price it has, and for the generally decent to good performance it offers. This mid-range TCL television delivers superb gaming performance, an excellent response time for smooth content motion and delivers really strong overall picture quality in both a dark room and a well-lit space due to its decent brightness and excellent contrast ratio. Its color performance is also good, which makes the S525’s HDR quality surprisingly vibrant.

Also Read:
Our in-depth review of TCL’s extremely affordable and very decent 4 Series 4K HDR TVs
Our In-depth review of TCL’s new 6-Series 4K HDR TV, The Most Affordable Aaesome Premium TV of 2019

Positives

• Wonderful gaming performance
• Good motion handling
• Great black level and contrast performance
• Robust color delivery and surprising color volume
• Surprisingly good native audio
• Excellent content upscaling for all video sources

Negatives

• No local dimming
• Weak overall HDR brightness
• Motion handling issues

Bottom Line

Aside from a few not too serious defects, the S525 is one impressively good 4K HDR TV for the price it retails at. Its gaming performance and certain key display specs are particularly great for a model this affordable and overall we definitely recommend it if you’re looking for surprisingly good quality on a budget.

A Review of the Surprisingly Excellent TCL 5 Series 2019 4K UHD HDR LCD TV (43S525, 50S525, 55S525, 65S525)

Check out TCL’s excellent 5 Series S525 2019 budget 4K HDR LCD TV on sale at Amazon

4.7 – 4 Reviews
Also Read:
Our comprehensive review of the best IPS TV we’ve ever reviewed, LG’s powerful new SM9000 4K HDR edition
Also Read:
Our Comprehensive review of Samsung’s most affordable 2019 QLED TV, the Q60R
Our detailed hands-on review of Samsung’s incredible new 8K HDR TV, the Q900
Our comprehensive review of Samsung’s excellent premium Q80R QLED 4K HDR TV

 What We Liked about the TCL 5 Series

The TCL S525 is surprisingly, remarkably good in a number of specific ways. All of them, combined with its price, make this particular budget 4K TV all the more attractive as a starter edition or extra television for your home. Let’s get down to some specific points:

Gaming performance

The TCL S525 is an excellent 4K TV for console gaming and PC use. While its display panel only offers a 60Hz refresh rate and thus doesn’t allow for high frame rate gaming in the 120Hz range, the TV delivers superbly good performance as long as you keep this general gaming limitation in mind. Input lag is wonderfully low for most resolution, frame rate, HDR and color settings and the S525 offers great connectivity when coupled with a PC monitor. As a budget gaming TV with solid support for HDR visuals it’s a good choice.

A Review of the Surprisingly Excellent TCL 5 Series 2019 4K UHD HDR LCD TV (43S525, 50S525, 55S525, 65S525)

Great black level and contrast performance

Unlike its cousin the S425, the 5 Series delivers exceptionally good black uniformity. This TV’s contrast ratio and black levels are also both really strong, allowing for strong HDR enhancements and generally good picture performance in which color rendering looks more vibrant. The TV is also perfectly usable even in bright spaces because of its black rendering performance.

Robust color delivery and surprising color volume

In terms of color output, the 5 Series is excellent considering its price tag. We loved it and can’t recommend the HDR color and ordinary SDR color quality of this TV enough at the budget price it sells for. Wide color gamut is well represented, 10-bit HDR color support is smooth and the 5 Series offers surprisingly strong color volume when set to view content at high brightness or during dim scenes. There are many much pricier 4K HDR TVs that can’t pull this off quite as well as this affordable model. One other cool thing about the 5 Series is that its out-of-the-box color performance is simply great. This too is rare in the vast majority of non-premium UHD TVs.

A Review of the Surprisingly Excellent TCL 5 Series 2019 4K UHD HDR LCD TV (43S525, 50S525, 55S525, 65S525)

Excellent content upscaling for all video sources

Most 4K UHD TVs sold these days upscale content really well even if it’s native formatting is in 1080p, 720p or even 480p resolutions. The 5 Series TV is no exception. As long as a given piece of content is well-mastered, it should nicely render it. This applies especially to content sources such as DVDs, streaming media and Blu-ray disc movies.

