Compare Haier K85F vs LG OLED C6 (WOLED)

The debut of the Haier brand in the European TV market with the K85F model gives the impression of being rushed, and after thorough testing, it feels almost unfinished. Analyzing this product, we come to a fundamental conclusion: its biggest problem is not the quality of the panel used. Given its price segment, this is simply average, with the typical advantages of VA technology in the form of high contrast and equally typical disadvantages such as poor viewing angles. What actually disqualifies this model as a home entertainment center is the glaring lack of engineering and, above all, software refinement. The list of shortcomings is long and starts from the first contact with the device. Careless assembly, which could have been avoided at the quality control stage, a poorly optimized and poorly translated Google TV system, and annoying issues with such basic functions as pairing the remote—these all contribute to the picture of a product that seems to have been released to market without due diligence. The catastrophic picture quality in HDR mode, resulting not only from low brightness but also from a complete lack of intelligent adaptation to the signal, only adds to this disappointing image. However, it turns out that this model has its second, surprising face. It is enough to look at it not through the prism of a home TV, but rather as a large and cheap display for special tasks. Then its shortcomings take a backseat, and unexpected advantages come to the forefront: an exceptionally well-functioning media player with USB, outstanding font readability from a PC, and access to a huge database of applications. In such a role—as a screen in a conference room, hotel lobby, or simple advertising player—the Haier K85F performs surprisingly well. For the typical user seeking a reliable and simply well-functioning TV for the living room in 2025, however, the Haier K85F is a proposition that is extremely difficult to recommend with a clear conscience. It is a product full of contradictions that fails in its primary function intended by the manufacturer on too many fronts.

The LG C6 is a very successful evolution of one of the most popular OLEDs on the market. The TV itself hasn't changed dramatically compared with last year's C5; the look is very similar, webOS offers comparable features, and gamers again get pretty much everything you'd expect from a modern TV. It's hard to fault that, since the C5 was already a very complete device in that regard. The most important change took place where there was actually room for improvement: the panel itself. The new WOLED panel is noticeably brighter, and roughly 1500 nits in HDR makes it increasingly hard to treat the C6 as just a "mid-range OLED." HDR movies look very impressive, black stays perfect, colors are very good, and the new processor (the same one found in the flagship G6) handles upscaling and lower-quality content very well. Add to that a seriously strong set of features for gamers. 165 Hz from a PC, VRR, G-Sync and very low input lag mean you can just as well hook up a console as a powerful PC. During the day the C6 also performs better than previous generations, though of course in a very bright living room you'll still find brighter TVs on the market. And that's probably exactly why we like the C series most: its versatility. The C6 doesn't try to be the best TV in every possible category, but it hardly performs poorly in any of them. It's suitable for movies, sports, gaming, regular TV and everyday streaming. If its price starts to fall after launch as it did with previous generations, it could be one of the most interesting OLEDs to buy in 2026.

Well, let's get to the meat of the matter, which is how the Haier K85F handles black levels and contrast. The key information is that the television uses a VA panel, which is crucial for picture quality in dark scenes. Thanks to this, the contrast is really solid – our measurements showed values around 5000:1, which is much better than those of popular IPS panels.

However, it's important to remember that we are talking about budget equipment. So, we should not expect any advanced technologies, such as local dimming. The backlighting works across the entire screen at all times. How did it look during viewing? We took the movie “Oblivion” with its cosmic landscapes for a test, and we also checked classic black bars in other productions. The effect was quite decent. The blacks had a good depth, but they weren't perfectly inky – a slight, bluish glow could be seen, revealing that the backlighting of the panel was still active.

If we talk about black levels, there isn't much to discuss. The LG C6 uses an OLED panel, so each pixel can be completely turned off. The result is exactly what we'd expect: perfect black, very high contrast, and no halo or glow around bright elements. You can see this clearly in night scenes, where single lamps, text, or other bright points appear against a very dark background. The C6 handles them without any problems and doesn't have the limitations typical of Mini LED TVs with local dimming. Interestingly, in this respect it doesn't matter whether we're talking about this version of the C6 or the more expensive variant with a Tandem OLED panel. In terms of black alone, both TVs perform practically identically. Differences between them need to be sought mainly in brightness and color.

