LG has once again this year positioned OLED in the premium segment of the market. The new line-up consists of 5 ranges from B to W – the W7 being the eye-catching “wallpaper model”. In this review we are examining the new E series, which is called E7 (7 for 2017). Last year, we gave E6 our prestigious Reference Award so E7 has something to live up to. It has an upgraded speaker bar with Dolby Atmos, a brighter panel, and webOS 3.5.
But LG is far from alone in 2017. The Korean company will have to compete head-to-head with OLED TVs from Sony, Panasonic, Philips, and Loewe. Sony’s A1 OLED recently received our Reference Award so we are very eager to find out how E7 stacks up. E7 exists in 55” and 65” models – we are testing the 65”.
Price and retailers:
Specifications
65" OLED panel Ultra HD (3840x2160)
HDR (HDR10, Dolby Vision, HLG)
DCI-P3 color space
UHD Premium certifiedStand (fixed)
Wall (VESA 400x200)(HxWxD) 87.7 x 146,1 x 6.2 cm (without base) 21.2 kg HDMI (4x 2.0b )
USB (3x)
Ethernet
1x CIOptical
HDMI ARC (1x)
Headphone jack2.2 Dolby Atmos DVB T/T2/C/S2
WiFi (ac standard)MPEG4
HEVC
VP9 Profile2webOS 3.5 Premium remote (with microphone) Manual
Remote controlSubscribe to our Newsletter, Facebook, twitter or RSS to receive notice when new reviews are published
First impressions
During transport, an unfortunate mix-up meant that we received last year’s E6 instead of the new E7. LG is excused because once we received E7 we were hard pressed to spot any visual differences. The OLED TV is designed as full sheet of glass, which is of course also one of the most obvious visual differences compared to the more affordable B and C ranges. It also means that E7 is incredibly thin.
Last year, we complained about how cumbersome it was to attach the base to E6 but this year LG is using the packaging in a very clever manner to support the TV – a method that was also adopted for E6 later in 2016, we are told.
As you may know, LG supplies OLED panels to every single OLED TV on the marked today so there are many similarities between LG E7 and for example Sony A1. The TV has a very thin black bezel but whereas Sony has moved internal electronics and ports to a separate part of the TV, LG has decided to fit an electronics box on the lower half of the back. In this box you will find all ports and VESA holes. If you want a super-thin OLED panel and nothing else you will have to reach deeper into your pocket and buy the W7 “wallpaper”.
LG has this year chosen to slightly tweak the stand. As you can see from the photos it lifts the TV, which means that the bottom speaker no longer runs flush with the surface. Whether this is motivated by buyers having trouble placing the relatively large TV on a flush surface is not clear, but it seems like a practical decision to lift the TV somewhat, although it does affect the clean look.
After complaining last year that E6 had several rear-facing ports, LG has answered by moving even more ports to the back. You now also have 1 HDMI port and several USB ports facing backwards, so to wall-mount the TV you need flexible cables. This is just not acceptable on a high-end TV in 2017. Of course, there is always a reason, and this reason is that LG has moved the CI-port away from the top module to the side, which means that it takes away space that was previously reserved for USB and HDMI. On the other hand, LG has abolished the analog combo-port – something that we will certainly not miss.
In our Sony A1 review we commented that reflections in the screen surface had changed compared to the 2016 panel, and the same is true for E7. Gone is the magenta tinge. In general, LG’s OLED panels have the lowest reflectance of any TV panel so that obviously applies across the range and across brands that use LG’s OLED panels.
In the box we found only 1 remote control, namely the latest “Magic Remote”. The small extra remote is no longer comes bundled.
User experience & features
This is the fourth year of webOS on TV but the 2017 update is a relatively minor one so LG has decided to called it version 3.5. The 2016 TVs carried version 3.0. As you may know, LG does not issue software updates for webOS so last year’s TVs are stuck on version 3.0.
