LG QNED MiniLED 99 Series 8K TV review
Our Verdict
The LG QNED 99 sports a lot of features and enhancement technologies, simply is held back by a couple of technical problems—and the nowadays limitations of 8K itself.
For
- Eye-popping 8K video quality
- Excellent brightness, color reproduction
- Good sound quality, with lots of additional options available
Against
- Requires significant viewing space for full 8K outcome
- Inconsistent upscaling
- Sluggish controls
- Express 8K content
Tom'southward Guide Verdict
The LG QNED 99 sports a lot of features and enhancement technologies, but is held back by a couple of technical issues—and the nowadays limitations of 8K itself.
Pros
- +
Center-popping 8K video quality
- +
Fantabulous brightness, colour reproduction
- +
Adept sound quality, with lots of additional options available
Cons
- -
Requires significant viewing space for full 8K effect
- -
Inconsistent upscaling
- -
Sluggish controls
- -
Limited 8K content
LG QNED MiniLED 99 Serial 8K TV: Specs
Toll: $3,499
Model number: 75QNED99UPA
Screen size: 75 inches
Resolution: 7,680 ten 4,320
HDR: HDR10, HLG, Dolby Vision
Refresh charge per unit: 120 Hz
Ports: 4 HDMI 2.1, 3 USB
Sound: 60W 4.2-aqueduct speakers
Smart TV software: webOS
Size: 65.6 x 37.7 x i.1 inches [westward/o stand]
Weight: 82 lbs. [w/o stand]
The LG QNED MiniLED 99 Serial 8K TV is i of a selection of new models showing that 8K is at present on the threshold of affordability for a greater number of people. LG's new entry in that contest is the QNED 99, which purports to fuse a number of existing display technologies and its own innovations into 1 four-times-larger-than-4K-resolution set positioned for the Next Large Brandish Thing. It'southward an easy addition to our best 8K TVs list, just does it present a compelling case for buyers?
On the surface level, yep. This is a reasonable way for all you lot slavering early on adopters to get 8K into your home (provided you have a spacious place to put the set) and go some good features every bit office of the deal. Only every bit this review is being published in early fall of 2021, a lot of roadblocks to widespread 8K adoption remain, foremost among them high prices, low Cyberspace bandwidth for streaming the crazy number of pixels required, and such a dearth of content that at that place'southward almost nothing to stream anyway. LG tin can't solve these issues with the QNED 99—just time and wide-calibration adoption tin do that—and nods toward some new ones while introducing a couple of its ain forth the way. Yes, the QNED 99 gets the task done, but right now, it'southward not entirely articulate how much that job needs to be washed at all.
LG QNED MiniLED 99 Series 8K Goggle box review: Cost and availability
For our review, we assessed the 75-inch version of the LG QNED 99, the $three,499 75QNED99UPA. Because the other two available models, the 65-inch 65QNED99UPA and the 86-inch 86QNED99UPA, share the aforementioned core features and underlying technologies, nosotros expect those sets to be comparable in performance—though the 75-inch 1 is likely to exist the best pick for nigh shoppers, for reasons explained in the Operation department.
- 65-inch (model 65QNED99UPA): $two,499.99
- 75-inch (model 75QNED99UPA): $3,499.99
- 86-inch (model 86QNED99UPA): $v,299.99
LG QNED MiniLED 99 Series 8K Telly review: Design
Outset things starting time: The 75QNED99UPA is big. Measuring virtually 66 inches wide and 38 inches alpine and weighing 82 pounds, you'll need at to the lowest degree ii strong people to set it up and position it—and having a third on hand might not be a bad idea, particularly if y'all're planning use one of the all-time Television set mounts to wall-mountain it. (The shipping weight is a hefty 106 pounds, so even moving the box may be a challenge.) Even just adjusting the Telly once it's set up can be a trial; figure out where you want it, put it at that place, and go out it.
