LG UQ81 Review & Rating

For a comparatively low surcharge, you get the LG QNED81 with better HDRHigh Dynamic Range – image/video with more dynamic range (contrast range) performance and greater color coverage. Samsung’s QLED Q60B offers a much higher contrast range and therefore a deep black with less detail loss. A quality league above is the Sony X90J. This TV is superior to the UQ81 in all aspects and is a really interesting device in terms of price.

At just over 21 kilograms, the 4K TV lifts comparatively lightly out of the shipping box onto our test table. We quickly mounted the two-piece stand – the same one as LG’s QNED81, by the way – and could already take a closer look at the budget model. At first glance, our 65-inch test device with the label 65UQ810009LB makes a good impression.

As expected, the TV’s crescent-shaped base attracts our attention a bit negatively. As with the step-up model, the base does not make a very stable impression and leaves quite a bit of room for wobbling. The slightly lower total weight compared to the QNED is also not really noticeable here.

However, the material impression only reveals that the back, the frame and also the stand are largely made of plastic when you take a closer look and place your hand on it. However, this is not a problem at all in our opinion and is of course due to the comparatively low sales price of the LG UQ81.

As with the model from LG’s slightly more expensive QNED family, the UQ also leaves you enough space to the upper edge of the casing and can thus also be placed behind higher soundbars without covering the lower edge of the screen.

The cable routing also goes through the middle of the base and allows you to route all cables cleanly from the plug to the third-party device or the power connection.

Using the VESAThe Video Electronics Standards Association (VESA) defines standards for the TVs wall mounting measurements. 300 x 200 standard, you can attach the TV to a suitable wall mount and thus position it even more easily. If you are not yet familiar with this topic, we recommend you to take a look at our guide for selecting and installing a suitable TV mount.

In terms of screensizes, you have a somewhat broader range of options than usual. In addition to the classic frames of 50″, 55″, 65″ and 75 inches, LG also offers an intermediate size of 70 inches for the UQ81, as well as a 43-inch screen diagonal for PC gamers. Thus, you can choose from a total of six different variants.

Of course, you should not expect a real picture miracle in this price range. Nevertheless, the LG UQ81 can leave one or two positive impressions in terms of display quality. But what do you actually get when you buy this TV? Technically speaking, you would be placing a so-called IPS panel with a Direct LED base without local dimming, which means multi-zone illumination, in your room.

This has some advantages but also disadvantages. One of them is the natural display of colors. Image content makes a great impression and does not appear oversaturated or washed out.

If you look at the screen from an angle, the picture remains of good quality for the most part. The saturation only decreases at a comparatively wide perspective, and only then does a slight pallor appear. The screen clearly shows its advantages here, but of course we cannot enjoy the typical OLED level.

At first glance, the LG UQ81 can even hold its ground against much more expensive models. However, the contrast range shows why this is not really the case at the end of the day. Although this reads worse on paper than the display makes the impression in reality. This is partly due to the Direct LED backlight and partly due to the device’s rather weak peak brightness.

Image content in HDR is displayed on the screen, but it is really not brimming with brilliance. A luminance of 300 nitsSI unit of luminance: 1 nit = 1 cd/m² – The best way of measuring and comparing a TVs brightness   at most is the end of the line. This performance level is simply not enough for real highlights.

Thus, bright details quickly fall under the table. At the other end, the panel is so dark that details and outlines are lost in dark content, which leads to a so-called black crush.

Blooming is also present, but it is less noticeable due to the overall dark picture. As a result of the missing brightness, the panel does not deal well with reflections. Our studio light is of course an extreme example of this.

Nevertheless, the TV is not ideal for an illuminated environment. The performance of a uniform gray screen also reveals noticeably darker edges on the panel.

If you take a closer look, you can also discover additional light spots on it. Overall, the display of our tested device tends to look slightly dirty.

The content in the UQ81 is rendered on a 60 Hertz panel. In addition, it is equipped with the currently weakest Alpha5 Gen5 AI processor from the 2022 lineup. Therefore, the motion handling is not on the level of TVs that can natively display up to 120 hertz on the screen. Without interframe calculation, fast scene changes can sometimes lose sharpness and fine details in the picture drop in detail.

If you enable interpolationArtificial calculation of more frames than the source material has to offer, the processor starts working and supports the display during rendering. This works smoothly and compensates stutters well. The disadvantage of the activation is – as so often – the occurrence of the Soap Opera effect. Our internal measurement of the response time repeatedly showed a result of 10 ms. This value is slightly above the manufacturer’s specification and thus could not be confirmed by us.

If you are looking for a model that fully supports the features of the current console generation, you will quickly encounter various equipment limitations with the LG UQ81.

