LG OLED G7P TV Review

Android News / LG OLED G7P TV Review – Infinite Contrast, Going for Bold

The best display of all time and a design to kill.

While LG may not have been the inventor of OLED displays, LG has been the one pioneering OLEDs in the TV space more than any other OEM. Now with a few generations of OLED TVs under their belt, LG is branching out into multiple pricing categories, each with its own set of features and a unique design. The LG OLED65G7P is part of the LG SIGNATURE line of luxury appliances and home theater equipment, and everything about it screams high-end. Coming in both 65" and 77" sizes, the G7P series offers a unique form factor and a built-in Dolby Atmos sound bar that doubles as a stand and a wall mount. Is this the ultimate TV for your home theater? Let's take a look

Video Review

Specs and What's in the Box

LG sells the G7P in two sizes: 77-inches and 65-inches. Both models feature an identical 4K resolution OLED panel (3840 x 2160 pixels), which conforms to the 4K UHD 2160p standard. The OLED65G7P 65-inch model we’re reviewing today retails for $6,999 MSRP. The larger OLED77G7P 77-inch model more than doubles the price to $14,999 MSRP. Both sizes run under the LG SIGNATURE branding, which encompases home theater equipment as well as many different appliances for the home. LG SIGNATURE products include a number of services and freebees, including the 24/7 LG Concierge service. This service provides information about product features, set-up, use and care. LG also offers the B7, C7, E7 and W7 TVs in this line. The G7P's design features a picture on glass design measuring an unbelievable 2.57mm thin, attached to a built-in stand. This stand converts to either a mounting plate (400 x 200 VESA) by folding behind the glass panel, or locks in underneath to be used as a stand.

The stand itself doubles as a 4.2-channel Dolby Atmos speaker bar as well, and around back you’ll find 4 HDMI HDCP 2.2 ports, 3 USB ports, 1 RF in, 1 Composite in, 1 Ethernet, 1 Optical/TOSLink port, and 1 RS232C Mini Jack. LG runs its own in-house developed WebOS v3.5, and features many apps in the LG Webstore. Some apps, like YouTube, support native casting over the local network, and LG supports screen mirroring via MiraCast technology on supported phones. The G7P line features advanced HDR technologies like Active HDR with Dolby Vision, HDR10 and HLG support. Audio technologies supported include DTS up to DTS-HD quality, and Dolby up to Dolby Atmos TrueHD (lossless) quality. 802.11ac WiFi is built in and supports 2.4GHz and 5GHz channels, as well as Bluetooth connectivity for wireless soundbars or headphones.

The power supply is built into the stand, with a simple cord that plugs into a 2-prong outlet, rotated at a 90-degree angle to keep the cord lasting longer. Standby mode uses a mere 0.5W of power. The 65G7P that we’re reviewing measures in at 57.5" wide by 35.1" tall, and weighs 69.9lbs. With the base in stand mode it measures 9.6" deep, and when the base is folded into wall-mounting mode it's a rather thin 2.7" deep total. There is no way to separate this particular model from the stand. The speakers built into the stand are 4.2 channel Dolby Atmos speakers, and feature the ability to link to your existing sound system via a number of different technologies.

Packing something this large into a cardboard box is no easy task, but LG's packaging is rigid and thick, with easy to remove clips that hold the double-walled cardboard construction together. The manuals and unpacking guide are located in the top of the box, which I found to be a strange location since it's different from the clips on the side that beg to be taken off first, rather than cutting through the tape up top. Inside this kit is a pair of remotes, one a larger full-featured remote, and a smaller remote for those that prefer something less complicated. An RCA to Aux cable is included, as well as batteries for the remotes and cable wraps for wires that plug into inputs.

Hardware and Design

LG's hardware design is unmatched in many ways, and it makes since both given the price of the unit as well as the fact that it's a part of the LG SIGNATURE line of premium appliances. LG differentiates its OLED sets via features and overall design, saving the boldest designs for its upper-echelon of TVs. Only the Wallpaper line (W7P) is above the G7P line in terms of price, but the G7P offers a convertible stand that functions both as a stand and a way to mount the TV to the wall. Because LG packs all the components inside this stand section of the TV, they’re able to place the OLED display on a large piece of glass, meaning you’re getting the absolute thinnest TV on the market without exception. The display here is literally the thickness of a piece of glass at 2.57mm thin, simply because that's exactly what the display is placed on. Since OLED displays are thinner than any kind of other commercial display available, LG is able to place the ultra thin OLED panel on this glass, making it appear as though it were actually a part of this glass rather than a separate layer.

