LG 55LX9500

NOTE: This TV sells as the LX9900 in the UK.

After an incredible performance from the LG LEX8 a few weeks ago, it's now time for us to take a look at the LX9500. The version we're testing today has a 55'' IPS display.

This line of TVs was the first to combine LG's Full LED Slim backlighting technology (which means the display is only 3.2 cm thick) with support for 3D. It also has a TruMotion 400 Hz mode to eliminate the jerkiness in films as well as support for online services, which can be accessed wirelessly if you add a USB WiFi adaptor. For multimedia, the TV supports the DLNA standard and can play HD video directly from a USB storage device.

Build Quality and Design

LG's new TV is metal on the outside, with a glass panel across the front of the display.  The case is very thin—just 3.2 cm—despite having Full LED backlighting.  That means there are white LEDs behind the LCD display rather than the more usual Edge LED system which has them around the outside.  The results are incredible, but it's very glossy: to avoid reflections, you need to keep the TV away from direct light sources.

Viewers can control the whole thing using a menu made up of animated icons, a handy, easy to use system that is, unfortunately, a little slow.  There are two remotes: the first is full-sized and has backlighting, while the second has just seven buttons and works like a Wiimote.



There are two USB ports on the side of the LX9500.  You can plug in an external storage device like a USB key or a hard drive, and the media player inside supports NTFS as well as FAT32, meaning you'll be able to read files larger than 4 GB.  During our tests, the majority of HD video we tried worked without a hitch.  On the other hand, M2TS, MTS and subtitles that are encapsulated with video files still aren't supported.

Image Quality: 2D

The image produced using the default settings is still far from perfect.  White areas are too light and black areas are too dark, with a blue tinge affecting the LX9500's colour reproduction.


Switching to Cinema mode corrects all of these problems in one fell swoop, and the colours get back to normal, with an average deltaE of 2.3 and a gamma curve (that describes the distribution of brightness across a scale of greys) that's much more under control.


Like with the LEX8, we suggest you leave the dynamic backlighting switched on because it gets rid of clouding and improves the IPS display's contrast ratio.  It does such a good job, in fact, that it's impossible to measure how deep the blacks are, meaning the contrast ratio is somewhere between 73000:1 and infinity.  Impressive stuff!  On the other hand, the dynamic backlighting isn't quite as good as it is on the LEX8.  It seems to have fewer LEDs, which might be why it suffers from blooming, with a pale halo glowing around light objects against a dark background.  It's particularly obvious when you're watching a film with black bars above and below the image, but you soon get used to it.

Apart from this one hitch, HD video is perfect.  The TruMotion 400 Hz filter does a great job of smoothing out movements without introducing any artefacts or making your films look like they've been shot on a camcorder.   We recommend you tweak the settings to put Judder at 0 and Blur at 8.

As is so often the case, the upscaling is a little too blurry.  A decent Blu-ray player or games console will do a much better job.

Ghosting and input lag

The LX9500's IPS display has an average ghosting time of 10 ms.  That puts it up there amongst the best of the bunch, just behind the ASV TVs produced by Sony and Philips using Sharp displays.   Gamers won't be disappointed either: whether you're in Gaming mode or Cinema mode, it's only ever two frames behind a CRT display.

Image Quality: 3D

The results with a Blu-ray 3D disc are excellent.  Objects jump out of the screen and there's a real sense of depth of field.  And because the IPS display is so fast, crosstalk, a problem that occurs when the frames for each eye are visible to the other, is still visible but very much reduced.  Then again, plasma screens are even better at this.

Here's what you see through the glasses, LG above, Sony below:



We're glad to report that you get two pairs of 3D glasses that you can recharge via a USB port in the box.  They're comfortable to wear, especially because they're very light (43 g).  They're a little too tight to wear on top of ordinary glasses, though.

Extra pairs cost around £70.

Audio Quality

Unlike most thin TVs, the LG LX9500 produces a decent quality sound, with both treble and mid-range coming through loud and clear.  It's not perfect, though, and while you can hear the bass, it sounds a little muffled.  Some external speakers will definitely do things better.

Energy Consumption

When displaying a white test card at a brightness of 200 cd/m², the 55LX900 uses 157 W, but that value changes depending on what's on screen because of the dynamic backlighting.  It's just as impressive while on standby: our equipment registered 0 W, so we can expect actual consumption is somewhere below 0.05 W.