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  • Related content

  • About the 55EG9100

  • Design and Accessories

  • What We Like

  • What We Don't Like

  • Should You Buy It?

  • Related Video

  • Calibration

  • Contrast Ratio

  • Viewing Angle

  • Gamma

  • Grayscale & RGB Balance

  • Color Gamut

  • Related content
  • About the 55EG9100
  • Design and Accessories
  • What We Like
  • What We Don't Like
  • Should You Buy It?
  • Related Video
  • Calibration
  • Contrast Ratio
  • Viewing Angle
  • Gamma
  • Grayscale & RGB Balance
  • Color Gamut

Like the EC9300 that it's replacing, the 55EG9100's inky shadows, rich colors, and hyper-thin profile continue to amaze. It has some minor issues, but the stand is much nicer and the smart TV functionality (webOS 2.0) is the best thing short of buying a dedicated streaming device.

The only drawback? LG's 2016 OLEDs all feature 4K resolution and adhere to the new UHD/HDR standards, while the EG9100—a carry-over from 2015—only comes in good ol' 1080p in a 55-inch size. That said, 4K/HDR content is still hard to track down reliably, so if you just want one of the best TVs (a reasonable amount of) money can buy, the LG 55EG9100 is a great bet.

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About the 55EG9100

Normally this is where I'd list all the sizes in the EG9100 series, but the 55-inch 55EG9100 (known as the LG 55EG910V outside of the US) is the only one. As mentioned above it is essentially a carbon copy of the 55EC9300, except it features an updated design and webOS 2.0. But where the EC9300 started at nearly $4,000 before falling by about 50% late last year, the 55EG9100 is starting at just $1,999.99. {{amazon name="LG Electronics 55EG9100 55-Inch 1080p Curved Smart OLED TV (2015 Model)", asin="B0148OZNKK", align="right"}}

Other than the OLED panel, the 55EG9100 is a pretty standard HD TV. It's got three HDMI ports, three USB ports, 1 optical audio port, WiFi, ethernet, an RS232 port, and shared component/composite ports. It is 3D capable and comes with two sets of passive 3D glasses.

We received the 55EG9100 on loan from LG, performed a factory reset, let it warm up for about 50 hours total. We then ran it through our gauntlet of lab tests to measure things like contrast, color, motion smoothness, and viewing angle. I also watched a variety of content, including Netflix, cable broadcasts, and 1080p Blu-ray discs, spending a little over a week with the TV in total.

Design and Accessories

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What We Like

The OLED we know and love, without the sky-high price

While today's finely tuned LED TVs have a few decades of engineering to lean on, OLEDs (like the EG9100) are still a new technology. The reason OLEDs dominate our rankings, though, is that every pixel creates its own light and can be turned on and off independently. Traditional LED LCD TVs all use some form of backlight that shines through a whole host of pixels all at once, so whole zones of the screen are partially lit up—even if that zone has both light and dark elements.

The LG 55EG9100 may only be a 1080p TV, but with an OLED panel it's still an incredible value.
Credit: Reviewed.com / Lee Neikirk

The LG 55EG9100 may only be a 1080p TV, but with an OLED panel it's still an incredible value.

The ability to turn one pixel completely off while its neighbor is giving off light results in crazy good contrast, especially if you have a dark home theater. Seeing an OLED TV in action is seriously impressive—not unlike your first glimpse of the night sky outside city limits.

While newer LCDs are getting damn good at controlling for the dim portions of the frame, they're simply not on OLED's level; even a completely "black" screen on an LCD will look much brighter next to an OLED.

Seeing an OLED TV in action is seriously impressive—not unlike your first glimpse of the night sky outside city limits.

This extends beyond test patterns and extreme edge cases, too. I watched plenty of content on the 55EG9100—from cable, to Netflix, to Blu-ray—and everything looked great, comparing very well to our reference plasma display. As a "Netflix Recommended" TV the built-in app also responded well, though the 55EG9100 is still stuck with LG's older Magic Remote that lacks common-sense features like a physical play/pause button.

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For the same reason that OLEDs excel at contrast, they also create exceptionally vivid-looking colors. Where the light from an LCD must travel through several layers before it reaches your eyes, OLEDs don't have nearly as much of a problem there. This means colors really pop, and are a bit more saturated than what you'll see on many standard HDTVs—though newer Quantum Dot TVs outdo the EG9100 here. This is also why OLEDs have such excellent viewing angles, rivaling the best LCD TVs.

Credit: Reviewed.com / Lee Neikirk

Note the brilliance of the Doof Warrior's red outline contrasted against the deep shadows of his amp wall—this is a level of clarity that run-of-the-mill LCDs struggle with.

Testing confirmed that not only does the EG9100 excel in raw contrast and rich color, it's also quite good at the subtler aspects of picture quality. The colors it produces are a bit more saturated than your average HDTV, but not unnaturally so. And compared to previous OLEDs, the EG9100 does a better job presenting deep shadow details just above pure black, looking the way the director intended.

From a less technical perspective, the design of the 55EG9100 is greatly improved over the EC9300. It's curved, which isn't my favorite, but it's subtle enough that it's not much of a bother. I also really like the stand compared to the one that came with its predecessor, and LG's webOS 2.0 smart platform is always a welcome addition.

