True for those who want to buy an LG washing machine. LG Q6 - review of an inexpensive copy of the flagship, comparison with the G6

Google's Nexus line of smartphones has always been an integral part of the history of the Android operating system. We always waited and received unusual devices that had relatively good technical specifications. This year we were shown the LG Nexus 5X and Huawei Nexus 6P smartphones. Today we will talk about the first smartphone, which is the long-awaited successor to the original Nexus 5...

Google's Nexus line of smartphones has always been an integral part of the history of the Android operating system. We always waited and received unusual devices that had relatively good technical specifications. So this year they showed us smartphones. Today we will talk about the first smartphone, which is the long-awaited successor to the original Nexus 5.

If the Huawei Nexus 6P is too big for you, and you don’t want to give a lot of your hard-earned money for the Motorola Nexus 6, then the Nexus 5X smartphone is what you need. For the version with 16 GB of internal memory you will need to pay $379, but you get a device with fairly normal characteristics. But is this a good phone for the money? Let's find out!

Working on past mistakes

The first feature of the Nexus 5X is its camera, which has a module with a resolution of 12.3 megapixels. The company's management was well aware that the camera was the main disappointment in the original Nexus 5. The front camera has also been improved, now it has a resolution of 5 megapixels, compared to 1.3 megapixels on the previous Nexus from LG.

There is also a fingerprint sensor (fingerprint scanner), which is located on the back cover of the device, under the camera. And it’s not just here; according to Western and domestic journalists, it works at lightning speed, which also sets the LG Nexus 5X apart from its competitors.

Considering these two features, the cost of this smartphone is, in principle, justified.

Middle class or “almost flagship”?

If we talk about other characteristics, they are less impressive. The already familiar 5.2-inch display with 1080p resolution. The 6-core Qualcomm Snapdragon 808 processor and 2 GB of RAM make you wonder... Is this really the flagship from Google and LG, which was released in mid-2015?

There are also problems with the built-in memory, there are only two options: 16 GB or 32 GB. For most users, 16 GB is quite small, and overpaying $50 for additional memory is a kind of mockery of potential buyers.

Some compromises

Based on everything described above, the LG Nexus 5X smartphone is some kind of complete compromise. Use of the controversial USB Type-C connector, no wireless charging. If in the case of a new type of connector everything is clear and you can get used to it, then refusing to support wireless charging will not go anywhere. As for me, users who used the original Nexus 5 with wireless charging will feel a little cheated or something.

It is also worth mentioning the appearance of the Nexus 5X smartphone, it is also quite controversial. Although, in “live” photographs and videos, he doesn’t look bad. Not great, but not bad either.

Competitors in the market

When the original LG Nexus 5 appeared on the market, it had practically no competitors at that price. This year things have changed a little; if you have $379, then there are quite a few candidates for purchase and some of them are worth considering.

ASUS Zenfone 2 is one of them. Costing about $300, it has a 2.3 GHz quad-core processor, 2 GB of RAM and a 5.5-inch display. For the OnePlus 2 you'll have to pay $329 (the minimum option), but in return you get an 8-core processor, a larger battery, more RAM and the same fingerprint scanner if you so need it. That's why I said that the LG Nexus 5X smartphone is a complete compromise.

Good but not great

To understand what the recently announced Nexus smartphone from LG is, it’s enough to delve a little into history. Nexus 4 had a surprisingly stylish appearance and excellent technical characteristics at the time of its release to the market. Plus, it only cost $299, making it one of the best budget smartphones on the market. And if the new Nexus had the same price, then we would have no doubt that the LG Nexus 5X is still worth buying. But for $379...Sorry, next time.

What do you think about this, will you buy or maybe you have already bought yourself an LG Nexus 5X smartphone? Is Google doing the right thing by raising the cost of its devices?

LG is famous for the fact that in all its product lines it is looking for some features that are not very burdensome, but attract attention. And it doesn’t matter whether we are talking about microwave ovens, humidifiers, refrigerators or televisions. For example, a couple of years ago the company released washing machines that can be controlled using a smartphone and NFC.

Mobile devices are no exception. From year to year, LG surprises with some new detail. Three years ago, it introduced the LG G2 smartphone with a control button located on the back surface. This decision seemed strange and at least not obvious to users, but time has shown that it was correct. And now most manufacturers place a fingerprint scanner in this area - in the area of the index finger. It's really very intuitive and convenient.

