LG QNED87T6B vs LG MRGB85B

The QNED87T6B provides a solid HDR performance, delivering an impressive visual experience in many aspects. With a brightness approaching 500 nits, it offers good visibility of fine details in high-dynamic scenes. Support for HDR10 and HLG ensures the content appears well on the screen, though the absence of more advanced formats like Dolby Vision or HDR10+ limits the potential for optimal brightness and detail in certain scenes. Without dynamic metadata, the TV may struggle to reproduce fine details in very bright areas, where these advanced standards would typically make a difference. However, its excellent coverage of the DCI-P3 colour gamut (96.4%) provides vibrant, natural colours, enhancing the overall visual quality of 4K content.

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!

The LG QNED87T6B, even in its best factory setting, Filmmaker Mode, exhibits issues with colour reproduction. A significant problem is the white balance, where the blue colour tends to drop on the graph, causing a shift towards yellow. This results in a warmer hue than intended, which affects the naturalness of color reproduction, especially in scenes with white or neutral backgrounds. The Colour Checker test confirmed that certain colours are distorted and do not accurately reflect reality, which can make movie scenes seem less lifelike and distort details.

In terms of contrast, there are notable issues with the gamma graph, showing significant drops where the optimal value should be around 2.4. This results in the TV displaying darker areas brighter in some scenes, which reduces depth and dynamic range. Additionally, the EOTF (Electro-Optical Transfer Function) curve, which corresponds to brightness reproduction, shows an unnatural drop at the start, leading to lower accuracy in dark scenes. This diminishes the TV's ability to convey full black depth, causing details in darker areas to be lost. As a result, more demanding scenes may appear less realistic, with a noticeable loss of detail in shadows and dark areas.

We tested the TV in Filmmaker Mode, because among the available settings it produced the image closest to the reference. Factory color reproduction was not perfect. The biggest deviations were in the white balance, with too much red and not enough blue, which pushed the picture noticeably toward warmer tones. Whites took on a slightly yellowish cast, and skin tones and bright areas did not always look natural. It wasn’t a flaw that completely ruined the viewing experience, but in a direct comparison with the same screen after calibration the difference was clearly visible.

After calibration, the LG QNED87T6B delivers impressive results with SDR content. The white balance has been improved, resulting in natural, harmonious tones across various scenes. The precise gamma tuning allows for accurate reproduction of details in both dark and bright areas, making the TV perform excellently in everyday use. The overall image is vivid and well-balanced, with solid colour quality in HD. The contrast has also improved, with the gamma chart showing fewer significant errors, providing a more refined viewing experience.

In 4K HDR, the white balance continues to perform well, though some errors remain at the end of the chart. These might be linked to the TV's aggressive local dimming, which can affect colour accuracy in certain scenes. While the TV does not fully improve brightness as indicated by the EOTF curve, its inherent construction limitations prevent it from achieving perfection in this area. The Colour Checker test highlights an issue with colour saturation, as the TV, despite offering a wide colour gamut, cannot fully capture what the director intended.

Nevertheless, the overall picture quality after calibration is considerably better than before. The improvements in white balance and gamma tuning result in more vivid and realistic colours, enhancing the viewing experience despite the remaining shortcomings.

Calibration primarily corrected the white balance and removed the previously visible warm tint. After the adjustment, whites no longer had a yellow cast and colors became more neutral and natural. The biggest improvement was seen in SDR content, where the picture looked even and much closer to the reference. A similar effect was achieved in HDR. After calibration the picture became more controlled, although not all of the TV's limitations could be eliminated. The biggest issue remained the intense reds, which were not always reproduced with the necessary precision. In practice the MRGB85 handles everyday SDR content very well, but in more demanding HDR material its limitations remain clearly visible.

When it comes to lower-quality content, the LG QNED87T6B performs admirably, with smooth gradation effectively addressing problematic areas in the image without negatively impacting the film grain. For optimal results, setting the "Smooth Gradation" feature to a low level delivers the best effect, significantly enhancing the viewing experience of lower-resolution materials by making them smoother and more visually appealing.

The TV handles digital processing well, ensuring the image is displayed without overscan or clipping. While slight jaggedness may be noticeable on certain fine details, such as branches against a background, the overall presentation remains impressive. Users will be satisfied with the quality of the image when watching lower-quality content, such as standard television, as the TV does an excellent job of enhancing the visual experience.

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 you can easily disable overscan regardless of the source. The TV also handles compression artifacts fairly well. The "Smooth Gradation" feature can effectively reduce visible banding and tonal unevenness, but it doesn't always work precisely. At higher settings it can smooth over fine details, for example material textures. On the plus side, it doesn't remove film grain. It's safest to use the "Low" or "Medium" setting, which provides the best compromise between artifact reduction and detail retention.

The LG QNED87T6B delivers decent motion smoothness, particularly with the "TruMotion" feature, which allows users to adjust motion smoothing on a scale from 0 to 10. The "De-Judder" setting helps regulate the smoothness of motion, while the "De-Blur" option enhances motion sharpness. This provides flexibility for users to choose between a more traditional cinematic effect with slight judder (lower settings) and a smoother, more theatrical image, which, while slightly deviating from the cinematic standard, can be appealing to many viewers.

For gamers and sports fans, the 120Hz panel ensures an immersive experience, while the IPS technology offers better response times compared to comparable VA panels at a similar price. This results in smoother gameplay and more dynamic viewing of fast-paced sports events, making the QNED87T6B an excellent choice for those seeking high-quality motion performance.

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 smoothness. 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 sports, where camera movement is noticeably smoother than on basic 60 Hz models. There's also the TruMotion system, which lets you set the level of motion smoothing yourself. You can keep a more cinematic motion or increase smoothness, which works well for sports broadcasts and TV shows. The range of adjustment is wide, so you can easily tailor the motion smoothing to your preferences.

The LG QNED87T6B is a top-tier choice for gamers seeking high-performance features. It is equipped with four HDMI 2.1 ports, allowing seamless connection to the latest consoles like the PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series X. This ensures full functionality, including support for Variable Refresh Rate (VRR) and Auto Low Latency Mode (ALLM), which provide a smoother and more responsive gaming experience. The Game Bar feature enables easy management of gaming settings, allowing users to adjust VRR, ALLM, Multi View, and monitor the frame rate without navigating complex menus.

Additionally, the TV supports G-Sync and FreeSync, which are crucial for gamers using Nvidia and AMD graphics cards. These technologies synchronize the TV's refresh rate with the graphics card, reducing screen tearing and stuttering. With a 120Hz panel, the LG QNED87 delivers exceptional motion smoothness and image clarity, while the Black Frame Insertion (BFI) feature, available at 60Hz and 120Hz, further enhances visual fluidity. Overall, the LG QNED87T6B meets the demands of even the most discerning gamers, offering a comprehensive range of features that elevate the gaming experience.

When it comes to gaming, the LG MRGB85 performs best by far. The manufacturer didn’t skimp on the feature set and essentially brought the full suite of functions from higher-end TVs to this model. You get three HDMI 2.1 ports with full 48 Gbps bandwidth. Each of them supports 4K 120 Hz from consoles, and when connected to a PC also 4K 144 Hz. So you don’t have to worry about which port to plug your console or PC into, since they all offer the same capabilities.

It also includes VRR, AMD FreeSync Premium, NVIDIA G-Sync Compatible, ALLM, and HGiG. Dolby Vision Gaming is present as well, allowing supported games to use high refresh rates and dynamic HDR simultaneously on Xbox. Rounding it out is 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.