NOTE: In the helicopter scene from the film Sicario 2 we noticed graininess and flickering in the darkest parts of the image. It looks like a software bug that LG should fix with an update. In the Tandem OLED version the effect is even more visible, and we observed similar behavior in the flagship LG G6 as well.

Now let's move on to one of the hottest topics in the world of televisions, which is the quality of HDR effect. In the case of the Haier K85F model, we must unfortunately make it clear: if you are looking for equipment to watch content in a wide dynamic range, you should steer clear of this model. The main issue is its very low peak brightness, which during our tests barely reached 250 nits. To give you a better idea of what this means – such a value is okay for watching standard SDR materials, but it is absolutely insufficient to show any real benefits of HDR. The image simply lacks the "power" to generate bright, striking bursts. All our measurements and tests on specialist patterns only confirmed this. As if that weren't enough, the television also struggles with color reproduction. In this budget model, we won't find any technologies that expand the color palette, such as quantum dot layers (known in marketing as "QLED"). As a result, the coverage of the DCI-P3 color space, which is crucial for HDR materials, is only about 80%. In practice, this means that the image will not only be dark but also devoid of vibrant, saturated colors that the director wanted to show us.

The HDR effect on the LG C6 is really very good. LG Display's new WOLED panel primarily brought a significant increase in brightness. In our unit we measured around 1,500 nits and, importantly, the TV can show similar values in many normal movie scenes. That gives HDR the proper impact. Bright highlights, lamps, or sunlight can be really strong, and most HDR movies simply look very impressive. Of course it's still an OLED, so brightness drops in scenes with a lot of white. The fifth scene of The Meg illustrates this well, where the C6 reached about 600-700 nits. That's still a very good result, but it also shows the new panel hasn't removed all the limitations typical of OLEDs.

Colors

When it comes to color, there is also little to complain about. The C6 covers about 99% of the DCI-P3 gamut and roughly 75% of BT.2020. In practice the colors are very saturated and, importantly, stable regardless of the scene. That's worth emphasizing, because not every TV behaves the same in this respect. In some RGB Mini LED models color saturation can depend more strongly on image brightness. Today a wider color gamut is mainly offered by QD-OLED TVs and new SQD models with a new generation of quantum dots. However, the C6 still performs very strongly here and is able to generate appropriately saturated colors in most movie scenes.

Well, how does the television perform with colors straight from the factory, without any intervention from our side? The Haier K85F offers a full range of picture modes, such as Dynamic or Eco, but for anyone who wants to watch movies according to the creators' intentions, only one really matters: Film mode. This is the mode we focused our tests on, and unfortunately, its name has little to do with reality. The picture in the factory settings is far from what we could call cinematic fidelity and requires many adjustments. Let's start with the white balance, which has a clear lack of red color. In practice, this means that the whole picture has a cool, bluish tint. The situation is even worse when it comes to brightness management, specifically gamma curves (for SDR) and EOTF (for HDR). Their graph resembles a real rollercoaster, which has a disastrous effect on the viewing experience. This results in unnatural dimming of SDR content, causing details in the shadows to get lost, and in the case of HDR – excessive brightness, which further exacerbates the issue of highlights. This combination, meaning too cool white combined with chaotic brightness and excessive blue color saturation, causes enormous errors in color reproduction. Our measurements on a specialized ColorChecker chart showed errors (Delta E) regularly reaching and exceeding values of 8-9. In simpler terms: errors above the threshold of 3 are easily noticeable to the naked eye, so such a result means that the colors on the screen are simply heavily distorted.

