Philips PUS7000 vs LG OLED G6 (G64LW, G66LS)

Unfortunately, the PUS7000 is not suitable for watching HDR content. This screen is simply too dark. A brightness level of 200 nits is not enough to correctly display such a format. Even if a HDR signal message appears on the screen, the image will resemble a regular SDR recording. Therefore, it's better to stick with the latter format to avoid issues in displaying bright scenes, which you can read about below. The situation is not improved by the fact that this is a classic LCD model without additional layers to enhance colors, such as QLED or PFS. As a result, colors 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.

The LG G6 is currently one of the brightest OLEDs on the market. Its peak brightness reaches nearly 2500 nits, and best of all – this has a direct impact on real film scenes. The television flawlessly pulls out details in the bright parts 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's protection system (ABL). However, in real, varied film shots, this value still hovers around 2000 nits, which can be considered an outstanding result. The coverage of the color palette also deserves praise. The new 2nd generation Tandem OLED panel brought only a cosmetic change, but still an improvement. The DCI-P3 color gamut coverage reaches nearly 99.5%, while the ultra-wide BT.2020 is around 84%. These are very good results, although one must remember one thing: at extremely high brightness levels, the volume of colors will be lower than in QD-OLED panels from Samsung Display due to the use of a white sub-pixel (WOLED). However, in everyday content and most films, detecting this difference will be very difficult.

We tested the television in movie mode, which theoretically should provide the best and most natural colors. And indeed, this mode is quite correct; however, after connecting the calibration equipment, its biggest flaw became apparent. The PUS7000 has significant deficiencies in displaying red. Poorly tuned white balance and too low saturation of this color cause the image to appear too cool. As a result, one might get the impression that the displayed content is simply lacking in vibrant colors. The situation is exacerbated 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, the Philips menu offers many functions to improve these aspects, so we immediately proceeded to calibration to see what could be squeezed out of this screen.

We tested the LG G6 in the best factory mode for color fidelity, which is FILMMAKER MODE. For our test unit, this mode was fairly well-tuned right out of the box. In SDR content, the only thing we could nitpick was the white balance, which leaned towards warmer tones. As a result, the image could sometimes appear slightly yellowed; however, overall, it wasn't a bothersome issue. The G6 performed a bit worse with HDR content. There, we noticed too much blue component in the white balance. This caused the image to take on cooler shades, resulting in quite noticeable errors. As can be seen in our ColorChecker chart, colors were indeed shifting towards these cooler registers. Nevertheless, for factory settings, the television displayed a completely decent level. However, we know that OLED screens – especially those from LG – respond wonderfully to professional calibration, which is why we immediately proceeded with it.

After professional calibration, it is clear that the PUS7000 responds well to image adjustments. In this price range, this is not a given. The effects should be assessed in two scenarios, depending on what content we plan to watch. SDR performs the best. After our corrections, the image looks really good. Most color errors fell below level 3, which is the threshold at which distortions typically become visible to the naked eye in measurements. Movies, series, sports, and regular television present themselves naturally, without unpleasant deviations. If someone primarily watches classic channels or streaming in HD quality, the difference after calibration will be noticeable immediately. However, it must be made clear that the PUS7000 is still not a television suitable for sensible HDR, and calibration does not change much here. The reason lies in the hardware: colors remain too undersaturated. The television lacks solutions that expand the color gamut, such as PFS filters or a quantum dot layer, so the panel simply cannot show the intense colors required by HDR. This is most evident in reds, which still look pale. This limitation cannot be bypassed with menu settings, as it results from the design of the backlighting and the panel itself.

After conducting a professional calibration, we gained complete control over the panel, and we were able to adjust all parameters to nearly zero. We managed to perfectly tune the white balance, which made the factory-cool and warm tints disappear from the screen. The effects are clearly evident in the ColorChecker test – the average color reproduction errors dropped below the critical value of 1-2. And what does that mean? PERFECT colors, with no distortion whatsoever! However, from a reviewer's obligation, we must comment on how the LG G6 autonomously manipulates brightness, for which the EOTF curve is responsible. When we look at the standard synthetic graph, it may seem that the line is quite straight. The situation changes, however, when we turn on the measurement filter, which shows how the television interprets brightness in real, moving film scenes (EOTF in MOVIES). At that point, it becomes clear that some of the smallest fragments 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 the best television of the year.

The PUS7000 handles digital image processing quite well. The distortion reduction feature deserves praise, as it effectively smooths out unwanted tonal transitions even at a low setting. However, it has a flaw: if the action is too aggressive, it can introduce undesirable artifacts on the screen. It’s a good idea to experiment with this setting to find the sweet spot between a smooth image and detail clarity.

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

No matter what one may say about the G6's problems with near-black signal, it must be fairly acknowledged that it handles highly compressed material and lower resolution content brilliantly. All unwanted, ugly tonal transitions are effectively reduced here by the “Smooth Gradation” feature. On the “Low” setting, the algorithm operates flawlessly – effectively masking the artifacts resulting from strong compression, without destroying the sharpness and details in the frame. Higher levels of this feature indeed smooth the image even more, but they start to blur the real texture elements of objects, which is why we recommend keeping this slider at a low level. 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 respect, the G6 does not lag behind the world's best.

In this regard, we don't really have any good news. It might seem that the biggest downside is the lack of a 120 Hz panel, but in this price range, that's actually standard, and it's hard to expect more. However, the worst part is that the TV does not have any motion smoothing features. There are no supporting systems for either movies or sports. We have to accept that the image on the PUS7000 is processed "raw." This means that during dynamic scenes or fast camera movements, the motion may appear choppy or unclear. We have no way to enable any smoother that would soften this effect.

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

Although the PUS7000 is not marketed as a gaming TV, it does not perform as poorly in this category as one might expect. While there is no support for 120 Hz refresh rates, which is understandable at this price point, the manufacturer has included several important features that genuinely improve the comfort of playing on a console. The most significant of these are VRR and ALLM technologies. VRR is responsible for synchronizing the screen with the number of frames generated by the console. This prevents the image from "tearing" and keeps it consistent even during sudden frame drops in the game. In turn, ALLM is a solution that automatically switches the TV to the lowest latency mode right after detecting a signal from the console. All of these parameters are easily accessible thanks to the Game Bar feature. This is a special control panel for gamers that can be brought up on the screen at any time. It allows for a quick overview of current settings and connection status without interrupting gameplay, which is a very convenient solution.

LG G6 is a true monster for gamers and one of the best-equipped TVs in this regard on the market. The manufacturer did not seek compromises and equipped 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 your PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X, or powerful PC into, you will extract the absolute maximum from them.

The TV supports a full suite of gaming technologies: from VRR (Variable Refresh Rate), through AMD FreeSync Premium Pro, to Nvidia G-Sync Compatible. Let's add to this the remarkably low, almost imperceptible input lag and a brilliantly functioning gamer panel (Game Optimizer), which allows you to continuously monitor the signal parameters. Gaming on this screen, with the perfect black of OLED and powerful refresh rates, is pure pleasure.