LG 55LA740V Review

Introduction
After years of
consistent, even quite
spectacular progress in
the TV world, topped
off by the successes
it's achieved with its
passive 3D format, LG
still finds itself under a
world of pressure this
year, thanks to the
arrival of a frightening
number of fearsomely
good rivals.
Still, LG's 55LA740V
certainly looks as if it's
got the weapons to
stake its claim on the
TV world's hotly
contested middle
ground.
Its incredibly slinky design is a match for almost
any other television we've seen this year, and its
extensive feature list includes one of the most
heavily populated and well-interfaced smart TV
engines in town, as well as the sort of picture set
up subtleties normally reserved for high-end
models.
The 55-inch TV - priced at £1,499 (around US
$2,290 / AU$2,485) - also supports playback of
a wide variety of multimedia file formats. And
promisingly its edge LED picture technology is
supported by a contrast-boosting local dimming
system, which is something we certainly don't
always expect as standard on a mid-range TV.
If you want to go high-end instead of sticking
with the mid-range LG 55LA740V, then LG has
alternatives to tempt you. One step up you get
the LG 55LA790W, which adds an extra HDMI
port and provides a different stand design, while
the LG 55LA860W provides an even trimmer
design and introduces a built-in camera and
high-level video processing power.
Where alternatives from other brands are
concerned, the Sony 55W805A and Panasonic
L55ET60 spring to mind - two models we'll cover
in more detail at the end of the review.
Features
LG is very much at the top table now when it
comes to TV design, and this trend extends
confidently down to its latest mid-range model.
As we would expect given current trends, the LG
55LA740V's bezel is extremely thin, and gains
extra style points for the way it stands proud of
the rear.
The television's stand is also highly striking with
its unusual 'inverted arch' shape, metallic finish
and open frame design.
There's a slight disappointment on the rear,
though, where a search uncovers only three
HDMI ports when we would ideally like to find
four these days. This is quite a surprise on an LG
TV, since the Korean brand can usually be
depended on to offer more features and
connections than average, rather than fewer.
The TV does, though, offer extensive multimedia
playback via three USB ports and Wi-Fi-enabled
DLNA network playback, and it enables you to go
online with LG's latest smart TV service.
This service quickly turns out to be one of the
best in the current smart TV world for two
reasons. First, its interface is hugely impressive,
thanks to its on-screen layout and Magic Remote
handset - more on these in the Usability section.
Second, its neat folder-style menu system hosts
a huge array of apps, taking in everything from
games and information to those most important
of online TV services, the video streaming
platforms.
TV and film highlights are Netflix, Lovefilm, BBC
iPlayer, Blinkbox, BBC Sport, YouTube and
KnowHow Movies. This is a fair selection of big
hitters, but it's impossible to ignore the absence
of other catch-up TV services such as 4OD, ITV
Player and Demand 5 - services that are all
found on the latest smart TV platform from LG's
arch-rival, Samsung.
But LG has done a better job than Samsung of
delivering a good iOS and Android control app for
its latest TVs, offering a good interface, lots of
integrated functionality (versus the piecemeal
approach of Samsung's control app) and a
strong array of features.
As usual with an LG TV, the LG 55LA740V is
endorsed by the Imaging Science Foundation
(ISF), which means that as well as a couple of
ISF picture preset slots that an ISF-certified
engineer could use for professionally calibrating
day and night modes, you get a truly expansive
suite of picture tweaks.
There's colour management, gamma
management, white balance adjustments,
contrast boosters, sharpness boosters, noise
reduction systems - the list of options really is
huge.
Some of these features are more useful than
others - the sharpness booster and noise
reduction features at the very least need to be
treated with extreme care if not ignored
altogether when watching HD sources if you
don't want them to actually make pictures worse
rather than better.
Overall, though, you've got everything you need
to give images believable, 'industry standard'
colours if that's your thing, or extreme levels of
vibrancy and punch if you prefer that.
The panel at the LG 55LA740V's heart is a Full
HD affair, as is almost standard these days, and
it's illuminated by an edge LED lighting array
bolstered by a local dimming system, whereby
sectors of the LEDs can have their brightness
levels set individually, to bolster images'
potential black level response and contrast.