In 2014, the LG G3 impressed with its excellent camera with laser autofocus, which quickly burst into the ranks of reference cameras, thereby displacing the iPhone and Samsung flagships. In the same model, LG was the first among its competitors to use a Quad HD screen. To this day, no one can understand whether such a solution is needed in a mobile device of such a small size, but the idea was again picked up by the market, setting off in a race of resolutions.

Last year's model surprised us with its non-standard design. The LG G4 smartphone has a leather-trimmed body. Similar ideas have been seen before, for example, in the luxurious Vertu, but a mass-produced smartphone in this design on the Russian market was a breakthrough. However, even today one cannot say that this was a great idea. But as a feature it is quite interesting.

And here is the new flagship, which I had to spend a couple of weeks with. What surprised us with the G5?

Metal

The device is made in a metal case. Recently, the use of this material has been typical for many mobile device manufacturers, but for a product manufactured by LG it was new. Unlike Apple, Samsung, Huawei, Lenovo and many other companies, this South Korean company has not previously experimented with metal, preferring various types of plastic. This gave the smartphone a greater “industrial” feel and solidity, further emphasizing its internal content.

Modularity

Modularity is the main feature of the G5. It is made in a collapsible case with a removable element at the end and a removable battery. But it's not just the battery, of course. In place of the removed element, you can install another one with advanced functions. For example, a camera control unit with physical buttons or a Hi-Fi audio unit with digital output made by Bang and Olufsen. This significantly expands the possibilities of customization. The components will be sold separately, so the big question is whether anyone will buy them. but having such an option seems to be very useful. It is also important that LG nevertheless decided to allow third-party manufacturers to create such modules, which means that their price is guaranteed to begin to decline. Just a couple of months ago, the company was not sure of the need for such a solution. In general, the elements existing today are entertaining, but not for everyone. In this case, a lover of photography or listening to music in maximum quality. The only thing that has absolute value is the 1200 mA battery. h, which is installed in the camera module. As you know, there is no such thing as too many batteries.

Camera

The second most important feature of the G5 is the camera. The smartphone has a dual module. This is not the ability to play with 3D, as was the case with HTC models of past years, and not an additional black and white module, like the Huawei P9. The LG G5 camera consists of the usual 16-megapixel module with a viewing angle of 78 degrees and a wide-angle module of 8 megapixels and 135 degrees. Switching is done in the interface. The difference in the result is obvious: you can take beautiful panoramas, and in situations where the subject is very close, a camera like this is generally the only solution. As for the rest, such as focusing, color rendering, ability to work with macro photography and other things, the camera is no worse than the G4 or G3. It is on par with competitors from devices produced by Apple and Samsung. And of course, the camera is very fast. For me (and I don’t hide the fact that I take 90 percent of my work photos on a smartphone) this is extremely important.

Battery

The battery used is not very capacious for a flagship - only 2800 mA. h, but, as already noted, removable. This means that it is easy to replace it a year or a year and a half later, when the resource begins to decline. It’s easy to restart your smartphone if it freezes. In addition, you can buy another battery to have a charged one in reserve. By the way, there is also a power supply in the external module for the camera, the use of which increases the total battery capacity to 4000 mAh. But this comes at a cost. In the basic version, the battery lasts for 8-9 hours of active use. Some will stretch it out for a couple of days, but most users will make it until the end of the working day without any problems.

Not quite a flagship

In Barcelona, at the Mobile World Congress, LG demonstrated the LG G5 smartphone. The LG G5 (SE) model began to be supplied to Russia, which is sold everywhere for 50 thousand rubles and this is the first time that LG has released a lite version of the flagship. What is its difference? A less powerful processor is used - Snapdragon 652 instead of Sanpdragon 820, and the amount of RAM is not 4 GB, but 3 GB. Is this significant? Yes and no. In most real-world applications, you won't notice the difference unless you start shooting 4K video. It's really heavy for this system. In addition, in benchmarks the device is noticeably inferior to smartphones of this year, producing results comparable to last year’s flagships.