Operating system & smart TV
webOS is largely unchanged but there are also a few fresh touches in version 3.5
If you are unfamiliar with webOS, the user interface is based on small animated “cards” at the bottom of the screen. From here you can open apps, switch input, and access other features. There is also shortcut to “my channels” that allows you to create a list of your favorite TV channels. A not-so-cool new feature is the ad in the left side of the menu. During our review it showed an ad for Netflix.
The overall look of the user interface is identical to last year’s models. To control the TV menus you are asked to use LG’s “magic remote” that you wave around in the air to make a cursor respond on-screen. However, you can also use the arrow keys on the remote. You can arrange the icons in the bottom menu as you please to make sure that the apps you most frequently use are positioned leftmost. Furthermore, a shortcut to “My content” allows you save what can best be described as scenarios but at the moment it is limited to YouTube searches, and as such it is not very useful.
The photo app now supports 360-degree video and you can use the motion-enabled remote to control the perspective.
LG has added a new shortcut in the info-menu called “Magic Link” that performs a search based on the content you are currently watching and presents the results in a pop-up menu at the bottom of the screen. I found the shortcut location a little odd and it could perhaps have been more locally integrated elsewhere.
It is also possible to stream content from your phone to the TV - or more to be accurate; it is now possible to let the TV browse media content stored on your phone if both devices are connected to the same WiFi. A shortcut to connect to the phone is shown on the TV from where you can connect and gain access.
When playing HDR content menus continue to slow down from time to time. We first observed this last year. Animations stutter and the menus are unnecessarily slow, especially when trying to calibrate in HDR. Outside of HDR, the menus are fast and easy to navigate. Most features and basic settings are very easy to access. A new feature makes it possible to map apps to the number keys on the remote, meaning that if you hold down button “1” the TV can open for example Netflix. You decide which apps go where.
A couple of times, we experienced that the built-in media player crashed when feeding it very high-quality video clips such as our 100fps 4K video clip and HDR video in HLG format. The media player appears to simply run out of memory, which results in a force quit.
On the apps front, webOS offers access to some of the most popular international services, including Netflix, Amazon, Google Play, and YouTube.
Apps generally load quickly and once an app has been loaded into memory you can quickly jump between them without the app having to start up again. Easy and pain-free. However, one “app” that can be frustrating to use is the EPG, which is actually an app just like Netflix. This means that every time you turn on the TV the EPG app has to initiate - and every time it takes a few seconds for it to load. Overall, there are no improvements to app loading times compared to last year’s E6.
A couple of times we also experienced that a 4K signal from PS4 Pro made the TV to show a blank screen. Users of last year’s E6 continue to complain about this error. On E7 a temporary fix is to change between to a different input source and back again.
One missing feature in webOS is video casting from a mobile device (think Chromecast or Airplay). We would have loved to have this option mostly because the app catalog in webOS is fairly basic. Android TVs always come with built-in Chromecast but of course you can just purchase a Chromecast separately and connect to your LG TV.
All in all, webOS is mostly unchanged compared to last year. The operating system works and is a far more stable platform than for example Android.Remote control and operation
In 2017, LG has abandoned the small – and very cheap – extra remote control. The company has gone all-in on the “Magic Remote”. The 2017 version looks like last year’s remote, still has a good weight to it, and has a pleasant ergonomic form. There are a few changes, mostly visible in the form of the Amazon and Netflix buttons below the navigation wheel. Everyone can agree that Amazon and Netflix have become powerhouses in streaming but to allow such companies to have dedicated buttons on a remote is a slippery slope. Shortcuts are fine but let them be general purpose shortcuts. LG has even added the option to map apps to number buttons so please; get rid of the brand-specific buttons!
The click wheel on the remote control is a tad too hard to press, and maybe I am getting old and bitter but I found myself becoming more and more annoyed with the motion cursor on-screen as it constantly pops up when trying to simply use the arrow keys on the remote. I increasingly wanted to just use the arrow keys on the remote to navigate the interface. One way to go forward could be to adopt the implementation that Samsung briefly introduced where the cursor only appears when a finger rests on the OK button.