What We Don't Like

It's still pricey, but OLED's problems are overblown

There are two major issues with OLED TVs currently: uniformity and image retention. Uniformity is sometimes called "vignetting," while image retention is sometimes confused with "burn-in," an issue that plagued many early plasma TVs. Both problems go away after you use the TV for a while, but it can make for a rough first impression which is why we let OLEDs run for a couple days before testing.

Vignetting is likely the first thing you'll notice, as the center of the screen will look quite a bit brighter than the edges at first. It clears up after you use the TV for about 50 hours (in my experience), but it's the most common complaint we've heard from new OLED buyers. Just make sure you turn the TV off once in a while, rather than running it for 50 hours straight; this allows the OLED cells to run a repair cycle, which will improve things faster.

Credit: Reviewed.com / Lee Neikirk

The EG9100 still looks pretty good playing back cable/broadcast content, though resolutions less than 1080p may look a bit soft.

Image retention is a little trickier to diagnose. Basically, image retention—or "burn-in"—sometimes occurs when you leave a static element on the screen—like the clock on a 24-hour news station or the HUD in a video game—for a long period of time. In affected TVs the outline of these elements can stick around, even if you change the channel. With some early plasmas, the problem could be very difficult to get rid of. While it does happen from time to time with brand-new OLEDs, it rarely happens once a TV has been properly broken in and it goes away after no more than an hour.

In rooms with greater ambient light or lots of windows, the EG9100 doesn't quite get bright enough to overpower reflections.

The only other major drawback to OLED is brightness. In a dim or totally dark viewing environment, OLED TVs look incredible, but in rooms with greater ambient light or lots of windows, the EG9100 doesn't quite get bright enough to overpower reflections. In our tests the EG9100 has a black level of basically zero, but a brightness of only about 150 nits (a common measurement of brightness).

Your average LED LCD can hit anywhere from 300-500 nits, which is usually enough even in a brightly lit room. LG's newer HDR-spec'd 2016 OLEDs can also get around this bright, but the EG9100 doesn't qualify. It'll still look great, but if you watch a lot of daytime TV and don't have heavy curtains you may find this annoying.

EG9100 limited luminance
Credit: Reviewed.com / Lee Neikirk

The EG9100 is plenty bright for most rooms, but not bright enough to battle lots of ambient light or open windows.

Should You Buy It?

Yes.

Simply put, this is an outstanding TV, marking an important step for a still-fledgling display technology. But it's not going to appeal to everyone, especially those hungry for big screens and 4K resolution. For $2,000 you can easily find a 65-inch 4K LCD TV like the Vizio M series or the Sony X850C, giant TVs that'll dwarf the EG9100 on a retail shelf. But if you want some serious bragging rights, being one of the first on your block to own an OLED is definitely going to be a feather in your cap.{{amazon name="VIZIO M65-C1 65-Inch 4K Ultra HD Smart LED TV (2015 Model)", asin="B00T63YUDK", align="right"}}

And in truth, 55 inches is plenty big enough. Yes, it's only 1080p, but every cable broadcast, your entire library of Blu-rays, and nearly all of Amazon Prime, Netflix, and Hulu Plus top out at 1080p. There's no reason to jump to 4K right away, especially if you have the kind of home theater setup where an OLED like the EG9100 will excel.

For situations like that, the incredibly quality that OLED can deliver is worth delaying the jump to 4K and the new, fancier HDR standards that are coming later this year. If that sounds good to you, then the LG 55EG9100 is absolutely worth picking up.

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Like the other OLEDs we've tested, the LG 55EG9100 is an excellent performer that delivers inky shadow tones, tons of contrast, accurate color/grayscale representation, and smooth motion (for the most part).

Below, you'll find core performance charted in pre- and post-calibration images for contrast, viewing angle, gamma, RGB balance, and color gamut, as well as pre- and post-calibration settings for the TV's ISF Expert 1 picture mode.

Calibration

In the out-of-the-box ISF Expert 1 mode, the EG9100 tested with accurate colors and neutral (grayscale) shades per the rec.709 standards document. We made small tweaks to the RGB balance, and aimed for a dark room setup.

Contrast Ratio

Like the other OLED TVs we've tested, the EG9100 has a supremely good black level, giving it a huge contrast ratio.

Viewing Angle

Due to the makeup of the screen, the EG9100 delivers wide viewing angles both horizontally and vertically. I measured a slightly lower angle than the brighter models, however, with a total of 152° or ±76° from center to either side.

Gamma

The EG9100 tested with a mostly flat 2.2 gamma out of the box (ignore the dip from 90–100 here), while the 2.4 setting was closer to 2.25/2.3. While this isn't precisely ideal, it's much better than we've seen from some past OLEDs.

Grayscale & RGB Balance

The EG9100 presented a mostly flat and evenly emphasized RGB balance. I was able to improve it with very minimal 2-point tweeks.

Color Gamut

Meet the tester

Lee Neikirk

Lee Neikirk

Former Editor, Home Theater

@Koanshark

Lee was Reviewed's point person for most television and home theater products from 2012 until early 2022. Lee received Level II certification in TV calibration from the Imaging Science Foundation in 2013. As Editor of the Home Theater vertical, Lee oversaw reviews of TVs, monitors, soundbars, and Bluetooth speakers. He also reviewed headphones, and has a background in music performance.

See all of Lee Neikirk's reviews

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