The HDMI standard already reveals that there is nothing to be gained from this TV in terms of 120 hertz at 4K. An additional feature like a variable synchronization rate, VRR via AMD FreeSync, or the usual G-SyncVariable Refresh Rate for Nvidia graphics cards compatibility are also not available.

At least the budget model offers an ALLM Feature to improve the delay during controller inputs and will make friends of the cloud gaming front happy.

You can play your favorite games completely console-free via GeForce Now – assuming you have a good Internet connection. The only additional peripheral you will need is a compatible Bluetooth controller, which you can connect directly to the TV.

Apart from that, the LG UQ81 features HGiG for displaying HDRHigh Dynamic Range – image/video with more dynamic range (contrast range) content and offers you the Game Optimizer, which is already known from more expensive devices.

This allows you to see which settings the TV is currently using immediately and you do not have to search through the menu for them first.

However, we are not really convinced by the TV. Although the color reproduction is also on a high level for gaming content, the moderate contrast and the moderate peak brightness are not enough for us to give a real recommendation for a well-rounded gaming experience.

Instead, you will find more worthwhile TV devices on the market for a relatively small surcharge, which you should look for. So, we do not see the LG UQ81 as a real gaming TV.

Unless a soundbar is part of the package, the audio reproduction of modern flat-screen TVs never really has the prerequisites to reasonably cover all disciplines in this area. We knew from the start that the LG UQ81 would not perform any miracles in this area considering the low price. So that was more than expected.

Generally, voices from the downward emitting speakers sound clear and can be understood sufficiently well. This puts the performance on the usual level for everyday use. True cinema atmosphere is – unsurprisingly – a foreign word for the 2.0 sound system with 20 watts of output.

Even the simulated 5.1 AI processor sound, which LG offers us as compensation, does not replace the quality of a good home theater system or a high-quality soundbar at this point. The same sound picture is present when playing loud music. The frequencyHertz is the derived SI-unit of frequency with 1Hz=1/s – When talking about TVs this means how many different pictures a TV can display in one second. range cries out for a rich bass, but the speakers cannot provide us with it. Even the somewhat thicker case is of little use here.

You also have to do without real 3D surround sound ex-factory. Neither DTSMulti-channel-sound-system (Surround Sound) competing with Dolby Digital:X nor Dolby Atmos are available. Support for WiSA-compatible sound sources also falls by the wayside. However, you can still enjoy uncompressed surround sound via HDMI using eARC. In addition, there is also the option to connect via optical digital output.

Due to the price, the South Korean manufacturer also cuts back on some of the specifications and reduces the range of features a bit.

Although the LG UQ81 comes with a preinstalled webOS 22 interface, navigation is not quite as fast as in the more expensive models due to the slower Alpha5 processor. You will also have to do without Watch & Record if you get the signal directly from the TV’s single tuner.

The Hands Free Voice Control, which allows you to send voice commands directly to the TV, is also limited to the premium segment of the portfolio. Fortunately, the popular Magic Remote has not fallen victim to the cutback, but it comes in a simpler version without NFC.

However, nothing changes in the choice of your voice assistant. You can still choose between ThinQ AI, Google’s voice assistant or Alexa. You will also not have to do without Airplay and Homekit. As usual, you will find a wide range of apps in the extensive store. If necessary, you can also record directly via USB.

After we had Calman check the actual state of our test device, we were astonished when we received the evaluation. Luminance gradations are partly reproduced by the TV with more than 4 points being too bright across the entire performance level of the display.

Especially in bright levels, the screen demonstrates a proper red cast and moves almost 10 points above the target value. The blue portion of the picture is exactly the opposite and is more than 9 points below the standard. This makes the RGB balance appear visibly uneven.

The gamma value shows a deviation of up to 0.14 and is almost beyond the prescribed value of 2.2 over the entire measuring range. The color representation is also quite noticeable as being imprecise.

Especially blue is relatively far off with almost three and red with clearly more than 2 error points. Accordingly, the transition colors cyan and yellow are also affected. A homogeneous result looks different.

Based on the values we measured, we completely readjusted the LG UQ81. Even though we were not completely satisfied with the final result, we could still get some precision out of the panel.

Brightness levels are now consistently displayed with a significantly lower average error, which settles at around 1.7 points. The gamma value is also much better now and mostly within the default, except for minor inconsistencies.

Although there has also been a significant improvement in color balance, we would have wished for a bit more residual precision, especially for blue. The color fidelity tolerance has also shown considerable progress.

However, there is still some room for improvement in this area, since the deviations are still too large for us. Nevertheless, we can conclude that image content now appears considerably better on the LG UQ81’s display.