After eagerly waiting since its unveiling at CES, I finally had a chance to see the LG G6 OLED TV in action. The LG G5 was one of the best TVs of last year and it has since become my reference TV for testing, particularly for my Blu-ray Bounty columns. So naturally, I was excited to see how the LG G6 would compare to the G5.
I got the chance at an LG event recently, so I could see just what the new Primary Tandem RGB OLED 2.0 panel in the G6 (the first generation was introduced in the G5) could muster.
Spec comparison
First, a quick comparison between the G5 and G6 in some key spec areas. LG says that the G6 is up to 20% brighter than the G5, and we were told that while the G5 can hit roughly 350 nits fullscreen (close enough to our measured peak HDR fullscreen brightness figure of 331 nits), the G6 would be capable of 400 nits. 50 nits may not seem like much, but in fullscreen figures it can make a clear difference.
Also, the G6 comes with the new Alpha 11 Gen 3 AI Processor, which promises big changes, including Dual Super Resolution Upscaling — with one engine focusing on edge enhancement and one focusing on texture boosting— and Dynamic Tone Mapping Ultra, a more refined version of last year’s Dynamic Tone Mapping Pro.
Other big changes include Hyper Radiant Color Technology, to boost color accuracy and a 12-bit color pipeline (compared to the G5’s 8-bit pipeline) for more refined picture quality and the reduction of color banding (we’ll talk more about that in the future). Actually, LG made the point that the image pipeline is technically 13-bit output, where the processor adds one extra bit of image depth focused on bright white tones.
The panel is still 10-bit, though, so this process is about making the image as good as possible in the processing stage, and then delivering to the panel to make the most of it, which will mean some downsampling of the full color data – though LG confirmed that this should have a kind of ‘super-sampling’ effect of ensuring better color overall, and is what will help with reducing color banding from all sources.
The G5 was already one of the best gaming TVs of last year, with 4K 165Hz, FreeSync, G-Sync and HGiG support, as well as Dolby Vision and ALLM all features across four HDMI 2.1 ports. That hasn’t changed in the G6 and although there were no obvious new features, there didn’t really need to be.
LG G6 doesn’t look as punchy?
While we were shown several different tests involving the LG G6 and LG G5, one that really caught my eye involved vibrant, colorful images when both the G6 and G5 were set to Filmmaker Mode.
In these pictures, which displayed extremely vivid greens and yellows, I noticed that the G6 didn’t look as punchy or vivid as the G5. I found this odd considering the G6 was said to be up to 20% brighter than the G5 and LG has talked up its Hyper Radiant Color technology from the Alpha 11 processor. A quick query to LG themselves about this confirmed that this is the case, and that it’s “by design”.
Apparently, LG had received some feedback from creators regarding the G5’s colors in Filmmaker Mode being “too vibrant”, so for the G6, the company toned it back. It’s not to say the G6’s colors were bad, far from it in fact, but seeing the perceived drop in color saturation was jarring at first, since we usually see changes go the other way.
The more I looked, the more I felt that the G6’s colors did look more natural, while still also delivering plenty of depth. But while the G6 was still pretty rich, the G5 kept drawing my eye because of those bolder colors, with the yellow in particular really showing the gap.
Interestingly, due to these color-profile changes, the G6 also appeared dimmer in general compared to the G5. A shot of food on a table was also shown and again, the white of the flour on the loaf of bread appeared brighter on the G5 than the G6. In fact, the whole picture just appeared brighter on the G5. Odd considering the G6 is said to be 20% brighter than the G5, but we’ll take measurements in the future to see — and it may just be in Filmmaker Mode.
Other demos
One thing the G6 did so much better than its predecessor, though, was handle mirror-like reflections. Throughout the various scenes we were shown, the G6 has very obviously reduced reflectivity, even when viewing really dark footage.
We know LG has added a new kind of anti-reflective layer to this set – and in combination with the higher fullscreen brightness, the difference looks impactful.
The G6 also did a great job with handling the brighter areas on screen. In a scene from The Meg, as the sun sets on the horizon, the G6’s highlights were more controlled and detailed while still appearing bright, whereas the G5’s highlights were definitely overblown in places, losing details such as the shape of the sun itself.
There’s probably a combination of the new panel and improved tone mapping in the processor helping yhis.
The G5’s brightness clocked in at 2,268 nits HDR peak brightness and 331 nits HDR fullscreen brightness in Filmmaker Mode. While the G6 may not have the perceived brightness in ultra-colorful scenes, it did have impact with highlights and did a great job reducing reflections compared to the G5.
I’ll be keen to measure the G6 to see if it is both brighter and its colors more natural, as this can be a hard balance to strike.
Viewing a TV next to another can sometimes skew your impressions, and this was the case for me with the G6 next to the G5. The G5 was obviously the more eye-catching thanks to its punchier colors, but I’ll reserve full judgement for when I can get the G6 and G5 into our testing lab and use my reference testing discs that I’m familiar with to see if I’m happier with the changes.
The best TVs for all budgets
Follow TechRadar on Google News and add us as a preferred source to get our expert news, reviews, and opinion in your feeds. Make sure to click the Follow button!
And of course, you can also follow TechRadar on YouTube and TikTok for news, reviews, unboxings in video form, and get regular updates from us on WhatsApp too.
https://cdn.mos.cms.futurecdn.net/2jC7EpfCoWWVdpgLWebkJS-2560-80.jpg
Source link
james.davidson@futurenet.com (James Davidson)