I had also hoped for some more metal instead of the usual grey plastic on the remote but again; one has to cough up for the W7 wallpaper model to get LG’s premium remote control.
TV channels, recording & sound
The TV channel interface is unchanged but as part of webOS 3.5 a new zoom feature that allows you to pause live broadcasts and zoom in has been added. I cannot imagine one situation where it would be useful to blow subpar pictures to an even bigger format but nevertheless it is now possible. Maybe it will start to make sense once channels switch to 4K resolution.
The European version of LG E7 finally has a twin tuner, like any TV in this price class should. It allows you to record one channel while watching another. However, be aware that there is only 1 CI port for encrypted channels, meaning that you cannot use two encrypted channels at the same time. The twin tuner also adds picture-by-picture (PbP) functionality.
The EPG is, as mentioned, slow to load and the mini preview window has its own life. It does not exactly help that scrolling requires that you use the scroll wheel on the remote (which has a double-function as a channel switcher). They may sound like details but combined they make it cumbersome to use the EPG. I found that the best approach is to simply use the menu overview that you can call up in the right side of the TV when watching channels. This menu can be navigated with the arrow buttons on the remote.
E7 has gained a Dolby Atmos compatible speaker bar that delivers respectable sound but not as good sound as Sony A1. Whenever a Dolby Atmos soundtrack is available there is a noticeable improvement. The UHD Blu-ray release of ‘Darkland’ sounded distinctly different but it is hard to pinpoint the specific factors because the Atmos and conventional audio tracks were graded to different volume levels. The speakers in E7 are better than the majority of TVs today but still not good enough to stand alone. A wireless subwoofer would have been a good supplement but LG does not offer one.
In the sound settings menu there is a ”Magic Sound” calibration function that uses the microphone in the remote as a calibration tool to try and optimize sound for your environment.
While the idea is good it did not work very well, mostly because the speaker system in E7 is not flexible enough to allow for correction. In our tests, the effect of the correction was minimal.
Calibration
E7 offers the usual suite of settings and picture modes. The default picture mode is ’Eco’, which is far too cold, bluish and pumped full of every poor ”enhancement” the world has to offer. We quickly switched to ISF Expert Dark and used it as a starting point for our calibration. ISF Expert Bright is also offered.
ISF Expert Dark is, as we have observed before, slightly too warm in its default Warm2 color temperature so it required a little tweaking before we could cross the goal line. The reddish push primarily affected the bright tones so with E7 (and Sony A1 by the way) we only had to adjust the upper bound of the 2-point settings to reach dE below 1 across the scale. After only moderate adjustment, colors appeared more accurate and skin tones looked right.
One thing to keep in mind is that our sample is fresh from the production line and OLED panels change most over the span of the first active hours, so our settings may not apply to another sample and as such should not be copied without consideration. We have found that there are noteworthy differences from one OLED panel to another so view our calibration remarks as general notes.
Like Sony A1, E7 can sustain full-screen brightness (100% white) of around 140 nits. If you want to completely bypass the ABL circuit you should aim to calibrate below that threshold. I decided to go a little higher meaning that my settings below deliver close to 200 nits on a 20% APL pattern, which is better for these bright summer days.
We measured DCI-P3 coverage to 96% and Rec.2020 coverage to 68%, which is identical to Sony A1.
