LG E6 OLED 4K HDR Ultra HD TV Review

OVERVIEW

Quite simply, along with LG's flagship 2016 4K TV the G6 Signature model, the E6 is the best 4K TV we’ve seen come out so far in 2016 and easily the best 4K TV made to-date by any major brand with a presence in the North American market. Until newer 4K models and particularly OLED TVs emerge later in 2016 and 2017, we doubt anything will top the E6 in terms of stunning display quality and powerful visual specs. Aside from these most important features, the E6 offers up LG’s deeply impressive and exceptionally user-friendly WebOS 3.0 smart TV platform along with a great set of connectivity specs which are fully cutting-edge as of this writing. Only the G6 beats the E6 in terms of overall home entertainment quality but the differences between the two televisions are so minor as to be nearly irrelevant. The G6 is available in a larger size, offers a slightly thinner display design (more on this shortly) and comes with more powerful speakers. LG also claims that their flagship model delivers a very slightly better DCI-P3 color coverage and peak brightness but this is debatable.

That said, the E6 is not only a 4K TV with full HDR certification for both HDR10 (UHD Alliance) standards and Dolby Vision HDR specs qualification, it’s also a stunning piece of display technology by nearly any measure. The picture quality of the E6 can barely be overstated in just how good it is across almost all key metrics. Peak brightness is superb for an OLED TV and matches or outdoes even many premium LCD 4K displays in how bright it can get, which is quite an impressive achievement. Furthermore, due to the nature of its OLED display panel lighting technology, the E6 can deliver perfecttotal black levels that no LCD backlit TV can yet hope to match. This create a level of intense, essentially total infinite contrast which only further enhances the effect produced by bright areas of the E6’s screen. Additionally, in terms of color performance, the E6 delivers like no other 4K TV for this year or 2015 except possibly the G6. Then there are all the other LG technologies for user control and connectivity which make this model as friendly to top-shelf home entertainment as possible in the current 4K TV market.

In basic terms, if you can afford its exceptionally steep price tag, the LG E6 is almost unbeatably guaranteed to absolutely wow anyone who comes over on movie night in your home. It’s as close to perfect a 4K TV as we’ve seen so far given the minor limitations of OLED display technology.

THE GOOD

Let’s start things off with the physical design of LG’s E6. Even in this category, LG has created a 4K TV that’s unlike anything we’ve yet seen except the nearly identical G6. The vast majority of this TV’s physical presence consists of a single extremely thin piece of glass paneling onto which has been installed the E6’s actual display screen. The glass panel, which measures only 0.39 inches in thickness supports a virtually bezel free black (when shut off) OLED display that takes up nearly the entire breadth and height of this “Picture on Glass” panel. Only the flagship G6 offers an even thinner 1/8th inch glass display support panel and quite frankly it’s hard to image 4K TV’s actually getting any thinner than this any time soon.

 Lower down on the TV’s body things suddenly widen out quite a bit with the bulk of the E6’s electronics and connectivity ports located in the lower third of the television. Below this is the movable and highly minimalist stand, which contains the relatively powerful speakers of the E6 and which can be shifted if the TV is mounted to a wall with VESA bracketing. The stand is made of plastic only but it still looks wonderfully stylish and in any case this plastic build helps greatly reduce the weight of this TV model for wall mounting or moving around. We’d also like to note that LG has finally moved back to flat screen design  with its G6 and E6 sister models for 2016. We have to say that we’re happy about this choice since the curvature of previous 2014 and 2015 OLED 4K TV models from this brand added nothing but extra price points to their quality.

The other wonderful characteristic of the E6, in fact its single most stunning feature, is the latest generation of OLED display technology this TV contains. LG’s OLED 4K TVs have been stunning marvels of display technology ever since they first emerged on the 4K TV market in early 2014 but damn have they also advanced still further since then, coming out now in 2016 with new refinements which take them well beyond the display characteristics of the 2014 models and even many otherwise exellent 2015 models like the EG9600. The E6, just like its nearly twin bigger sister the G6 offers the refined pinnacle of OLED display for 4K resolution to-date in numerous ways.

 First, by its very nature, OLED delivers a superb level of picture quality that no LCD we’ve yet seen quite fully match simply because it takes black levels, contrast, color and precision local dimming to utter extremes of superiority. Each single pixel in an OLED 4K TV screen can be activated to different levels of brightness or completely shut off as well. In contrast, LCD 4K TVsrely on much less precise arrays of macroscopic LEDs behind their LCD panels and create local dimming by targeting which individual LEDs can be turned off or on in different sequences. As a result, while even the best full-array LCD/LED 4K TVs can locally dim light or induce brightness down to the level of a couple hundred different sections of screen space, OLED 4K UHD models like the E6 can induce precision brightness or perfect darkness in each and every one of their 8.29 million pixels. This leaves LCD technology in the dust as far as local dimming is concerned. Furthermore, unlike LCD, OLED display can create total perfect darkness as individual pixels completely stop emitting light. As a result, contrast is literally “infinite” and no light bleed exists in a neatly functioning OLED model.