There's a very small bezel around the edge of the display, as the glass it slightly larger than the OLED panel itself, which is needed to be able to move the TV or position it in a different way. Since you’d not want to put the pressure required to lift the unit on the OLED panel itself, it's good for this display to be here. It's not large enough to be a distraction, and it's just small enough that it looks like an ultra sleek, modern television. There's also a really nice textured pattern on the back of the display. All in all the design of the panel itself is absolutely stunning, and will easily woo any visitor in your home with its elegance and beauty. Given the thinness of the panel you’d expect the unit itself to be feather light, but the reality might surprise you. At nearly 70lbs this is far heavier than your average 65-inch LCD TV, but most of the weight can be attributed to the glass panel used, as well as the speaker bar built into the stand. The design of the speaker bar up front is absolutely gorgeous, and exhibits a unique look that's immediately recognizable. With LG SIGNATURE and OLED written on the top, there's no mistaking what this TV is the moment you look at it.

The combination of the ultra thin display and the striking stand is nothing short of amazing looking. This is a TV that will turn heads the moment someone walks into a room, and keep them there because of the picture quality. LG has taken steps to make this the most beautiful TV they make, outside of maybe the Wallpaper W7 model, but that's more striking because of its minimalist design rather than the bolder design used here. The primary mauve color used for the stand is unique and attractive, and the gold accents create a look of luxury that fits the price tag. By biggest beef with the design is that the stand is all plastic, and while it doesn't necessarily look plastic from afar, it feels a little cheaper than I imagined when picking the unit up. Still, the weight of the overall package makes it feel super high quality, and the speaker bar design under the TV simply looks great.

Setup out of the box seems rather strange at first, but it's done in a way that makes the mounting more permanent than simple clips would. Using four long, heavy duty bolts that are installed with an included Hex Key/Allen Wrench, there's no worrying whether the glass panel of the G7P is going to fall backward once it's secured onto the stand. In the same way the display panel is fastened flat to the stand when in wall-mounting mode, and there's no worry about it falling forward once installed. Standard 400 x 200 VESA mounting can be used in this mode, and LG sells a slim wall mount separately (model LG OTW420B, MSRP $99.99) that will allow easy slide-on mounting once the mount is installed into the wall.

The only button on the unit is a small, circular silver one located on the left side on the edge of the base. This button is a multi-function one, and also serves as a directional pad for navigating onscreen elements if the remote is not present. It's simple to use, and its location ensures that it's usable while looking at the TV, all while hiding the button from sight of the clean lines on the front. Around the back of the stand you’ll find all the ports, situated in a single row across about half of the back. In total you’ll find 4 HDMI HDCP 2.2 ports, 3 USB ports, 1 RF in, 1 Composite in, 1 Ethernet, 1 Optical/TOSLink port, and 1 RS232C Mini Jack. It's a bit surprising to only see 4 HDMI ports on a premium TV this late in 2017, let alone some of the legacy ports as well. While the legacy ports will do fine for watching classics or old home videos, only having 4 HDMI ports are likely to be limiting for some people, especially if you’ve got a lot of equipment. Those in this situation will have to stick with the passthrough on an A/V receiver and hope that supports everything the TV needs for optimal picture quality.

Maintenance and Durability

In general it seems like the durability of the unit would be pretty high over the years, although I’m a little concerned that the picture-on-glass could get damaged if moved around too much. Thankfully the glass itself is held in place by a mounting system near the bottom, which as said before, is held in place via four very long bolts. Our unit shipped to us with a scratch and a chip in the glass. While there's no telling how these appeared here since this is a review TV and not necessarily a brand new unit, these cosmetic damages turned out to just be that. They are completely unnoticeable while watching anything, and don't appear to have damaged the TV in any meaningful way.