The panel is also, of course, one of LG's passive
3D types, with no less than six pairs of cheap
passive glasses included with the TV (four 3D,
two for enabling two users to enjoy simultaneous
full-screen gaming).
Picture quality
Unfortunately the LG 55LA740V presents a mixed
bag of results in this all-important part of any
TV's makeup. Let's get the bad news out of the
way first.
The biggest problem is contrast. LG just hasn't
moved the contrast response of this latest
passive 3D panel as far forward in 2013 as we'd
have liked, resulting in black levels during dark
scenes that look significantly less deep and
natural than those of many rival TVs.
The darkest sequences in the alien tunnels in
Prometheus , for instance, look distinctly washed
out/greyed over when using the panel in its
native state, resulting in some slightly off-key
dark colours and a need to squint through the
mist to try to spot background details.
Thankfully, calling the LG 55LA740V's local
dimming system into action leads to a dramatic
increase in the screen's black level response.
However, even with the local dimming system
running on its highest setting, black levels are
still only fair to middling, plus there's another
problem: backlight blocking.
What we mean by this is that whenever there's a
bright object within a predominantly dark
background - which actually happens more than
you might think, especially when watching a film
- you can see a fairly clear 'strip' or rectangle of
extra light around the bright object, stretching all
the way from the top of the image down to the
bottom.
It doesn't help in this regard that LG is still
ranging its edge LED lights along the top and
bottom edges of its screen rather than down the
sides, since experience suggests that light blocks
caused by local dimming are at least a bit easier
to control when lights are ranged down the TV's
sides.
Using the local dimming system on its lowest
power setting reduces the obviousness of the
light blocking problems, but the bottom line is
that at no point did we feel able to become
completely immersed in very dark scenes.
The other issue with the LG 55LA740V's
performance is that its handling of colours feels a
little basic at times. Large expanses of colour
can look a little short of tonal subtleties and skin
tones can sometimes look a touch plasticky.
And some background areas containing lots of
subtle colour information (such as the faces of
Ron and Hermione in the background of the
scene where Harry speaks to Griphook near the
start of the final Harry Potter film) can look a bit
blocky and low-res.
HD picture
Right, now for the good news. Starting with the
exceptional sharpness the screen is able to
deliver with HD footage. Every last pixel of
resolution in a Full HD source is rendered with
aplomb, and without leaving the picture looking
forced, gritty or stressed around object edges.
The sense of clarity only reduces marginally,
moreover, when you're watching action scenes,
revealing the LG 55LA740V to have a decent
innate response time.
Calling into play LG's motion processing system
can improve motion clarity even further,
especially when it comes to judder reduction.
And it delivers its improvements without
generating too many unwanted side effects - at
least if you only use the motion processing on its
lowest power setting.
Next, while colours lack some finesse versus the
best TVs in town, they are at least very boldly
and vibrantly presented, making images look eye-
catching and punchy. In fact, they're so bold that
they do a fine job of hiding the panel's black level
shortcomings with the majority of typical TV
fodder, which tends to be predominantly bright
with just a few dark elements.
The panel has plenty of brightness to help drive
its rich colour saturations off the screen too, and
during bright scenes colours still manage to look
quite natural despite their aggressive saturations
and aforementioned lack of subtlety in places.
3D picture
The LG 55LA740V can be watched from a slightly
wider viewing angle than many rival screens
without contrast or colour saturations dropping
off too heavily too, and its 3D pictures are
eminently watchable thanks to their brightness,
lack of flicker and crosstalk (so long as your
vertical viewing angle is under 13 degrees) and
generally less fatiguing nature compared with
active 3D images.
The 55-inch screen is large enough to reveal
passive 3D's weaknesses of a slight reduction in
resolution versus Full HD active 3D screens,
occasionally visible horizontal line structure
across bright parts of the image and some
jaggedness around curved edges. But for many
people, the passive 3D advantages will outweigh
its negatives.
