LG has joined the 8K party with a brace of new TVs, but with all due respect to the company’s Nano Cell SM9900 LCD model, it’s the Z9 OLED that’ll be getting all the headlines.
This monster of a display uses the largest OLED panel currently available and represents the apex of television design, combining 8K resolution with AI-enhanced processing, state-of-the-art webOS smart features and powerful sound.
It supports high dynamic range (specifically HDR10, HLG, Technicolor and Dolby Vision), has built-in Amazon Alexa and Google Assistant, includes AirPlay 2, decodes Dolby Atmos immersive audio and boasts HDMI 2.1 inputs.
While the latter promises future-proofing as far as connections are concerned, the compression codecs used to deliver 8K are still in flux. To remedy this, LG will be including a free decoding box to ensure this TV remains cutting-edge for years.
The Z9 comes in a single screen size of 88 inches (OLED88Z9) and is available now from Harrods and Selfridges. However, if you have to ask the price you can’t afford it, because this baby will set you back an eye-watering £29,999.
Monolithic elegance
Considering the Z9 is rocking an 88-inch screen, it’s does a surprisingly good job of looking discreet. In part that’s thanks to the ultra-slim OLED panel, which is bezel-less and only 10mm deep at the top. Things widen out further down where the electronics, connections and speakers are housed, but it remains remarkably svelte.
The Z9 sits on a large, solid and permanently attached silver stand, with a gorgeous brushed metal finish. LG has installed two subwoofers into the base of the stand, and there’s a big hole in the middle, which serves multiple roles.
First, the sound from the downward-firing speakers built into the bottom of the TV is redirected through said hole and towards the viewer. LG uses a similar approach on its C9 and it’s a highly effective way of creating a front soundstage.
Secondly, the hole gives the TV a general feeling of airiness and space, which helps to minimise its presence in a room. If you want to mess with this aesthetic, you can place equipment like 4K Blu-ray players and games consoles into the space if you like.
Overall, the Z9 is an elegant piece of industrial design, with the only downsides being an inability to wall mount and the silver top of the stand being slightly reflective. It would have made more sense to finish the top in matte black, but if it really bothers you a strip of black material will do the trick (if you want to mess with the aesthetic even further).
The Z9 sports an eye-catching redesign of LG’s Magic Remote, with a high-end silver metal finish that matches the stand. The button layout is essentially the same, although a few have been moved around, and the on-screen pointer remains responsive, precise and incredibly intuitive.
HDMI 2.1 and 8K upgrader
As with all of LG’s OLED TVs, the connections are located at the rear, towards the bottom left as you face the screen. The Korean giant is the only TV manufacturer to use HDMI 2.1 on all its 2019 models, and the Z9 is no exception.
This new version of HDMI can handle bit rates up to 48Gbps, and crucially it supports resolutions up to 8K. It can also deal with higher frame rates up of 120Hz, dynamic metadata for HDR, and eARC (enhanced audio return channel). If you’re a gamer there’s support for variable refresh rates (VRR) and auto low latency mode (ALLM), ensuring a flawless gaming experience.
There are a number of competing compression codecs for 8K delivery, but at present no single approach has been chosen as the industry standard. To ensure the Z9 remains up-to-date, LG will be sending an 8K upgrader box free of charge to all new owners by Christmas (the box will be included with all purchases from the new year). The box is attached to the TV via an HDMI input and a USB port, and it can be regularly upgraded to make sure the Z9 remains cutting edge.
The smartest TV money can buy
LG’s WebOS is slick, smart and highly intuitive, making it the operating system to which all other TV manufacturers aspire. The user interface is based around a launcher bar at the bottom of the screen, and a second tier that adds an 'AI Preview' for suggesting related content.
The 'Intelligent Edit' feature automatically orders your apps based upon frequency of use, which is just as well as there’s a comprehensive set to choose from, including Netflix, Amazon and YouTube, along with Now TV, Rakuten and all the UK TV catch-up services.
The Home Dashboard is accessed via the launcher bar or directly on the remote, and provides a single hub for all connected mobile, input and home IoT devices. There’s also support for AirPlay 2 (including Dolby Vision and Atmos) and Homekit, which is sure to please fans of Apple.