LG recommends using a dry cloth to clean the TV with, meaning you shouldn't be spraying Windex on the glass to clean smears, or Pledge on the base to dust. While LG seals the unit it's still not recommended to use any kind of liquid cleaner on the display itself. While liquids will ruin an OLED display if it comes in contact with the actual display material, other electronics really aren't any different in this regard. LG recommends not picking the unit up by the glass at all; rather the stand is built to carry all the weight and stress of moving the unit. Since the bolts can be removed from the base and the display folded back onto the base, this may be an easier way to safely transport it if it's moving from house to house, rather than just a different place in the same room.

By nature OLEDs are prone to burn-in quicker than LCDs would be, but not nearly as much as many commercially available plasma TVs were in their time. While OLED technology has been around for decades, it hasn't been commercially available in TVs up until the last few years. This means it's still in its infancy regarding things like reducing burn-in, and other detrimental effects that can occur with aging. Since OLED stands for Organic Light Emitting Diode, you can expect that the cells that make up an OLEDs structure degrade over time. Burn-in happens when a pixel has displayed a certain image for an extremely long period of time, and the pixel's underlying structure is literally degraded further than the surrounding pixels. This degraded pixel will be slightly less bright than the surrounding ones as a result, and will visibly retain an "image" as a result. LG has built many different technologies into their OLED TV series, and as a result burn-in is incredibly difficult to cause, especially when compared to the burn-in rates of other TV technologies at this age.

To help pixels keep from displaying the exact same brightness and color for long periods of time, the image itself will shift just a slight bit during viewing. Since there are well over 8 million pixels on a 4K display, a single pixel shift in any direction is completely unnoticeable, and the TV will periodically do this over time. A screen saver will also come on after a minute or so of inactivity, making the panel completely dark with attractive, colorful fireworks here and there. For times when you’ve had a mad rush gaming session or have watched too many sporting events and find the logos or other HUD elements are faintly "burned" into the screen, the Pixel Refresher mode can be run. This can be chosen to either run immediately or the next time the TV is turned off. This process will run for an hour and effectively age all the pixels to the same level. For note this is something that will likely only need to be run once in a blue moon rather than a regular thing.

Remote

LG ships the Magic Remote with all of their OLED TVs, but the E7 and upwards ship with a nicer looking version of the same remote. A shiny gold aluminum trim around the face of the remote features the LG SIGNATURE branding on it, and the ribbed plastic grips on the back feel excellent in the hand. This is a tall remote but not one that's overly complicated or convoluted, with well labeled buttons that are easy to understand. LG dedicates buttons to Netflix and Amazon Video, as these are the two most popular streaming services around, but there are apps for others as we’ll cover below. All the buttons feature a rubber texture and slightly raised printing, with a number pad up top and assorted buttons below. A microphone on the top of the remote can be used for searching and typing with your voice instead of needing to peck on a virtual keyboard with the remote; an alternative that's likely a better choice for many people, so long as the room isn't too loud.

At the bottom you’ll find four colored action buttons whose context changed depending on the app on screen. Along the middle is a circular directional pad for navigating, and in the middle a wheel for scrolling that clicks in to act as an OK button. LG deems this the magic remote not because of its design or buttons, but because of its ability to act like a mouse pointer and interact with your TV in a way most remotes couldn't dream of. A quick few flicks of the wrist will activate the on-screen cursor (denoted by a rather visually loud pink arrow), and moving the remote around gradually moves the cursor around the screen. If you’ve ever used a Wii remote with its pointing abilities, you’ll know how well this works. The difference here is that there's no external setup required for a light bar, and the remote doesn't need to be pointed directly at the TV for this to work either.

This cursor is easily the best way to interact with any on-screen element at all. It's a more natural way of navigating through menus and clicking things than moving around with a D-Pad, and the scroll wheel in the middle of the remote makes for an easy and quick way to browse through lists. Movement speed of the cursor can be adjusted, and there are three different cursor styles to choose from out of the box. When clicking objects on screen, the movement of the cursor is paused so long as the OK button is held down; a really nice nuance from LG that makes selecting elements easier. Resting the remote on a flat surface or not moving it for a few seconds will make the cursor disappear with a nice pop animation. Two AA batteries power the main remote, and LG offers a small remote with far fewer buttons for regular interaction with the TV too. This second remote is included in the box with the required lithium batteries as well.

