LG UP75 (43UP7500) review: Competitively priced but not the best budget 4K TV package

The LG UP75 is a wallet-friendly 4K TV that delivers excellent image accuracy and HDR tone-mapping along with an extensive range of streaming apps available through LG’s impressive webOS smart platform.

Unfortunately, it’s let down by uninspired design, limited inputs, a low contrast ratio, and poor screen uniformity. The UP75 may be competitively priced, but there are better and cheaper options out there.

LG UP75 review: What you need to know

The LG UP75 is a 4K (3,840 x 2,160) HDR smart TV that comes in screen sizes ranging from 43in to 75in. It uses a 60Hz IPS LCD panel with a direct LED backlight and supports HDR10 and HLG but there’s no support for Dolby Vision.

It also includes LG’s excellent webOS smart platform, which offers a comprehensive selection of content streaming apps along with Freeview Play, ensuring a full house of TV catch-up services.

LG UP75 review: Price and competition

You can buy the 43in LG UP75 for £399, which is certainly cheap, but it faces some stiff competition in the realm of affordable 4K TVs. The 43in version of the TCL Roku TV typically costs £350 but is currently available for £270, while Hisense’s Roku TV costs £329. Both use the Roku operating system, which is one of the best budget TV platforms out there.

If you’re not sold on the Roku OS, the Hisense A6G also costs £329 is a very nicely designed TV that runs the VIDAA OS and delivers impressive SDR performance.

A slightly more expensive option is Samsung’s AU9000, which will set you back £469. The AU900 features a supremely slim design, virtual 3D surround sound courtesy of Object Tracking Sound Lite and its panel is powered by Samsung’s Crystal Processor 4K.

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LG UP75 review: Design, connections and control

The LG UP75 is an entry-level model and its cheap design does nothing to dissuade you otherwise. This is especially true when compared to the Samsung AU9000 and Hisense A6G, both of which show that it’s possible to retain a degree of style and build quality at a competitive price point.

It measures 973 x 85 x 611mm (WDH) with its feet attached and weighs 8.1kg. The depth of the chassis is reminiscent of a CCFL model, and to add to the similarities between it and an older TV, there’s a 12mm bezel around the top and sides that increases to 15mm along the bottom.

The UP75 is finished in black and sits on two feet that provide 65mm of clearance beneath the image, and 780mm between the feet for anyone wanting to add a soundbar. If you’d rather wall mount, there are 200 x 200mm VESA fixings at the rear.

The connections are located at the back left of the panel as you face the screen. There’s a combination of rear- and side-facing inputs, with the latter only 170mm from the edge. As a result, there’s a danger of unsightly cables poking out from behind the screen.

There are only two HDMI 2.0 inputs, both of which support 4K at 60Hz, HDR, ALLM, HDCP 2.2, and CEC, and one of which supports eARC. There are also terrestrial and satellite tuners, an optical digital output, an Ethernet port, a USB 2.0 port, and a CI (common interface) slot. In terms of wireless connections, there’s built-in dual-band Wi-Fi, Bluetooth and AirPlay 2.

There’s no Magic Remote at this end of the range, and while the included wand is a perfectly decent controller it does make navigating webOS less seamless. Still, the zapper is comfortable to hold, easy to use with one hand, and includes direct buttons for key streaming services.

LG UP75 review: Smart TV platform

The LG UP75 benefits from the same webOS smart system as the company’s premium models, making this one area where the entry-level status of this TV isn’t reflected in its features.

The system itself uses a full-page home screen, with added rows as you scroll further down. At the top are three information blocks, followed by what’s trending, a row of all the various apps, the “Home Dashboard” with all the connected devices, a row showing new releases, and finally rows dedicated to specific streaming services.

While the interaction is intuitive, it’s not as easy to navigate without the Magic Remote, and the system is also slower to respond due to the UP75 having less processing power compared to the higher-end LG models.

The platform supports Amazon Alexa and Google Assistant, plus there’s even Siri thanks to AirPlay 2. There’s also a full complement of UK catch-up apps, along with every streaming service imaginable, including YouTube, Netflix, Prime Video, Disney+, Apple TV, and Now TV.

LG UP75 review: Image quality

The LG UP75 uses an IPS panel with a direct LED backlight but despite this, the screen uniformity with a full-field pattern is very patchy and quite obvious in darker scenes. In addition, while the IPS panel delivers wider optimal viewing angles, the contrast performance is decidedly ropey.

Measuring the actual contrast ratio proved impossible because while this TV doesn’t have local dimming, it does have a global dimming feature that essentially turns off the backlight with a black signal. Since you probably don’t want to look at a black screen this is pretty useless, and for anything else, the contrast is poor, with black looking more like a dark grey.

It’s a shame that the UP75 falls down on these key performance criteria because the Filmmaker Mode is very accurate out of the box. The greyscale is excellent, with colour accuracy also impressive at an average DeltaE of 1.5 (the closer the score to 0, the better).

