LG Signature G6 OLED TV review: This is the 4K HDR TV to beat

Note: This article was first published on 6th November 2016.

A statement of intent

It’s clear that most TV manufacturers have by now pivoted their resources toward developing and marketing 4K TVs. Sure, many still make 1080p sets; but because of their comparatively lower prices (and hence, profits), the latest advancements in TV tech usually won’t find their way into these TVs.

Even the 4K TV segment is getting fragmented. Generally speaking, most 4K LCD TVs today can be separated into two groups: entry and high-end. The former, usually available in smaller sizes fitted with regular 4K LCD panels, is for consumers dipping their toes into the format for the first time and thus are holding their purse strings a little tighter. The latter, crammed with the latest display tech and all sorts of bells and whistles, basically targets early adopters and enthusiasts or those who can afford to splurge. Case in point: Samsung’s excellent, quantum-dot-driven KS range for the high-end vs. its non-QD KU series on the other end, and Sony’s innovative and expensive Z9D and X93D vs. the company’s X80D and below models.

That said, there is but one TV manufacturer that’s a bit different from the others, and that’s LG. How so? While I can roughly group other brands’ TVs into good vs. very good or entry vs. high-end pools, I feel that “good”, “better”, and “best” are more appropriate descriptors of LG’s TV offerings. And that’s because LG makes and sells both regular 4K LCD TVs (e.g. its UH650T) and premium 4K LCD TVs (e.g., its "Super UHD TV" range), as well as 4K OLED TVs - the last of which are marketed and priced to compete with…well, no one.

The absolute top-of-the-line LG Signature G6

I’ve talked about LG’s 2016 OLED TV lineup before, so I’ll just recap the highlights here. In broad strokes, even though all of LG’s OLED (or Organic Light Emitting Diodes) TVs rely on the same underlying emissive tech, by varying the design and feature set, the company is able to churn out four series this year: the OLED G6T, E6T, C6T (the only curved model), and B6T.

What I’ve here today is the flagship of the bunch: the 65-inch OLED G6T. A member of LG’s Signature Series, which also consists of a fridge, washer, and air purifier, the G6T has the most striking design compared to its OLED brethren in other series.

For one, to achieve an impossibly thin profile, the G6 uses a picture-on-glass treatment, whereby its ultra-thin 2.57mm OLED panel is applied directly onto a translucent glass back. When mounted on the equally striking looking 60 or 80W (latter if you get the 77-inch G6T), 4.2-channel, front-firing sound bar/base developed by Harman Kardon, the Signature G6 is truly a sight to behold. Because the ports, circuitry, and speakers are all in this stand, to accommodate it when you’re wall-mounting the TV, you’ve to flip it backwards so that it fits behind the screen. Don’t worry, the audio still sounds loud and clear in this config.

Two HDR flavors: HDR10 and Dolby Vision

Of course, you can expect the flagship G6T to be stuffed with high-end specs and features. A sharp 3,840 x 2,160-pixel flat OLED panel aside, it supports high dynamic range (HDR), which means its already gorgeous pictures will deliver even richer color and contrast. For techies, the G6T sports a 10-bit panel, and supports 10-bit processing. And yes, it fully supports the new Ultra HD Premium spec, which for OLED means at least 540 nits peak brightness and less than 0.0005 nits black level. It also supports HDR10, a base layer HDR format that all 4K HDR TVs, 4K HDR streaming services, and 4K HDR Blu-rays support.

If that isn’t enough, the G6T is also one of a handful of 4K TVs to support Dolby Vision, a competing HDR flavor from Dolby. In fact, all 2016 LG OLED 4K TVs and Super UHD LCD TVs support both HDR10 and Dolby Vision. An end-to-end solution, Dolby Vision works from content creation to distribution, and Dolby is aiming to make it a universal playback solution. Dolby Vision has already received support from most major Hollywood studios, including Warner Bros., Sony Pictures, Universal Pictures, and MGM, all of whom have already announced their commitment to deliver Dolby Vision content for home distribution.

Let's talk pricing first

And since we’re talking about the highest-end consumer TV one can buy, let me just get the pricing out of the way. The 65-inch G6T has a sticker price of S$12,999. If you want something bigger, there’s a 77-inch version, but that will set you back a good S$36,888. LG probably knows both are priced out of reach for most people, which is why it also makes a step-down E6T, which is available in 65-inch (S$9,999) and 55-inch (S$7,499) screen sizes.

