LG makes some of the best OLED TVs on the market such as last year’s brilliant LG C4 and stunning LG G4, and these are what gets most people’s attention from its range. But it also has a series of TVs it calls ‘QNED’.
These are more traditional LCD TVs, and several models feature premium tech such as quantum dots and mini-LED backlighting to create a more contrast-rich and more detailed picture over standard LCD and QLED TVs.
While this sounds great on paper, LG has never quite managed to crack the increasingly competitive mini-LED market with its QNED sets, with the best mini-LED TVs still coming from brands such as Samsung, Hisense and TCL.
I personally reviewed LG’s flagship QNED TV in 2024, the LG QNED90/91 (name varies by region) and while there was a good TV in there, backlight blooming and washed out pictures were an issue; something I wasn’t experiencing with other mini-LED sets.
The other problem? The QNED90/91 was still a premium priced TV, in the same region as the Samsung QN90D at launch, which is one of the top mini-LED TVs around and far better performer.
So when LG demoed its latest QNED TVs for me at an event, I wasn’t sure what to expect. Would the latest model, the LG QNED93, suffer the same issues as its predecessor? In short, no. In fact, the QNED93 could be a real gamechanger for LG’s mini-LED and QNED range.
It’s under control
One of the fundamental issues I had with the QNED91 was its sub-par backlight control. Seemingly present throughout all viewing, images on the QNED91 had a halo or clouding effect, especially noticeable in darker movies and TV shows such as The Batman. In extreme cases, outlines of the panel’s dimming zones could be seen in black backgrounds, even when viewed from front on; something I’d not seen on other mini-LED TVs.
LG opted to do a side-by-side comparison between the new QNED93 and last year’s aforementioned QNED91, and a drastic improvement was immediately clear.
While I was shown several clips during the demo, the most telling was a clip from Gravity, namely a scene where there was a starfield pattern on screen. In it, the QNED91 showed its struggle to balance the bright, white tones of the stars against the black backdrop of space, with obvious blooming, meaning many sections of the darkness of space looked lightened, and not even consistently.
The QNED93 on the other hand, was much more balanced, with significantly less blooming and improved backlight control, with the dimming zones hidden – as expected from a mini-LED TV high up in the range.
When viewing brighter images, such as footage of a city during the day, one thing that was apparent was that the latest QNED93 was dimmer than the QNED91. While many brands in the mini-LED TV market seem to chase the title of ‘brightest TV’, LG has seemingly opted to dim its latest set in favor of balance – and it’s a worthwhile compromise.
Viewing the footage, the picture of the QNED93 was more natural, better balanced, and had more authentic colors – while the QNED91 was brighter but everything appeared more oversaturated, with brighter colors (such as gold metallic sections on gates and towers) losing detail.
Textures overall had a much more refined and accurate look on the QNED93, most likely due to its improved perceived contrast, which was made possible by its better backlight control.
Another piece of footage showed three people sitting on a boat during a bright, clear day and again the QNED91 struggled with brighter sections of the picture, namely the light of the sun reflecting on the water. The QNED93 on the other hand displayed this more accurately, with details in the waves more apparent than on the QNED91 where the detail was lost.
When it came to viewing angles, both the QNED91 and QNED93 suffered a loss in picture quality when viewed off-center. This however is a common issue among even the best of mini-LED TVs, such as the Hisense U8N, so I don’t judge this harshly.
However, once again, the QNED93 was an improvement over the QNED91, maintaining better picture quality when viewed from an off-center angle overall.
Mini-LED competition
One thing the QNED93 will need to get right, however, is its price. When the QNED91 launched in April 2024, it cost $1,799 / £1,699 / AU$2,995 for its 65-inch model, which was pricier than the Hisense U8N but a little cheaper than the Samsung QN90D. The issue was it wasn’t as good as either of these models.
While the QNED93 seems to be a clear improvement based on my short time with it, it’s going to need to get its price (unconfirmed at time of writing) right in order to compete with other mini-LED sets.
Still, the QNED93 seems to be a major step in the right direction, and it could mean that LG will compete more strongly with other mini-LED sets this year.
Admittedly, it’ll take some effort to beat some of our favorite mini-LED sets from last year, such as the U8N, QN90D and TCL QM851G, and it’ll be intriguing to see how these models’ successors fare this year, but one thing is for sure; LG is making us take notice of QNED at last.
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james.davidson@futurenet.com (James Davidson)
