LG UT8100 (IPS) vs Philips OLED811

Unfortunately, the LG UT8100 television does not meet expectations in the HDR effect category. With a peak brightness of only 300 nits on the luminance chart, it is well below the required value to fully enjoy the HDR effects. In practice, the image resembles SDR quality more than true HDR, which is particularly evident in demanding high-contrast scenes. The coverage of the DCI-P3 colour palette is only 82%, further limiting the ability to present vibrant and rich colours. Instead of impressive visual experiences, we receive a muted and lacklustre image. For those looking for a television to fully utilise HDR content, the LG UT8100 model proves to be quite disappointing.

Philips OLED811 uses a new generation of WOLED EX panels, also found in models such as the LG C6 and Samsung S90H. After calibration we measured around 1500 nits, which is a very good result for an OLED TV. You can see this clearly in films and series. All kinds of bright flashes have the right intensity, especially when they appear against a dark background. In such scenes the OLED811 can deliver truly impressive HDR. Of course, that does not mean you will see that level of brightness in every shot. When the screen is filled with a large amount of white or a wide explosion, brightness falls to around 600 nits. That is still a good result, but those scenes no longer have the same punch as small, bright elements on a dark background. This is a known limitation of OLEDs and the OLED811 is no exception.

Colours

Aside from HDR brightness, colours also matter and here Philips performs very well. It covers almost the entire DCI-P3 gamut, which contains most of the colours used in HDR films and series. You get saturated reds and lush greens, and when watching it’s hard to find major faults in that respect. It looks a little worse with the much wider BT.2020 gamut, whose most saturated shades are already out of reach for this panel. There is also the issue of the white subpixel that the WOLED panel uses to boost brightness. With very bright colours you can see a certain washout: the colour is bright but loses some of its intensity. It is precisely in such situations that QD-OLED panels from Samsung Display have the advantage. However, in most films and series this is not something that will immediately stand out.

The Filmmaker Mode in LG UT8100, although theoretically the best for watching films, has significant flaws. The biggest problem is the white balance – drops in blue colour cause a noticeable yellowing of the image, evident in both HD and 4K content. These errors are confirmed by the measurement results in the Colour Checker test, which indicate significant deviations in colour reproduction.

Regarding brightness characteristics, both HD and 4K content feature a substantial tonal boost. The gamma curve in both cases remains significantly below the reference value of 2.4, leading to excessive brightening of darker elements of the image. A similar issue is noticeable in the EOTF curve – for 4K content, the television struggles with properly managing brightness, which results in problems with screen brightness. This means that the factory settings of this model require significant adjustments to achieve better image quality.

Film mode on the Philips OLED811 is sensibly set up straight out of the box. Most colour errors remain small, both in SDR and HDR, so you can sit down to watch without adjusting the settings first. There are no major inaccuracies that would immediately distract from the film. It falls a little short of perfection, though. The white balance shows a slight lack of red compared with green, so whites and greys can have a faint greenish tint. It is not a strong colour cast, but measurements clearly show it. There are also minor brightness deviations in SDR: some parts of the image are slightly brightened, and the darkest shades are not always reproduced evenly. In HDR the TV sticks much closer to the reference, although in places it gently lifts detail from the shadows. These are generally areas that could be improved. The factory film mode provides a good starting point, and calibration will reveal how much more can be gained from it.

After calibrating the Filmmaker Mode, the gamma has been aligned to practically ideal, reference values, which has significantly improved the overall tonal characteristics of HD content. 4K HDR content also looks better, although certain issues are still visible at the extreme ends of the graph, where the curve deviates from perfection. The EOTF curve performs worse, as the television has difficulty maintaining appropriate brightness values. As a result, the image in some scenes may be overly bright or slightly dimmed, which is due to the very design of the device. Nevertheless, the calibration has brought considerable improvement, especially for HD content, where tonal balance and colour reproduction are now at a much higher level.

After calibration the Philips OLED811 produces an image very close to the reference. We managed to correct the white balance and eliminate the slight tint visible in the factory settings. Errors in the Color Checker measurements for SDR and HDR fell to around 1 to 2, and many samples are even below 1. That's a level at which differences from the reference image are hard to spot with the naked eye. We also improved the gamma, and only in the brightest whites is there a slight brightening remaining. In HDR the EOTF curve also tracks the reference closely, although the TV still tends to gently boost the brightness of small elements, such as stars or on-screen text. This gives the picture a little extra sparkle that shouldn't be there, but otherwise there's little to fault. It was already good out of the box, and after calibration we managed to refine most of the remaining shortcomings.

The fluidity of tonal transitions is also correct, although the effect depends on the settings. The update has improved the performance of the smooth gradation function, smoothing transitions better than before, but it has introduced minor issues with detail loss, e.g. on textures.

The image scaling on LG UT8100 performs very well. The image looks decent, without significant issues with edge aliasing. Details are preserved at a satisfactory level, which makes lower resolution materials look truly solid on this television. This allows users to enjoy watching older content without noticeable flaws in quality.

OLED811 handles lower-quality material reasonably well, though it falls well short of perfection. The "Banding reduction" function helps to smooth tonal transitions and on the low setting gives a fairly good result. It does not remove bands between shades as effectively as similar solutions from some competitors, but at least it does not introduce new artefacts in the process. This is a sensible setting for everyday viewing. There is still some dissatisfaction, however, because the MediaTek Pentonic 800 chipset used here can, in other manufacturers' implementations, cope with the effects of heavy compression more effectively even at similarly low settings. Much therefore depends on how a given manufacturer makes use of its capabilities. We have a few more comments about the upscaling to 4K. There is a lot of detail, but the overall image looks rather soft. Edges are heavily smoothed, which robs the picture of a bit of sharpness and clarity. This can be partly corrected with the sharpness slider in the menu, though that will merely accentuate outlines rather than recover detail. On the plus side, there is no overscan; even with an SD signal the TV does not crop the edges of the picture.

LG UT8100, equipped with a 60 Hz panel, is particularly suited for those watching films. The television offers the TruMotion system with de-judder effect adjustment, allowing you to customise the smoothness of the image – from more choppy to exceptionally smooth, resembling a soap opera effect, depending on the user's preferences.

In terms of motion handling the OLED811 performs excellently. At 120 Hz, which is useful for console gaming and watching sport, the picture stays clear and moving objects do not leave noticeable smears. The fast response of OLED pixels helps here; this is clear in the UFO test, even on dark backgrounds. There are also motion smoothing controls. For films you can adjust the level of smoothing to suit your taste, ranging from preserving a cinematic character to much smoother motion. A separate blur reduction setting is useful for fast-paced material such as sports broadcasts.

LG UT8100 offers basic features for gamers, such as ALLM and Game Bar, which makes access to settings easier. The television also supports HGiG, which improves image quality in HDR games. Unfortunately, the lack of support for Dolby Vision and VRR limits the capabilities of the device, as does the 60 Hz panel, which excludes support for 120 Hz resolution. This model is more suitable for less demanding gaming applications.

OLED811 has almost everything you could expect from a TV for gaming. It supports 120 Hz at Full HD, 1440p and 4K, and when connected to a PC it can reach 165 Hz. It also has VRR, which helps prevent screen tearing when frame rates fluctuate, and ALLM, which automatically switches to game mode. So you don't have to dig into the settings every time you power up your console.

Another plus is that HGiG works correctly, so once HDR is set on the console the TV doesn't apply its own changes to image brightness. There's also a Game Bar to check signal parameters and quickly change settings useful while gaming. The list even includes Dolby Vision for gaming, but there is a significant catch, which you can read about below.