I don’t think it’s worth explaining why LG brought a simplified version to Russia. Because the price of this version is too high - 50 thousand rubles. A year ago, the top-end LG G4 was sold at launch for 40 thousand rubles. Have we become significantly richer since then? Not sure. Will a full-fledged LG G5, without letters, appear in Russia? They seem to promise.

Results

So, what's the bottom line? We have a very interesting smartphone in front of us. LG G5 is beautiful, stylish, with an excellent camera, good sound and a decent display. The metal body is just cool.

What's confusing? The main feature is confusing, i.e. modularity. On the one hand, this is interesting. From a practical point of view, the benefits obtained are not yet obvious. After all, what is the main thing? The main thing is that the bells and whistles do not interfere. The quad HD screen that came with the G3 was cool, but we lost the excellent battery life of the G2. The LG G4's skin was abraded on the edges, but this, of course, did not affect the operation of the smartphone.

I see three non-obvious points: the reliability and tightness of the case, the number and availability of new modules, and, finally, their compatibility with smartphones of the next generations. A year ago, nothing said that in 2016 we would get a modular flagship. There is nothing to indicate this in relation to 2017.

And additional modules cost money. And, apparently, quite a lot.

When it comes to buying a new smartphone, the search for many begins not with “what smartphone can I afford,” but with “what kind of smartphone do I want.” This is fine. But today “the smartphone I want” can cost more than 50 thousand rubles. Phew. We exhaled, thought, and made up our minds. The decision has been formulated. “I’m ready to pay more than fifty thousand rubles for a smartphone” - all that remains is to decide for which one.

Among Android smartphones, two smartphones look the most advantageous compared to competitors in the eyes of many: Samsung Galaxy S8 and LG G6. Lots of display and minimal bezels, excellent cameras, premium materials, cool appearance, plus a million chips for two. I’ll figure out which smartphone is cooler: I’ll give one point to the winner of each category in a comparative test. Go.

Dimensions, materials, ergonomics

In general, the sizes of the devices are similar. The Galaxy S8 is almost 4 mm narrower due to the rounded display and you can feel it. Otherwise, the dimensions are parity, but due to the design features of the case, the Galaxy S8 seems thinner than the G6 - all due to the rounding of the edges of the smartphone on all sides. The G6 feels like a weighty glass-metal bar in your hands. Compared to the G6, the Galaxy S8 may seem more fragile: you hold it in your hand like an expensive crystal toy, which, it seems, can be broken simply by squeezing it in your hand (in fact, this is, of course, not the case). Overall, the Galaxy S8 feels better in the hand. This does not mean that the G6 is bad from an ergonomic point of view, it is simply created according to a different ideology for those who do not like fragile smartphones, for those who are subconsciously afraid of breaking their device and are looking for a reliable-looking device.

The case materials and build quality are parity. The Galaxy S8 feels more expensive, but only due to its glossiness all around and better ergonomics.

But we have a battle between two flagships, and we need to give the first point to only one of the smartphones. It leaves the Galaxy S8 as a more compact and easier-to-handle smartphone.

The score is 1:0, S8 is in the lead.

Screens

The Galaxy S8 has the best screen on the market today. It is a fact. Brightness, color rendition, cosmic appearance in the end. This automatically makes it a winner in screen comparisons. Does this mean the G6 has a bad screen? No, the screen is wonderful: good viewing angles, excellent color reproduction, even the edges of the display are rounded, like the S8. But the curves are uneven, the readability of the screen in the sun is worse, and the Always-on screen consumes much more energy than the Always-on on the Galaxy S8 (due to the fact that the G6 does not have AMOLED, but a regular IPS matrix and for implementation of the function, the backlight of the entire screen is always active).

The score is 2:0 in favor of Galaxy.

Performance

You can criticize LG as much as you want for rushing to bring the G6 to the market and putting last year's Snapdragon 821 chipset into the smartphone. But who cares when in normal use the device performs on par with flagships with Snapdragon 835 and Exynos 8895? In our comparison, the LG G6 loses to the Galaxy S8 on paper and in benchmarks, but in practice remains just as fast a device as its competitor. Moreover, sometimes the G6 turns out to be more efficient than its competitor (rarely and mainly when launching built-in applications, such as the dialer or settings). While testing both smartphones, I was faced with the fact that each of them slows down here and there. But in 99% of cases everything flies on both the G6 and S8. So we have our first draw.

