LG UA75006LA (IPS) vs Philips PUS7000

It looks even more modest in the version with an IPS panel, where the peak brightness only reaches 250 nits. In practice, this means that a real sense of HDR effect is out of the question, and the materials being viewed resemble regular SDR. Similar to VA panels, the image behaves stably across most test patterns, but in demanding scenes with fine details, the television tends to slightly dim the picture. As a result, blacks appear a bit better, but at the cost of losing detail in bright elements. The absence of additional colour filters is also noticeable here. The UA7500 in the IPS version is neither a QLED nor a PFS LED panel, and the DCI-P3 colour gamut stops at 80%, which means that HDR films lack significant colour depth and appear quite flat.

Unfortunately, the PUS7000 is not suitable for watching HDR content. This screen is simply too dark. A brightness level of 200 nits is insufficient to display this format correctly. Even if a HDR signal message appears on the screen, the image will resemble a standard SDR recording. Therefore, it’s better to stick with the latter format to avoid errors in displaying bright scenes, as you will read below. The situation is worsened by the fact that this is a classic LCD model without additional layers that improve colours, such as QLED or PFS. As a result, colours in HDR may seem washed out. Ultimately, this provides a worse effect than in the standard SDR format, which is simply better suited to the capabilities of this panel.

The Filmmaker mode on the LG UA7500 performs better than you might expect from such a budget television, but let’s not get carried away with admiration. The picture is put together quite sensibly and at first glance is not irritating; however, its weaknesses quickly become apparent. This is most noticeable in scenes with bright points – lamps in the background or reflections of light on skin are clearly oversaturated. The faces of characters often appear unnatural, as if they have been "blown out." Additionally, the default gamma setting brightens even the slightest details and causes the picture to lose subtlety in the darker areas. That said, for its price range, the UA7500 in factory mode provides a pretty decent starting point. However, it is clear that without additional adjustment, these issues won't be avoided, which is why – as with other televisions – we decided to see what could be achieved after calibration.

We tested the television in movie mode, which theoretically should provide the best and most natural colours. And indeed, this mode is quite correct; however, when we connected the calibration equipment, its biggest flaw became apparent. The PUS7000 has significant shortcomings in displaying reds. Poorly tuned white balance and too low saturation of this colour cause the image to appear too cool. As a result, one might get the impression that the displayed content lacks vibrant colours. The situation is worsened by the fact that both SDR and HDR content are excessively brightened. This is confirmed by the gamma curve and EOTF graphs, which show that the television displays the image brighter than it should. This causes scenes to lose their depth and can make them seem slightly washed out. Fortunately, in the Philips menu, we find plenty of features to improve these aspects, so we immediately proceeded to calibration to see what we could extract from this screen.

The biggest improvement we noticed was when calibrating the mode intended for everyday SDR content. We managed to smoothly adjust the white balance in an acceptable manner and tame the issue of excessive brightening of small elements due to the gamma characteristics. As a result, the image gained consistency and a naturalness that was lacking in the factory settings. After such a correction, we can confidently say that for everyday television content, programmes, or materials from YouTube, the LG UA7500 performs really well – especially after professional calibration. The situation is somewhat different for HDR content. Here, calibration did manage to tame the white balance and slightly improve brightness management, however, the design limitations are immediately apparent. The lack of additional filters that expand the colour palette means that the most vibrant colours appear flat, and the image lacks the intensity one would expect from good HDR. In SDR, the UA7500 performs quite well, but in HDR – despite the corrections – it remains far behind, and this is a characteristic that one must accept when choosing this television.

After professional calibration, it’s evident that the PUS7000 responds well to image adjustments. In this price range, that’s not a given. The effects are best evaluated in two scenarios, depending on the content we plan to watch. SDR performs the best. After our adjustments, the image looks really good. Most colour errors have dropped below level 3, which is the threshold at which discrepancies usually become visible to the naked eye. Movies, series, sports, and regular television present naturally, without unpleasant deviations. If someone mainly watches classic channels or streams in HD quality, the difference after calibration will be noticeable straight away. However, it must be said clearly that the PUS7000 is still not a television suited for proper HDR, and calibration doesn't change much in this regard. The reason lies in the hardware: colours remain too unsaturated. The television lacks solutions that widen the colour gamut, such as PFS filters or a quantum dot layer, so the panel simply cannot display the intense colours required by HDR. This is most evident in reds, which still look washed out. This limitation cannot be circumvented through menu settings, as it stems from the design of the backlighting and the panel itself.