Display and Image Quality

For a number of years, plasma TVs reigned supreme in the land of image quality. While LCD TVs are generally brighter and lighter than any other technology, just about every other aspect of image quality was just done better on a plasma. Now that plasmas are dead, OLEDs are here to take their place, and in most ways have one-upped the technology in the image quality game. While the best LCD/LED/QLED TV boast contrast ratios around the 6,000:1 mark, the best plasmas offered in upwards of 5,000,000:1. Likewise LG's OLED TVs offer an infinite contrast ratio, as the measurement of contrast ratio is how dark a black pixel can get next to a bright one. Since OLEDs light individual pixels instead of requiring a backlight, you will never see a case where the TV turns a truly black image into a gray one.

This infinite contrast ratio also makes colors pop more than other technologies, all while still retaining excellent color accuracy. Out of the box the standard picture mode setting is a little on the cool side, but other presets will err on the warm side, and all of these are completely user adjustable anyway. See the settings section below for a breakdown and recommendations. LG's most recent WebOS firmware update for the TV added a number of new features, one of which includes a Technicolor preset that's been expert tuned for HDR content. This new mode requires almost no tweaking for a truly excellent picture, and Game mode will be the one you want to use to reduce input lag.

In general input lag is superb, and even without Game mode enabled you’ll find input lag is almost unnoticeable. In standard mode you’ll be looking at around 60ms response time for 4K content, and 1080p content brings this down to around 40ms. Enabling game mode or 4:4:4 Chroma mode will bring all response times down to around 20ms; indistinguishable to the human brain even under fast gaming circumstances. 4:4:4 Chroma mode displays pixels at the full color level while dropping luminance a bit, but this full color level is important since the TV won't combine subpixels. This mode is enabled in the inputs section by changing the icon of the input to a PC. This makes the G7P an excellent PC monitor, and will look incredible when playing games on any system as well. Game mode can be used in conjunction with this mode as well if desired.

By default the refresh rate is set to 60Hz, but can be pushed up to 120Hz if desired. LG also supports 24p playback for perfectly smooth 24Hz movie playback. This is particularly required since the TV cannot present a flickered image (where black frames would be inserted in between regular frames), and preferably should be used on any 24FPS content. Each pixel has a response time between 0.3ms and 1.5ms depending on the luminosity of the images on screen. This is significantly better than even the best LCD based TVs, which range from 4-12ms depending on the luminance for the best sets, and 8-20ms (or higher) for an average LCD set. Low response time of pixels is necessary because this shows how long it takes for a pixel to change from one level of brightness and color to the next.

When the response time is high, you’ll find trailing and a soft image during any kind of movement. No matter the speed of the movement you’ll find unbelievably crisp pictures on the OLED65G7P, and almost any frame can be taken as a still picture. This applies to lower resolution content as well, which may scale its source pixels across several actual pixels on the TV depending on the source. Most modern gaming systems run games anywhere from 900p to 1080p, while the most recent consoles from Microsoft and Sony can push a true 4K image on certain titles. Even running games at 720p or lower looked excellent on the TV, and while they were obviously lower than native resolution, they remained true to the source, without the artifacts that scaling might otherwise incur.

LG supports three different kinds of HDR (High Dynamic Range) technologies via its Active HDR technology, which is a new method LG is using to automatically switch between supported HDR types on a whim. Dolby Vision is the height of HDR standards, with dynamic metadata and 12-bit color, found on many 4K Blu-Rays and Netflix Originals. HDR10 is the 10-bit HDR standard in the industry, and while it's a step below Dolby Vision with its static metadata, it's still a significant improvement over SDR (Standard Dynamic Range) content. HLG is a new standard just finalized by BBC back in the August/September time frame, and is something that's designed to be applied to broadcast content. HLG is likely still a ways out for broadcast content though, so don't expect to see that badge pop up anytime soon.