The score is 3:1 in favor of Samsung.

Cameras

Now the comparison of cameras is more interesting. The Galaxy S8 has the same module that was in the S7, last year's flagship of the company. The software has been improved, there are new add-ons inside the camera application. In general, the quality of the images is comparable to the previous generation; in some places, the photographs are better due to new processing algorithms. The camera in the S8 is perfect for those who take photographs mainly in Auto mode, trust their device and rarely go into manual settings.

The LG G6 came with a dual camera module, which I consider the most successful implementation of a dual camera on the market today. The “regular” camera shoots at almost the same level as the S8 camera, but the smartphone really opens up in wide-angle mode. Where with the S8 you need to step back 20 meters from the subject, with the LG G6 you just need to switch to the second camera and the photo is ready. This is cool when you want to photograph architectural objects, nature, and works ideally for group shots. In general, this is a different level of mobile photography. Yes, there is some distortion at the edges in photos taken with the wide-angle module, but this is minor compared to the wide shooting capabilities that the G6 provides.

The LG G6 closes the gap with a second camera module. The score is 3:2.

Battery

The LG G6 has a larger battery (3300 mAh versus 3000 mAh in the S8), which is offset by the more modern chipset in the Samsung Galaxy S8, built using a 10 nm process technology (14 nm in the G6). In fact, both smartphones work for one full day with above average load. If you really want, you can achieve one and a half days, but for this you will have to adjust your usage pattern. For example, abandon the convenient Always-on mode, reduce the brightness of screens, disable unnecessary services and functions such as NFC, precise location determination, and constant data synchronization. I’m not sure that this is what the owner of such a smartphone will do, but I still want to use the device 100%. Therefore, you will charge both S8 and G6 every day, sometimes resorting to external batteries in the middle of the day.

You need to take care of an additional USB Type-C cable in advance. And if the Galaxy S8 comes with an adapter from micro-USB to Type-C, which allows you to transform a regular old charging cord into a new format, then for the LG G6 you will definitely have to buy a cable with Type-C.

In terms of autonomy, it turns out to be a draw. The score is 4:3.

Features and equipment

At first glance, in terms of the number of chips, the Galaxy S8 leaves no chance to the LG G6. In addition to the new format and waterproof screens common to both smartphones, the S8 has a heart rate sensor, an Edge screen with the now familiar Edge panel for quick access to the most popular functions, wireless charging, an iris scanner, face unlock, and support for Samsung Pay. But on the G6 side there is certified drop protection, a wide-angle camera module, applications perfectly tailored to the new display aspect ratio and, of course, a built-in music chip, thanks to which the smartphone is able to rock any headphones, producing clear, rich sound.

Samsung makes a big deal out of what it comes with: cool bundled headphones developed jointly with AKG, an OTG cable for easy data transfer, and an adapter from micro-USB to USB Type-C. As a result, the Galaxy S8 gets one point for a richer package, although in terms of features, perhaps, there is parity.

The score is 5:3 in favor of the Galaxy S8.

Winner

It would be incorrect to talk about the winner of the comparison test without comparing the prices of the devices. And they are comparable. 52 thousand rubles for the G6 and 55 thousand for the S8 in official retail. But everything changes if you look at unofficial prices. The LG G6 can be found from a number of sellers for 27 thousand rubles (almost half the price), which makes it perhaps the best offer on the market (although you will have to say goodbye to the warranty). Even the “gray” Galaxy S8 is noticeably more expensive. The LG G6 scores big.

The Galaxy S8 wins the comparison test. The final score of 5:4 suggests that the S8 and G6 are worthy competitors, and the S8's victory is due to its excellent ergonomics and striking design. And this is a subjective indicator, you will agree. So before you pay money for one of these smartphones, take the time to hold each of them in your hands and choose the one you like best. Otherwise you can't go wrong.

LG is a Korean brand that produces high-quality mobile equipment. It also produces televisions and other electronics, household appliances, but in this case we are interested in mobile phones. The main feature of LG devices is compliance with the MIL-STD-810G and IP68 protection standards. This means that LG phones are difficult to break or drown. Moreover, this applies even to the middle segment, and not exclusively to flagships.

