Televisions

A key part of the 75QNED99's picture engine is LG's Nanocell colour system. This uses special particles in the LCD panel design to, it's claimed, reduce light scatter and produce more focused colour wavelengths. Nanocell has always impressed me with its expressive combination of boldness and subtlety. Combining its charms with the 75QNED99's 8K resolution and the light control of Mini LED takes things to a whole new level. In fact, there were occasions where this bigscreen produced an all-round colour performance that was – to put it simply – utterly lovely. This applies equally to the relatively nuanced, desaturated imagery of 1917's no-man's land sequences, and the much more vibrant palette of Pixar's Luca (4K Blu-ray) or the intensely detailed and refined designs of my character's shield and clothing in Assassin's Creed: Valhalla on Xbox Series X.

The 75QNED99 is a stellar gaming display in most ways, actually, producing glorious detail, colour and refinement with the latest consoles. The dazzling quality of most gaming imagery is underlined by a low (although not class-leadingly so) input lag figure of 15.7ms.

Motion handling is fantastic. LG's new Cinema Motion mode, in particular, does a fantastic job of massaging judder to give a more natural look to 24p material. Even the ceaselessly moving cameras of 1917's early 'trench walk' sequence manage to look consistently natural and crisp, but still cinematic.

Mini LED Moments

Unfortunately, when the 75QNED99's image engine is tripped up, it falls fairly hard. And these falls occur, not surprisingly, in very dark scenes. There are moments where the TV's mostly excellent black levels are suddenly accompanied by some faint but quite extensive blooming. There are also sometimes areas where the excellent black levels bottom out into a complete, unnatural, detail-free blackness that stands out sharply against the rest of the image.

There's a scene in 1917 that really catches the 75QNED99 out: the one where Schofield (George MacKay) wakes up in near blackness after being knocked unconscious. With this LG, the opening moments of his awakening are presented as a series of strange, vague vignettes of light appearing against a curtain of near-total blackness. Momentarily, you're aware you're just watching a raw backlight system rather than images from a movie.

Back in positive territory, the 75QNED99 really sells the benefits of 8K resolution, strongly bolstered by LG's Alpha 9 Generation 4 processing engine. This is capable of strikingly natural upscaling of the 4K and HD content buyers will be watching on their new 8K display. Some rival 8K models upscale with more aggressive sharpness, but not necessarily with as much naturalism.

Well-mastered native 8K content – if you can find it – looks even better, with the TV's brightness and colour mastery making the format's ability to deliver exceptionally life-like pictures even easier to appreciate.

The 75QNED99's audio performance is also noteworthy. Its 4.2-channel sound system (Dolby Atmos compatible, but without upfirers) has more power and authority than any of LG's latest OLED TVs. The battle scenes in 1917, especially that climactic one, swell right across and even a little forward into your room rather than just hanging back. And while it can sound a touch harsh and cluttered with extremely dense audio moments, at least the set has the power to keep shifting gears when a movie soundmix demands it.

Extreme Viewing
LG's 75QNED99 is simultaneously a marvel and a frustration, and not just because it lacks VRR support. The extent to which its Mini LED lighting improves on the contrast performance of any LG LCD TV before it is extraordinary, and it contributes to an even greater appreciation of the potential of both an 8K panel and LG's Nanocell colour system. There are times where its pictures are truly out of this world. It's just a shame that there are also movie scenes out there extreme enough to catch out even LG's bold new Mini LED lighting.

HCC Verdict

LG 75QNED99

Price: £4,500 
www.lg.com/uk

We say: Mini LED helps LG deliver easily its best LCD TV pictures to date – but on the rare occasions things go wrong on the 75QNED99, they're quite noticeable.

Overall: 4/5

Specifications

4K: Yes. Actually 8K (7,680 x 4,320) HDR: Yes. HDR10; HLG; Dolby VisionTUNER: Freeview HD CONNECTIONS: 4 x HDMI inputs; 3 x USB; RF input; headphone output; optical digital audio output; Ethernet SOUND (CLAIMED): 60W BRIGHTNESS (CLAIMED): N/A CONTRAST RATIO (CLAIMED): N/A 4K/120 PLAYBACK: Yes DIMENSIONS (OFF STAND): 1,667(w) x 958(h) x 29.5(d)mm WEIGHT (OFF STAND): 40.8kg

FEATURES: Built-in Wi-Fi; Bluetooth; USB multimedia playback; Alpha 9 Gen 4 processor; ALLM mode; Filmmaker Mode; WebOS 6.0 smart system; Nanocell colour; Mini LED backlight; DLNA/Miracast/Airplay 2 support; voice control