My demo and obersvations of a few 4K OLED and Full Array LED TVs

thebanik

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So I have been doing a lot of research on my impending purchase of a 4K 55" TV since I broke my Panasonic Plasma VT20D but all of that have been theoretical with no physical inspection of the TVs at my end. Today I got a chance to visit Ambience Mall in Gurgaon to have a look at the TVs I have had shortlisted in the past month or so but I had no demo content so relied on playing the showroom content across the shortlisted TVs. I still havent made up my mind on what to buy hence in the below shortlisted TVs you will see a lot of different range of TVs. So my first visit was to Croma but :

1) iFalcon 55" - Cheap and supposedly reliable TV (Didnt see any option to demo this TV)
2) Panasonic 730D - (650D was available but not this one, 650D in comparison to all the other available TVs was, simply put lackluster)
3) LG C8 - In comparison to Sony 9000F which is a simple LED 4K TV, this TV fell flat in a couple of categories of picture quality. Price : 170K for now at Croma. Diwali offers might bring it down to 150K)
4) Samsung Q6 - A QLED TV available for 145K. Again not available for Demo

So out of my shortlisted products, none were available for demo. But a new one joined the league and it was the Sony 9000F.

5) Sony 9000F - Good brightness with good picture clarity. Blacks might not have been fully black but there were details which were very prominent around the dark areas. Clarity was better than LG C8. Color reproduction seemed better as well. This one seemed a clear winner even when pitched against LG OLED. Which was quite surprising since its just a normal LED.

So after moving out of Croma all confused, visited another multi brand showroom which was Reliance Digital. Again it has a nice setup but each brand has its own location, so it was a bit difficult to compare but this turned into a boon since I was more critical in my viewing and was able to notice more details as mentioned below.

1) Sony 9000F - Same result as above. By now it seemed like I should go for a Full Array LED rather than OLED but this LED TV was adjacent to Sony OLED which made me realise a new thing, my above thoughts of LGC8 lined up exactly with the Sony OLED as well, which is blacks on OLED might give great black level but due to that it loses clarity around the black area which is not supposed to lose clarity, eg. like a face which is lit from one side so the other side should be blackish but not so black that nothing is visible. With both LG and Sony OLED, blacks were losing details. another eg. a racoon's eyes is covered with black skin, with both the OLEDs racoon's eyes and surrounding area were just a full black patch.
2) Sony OLED - Because of their prices I am not interested in Sony as such hence didnt take interest in getting to know the model no. Great Vividity in colors is the only positive thing I can say about OLEDs. Blues looked unnaturally too blue, same with Red and yellow. It all looks good when some demo with various colors is going on, but something like a location with architectural details, makes this vividity look unnatural to me.
3) LG C8 - Same as above Sony OLEDs
4) Samsung Q6 - Out of all the TVs Samsung QLEDs to me looked to have the best balance of black details as well as color vividity.

So that was it for me in todays session, I will be taking my own content for my next visit which will be in first week of October when Diwali offers should be rolling out. Btw my budget is at best below 150K. Not a videophile at all hence my observations might be completely incorrect and terms used might be all wrong. I connect my PC to my receiver which in turn to the TV, hence didnt test sound or smart features of any of the TVs.

Do let me know any TVs that you guyz might have tested, or if any observations seem to be incorrect as per your experience, my goal is to use my budget wisely and get a TV which I can be satisfied with for a long time to come. So the more people share the better it will be.
 
I'm really confused. U say the OLED finished second vs the Sony 9000F? :)
 
Yup, that was the conclusion for me. Reasons are already mentioned. If you want I can try and elaborate on the points further

And you were dissing me the other day..."Whats the use of checking out TVs without sample videos to play and test"... tsk tsk..!

Next time, come to Croma, Mall of India. They have all these TVs side by side (including Samsung Q6).
 
And you were dissing me the other day..."Whats the use of checking out TVs without sample videos to play and test"... tsk tsk..!

Next time, come to Croma, Mall of India. They have all these TVs side by side (including Samsung Q6).

Yup, have downloaded a lot of movies and demo videos, specifically night and dark videos for testing. Btw you decided on a budget??
 
So I have been doing a lot of research on my impending purchase of a 4K 55" TV since I broke my Panasonic Plasma VT20D but all of that have been theoretical with no physical inspection of the TVs at my end. Today I got a chance to visit Ambience Mall in Gurgaon to have a look at the TVs I have had shortlisted in the past month or so but I had no demo content so relied on playing the showroom content across the shortlisted TVs. I still havent made up my mind on what to buy hence in the below shortlisted TVs you will see a lot of different range of TVs. So my first visit was to Croma but :

1) iFalcon 55" - Cheap and supposedly reliable TV (Didnt see any option to demo this TV)
2) Panasonic 730D - (650D was available but not this one, 650D in comparison to all the other available TVs was, simply put lackluster)
3) LG C8 - In comparison to Sony 9000F which is a simple LED 4K TV, this TV fell flat in a couple of categories of picture quality. Price : 170K for now at Croma. Diwali offers might bring it down to 150K)
4) Samsung Q6 - A QLED TV available for 145K. Again not available for Demo

So out of my shortlisted products, none were available for demo. But a new one joined the league and it was the Sony 9000F.

5) Sony 9000F - Good brightness with good picture clarity. Blacks might not have been fully black but there were details which were very prominent around the dark areas. Clarity was better than LG C8. Color reproduction seemed better as well. This one seemed a clear winner even when pitched against LG OLED. Which was quite surprising since its just a normal LED.

