TECHWEEK
LG QNED 87 is a new 2022 4K TV series that combines a proprietary blend of Quantum Dot and Nanocell technologies with a Mini-LED backlight system. TV models with mini-LED backlighting, a year after the birth, have proven themselves capable of competing with OLED TVs in terms of image quality.
The reduced size of the backlight LEDs allows you to increase their number by several times. And this, in turn, allows for very precise local dimming, which ultimately leads to a significant increase in contrast while reducing backlight spreading around bright objects on the screen. In the review of LG 65QNED876QB 4K Mini LED HDR, we will dwell on the main features of the novelty in detail.
LG QNED 87 Review
Design
The LG 65QNED876QB TV is a bit thick compared to its OLED brethren, and quite heavy (30kg without stand). But the wide crescent-shaped stand keeps it upright well. Please note that it needs a fairly deep surface to install. TV design is unlikely to win an award for beauty.
But its style lies in its simplicity, the icy silver finish and thin bezels that allow the panel to grab all the attention. There is a large selection of ports on the back, all pointing sideways or downwards, which is important if you want to wall-mount the LG 65QNED876 TV with a VESA mount.
Image quality
The star of the QNED87 show is, of course, the panel. Like the LG QNED86 , it has 162 separate Mini-LED zones for a 65″ diagonal. This allows the TV to achieve impressive clarity, contrast and brightness in both SDR and HDR modes. The Alpha 7 Gen 5 AI processor does a great job driving these mini LEDs to a powerful effect.
The a7 processor of the LG 65QNED87 TV has Pro LG AI Picture and AI Sound options, as in the LG QNED81 . Thus, the processor automatically recognizes the content genre and ambient lighting conditions, and then optimizes the screen settings accordingly. It can also analyze the type of content, be it movies, sports, animation or standard, and automatically adjust the image and sound according to the result.
Although vastly superior to any other LCD backlight system, mini LED technology does not completely solve the blooming problem and is still very dependent on the number of dimming zones as well as how efficient the dimming algorithms are. The more dimming zones, the more precise the light control. But this greatly affects the final price of the TV.
The QNED87 has decent local dimming, but it’s not without flaws. And first of all, this is determined by a much smaller number of zones than in QNED91 , for example. And the zone processing algorithm seems a little slow, and as a result, bright objects on a dark background, although to a lesser extent, show the familiar bloom.
There may be many areas where OLED technology is ahead of current LED LCD TVs, but if there is one area where LCD TVs still excel is their brightness output. And with the inclusion of a much better mini LED backlight, we have high hopes for what the QNED876QB TV can deliver in this regard.
In SDR mode, the brightness exceeds 800 nits, which is excellent and more than enough for any SDR material. In HDR mode, we get over 1000 nits, which is also excellent, as it provides very bright highlights and an impressive HDR image. In terms of contrast, the QNED87 comes with an ADS panel.
It is very similar to an IPS panel and thus has all the same characteristics, including its own below-average contrast ratio, unlike VA panels . But that’s where the new Mini LED system comes into play, as with local dimming set to high, things get a lot better, and overall contrast is much better.
Viewing angles
The 65QNED876’s ADS panel means that overall viewing angles will be very good. LG mainly uses IPS panels instead of VA panels and this gives them an advantage in terms of the maximum viewing angles they can achieve. While they may not be as good as OLED, they are the best you can get from an LCD TV. If you’re planning on using it as a family TV, you shouldn’t have a problem with the various viewing positions.
HDR and color gamut
In terms of HDR support, don’t expect any surprises. The QNED87 comes with support for the base HDR10 required for 4K UHD playback. It also supports the more advanced Dolby Vision, which uses dynamic metadata to more accurately represent HDR, and HLG, which is used primarily for broadcast.
The obvious omission is HDR10+, and there is no hope that LG will enable it in the future, since this is the territory of Samsung. Also missing is Technicolor’s Advanced HDR, but that’s hardly an oversight as there hasn’t been any real support for it yet. Dolby Vision IQ uses an external light sensor on the TV cabinet and can automatically adjust dynamic tone mapping according to ambient light and content being displayed.