Aside from the issues already mentioned, the overall SDR picture performance is generally very good, with images that appear well defined and colours that look natural. There’s some decent upscaling and processing as well, which means the UP75 can make the most of lower resolution content, delivering plenty of detail while keeping the image free of unwanted artefacts.

The motion performance is also good for an LCD TV, and despite being limited to a 60Hz refresh rate the LG handled fast-paced sport without introducing excessive blurring. The UP75 also displays 24p content without adding judder, and movies retain a pleasing film-like quality. The TruMotion feature offers a number of frame interpolation options, and while good for things like sport, they are best avoided with film-based content.

LG UP75 review: HDR performance

The LG UP75 suffers from the kind of HDR limitations that are fairly common with more affordable 4K TVs, especially in terms of peak brightness and gamut coverage. The LG can hit around 300cd/m² on both a 10% window and full-field pattern in Dynamic mode, but in Filmmaker Mode this luminance drops to around 290cd/m² on both a 10% and a full-field pattern.

While the UP75 can cover 100% of the BT.709 gamut used for SDR, it struggles when it comes to the wider gamut used for HDR. In Filmmaker Mode, it’s only able to cover 86% of the DCI-P3 colour gamut. However on the plus side, it’s very accurate within this gamut limitation, and overall the average DeltaE for HDR colours is only 2.8, which is just below the visible threshold.

This accuracy is also reflected in the tone-mapping, so despite the lack of brightness when it comes to hitting the luminance peaks, the UP75 manages to deliver HDR graded at 1,000, 4,000 and 10,000 nits without clipping the specular highlights. The inclusion of LG’s dynamic tone mapping feature also allows this TV to get the most out of HDR10 and HLG.

The HDR performance is very good, but it’s a shame that LG doesn’t include Dolby Vision, which it does further up the range, because it’s with less capable displays that the format’s dynamic metadata adds real value, getting the most out of a limited backlight and colour gamut. It also puts the UP75 at a disadvantage to a TV like the Hisense A6G, which includes Dolby Vision for less.

To test the LG UP75 we used Portrait Displays Calman colour calibration software.

LG UP75 review: Gaming

The LG UP75 isn’t an ideal TV for next-gen gamers, and anyone wanting to take full advantage of the latest Xbox or PS5 features like 4K at 120Hz or VRR will need to head further up the LG range. However, it does support 4K at 60Hz, HDR10 and Auto Low Latency Mode (ALLM), with the latter automatically switching to the “Game Optimiser” mode when compatible consoles are detected.

This mode allows users to customise their gaming experience with four different genre settings for Standard, First Person Shooter, Role Playing Game, and Real-Time Strategy; along with Black and White Stabiliser sliders. The input lag in this mode is also impressive at just 10.6ms, which should please even the most demanding gamer.

Playing Call of Duty on the PS5 at 4K/60 with HDR10 proved an enjoyable experience, with responsive gameplay and smooth motion. In brightly lit scenes the effective tone-mapping delivered some pleasingly saturated and punchy images, although the UP75’s inherently poor contrast and screen uniformity were evident in darker sequences.

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LG UP75 review: Sound quality

If there’s one advantage to the LG UP75 having such a deep chassis it’s that there’s more room for a pair of half-decent downward-firing speakers, and when combined with 10W of amplification for each channel the results are passable, if not exactly impressive. The TV does at least create a decent front soundstage, and dialogue, voice-overs and commentary are clear.

The sound can be tuned depending on whether the UP75 is standing on its feet or wall-mounted, and LG includes AI Acoustic Tuning to help users optimise the sound for their specific environment. There are a number of sound modes, including a Clear Voice feature and AI Sound Pro for upmixing the audio using psychoacoustic processing.

If you’re just planning to watch regular programming and the news, the built-in speakers are more than capable of handling their sonic duties. But if you’re looking for a bigger presence, more volume and deeper bass you should consider a soundbar. If you own a pair of compatible LG wireless speakers you can use them as rears via the Bluetooth Surround feature.

LG UP75 review: Verdict

The LG UP75 is a strong performer in a few areas, with the IPS panel producing wide viewing angles and the Filmmaker Mode delivering impressively accurate images with both SDR and HDR content.

HDR tone-mapping is excellent, too, which helps make up for the panel’s average brightness and limited coverage of the DCI-P3 colour gamut. Sound quality is reasonable for the money and the webOS smart platform is comprehensive, providing access to just about every streaming service and app you could ever need.

Poor screen uniformity, very mediocre blacks and decidedly budget build quality let it down, however. It also suffers from a paucity of connections, with just two HDMI 2.0 ports limiting you to the number of external devices you can hook up to it.

Ultimately, there are the better budget options out there, with the Hisense A6G offering a nicer design, more connections, and Dolby Vision for less money.