This LG OLED Smart TV is loaded with lots of great features but the best feature of all is its absolutely fantastic picture. In fact CNET who do detailed reviews of hundreds of TVs have claimed that it has the “Best. Picture. Ever.” Picture quality is the most important attribute of any TV and this one is at the top of the list, but it doesn’t stop there because it has so much more to offer.
OLED
If you aren’t familiar with OLED technology, even though it sounds like LED it is quite a different technology. OLED stands for Organic Light Emitting Diode, and it uses organic compounds (essentially hydrogen and carbon molecules) that produce light when hit by an electric current. They don’t require a backlight like LED TVs so they can be much thinner, in fact ultra-thin. It is a much more environmentally friendly technology as the screen has no heavy metals, and it requires much less energy to operate.
OLED technology delivers superb contrast and a lightning fast refresh rate so there is absolutely no motion blur, regardless of how fast the scene is. It also has an excellent viewing angle so there is no washing out of colour regardless of where you are when viewing the TV.
Picture Quality
As I mentioned, OLED technology delivers an excellent picture quality, but for CNET to provide the kind of accolades that they have in their detailed review, the LG EC9300 truly stands out. I recently reviewed LG’s 55EA9700 OLED TV and was very impressed by the picture quality and feature set. But the LG EC9300 is their latest model that they have obviously refined and improved even further.
The LG 55EC9300 uses a 4 Colour Pixel technology, created by adding white to the traditional red, green and blue base colours. The effect of this is truer and more natural colours because they can re-create every shade and hue needed. In addition to incredibly natural colours, LG uses Pixel Dimming technology that allows every pixel to control its own lighting. This generates tremendous contrast and a capability for phenominally dark black levels. All together this really enhances the depth of the picture while bringing out the vitality of its colours.
In addition this television has a refresh rate that is orders of magnitude faster than LED technology, ensuring that the picture remains crystal clear regardless of what you are watching. If you are looking for the best picture in a TV, then don’t look any further. As if that isn’t enough, this TV has a lot more to offer.
Design
This big screen TV is extremely thin, making it very attractive to look at. OLED technology as I mentioned allows for a paper-thin screen but there is some thickness required to accommodate the speakers and some of the electronics. It also is not a flat screen, but has a very nice gentle curve that adds to its elegance and beauty. Because the viewing angle of the OLED technology is so good the curved screen looks great even if you aren’t directly in front of the TV.
Like the 55EA9700 that I reviewed earlier, this TV comes with a very attractive silver stand. However, if you want to mount it on the wall it has a wall mounting kit available to do so. Because of the curved profile you cannot use normal wall mounting hardware which is designed for flat panels.
Smart with WebOS
The 55EC9300 comes with LG’s WebOS Smart platform built-in, which happens to be one of my favorite Smart interfaces. I really like WebOS because it is well-designed, simple to setup, and is so intuitive that it is very simple to use. The search capabilities are excellent because the search engine can look for a movie or program title across all apps that you have loaded as well as your cable or satellite provider.
WebOS has a launcher that at the bottom of the screen that allows you to look for your favorite smart apps, without having to stop whatever you are watching.
You connect to the Internet using your home WiFi network or a wired Ethernet cable. Their LG Store has a large selection of content available as well as a full web browser, so content for the TV is never an issue. In addition, it has a Smart Share feature and MHL technology that allows you to share your mobile device directly on to the OLED TV. The TV can then act as the screen for your mobile device.
Magic Remote
The problem with most Smart TVs is that surfing and navigating is a bit cumbersome because there is no keypad. LG’s smart remote goes a long way to solve that. It works sort of like the Nintendo Wii controller, where you point the remote at the screen to move a mouse around and click to select what you want. The remote is nice and small but very easy to use and extremely functional in navigating all the Smart features. A very good solution that is pretty slick.
3D
3D creates a great immersive experience, but 3D on an OLED screen that also happens to be on the TV with the best picture ever is hard to say enough about. In addition to showing 3D with superb colour and clarity, it can convert 2D to 3D so you are never lacking 3D content. For all you gamers that love to play dual-play games, it has dual player mode where each player only sees their field of view but on a full screen. Another impressive feature.
Additional Features
I really like the placement of the input and output connection ports. All 4 HDMI ports and 3 USB ports are very conveniently located on the side of the TV so you can’t really see them normally but they are extremely easy to get to when you need to. As I mentioned it comes with WiFI, and MHL connectivity, but it also has NFC (near field communication) for even more convenience and simplicity. It also has an optical out port, which is ideal way to add a sound bar or surround sound system – a highly recommended option since the audio on such a thin TV could use some help.
The TV comes with 8 picture modes, 8 different aspect ratio modes, 6 sound modes, and 3 sound optimizing options so there is lots of flexibility to find exactly the settings that suit you the best. If you don’t want to play with settings, no problem – the default settings can’t help but look great.
The most important characteristic of any TV is the picture quality, and there is none better than in the LG 55” OLED Smart 3D TV EC9300. In addition it is a very attractive thin curved screen with every other feature you could want. Its price tag is a bit higher that an LED TV but so is the performance. Compared to other OLED TVs and 4K Ultra HD TVs it is excellent value that won’t disappoint.
