Panasonic W85 vs LG QNED80A6A (VA)

Unfortunately, we do not have good news here. The Panasonic W85B is rather dim – its peak brightness does not exceed 300 nits, so it’s hard to talk about any true HDR effect. In practice, this means that scenes which can “shine” and make an impression on other screens simply look like ordinary SDR with a slight boost in colours here. Our measurements and film tests confirmed this – regardless of the content, the W85B will not extract anything more from HDR. Therefore, if someone is looking for a television specifically for HDR, it is better to look towards other models. As consolation, the fact remains that in terms of colours, the W85B performs quite well. It is a QLED television, so its colour gamut coverage is wide, and most films and series look natural, without a distinct “washed-out” effect. The colours are saturated, so in everyday viewing, there is no sense that something is strongly amiss.

Let's now talk about how this television shines. If you are expecting dazzling light effects, we need to temper your enthusiasm. The LG QNED80A is a moderately bright television. Our measurements in most movie scenes indicated values around 350-400 nits. This is not enough to speak of a full, cinematic HDR experience and the sense of that famous "high dynamism" offered by flagship products. However, brightness is not everything. Although the QNED80A is not a "light monster," it makes up for it in another crucial category: colours. This is where PFS technology comes into play, which LG marketers disguise under the name QNED/NanoCell. Thanks to this approach, the television offers a much wider colour palette than classic LCD designs. In our tests, coverage of the cinematic DCI-P3 palette reached a solid 93-94%. What does this mean for you? That even with lower brightness, when watching movies in HDR, colours will be vivid, deep, and appropriately saturated. The image is not washed out but rather juicy, which is a significant advantage in this price range.

When testing the Panasonic W85B, we obviously started with Filmmaker mode, as this is today’s gold standard when it comes to watching content “as the director intended.” The problem is that this television is quite far from those intentions. The biggest issue turned out to be an excess of red – both in SDR and HDR. The image often appeared too warm because of this, and in some scenes, it was almost “blazing.” Additionally, there is the issue of brightness management. When we looked at the gamma or EOTF charts, it was clear as day that in most scenes, the television brightens the image more than it should. The effect was simply predictable. Details can get lost, there is flattening, and highlights are blown out across the entire screen. We know, of course, how to correct this, but it must be said honestly that it requires a lot of work during calibration. Out of the box, the W85B does not provide a picture close to reference – it is rather a television that will always interpret colours and brightness a little “in its own way” without professional adjustments. Unfortunately, this is to the viewer’s detriment.

It might seem that since the QNED80A is one model, regardless of the version, it should offer the same picture. However, practice shows something completely different. Analyzing the variant with a VA panel in the best factory setting – that is, in Filmmaker Mode – we noticed a specific characteristic. This television, “out of the box,” serves us a picture with a clear dominance of red and a deficiency of blue. Overall, it is very warm, even hot. Many users may describe this as a picture that is “too cinematic,” leaning towards sepia. Additionally, there is the issue of the gamma curve – the television has a tendency to slightly artificially brighten scenes (gamma is too low), causing the picture to lose some depth. The good news is that these are not panel errors, but merely software issues. As always in our tests, we conducted professional calibration, which completely eliminated these shortcomings, restoring the natural white balance and correct saturation.

Fortunately, calibration made a significant difference for the Panasonic W85B, particularly in SDR content. Here, the improvement was really noticeable – we managed to balance the whites and somewhat tame the tendency of the television to excessively brighten the entire image. The picture became more coherent, and the colours gained a naturalness that was lacking in the factory settings. Admittedly, the results from the Color Checker are not perfect, as the W85B has visible issues with green saturation, but overall, we evaluate the post-calibration effect in SDR very positively. The situation is a bit different with HDR. Here too, we managed to reduce the tendency to warm up the entire scene, so the image performed significantly better than in the factory settings. However, the same issue we mentioned earlier is still evident – the television interprets the image too much "on its own" and brightens the entire screen. The lack of local dimming only exacerbates this effect. In summary, briefly in SDR content, the W85B performs really well after calibration and is more than suitable for daily viewing. However, in HDR, even after adjustments, it remains difficult to unequivocally recommend it for serious viewing sessions.

Was it worth spending time on calibration? Definitely yes. We managed to tame the initial, too warm white balance and, most importantly, correct the gamma curve. The television stopped artificially brightening scenes, which gave the image depth. The greatest improvement is noticeable in SDR content, that is, while watching regular television, YouTube, or playing games without HDR. Here the QNED80A shows its class – colour reproduction errors (DeltaE) have dropped below a value of 2. In technical terms, this means that the errors are virtually unnoticeable to the human eye. The image in everyday use has simply become very attractive, natural, and correct. The difficulties begin with HDR content. Although we managed to improve the white balance, the EOTF curve graph (responsible for brightness at various levels) shows that the television still "interprets" the image in its own way. This stems from the nature of the edge-lit backlight with local dimming and the fact that LG gives the calibrator very little control over this parameter. In short: the television struggles to hide its hardware shortcomings, sometimes ignoring our commands. Nevertheless, the final image is significantly more accurate and pleasant to behold than with factory settings, even if it falls a bit short of studio perfection.