In most other means, the set is subdued in the design department: skillful looking, but in no style ostentatious. From the forepart, not much is visible across the sprawling screen except the thin, silver-colored rim and the quarter-inch bezel on the left, right, and top; the third-inch bezel on the bottom sports the red standby calorie-free in the heart, but not a lot else.
The back is largely a featureless plain of dark metal, likewise, with a few alcoves cut for the ports and two in the upper corners for a flush-mounting solution (to be released later this twelvemonth), the holes for installing a 400x400-millimeter VESA mounting bracket, and non much else. Although the 1.ane-inch-thick TV is designed to be wall mounted, it includes a wedge-shaped, brushed-metal stand if y'all'd adopt to place it on top of something else. The attractive stand does add thirteen inches to the depth, though, so bank check that you lot have sufficient space for information technology.
LG QNED MiniLED 99 Series 8K Tv set review: Ports
The power connector is on the right side of the TV and the remaining rear-console ports, all down-aiming, are on the left. These incorporate (left to correct) IR Equalizer, RS-232C, coaxial cable, optical audio out, Ethernet, two HDMI, and two USB ports. Two additional HDMI ports and one more than USB port confront out the left side, making it a lot easier to quickly connect or disconnect often moved devices.
All iv HDMI ports support the newest HDMI ii.one standard, which allows for side by side-generation technologies like 120 Hz refresh rates at 4K resolution; Motorcar Low Latency Mode (ALLM), for automatically switching over to gaming settings when y'all activate your panel. The just advanced HDMI 2.1 feature that's missing is Variable Refresh Charge per unit (VRR). We profoundly appreciate LG'southward using HDMI 2.i on all its ports, and hope that other Boob tube makers follow arrange in brusk society.
LG QNED MiniLED 99 Series 8K Telly review: Exam Results
To go a meliorate idea of how the QNED MiniLED 99 Series compares with comparable TVs, nosotros fired up our usual testing regimen using Portrait Displays's Calman Ultimate calibration software, X-Rite i1 Pro and SpectraCal C6 colorimeters, and two pattern generators: the AccuPel DVG-5000 for SDR and the SpectraCal VideoForge Pro for HDR.
The QNED 99 is one of the brighter TVs nosotros've tested, registering 442 nits in its SDR Cinema mode and 557 nits in its brightest manner (Bright), supporting LG's claim that this is the brightest TV the company has ever released. It doesn't quite match the maximum SDR brightness of 621 nits we saw from the TCL six-Serial 8K (65R648), or come close to the Samsung QN90A Neo QLED's 1,814 nits (though we've never seen anything that does); and these results are largely mirrored in the HDR modes. But the QNED 99, like the other two TVs, continues to make an impressive instance for the brightness potential of Mini LEDs.
We saw superior color reproduction from the QNED 99, besides. Its 2.06 rating for Delta-E, which measures the difference between the color at the source and the color displayed on the screen, was the best among the 3 sets, with the TCL registering 2.12 and the Samsung 2.57.
With SDR content, the LG model likewise covered a slightly greater percentage of the Rec. 709 colour gamut (99.95%) than the other ii sets in Standard fashion, with the TCL's 99.86% and the Samsung's 99.79%. It was, however, weaker with HDR, covering less of the Rec. 2020 and UHDA-P3 colour gamuts than either of the other ii sets.
LG QNED MiniLED 99 Serial 8K Tv review: Performance
Nosotros discovered from our previous mainstream 8K set, the TCL Roku Goggle box 6-Serial 8K, that a 65-inch screen is wholly inadequate to conveying the full capabilities of 8K, due to the pixel density that ends up as non registering much more visibly sharp than 4K, especially if you're non up close. We're happy to report that this LG makes a far better instance for the new display resolution—provided you're able to watch it from far enough away.
From a viewing distance of about 12 feet, the 75QNED99UPA's motion-picture show was a revelation: razor-edged crisp, even down to the individual hairs on animals' faces or lights in the New York City skyline. No affair what I watched (a bailiwick nosotros'll return to in a moment), the effect was jaw-dropping, and about every bit transformative as the first time I saw an Hard disk or 4K Goggle box in full-resolution activity.