Additionally, as a result of specific characteristics to pixel design in the E6, the TV by nature delivers superb color quality. However, with still further refinements that LG has added for the sake of meeting the HDR color and contrast standards of HDR10 and Dolby Vision HDR, the E6 offers some of the best color performance we’ve yet seen from anyone, with exquisite 97% DCI-P3 color space coverage.

 Finally as far as display is concerned, the E6 TVs come with the best peak brightness we’ve yet seen in this technology outside the specs of the flagship G6. Even most LCD 4K TVs for 2016 don’t match the brightness capacity of the E6 and this is indeed impressive considering how much dimmer some of the first OLED TVs were next to their LCD counterparts. Said brightness, next to total black levels, looks particularly stunning when viewed under low lighting in a den or living room.

 Finally, for the E6 in general, we absolutely love its smart TV platform, the excellent WebOS 3.0. Last year’s WebOS 2.0 smart platform war in our view the best of all the major smart OS TV interfaces found on the market and the same applies again as far as user friendliness, smooth quick operation and robust smart content and control options are concerned. WebOS 3.0 is a definite winner.

THE BAD

 There is very little we can call “bad” about the E6. Along with the G6, this is quite literally the best 4K TV we’ve ever reviewed of any kind and if you take into consideration its lower price with little trade-off in terms of missing features against what the G6 costs, then the E6 can perhaps be called the best TV on the market now. However, nothing is perfect and a couple details of OLED technology and this model in particular are worth mentioning briefly, though they’re extremely minor.

 For starters, OLED is not as bright as the best in LCD 4K TVs today. Maybe this will change as the technology of organic light emitting diodes mature further still but for now, despite having the brightest OLED display we’ve yet seen and superior brightness to a majority of 4K TV displays as well, the E6 outputs way less peak brightness over a small space than do the best LCD 4K flagship TVs with HDR that we’ve also reviewed for 2016. Three which come to mind in particular are the Samsung 2016 SUHD TVs (all of them) and Sony's XBR-X930D and X940D HDR 4K TVs. The SUHD models beat the E6’s maximum peak brightness specs by nearly three-fold and the X930D/940D TVs from Sony beat them by nearly two-fold. So if truly powerful display brightness for maximum lit-scene realism is something you really want, even the otherwise stunning 2016 OLED models aren’t up to par here.

 Next and quite minor, the E6 line of TVs is expensive, as we’d said. What you get for these steep prices is truly unrivalled quality among all the 4K TVs of the North American market but that doesn’t change the fact that these babies will break your piggy bank wide open if you’re on anything resembling a budget. Even the 55 inch OLED55E6P will cost you just under $3900 USD and the 65 inch model retails for just a bit under $6000. Only the G6 flagship is a pricier model among LG’s new OLED TVs.

 Finally, the E6 TV offers a quality of audio that’s good but not great. The G6 delivers still better overall sound with speakers that are nearly twice as powerful and this is in fact a part of why it also costs more. We’re not saying that the audio specs of the E6 models are crappy --far, far from it because the TV’s 40 watt 2.2 channel speakers deliver plenty of punch for a built-in sound system. However, they don't quite match the 60 watt versions of the G6 or the even more stunning speaker system that the old 2015 Sony XBR-X930C 4K TV had come with (who didn’t love those monsters?).

FINAL THOUGHTS

Our final opinion of the LG E6 OLED model is excellent. This is one deeply impressive 4K TV in pretty much all key display performance specs and it looks downright beautiful. If you can set a budget that’s large enough to cover the price of either the OLED65E6P or the OLED55E6P, go for it.

SPECS

• Screen size: 64.5 diagonal inches for OLED65E6P (55.5 diagonal inches in OLED55E6P)

• Smart TV: WebOS 3.0, LG Magic Remote Apps and Full Web Browser

• HEVC (H.265) Included: Yes

• VP9 Included. Yes

• HD to UHD upscaling: Yes

• HDCP 2.2 Compliance: Yes

• Refresh Rate: 120Hz native refresh rate

• Screen Lighting: OLED

• Resolution: 3,840 x 2,160 pixels UHD

• Wireless Connectivity: Yes, includes both built-in WiFi and Ethernet port

• Remotes: LG Magic Remote, smaller (5.5-inch), simpler accessory remote

• Connectivity: 4 HDMI 2.0a ports, 3 USB ports, 1 Ethernet port, 1 Component, 1 composite, 1 Audio         Out, 1 RF In, 1 Optical Audio, 1 RS232C Mini Jack