Right out of the box the LG C6 is pretty well set up, especially if you choose Filmmaker mode. In SDR material the white balance is decent, although as brightness increases it starts to lack a bit of red. The picture becomes a little cooler as a result, but it’s not such a big difference that it stands out during normal viewing. More happens in the brightness response itself. Gamma is a bit low and instead of holding at 2.4 it sits closer to 2.1–2.2 over much of the range. In practice the C6 slightly brightens midtones. Shadows are therefore more readable, but the image loses some depth compared with how it should look in a dark room. In HDR the situation is a bit more interesting. The start of the grayscale looks very good, but from about 20–30% brightness the white balance starts to drift more and more. As brightness rises there’s more red and a noticeable lack of blue. In the brightest highlights the difference is already significant and also affects reproduction of some colors. The EOTF curve itself is handled fairly well over most of the range. The C6 only has a tendency to slightly brighten the image, which we also saw during our film comparisons. The largest deviation appears around the brightest highlights, where the TV begins to adapt the signal to the panel’s capabilities. So the out-of-the-box Filmmaker mode in HDR isn’t perfect, but overall it performs well. The biggest room for improvement is the white balance, especially at high brightness.

Well, is there anything we can do about this image? Can professional calibration save the situation? The answer is: both yes and no. It must be clearly stated that there are certain things we cannot overcome. The limitations of the construction itself, namely a poor panel and its narrow color coverage, mean that you can forget about achieving meaningful HDR – we won’t sugarcoat it for you. The biggest beneficiary of our adjustments is undoubtedly the SDR mode, and it is precisely for watching such content, after calibration, that this television begins to make sense. We managed to tame the white balance in our own way. Although the TV only offers basic 2-point adjustment (instead of precise 20-point), it’s not perfect, but we successfully eliminated that unpleasant, cold "chill" in the image. Above all, however, we recorded a significant improvement in brightness management. The gamma curve, which previously resembled a rollercoaster, looks like an almost perfectly straight line after calibration. This is a sign that the TV can finally display images without artificially dimming or brightening them. The conclusion is simple: even in the case of such a cheap television, professional adjustment of the settings can achieve a lot and draw out its maximum potential.

LG TVs have been very receptive to calibration for years, and the C6 is no exception. After adjustment the white balance was set almost perfectly, and most color errors dropped to values below 3, often even around 2. In practice this means very accurate color reproduction in both SDR and HDR. An interesting detail appeared only with the HDR brightness characteristic. On a classic EOTF chart everything looks nearly ideal, and at first glance it would be hard to find fault. Only when we measured the TV’s behavior using filters based on actual movie scenes did it become clear that the C6 has a slight tendency to artificially boost image brightness.

It’s not a huge difference and many people may even see it as a positive, because HDR looks a bit more impressive this way. From the standpoint of fidelity to the source material this isn’t ideal — some scenes are simply a touch brighter than the filmmaker intended. Interestingly, this is somewhat unusual for LG. In previous generations, the brand’s TVs typically stuck very closely to the reference tone curve after calibration. With the C6 we’re still very close to the standard, but that subtle boost in brightness is indeed noticeable in films and series.

It's time to address an issue that many may overlook, but to the trained (and not only) eye, it can be quite irritating. We're talking about the smoothness of tonal transitions, or how smoothly the screen displays transitions between very similar shades of one color – for example, on a clear blue sky. We must admit that in this category, the Haier K85F, considering its price, performs quite decently. In bright scenes, such as the aforementioned sky or expansive landscapes in the movie "The Martian," there are no harsh, contrasting bands visible. Indeed, if we look closely, we can spot minimal imperfections, but generally, the effect is more than satisfactory. However, the situation changes when darker scenes are on the screen, such as gloomy corridors in games or nighttime landscapes. Here, banding, or the posterization effect, becomes much more noticeable. Transitions in shadows and shades of gray are no longer as smooth and can irritate the more sensitive eye. This is not a level that would completely disqualify the television, but it is evident that this is an area where costs were cut.

The LG C6 handles tonal transitions very well. In most movie scenes it was hard to notice any obvious posterization issues. Both in the dark parts of the image and in bright gradients the colors remain relatively smooth and do not break up into visible bands. That's good news, because WOLED panels haven't always been perfect in this regard. With the C6 it's clearly better, and during normal viewing this aspect of the image shouldn't draw attention.