At that place are two unavoidable bug hither, still. First, you lot only don't derive the aforementioned benefits if you're much closer. From about eight feet from the screen—even x in some circumstances—the blotchiness is detectable and distracting, and you're more than enlightened of the individual picture elements than of the scene equally a whole. Things are nonetheless watchable, just motion forwards whatever more and they look outright bad. This isn't the error of the Idiot box itself, but rather the science of eyes, which tin can't easily exist canceled to justify your $3,500 buy. With the 85-inch 85QNED99UPA, you'd need to be positioned dorsum still farther to gain the same effect, which may not be worth information technology, even if you're able to identify it somewhere large enough to justify it. At to the lowest degree for the moment, 75 inches seems to exist the 8K sugariness spot for boilerplate-size living rooms, just care and consideration is however required.
The second problem is native 8K content: There basically isn't any. We conducted our evaluation using exclusively 8K YouTube videos, which piece of work terrific for that, but don't exactly excite with their long-term viewing potential. Past the end of our testing catamenia, I was getting mighty ill of the nature surveys and travelogues that institute almost the entire library of bachelor videos, no affair how astonishing they looked. This will undoubtedly change equally more 8K sets in homes necessitate real movies and series using the format, simply for at present, there's substantially nothing to watch in 8K.
The question and so becomes: How does the 75-inch QNED 99 upscale? Pretty well, over again provided you're not nose-to-glass with the screen and choosing your cloth carefully. The 4K versions of Blade Runner 2049, the Disney-Pixar animated film Luca, Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker, and Zack Snyder'south Justice League all delivered the goods from that 12-foot vantage bespeak, though were notably less distinct closer to the screen. Unfortunately, 1080p content is another story. Upscaling that lower-resolution video resulted in the loss of all manner of fine details. In the mountaintop fistfight at the end of Mission: Impossible—Fallout, for case, the towering rock outcropping and Tom Prowl's face looked flat and featureless, about fuzzy, and not every bit rife with rough-hewn realism equally in 4K upscaling. The message is unmistakable: Stick with the higher resolution whenever possible.
LG touts the QNED 99's confluence of technologies designed to enhance picture quality across the board. These include Mini LEDs, for greater brightness and deeper blacks, thanks to more precise backlight control, and NanoCell Colour and Quantum Dot, for improving color reproduction. And these resulted in picture quality that was generally strong, inside the limits outlined above.
The set had no trouble defining the loftier-dissimilarity areas of the early farmhouse scene in Blade Runner 2049, presenting every nuance of expression on Ryan Gosling'southward and Dave Bautista's faces in their taut confrontation. Luca's Mediterranean colour palette and soft skin textures showed through beautifully. And the wide expanse of the screen was platonic for playing Zack Snyder'southward Justice League (which was shot in the IMAX attribute ratio), with the intense action and even more intensely desaturated colors alternately invigorating and enervating you lot, just equally the visionary director intended. The LG Television set stumbled only with The Rise of Skywalker, with the high-contrast climactic battle scenes in Palpatine'south subterranean Exegol lair actualization oddly grainy, the inky blacks of the shadowy cave non playing nicely with the myriad blue-white lightning flashes.
Considering how far back y'all'll demand to sit to take reward of the set up's 8K capabilities, you probably won't have to worry much virtually off-angle viewing issues if yous position things properly. There'southward some washing-out of the image at extreme angles, which was most notable in our full-panel color tests but showed up a chip in live-activity video, too. But it was slight, and you have to exist shut to the Tv and sitting practically at the corner for it to matter—two things that will never (or at least should never) happen with a Television receiver like this 1.