Standard definition picture
Standard definition is fast becoming less
important, especially now the BBC has
announced five more HD channels for 2014. But
on those odd occasions where you really can't
avoid standard definition, the LG 55LA740V does
a good job of upscaling it to its native Full HD
pixel count, adding detail without exaggerating
noise or leaving proceedings looking soft or
processed.
The last point to cover here is input lag - the
amount of time it takes the LG 55LA740V to
render an image after receiving it at its inputs.
And here it comes up rather short of
expectations, averaging around 65ms - a time
significant enough to reduce your video gaming
performance.
Usability, sound and value
Usability
LG has tried very hard indeed on the 55LA740V
to deliver an exceptionally user-friendly smart TV
interface. The highlight of the system is the
Magic Remote you get with the TV alongside a
standard model.
As well as greatly streamlining the button count,
the Magic Remote rather brilliantly enables you
to select options by just pointing the remote at
the right part of the on-screen menus. This feels
brilliantly intuitive, and will come as a godsend to
technophobes who usually start trembling at the
very sight of a normal remote control. And most
importantly, it provides a genuine shortcut to the
huge amounts of content that the LG 55LA740V
makes available.
Another great feature of the Magic Remote is the
spinning wheel button at its heart, which enables
you to quickly shift up and down menu option
lists.
The LG 55LA740V's on-screen menus are very
well designed for the most part, too. The
approach taken is to divide the countless apps
up into themed folders, with a few highlighted
options available from the front of each folder
directly from the main hub screen while further
selections pop up if you select a folder's More
button.
The sheer quantity of direct app link icons that
the menus can carry without looking cluttered or
overbearing is impressive, and really sells the
scope of LG's smart offering.
LG's TV adjustment menus are a bit less elegant
and forward thinking than its smart menus, but
they get the job done cleanly enough - especially
because they're quite sensible in the way they
keep the most complicated features tucked away
from the eyes of casual users, and the way you
can still navigate options with the Magic Remote.
One final strength of the LG 55LA740V's
operating system is the accompanying app that
LG has designed for iOS and Android devices.
This features attractive menus, reasonably logical
organisation and a strong feature count,
underlining our belief that such second-screen
apps will become a huge part of TV functionality
in the next year or so.
Sound quality
LG joins an impressive roster of manufacturers
this year who really seem to have got to grips
with the thorny issue of how to get a convincing
audio performance out of a slim bodied TV.
Its twin 12W speakers are given solid support by
a rear-firing subwoofer to ensure that the
soundstage has both more bass and more mid-
range clarity than you might normally expect.
The soundstage is also larger than that heard
from most flatscreen TVs, and even manages to
avoid sounding excessively cramped during loud
parts of a dense mix.
Value
The full £1,499 (around US$2,290 / AU$2,485)
asking price for the LG 55LA740V is reasonable
in some ways. After all, it's got a 55-inch screen,
its pictures look enjoyable with bright footage,
it's beautifully designed, and its smart TV
interface is outstanding.
However, the television's problems with dark
scenes will likely make it look a bit expensive to
avid film fans, while its input lag will similarly
make it feel like a costly frustration for serious
gamers.
Verdict
On paper, the LG
55LA740V seems
tailor-made to make a
big impact on the mid-
range of the big screen
TV market. Its £1,500
(around US$2,290 / AU
$2,485) price isn't by
any means
unreasonable for a
well-specified 55-inch
TV, and its design
offers an exciting twist
on the super-slim
designs that are
currently all the rage.
Its feature count is strong too, dominated as it is
by a content-rich, beautifully interfaced
multimedia/online system, a superbly intuitive
'point and click' Magic Remote handset and
more picture calibration tools than you'd expect
to find on many rival brands' flagship TVs.
There are times, too, where the LG 55LA740V's
performance really shines - predominantly with
bright, colourful content. But unfortunately the TV
has a weak point that's revealed whenever you're
watching something dark. It struggles to produce
dark scenes with real conviction, leaving you
frequently feeling unable to get totally immersed
in dark content.
The TV also suffers enough with input lag to
make it a compromised option for gamers.