LG NANO81A / NANO80A vs Dreame S100

If you are counting on HDR in the NANO81A to bring tears to your eyes, I must disappoint you. This television is simply too dark to truly show what this format is all about. With a brightness of only 250 nits, HDR exists here mainly on paper. In practice, during viewing, it is very difficult to distinguish whether we are watching high dynamic range content or regular SDR – it simply lacks that ‘punch’ of light in the bright parts of the image. However, to give credit where it’s due, we do have a glimmer of hope here – and quite a clear one at that. It concerns the colour gamut coverage. Here, the NanoCell filter shows that it is not just marketing nonsense. Our measurements indicated that the coverage of the DCI-P3 space is around 88%. This is a really solid result that places this model significantly higher than typical budget options based on standard white LEDs without any filters. Of course, it still falls short of the level of quantum dot (QLED) TVs or advanced panels with PFS filters, but for this price point, the colours are surprisingly saturated and vibrant. It's just a shame that this low brightness prevents them from fully ‘spreading their wings’ with the Nano filter.

The Dreame S100 is a relatively bright television. In movie mode, the brightness we measured reached around 600 nits. This is a really good result, although not the highest when considering the competition at this price point. In fullscreen scenes, it is evident that the television can produce an image that impresses with its brightness. Unfortunately, when more complex scenes appeared on the screen, the local dimming algorithm in this model primarily focused on maintaining the deepest blacks. However, this came at the expense of HDR performance – and in a drastic manner. In such scenes, the brightness of bright elements dropped below 100 nits, which is a frankly tragic result, far from any HDR effect. One can improve this aspect, but not without a "however." It is simply necessary to change the local dimming setting in the television's menu, but then the blacks in such scenes simply become grey. It's a pity that Dreame couldn't better refine the local dimming algorithms, and the S100 is another example that the sheer number of local dimming zones does not always translate to a better image. As a consolation, it is worth adding that the Dreame S100 is advertised as a "QLED" type television, although in reality it uses a PFS LED filter. As a result, the colours are appropriately saturated, and the colour gamut coverage of DCI-P3 we measured exceeded 94%.

For every film fan, the natural choice in LG televisions is the Filmmaker Mode. Its aim is to display images as the director intended – without unnecessary "enhancements". Unfortunately, in the case of our test unit NANO81A, the factory settings left something to be desired. The main issue turned out to be the white balance. Measurements showed a distinct deficiency of blue colour, which in practice meant that many scenes had a slightly yellowish, even "yellowed" tint. The white was not perfectly pure, which detracted from the freshness of the image. Additionally, brightness management was also not ideal – the factory-set gamma was too low. The picture often appeared oversaturated, as if overly lifted from the shadows, which caused it to lose naturalness and depth. Fortunately, LG, even in this relatively low price category, does not block access to advanced settings. The calibration possibilities of this model are enormous, which is a big plus for those who enjoy "digging" in the menu. We decided to approach the topic in our own way and see how much we could squeeze out of this panel with professional calibration.

We tested the Dreame S100 in 'movie' mode and we definitely recommend using this setting for watching all types of content. Interestingly, within the deeper settings of the television, we also find a dedicated 'Filmmaker' mode, which is now available from almost every manufacturer. However, in the case of the Dreame S100, we do not recommend using it – it blocks all settings related to the picture and does not allow for any configuration in the menu - even motion smoothing. So, how do the factory colours of the S100 fare? Not too badly, but also not the best. The television itself was quite heavily tinted with blue components, which is clearly visible in our white balance measurements. This made the picture artificially brightened, and the colours had a slight bluish tint. This is confirmed by the Color Checker palette, which showed how the colour samples tend to drift towards blue, generating quite significant colour errors. The picture in HDR mode looked definitely better, where the colour errors were not as prominent, although they still fell far from perfection. Here, the white balance was also shifted too much towards blue, causing considerable errors in colour reproduction.

After calibration, the NANO81A is a completely different television. What LG offers in terms of image enhancement tools even in such an affordable model deserves a big plus. We managed to completely eliminate that annoying yellowing of whites and make the colours natural, vibrant, and simply "true". In SDR content (that is, regular television, YouTube, or older films), the picture now looks worlds better – it is clear, well-balanced, and no longer strains the eyes with strange hues. It is clear that this panel has significant potential, which is simply wasted by poor presets out of the box. However, we do have one serious reservation that calibration cannot fully overcome – it concerns brightness management in HDR mode. LG's algorithm in this model is constructed very conservatively. The television intentionally dims the HDR picture to avoid overexposing the already weak blacks of the IPS panel. The programmers faced a choice: either to provide more light and accept that the blacks would become light grey or to reduce the brightness to maintain any contrast. They chose the latter. Nevertheless, after our adjustments, watching anything on the NANO81 is significantly better.

The Dreame S100 has proven to be a device very amenable to professional calibration. In its menu, we found a plethora of advanced options that allowed us to effectively correct factory errors. Thanks to advanced white balance correction – both in SDR and HDR content – we completely eliminated the excess blue components. The image immediately became much more natural and pleasant to the eye. After fully tuning the colours, the errors in the Color Checker test dropped below Delta E values of 2-3. For the average viewer, this means that any colour distortions have become nearly impossible to perceive with the naked eye. This is truly a pleasant surprise, as new brands in the television market often encounter significant issues with the correct implementation and functioning of sliders in the calibration menu. Here, everything worked as it should. The only thing we must criticise is the way the television manages its brightness in HDR. Due to the specific nature of the local dimming algorithms, anomalies can be seen on the EOTF curve we measured. Where high highlights should appear, there is a slight boosting of the curve above the reference line. In practice, this causes an unnatural brightening of some of the brightest elements in films or games. Despite this minor flaw, professional calibration brings about a huge, very positive change in this model.

