Philips PUS7000 vs LG MRGB85B

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

LG MRGB85 offers moderate brightness. On test patterns it reaches about 700 nits, which by itself is a decent result. In actual movie scenes the values are lower and most often fall between 400 and 600 nits. Bright, expansive shots perform best. In scenes with a lot of black the TV noticeably limits luminance, trying to maintain the highest possible contrast. The HDR effect is therefore visible, but it is far from the level offered by more advanced Mini-LED designs. Especially in darker parts of films the limitations of edge-lit backlighting and imprecise local dimming become noticeable again.

HDR Colors

A much stronger suit of the MRGB85 is its colors. The TV covers about 95% of the DCI-P3 color space and 74% of BT.2020, allowing HDR material to look vivid and striking. Colors are well saturated, and the difference compared with basic LCD TVs is clearly visible. It is worth noting, however, that this is not a classic RGB backlight, where each of the three primary colors is generated by a separate diode. Red is produced by a PFS phosphor, which expands the palette and yields more saturated red shades. This solution works well for color reproduction, but it does not change the limitations of dimming itself. The LEDs are not driven independently in the way the series name might suggest... so it turns out that Mini RGB is not the same as Mini-LED RGB!

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, after connecting the calibration equipment, its biggest flaw came to light. The PUS7000 has significant shortcomings in displaying red. Poorly tuned white balance and overly low saturation of this colour cause the image to appear too cool. As a result, one may get the impression that the displayed content is simply lacking in 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 may appear somewhat washed out. Fortunately, in the Philips menu, we find quite a few functions to improve these aspects, so we immediately proceeded to calibration to see what could be squeezed out of this screen.

We tested the TV in Filmmaker Mode, because among the available settings it offered the image closest to the reference. However, the out-of-the-box colour reproduction was not perfect. The largest deviations concerned the white balance, with the image showing too much red and not enough blue, which caused the whole picture to shift noticeably towards warmer tones. Whites took on a slightly yellowish tint, and skin tones and bright parts of the image did not always look natural. It was not a fault that completely ruined the viewing experience, but in direct comparison with the same screen after calibration the difference was readily apparent.

After professional calibration, it is evident that the PUS7000 responds well to image adjustments. In this price range, this is not at all a given. The effects should be evaluated in two scenarios, depending on what content we plan to watch. SDR performs the best. After our adjustments, the picture looks really good. Most colour errors have fallen below level 3, which is the threshold at which distortions usually begin to be visible to the naked eye in measurements. Films, series, sports, and regular television look natural, without unpleasant deviations. If someone mainly watches classic channels or streams in HD quality, the difference after calibration will be noticeable immediately. However, it must be clearly stated that the PUS7000 is still not a television suited for reasonable HDR, and calibration changes very little in this regard. The reason lies in the hardware: the colours remain too unsaturated. The television lacks solutions to expand 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 apparent in reds, which still look pale. This limitation cannot be bypassed with menu settings, as it stems from the design of the backlighting and the panel itself.

Calibration primarily allowed us to correct the white balance and remove the previously noticeable warm tint. After adjustment the whites stopped leaning towards a yellow cast and the colours became more neutral and natural. The biggest improvement was seen in SDR material, where the picture looked even and much closer to reference. A similar effect was achieved in HDR. After calibration the image became more organised, although not all of the TV's limitations could be eliminated. The greatest reservations still concerned intense reds, which were not always reproduced with sufficient precision. In practice the MRGB85 handles everyday SDR content very well, whereas in more demanding HDR material its limitations remain clearly visible.

The PUS7000 handles digital image processing quite well. The distortion reduction feature deserves praise, as it effectively smooths out unwanted tonal transitions even at low settings. However, it has a drawback: if applied too aggressively, it can introduce undesirable artifacts on the screen. Therefore, it would be a good idea to experiment with this setting to find a happy medium between a smooth image and detail clarity.

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

Upscaling and digital image processing perform quite well on the LG MRGB85. The Alpha 8 AI 4K Gen7 processor efficiently upscales lower-resolution content, and regardless of source you can also easily disable overscan. The TV also copes well with compression artefacts. The "Smooth Gradation" feature can effectively reduce visible banding and tonal unevenness, but it is not always precise. At higher settings it can also smooth out fine details, for example surface textures. On the plus side, it does not remove film grain. It's safest to use the "Low" or "Medium" setting, which gives the best compromise between artefact reduction and preserving detail.

In this respect, 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 is actually the norm, and it is hard to expect anything more. However, the worst part is that the television does not have any features to improve motion smoothness. There is a lack of any supporting systems, both in films and in sports. We must 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, the motion can appear choppy or unclear. We do not have the option to enable any smoothers that would reduce this effect.

The LG MRGB85 is equipped with a VA panel with a native 144 Hz refresh rate, so it performs very well in terms of motion handling. The TV easily handles 120 Hz content from consoles and higher refresh rates when connected to a PC. That matters not only for gaming but also when watching sport, where camera movement is noticeably smoother than on basic models with 60 Hz panels. We also have TruMotion, which lets you set the level of motion smoothing yourself. You can keep a more cinematic feel to motion or increase smoothness, which works well for sports broadcasts and TV programmes. The adjustment range is wide, so you can easily tailor the smoothing to your own preferences.

Although the PUS7000 is not marketed as a gaming television, it does not perform as poorly in this category as one might expect. While it is true that we won’t find support for 120 Hz refresh rates, which is understandable at this price point, the manufacturer has ensured several important features that genuinely enhance the gaming experience on consoles. The most important of these are the VRR and ALLM technologies. VRR is responsible for synchronising the screen with the number of frames generated by the console. This prevents the image from tearing and keeps it consistent even during sudden drops in frame rate while gaming. In contrast, ALLM is a solution that automatically switches the television to the lowest latency mode as soon as it detects 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 summoned on screen at any time. It allows for a quick preview of the current settings and connection status without interrupting gameplay, which is a very convenient solution.

When it comes to gaming, the LG MRGB85 performs by far the best. The manufacturer didn't skimp on features and has essentially brought the full suite of functions from pricier TVs to this model. You get three HDMI 2.1 ports with the full 48 Gbit/s bandwidth. Each supports 4K at 120 Hz from a console, and when connected to a PC also 4K at 144 Hz. So you don't need to worry which port to plug your console or PC into, because they all offer the same capabilities. Also on board are VRR, AMD FreeSync Premium, NVIDIA G-Sync Compatible, ALLM and HGiG. There's also Dolby Vision Gaming, which means in supported games you can use high refresh rates and dynamic HDR simultaneously on Xbox. The package is rounded off by Game Optimizer, a handy in-game menu for gamers. Without leaving the game you can change the picture profile, brighten shadow details or check the current frame rate. In terms of gaming features, the MRGB85 therefore offers almost the same as much more expensive LG models.