LG QNED87T6B vs Philips OLED820

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.

When it comes to HDR quality, the Philips OLED820 uses the same class of WOLED panel that we find in its biggest competitors – LG C5 or Samsung S90F. This means we can count on truly solid performance. This year, mid-range OLED panels are capable of exceeding the threshold of a thousand nits, and the model tested reaches around 1300 nits in some films. This is an outstanding result that allows for an extremely precise depiction of the director's vision, as contemporary productions are mastered in such brightness ranges. Of course, there are situations where even the OLED820 has to compromise. Full-screen scenes flooded with white, like those in the movie The Meg, can drop brightness to 400–500 nits, which clearly weakens the effect. This is a characteristic of OLED technology that has not yet been fully eliminated. Despite this limitation, it is hard not to appreciate the HDR in this model – high luminance and wide coverage of the DCI-P3 color gamut at 99% make the picture simply look great.

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.

The color reproduction in the factory settings really surprised us, and positively so. The Philips OLED820, switched to Filmmaker mode, immediately showed that it was quite well tuned in terms of color. The white balance was relatively accurate, though with a slight lack in the blue hue, which sometimes gave the image a slightly yellowish tint. However, this is not a flaw that particularly interferes with everyday viewing. A larger problem arose with the brightness characteristic. The gamma chart clearly deviated from the ideal, with the line being below the expected values, causing the image to be overly brightened, and the colors looked as if they were covered with a light milky filter. This effect was also noticeable in tests using the Colour Checker pattern, where more pronounced errors appeared.

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.

After calibration, both the Filmmaker mode and the game mode gained quite a lot. A slight adjustment of the white balance and an improvement in brightness characteristics resulted in excellent outcomes for SDR content – the image looked almost perfect, natural and very close to the reference. In the case of HDR materials, the situation was similar; the colors looked stunning and it was hard to find anything to criticize. However, we noticed a certain feature that we had already pointed out when comparing scenes from the movie Billy Lynn. An analysis of the EOTF curve revealed that the television has a slight tendency to dim details in the blacks, which means that the darkest sections are not always displayed exactly as the director intended. Nevertheless, the effect after calibration is remarkable, and the OLED820 stands out as one of the more interesting screens in its class. It just needs a little bit of fine-tuning, and there's really nothing to be afraid of.

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.

Fortunately, the earlier effects of the aforementioned posterization can be quite effectively mitigated. The "distortion reduction" feature set to medium handles unwanted color banding, improving the smoothness of tonal transitions. It does happen, however, that it works a bit too aggressively and smooths out some details – such as minor skin imperfections of the actors – but despite this, it can be considered worth using without major compromises. The upscaling in the OLED820 also performs well. The test image with the model is exceptionally soft, sometimes even too much so, although this can be alleviated by slightly increasing the sharpness in the picture menu – it’s a matter of personal preference. The lack of overscan issues with very low-resolution content is also commendable, meaning we don't have to worry that the image will be unnecessarily cropped.

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.

Motion fluidity is an area where OLEDs always shine, and the Philips OLED820 confirms this rule. The panel itself offers a refresh rate of 144 Hz, which will mainly benefit PC gamers, but even with standard television sources or consoles, where 120 Hz is used, the motion is fast, sharp, and simultaneously smooth, without traces of ghosting. This is thanks to the outstanding response time between pixels, which ensures the image retains clarity in every dynamic scene. The manufacturer has also added its own smoothing feature called "Motion Style." In the menu, we find two sliders – the first, responsible for fluidity, allows us to adjust the amount of artificially added frames in movies. This way, we can choose a raw, cinematic character with a clearly visible film frame or a more theatrical image with smooth motion. The second slider is for reducing blurring, especially useful in sports broadcasts. Here, we definitely recommend setting it to the maximum value, as the effect is truly excellent.

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.

Philips OLED820 is one of the most complete televisions for gamers. It practically has everything you could expect: two HDMI 2.1 ports with full bandwidth of 48 Gbps (too bad there aren't four), variable refresh rate VRR, automatic game mode ALLM, support for Dolby Vision in games, and a good implementation of the HGiG mode. The television also handles lower resolutions at 120 Hz without any issues, so you can count on great flexibility when choosing different picture modes on the console. Philips also adds Game Bar – a panel that allows you to change picture modes, add a crosshair, or view parameters. Although it looks quite clunky and is less polished than that of the competition, it serves its purpose. In practice, therefore, the OLED820, besides having a full set of four HDMI 2.1 ports, offers almost everything a gamer might need.