All HDR content will display a small badge in the top right of the screen when the content is pulled up, denoting whether or not it's Dolby Vision with Atmos, Dolby Vision alone, HDR10 or HLG, as well as the mimicked HDR mode that's available on the TV to attempt to add metadata to SDR imagery. Each of these HDR technologies has different display modes, and will keep the previously chosen picture mode for that HDR technology type. This allows you to optimize the picture quality for Dolby Vision vs HDR10 content, which will show varying contrast differences between the brightest and darkest parts of the scene thanks to the metadata and color depth differences between these technologies.

OLEDs weakest link over an LCD-based TV is brightness, and while LG's OLEDs are certainly a bit darker than the brightest LCD TVs out there, there's almost no room where the OLED65G7P could be considered a dim display. While detailed settings are included in the section below, we recommend keeping the brightness setting below 65 for all but the brightest rooms. When the setting is ticked above 65, the OLED's pension for perfect blacks and infinite contrast ratios drops quite a bit, as the darkest parts of the panel will turn a dark grey to bring artificial luminance to surrounding pixels. It's possible that the higher brightness might be fine for outdoor patios or other incredibly bright rooms during the day, and thankfully can be kept only on the "bright room" preset for when it's necessary.

Likewise glare is better than most television sets because of the way LG coats its panels. The glossy panel on the G7P features a textured surface with a purple hue, which significantly helps to minimize glare, even with uncovered windows. While this doesn't eliminate glare by any means, it significantly cuts down on glare being a problem, especially when compared to most other TVs that don't go these lengths to coat the panel in such a material. You’ll see when compared to a 4K TCL 405S I’ve got, the glare reduction on the screen, even when off, is significantly better on LG's OLED65G7P. Similarly, viewing angles are unparalleled, and unlike with many LCD-based TVs that shift black levels dramatically at angles, there's no noticeable color or brightness shift, even when attempting something ridiculous like watching the TV from greater than an 80-degree angle.

Panel uniformity is mostly excellent, with no noticeable differences in the panel while watching content. As there's no backlight there's no such thing as light bleed on an OLED panel, but different pixels can vary ever so slightly in color versus surrounding pixels. Each panel will have slight variances, but LG's quality control processes in its TV space are significantly better than on its mobile OLED panels, which have quite a bit of variance in panel uniformity. LG also features an automatic brightness adjustment that cannot be turned off, and the brightness will vary depending on what's on the screen. Super bright outdoor scenes in a movie will have the luminance toned down when compared to a darker scene, which is done to both save power and keep the panel from getting too warm.

Settings Breakdown and Recommendations

Quick settings can be accessed via the cog wheel button on the remote, which appears on screen as a small strip of icons on the rightmost side. The full settings menu can be pulled up either by long-pressing the same cog wheel button, or clicking all settings at the bottom of the quick settings menu. From here there are a number of individual settings that will hide most of the menu so that you can see what each setting does. For example noise reduction, contrast and saturation adjustments, and other similar image quality adjustments will all present a small menu on the bottom left with options to adjust the setting while letting you see the result in real time.

The most commonly used settings are very easy to find, and are all in the quick menu described previously. This includes picture mode (which differs depending on if the content being played is in SDR or HDR mode), aspect ratio, surround sound toggle, sound mode, automatic shut off timer, parental lock and a link for the full settings menu. Each type of input will have its own picture settings, and even each type of detected input (such as Dolby Vision, HDR10, HLG or SDR) will have its own individual picture settings too. These picture presets include Vivid, Standard, Auto Power Save, Cinema, Sports, Game, HDR Effect, technicolor Expert, isf Expert Bright room, and isf Expert Dark room.

All inputs default to Standard mode, which has far too many processing options enabled out of the box. This Standard setting runs rather cool as well, and features options enabled like TruMotion and lots of other heavy image processing. The technicolor Expert preset features the best picture out of the box, and we recommend using this picture mode if you don't want to tweak settings too much. This mode can also be used to tweak the image further, as it's the best base to work from for a more accurate picture. In general I found the best picture to be achieved with the following settings: OLED Light at 100, Contrast at 100, Brightness at 50, Sharpness at 0, Color at 50, Tint at 0. In Expert Controls Turn everything off, leave the Color Gamut at Auto, and set the Gamma to 2.2. Back in Picture Mode Settings turn everything off except for Real Cinema mode, which should be on for proper 24p playback on inputs that need this feature enabled, as well as setting Dynamic Contrast to low, which enables Active HDR but keeps contrast enhancement disabled.