LG’s ThinQ open AI platform has been enhanced by both Google Assistant and Amazon Alexa, giving you a choice of three smart assistants if you include Siri. Just press the mic button and you can voice control the TV, ask questions and manage your entire smart home. And if you can afford a TV that costs 30 grand, you will likely have a connected house of some stripe or other.
8K AI processing
Aside from its 8K panel and a design that looks like its on a healthy dose of steroids, the Z9 hasn’t really differed from any of LG’s other OLED TVs so far: same connections, smart platform, remote and features. However the processor in the Z9 is different, building on the 2nd generation Alpha9 chip introduced this year and adding features aimed specifically at the higher resolution.
This new version of LG’s intelligent processor takes full advantage of the 33 million pixels in an 8K panel to upscale lower resolution material. It adds six-step noise reduction, frequency based sharpness enhancements, object depth enhancements and advanced colour enhancements. All these features allow the Z9 to deliver the best possible picture regardless of the source quality.
As with LG’s other 2019 TVs the Z9 includes the AI Brightness feature in the Cinema Home mode, which uses a light sensor to detect ambient light, and then optimise the brightness based on the viewing environment to improve the visibility in darker areas of the picture. In addition, the AI Picture mode analyses the image, applying processing that proves very effective with poor quality material.
The Z9 supports VRR and ALLM, with both features enabled using the Fast Game Response setting. In testing this worked flawlessly in conjunction with an Xbox One X, automatically engaging the game mode, which now offers full calibration options. Serious gamers will be delighted to know that the input lag is an extremely low 17.9ms.
Big and bold sonics
The sound of the Z9 is another area where this model builds on what LG has already introduced in its 2019 TVs. That means you get AI-enhanced audio and Dolby Atmos support, but thanks to the larger screen size and built-in stand you also get a beefed-up audio performance.
The Z9 has something called AI acoustic tuning, which uses the microphone in the remote to perform a one-touch sound set-up that optimises the audio. The set also analyses incoming audio signals to provide the optimum sound depending on the type of genre. It even up-mixes 2-channel sound to virtual 5.1 surround sound for a more immersive experience.
However, what distinguishes the Z9 from models lower down LG’s TV line-up is the inclusion of a 4.2-channel sound system. The four front speakers fire audio downwards, which is then redirected towards the listener, creating a wide soundstage. There’s 80W of amplification that goes high without distorting and, thanks to the built-in subwoofers, a surprising amount of bass.
The overall sound is genuinely impressive, with clear dialogue that remains focused on the screen. Music is well-defined, and effects are placed with precision on either side of the screen. There’s a crisp clarity to the treble, some nicely rendered higher frequencies and plenty of deep bass. Whatever you’re watching, the Z9 is sure to deliver an enjoyable sonic experience.
However it’s with Dolby Atmos soundtracks that this OLED TV really shines, using psychoacoustic wizardry to deliver the immersive benefits of object-based audio. Watching Queen’s triumphant Live Aid set in Bohemian Rhapsody is an absolute joy, with a boisterous soundstage that sells the sheer scale of Wembley Stadium and Freddie Mercury’s operatic delivery.
8K or not 8K?
There has been a lot of discussion recently about what actually constitutes an 8K TV. The obvious approach is to simply count the number of pixels, and if the TV has 7680 x 4320 (over 33 million in total) then it’s 8K. That’s one of the reasons why the Z9 is so large, LG struggled to fit that many self-emissive pixels into a panel any smaller. Don’t forget that each pixel is also composed of four sub-pixels (white, red, green and blue), resulting in a staggering total of 132 million.
However to confuse the issue, there are a number of different methods employed to physically count those pixels. The generally accepted method is contrast modulation (CM), which is designed to not only determine the actual number of pixels but also establish how well they can be distinguished. Unsurprisingly, LG is keen to stress that its 8K TVs score higher than the competition in this test because they use OLED and IPS LCD panels.