Smart TV platform

All of TCL’s 4K HDR TVs run the Roku TV 2019 smart OS and it’s generally excellent. The 5 Series comes with this smart interface. Roku TV is extremely user-friendly, smooth-running and comes absolutely crammed with thousands of media apps of all kinds which, combined together offer several hundred thousand different content options. You’re unlikely to need an external streaming media box or even a cable TV subscription with the 5 Series native smart TV system and its app landscape.

A Review of the Surprisingly Excellent TCL 5 Series 2019 4K UHD HDR LCD TV (43S525, 50S525, 55S525, 65S525)

 

 

Check out TCL’s excellent 5 Series S525 2019 budget 4K HDR LCD TV on sale at Amazon

4.7 – 4 Reviews
Also Read:
Our comprehensive review of the best IPS TV we’ve ever reviewed, LG’s powerful new SM9000 4K HDR edition
Our In-depth review of Samsung’s ultra-bright flagship 2018 Q8FN 4K HDR TV

What We Didn’t Like

The TCL 5 Series 4K HDR TV is a budget model, so obviously it’s not going to offer a whole list of premium display specs and high-end technologies at their absolute best. As long as you keep this in mind, it gives some perspective to this television’s flaws. With that said though, the S525 does indeed come with a few notable defects, though we don’t consider any of them to be too bad considering this model’s price tag. Here are the most important problems with the 5 Series:

HDR Brightness and lack of local dimming

As we mentioned above, the TCL 5 Series offers great black level/uniformity performance and contrast ratio specs. What makes this surprising though is that this 4K HDR TV pulls these off despite having no local dimming technology to speak of. What local dimming does is selectively shut off backlight LEDs behind specific sections of the screen for better darkness and contrast. Usually, it offers at least some picture quality improvement and better black uniformity.

A Review of the Surprisingly Excellent TCL 5 Series 2019 4K UHD HDR LCD TV (43S525, 50S525, 55S525, 65S525)

Another problem with the S525 TV that relates to its backlight issues with local dimming is that this 4K TV’s peak display luminosity when it’s set to HDR brightness mode is really weak. Unlike many other budget UHD TVs from major brands we’ve covered, the S525 can barely manage 300 bits when set to HDR mode. The odd thing about this is that the TV’s SDR settings create superior luminosity for when you’re watching normal non HDR video sources.

Motion handling deficiencies

This TV does deliver superbly good motion blur due to its high pixel responsiveness but it suffers from some flaws when it comes to motion interpolation for content. The TV’s native display only reaches 60Hz and thus when motion handling is activated for content that plays at less than 60fps, the resulting quality isn’t the best we’ve seen among 2019 4K HDR TVs. On the other hand, judder control for 24p content is great in the TCL 5 Series.

Also Read:
Our in-depth review of Sony’s X950G 4K UHD HDR LCD TV
Our in-depth review of Samsung’s Q7F QLED 4K HDR TV

Value for Price & Bottom Line

We sincerely recommend the TCL 5 Series 4K HDR TV lineup. The basic reason why is that this particular 4K HDR TV comes priced extremely affordably while still delivering good to great performance for most playback uses. Its HDR color performance and gaming capabilities make the S525 more than worth its budget-friendly price tag. This is the TV’s biggest selling point in our view.