When using a PC or other course where subpixel combination is detrimental to image quality, be sure to go into the inputs area and change the icon to a computer. This will automatically force the 4:4:4 Chroma mode and make text and other fine details clearer on inputs that require it. HDMI ULTRA HD Deep Color mode should be enabled on any source where you are expecting HDR imagery to come from, as it helps the TV always force an HDR mode when it is requested. This holds particularly true for Blu-Ray players and gaming, where I found this mode would significantly enhance the picture quality, and enabled HDR functionality on games like Star Wars Battlefront II on the PC.

Audio quality

There are two main things that separate each LG OLED TV model; design and sound system. All of the TVs ship with speakers on board, of course, but LG's higher end models ship with soundbars of varying quality. Soundbars have become a popular replacement for dedicated surround sound systems in some people's homes for two big reasons: cost and ease of use. Since there's no real installation needed for a soundbar, they’re just plain easier to setup, and often times they fulfill all the quality requirements most people ask for at home. LG has built such a soundbar that delivers what is referred to as 4.2 channel surround sound, all without having to hook anything up externally. This is a step up from the 2.2 channel bar on the E7P model, and directionally better than the bottom firing speakers on the lesser priced LG OLED C7 and B7 series TVs.

As a Dolby Atmos bar, the speaker bar is situated in a way that it either shoots audio up at the ceiling, bouncing the audio around in the room in a way that makes many scenes sound more like you’ve got speakers above or behind you. This sort of virtual surround sound effect isn't new in its idea, but Dolby Atmos’ object-oriented audio mode means the speakers can more intelligently angle sound than ever before, helping create a virtual surround that fills in the gaps other surround systems might leave. LG features many options for syncing your existing surround system to the soundbar too, meaning you’ll get the added bonus of (likely) better speakers in a proper, physical surround configuration, as well as a dedicated subwoofer, all with the Atmos technology provided by the sound bar.

Depending on what's on screen, the soundbar can range from excellent quality to slightly underwhelming. Voices, sound effects and most other sounds transfer just fine to this single-location set of speakers, and there's a surprising amount of bass that comes from the built-in 20W subwoofer inside the bar. LG has positioned the speakers in the bar to make it sound as if there were more speakers in the room then there actually are, and this effect is only enhanced when you run the smart sound calibration in the settings menu. This works by utilizing the microphone on the remote to listen to a test sound outputted by the soundbar, and works to utilize the structure of the walls in the room to better bounce sound and create a virtual surround space. This smart sound tuning can also be used as a smart equalizer, changing between a handful of presets including cinema, clear voice, music, game, sports or the standard user customizable mode. These can be set manually for each input type as well, and can be changed on the fly using the quick settings pop-up on the right side of the menu, triggered by the cog wheel on the remote.For me the best configuration was to leave Dolby Atmos on in the main settings, and then move into sound mode to configure Dolby Surround to be enabled for all sources as well. This created a more full sound with good bass, whereas the initial configuration seemed to be lacking in both these categories. Out of the box the sound leaves a bit to be desired, but once tweaked a bit it really comes into its own and feels like a worthy addition to the TV. The soundbar doesn't deliver sound as full as some more dedicated soundbars I’ve used in the past, especially if you get a soundbar with a larger external subwoofer. It is a considerable step above regular TV speakers, however, and represents a feasible solution for use out of the box without really needing any extra equipment. There's also an auto volume option that can be enabled, and the volume change amount is denoted by presets of high, medium and low.