Those two display technologies offer very wide viewing angles, unlike the VA LCD panels used by arch-rival Samsung. In order to improve the viewing angles on its TVs, Samsung has employed a new filter that redirects the light coming from the panel. This approach results in vastly improved viewing angles, but it also results in blurry pixels when seen up close. The upshot of Samsung’s wider viewing angle technology is that its 8K TVs don’t score so well in CM testing.
Of course, what really matters is how good an image looks from a normal viewing distance, and not how visible the pixels are under a microscope. LG’s Z9 might have the best score in CM testing but the real question is how does it look with actual material?
State-of-the-art picture perfection
The answer to that question is – stunning. Obviously the best results are achieved with native content, and watching 8K HDR demo footage created by Spears and Munsil reveals the full potential of the format. The level of detail is staggering, especially on such a large screen, and thanks to the increased dynamic range of HDR the effect is often like looking out of a window.
The demo includes numerous landscape shots with every blade of grass clearly visible, and close-ups of animals where their fur is perfectly defined. The colours are beautifully saturated, while the highlights are bright and free of clipping. Unsurprisingly for an OLED, the blacks are also deep, while the shadows are full of subtle details.
It’s fair to say that the big problem with 8K is the current lack of any native content, especially outside of Asia. The situation will undoubtedly improve, but in the meantime watching 4K HDR on the Z9 is almost as impressive. If you’re into numbers the Z9 can hit a peak brightness of 800 nits and accurately covers 100 per cent of the DCI-P3 colour gamut.
The stunning restoration of Blade Runner looks utterly gorgeous, with the multi-coloured neon signs popping off the screen. The Z9 perfectly upscales the native 4K image to match the 8K panel, delivering exceptional levels of detail. The computer displays can be clearly read, and the tiny drops of rain on an ascending police ’spinner’ glint with complete realism.
Blade Runner 2049 is as visually opulent as its illustrious predecessor, and once again the Z9 delivers all the sci-fi visuals with unerring accuracy. The orange skies in the Las Vegas scenes are free of any banding, and the carefully composed images are bursting with layered production design. The tone mapping perfectly matches the industry standard in testing, but LG’s dynamic feature allows the Z9 to analyse the HDR10 signal and adjust on the fly.
Sticking with Ridley Scott, the 4K Blu-ray of his horror masterpiece Alien is another beautiful restoration. The shots of eerie and empty corridors are rendered with remarkable clarity, combined with deep blacks and detailed shadows. While the 'chest-burster' scene is suitably visceral, with the deep red blood contrasting against the sterile white mess area.
Alien is presented in HDR10+, and if there’s one criticism of the Z9 (and all of LG’s TVs for that matter), it’s that the company doesn’t support this version of HDR with dynamic metadata. While we’re on the subject of limitations, although 800 nits is bright for an OLED it’s a far cry from Samsung’s 8K TVs, which can reach a peak brightness of 4,000 nits.
LG does however support Dolby Vision (which is the other version of HDR with dynamic metadata), and a film like Aquaman makes full use of it to deliver jaw-dropping underwater visuals. The film is an absolute riot of colour, with vast aquatic vistas that are displayed in gorgeous, trippy HDR.
Overall the Z9 produces a flawless visual performance. It aced all the tests in SDR, measuring with superb accuracy and creating wonderfully upscaled pictures from Blu-ray. The beautiful images in the film Samsara are delivered with a breathtaking assurance, while the opening robbery in The Dark Knight is all fluid motion and fine detail.
Should I buy one?
The more pertinent question is can you afford one? No one is denying that the Z9 is hellishly expensive, regardless of how well it performs, but if you’re one of the lucky few with deep enough pockets then you’re in for a treat.
The Z9 represents the zenith of OLED technology, and while it’s fair to say the benefits of 8K are currently limited, there’s no denying this TV delivers some of the best large-screen images ever. It not only looks amazing, it sounds superb and boasts state-of-the-art smart features.
There are cheaper alternatives, especially from Samsung, and regardless of how you define resolution they also deliver fantastic 8K images. However the LG Z9 is a remarkable technological statement that boasts a cutting-edge performance.
If you'd prefer something a little more affordable, try the WIRED Recommends guide to the best TV for any budget
This article was originally published by WIRED UK