• Sound: 2.2 Channel 40W Sound (WF: 20W)with with Dolby Digital Plus

• Real Contrast Ratio: infinite

• Black Level maximum: 0 nits

• Peak brightness: 651 cd/m2 (nits)

• Other Display Features: Passive 3D technology, Magic Zoom, Cinematic Color, 2 3D glasses included

• TV weight without/with stand:

    50.3 lb./ 54.7 lb. (65 inch model)

    37.7 lbs/40.8 lbs (55 inch model)

• Dimensions:

    65 inch model: 57.5" x 35.2" x 7.9" and display thickness of 0.4 inches

    55 inch model: 48.7" x 30.2" x 6.9" and display thickness of 0.4 inches

• Processor: Quad-core Perfect Mastering Engine

HIGHLIGHTS

 OLED: The OLED panel of the OLED65E6P is now essentially brighter and more color rich than it has ever before been in an OLED TV except the G6 flagship. Besides the G6, only last year’s EF9500 comes close to matching what the E6 offers but this latest TV still takes its OLED additions to new levels with a peak brightness of over 650 nits. This also means full compliance with both Dolby Vision and UHD Alliance Ultra HD Premium specs and that level of display brightness capacity looks all the more impressive when its presented on the screen next to the perfect black levels that OLD technology provides. What also makes the 2016 OLED experience in the E6 work particularly well is its sheer 10-bit color quality, occupying more of the DCI-P3 color space than any previous LG OLED model. This color quality is also what allows the E6 to offer what LG calls “Cinematic Color”, which is their description of color coverage in the TV which is almost exactly the equal of the best professional digital theater movie presentations.

HDR : As we’ve already said, the E6 OLED TV not only offers HDR 10 certification (via the Ultra HD Premium standard of the UHD Alliance) but is also compliant with the rigorous HDR and color standards of Dolby Labs. This means superb contrast ratios, excellent levels of black (as we’d expect from OLED by now) and peak brightness that is much better than we’ve previously seen in OLED TVs, particularly in the 2014 models from a while back. The HDR standards really show themselves when native 4K HDR content is viewed on the E6, either from a streaming source like Netflix or a media source like 4K UHD Blu-ray. Best of all, because this TV is equipped to handle both Dolby Vision standards and HDR10 standards, it offers the widest possible access to high dynamic range content, we’ve yet seen in a 4K TV.

Picture-on-Glass : The Picture-on-Glass design of the E6 definitely impresses with its appearance, giving the TV and its G6 cousin a display like no other we’ve yet seen in any 4K TV to-date. It may not add anything to the picture quality in real, practical terms but it looks downright stunning. In basic terms, LG has applied their ultra-thin OLED panel module directly to a single giant pane of glass which makes up the E6’s display. Thus, the outer bezel is transparent and the TV’s overall weight is considerably lower for its different sizes. Most of all though, this highlight of the E6 makes it look truly unique and almost gives the impression of a floating window into another dimension when the TV is viewed in a dark room or mounted to a wall.

WebOS 3.0 : In 2016 LG’s newest 4K TVs have moved over to the WebOS 3.0 update to WebOS 2.0 and we’re not unhappy with what this newest WebOS offers. The newest version of the Smart OS remains the best of its kind among all the major 4K TV brands and we love its usability, simplicity and sheer speed as you navigate it. WebOS 3.0 lets you add specific TV channels to the strip of tiles along the bottom of the screen when you press the “home” key on the remote and the OS makes surfing the web as well as surfing between channels and streaming services extremely easy and intuitive. Furthermore, the LG Content Store comes with plenty of applications for media of all kinds, all easily accessible from the smart platform itself. One other thing we like about WebOS 3.0 is the smart remote that comes included with the TV. It offers a pointer which makes navigation of apps and smart OS menus very easy and fluid. 

Finally, the newly included Magic Mobile Connection feature is also a great addition to 3.0, letting you access photos, videos and other media from a network-connected Android smartphone or tablet. This means faster, more convenient display of your phone’s videos, photos, apps and music as well on the exquisite display of the G6 OLED TV.

   Upscaling : LG’s Upscaling engine is nothing short of superb. We love it across the board in the E6 and think it has even improved from the already-excellent quality it offered in the 2015 LG OLED TVs. The 4K Upscaler engine impressively upscales almost all sources of non-4K video content to not only look sharper but also to have a much richer, deeper range of shadow and color variations in their shots. This is something that can even be seen in non-HDR 4K content to a lesser degree and in HD content as well, with even 720p video and SD video sources also managing to look much better than they normally would.