With native SDR content, the Panasonic W85B performs very well – tonal transitions are smooth and natural, without artificial bands or prominent contours. However, the situation is worse when it comes to lower resolution materials. It is precisely there that the television has the most difficulty with "enhancing" the image. The lack of any option in the menu that would allow for improving gradation means that with older films or materials from YouTube, one can sometimes notice slight issues with colour blending.

Fortunately, upscaling, or raising the quality of lower resolution content, performs much better. This is definitely a strong point of this model – the image is scaled cleanly and in detail, and the television handles this better than one might expect from such an inexpensive piece of equipment. This is thanks to the HCX processor, which Panasonic has been developing for years, and it is noticeable that even in the lower series it can do a good job.

In this category, the QNED80A proves to be a true "dark horse." It is an excellent, affordable television for those who frequently watch lower-quality content – for example, traditional cable TV. The processor used here handles upscaling, that is, enhancing low resolution to native 4K, exceptionally well. The image after processing is natural, smooth, and, most importantly, not overly jagged or artificially sharpened. In the menu, we also find a dedicated option for smoothing tonal transitions in low-quality content. This feature works really effectively, eliminating annoying "banding" of colours under heavy video compression. However, we must remain vigilant. Remember that we are not dealing with a top-tier processor known from flagship OLED models. In more challenging scenes, the system may struggle and introduce minor artefacts or distortions. Nonetheless, it is definitely worth giving this feature a chance, as in most cases the quality improvement is visibly apparent.

At first glance, everything looks good – the Panasonic W85B has a 120 Hz panel and even a 144 Hz mode, so it seems that it should cope well with smooth motion. The problem arises when we look into the settings. The options for improving fluidity are supposedly present in the menu, but in practice… they don't change anything. No matter what we choose, the image looks the same. On top of that, there is a lack of BFI, or the black frame insertion mode, which on many televisions helps sharpen motion. And suddenly it turns out that despite the strong panel, the W85B offers us no real tools to adjust motion according to our needs. It’s only good when the source itself operates at a higher frequency – for example, games at 120 Hz. But when it comes to films or sports, we simply have to accept what the television shows us, because nothing more can be done about it.

We move on to a matter that may be decisive for many. Unfortunately, here we must point out the biggest "Achilles' heel" of the QNED80A model. This television is equipped with a panel featuring a native refresh rate of 60Hz. There is no denying it – at this price, we expected more as we know that Chinese manufacturers can offer 120Hz screens for a similar price. Due to this parameter, dynamic scenes in sports or fast-paced games are not the strongest aspect of this display. Fortunately, LG has equipped the television with a proven motion smoothing system called TruMotion. It works quite effectively with film material (24 frames). We suggest playing around with the De-Judder slider – from our experience, setting it in the range of 2-4 provides the best compromise: the motion becomes smoother, yet still looks natural, without the artificial "television theatre" effect.

On paper, the Panasonic W85B looks really solid. It has two full HDMI 2.1 ports, support for ALLM, variable refresh rates, Dolby Vision in games, and of course, a high refresh rate of the panel itself. Additionally, it features Panasonic's characteristic game tools bar – a "game bar" that allows you to preview key parameters and quickly change them if needed with a single click. This sounds great, but the problem arises when we turn on HDR. Here, the W85B suffers significantly, as there is practically no HGiG implementation – the television poorly manages brightness, and instead of an accurate picture, we get scenes that are too bright, sometimes even blown out. The solution? The simplest one – turn off HDR in the console settings and leave everything in SDR. And this is where it gets really interesting, as in this scenario, the W85B shows its better side. Low input lag, high fluidity thanks to 120 Hz – all of this makes gaming look phenomenal. Indeed, HDR can be forgone, but if the priority is responsiveness and smooth gameplay, the W85B offers a lot of fun.

Now that we have established that the QNED80A is a television with a 60Hz panel, we must say it plainly: we will not be playing here at 120 frames per second at any resolution. Does this disqualify the equipment in the eyes of gamers? Not necessarily, especially those "casual" ones. LG has decided to sweeten this technical limitation by packing quite a few useful functions inside. We have support for VRR (variable refresh rate) in the range of 48-60Hz and automatic game mode ALLM, which instantly reduces input lag upon detection of a console. All of this is managed from a very convenient, purple Game Optimizer menu, which has already become LG's hallmark. A big plus goes to the manufacturer for consistency regarding HDR. Although the television does not support Dolby Vision in games on Xbox consoles, LG adds a well-implemented HGiG standard. Thanks to this, even on a moderately bright screen, playing in HDR is clear, and the details in shadows and highlights are accurately reproduced, rather than "cut off".