The version with the IPS panel performed noticeably worse here. Image scaling was uneven – this was especially evident in lower quality materials, where edges became jagged and the image looked less detailed. At times, there was also a sense of slight blurriness, which took away sharpness and made the overall picture seem less refined than in the VA version. The tonal smoothing function turned out to be a rescue. On medium settings, it worked quite well – it did not ruin the image with excessive softening, while also smoothing out colours in such a way that everyday content gained consistency. The difference was particularly noticeable with TV programs or streaming materials of poorer compression quality, where the television with the function enabled presented itself much better. This is one of those additions that are worth keeping active, as they significantly improve the reception of everyday materials.

The PUS7000 handles digital image processing quite well. The distortion reduction feature deserves praise, as it effectively smooths unwanted tonal transitions even at a low setting. However, it has its downside: with too aggressive operation, it can introduce undesirable artifacts on the screen. It would be a good idea to experiment with this setting to find the golden mean between a smooth image and the clarity of details.

The upscaling, or enhancing the quality of lower materials to 4K, is decent. The image after processing is very "soft," which is typical of almost all Philips TVs. The edges are plastic and smooth, making the image look cohesive. If someone finds it too soft, it can always be adjusted with the sharpness slider in the menu for a more pronounced effect.

LG UA7500 is a television with a 60 Hz panel, so it's hard to expect any excitement in this category. It's more of a screen intended for daily content or an evening movie session rather than for following fast-paced sports events or playing action games. It’s clear that the manufacturer designed this model specifically for that audience – and it performs well in that regard. We have the TruMotion function available, which is a motion smoother. It’s simple, has only one slider, but can make a noticeable difference. At the lower range, the image looks more raw and cinematic, while at higher values, the motion becomes smoother and more pleasurable to the eye.

In this regard, we actually have no good news. It might seem that the biggest downside is the lack of a 120 Hz panel, but in this price range, that's actually the norm, and it's hard to expect more. However, the worst part is that the television has no motion smoothing features. There are no supporting systems in place for either movies or sports. We have to come to terms with the fact that the image on the PUS7000 is processed "raw." This means that during dynamic scenes or fast camera movements, motion can appear choppy or unclear. We have no option to enable any smoothers that could alleviate this effect.

LG UA7500 is a TV that can be confidently recommended to "casual" gamers. While it doesn’t feature a 120 Hz panel or HDMI 2.1 ports, making full use of the potential of modern consoles isn’t something we can expect. However, the manufacturer has included several additions that can enhance the gaming experience. Notably, there's the Game Bar – a very nicely designed panel that allows quick access to and changes of the most important settings. From this panel, we have access to the ALLM mode (automatic switching to game mode), as well as frame synchronization, or VRR. The range of VRR is limited – it works from 48 to 60 Hz – but the mere presence of this feature in such an affordable TV leaves a positive impression.

Additionally, it also supports HGiG, which is a HDR calibration mode for games. It sounds good, but from our testing experience, we know that for the UA7500 this option doesn’t make much sense. The TV doesn't perform well with HDR, so paradoxically, we achieved better results with this mode turned off. This is another signal that the UA7500 is more of a screen for occasional gamers who value simplicity and convenience rather than for those looking for the full experience from the latest consoles.

Even though the PUS7000 isn’t marketed as a gaming TV, it doesn't perform as poorly in this category as one might expect. True, it doesn't support 120 Hz refresh rates, which is understandable at this price point, but the manufacturer has included several important features that significantly improve the console gaming experience. The most important of these are VRR and ALLM technologies. VRR is responsible for synchronising the screen with the number of frames generated by the console. This means the image doesn't "tear" and remains consistent even during sudden drops in frame rates while playing. On the other hand, ALLM is a solution that automatically switches the TV to a mode with the lowest latency immediately after detecting a signal from the console. All these parameters are easily accessible thanks to the Game Bar feature. This is a special control panel for gamers that can be brought up on the screen at any time. It allows for a quick view of current settings and connection status without interrupting gameplay, which is a very convenient solution.