1st place – LG G8 ThinQ

The new top-class phone is the best in the LG line so far, which will cost an average of $700. Yes, the device is expensive, but the price is justified by the functionality and hardware.

What's good:

Water and dust resistant, MIL-STD-810G compliant.
Cool OLED screen with infinite contrast, support for HDR10, Dolby Vision and 100% coverage of the DCI-P3 color space. Here the display is also used as a sound amplifier, which made it possible to get rid of the speaker.
The 7nm Snapdragon 855 processor is the best Android processor so far and will remain so in 2019.
Camera with wide-angle and telephoto lenses, optical stabilization. See examples of photographs in full. 4K/60 FPS shooting possible.
3D ToF scanner on the front panel, with which the Hand ID function is implemented - palm scanning. The smartphone detects the pattern on the hand, as well as the location of the veins, which in theory provides better protection. In practice, the technology is “crude” and requires improvement, so this should not be considered a serious advantage.
Dedicated 32-bit audio chip, DTS:X Surround Sound support, headphone output.
3500 mAh battery – 25 hours of calls and 11 hours of video playback at a brightness of 200 cd/m2. Fast charging is supported – 42% in 30 minutes; average result on the market.
NFC, Wi-Fi 5 GHz, Bluetooth 5.0, USB Type-C.

What's bad:

Hand ID technology in this flagship is the main value. So far, the function is crude - it takes a lot of time to recognize a hand and unlock the device.
A large “unibrow” on the screen is not comme il faut in 2019.
Only one full multimedia speaker. A resonant OLED screen is used as a speaker, which is not suitable for creating a stereo pair.
Low charging speed.
Very strong competitors in the form of Huawei P30 Pro or Samsung S10.

Helpful information:

Examples of photos from G8 ThinQ cameras:

Main sensor:

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Wide Angle Camera:

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Photo at night:

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Examples of photos in Portrait mode:

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Selfie examples:

2nd place – LG V40 ThinQ

The second flagship that has already gone on sale is the V40 ThinQ. In many ways it is similar to the G8 ThinQ, but in terms of hardware it is inferior.

What's good:

Water and dust protection IP68 + MIL-STD-810G; withstands immersion under water and lasts 30 minutes at a depth of up to 1.5 meters.
P-OLED display with a resolution of 3120×1440, Gorilla Glass 5, support for HDR10 and Dolby Vision.
3-module camera with regular, telephoto and wide-angle lenses, optical stabilization, 2x-zoom. See full examples of photos from the camera.
32-bit audio chip, DTS:X support, therefore, the sound in the headphones is great, there is a 3.5 mm output.
Fast charging Quick Charge 3.0 – 50% in 36 minutes.
Wireless charging 10 W.
NFC, Wi-Fi 5 GHz, Bluetooth 5.0 with atpX HD support.

What's bad:

The battery capacity is 3300 mAh – withstands 21:41 hours of calls and just over 10 hours of video playback at a brightness of 200 cd/m2.
Snapdragon 845 processor (10 nm) – the G8 has a 7 nm SD855.
High color rendering deviation - the average DeltaE error is 4, which is not typical for flagships.
Frankly weak front camera.

Even with its shortcomings, the LG V40 ThinQ remains one of the best in LG's lineup. Let me add that the new LG V50 ThinQ is already on its way - expected in the second quarter of 2019. The phone received an SD855 processor with a 5G modem - relevant for South Korea, where the 5G network is fully launched and functioning.

Reviews:

Benchmark testing results:

GeekBench 4.1 (multi-core)

GeekBench 4.1 (single-core)

AnTuTu 7

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Examples of photos from cameras – main (clickable):

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Wide Angle:

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Telephoto (clickable):

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Selfie (clickable):

Portrait mode

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3rd place – G7 ThinQ

This flagship of 2018 became the best in terms of sound and took 1st place in. Inside there is a dedicated QUAD DAC ES9218P audio chip with 8 DAC modules, which produces cool sound in high-impedance headphones.

Other advantages:

Water and dust protection IP68 + MIL-STD-810G.
IPS screen with support for HDR10 and Dolby Vision, and most importantly, a record brightness of 920 cd/m2 and a contrast ratio of 2044:1. This is one of the best IPS panels in the world.
The flagship processor of 2018 is the 10nm Snapdragon 845. In this it is inferior to the LG G8 ThinQ with the SD855 chip.
Sound The LG G7 ThinQ is one of the best phones on the market when it comes to sound.

