SHARP JP7765E vs LG OLED G6 (G64LW, G66LS)

So how does the brightness of the Sharp JP7 fare in the most demanding titles? Honestly, at first, we were quite surprised. The television is capable of achieving over 1000 nits of brightness, which is an outstanding and rare result for a device costing just under 2000 PLN (for 55 inches). Watching bright, full-screen scenes, one might feel they are dealing with really good equipment. Unfortunately, though, we have to return to the problem we mentioned earlier regarding local dimming management. When small bright areas appear on a dark background (as in the test scenes from the films Life of Pi or Sicario 2), it is evident how poorly the JP7 handles zones. The television dims them almost to the maximum, crushing the entire HDR effect, which in such moments resembles a flat SDR image (less than 200 nits). This instability means that in demanding, contrast-heavy films, the image on the JP7 unfortunately loses its appeal.

As a consolation, it is worth noting that the panel has the potential for good colour display. It features a PFS (phosphor) filter, which allows for a solid 94% coverage of the DCI-P3 palette. The manufacturer calls its product a “QLED,” even though it is primarily based on the aforementioned PFS filter. Given the recent market battles of manufacturers over what may or may not be called QLED, we leave the question of the correctness of this naming to your assessment. However, it remains a fact that the potential for reproducing saturated colours in this panel is simply good.

The LG G6 is currently one of the brightest OLEDs on the market. Its peak brightness reaches nearly 2500 nits, and what’s best – this has a direct impact on real film scenes. The television flawlessly extracts details in the bright areas of the image. And this is regardless of whether we are talking about very small points like stars in the sky or slightly larger elements on the screen. Naturally, with full-screen, uniformly white scenes, the brightness of the G6 decreases due to the panel protection system (ABL). However, in real, varied cinematic shots, this value still hovers around 2000 nits, which can be considered an outstanding result. The coverage of the colour palette also deserves praise. The new second-generation Tandem OLED panel only brought a cosmetic change but still an improvement. The coverage of the DCI-P3 palette reaches nearly 99.5%, whereas for the ultra-wide BT.2020, it is around 84%. These are very good results, although it’s worth remembering one thing: at extremely high brightness levels, the colour volume will be lower than in Samsung Display’s QD-OLED panels due to the use of a white sub-pixel (WOLED). However, in everyday content and most films, catching this difference will be very difficult.

When it comes to out-of-the-box colours, the Sharp JP7 was tested in Film mode, which traditionally offers the most consistent image compared to the yellowed “Eco” mode or the glaring blue of the “Dynamic” mode. Although this is the best choice among the available settings, the results are still far from ideal. The white balance clearly lacked red and blue components, causing many scenes to take on an unnatural greenish tint. Another issue was the gamma – during full-screen scenes, the television provides excessive brightness, which completely diminishes its cinematic character. All of this resulted in colour reproduction errors, especially in shades of grey, which exceeded a value of Delta E 10. For reference: errors above 2-3 are already visible to the human eye, so we are dealing with a significant distortion of reality here.

In HDR mode, the situation is reversed, but not any better. Here, the blue colour dominates the white balance, which gives the image an unnatural, almost “retail” sharpness, reminiscent of aggressive demonstration modes. Furthermore, measurements of the EOTF curve emphasise the retail character of the image. The graph clearly shows that the television generates an image significantly brighter than the standards predict, resulting in an artificially boosted and unrealistic final effect. The Sharp JP7 is evidently trying to appear stronger than it actually is, but it does so at the cost of fidelity to the content.

We tested the LG G6 in the best factory mode in terms of colour fidelity, namely FILMMAKER MODE. In the case of our test unit, this mode was quite well tuned straight out of the box. In SDR content, the only issue we could point out was the white balance, which tended to drift towards warmer tones. Consequently, the image could occasionally appear slightly yellowed; however, overall, this was not an bothersome problem. The G6 performed a bit worse with HDR content. There, we noted too much blue component in the white balance, which caused the image to take on cooler hues, resulting in fairly noticeable errors. As can be seen in our ColorChecker chart, the colours indeed drifted towards these cooler registers. Nevertheless, considering the factory settings, the television displayed a perfectly decent level. We do know, however, that OLED screens – particularly those from LG – respond excellently to professional calibration, which is why we immediately went ahead with it.

We subjected the JP7 to our standard calibration procedure and really... the television gained a new lease of life thanks to it, particularly with SDR content (YouTube, classic television, series, or older films). As a result of our precise adjustment of the white balance and stabilisation of the gamma, colour errors fell to a value of below 3. This is a level at which the human eye has difficulty detecting distortions. In this scenario, the Sharp JP7 delivers an image with truly excellent colour precision, which is a significant advantage in this price class. However, content with HDR turned out to be much more problematic. Here, despite our efforts and interventions in the settings, the television simply would not cooperate. In the JP7 menu, we don't find any option that would allow for real control over brightness management (EOTF). Although a significant portion of the colour errors was reduced, the image still remained unnaturally oversaturated. It's a bit of a shame, as the potential of the mini-LED backlit panel is great, but the software presents a clear barrier here.

The conclusion is simple: when watching less demanding content (SDR) on the JP7, you can expect an image that is more than satisfactory, but in HDR, you must come to terms with a certain degree of "artificiality" that cannot be circumvented even with professional equipment.