A Review of the Surprisingly Excellent TCL 5 Series 2019 4K UHD HDR LCD TV (43S525, 50S525, 55S525, 65S525)

Check out TCL’s excellent 5 Series S525 2019 budget 4K HDR LCD TV on sale at Amazon

4.7 – 4 Reviews
ALSO READ:
Sony’s Stunningly good but reasonably priced A8G OLED 4K HDR TV
Our in-depth review of LG’s C9 4K UHD HDR OLED TV
Our in-depth review of LG’s stunningly good & surprisingly affordable B9 4K OLED HDR TV
Our in-depth review of LG’s Fantastic premium E9 OLED 4K HDR TV

Key TCL 5 Series Specs

• Screen sizes: 43 inch 43S525, 50 inch 50S525, 55 inch 55S525, 65 inch 65S525, (TV being reviewed is 55 inches)
• Smart TV: Roku TV 2019 Edition
• HEVC (H.265) Included: Yes
• VP9 Included. Yes
• HD to UHD to 4K upscaling: Yes
• HDCP 2.2 Compliance: Yes
• HDR Support: Yes, HDR10, Dolby Vision, Hybrid Log Gamma
• Refresh Rate: 60Hz native refresh rate
• Screen Lighting: LCD Display with edge-lit backlighting, no local dimming
• Resolution: 3840 × 2160 pixels 4K UHD
• Wireless Connectivity: Yes, includes both built-in WiFi and Ethernet port
• Remotes: Roku TV remote with voice control
• Connectivity: 3 HDMI ports (all of them 2.0a and with HDCP 2.2, 1 USB port, 1 Ethernet port, WiFi, 1 Digital Audio Out
• Contrast Ratio: 6,120:1 (native, real maximum contrast)
• Absolute Maximum Peak Brightness: 332 nits (cd/m2)
• 3D Technology: N/A

Display Performance Metrics

The following sections and sub-sections deal with the core performance metrics that make this or any 4K TV of any kind perform well or badly. This is where we cover their measurements as exactly as possible and explain why they’re good or weak. They cover the essentials of brightness, color, motion handling, and other specs for using this particular UHD TV for movies, TV shows, broadcast content, gaming and even as a PC monitor if you prefer. We cut out all the fluff and marketing jargon that doesn’t really explain genuine quality anyhow.

The following are based on metrics from one or two reviewed units but their accuracy is exact enough to reflect what they should be like for any normally functioning editions of the TCL 5 Series. Slight variations for some of the specs in the sections below might be the case with editions of different sizes.

Black Level, uniformity, Local Dimming and Contrast:

A Review of the Surprisingly Excellent TCL 5 Series 2019 4K UHD HDR LCD TV (43S525, 50S525, 55S525, 65S525)

The overall black level of the TCL S525 4K HDR TV is excellent and black uniformity is also wonderfully, surprisingly good. There is some light bleed along the edges and a bit of clouding is visible in a dark room when the TV shows all dark content but both are impressively minimal for a budget 4K TV that doesn’t come with any local dimming technology. Furthermore, the S525 creates a very good native contrast ratio of 6,120:1 despite this TV’s very low peak brightness in HDR or SDR mode. Overall, the blacks in this UHD HDR TV are great and make its color rendering stand out all the more vibrantly because of this quality.

 

Also Read:
Our In-depth guide to todays absolute best streaming media devices and platforms
Our In-depth review of Samsung’s ultra-bright flagship 2019 Q90R 4K HDR TV
Also Read:
Our Comprehensive review of Samsung’s most affordable 2019 QLED TV, the Q60R

Brightness:

In terms of peak and sustained display brightness the TCL 5 Series 4K HDR TV comes with a bit of duality: When the TV is set to SDR mode for the playback of the vast majority of TV, cable, streaming and disc media content available today, it delivers perfectly acceptable luminosity that’s about average for mid-range UHD TVs. On the other hand, if set to play back HDR content and thus put into HDR mode, the S525 underperforms.

This TV’s average SDR brightness is in fact higher than its average or peak HDR brightness, which is really disappointing. Thus, what you get is a peak SDR brightness that hits a reasonably good 332 nits and a peak HDR brightness that only goes up to 290, which is pretty dismal and ruins the whole point of having and HDR brightness mode (it’s supposed to be better higher than SDR!). The brightness specs for SDR and HDR modes below demonstrate our point. They measure both for different-sized windows of lit-up space on the screen, up to 100%.