Flaws:

Weak battery life - only 23 hours of communication and almost 10 hours of video playback.
Photos in poor lighting are of poor quality and are not worthy of a flagship.
4K video recording is available, but without EIS. Overall the video quality is good, but it would be better with EIS.
Design – large unibrow on top.

It makes sense to buy a smartphone if you don’t have money for the LG G8 ThinQ and sound quality is your priority.

Reviews:

4th place – G7 Fit

This model can hardly be classified as a flagship; it is rather a mid-segment, albeit based on the best processor of 2016-2017. To be honest, LG is a little surprising. Instead of using modern mid-range chips (like the Snapdragon 710 or 712), LG uses older flagship processors.

What's good:

Water and dust protection + MIL-STD-810G.
A very cool IPS screen with a resolution of 3120x1440 with support for HDR10 and Dolby Vision.
Dedicated 32-bit audio chip with DTS:X support, headphone output.
A good camera with a resolution of 16 megapixels and a 4K video function. The quality corresponds to the middle class.
Fast charging from an adapter supporting QC 3.0 with a power of 18 W.
NFC, USB Type-C, Wi-Fi 5 GHz.

What's bad:

The weak 3000 mAh battery, given the high resolution IPS screen, does not inspire confidence - expect to have to charge the phone every day.
The old Snapdragon 821 processor, which was installed on the 2016 Xiaomi Mi 5s.
Price – 400-420 US dollars. For this money there are better options, although without a dedicated audio chip and water protection.

Helpful information:

5th place – Q7

And finally - a “state employee” for little money. And although the Q7 model belongs to the low segment, it also has water protection and compliance with the MIL-STD-810G standard. The device is powered by a Snapdragon 450 processor, out of the box it comes with Android 8.1 OS, inside there is a weak Snapdragon 450 processor with Adreno 506 graphics.

Support for DTS: X is declared, so the sound should traditionally be good. Screen – 5.5 inches, IPS, with Full HD+ resolution. As for the cameras, they correspond to the middle class and produce moderately good pictures during the day, noisy and without details at night.

When buying a TV, most people least of all think about what technology is used to produce the matrix. A buyer comes to the store and wants a new TV: the ideal candidate should be “flat, with a large diagonal, and cheaper.” And also - so that “to show it beautifully.” And already at home it turns out that the picture is faded, you can’t see it from the corners (you can see it only if you sit in the center), and it eats electricity like a voracious wolf.

It is then that the buyer understands that the stingy one pays twice, and the discomfort from viewing cannot be compared with those “extra” tens of dollars that he would have to pay for a higher-quality TV with the same or even slightly smaller diagonal.

Smart speeches

OLED (Organic Light Emitting Diode) technology appeared quite a long time ago, but its development today is such that you can know about the technology itself and what an “emissive layer” is, but have little idea of the differences between an OLED TV from a simple LCD.

But it will be difficult to describe the technology in a few words in another language, so we will try to simplify it for those who are interested. According to the encyclopedia, organic light-emitting diodes (OLEDs) “use thin-film multilayer structures consisting of layers of several polymers.” If we translate these and other words into human language, we can say that an OLED TV is a TV in the matrix of which organic light-emitting diodes are the main functional element. The principle of operation is to pass electrical impulses through organic compounds, which leads to a bright glow of the latter: the use of various phosphors allows one to obtain a glow of a given color. Therefore, by combining the luminescence of red, blue and green organic light-emitting diodes, you can obtain a large number of different and high-quality colors.

LG has topped it all off with its own patented WRGB (White Subpixel) technology. This is a proprietary technology for forming color shades on LG TV screens, using not the usual RGB system (which consists, as can be seen in the previous paragraph, not only of three pixels of different colors: red, blue and green), but also has an additional fourth subpixel of white colors. This solution allows you to achieve a more saturated, accurate and realistic transmission of halftones and various color shades. Thus, the technology provides the maximum number of transmitted colors, and as a bonus, it consumes less energy than other competitive technologies.

In simple terms

If we move away from complex explanations of what OLED is in technical terms, then we can explain the advantages and disadvantages of OLED even more simply and point by point.

