LG QNED80A6A (IPS) vs Philips OLED950

When it comes to image dynamics and brightness, the QNED80A keeps its feet firmly on the ground. It’s not a "light beast" – during our measurements, peak luminance hovered around 350-400 nits. To put it bluntly: these are values that won't fully unleash the potential of HDR formats. So don’t expect the glare of the sun or car headlights in films to blind you. However, this television has a powerful ace up its sleeve that saves the overall image quality – it's the colours. LG engineers have employed an advanced filtration system (technically based on phosphor PFS, marketed as QNED/NanoCell), which does a fantastic job. Thanks to this, despite average brightness, the screen can generate exceptionally saturated and pure colours. Our instruments showed coverage of the wide cinematic DCI-P3 colour gamut at around 93-94%. This is a result that outclasses most standard LCD televisions. In practice, this means that when watching 4K HDR content, the image – although not very bright – is very vivid, lively, and delights the eye with its depth of colours.

OLED950 is a phenomenal TV for consuming content in HDR format, primarily thanks to the use of innovative Tandem OLED technology. With this technology, the screen can generate astronomical brightness levels, reaching over 2000 nits in movie scenes (on test patterns). This is an outstanding result that places the OLED950 model among the elite displays available on the market. However, it is worth noting a specific aspect of this solution – at moments when full-screen flashes of light appear, brightness can drop by as much as half. Nonetheless, it is important to highlight that levels above 1000 nits on a full screen are still an outstanding result. This allows HDR content to be displayed exactly as filmmakers intended, maintaining the dynamics and impact of bright scenes.

The use of Tandem OLED technology also brought tangible benefits in terms of colour reproduction, improving elements that traditional WOLED panels had issues with compared to QD-OLED competition. In the case of the OLED950, the colour gamut coverage is wider than in classic WOLED panels, reaching nearly 100% of the DCI-P3 colour space and a solid 82% of the demanding BT.2020 palette. While these results still do not match the highly refined achievements of QD-OLED panels, the difference becomes less noticeable during real-world use. We cannot deny that in the vast majority of films, colours look simply fantastic on this model – they are saturated, vibrant, and full of depth.

Here, regardless of whether you come across the VA or IPS version, the situation looks identical. LG engineers have once again served us their vision of a "gaming look," which unfortunately has little to do with accuracy. When switching to a console, the white balance automatically shifts to very cold regions. The image is dominated by blue, making it seem artificially sharpened, and the white is so aggressive that it almost burns out. This creates an effect we associate with garish retail modes – everything is meant to shine and scream "I’m digital." While some may like this, we must say it bluntly: it is not an accurate image. If you care about naturalness, we suggest you immediately check the settings and change the colour temperature to a warmer one.

We tested the OLED950 model in Film mode. Although it is intended to be the best and most accurate preset on this television, in practice, it proved to be not without flaws. Interestingly, in the specimen we tested, the biggest challenge was not the white balance itself – although it did show a slight tendency to give the image a pinkish tint. The main issue lay in the way the television managed brightness, both in everyday SDR content and in demanding HDR scenes. Analysis of the gamma chart and the EOTF curve leads to one key conclusion: the television excessively exposes brightness in the lower registers. This results in the image appearing less contrasty than what the panel technology allows. Details in dark areas, which should remain perfectly dimmed (the characteristic "OLED black"), are simply unnecessarily highlighted and brightened. Fortunately, these errors can be corrected using the appropriate tools, so – as always – we proceeded with professional calibration.

After professional calibration, the QNED80A in the IPS version has changed beyond recognition, especially with "ordinary" content (SDR). We managed to eliminate the greenish tint and calm down the overly bright gamma. In classic television or older games, colour errors (DeltaE) have fallen below the threshold of perception (value < 2). The image is now coherent, natural, and truly pleasing to the eye. The situation is somewhat more complicated in HDR mode. Although the colours are now in place, the TV struggles with perfect brightness control (EOTF curve). Due to the limitations of edge lighting and the rather poor adjustment options provided by LG in this area, the TV's software at times "does what it wants" just to mask the imperfections of black and contrast. However, this is not a cause for concern – despite these technical limitations, the image after calibration is a class above what you saw out of the box.

As you can see, the OLED950, after a professional calibration process, becomes an absolutely phenomenal display that, without a shadow of a doubt, can be placed alongside the best televisions currently available in the world. This equipment needed only a professional touch to showcase its full potential and eliminate factory shortcomings. The residual errors in the Color Checker tests and the fidelity of the colour palette speak for themselves. We are dealing with an almost perfect device here. A true window to the world, offering image quality of the highest order.

