Tour & Design
The front of the LG 60PK950 is, as you might expect, a gigantic screen. Overall, the design is quite fetching. The bezel width has only decreased in a size a little since last year – at least that's how you see it from the front. (The TV's overall width has slimmed considerably; more on that further down this page). However, on a 60-inch TV, the bezel is certainly not going to draw as much as attention as they are on a 32-inch TV.
Along the bottom right side, there are a series of touch-sensitive buttons for power, volume, channel up/down, menu, and input select. The high-gloss surface is guaranteed to pick up fingerprints if you plan on using these buttons, or if you plan on swiveling it back and forth very often.
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Back**
We had a touch time getting a clear look at the back of the LG 60PK950, but as you can see from the photo below, we saw enough to make some notes. It's huge, and constructed of thin, matte plastic. All the ports are conveniently gathered in the lower right corner, right around the corner from a second set of ports on the side. Because the base swivels, you'll have no trouble connecting all those pesky cables.
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Sides**
The LG 60PK950 has slimmed down by a reported 35%, going from approximately 2 inches to 1.5 inches. Yes, we're aware those numbers don't quite match up, but these are the numbers LG is providing. Anyway, the thing got slimmer. Enjoy it. The PK950 series also shed about 40% of its weight since last year.
The right side is completely blank. The left side has a small jack pack for easy access ports.
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Stand/Mount**
The stand is thick, made of shiny black plastic. It looks sturdy and it swivels, making it easier to reach those ports in the back. Fortunately, plasma TVs like this have such a wide viewing angle, you may not need to swivel the TV nearly as often as you would an LCD television.
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Aesthetics**
The LG 60PK950 is a pretty little TV, but high-gloss black with clear acrylic tapering has been seen for years now. LG isn't making any waves, unlike Samsung's highly stylish C9000 series.
Performance Features
Display Size & Technology
The LG 60PK950 is a plasma television, displaying at 1080p. It builds on the technology from last year's predecessors, but LG is expected to make some performance gains. First, the glass in the display is thinner, which not only makes the unit weigh less, but is reported to enhance the appearance of dark colors. It should also reduce the amount of bounce-back reflection, an annoying phenomenon that occurs in plasma TVs in which the glass reflects the image back on itself, creating a halo effect around objects when you look at them from an angle.
LG is also planning on enabling the PK950 series for 3D display, but that particular detail has not been confirmed. If it's true, it makes sense. The leading TV manufacturers are kicking off 2010 but putting the 3D option on their top series. Like many others, LG is using Active Shutter technology, which requires glasses (and likely expensive glasses, though prices are not available yet).
Both the 50-inch and 60-inch models in the PK950 series are set to have the same features. Only screen size will vary.
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Formats & Resolution**
The LG 60PK950 is a native 1080p television, with a 1920 x 1080 resolution. You'd be hard pressed to find a 720p TV over 32 inches this year.
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Brightness, Blacks and Contrast Ratio**
LG is claiming an improvement called TruBlack Filter, which uses a different type of glass to enhance dark color. Of course, the side-by-side samples on the CES show floor make the difference impossible to ignore, but we're not prone to trusting manufacturers. We'll have to wait until we get a PK950 into our labs to confirm the claim.
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Color**
There was little mentioned about color performance improvement over last year, except to repeat what's stated above: LG claims dark colors will be enhanced, whatever that means.
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Motion & Refresh Rate**
The LG 60PK950 features a 600Hz sub-field refresh. Plasma refresh rates aren't the same as LCD refresh rates, though, so don't go drooling over such a high number. Plasmas don't refresh the entirety of the screen, just part of it, hence sub-field refresh. This being said, we didn't notice any obnoxiously obvious artifacting or blurring on the show floor.
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Viewing Angle**
Plasma TVs have a much better viewing angle than LCD TVs. We couldn't take real measurements at the CES show, but we'd expect it to still look good 60-70 degrees away from center.
Connectivity & Media
Audio & Video Ports
The ports on the LG 60PK950 are all grouped in a centralized area—a single jack pack with ports facing out of the back, and a few more out the side. The whole unit is located towards the edge of the back, making it all the easier to reach by simply swiveling the TV. All the necessary ports are here, including an Ethernet for connecting to the internet.
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Media & Other Connectivity**
The LG 60PK950 has an Ethernet port for connecting to LG's revamped 'NetCast' suite of streaming content features. LG's content package was not bad last year, but it was hard to beat Sony. It looks like the competition is catching up. In addition to the expected partners like YouTube, Netflix, and Yahoo Widgets, LG is also featuring content from VUDU (another movie renter) and Skype.
The Skype feature is particularly cool. Sure, the technology isn't ground-breaking, it was the most Jetsons-style gadget we saw at CES. It works by connecting a separately purchased camera on top of your TV, then simply making your phone calls on the giant TV screen. The demo on the CES show floor worked well. Yes, the future is here.
The LG 60PK950 is also wireless-ready; it requires a separate purchase for wireless capability.
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Placement**
The ports are very conveniently placed on the lower corner of the back, as well as the side of the TV, for easy access.
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Audio**
There are no improvements on the audio performance.
Controls, Menu & Remote
Remote
The LG 60PK950 is one of the few 2010 LG televisions to use the new Magic Motion Plus remote control, along with the LE9500 and LEX9 (which was not on display on the show floor). This is a far cry from the traditional control that's laden with dozens of buttons. Instead, LG is experimenting with ways to revamp your entire experience. The new Magic Motion Plus functions very much like a Nintendo Wiimote. It's a pointer, to put it simply. You point at the screen, and a little arrow on the screen moves around. You already perform this action hundreds of times a day with a mouse, so you're off to a pretty comfortable start. A large, round button in the center of the remote is like the Enter button, or a left mouse click.
Our experience with the remote was mixed. It's nice that someone is willing to experiment with different types of control, but the whole experience of affecting changes slowed down. Without 50 dedicated buttons at your fingertips, you have to dig through onscreen menus. Fortunately, LG placed hard plastic buttons on the remote for the most common functions: power, channel up/down, volume, and mute.
It's unlikely that LG will roll this over to all of their future TVs, but it will be interesting to see if it gains enough popularity that certain functions (like an onscreen pointer) will carry over onto more traditional remotes.
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Controls**
The LG 60PK950 has a small series of onboard controls, located on the front panel in the lower right corner. These are touch sensitive buttons rather than hard, plastic buttons with a tactile feedback. They work fine, but the inevitable fingerprints are annoying.
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Menu**
The finalized menu for the LG 60PK950 was not available, but we did get a preview of what it might look like while we demoed the Magic Motion Plus remote control. It looks roughly similar to last year, but the listed options must be large enough to point and click on from your couch. The menu was clearly beta, as several functions just didn't work.
Conclusion
Series Comparison
PK950 Series
There are two sizes expected to be available in the PK950 plasma series, a 50-inch and a 60-inch. This is the top-of-the-line series, and likely to have 3D display, the best refresh rates, and thinner frames than last year.
Meet the tester
David Kender oversees content at Reviewed as the Editor in Chief. He served as managing editor and editor in chief of Reviewed's ancestor, CamcorderInfo.com, helping to grow the company from a tiny staff to one of the most influential online review resources. In his time at Reviewed, David has helped to launch over 100 product categories and written too many articles to count.
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