Note: One downside is the dithering visible in near-black areas. Up close you can notice subtle flicker and grain in the darkest parts of the image. It's not as pronounced as with the Tandem OLED panel, but it still occurs, so we decided to dock the C6 a few points in this category.

Let's move on to digital processing and image scaling, that is, how the Haier K85F handles lower resolution signals, for example, from standard television. Right from the start, we encounter an extremely annoying and completely incomprehensible issue – the overscan feature is enabled by default. This means that the television artificially enlarges the image, cropping its edges, and this occurs on every source, even 1080p. To see the full frame, you have to dig into the screen settings every time and manually switch the format to "stretch to 16:9." It's a detail, but incredibly frustrating. The scaling of content to 4K resolution can be described in one word: acceptable. And that's basically it. The image processor does not strip the image of details, nor does it generate jagged edges or other artifacts. It simply does its job, without any fireworks. It's fine, but nothing more. The biggest and most noticeable shortcoming in the digital processing section is the absence of a banding smoothing function. This is an algorithm that could significantly reduce the annoying banding effect we mentioned earlier. Unfortunately, the manufacturer did not implement such a solution, condemning us to watch the imperfections of the panel and low-quality materials in all their glory.

The LG C6 has taken a really big step forward here. The TV uses the same processor found in the flagship G6, and in terms of image processing the two models are very similar. That’s a big plus, because in this area LG’s processor this year performs excellently. The "Smooth Gradation" feature works especially well. With heavily compressed material it can effectively hide ugly tonal transitions and artifacts that often appear, for example, in lower-quality streaming. It’s best to leave it set to "Low." Then the improvement is clear, and the TV doesn’t yet start blurring fine details. Higher levels smooth the image more, but can already remove some of the natural texture of objects on the screen. The upscaling itself also performs very well. Lower-resolution content is sharpened properly, edges look clean, and the processor quite effectively rebuilds fine details. In this regard the C6 is already very close to LG’s best TVs, and the differences compared with the G6 are small.

The panel in the K85F model operates at a native refresh rate of 60 Hz, which already sets certain expectations for smoothness of the image right from the start. However, we must admit that we were very positively surprised when we found not one, but two separate sliders for motion control in the settings menu: one labeled "Blur Reduction" and the other "De-Judder." Such generosity in this price segment is an absolute rarity, as usually manufacturers offer at most one common option. Unfortunately, our enthusiasm quickly dwindled as fast as it appeared. It soon became clear why Haier was so "generous" – the slider responsible for blur reduction is simply a dummy. Moving it does not produce any visible effect on the screen; thus, only one of the two options actually works.

The LG C6 features a panel with a maximum refresh rate of 165 Hz, which is great news especially for gamers using a powerful PC. For movies, sports, or consoles we'll of course use up to 120 Hz, but even then it's hard to fault the motion clarity. As you'd expect from an OLED, the panel's response time is almost instantaneous. Moving objects therefore don't leave the characteristic smears you still see on LCD TVs. This is particularly noticeable in sports and fast-paced games, where the picture remains very clean even during dynamic motion.

For movies and TV, LG also provides the TruMotion motion-smoothing system. In the user settings you'll find two separate sliders. De-Judder is mainly for low-frame-rate content, that is primarily 24 fps films and series. It can slightly reduce the characteristic judder, or be set higher if you want a much smoother image. De-Blur is useful for higher-frame-rate material, mainly sports broadcasts and 50/60 fps television.

