It’s Dead Jim
I sat down to enjoy a gaming session with a friend. While waiting for them to finish the intro and pick their character, my 2017 Samsung UN65KS8000 decided that it was the best time to begin boot looping. I tried everything I knew to do to resurrect my poor beloved television. No dice, I contacted Samsung support only to be met with the same result after multiple conversations “Nothing we can do, sounds like a capacitor failure, here’s the name and number of a repair company, have a nice day.”
Thus began a search to replace the tv or have it repaired. The best estimate for repair was about the same cost as a new set. The hunt was on! I began my search by narrowing down what technology I wanted in a new display. I had always wanted a plasma but they’re not available anymore. I enjoyed the Samsung LED but I was never entirely happy about the black level, above all I wanted accurate color. The sets that were topping my list were the Samsung Q70R, Q80R, and the LG B9 OLED. LED was the first and obvious choice as the Samsung tv had been an LED TV, but then I began to think that maybe I should use this as an opportunity to upgrade or move to something different.
My research began with picture quality differences between the technologies rather than the TVs themselves. With LED LCD there is never anything that could be called true black due to needing a backlight to illuminate the panel the closest you can get is a very convincing grey. Whereas with OLED each pixel conveys its own light when the content tells the TV “hey this is space and it should be black” the TV says “ok” and turns off the corresponding pixels so they don’t show color of any kind. This is, in my opinion, the best of all possible worlds since I prefer accurate colors over the highest possible resolution.
I must admit that I am an odd duck when it comes to the home theater hobby. I would much rather use separate boxes for my streaming and disc playback than having a smart tv that handles those functions. If I could pay a slight premium for a manufacturer to remove all of the smarts of a TV I would. Another factor in this decision is the so-called Spousal Acceptance Factor. I showed the three front runners to my partner and I was told that “they’re all black rectangles just pick one”. So no help there.
Needless to say, I was a tad bit gun shy regarding Samsung but they stayed in my list because they were excellent for the money. My overall budget was less than $2000. The Q70R was an excellent choice due to the size, brightness, and features despite my not using most of them. The Q80R was a better choice but not because of value. It was able to get considerably brighter than the Q70 which could sometimes be an issue in my room when the sunlight was streaming through open blinds. The processing of the image on the Q80 was also slightly better.
One big downfall of these TVs was that the viewing angles were not as wide as one may like depending on the seating arrangement. My living room is longer than it is wide and is open to the dining room. My partner and I enjoy the occasional epic boardgame weekend and also enjoy having a movie or some other content playing while we indulge our favorite shared past time. This is where the LG OLED shines, even from extreme angles the color is just as uniform as it would be straight on. While it doesn’t get as bright as the Q80 it does come very very close. So close in fact that you’d be forgiven for not seeing any appreciable difference between the two.
This is where we leave the Q70 behind as it hasn’t reached the bar that was set for advancement. Comparing the Q80 versus the B9 there really is no contest, the 120Hz Full array Local Dimming VA panel of the Q80R doesn’t measure up to the abilities on display (if you’ll pardon the pun) in the B9 with its 120Hz OLED panel. Motion handling is also superb on the B9 since OLED handles fast motion better than LCD.
This is all adding up to hours and hours of research and hair-pulling to be absolutely sure I got not only the best deal but also the best picture for that deal. In the end, I decided on the LG due to the excellent color, viewing angles, and response time. On a bit of a side note, both the LG and Samsung offer variable refresh rates which will come in very handy in the next console generation. Another deciding factor for me was the inclusion of multiple HDR codecs. The only rather glaring omission is HDR10+ which is present on the Q80R. PC gaming on this TV is a treat as well. I spent some time playing Far Cry: New Dawn which is vibrant and saturated as hell for a post-apocalyptic world. The tv conveyed this pop of color very well.
In the end, I was drawn to the LG for its color accuracy, picture quality, and host of features beyond the smart TV aspect of it. I plan to spend some time with the LG and really get to know it before I recommend it to anyone else. So in the coming days and weeks, I will post updates and more in-depth hands-on impressions. So Stay tuned!
