Gadgetory

hi I'm David Katz my resina and next to me is the very first OLED TV we've ever reviewed at CNET this is a 55 inch LG 5 v ec 90 300 it's the first OLED TV to cost less than 5 grand a specifically it's about three thousand dollars right now so that's really a huge deal for this new TV technology totally different from LCD and Plasma technology OLED uses organic light-emitting diodes to create a picture that really is spectacular we'll get to that in a little bit but first let me talk about the style of this set OLED allows the TV to be extremely thin when you look at it from the side it just kind of disappears it's only about a quarter of an inch thick throughout most of its body there's a slightly thicker part in the back that houses it's off like inputs and the power supply and the power cable of course you can't fit that into a quarter inch slice but all told it's one of the sleekest looking TVs another futuristic aspect with this TV is the curve it's a curved screen not a flat screen you can kind of see from looking at it from the front although it really is subtle look at it from the top or the sides the curve becomes a lot more obvious it doesn't have a huge impact on picture quality oh it does tend to reduce reflections a little bit so that's a good thing but there are some geometric distortions as a trade-off the set also has a really nice stand it kind of lets the TV float above it and provides a more curvy organic shape you can also remove the stand and wall mount the TV if you want so all told this is one of the nicest looking TVs I've ever tested I also really like the remote control it's a little bit like a Nintendo Wii mode and that you hold it and wave it around at the screen to move the cursor the menu system has been completely redesigned this year it's LG's new webOS system which actually has these large icons along the bottom here and a really nice design that overlays what you're watching it allows you to customize the screen and also find apps relatively quickly we actually found it one of the nicer looking and performing displays out there for Smart TV it's plenty of apps included on the Smart TV suite of course you also get a web browser and the whole thing is integrated really nicely with the motion remote like you'd expect from any high-end TV LG includes plenty of picture controls you can adjust the grayscale as well as color management and there's a full ability to play around with the smoothing and each other on this television design of features are one thing but what really sets OLED apart is its spectacular picture quality this OLED set has a better picture than any plasma or LCD TV I've ever reviewed this set is capable of producing perfect black levels which means that the black is actually completely black it's as if the screen is off when it's really on that can produce insane contrast so when you're looking at the screen you can see a really bright area the picture next to a really dark area of the picture and it lends more realism and more pop to the picture than any TV I've ever tested LG's pictures also characterized by a good color and solid video processing although both those aren't quite as good as some of the best TVs I've tested it also has excellent viewing angles much like a plasma so it doesn't wash out when you see it from either side like a lot of LCD 50 TVs out there it's also very good screen uniformity so you're not gonna see those blocks as you can see on some LCD TVs so all told again the best picture quality I've ever tested anyway that's a quick look at LG's 55 EC 9300 the first OLED TV we've ever tested and the very best picture quality we've ever seen it's CNET I'm David Katz Meijer