We did meet 2 operation oddities worth pointing out. Every bit far as the screen goes, even on higher-terminate TVs, you tin sometimes see streaking from heavily contrasting picture elements, such as white text overlain on solid black (such equally the top or lesser of a letterboxed movie). Usually, though, this is modest and doesn't detract from the experience. But combining the LG's high resolution and above-boilerplate brightness, it tin get incredibly intrusive on this set—it was so astringent with video header data in the Amazon Prime Video app that at first information technology appeared the Telly itself was detective. This didn't occur oft, and it always straightened itself out when the video returned to normal, but it was deeply ugly and distracting whenever it occurred.
The process of using the Goggle box itself was also occasionally muddy. Such ostensibly ordinary activities equally moving effectually the menus, scrolling through the dwelling screen, or launching apps, could sometimes have an inordinately long time, with especially bad lag while irresolute selections. This didn't come all time, just we encountered it ofttimes plenty for information technology to frustrate.
LG QNED MiniLED 99 Series 8K Tv review: Gaming
The QNED MiniLED 99 Series is equipped with LG's Game Optimizer, which collects a number of console-friendly functions in a single menu. (These work but over HDMI, and then they won't accept an impact on the rest of your viewing.) Among other things, these let yous tweak the light and dark areas of the screen depending on the genre of game you're playing; reduce blue lite; and activate AI Game Sound, which optimizes the TV's settings for the game's content.
Thank you to its abundance of HDMI 2.1 ports, the QNED 99 is an excellent bet for contemporary gaming; a check of our Xbox Series X showed that the TV supported all of the console's available technologies, including HDR, 4K at 120 Hz, and more. Its measured lag times of 18ms and 15.8ms, respectively adamant using our Leo Bodnar 1080p and 4K lag testers, more than surpass our 20ms threshold for top playability, though there are faster sets to be constitute. (The LG has less lag than the TCL 6-Serial 8K, only itself has quite a bit more than the Samsung QN90A, which blisters with 12.6ms at 1080p and 9.9ms at 4K.)
Our primary caveat is the same as with video viewing. Newer games that render in 4K upscale accordingly to 8K; at that place was barely any fuzziness detectable in Assassin'south Creed Valhalla, and the game played smoothly fifty-fifty during its heavy fighting sequences. Older titles, however, such as Assassin's Creed Origins, were of course still playable, but looked much worse. You don't need to abandon any game more than a year or two old, simply y'all're probably better off sticking to new ones if you lot want acme-flight visuals.
LG QNED MiniLED 99 Serial 8K TV review: Sound
With a sixty-watt, 4.two-channel audio system, the QNED 99 is not poorly equipped in the sound department, and those capabilities are augmented farther with the application of other features and technologies. Most prominent is Dolby Atmos environs sound, which adds an actress layer of aural immersion when you watch something recorded in information technology. But in that location are a number of other LG-specific configurations likewise, such as AI Acoustic Tuning, for tailoring the sound to your specific viewing surround, and AI Sound Pro, which separates and clarifies speech and other types of sound. The former didn't make a significant divergence for me, only the latter did, calculation a depth and richness to certain pieces of content (particularly The Ascension of Skywalker, where it was as though I was plunged into the center of the orchestra) while not doing much to others.
Movies in particular, even with loaded with action and many layered audio elements (every bit is common in Zack Snyder'south Justice League), had a make clean, distinct sound, fifty-fifty in the relatively apartment Standard mode, and gained additional juice in Cinema (the all-time counterbalanced of the modes to my ear). Depression bass notes had business firm but hardly overwhelming presence in songs like The Pocketknife's "Silent Shout," and more than soaring trebles similarly came across just fine through nigh of the set's volume range. If you desire to maximize your ears' experience, you can play with the various presets and the equalizer, but the defaults were satisfactory for me all the way around.
At the furthest extreme (upward of volume level 90), both lower and higher music lost a tick of clarity, but never discernibly topped out or became unpleasant to listen to. That said, like most TVs, the QNED 99 never gets ear-squeezingly loud, even at its highest. So if you want something that volition milk shake the walls and rattle the rafters, you will definitely want to check out one of Tom'due south Guide's best soundbars.