It often happens that cheap 4K TVs mercilessly expose the flaws of low-resolution materials. Here, it's different. The QNED80A is great equipment for watching content that isn’t perfect. The processor does a great job of scaling the image, making even older recordings look quite decent on the 4K screen – they are consistent and free of digital noise. Interestingly, there’s a gradation reduction feature available in the settings. It’s particularly effective in combating what is known as banding in low-bitrate materials. Of course, you need to approach it with some caution. Due to the lower processing power of the chip (in comparison to the premium series), turning on this option can sometimes result in unwanted artifacts or blurring. Despite this risk, we encourage experimentation, as in many cases this feature can save a viewing of low quality.

Upscaling

In terms of the scaling of the image, the proprietary P5 processor performs just as well as in most of the manufacturer's models. Lower resolution content gains a very soft and plastic character. This presentation will certainly appeal to many people. However, if you prefer sharper contours, you can gently enhance them using the appropriate slider in the TV menu. In this aspect, it's really hard to nitpick. The image simply looks very good and additionally, there are no issues with overscan.

Smoothing and Distortion Reduction

The smoothing of tonal transitions performs somewhat worse. In the settings, we find an option called "Distortion Reduction." This allows for a three-level adjustment of the processor's intervention. Unfortunately, the Minimum setting works poorly and the smoothing effects are minimal. The Medium level gives a decent result, but it also begins to smooth out the details of the actors' skin. On the other hand, the Maximum setting works too aggressively. It removes far too many details from the face and background elements or can even eliminate film grain. To achieve the optimal effect, it's worth playing around with these settings at home and adjusting them to your liking. It might seem that the Medium option represents the best compromise here.

When it comes to motion reproduction, the QNED80 unfortunately has a bit of a disadvantage. The TV is built on a 60Hz refresh rate panel, which is quite disappointing for the QNED series in 2025. If you're looking for perfect sharpness in dynamic football matches, you might feel a bit let down. The solution in this situation is the TruMotion system. It allows for artificially adding frames, which smooths out the picture in movies and TV shows. In the menu, you'll find a De-Judder slider – we recommend setting it to a value of 2, 3, or 4. This is the "golden mean" that improves fluidity without turning the film into a soap opera.

The motion reproduction on the OLED950 model is simply perfect. This is typical for screens of this kind (OLED 120Hz+), as the panel shows no motion blur at all. This allows us to enjoy perfect sharpness in practically any conditions. A significant part of this is due not only to the nature of organic technology itself. Equally important work is done here by the smoothing systems employed by the manufacturer.

In the gaming section, we won't be pulling the wool over your eyes – the QNED80A is not e-sports equipment. The lack of 120Hz signal support is a fact to accept. However, LG's engineers have done everything to squeeze the maximum potential out of this 60Hz panel, providing gamers with a desirable set of features. Above all, the TV supports VRR (in the range of 48-60Hz) and ALLM. This means the image is smooth and doesn't stutter, and the TV automatically switches to low latency mode as soon as you grab the controller. Accessing these options is ridiculously easy thanks to the dedicated system overlay – Game Dashboard. It's also worth appreciating the support for the HGiG format. This is a nod to owners of modern consoles. Even though the screen doesn't support gaming Dolby Vision, HGiG ensures that the TV "understands" how to display games in HDR. This helps avoid the effect of blown-out clouds, which is unfortunately a plague on cheaper LCD TVs.

OLED950 is almost the perfect television for gamers. This is due not only to the unique atmosphere created by the Ambilight system during gameplay. The most important aspect here is the solid hardware support. We literally have everything you would expect from a modern gaming display. The manufacturer has implemented two HDMI 2.1 ports with full bandwidth of 48 Gb/s. This gives us access to gaming in 4K resolution at 120 frames per second. There is, of course, support for VRR technology and the automatic game mode ALLM. The device handles any HDR signal with ease, whether we’re using Dolby Vision or the HGiG standard.

We have access to all settings from one place thanks to the special Game Bar overlay. While this interface may not be the most graphically attractive on the market, it fully accomplishes its task. It displays all the important signal parameters and offers useful additions. Gamers can take advantage of the minimap zoom function or add a fixed crosshair on the screen, which can be seen as a small aid in online competition. The adjustment of contrast range also proves to be useful. It allows you to brighten shadows and achieve better visibility of enemies hiding in dark corners of the map.