The color reproduction of the 65QNED87 Mini LED TV covers about 95% of the DCI-P3 color space, which is very good. In the wider REC.2020 color space, we have 74% coverage, which is also excellent. These numbers show that the QNED87 is actually on par with some of LG’s OLED TVs. In terms of color gradients, everything looks pretty good, only with small, and not very noticeable, stripes towards darker shades.
Motion and Game Processing
The QNED87 TV uses a 100/120Hz refresh rate panel. In terms of displaying moving objects, the QNED87 performs very well across the board. The TV has the usual interpolation features that can smooth motion and eliminate blur and judder due to fast camera movements.
Obviously, using very aggressive settings will result in the familiar soap opera effect, so you’ll have to adjust the settings accordingly. Motion interpolation can be enabled in the menu using the TruMotion setting. There’s also the now-standard black frame insertion (BFI) feature, which creates much smoother motion.
The most obvious disadvantage of using it is the lower brightness of the display. The QNED87 series supports all VRR technologies including HDMI Forum VRR, AMD FreeSync and NVIDIA G-Sync, making it a great choice for gamers. All this can be enabled in the new Game Optimizer menu created by LG and available in almost all models.
The average output latency is slightly over 13.4ms at both 1080p and 4K resolutions, which is very good. Outside of gaming mode, the measured value is 128ms and may be sufficient for normal gaming. Finally, for high frame rate content at 4K@120 resolution, the input lag is 5.6ms.
The TV supports Automatic Low Latency Mode (ALLM), which can be used with any device that supports it, such as PS5 and Xbox consoles, and can bring great benefits to users. There’s also an HGiG mode that ensures you enjoy HDR games the way their creators and developers intended.
Smart TV
The webOS 22 interface used is an iteration of webOS 6.0. The user interface takes up the whole screen and provides much more visual information than any of the previous versions. Smart TV platforms are now taking a more personal approach, and so the new webOS is trying to provide options tailored to your habits.
Pressing the home button brings up the main webOS page, where you still get one row of your apps at the bottom, which you can rearrange as you see fit. At the top are three large tiles for sponsored content, weather and time, and search. Below is one row of recommendations based on what LG’s algorithm thinks you’d like to watch.
You will find all the applications you may need, as well as others available for download in the online store. All the big brands are present: Netflix, Youtube, Amazon Prime, Google Play Movies, Disney+ and Apple TV+, just to name a few. Other apps available include Apple Airplay 2 and Apple Homekit.
Sound quality
The QNED87 comes with a fairly standard 2.2 channel audio system with a total output of 40W. Part of the capabilities of the a7 Gen 5 4K processor is the inclusion of AI audio, and this allows you to optimize the sound by genre by analyzing sources depending on the type of content. The AI algorithm can also downmix two-channel audio to convincingly simulate 5.1 surround sound, upscaling the quality for a better listening experience.
The QNED876 series TV can also support Dolby Atmos either through some kind of streaming service or through an HDMI eARC connection. With the existing audio system, don’t expect an Atmos experience, but it’s nice to see it supported nonetheless. In addition, there is support for WiSA.
Connections
The switching capabilities of the TV are extensive. These are 4 HDMI ports, two of them are version 2.1, one is with eARC support. This and two USB connectors. Further, there is a digital optical audio output, a LAN port for connecting to the Internet, a CI card slot for pay channels and two antenna jacks. Wireless communication is provided by built-in Wi-Fi and Bluetooth adapters.
Conclusion
LG has made an LCD TV that is in many ways just as good as its OLED TVs, maybe even a little better. No more worrying about OLED burn-in. Whether you’re watching Dolby Vision movies on Disney+ or playing Halo Infinite at 120fps, the QNED87 delivers beautiful images. So the LG QNED87 is one of the inexpensive Mini LED TVs you can buy right now.
