LG 55EC930V OLED review

SMART TV AND PORTS

As with all LG TVs, the 55EC930V is powered by webOS. We’re big fans of what LG’s done with this operating system; its colourful deck of cards that run along the bottom of the screen are very easy to use and provide helpful shortcuts to all your favourite smart TV apps. These include Netflix, Amazon Prime Instant Video, BBC iPlayer, Demand 5, Wuaki.TV and Now TV. It’s a shame ITV Player and 4OD aren’t there as well, but it’s still an impressive line-up that puts several other TV manufacturers to shame.

^ Colourful, simple and fast – we’re big fans of LG’s webOS

Each page is very quick to load and LG’s motion-sensing Magic Remote makes cycling through them incredibly easy. All you need to do is point the remote at the screen and the onscreen cursor will mirror every move you make with your wrist. The TV comes with a standard remote as well, though, if you prefer.

Ports are located on the side and there are plenty to choose from, including four HDMI ports, SCART, component and composite inputs. You’ll also find an optical S/PDIF port, an Ethernet port, a 3.5mm headphone jack and a CI slot. You shouldn’t need to use the Ethernet port, though, as the EC930V has built-in Wi-Fi.

^ The Magic Remote makes navigating the menus as simple as point-and-press

There are three USB2 ports for attaching external flash drives as well, which you can use to record programmes off the TV or play your own video files. File format support was a bit patchy in our tests, but all the main ones are covered, including MP3, WMA, WAV, OGG and M4A audio files and MP4, MKV, WMV, AVI and DIVX video files.

CONCLUSION

LG’s 55EC930V’s OLED panel produces a picture like no other, but it comes at a very high price, and right now we think £2,499 is too high to warrant an immediate purchase, especially considering it’s not completely perfect. Three stars isn’t bad, but at this price we feel it will only appeal to a niche set of consumers or long-term plasma owners for whom black levels are more important than anything else.

We’d be tempted to bump it up a star if the price fell, which is entirely possible given how quickly 4K TVs have dropped in the last six months, but right now Panasonic’s 4K £1,299 TX-50AX802B is much better value.