LG WOLED TV vs Samsung OLED TV

Estimated launch date: NA


Estimated launch price: NA

The LG TV was bound to win really, as LG presented a more developed model, intended to closely resemble the final product that'll end up in stores. The Samsung model, however, still stunk of prototype. Otherwise, there's really not much difference in product design.

Slimness: comparing these two TVs is like comparing two sheets of paper! For the record, the LG is a super-slim 4 mm thick.

 

In Asian markets (and some other regions), everyone wants a super-glossy, super-shiny TV screen. These two South Korean manufacturers seem to be leading the charge in that department, making these TVs as shiny as possible. We, on the other hand, aren't big fans of gloss, as reflections on the screen are a big problem.

Make no mistake, these two TVs are likely to smash all kinds of records with their contrast ratios. The blacks are so deep that our test equipment will probably end up crashing!

After long hours spent inspecting both models, we and the other journalists we quizzed at CES,  mostly thought that the LG model looked more contrasted.

However, LG has a trick up its sleeve. The edges of objects onscreen are accentuated (a bit too much for our liking) to exaggerate the contrast effect. Plus, WOLED technology displays a brighter image with an equivalent depth of black, pushing up the black:white contrast ratio.

This is another rather one-sided comparison, since LG showcased its OLED TV's 3D capabilities while Samsung didn't. Nevertheless, we still think we'd choose the Samsung model, as LG has used passive 3D technology, which we don't think is suitable for this kind of TV!

If you take off the 3D glasses when watching LG's TV in 3D mode, the black lines caused by passive technology are only too visible onscreen. That's quite frustrating. Plus, a technology crazy user ready to spend £8,000 on the first OLED TV isn't likely to take any compromise on quality.

To win over the masses, LG had obviously chosen the most crowd-pleasing settings for its OLED TV on display at CES 2012. Colours therefore looked super-bright and over-saturated, whites were blindingly overexposed and dark areas flooded together. In other words, if we'd laid hands on the remote we'd have changed absolutely everything. Obviously though, we weren't allowed to do that, as LG had voluntarily chosen this kind of image for a more head-turning result—who cares if we found it completely crazy? By looking to create the most striking, eye-catching result, the image in turn looks less natural. Plus, several intermediate colour levels have been lost in areas of colour shading. Images therefore look posterised and colours change in sharp blocks rather than in smooth shaded transitions.

Although it's wasn't perfect (the yellow flowers in the demo were practically fluorescent!), the Samsung TV displayed a more balanced picture that had no trouble reproducing colour shading. We'll even admit that we really enjoyed scrutinising this TV for the slightest fault in shaded colours—the same defect that was often only too visible in the LG model.

Again, Samsung clearly hadn't sought to avoid the usual traps in its demo videos. There was a huge variety of images and colours with plenty of shading but we still didn't spot any problems at all!

Another good thing about the Samsung TV is that it clearly has a bigger colour space for a richer choice of shades. This doesn't spoil the picture-quality either. To our eyes, the colours looked superb and very natural. Unfortunately, our camera could only record colours in the sRGB colour space so  it was difficult to capture the full, genuine effect. We had much less trouble snapping the LG screen.