Let's start with the advantages. The first of them is very high contrast and brightness parameters with lower energy consumption than traditional liquid crystal (LCD) or plasma TVs.

Secondly, the OLED display is much thinner than any, even the thinnest modern LCD screen - the OLED thickness is millimeters (counted on the fingers of one hand). This allows you to create truly thin panels: which is of particular importance for mobile phones and other gadgets for which compactness is the first requirement today. And we are not talking about a “bending iPhone”, since this is a problem with the case manufacturer, not the display.

The third is the possibility of creating flexible screens, which manufacturers have not failed to take advantage of (by creating curved TVs and the same smart watches, for example).

The fourth advantage follows directly from the first and second: smaller dimensions and weight of the final device, which opens up the possibility of creating a screen with a higher resolution in relation to the physical size of the screen.

The fifth advantage relates to the large viewing angles compared to traditional LCD panels: the image can be viewed without loss of quality from any angle. This, of course, can be said about IPS panels, but they also cannot yet completely replace simple LCD matrices of the TN+film type, so this advantage is still important. As well as instant response.

Well, the last benefit will probably be appreciated more by developers of monitors for industrial devices: this is a large range of operating temperatures (from −40 to +70 °C)

OLED also has its disadvantages, of course. Today, the number one drawback is the rather high retail price, which, however, happens with all innovative technologies that are just beginning to enter the world market. But the same company LG has already begun to solve this problem by releasing an inexpensive 55-inch OLED model LG 55EC930V with Full-HD and a curved screen, which was made possible by optimizing the production of OLED panels. The new product has an updated design - thanks to the detachable leg, the TV can now be hung on the wall - and a new webOS operating system, which runs the smart Smart TV platform. The 55EC930V retails for 150-160 thousand rubles and is the most affordable OLED TV with a curved screen today.

OLED of today

If you ask the question “why such beautiful screens were not produced before,” then the answer is quite simple: progress in this case was hindered by the global crisis of 2009. Production was supposed to begin shortly before, but since the crisis has thrown everything into disarray, the industry has only now returned to actual production plans.

Considering that OLED displays are quite thin and can bend, they can be used to make new-fangled curved screens. And as an example, it’s worth citing OLED TVs from LG, which is far from producing the first model of such a TV, and, accordingly, has already managed to hone their production well, rid the devices of “childhood diseases” and - what is important for the end buyer - reduce cost of the device.

The recently introduced 65-inch LG 65EC970V TV also has a curved screen. Unlike previous models, this one has an updated design and a new operating system, and displays the picture in 4K resolution (Ultra HD, 3840x2160). Plus, it has a new patented WRGB OLED technology (additional white subpixel), which we have already described above.

Combining this technology with 4K Ultra HD resolution (3840 x 2160 pixels), the 65EC970V delivers a whole new level of picture quality and realism. The color gamut can be adjusted either automatically or using a huge number of settings; there is also a proprietary High Dynamic Range (HDR) algorithm, which is responsible for adjusting clarity. The proprietary LG 4K Engine Pro processor allows you to extrapolate video in SD, HD or Full-HD resolution to 4K quality. And the Motion Estimation Motion Compensation (MEMC) mechanism makes the action on the screen smoother, clearer and more realistic.

Particular attention should be paid to the stand. Thanks to the metal stand, the TV is almost impossible to tip over. It can also be hung on the wall using the special design mount included in the kit. In addition, the 65EC970V has a full set of interfaces, including 4x HDMI 2.0, but the good old SCART is also present, albeit in the form of a remote adapter.

But what's especially impressive is the thickness. Only 4.3 mm (so really, counting in millimeters on the fingers of one hand), not counting the block with TV filling, and they allow us to call this device the thinnest and most elegant TV with such a large screen size.

The software is also not far behind: the OLED TV 65EC970V has full Smart TV functionality, which is provided by the new webOS operating system, which has become more convenient, clearer and faster. Operation speed is an important factor, since the system is multitasking and allows you to work simultaneously with many applications, including the browser. There are a lot of image settings (including twenty-point white balance), unlike most TVs, so if you have the desire and free time, you can make the picture just perfect for yourself. The model will go on sale in December 2014 and will be a great New Year's gift.

And, of course, with these TVs, the buyer will receive all the benefits of OLED technology.

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