Like the G6T, the E6T sports a picture-on-glass design and a similar-looking (but works differently and lower-powered) sound bar, WebOS 3.0 smart TV interface, four HDMI and three USB ports, and the aforementioned HDR10 and Dolby Vision HDR format support. The E6T shares the same remote controls as the G6T too; just that the latter’s have the words ‘LG Signature’ on them.

The cheaper (ahem!) E6T does one-up the G6T in one crucial area: all its four HDMI ports support HDMI 2.0a with HDMI Ultra HD Deep Color, vs. two of four on the G6T.

Controls & Operation

The G6T comes with two well-made remote controls. I found myself using the longer remote more, for the simple reason that it has more dedicated buttons and a keypad. This redesigned Magic Remote, which also can be used to toggle set-top boxes, also offers more modes of navigation, including a scroll wheel in the center, a mic at the top for voice control, and a pointer function for motion control (you know - like a wand). The latter works best for me, especially when zipping around the pretty WebOS menus and moving from one end of the screen to the other.

WebOS 3.0 is still pretty and fun

Speaking of WebOS, the G6T runs version 3 of this smart TV platform. Nice fonts, whimsical touches (thanks to Bean Bird), fast source detection, quick resuming of playback when you exit an app (e.g., YouTube) and come back to it - niceties that made WebOS the most refined and approachable smart TV OS in the market have all remained. New tweaks this time round include Magic Zoom that lets you magnify objects on-screen; and Magic Mobile Connection for easier pulling of a network-connected smartphone’s content onto the big screen.

Advanced settings to satisfy the pros

The splashy WebOS interface may lull you into thinking that the G6T is a simple TV, but really, it’s anything but. Delve deeper into the system menus and advanced users will find plenty of modes to push the TV’s already very decent out-of-the-box picture quality further.

For those interested, most of my testings were done with either of the two ISF Expert picture modes (Dark Room and Bright Room). After spending just some 20 minutes to reduce a green push on my review set and adjust the color temperature, I was able to get very accurate grayscale and gamma tracking (I usually target gamma 2.4) on the G6T. For calibrators determined to bring the Delta-E (i.e., color errors) numbers as low as possible, the TV continues to have a full-blown color management system (RGBCMY) as well as a 2-point or 20-point IRE white balance controls. And for what it’s worth, since I don’t like having too much processing done to my picture, I also took some time to comb the menus for picture enhancement controls like sharpness and Edge Enhancer, so that I could dial down their effects or turn them off entirely.

For HDR, the Samsung UBD-K8500 is my 4K Blu-ray player of choice, and discs I spun up include The Martian and The Lego Movie. You get picture modes like HDR Vivid, HDR Bright, and HDR Standard when HDR10 signal is detected; and as you might have already guessed, HDR Standard is the mode I recommend, as I found it to be the most accurate.

The G6T is also capable of another HDR flavor: Dolby Vision. At the moment, I don’t have the means to measure Dolby Vision performance, but I did spend some time in Netflix watching Dolby Vision HDR content, such as Marco Polo and Chef’s Table. With Dolby Vision content, you once again have a choice of three picture modes: Vivid, Movie Bright, and Movie Dark. Movie Dark is the one that I recommend.

There's also an HDR Effect mode that attempts to render the HDR effect on non-HDR content. I don't find it particularly useful.

Picture quality

While this review is about the G6T, I managed to take a look at the E6T at around the same time, and I’m happy to report that picture quality differences between the two are few and far between. In other words, for the most part, the following observations also apply to the E6T. Perhaps more importantly, especially for those who broke or are breaking the bank for either of these OLED TVs, both of them trump all other LED-lit LCD TVs I’ve come across this year.

In terms of DCI-P3 color space coverage, the G6T is able to cover nearly the whole space. This is based on CIE 1976 uv; in CIE 1931 xy, it’s probably closer to 95%. Either way, these are chart-topping results.

The G6T’s OLED advantage is very apparent in my test environment, which is a fairly dim room with just a bit of natural light coming through the shades on one side. You don’t really need to be an expert to tell an LCD TV and OLED TV apart: while the very best LCD models like the Samsung KS9000 and Panasonic DX900 are neck and neck with the G6T in terms of color vibrancy, the G6T’s way deeper blacks are unmistakable and easy to pick out. Be it the starry night sky, letterbox bars from a 2.40:1 image, or the copyright notice before a Blu-ray movie, the blacks on the G6T always remain…well, black. For the uninitiated, this is all possible because each of the OLED pixels is able to produce its own light and turn it on or off as required, as opposed to LCD tech that needs groups of (LED) backlights to be placed behind or at the side of the panel. As such, OLED TVs are also immune to the haloing or blooming shenanigans that LCDs face.

