This is an impossibly cool TV, and the image quality is awesome
HLG (Hybrid Log-Gamma) support. We even get Advanced HDR from Technicolor, although we’re not quite sure what to do with it.
Test footage from Planet Earth 2, employing HLG HDR, had us basically salivating with its depth and clarity. If this is the future of 4K broadcasting, bring it on.
Picture performance
Dolby Vision looks great, though not markedly different to HDR10. Intriguingly, LG says its 2016 4K OLEDs actually used “a hack of a Standard Dynamic Range chipset” and that its 2017 models are the first to use a genuine HDR solution.
Given that most of the stuff you’ll be watching will still be regular SDR, there’s also an HDR Effect mode which provides a 25 per cent peak luminance boost in darker images, and 30-40 per cent more in brighter scenes. It works rather well.
More contentiously, LG has also developed Active HDR, which it suggests optimises static (HDR10) and zero (HLG) HDR services. We’re not quite so sold on that one.
Image presets run the gamut of Cinema, Sports, Games, ISF Expert bright room, ISF Expert Dark room, Vivid and Standard, with the latter being the most reliable go-to option. These are also HDR variations: Standard, Cinema Home, Cinema, Games and Vivid.
The Cinema Home mode aims to maintain HDR integrity but tempts with a higher average picture level than the standard Cinema setting. It consistently looks better with Mad
Max Fury Road (UHD Blu-ray). Colour richness is enhanced, and highlights are more consistent between shots.
Running a 4K test disc, the W7 offers an uncompromised high frequency performance, with supreme levels of detail. LG’s boffins have developed a Bit Depth Enhancement algorithm to refine low grey levels, and created a de-contour algorithm to reduce noise. We could still see some fizz in the image, distinct from film grain, but it was never irksome.
Off axis viewing is consistently impressive. There’s no loss of contrast or colour, even at extreme angles. Usability niceties include an Eye Comfort Mode, which changes the colour temperature from a blue to warm white, in order to reduce eye strain, and a Pixel Refresher with
Screen Shift that aims to combat screen retention.
LG’s TruMotion image interpolation modes have always been something of a curate’s egg. Given that the W7’s 100Hz panel is natively fast, you might well wonder why you need them at all. Certainly, when switched off the panel still provides excellent motion clarity from a filmic point of view.
We found both the Clear and Smooth settings introduce overt motion artefacts. When Tom Hardy makes his leap of faith during that first chase sequence in Fury Road, his body is swaddled in a noisy smudge. The TruMotion User setting offers relief. Set De-judder at 0 and De-blur at 7 to remove artefacts but retain motion detail.
When Dolby Atmos isn’t
While the W7’s image quality is astounding, we can’t help but feel the W7’s Dolby Atmos-branded soundbar/tuner is something of a misnomer. Those distinctive cylindrical speakers which rise from the top of the unit are not up-firing height speakers. They’re simply there to elevate the main soundstage a smidge to better integrate the noise it makes.
Pointedly, the W7 soundbar doesn’t even recognize an Atmos bitstream when it comes from a Blu-ray player. That’s because it’s designed to decode Dolby Atmos from a Dolby Digital Plus container. In the US, this means it works with the Vudu streaming service. In the UK, BT delivers Atmos sound to accompany its 4K footie coverage the same way.
But with a Blu-ray source, be it Dolby Atmos or DTS, you just get wide stereo. LG says it’s optimistic a firmware fix can resolve this problem. When it does recognize Dolby Atmos, the soundstage opens up. However there’s no sense of 3D audio immersion.
And no firmware fix will resolve the soundbar’s lack of bass. It goes loud but lacks slam, and with no subout option, you can’t rope in an optional subwoofer. The end result isn’t remotely the same as Dolby Atmos on a full-fat home theatre system, or even LG’s own SJ9 Dolby Atmos soundbar, which boasts proper built-in upfirers and a wireless subwoofer.
That said, the W7 soundbar does represent a significant improvement over everyday TV sound systems. It’s just not what you might expect.
Slim pick
The W7 might rightly be considered the eighth wonder of the (TV) world. This deconstructed flatscreen clearly sets OLED apart from rivals. Of course the slim design is as much a challenge as a triumph. The panel can’t sensibly be divorced from its soundbar, and while this outperforms vanilla TV sound systems, it remains a limiting factor.
Not that this matters a jot. The W7 will doubtless find an eager audience with oligarchs, sports stars and the design-conscious.
The good news for the rest of us, given that all of this year’s LG OLEDs share the same panel technology, is that lower down the ranks there’s probably an LG OLED TV coming that we’ll all want to own. It just might not be paper-thin.