A Review of the Surprisingly Excellent TCL 5 Series 2019 4K UHD HDR LCD TV (43S525, 50S525, 55S525, 65S525)

 

TCL 5 Series SDR Brightness

  • Overall SDR peak brightness for normal content: 304 nits
  • Peak 2% display area display SDR brightness: 324 nits
  • Peak 10% display area SDR brightness: 332 nits
  • Peak 100% display area SDR brightness: 332 nits
  • Sustained 10% SDR brightness: 331 nits
  • Sustained 100% SDR brightness: 331 nits

TCL 5 Series TV HDR Brightness

  • Overall HDR peak brightness for normal content: 243 nits
  • Peak 2% display area display HDR brightness: 291 nits
  • Peak 10% display area HDR brightness: 289 nits
  • Peak 100% display area HDR brightness: 289 nits
  • Sustained 10% HDR brightness: 289 nits
  • Sustained 100% HDR brightness: 289 nits

Color Delivery:

The TCL S525 offers up superbly good color performance for its price tag. This TV not only manages full-blown HDR color really well, it also generally delivers excellent color accuracy and overall color vibrancy when used for any well-mastered content from any media source.

 

First of all, the S525 delivers very smooth, nice 10-bit color gradation of 1.07 billion variations of the RGB spectrum (red, green blue) that’s essential for all other color blends. Secondly, the 5 Series delivers full WCG wide color gamut support to the tune of 92.5% of the WCG color space. This means rich, vibrant color hues during HDR content playback.

A Review of the Surprisingly Excellent TCL 5 Series 2019 4K UHD HDR LCD TV (43S525, 50S525, 55S525, 65S525)

In addition to this, its support for color volume is pretty good even during playback of content at high levels of brightness and during dark, shadowy scenes. Not all 4K TVs manage this and it’s especially uncommon in budget HDR 4K televisions with prices similar to those of the S525. On a final note, the 5 Series delivers very good color accuracy for both HDR and SDR content right out of the box even before any calibration. This becomes downright excellent after a bit of color settings calibration in the TV’s picture settings menu.

The bottom line for the S525’s color performance is that most content color will reproduce richly, vibrantly and fully despite this TV’s lack of high brightness. The deep contrast ratio helps things out further.

Here are the TCL S525’s main color accuracy settings before and after calibration. These cover the key metrics for accurate color and the lower the numbers, the better. In post-calibration readings, they’re very good:

A Review of the Surprisingly Excellent TCL 5 Series 2019 4K UHD HDR LCD TV (43S525, 50S525, 55S525, 65S525)

  • Pre-calibration White Balance delta-E: 2.48
  • Pre-calibration Color delta-E: 1.89
  • Pre-calibration Gamma: 2.15
  • Post-calibration White Balance delta-E: 0.46
  • Post-calibration Color delta-E: 0.8
  • Post-calibration Gamma: 2.02
  • Wide Color Gamut: 87.8%

Motion Handling & Upscaling:

The TCL 5 Series 4K HDR TV edition is good at motion handling even though it offers a native 60Hz display refresh rate. Most importantly, it manages an excellent pixel response time for reduced motion blur during playback of fast-paced content from movies, TV shows, games or sportscasts. This is great, and it compensates for this TV’s somewhat weaker motion interpolation technology, which handles frame rate interpolation only for content up to 60fps. That said, the S525’s judder control for 24p movie content (the formatting for most movies on disc, streaming or hard media) is good, being available for all types of sources, including DVDs, Blu-rays, external HDMI-connected media boxes, cable TV and media from native apps.

A Review of the Surprisingly Excellent TCL 5 Series 2019 4K UHD HDR LCD TV (43S525, 50S525, 55S525, 65S525)

Input Performance for Gaming and PC:

The TCL S525 is absolutely excellent at how low it keeps its input lag for gaming via consoles like the Xbox or the PlayStation platform among others. While this TV can’t deliver more than 60Hz on its display and is thus unable to handle high frame-rate gaming at above 60fps, the input lag of the S525 is superbly low in game mode for gaming at 60Hz or less in 1080p, 1440p or 4K UHD resolution (2160p). This also applies to gaming in HDR mode, with 10-bit color, with 4:4:4 and so forth.