Measurements | Out-of-box | Calibrated |
---|---|---|
Black level | 0 cd/m2 | 0 cd/m2 |
Black level (HDR) | 0 cd/m2 | 0 cd/m2 |
Brightness | 250 cd/m2 | 200 cd/m2 |
Peak brightness (HDR) | 710 cd/m2 | 710 cd/m2 |
Contrast | Infinite | Infinite |
Contrast (HDR) | Infinite | Infinite |
Input lag | 88 ms | 21 ms (Game Mode) |
DCI-P3 | 96% | - |
Rec.2020 | 69% | - |
Power consumption | Out-of-box | Calibrated |
---|---|---|
SDR | 200 W | 145 W |
HDR | 220 W | 220 W |
Standby | 0.3 W |
Time measurements | Seconds |
---|---|
Start up (until responsive) | 10 s |
Start up (until picture comes on) | 10 s |
Netflix app start up | 8 s |
Youtube app start up | 3 s |
Amazon app start up | 10 s |
Google Play app start up | 8 s |
Video file / source | Specs | Status |
---|---|---|
Amazon 4K HDR | 4K (3840x2160 pixels) – 10 bit colors - Rec.2020 color space – 4:2:0 subsampling – HEVC | Works |
Netflix 4K HDR | 4K (3840x2160 pixels) – 10 bit colors - Rec.2020 color space – 4:2:0 subsampling – HEVC – HDR10 & Dolby Vision | Works |
YouTube 4K HDR | 4K (3840x2160 pixels) – 10 bit colors - Rec.2020 color space – 4:2:0 subsampling – VP9 Profile2 | 4K works HDR works |
Dubai 4K | 4K (3840x2160 pixels) – 23.976fps – 10 bit colors - BT.709 color space – 4:2:0 subsampling – 51.4 Mbps bitrate – HEVC - .ts file | Works |
Costa Rica 4K | 4K (3840x2160 pixels) – BT.709 color space – 4:2:0 subsampling – 12.71 Mbps bitrate – VP9 - .mkv file | Works |
Terrifying Pyroclast 4K | 4K (3840x2160 pixels) – BT.709 color space – 4:2:0 subsampling – variable bitrate – VP9 - .mkv file | Works |
Big Buck Bunny HD (.ts version) | HD (1920x1080 pixels) – 8 bit colors - YUV color space – 4:2:0 subsampling – 2.5 Mbps bitrate – 60fps - HEVC - .ts file | Fails |
Big Buck Bunny HD | HD (1920x1080 pixels) – 8 bit colors - YUV color space – 4:2:0 subsampling – 60fps - 2.2 Mbps bitrate – HEVC - .mkv file | Works |
LG Arctique 4K | 4K (3840x2160 pixels) – 8 bit colors – YUV color space – 4:2:0 subsampling – 50.0 Mbps bitrate – 29.970fps - AVC - .mp4 file | Works |
Eutelsat 4K demo | 4K (3840x2160 pixels) – 10 bit colors – YUV color space – 4:2:0 subsampling – 23.1 Mbps bitrate – 50fps - HEVC - .ts file | Works |
TravelXP HLG | 4K (3840x2160 pixels) – 50fps frame rate – 10 bit colors – BT.2020 color space – 4:2:0 subsampling – 20.7 Mbps bitrate – HEVC – HLG – .ts file | Fails |
Ghost Towns 8K | 8K (7680x4320 pixels) – variable frame rate – 8 bit colors - YUV color space – 4:2:0 subsampling – 20.7 Mbps bitrate – AVC - .mp4 file | Fails |
Group | Setting | Value |
---|---|---|
Picture profile | ISF Expert Dark | |
Global | OLED Light | 60 |
Contrast | 85 | |
Brightness | 50 | |
H Sharpness | 10 | |
V Sharpness | 10 | |
Color | 50 | |
Color tone | 0 | |
Expert | Dynamic contrast | Off |
Super resolution | Off | |
Color gamut | Auto | |
Edge enhancement | Off | |
Gamma | 2.2 | |
White balance | Color temp | Warm2 |
Method | 2 point | |
R High | -15 | |
G High | 8 | |
B High | -3 | |
R Low | 0 | |
G Low | 0 | |
B Low | 0 | |
Picture settings | Noise reduction | Off |
MPEG noise reduction | Off | |
Black level | Low | |
TruMotion | Off |
Price and retailers:
Click for a more detailed explanation of the score system and our Awards.
Colors after calibration
Perfect black
Wide viewing angles
HDR picture quality
webOS is simple & functional
Decent remote control
Still some issues on darkest tones
Motion resolution could be improved
Minor gradient banding
More rear-facing inputs than last year