   3D Technology: LG’S E6 offers up the company’s passive FPR 3D display capacity for 4K and non-4K content. Two pairs of 3D glasses also come included. The 3D on the G6 offers some excellent depth perception and sharpness due to the quality of the screen behind it but as an FPR system, it’s not quite as rich some we’ve seen, though viewing angles with the quality of the 3D are quite wide.

VISUAL SPECS

The visual specs of the E6 LG models are nothing less than spectacular virtually across the board. This TV truly offers the best we’ve yet to see in any model of 4K TV except the G6 sister TV, though the two offer display specs so close to identical that it’s not really even possible to tell the difference with the naked eye on a fully functional model of each.

The E6 delivers excellent 96% DCI-P3 color coverage that puts it at the top of all the major HDR wide color gamut 4K TVs we’ve seen in 2016 to-date. This color space coverage equals that of the G6 or falls behind it by only a single percentage point margin and is definitely superior to the color space quality of the 2015 OLED TVs by a small bit. Smasung and Sony's HDR premium 4K TVs for this year and 2015 come very close to simulating the same DCI-P3 coverage of the E6 but they fall very marginally short, partly due to the fact that OLED panels themselves also contribute to color quality and accuracy in a way that LCD TV display’s don’t to the wide color gamut models they operate inside. The E6 also offers fully perfect smoothness to its 10-bit color gradients across all primary colors, There is no banding that we could at all detect visible in this spec. Additionally, color accuracy in the E6 TVs is virtually perfect, both before and after minor calibration. Setting “color gamut” to “Wide” and enabling 'HDMI Ultra HD Deep Color' does a lot to improve color space coverage and accuracy as well as a result. For HDR video signals from either streaming or HDMI 2.0 sources of any kind, color gamut will automatically adjust to HDR quality Wide Color and this applies to both HDR10 and Dolby Vision HDR video sources since this TV is compatible with both high dynamic range specification ranges.

   Slight calibration of the E6’s color settings will produce a very nice warmth of color coverage for virtually all quality content displayed on this TV but there is a very light bluish tint that we did notice to some specific scenes, particularly those which are supposed to show bright white lighting in on-screen content. This very faint blue tint can be reduced by calibration but it does remain visible in some content regardless, though this may be a unit-specific problem in the TV.

 Moving along, the contrast specs of the E6 are absolutely superb as we’ve already said. As a fully certified premium HDR OLED TV, this TV delivers the best possible HDR brightness and black level specs that are currently possible in a consumer model 4K television. This means, a peak brightness that at 650 to 660 nits well exceeds the minimum 540 nits required for UHD Alliance Ultra HD premium certification and a black level of 0 which is also more than enough to exceed the requirements for 0.0005 nits needed for HDR OLED TVs. The Contrast ratio of the E6 TVs is also an obvious winner, since it’s infinite for all practical purposes. No LCD 4K TV can come close to beating this.

 As far as key display performance specs for local dimming and motion control are concerned, the E6 TVs are also virtually total winners. Local dimming, as we’d explained above in the “Good” section is perfect, since each and every pixel can be individually deactivated or activated to varying degrees of brightness as needed for onscreen content. As far as motion control specs are concerned and judder control for 24p content, the E6 also delivers the goods exceptionally well. Judder is undetectable for all types of 24p content sources we could see and the motion blur produced by the E6 TV is extremely minimal even without motion interpolation activated to the maximum.

 Finally, the upscaling engine of the LG E6 is very good at scaling up native HD content sources while also doing a very good job of upscaling 720p and even most 480p sources of TV or media content. We’ve covered this in greater detail above in our “Highlights” section.

CONNECTIVITY

 Connectivity-wise, the E6 offers pretty much the same standard package of inputs and outputs you'd expect in any 2016 4K TV from LG. Its one major improvement has been the inclusion of a fourth HDMI 2.0 port, something which we found oddly lacking in many 2015 OLED TVs from LG. In essence, all of the connectivity ports you’d need for effective 4K and non-4K content viewing from external media sources are present in this particular model and connectivity ports for gaming via PC or game console are also present and quite good at gameplay delivery, even in 4K resolution with fairly reasonable input lag times of just 36 milliseconds. However, we found that when it comes to PC and console gaming, the Vizio P-Series 4K HDR TVs and Samsung’s SUHD models are actually moderately better performers at least as far as connectivity is concerned.

 To summarize, the LG E6 OLED TV models offer the usual list of 4 HDMI 2.0a ports, 3 USB ports and the following:

   • • Wi-Fi® Built-In 802.11 a/c
   • Wi-Fi® Direct
   • SIMPLINK™ (HDMI™ CEC)
   • • RF in (Antenna/Cable) 1
   • • Composite In 1
   • • Component In 1 (shared with composite)
   • • Ethernet 1
   • • Optical 1
   • • RS232C (Mini Jack) 1