Does anyone here remember when HD TV was first released in South Africa? I remember. I remember going to an expo where DSTV had a massive stand lined with TVs from end to end with this high-definition tech on display. It was literally an eye-opening moment, the images were so crisp, bright, and realistic that they almost seemed fake. There was no way they could get TV any more real than that, absolutely NO WAY!
These days, HD TV is the norm, and although display manufacturers have been pushing out blacker blacks, smaller pixels, and brighter colours, I had yet to experience that same magical moment when HD TV was first released.
Fast forward twelve whole years and LG decided to drop a particularly small box at my doorstep, inside it?
Magic.
After getting my partner to help me delicately pry the massive 65-inch TV out of the box, I set it up on our, now strangely tiny, TV unit. I tried my hardest to speed through the setup process but having to create a bunch of new accounts and then type them out onto a TV screen just isn’t as efficient as you’d like it to be, even with the Magic remote that the LG has. Then, finally, after all of that tapping, I got to scroll through the Netflix menu to pick something that looked like it needed 65 whole inches of QNED greatness to watch. That is when it happened, that very same moment when I saw HD TV for the very first time, happened again right here in my very own lounge.
The TV was so bright, so crisp… so 3D? Everything had such depth to it that it felt like I could reach out and grab it. While I was being bewildered by this newfound “extra-HD” HD, my partner was squinting, trying to save her eyes from the massive portal that just opened on our wall. After a while, she got used to the brightness, somewhat, but every new person that saw this rectangle of awesome commented on how bright it was. LG have clearly got some fairies in the back of the TV sprinkling some of that fairy dust all over the place, keeping things so well-lit.
Once you’ve finally gotten over the epic viewing quality of the TV, which you may never do, the rest of the LG QNED TV is just about as smart as any of the other smart TVs out there when it comes to viewing. It has all the built-in apps for you to stream to your heart’s content, it has a home hub where you can access your other smart LG devices, a browser, an app store, and all that jazz. It’s not as extensive as say an android TV would be, but for straight-up viewing pleasure, the LG Smart TV bits worked just fine for me. webOS22 is pretty to look at and the home screen has a very nice overview of what’s going on around you. It shows what’s displaying on your most recent source, it grants you access to other sources that have something displaying, it gives you an overview of what’s happening with all your other LG Smart ThinQ devices and a quick menu to turn things on and off and then a sleek menu to access all your streaming/web services. As always, browsing the web on the TV is about as good as browsing the web back in the day when you tried to view things on your mobile phone with EDGE network, but it’s there if you ever feel like reminiscing. Over all webOS 22 is pretty, sleek and easy to navigate and get’s a thumbs up from me, but I still feel like Android TV or an Apple TV device do it better.
The remote has a built-in microphone for your Hey Google or Hey Siri commands (yes, the TV comes in two flavours, so make sure you get the one that works with the rest of your smart home doodahs). On the downside, it has a mouse pointer that pops up on the screen every time you accidentally bump the remote, which I found quite annoying, to be honest. Call me old school, but I feel like after years of managing a keyboard with 4 directional keys and an X button I can work the TV quicker with the remote itself than trying to point and click like I’m some sort… pointer. It also has a scroll wheel, which I found ok to use, but people with longer nails mentioned that it was a bit of a hassle.
The LG QNED is also “next-gen” compatible, meaning it spits out 120hz of pure awesome gaming-ness if you’re running one of the latest-gen consoles and with 4 whole HDMI 2.1 ports to choose from, you might as well just get all the consoles too. There’s a “game optimiser” system which is accessible at the touch of a button, allowing you to switch between a few profiles to get the most out of your TV while playing different kinds of games, and then switching back to the best viewing mode for when you’re ready to binge your next TV show.
Since the QNED range is an attempt at the “Best-of-both” between an OLED and the quantum dot LEDs in the QLED range, the display when gaming is absolutely stunning. The QNED does really well at displaying super dark blacks and then even better at displaying vivid, rich colours. This means that when you’re playing on your next-gen/current-gen (when do we start calling them current-gen?) console, you get one of the best viewing experiences out there. Games made for this kind of technology come across as playable movies. The dark caves and night times force your eyes to adjust as if it were the real world and the brightness that comes through with every speck of colour cause your eyes to smile. (It’s called smizing, look it up). You will definitely feel the difference in your gaming when switching over to one of the LG QNED range.