It often happens that cheap 4K panels mercilessly bring to light all the "dirt" and imperfections of lower-resolution content. However, with the LG NANO81A, the situation is quite different. This is truly a solid performer when it comes to handling content that is far from ideal. The built-in processor does a great job with upscaling. Even older recordings look quite decent on this screen – the image is coherent, cleaned of digital noise, and simply pleasant to the eye. A significant advantage is the gradation reduction feature that you will find in the settings. It is extraordinarily effective in combating colour banding, which is a lifesaver when watching materials with a low bitrate, for instance, from some streaming services or older files from the web. However, it is worth maintaining a certain level of caution. Since we are dealing with a less powerful chip than in LG's top models, setting this option too aggressively may sometimes result in minor artefacts or slight blurring of details. Despite this risk, I definitely encourage experimenting with this feature - in many cases, it can save the viewing experience and make low-quality material fully watchable.

For scaling and digital processing in the Dreame S100, the technology that the manufacturer proudly calls Dreamind™ Pro AI is responsible. However, it must be clearly stated that this is not a proprietary processor, but merely a marketing name for a chip made by MediaTek – more precisely, the MT5889 model. Unfortunately, we are talking about a rather outdated unit, from a time when MediaTek lagged significantly behind the competition in terms of performance. This unfortunately has a direct impact on the image as that is what this chip also deals with. The upscaling in the S100 is quite mediocre, and the processor has a tendency to heavily and artificially sharpen edges (fortunately, this can be somewhat tempered with the sharpness slider in the menu). In the options, we also find the "Contour Smoothing" feature, which theoretically is supposed to improve tonal transitions. In practice, it offers almost no improvement – setting it to any level rarely eliminates visible banding of colours, but it can unnecessarily blur elements of the image that should remain sharp.

A separate issue is the phenomenon of overscan (cropping the edges of the frame), which is noticeable here practically all the time. Although there is an option to set the screen to display the full frame in low-resolution materials, this requires activating the previously mentioned Filmmaker mode. And as you know, this mode completely blocks the adjustment of any other sliders in the picture menu. In our test tables, we marked that the television offers an option to disable overscan, as technically such a function exists in the system – however, in everyday use, when maintaining sensible image settings, you will not be able to take advantage of it.

When it comes to motion fluidity, the NANO81A unfortunately has a hard time. The television is based on a panel with a refresh rate of 60 Hz. If you are looking for perfect sharpness in dynamic football matches or fast action games, you may feel a bit disappointed. With such a low native refresh rate, fast objects on the screen will always be a little blurred.

When it comes to motion fluidity, the Dreame S100 performs really well. It features a panel with a refresh rate of 144 Hz, although in reality, the vast majority of people using it in a traditional way will still be limited to 120 Hz (as this is the maximum supported by today's equipment apart from PCs). Thanks to the high refresh rate, the image in motion remains really sharp, largely thanks to the well-functioning MEMC smoother. In the menu, we find predefined modes that allow the television to efficiently generate artificial frames, which effectively improves the fluidity of dynamic sports scenes, but also eliminates image stuttering in film and series materials recorded at 24 frames.

NANO81A is unfortunately not hardware designed for e-sports. The lack of support for a 120 Hz signal is a fact that users planning to purchase this model simply have to come to terms with. Nevertheless, LG's engineers have made an effort to maximise the potential of this 60 Hz panel, offering a set of features that genuinely enhance the gaming experience. Firstly, the television supports VRR technology (within the range of 48-60 Hz) and ALLM. As a result, the image remains stable and does not "tear", and the device automatically switches to low-latency mode as soon as it detects a signal from a console. Managing these settings is extremely simple thanks to a dedicated system overlay, which allows for quick viewing of parameters without leaving the game. A very significant advantage is the support for the HGiG format. This solution is crucial for owners of modern consoles because it enables the television to correctly "understand" the intentions of game developers regarding HDR tone mapping. In practice, this helps avoid the effect of "blown-out" bright spots, such as clouds or light sources, which is unfortunately a common issue in budget LCD televisions.

The Dreame S100 seems almost like the perfect screen for a gamer. The television is equipped with 2 HDMI 2.1 ports with a bandwidth of 40 Gbps, which means that functions like automatic game mode (ALLM) and variable refresh rate (VRR) ranging from 48 to 144 Hz work seamlessly on consoles. It also features a well-designed gaming panel (Game Bar), allowing users to continuously monitor important parameters—from active picture modes to the number of frames rendered by the console, and even the option to add a crosshair in the middle of the screen. All of this looks great on paper; however, the biggest problem with the S100 is the implementation of HDR mode in games. The television does not have the HGiG format implemented correctly. As a result, an unsuspecting user may incorrectly configure the console when first using the screen. Poor configuration can lead to an image that is too dark or too washed out (as a guideline: we suggest setting the brightness in the Xbox console menu to around 600 nits, and in the PS5 to 12 clicks). The Dolby Vision format also proves problematic, as it often would not activate at all between the XBOX and Dreame S100. And when it was finally managed to be activated, playing was not possible due to a very high input lag often exceeding 100ms. If the manufacturer can improve the HDR issue in games via an update, the S100 will be truly excellent hardware for gamers. For now, however, compromises need to be accepted.