After professional calibration, we gained complete control over the panel, and we managed to align all parameters to nearly zero. We successfully calibrated the white balance perfectly, which eliminated the factory cool and warm tints from the screen. The effects are clear as day in the ColorChecker test – the average colour reproduction errors dropped below the critical value of 1-2. And what does that mean? PERFECT colours, without any distortion! However, as reviewers, we must point out here how the LG G6 arbitrarily manipulates brightness, for which the EOTF curve is responsible. When looking at the standard synthetic chart, it might seem that the line is quite straight. However, the situation changes when we turn on the measurement filter, which shows how the television interprets brightness in real, moving film scenes (EOTF in MOVIES). Then it becomes evident that some of the tiniest parts on the screen are slightly over-brightened by the algorithm. Of course, for the average viewer, such a deviation will be practically unnoticeable, but in the test of such an expensive screen, it is worth noting – especially since we are talking about a model that has huge aspirations to be named the best television of the year.

In the case of lower quality materials and how the Sharp JP7 handles them, the situation is ambiguous. Let's start with the upscaling itself – here we have no major objections. The process of scaling the image to a higher resolution is correct; the picture remains readable and sharp, without the overscan effect, meaning no cropped edges. Of course, it is not at the level of top models, and at times one can notice slight jaggedness on the contours, but in this price range, the effect is fully acceptable.

However, the actual digital image processing performs significantly worse, which, apart from the upscaling, effectively does not exist. In the JP7 menu, we will not find any option that would effectively smooth out unwanted tonal transitions or reduce noise in the image. As a result, the signal reaches the panel in a very raw form, which, with heavily compressed materials (e.g. from YouTube), leads to visible posterisation. Either it is a flaw in the software or a very strange design decision, because in earlier Sharp models this function was available and, crucially, worked with noticeable effect. Here, we are left to deal with whatever the source provides us, without any digital support from the image processor.

Whatever one may say about the G6’s problems with near-black signal, it must be fairly acknowledged that it handles heavily compressed material and lower resolution content exceptionally well. All unwanted, unsightly tonal transitions are effectively reduced here by the "Smooth Gradation" feature. At the "Low" setting, the algorithm works flawlessly – effectively masking the artefacts resulting from strong compression without destroying the sharpness and details in the frame. Higher levels of this function do indeed smooth the image further, but they start to blur the real elements of object texture, which is why we recommend keeping this slider at a low setting. As for the upscaling to 4K, the processor does an excellent job – edge sharpness and detail reconstruction are at the highest level, and in this regard, the G6 does not fall behind the world leaders at all.

The motion fluidity on the Sharp JP7 is quite mediocre, and the reason is simple: the television uses a 60Hz panel. This instantly makes it difficult to recommend for watching sports or serious gaming, where higher refresh rates are already the standard. The only real plus is the presence of a smoothness feature, which we can control in films using a slider called De-judder. Lower settings provide a more raw, "cinematic" (framey) image, while higher settings add artificial smoothness. We suggest setting it somewhere in the middle of the scale, that is in the range of 3-5 – this is the best compromise to avoid the soap opera effect while also eliminating the tiring stuttering of the image. Interestingly, in the menu, we also find a "motion blur removal" slider, which usually indicates the presence of a 120Hz panel. However, with the JP7, it does not enhance the image at all and serves rather as a dummy – it is meant to look good in the settings, but technically it has no right to operate on this panel.

LG G6 is an OLED television, so in the category of motion fluidity, it traditionally deserves the highest marks. The television supports very high refresh rates reaching up to 165 Hz in 4K resolution, but most importantly – on the screen, you will not notice any signs of blurring. The response time of the panel is almost instantaneous, ensuring that dynamic images remain perfectly sharp.

As we mentioned earlier, the 60Hz panel is not a feature that will attract gamers to the Sharp JP7. Perhaps for the casual player, whose console still generates most titles at 60 frames per second, there might be something interesting? When it comes to specific additions, we find here:

• ALLM Mode: Automatically switches the television to low latency game mode (input lag).

• Game Menu: Which is hard to call a full-fledged “Game Bar,” as the functionality here is minimal. Aside from enabling ALLM, there’s only a game-specific motion smoother which we recommend avoiding as it introduces very noticeable artifacts and worsens responsiveness.

• Dolby Vision Gaming: For Microsoft consoles.

Unfortunately, the list of shortcomings is significantly longer and more painful than the positives. The biggest disappointment is the lack of support for 120Hz, even when reducing the resolution to Full HD. The presence of 120Hz would allow for performance modes to be activated in many games on PS5 or Xbox Series X. Another shortcoming is VRR, which means that during frame drops, we are exposed to screen tearing. The lack of proper implementation of the HGiG standard is also very problematic. This results in the fact that during HDR calibration in the console menu, it is very easy to "overshoot" the brightness settings. As a result, instead of clear details in the highlights, we end up with an unnaturally over-bright image with cut-off details. Sharp JP7 is a proposition solely for very casual gamers.

The LG G6 is a true monster for gamers and one of the best-equipped televisions on the market in this regard. The manufacturer has not skimped on features, equipping this model with as many as four full HDMI 2.1 ports with a maximum bandwidth of 48 Gbps. This means that no matter which port you plug in your PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X, or powerful PC, you will get the absolute maximum performance from them.

The television supports a full set of gaming technologies: from VRR (Variable Refresh Rate) to AMD FreeSync Premium Pro, and even Nvidia G-Sync Compatible. On top of that, it offers remarkably low, nearly imperceptible input lag and an exceptionally well-functioning Game Optimizer panel, which allows you to monitor signal parameters in real time. Gaming on this screen, with the perfect black of OLED and impressive refresh rates, is pure pleasure.