The inherent per-pixel control nature of OLED also lends well to contrast. Since a black OLED pixel is simply an unlit pixel, contrast ratio is infinite. If you’re always wondering why people say OLED displays look “gorgeous” and “more realistic”, these are the main reasons.

Of course, OLED isn’t perfect. Uneven screen uniformity is a commonly-cited issue, and I’ve no reason to believe that the G6T is an exception to the rule. Being LG’s highest-end TV however, manufacturing tolerance is probably tighter for this model, because I didn’t notice any banding or brightness irregularities on my G6T test unit. In any case, unless it’s super serious, minute screen uniformity issues aren’t likely going to be noticed by most people, as regular content playback tends to do a good job masking them. If you observe any picture quality issues, there’s a Clear Panel Noise function under Picture > OLED Panel Settings. You can choose to start the correction immediately, or when you next switch off the TV. Because this is a 4K TV with millions of pixels, expect the process to take at least an hour.

In theory, OLED TVs like the G6T are not as good as LED-LCD TVs in a bright room, because aided by a backlight unit, the latter have the headroom to go way brighter to mitigate contrast dips or legibility problems brought about by the strong external light source. In reality though, unless you’re going to put the G6T under the sun, I find the OLED TV equally enjoyable in a well-lit room. It is true that the G6T is unable to hit the 1,000 nits brightness heights of premium LED-LCD 4K HDR TVs (the G6T tops out at around 600 nits), but once again, because most scenes don’t stay at that level of brightness, OLED’s exceptional black level performance and contrast eventually swing the image quality contest to its favor. And oh, viewing angles are near-perfect for the G6T, which isn’t surprising as that’s a well-documented strong suit of OLED.

If I were to nitpick, the G6T’s handling of motion is still a bit iffy. When TruMotion is disabled, pictures don’t look sharp enough. And while motion resolution improves when TruMotion is at work, 24fps material will lose a bit of its charm as everything now looks smooth. If you like to tweak, there’s a User setting that offers De-Judder and De-Blur controls.

The other gripe I’ve is the occasional crushing of shadow details. Thankfully, increasing brightness just a couple of notches brings them into view, with no ill effects to black level performance.

Conclusion: If you can afford it, get it

I’ve written about TVs for quite a while now, and the LG Signature G6 OLED TV is bar none the best TV I’ve laid my hands and eyes on. The best thing about technology is that next year’s OLED and LCD TVs will get better, but this year, this very exact moment, the G6T is the king of the hill.

I’ve already spent quite a bit of digital ink explaining why I think the G6T is great, but at the end of the day, only you can be the arbiter of its worth. Personally, I find no major pain points with the G6T. The design is super sleek, its WebOS system is speedy and fun to use, it’s filled to the brim with features (UHD Premium-certified, HDR10 and Dolby Vision support, Smart Remote, Harman Kardon speakers), and its picture quality is top drawer. But are all these enough reasons for you to fork out S$12,999 for the 65-inch model?

It's a little too pricey, any other options?

Which is probably why LG makes the E6T. At S$9,999 for the 65 incher, the E6T is S$3,000 cheaper than the G6T, and that’s substantial. Sure, there are some cosmetic differences (mostly the stand and the ports area, and fit and finish stuff like the remotes), but these are little things. Image quality-wise, it’s as good as the G6T. So the more pragmatic half of me would say to go for the E6T and use the savings to maybe buy a UHD Blu-ray player and tons of discs. That said, if you want the biggest and the best, you’ve to go with the G6T, as it’s the only one to have a 77-inch version, and that costs a staggering S$36,888.

Of course, it’d be remiss of me to not point out that there are several very fine 65-inch 4K HDR LCD TVs out there today, such as the Samsung KS9000 SUHD TV, the Panasonic Viera DX900, and the Sony Bravia Z9D. The Z9D is the priciest of the trio, but even that only costs S$8,999. So if you're shopping for a high-end TV, there’s certainly a good case to consider these premium LED-LCD TVs from a cost perspective or if you're lukewarm to the benefits of OLED.

The LG Signature G6 OLED TV is out in stores. Go see it in action at major electronic superstores like Harvey Norman and Best Denki if you need further convincing.

Update, Nov 4, 9 PM: Amended price of the 77-inch G6T. The initial price announced during its April launch was S$41,999. With the TV finally arriving in stores, LG has finalized the retail price to be S$36,888.