Let's move on to the features for gamers, although we must point out right away that this is more of a proposal for "casual" players. The manufacturer boasts in the specifications about the presence of HDMI 2.1 ports, which looks impressive on paper, but in reality, it is largely a marketing gimmick. What good is a modern port when the heart of the television is a panel with a refresh rate of 60 Hz? It physically cannot display a signal at 120 frames per second, even at lower resolutions, which takes away HDMI 2.1's most important advantage. That's a shame. (That’s why we mark it as HDMI 2.0 ports in our tests). Another oddity is the television's response to attempts to calibrate HDR from the console. Changes in brightness settings cause very unnatural behavior of the image, which might suggest an incorrect implementation of the HGiG standard. To be honest, however, you shouldn't worry too much about this, because as we have mentioned multiple times, we simply do not recommend using any HDR content on this screen. However, to make it not so bitter, the Haier K85F also has two significant and unexpected advantages. The first is the presence of ALLM, or Auto Low Latency Mode, which switches the television to low latency mode as soon as it detects a connected console. The second, even bigger surprise is support for VRR, or Variable Refresh Rate. Although it works in a very modest range of 48-60 Hz, its very presence is commendable. Thanks to this, the image in games can stutter less, which truly improves the gaming experience.

LG has focused heavily on gamers for years, and the C6 really lacks nothing important. The TV supports 4K at 120 Hz from consoles, and when connected to a PC it can run up to 165 Hz. It also offers VRR from 40 to 165 Hz, ALLM, and properly working HGiG. A big plus is Dolby Vision support for games, so the Xbox Series X can use that format without sacrificing game mode. The package is rounded out by a Game Bar that lets you quickly check key signal parameters and change settings without leaving the game. In terms of features, the C6 is one of those TVs that’s really hard to find fault with. Whether you play on PlayStation, Xbox, or PC, practically everything you could expect from a modern gaming TV is available here.

However, we have to give credit to Haier – there is one parameter where this television absolutely shines and embarrasses many more expensive models. We are talking about input lag, or signal delay. Our measurements showed a remarkably low result of only 13 ms. This is a huge advantage that makes controlling games instantaneous and extremely responsive. In this regard, the K85F performs excellently.

In terms of input lag, the C6 performs as a good gaming TV should. At 120 Hz we measured about 5 ms, so controller input is practically instantaneous. At 60 Hz it rises to around 14 ms, which is still good. Slightly higher input lag appears in Dolby Vision. At 120 Hz we get about 14 ms, and at 60 Hz about 22 ms. In practice, if you're playing normally on an Xbox, it's unlikely to be something that will really bother you.

And what if we try to use this Haier as a computer monitor? Here, what was a big surprise for us, the TV performs exceptionally well. For office work – it’s perfect. All thanks to the fact that it properly supports the so-called chroma sampling 4:4:4. To put it simply: every single letter on the screen is sharp, without annoying colored halos or blurriness. Sure, let’s be straightforward – this is not equipment for PC gamers. 60 Hz is too low for them. But if you just need a big screen for text work, browsing the internet, coding, or displaying presentations, then the K85F will perform excellently in this role. It’s one of its strongest and, to be honest, most unexpected applications.

The C6 also performs very well when connected to a computer. The TV correctly supports 4:4:4 chroma, so text, icons and other small UI elements are displayed sharply. That means you can use it not only for gaming but also for regular work in Windows without major issues. One limitation is the four-subpixel matrix layout. If you sit very close to the screen, you may notice slight colored fringing along the edges of some fonts. However, this is not particularly bothersome and is practically invisible from a normal viewing distance. The C6 also has a lot to offer PC gamers. From a PC you can take full advantage of the 165 Hz refresh rate, plus there’s G-Sync, VRR and a very low input lag of around 5 ms at maximum refresh. Combined with the OLED’s ultra-fast response time, this delivers a very smooth, clean image with no visible smearing. So if someone plans to hook a powerful PC to the C6, the TV can easily serve as a large gaming monitor and also works quite well for everyday productivity.

At almost the very end of the evaluation of the panel itself, we left the viewing angles, which unfortunately are one of its biggest weaknesses. However, we must honestly admit that this is no surprise – it is simply a natural and widely known characteristic of VA-type panels. In the unit we tested, interestingly, the brightness of the image did not drop drastically when we moved away from the center of the screen. The real problem, however, is the colors, which instantly begin to fade. A slight change in position on the sofa is enough for the hues to lose their saturation and become washed out. In this regard, the Haier K85F presents a very average level, typical for this technology.