LG offers multiple options for outputting sound to external systems too, including anywhere from plain old PCM 2-channel audio, all the way up to multi-channel Atmos surround using Dolby Atmos TrueHD uncompressed audio. Single sound source modes include TV speaker only, audio out via optical or HDMI ARC, LG Sound Sync through optical, and LG Sound Sync via Bluetooth. Folks that want to take advantage of Atmos-quality sound by using their existing sound system can choose the "Internal TV Speaker + Audio Out" option, which utilizes the optical or HDMI ARC sound outputs to deliver both Atmos through the TV's soundbar, as well as surround through your existing surround system. The likelihood that these will be out of sync from the get-go is quite high, and LG offers a way to sync these sources via a sound delay, with options ranging from -5 to +15 ms. While there used to be limitations on what type of audio could be output via optical cable, there appears to be no sort of limitation now. I had no issues getting Dolby or DTS signal out to my Onkyo receiver via optical connection, and the quality was as good as I expected from every source.

Software and Apps

A few years back LG purchased WebOS from HP, who previously got it from Palm. WebOS might sound familiar to tech enthusiasts, and that's because it's what powered the classic Palm Pre smartphone from years ago. Since then it has evolved significantly, and LG runs WebOS 3.5 on all its smart TVs sold in 2017 (and plenty from prior years too). This ecosystem is designed from the ground up for a TV workspace, and functions via a semi-vertical card system at the bottom of the screen. Pressing the Home button on your remote will bring up these cards, no matter what source you’re viewing video from, and will present them as a small overlay at the bottom of the screen. Scrolling through these cards can be done via the D-Pad on the remote or with the Magic Remote's pointing functionality, complete with lovely animations all around. WebOS is incredibly smooth and remains one of the more visually striking and visually unique operating systems out there.

Many elements of WebOS have been designed for ease of use, specifically for things like switching inputs. When an input becomes active, for instance when a gaming console or Blu-Ray player is turned on, a box with the input's name will pop-up on the TV for a few seconds, allowing users to quickly switch to that input with a click of the center button on the remote. From the get-go there are 3 "pages" worth of apps and settings that can be accessed from the Home menu. The leftmost cards sport a quick link to channel guide and the current input that's on the display, followed by Live TV and streaming services like Netflix, Amazon, Vudu, Hulu, YouTube and more.

Following this are four cards, one for each HDMI input, and then all the pre-loaded LG WebOS apps. There are 15 pre-installed LG WebOS apps in total, including Content Store, Search, Web Browser, User Guide, Device Connections, Channel Guide, Music, Photos and Videos, OLED Gallery, TV Schedule, Screen Share, Multi-view, Accessibility options, Notifications and LG Remote Assist. The position of all cards can be easily edited, and the names of all inputs are changed within the settings menu, making it easier to find what you need without getting lost in a sea of options and apps.

The LG Content Store is where you’ll go for all your app needs, but LG has put more than just apps here as well. While the LG Content Store isn't nearly as full of apps as something like the Google Play Store is, for instance, it seemed to feature every streaming service I could think of. Favorites like Netflix, Amazon, Hulu, Vudu, YouTube, Crackle, Pandora and Google Play Movies were all there and ready to stream movies, TV and music at your command. Many apps ran well, and exhibited all the features and performance you would expect from a TV in this price range.

I did have a few hiccups though, and plenty of apps that weren't quite up to par too. Amazon streaming, for instance, only streams up to 1080p, and there doesn't seem to be any support for HDR content at the moment, even from titles that normally should work (Man in the High Castle, Grand Tour, etc.). The Google Play Movies app subsequently would never stream higher than 720p, and the interface had weird problems too. The pause button on the remote wouldn't work at all in this app, and rewinding or fast forwarding was pretty hit or miss. There's also no Google Play Music app. All other tested apps worked flawlessly though, and it's likely that Amazon and Google just need to get these updated.

Ironically enough the YouTube app works perfectly for streaming 4K and HDR content, with automatic mode switchover when the TV detects HDR10 or Dolby Vision, and even has support for Dolby Atmos sound too. The Hulu app doesn't support 4K at all (maximum streaming quality is 1080p @ 3.2Mbps), and this limitation seems to be a problem for many other apps as well. For a TV line that's all 4K, it's not so great to see so many apps simply not support the proper resolution of the panel, let alone features like HDR. Sometimes this restriction is a platform one, like Google Play Movies, which currently only supports 4K HDR through a Chromecast Ultra, or Hulu, which only supports 4K streaming through an Xbox One or PS4.

