Why You Can Trust CNET LG 47LE7500 review: LG 47LE7500
It's a pity that the screen of the LG 47LE7500 is so reflective because this could have been a really good television.
- Ty was nominated for Best New Journalist at the Australian IT Journalism awards, but he has only ever won one thing. As a youth, he was awarded a free session for the photography studio at a local supermarket.
After having been impressed with a preview of the LE9500 we were anticipating good things from the step-down LE7500. Though after using it for some time we became more confused than we were to begin with, and there's one "glaring" reason for this.
LG 47LE7500
The Good
The Bad
The Bottom Line
Design
It's a matter of design here. The TV looks good with a faint red tint and a slimline profile. But as soon as you place the TV on your entertainment unit one thing becomes immediately obvious: this is one shiny, shiny television.
Many manufacturers use reflective coatings on LCD screens to pump the apparent contrast levels of a set, but this is — hands-down! — the glossiest TV we have ever seen. Check out our video above if you want to see just how reflective.
Build quality is good, though, and the stand swivels as well, which could help cut down on reflections in your own living space.
The remote that ships with the LG is even better than the one that ships with the Samsung C7000 — it's backlit (after pressing the "Light" button") and friendly.
Features
The LG 47LE7500 features a 47-inch screen with an edge-lit LED backlight with local dimming, or what the company calls LED Plus. What does this mean? It means the side of the panel is studded with LED lights and the TV features a "light guide" to distribute the light across the screen. We're a bit hazy on how the local dimming works though as it can't be as efficient as a direct, backlit system.
Like fellow Koreans, Samsung, LG believes in cramming features into its little sets, and the same is true for the LE7500. The good news is that most of them are very handy as well. While the TV misses out on 3D it does feature the other flavour of the month: IPTV. LG calls its version NetCast — certainly snappier than Sony's Bravia Internet Video — and it allows access to BigPond Movies, Picasa, weather and YouTube. We especially like the natty weather wallpaper that appears on the main page.
Connectivity is solid though not extraordinary with four HDMI ports, two USBs, LAN, three component, two AV inputs and a VGA connector.
As you can see, the TV is distractingly reflective in normal lighting. (Credit: Farha Millington-Hussain/CBSi)
Performance
It's hard to write about our experiences about this TV without mentioning the reflectivity of this panel. In practice, glare and reflections are a bad idea because they can cause eye strain while also spoiling image quality. In a well-lit space it was hard to watch this TV, and in darkness the old LCD bugbear of backlight clouding appeared. If you haven't been put off by this point — here's a fruit basket! — we'd suggest watching the TV in a dimly-lit, though not completely dark, room and try not to wear any light clothing. We're not joking.
Setting up the TV was easy thanks to the array of set-up options available, and we found that it was possible to get a semi-accurate picture using the on-board tool. If you're looking for even finer control then we'd suggest something higher up in LG's range — like the PK750 plasma.
At its default settings you may find that there is a lot of backlight clouding — grey splodges on a black screen — when viewed in a dark room, so we'd suggest keeping the backlight to a minimum. So with calibration done and reflective annoyances out of the way you can finally enjoy the picture. And it is very impressive.
Playing Blu-ray movies is what this TV does best, and Mission Impossible 3 was vital and three dimensional, if way too noisy. The opening to the bridge scene was baby smooth, which means this TV is excellent at tracking motion — not a typical LCD trait. Picture processing is also good as there wasn't any moire on the bridge railings. Even the Panasonic VT20 — one of the best TVs of this year in our opinion — isn't able to deliver this scene as well as this. On the downside you will need to tweak the colour a little as the default setting made skin tones a little Californian Orange. To counter the noise we needed to play with the Sharpness control and found the only useful ranges were between zero and four — and the control is out of 100!
DVD replay was also very good with a natural colour performance in King Kong. As with Blu-ray, the picture was a bit noisy, though not distractingly so. The images themselves were pleasingly solid and full of life.
Lastly, we tried the new BigPond Movies service downloading the American drama Breaking Bad. Picture quality is obviously more dependent on what Telstra supplies than the TV itself, but the results were watchable. We wouldn't want to pay AU$2 to watch too many TV episodes as other services such as Yahoo!7 and SBS offer catch-up content for free and at better quality.
Sound quality was also a highlight: it was engaging and full, with sound effects having plenty of bite.
Conclusion
If it wasn't for the glossy coating on this screen it would have been a winner, but as a result it invites too many compromises on behalf of the buyer to have to fix. But if you can look past this issue then it has talents in many areas. If you're looking for an excellent TV for similar money, though, we'd suggest the Sony 46HX800 going for AU$3499.