Viewing angles on the LG C6 are very good and are actually among the best you can find in TVs today. That’s largely thanks to the OLED panel itself. Even when you sit noticeably to the side, the picture still maintains good contrast and the colors don’t lose much of their saturation. Because of that, the C6 is very well suited to a larger living room where not everyone sits directly in front of the screen. Only at very extreme angles can you notice slight changes in color, but during normal viewing it’s hard to regard that as any kind of problem. In this respect, really only Samsung Display's QD-OLED panels perform better.

And how does the television perform in confrontation with daylight, for example in a heavily sunlit living room? Unfortunately, we don't have good news here. As we've established, this is a television with relatively low brightness, which becomes a serious drawback in the face of sunlight. The situation is further worsened by the applied screen coating. Instead of effectively suppressing reflections, its satin structure tends to unfavorably scatter them. In practice, this means that the reflection of a window or lamp turns into a large, blurred, milky halo, which degrades contrast and effectively hinders viewing. The conclusion is therefore clear: if the television is to be placed in a bright room, the K85F model will not be a good choice.

The LG C6 has a glossy panel that handles direct reflections quite well, but it doesn't eliminate them completely. If there's a large window or a bright lamp opposite the TV, their reflections will still be visible. On the other hand, the screen preserves blacks well in a lit room, and even during the day the picture doesn't become gray or washed out. Additionally, the C6 is fairly bright in SDR. With typical content we measured about 470 nits, so in most living rooms it should handle daytime viewing without major issues. Brightness only starts to drop significantly when a large portion of the screen is occupied by white. This is still one of the typical characteristics of OLEDs, and you can notice it with very bright content, such as winter sports. Overall the C6 performs well in a normally lit living room. However, if the TV will sit opposite huge windows and have to battle strong sunlight for most of the day, a bright Mini LED will still be the better choice.

GoogleTV on Haier K85F

The heart of the television is the Google TV system, which in theory should be its huge advantage. Access to thousands of applications and a wealth of features are promises we are familiar with. Unfortunately, in Haier's execution, this is one of the worst implementations of this software we have encountered. The system operates painfully slowly, and the interface notoriously freezes. However, the real nightmare is the incorrect and often downright comical translations of some menu options, making it at times difficult to figure out what is being referred to. To make matters worse, during our tests, we were unable to launch the AirPlay function, which simply did not work.

Classic features on Haier K85F

Let's move on to the classic features and ports, because this story is even more interesting. A plus is certainly the rich set of ports, including four HDMI inputs and a rarely found mini-jack headphone output. Unfortunately, the television does not offer either USB recording or PiP mode. However, the real ordeal begins with the remote. Our first attempts to pair it via Bluetooth to activate radio frequency (RF) control and voice functions ended in total failure. After several dozen attempts, we were sure it was simply a manufacturing defect. And here's the surprise: after a long struggle, we discovered that the remote can be paired, but it needs to be done from the native Google TV settings, completely bypassing Haier's non-functioning system overlay. This is a perfect example of how terrible software can ruin basic functionality. Oh, and one more thing. In the box... there weren’t even any batteries for the remote.

Smart TV - webOS

Regardless of which C6 variant you end up with, the feature set is the same. At the heart of the TV is, of course, webOS, the system LG has been developing for many years. It runs fast, is well optimized and, above all, provides access to practically all popular apps. Netflix, Disney+, Prime Video, YouTube, Max and other streaming services - in that respect there are few gaps. The system itself also offers plenty of extra features. There’s AirPlay, easy screen mirroring from your smartphone, control of smart home devices and the ability to personalize the home screen. LG has been expanding webOS for several generations and sometimes the number of tabs and recommendations can be a bit overwhelming, especially with background ads, but once you get used to it the system is convenient and, most importantly, works smoothly.

Classic TV features

The C6 also handles being used like a regular TV very well, not just as a screen for Netflix. Over-the-air TV reception, the program guide and channel switching all work smoothly and there’s little to complain about. LG still offers the ability to record shows to USB, so in terms of classic features the set is really well equipped. There are basically only two things missing. The first is PiP, the ability to display two video sources at once. The second is a backlight on the remote, which would be useful for evening viewing. Other than that the C6 has pretty much everything you can expect from a modern TV.

