The LG 55EA980W is the second OLED TV we’ve tested, and like the first, it delivers a picture that blows away any LED LCD television, and eclipses even the best-performing plasmas, owing largely to its ability to render true blacks. Should OLED displays come down in price and become more commonplace in the future, we may have to revise our review scoring system: do we still assign so high a weighting on contrast ratio if every TV’s black level is 0 cd/m2?
Until that day arrives though, the black-level performance of the LG EA980W stands head and shoulders above every other flat-screen TV except Samsung’s KE55S9C, the only other OLED television on the market in the UK. That we were enamoured by the supreme blacks didn’t mean the 55EA980′s other excellent attributes went unnoticed. Thanks to THX’s involvement, out-of-the-box greyscale accuracy in [THX Cinema] mode ranked as the best we’ve seen all year. The onboard video processing was first-rate, guaranteeing no degradation in both SD and HD quality. And did we mention how jawdroppingly gorgeous the design – what with its unbelievably slim, curved screen – looked? We didn’t even notice the subtle curvature after a while: such was the mesmerising effect the unreal blacks had on us.
The obvious question to ask is: which is better between this and the Samsung S9C, both being curved OLED displays that cost more than any other 55″ televisions on the market? Based on our indepth testing, we’d have to give the slight edge to the Samsung: its active 3D is full-res and not hampered by vertical off-axis limitation; it features black frame insertion (BFI) as a means to reduce motion blur without introducing interpolation artefacts; and we prefer the cleaner look of its true RGB subpixel structure even if it’s only apparent from up close. And the Samsung KE55S9C’s lower price to the tune of £1000 is not to be sniffed at too.
But let’s not take anything away from the LG 55EA980W, because it’s truly a fabulous TV in its own right. Underpinned by the inkiest blacks imaginable, the EA980W’s world-class picture quality is a giant step forward in the company’s effort to establish itself as a premium AV brand.