LG QNED MiniLED 99 Series 8K TV review: Smart features
LG'south webOS operating organization remains intuitive and unproblematic to navigate, with a streamlined home screen (more than acutely resembling the Android TV/GoogleTV blueprint style) that puts the app pick forepart and center while also serving up plenty of additional content possibilities from a wide variety of sources. Apps on the QNED 99 are attractive and responsive, skillful matches for what you'll come across on other TVs and mobile devices, and the, uh, Apps app for adding more is well designed, letting you see at a glance both which are popular and which have been most recently updated.
Among the preinstalled apps is LG Channels, which surfaces a thick catalog of free viewing material mostly fatigued from Television set series and live broadcasts, but also some movies. But yous can notice other things to watch via the straightforward Search function in the upper right; to its left are a panel for advertising a sponsored show (normally from LG Channels) and a five-style carousel suggesting different things y'all can or should exercise with the TV.
The Television set connects to LG'south ThinQ smart ecosystem, so you tin can use the remote command (see below) to control or bank check the status of other LG home appliances you may have.
LG QNED MiniLED 99 Serial 8K Television set review: Remote control
The QNED 99's remote is an updated version of LG'due south Magic Remote, which combines traditional remote functionality (and thus lots of buttons) with that of a reckoner mouse: You can access on-screen options with a movable pointer rather than having to utilize the directional pad, and select with the clickable scroll wheel virtually the remote's heart. I have personally always hated the pointer, finding it far slower and clunkier for navigating the menus, but it remains bachelor if you prefer it.
Another interaction option is vocalization control: Concord downward the remote'south centrally located microphone button and y'all tin can speak your commands to the TV. The starting time fourth dimension y'all practise this, you're besides given the opportunity to turn on Easily-free Voice Control, which doesn't require the remote; just say "Hi LG" and what you want to do, and the set will take care of information technology. Both versions of the vocalism control worked well.
Otherwise, the remote is now slightly more rectangular, fitting more naturally into the hand, though its curvy underside and decent weighting remain; overall, information technology'south a lot more than comfortable to utilize now. Too a plus are the cleaner controls, with more rounded buttons (the old version used a lot more ovals), soft-touch rocker switches for channel and volume, and other space-saving moves that allow for additional shortcut keys at the bottom (for Netflix, Amazon Prime Video, Disney+, LG Channels, Hey Google, and Amazon Alexa).
LG QNED MiniLED 99 Serial 8K Boob tube review: Verdict
If you lot've staked your claim on the bleeding edge of engineering, we're finally at the bespeak where the concept of an 8K TV makes sense. Though pricey, they're no longer second-mortgage expensive, and there are plenty models out there that you can cull the one that most aligns with your preferences and potential brand loyalty.
From that standpoint, the LG QNED MiniLED 99 Serial 8K Telly is a perfectly tenable selection. It marshals a satisfyingly loftier level of brightness and color accuracy against its competitors, wields a capable sound system, and throws in a sparkling array of smart technologies, a good operating organization, and an improved remote control. Though information technology's sometimes slow to utilize, even that is tolerable. And, as a larger set, it lets you come across—in a way you can't with smaller sets, such as the 65-inch TCL vi-Serial 8K (65R648)—all that 8K has to offer.
The sticking point remains 8K itself. It's withal a phantom format, with no major movies or Boob tube series taking advantage of it in any real way. To get the most out of what lilliputian content that does be, you really practice need to become a large, expensive model, and accept a lot of space and patience to devote to it. And for watching anything else, you have to rely on upscaling, which is an iffy prospect at best, even on a set up with an otherwise good pic.
For everything the LG QNED MiniLED 99 Series 8K TV offers, it'southward still a tough sell when the prices are this high and 4K and even 1080p are however so prevalent. The fact remains: If y'all buy this TV—or any other 8K TV—today, y'all're buying it primarily for what it volition deliver tomorrow.
Source: https://www.tomsguide.com/reviews/lg-qned-mini-led-99-series-8k-tv
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