Magic Remote - DIFFERENT VERSIONS

When buying the C6 it’s worth paying attention to the remote, because LG has created a bit of a mix-up here. During our tests we had, among others, the C64 variant, found in large retail chains. That package included the new, much smaller Magic Remote Slim. It has fewer buttons and looks far more modern, but it still keeps two of LG’s most distinctive remote features - the scroll wheel and pointer control by moving the remote. The C6E we tested came with the older, larger Magic Remote. It works essentially the same, but has a classic numeric keypad and many more physical buttons. It looks less modern, but some people, especially those used to classic remotes, may find it more comfortable. So there’s no single answer to which remote is better. The new one is smaller, simpler and decidedly more contemporary, while the older one gives faster access to more functions without navigating through menus. It’s good to know that depending on the C6 model code the box may contain one or the other variant.

After all our complaints about the unfinished software, the moment came when we experienced absolute shock. It turns out that within this error-prone and slow system, there is a function that works almost perfectly and puts industry veterans to shame. We are talking about the built-in media player for USB drives. It is a true multimedia powerhouse that played virtually every video format we threw at it without the slightest hesitation – from the most popular to the completely niche. Haier, a newcomer to the TV market, has achieved something that many manufacturers with decades of experience have struggled with for years. Who knows, perhaps it was intended to be a reliable player for conference rooms? Regardless of its origin, the result is outstanding!

During our tests the TV handled practically all of the most popular video formats we put on a USB flash drive without any problems. There were no issues with high bitrates, subtitles, or more demanding files, so it's hard to find fault with it in that respect. The only exception was material with a DTS audio track. This is not surprising, since the TV simply does not support that codec. Besides, the TV’s media player is good enough that most users will be fine without installing third-party apps or hooking up an external player.

Unfortunately, the review regarding the sound will be very short. The biggest advantage of the built-in speakers of the K85F is actually that they are simply there and produce sound. Aside from that, the sound is completely flat, lacking any bass tones and just anemic. Yes, the TV box features a Dolby Atmos logo, but in light of the physical capabilities of these drivers, it is a function that exists only on paper. Therefore, the verdict can only be one: when planning to purchase this TV, one should immediately add a soundbar to the budget.

In terms of sound, the C6 has hardly changed compared with last year’s C5. We still get a 2.2 system with a total output of 40 W, which is a somewhat more solid foundation than the simple 2.0 20 W setups in many TVs. In practice the sound is quite good. Dialogues are clear, the sound isn’t overly flat, and the extra speakers provide a bit more bass than many basic TVs. Of course it still won’t replace a good soundbar, let alone a full home theater, but it’s more than enough for everyday TV viewing.

There is a small step back in the settings, though. LG removed some of the preset sound modes this year, which makes it a bit harder to tailor the sound to your preferences than with the previous generation. For that reason our rating is slightly lower, even though the speakers’ capabilities remain virtually unchanged. On the plus side, the TV supports Dolby Atmos, currently the most popular surround format for films and streaming. It still lacks DTS support, which may matter mainly to people using their own movie libraries on discs or files.

Haier K85F vs LG OLED C6 (WOLED)

Advantages

Disadvantages

Our verdict

TV appearance

Where to buy

Contrast and black detail

HDR effect quality

Colors

Factory color reproduction

Color reproduction after calibration

Smoothness of tonal transitions

Image scaling and smoothness of tonal transitions

Blur and motion smoothness

Console compatibility and gaming features

Input lag

Compatibility with PC

Viewing angles

Daytime performance

Panel details

TV features

Classic features:

Smart features:

Sound connection options

Supported audio formats (external HDMI eARC audio):

Senior accessibility

GoogleTV on Haier K85F

Classic features on Haier K85F

Smart TV - webOS

Classic TV features

Magic Remote - DIFFERENT VERSIONS

Apps

Playing files from USB

Sound

Sound Quality Test

Acoustic Measurements