The resolutions and color settings supported by the 5 Series when hooked up to a PC are also great, with easy handling of 1080p and 4K resolutions at frame rates of up to the TV’s 60Hz limit. Unfortunately though, it doesn’t offer 1440p resolution at 60Hz when hooked up to a PC.

A Review of the Surprisingly Excellent TCL 5 Series 2019 4K UHD HDR LCD TV (43S525, 50S525, 55S525, 65S525)

The metrics below bear out the 5 Series TV’s performance:

    • 4k @ 60Hz: 11.8 ms
    • 1080p @ 60Hz: 12.2 ms
    • 1080p @ 120Hz: N/A
    • 1080p @ 60Hz outside Game Mode: 47 ms
    • 4k @ 60Hz + HDR: 12.5 ms
    • 1440p @ 60Hz: N/A
    • 4k @ 60Hz Outside Game Mode : 48.2 ms
    • 4k @ 60Hz @ 4:4:4: 13.5 ms
    • 4K @ 120Hz: N/A
    • 1440p @ 120Hz: N/A
    • 1080p with FreeSync: N/A
    • 4K with interpolation activated: 69.7 ms

PC Gaming Input Support

  • 1080p @ 120Hz: No
  • 1080p @ 60Hz @ 4:4:4: Yes
  • 4k @ 60Hz + 4:4:4: Yes
  • 1440p @ 60Hz: No
  • 4k @ 120Hz : No
  • 4k @ 60Hz @ 4:4:4: Yes
  • 1440p @ 120Hz: No

Connectivity

The TCL 5 Series TV offers all the essentials of functional, advanced ultra HD HDR TV connectivity. This means that it comes with full 4K HDR HDMI 2.0a connectivity in all ports, USB, WiFi (high-speed) and Ethernet connectivity. On the other hand, it falls a bit flat on the number of USB ports available. There is only 1 USB slot. Most 4K TVs even in the budget range offer at least 2 or 3 USB ports.

A Review of the Surprisingly Excellent TCL 5 Series 2019 4K UHD HDR LCD TV (43S525, 50S525, 55S525, 65S525)

The following are the TCL S Series S525’s ports and their specifications:

  • HDMI : 4 (HDCP 2.2 & full HDMI 2.0a capacity)
  • HDMI 2.1 : N/A
  • USB : 1 (USB 2.0)
  • Digital Optical Audio Out : 1
  • Analog Audio Out 3.5 mm : 1
  • Tuner (Cable/Ant) : 1
  • Ethernet : 1
  • HDR10 support: Yes
  • HDR10+ support: No
  • Dolby Vision HDR support: No
  • Hybrid Log Gamma HDR support: Yes

The TCL S525 5 Series TV models also offer audio connectivity in the following types.

  • 1 Passthrough ARC Dolby Digital
  • 1 Passthrough ARC
  • 1 Passthrough Optical Dolby Digital
  • 1 Passthrough DTS via ARC
  • 1 Passthrough DTS via Optical
  • 1 Passthrough eARC support

Pricing

TCL is selling the 5 Series TVs in a wide range of sizes, which is great for any budget and spaces requirements. Thus, you have the choice of a really economical 43 inch edition, a 50 inch model and moving into more “big screen” territory, 55 and 65 inch editions are also available for a more deeply immersive home theater experience on a budget.

These editions all sell for the following prices, found in the link below at the time of this writing. Bear in mind that these are subject to sometimes frequent downward change and it’s a good idea to click the following Amazon links for real-time pricing and all available discounts on this model.

A Review of the Surprisingly Excellent TCL 5 Series 2019 4K UHD HDR LCD TV (43S525, 50S525, 55S525, 65S525)

Check out TCL’s excellent 5 Series S525 2019 budget 4K HDR LCD TV on sale at Amazon

4.7 – 4 Reviews
Story by 4k.com

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