So after moving out of Croma all confused, visited another multi brand showroom which was Reliance Digital. Again it has a nice setup but each brand has its own location, so it was a bit difficult to compare but this turned into a boon since I was more critical in my viewing and was able to notice more details as mentioned below.

1) Sony 9000F - Same result as above. By now it seemed like I should go for a Full Array LED rather than OLED but this LED TV was adjacent to Sony OLED which made me realise a new thing, my above thoughts of LGC8 lined up exactly with the Sony OLED as well, which is blacks on OLED might give great black level but due to that it loses clarity around the black area which is not supposed to lose clarity, eg. like a face which is lit from one side so the other side should be blackish but not so black that nothing is visible. With both LG and Sony OLED, blacks were losing details. another eg. a racoon's eyes is covered with black skin, with both the OLEDs racoon's eyes and surrounding area were just a full black patch.
2) Sony OLED - Because of their prices I am not interested in Sony as such hence didnt take interest in getting to know the model no. Great Vividity in colors is the only positive thing I can say about OLEDs. Blues looked unnaturally too blue, same with Red and yellow. It all looks good when some demo with various colors is going on, but something like a location with architectural details, makes this vividity look unnatural to me.
3) LG C8 - Same as above Sony OLEDs
4) Samsung Q6 - Out of all the TVs Samsung QLEDs to me looked to have the best balance of black details as well as color vividity.

So that was it for me in todays session, I will be taking my own content for my next visit which will be in first week of October when Diwali offers should be rolling out. Btw my budget is at best below 150K. Not a videophile at all hence my observations might be completely incorrect and terms used might be all wrong. I connect my PC to my receiver which in turn to the TV, hence didnt test sound or smart features of any of the TVs.

Do let me know any TVs that you guyz might have tested, or if any observations seem to be incorrect as per your experience, my goal is to use my budget wisely and get a TV which I can be satisfied with for a long time to come. So the more people share the better it will be.
Your take on OLED is wrong with Demo material for sure. With adjustments in colour, it can possibly display anything naturally, which is impossible with a panel which is lighted from behind. The foundation built on perfect black is the key here. The downside to the LG's OLEDs uptill 2017 was the motion processing was not good as the Sony's LCDs above a lakh. The problem with those good sony LCDs were they werent IPS panels. The problem with the good IPS panels were they lacked black level compared to TN panels. If natural image is what you are looking for then there OLED is a no brainer. It has tones of options to perfectly tweak anything. With LCD, if you make skin tone good, then something else would suffer say for eg: the greens would be unnatural. If you make the green leaves natural, the skin tones or the blue sky suffers. The foundation built on a grey background cannot produce everything natural at the same time . PERIOD.

That being said, OLED has reliability issues.

You need to make a choice between baby sitting your tv or having less perfect colour when it comes to buying OLED.

The Showrooms are always lighted so you will never know how bad its going to be at the dark. If you tested with factory presets then you never saw the potential till now.

The Samsung Q6 has more grey level detail than the OLED, but thats the only advantage I over OLED. but its not worth over the more accurate colors of OLED. In this video,
the Q6 displays more detail on the bricks and darker areas, with OLED, either they are perfecly dark on some of the areas , where the samsung shoes minor details. But then the fires colour itself is more real on the OLED.
 
Even i am looking for 55 inch 4k, budget is max 1.3 tbh, been to croma and reliance. Got the demo of Nu8000, Q6, x900f, didn't see oled as i can't risk burn in as i am looking for atleast 6-7 years of run with this TV. Colors accuracy tbh q6 was the best but black levels x900f can't be touched and as i am gonna use the TV in a dark room, blacks is to be rated above color accuracy for me. Nu8000 is good but not the level of Q6 or x900f.

Nu8000 best price i got was 1.21
Q6 was 1.55
x900f was 1.71

For now only nu8000 is in my budget lol but i will prefer to wait till Jan-Feb, hoping x900f will drop under 1.4 atleast and i can grab it. =]
 
Even i am looking for 55 inch 4k, budget is max 1.3 tbh, been to croma and reliance. Got the demo of Nu8000, Q6, x900f, didn't see oled as i can't risk burn in as i am looking for atleast 6-7 years of run with this TV. Colors accuracy tbh q6 was the best but black levels x900f can't be touched and as i am gonna use the TV in a dark room, blacks is to be rated above color accuracy for me. Nu8000 is good but not the level of Q6 or x900f.

Nu8000 best price i got was 1.21
Q6 was 1.55
x900f was 1.71

For now only nu8000 is in my budget lol but i will prefer to wait till Jan-Feb, hoping x900f will drop under 1.4 atleast and i can grab it. =]
Check once again during Diwali. You may get 9000F at around 1.3 or 1.4 lac
 
Even i am looking for 55 inch 4k, budget is max 1.3 tbh, been to croma and reliance. Got the demo of Nu8000, Q6, x900f, didn't see oled as i can't risk burn in as i am looking for atleast 6-7 years of run with this TV. Colors accuracy tbh q6 was the best but black levels x900f can't be touched and as i am gonna use the TV in a dark room, blacks is to be rated above color accuracy for me. Nu8000 is good but not the level of Q6 or x900f.

Nu8000 best price i got was 1.21
Q6 was 1.55
x900f was 1.71

For now only nu8000 is in my budget lol but i will prefer to wait till Jan-Feb, hoping x900f will drop under 1.4 atleast and i can grab it. =]

My guess is Festival prices are already here. Best price I got was 146K for 9000F, it was at 190k just a week ago. Havent done any hard negotiations on that price yet, so 140K is definitely possible IMO.
 
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