Thankfully when these apps fail, LG has a Chromium-based web browser that works incredibly well on most websites. At times it took a little longer to load than I expected, but once the page was fully loaded, navigating through most content was smooth enough. Even videos work perfectly, and I found myself loading up the PBS website just to watch videos that were otherwise more difficult to get through an app. Once it's full screen you’d never know this wasn't a video running in a native app. What might be surprising is that videos from websites will still display in HDR and with Dolby audio too, but obviously these need to be supported by the video on the site. This still won't work to force 4K or HDR on streaming platforms that restrict features to specific hardware like Google Play Movies or Hulu unfortunately. It's probably the best alternative possible to having a native app too, and it all makes up for not having every single possible service on the app store too.

You’ll also easily be able to cast your phone's screen from most Android-powered phones via the screen sharing app. This worked on a number of phones we tested, including many LG and Huawei phones, as these phones have a native Miracast options. Casting is done in 720p resolution and runs at 30fps. The screen will be displayed in any orientation you hold the phone, and input lag seems to be about 500ms through my 802.11n 5GHz router. I’ve got the TV wired via Cat6 ethernet cable, so likely an 802.11ac router would have less input lag. Still this sort of functionality would normally be used to show off photos or videos, or maybe a specific app, so input lag probably isn't a huge concern for most applications.

The Good

Gorgeous design

Ultra thin display with minimal bezels

Built-in 4.2 Atmos soundbar

Stand converts to wall mount

Dolby Atmos TrueHD support

Bluetooth audio support

Incredible picture quality

Supports all available HDR technologies with automatic detection

Lots of quality presets, the ability to dial down into expert image quality options too

Proper 4:4:4 Chroma mode for great PC monitor functionality

24P playback support

Response time and motion resolution is essentially perfect

Unrivaled viewing angles

Perfect black levels and contrast

Excellent upscaling of non-4K content

Glare reduction works very well

Nice and bright for rooms with lots of windows

Excellent app performance

WebOS is super easy to use and looks great

Web browser is a great alternative to missing apps

Wireless or wired connection that's ultra fast

Magic Remote motion controls are as good as it gets

The Bad

Heavy (70lbs)

Some apps lack features, ability to stream 4K and/or HDR

Plastic construction of the base can feel wobbly at times

Burn-in could be an issue depending on your viewing habits

No frame flickering could mean trails in some sporting content

Web browser can be very slow to load

Final Thoughts

LG's line of OLED TVs are the ones to get if you’re concerned with having the best possible image quality around. While all of LG's OLED TVs offer the same panel with the same image quality, the TV design itself, as well as the built-in speakers, are what differentiate the OLED65G7P from the rest of the pack. With a built-in 4.2 soundbar that converts easily to a wall mount, the gorgeous picture-on-glass design of the TV will blow anyone away who walks into your home. It's a TV that not only has a display that fits the price tag, but one that beings to make sense when looking at the overall design. LG could use some improvement in the apps department though, as some are seriously lacking in features, and need a few updates to properly take advantage of everything this TV can do.

Gaming, sports, movies or TV are all at their peak with this TV, and the infinite contrast ratio paired with the excellent brightness and vivid colors will make anyone drop their jaw. Dolby Atmos TrueHD uncompressed audio support will also make your ears sing, with the proper equipment that supports such high-fidelity lossless content of course. It's a dream doing anything on this TV, and while the price tag certainly makes it unreachable for many folks out there, LG's less expensive lines may be the perfect choice for those wanting the same amazing picture quality without the need for an ultra fancy design or built-in Atmos sound bar like the G7P has. This is truly the gold standard for television sets in 2017.

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Nick has written for Android Headlines since 2013 and has traveled to many tech events across the world. He's got a background in IT and loves all things tech-related. Nick is the VR and Home Automation Editor for the site and manages the Android Headlines YouTube channel. He is passionate about VR and the way it can truly immerse players in different worlds. In addition, he also covers the gamut of smart home technology and home automation. Contact him at [email protected]