LG 60-inch 60SJ810 Super UHD TV: the rare 60″ 4K panel with Dolby Vision
I was going for 65-inch but the missus said it is too big and wanted me to go with a 55-inch instead. 60-inch was a compromise. There aren’t many panels at this size. The 60-inch LG is a mid to high-end panel with plenty of appealing features and a premium look.
Features at a glance
- LG Super UHD TV is the pinnacle of LG LED TV
- Nano Cell™ technology, for precise colour
- Billion Rich Colours – More of the colours you love
- Genuine LED innovation and Nano particle precision
- The optimal viewing experience from any angle
- Multi HDR with Dolby Vision™ unlike other HDRs
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Top 8 Reason Why I Chose the LG 60-inch Super UHD TV
Apart from being the right size, not too big that they dominate the room, and not too small that it won’t pass for a big panel display, here are five reasons why I went for the LG SJ810 series. Note that other sizes within the series starts from 49-inch, 55-inch and 65-inch. These are 2017 models so if you can still find them, the price tag would have come down considerably.
1. Amazing Colour:
We have always been very impressed with LG’s panels. When browsing for a suitable LED panel to buy, we had a look at many different screens and we always come back to LG for the sheer brilliance and colour thanks to the Nano Cell Technology. The Nano Cell display offers more precise colour, a wider colour gamut with advanced 10 bit processing unit to expand the colour spectrum and project billions of colours, shades and hues.
The TV has a billion colour panel offering 64-times broader colour range compared to conventional TV for a more lifelike picture.
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2. Deep Black
Black are not as dark as compared to OLED panels but deep enough. We couldn’t fault the OLED display with its 1 to infinity contrast. There is no way an LED panel can match the contrast from self lighting pixel on OLED panels. But you are going to have to pay more for OLED. At the time of writing, OLED panels at equivalent size are still pricey, some more than double the price of LED.
There is no way that the black is going to be as deep as that on the OLED but here is a very well executed LED panel with sufficient black.
3. Outstanding Picture Quality
I couldn’t stress enough this point. The biggest reason why I fell for the LG SJ810 is because of its outstanding picture quality. When compared to other LED panels, LG with its Nano Cell technology just stands out. The technology offers amazing picture quality with uniform colour volume thanks to its consistently placed pixels, one nanometer apart, hence the name Nano Cell technology.
4. Wider Viewing Angle
One of the tests we do when reviewing big screen TV is the viewing angles. We do a sweep from side to side, changing viewing angles to see how the panel performs. When you have all televisions lined up horizontally, it’s even easier to pick up which performs the best. Simply stand at 45-degree to the right or left of all the panels and look at the display from where you are. The brightest panel when viewed from an angle will be your best choice.
LG SJ810 covers this with accurate colour and contrast at any angle achieving 100% color gamut up to 60-degrees off axis, credit to IPS and Nano Cell technology. Cheaper models do not support Nano Cell Technology so you have been warned.
On conventional panels colours also tend to distort when viewing off-centre. Again, LG’s Nano Cell Display enhances off-centre colour consistency and reduces colour distortion caused by viewing angle. The Nano Cell records 100% colour gamut at angles up to 60 degrees off-centre. So it doesn’t matter if you are sat on the right or left couch, 60% of people watch TV off axis, you are assured of rich, deep and wide colour with plenty of contrast.
5. Active HDR with Dolby Vision
We know we are going to be the TV to stream Netflix and Amazon Prime content either 4K or Full HD and wanted more than just broadcast level HDR. LG SJ810 supports Active HDR with scene by scene optimisation and automatic switching between several High Dynamic Range algorithms. These are HLG, HDR10 and Dolby Vision. We knew that going with Samsung and Panasonic panels leave us with only HDR10 and HDR10 Plus apart from HLG. We like knowing that the extra formatting ability, Dolby Vision on the LG SJ810 and there when we stream Netflix content, and it doesn’t let us down.
- Netflix supports Dolby Vision
- Amazon Prime Video supports HDR10 and HDR10 Plus
- Broadcast TV supports HLG
The advantage of Dolby Vision is that every scene contains dynamic metadata for optimised picture quality within every frame. HDR10 and HLG does not support scene by scene dynamic switching. You can find out more about the different High Dynamic Range algorithms in our article How to Choose the Right 4K Ultra HD Large Screen TV.
6. Excellent Quality Audio
The sound department is never an area that big screen televisions are good at. In making the television slim and surrounding bezel as small as possible, the sound system is usually compromised. This is not the case with LG SJ810. Even without a sound bar or external sound system, the LG SJ810 performs exceptionally well without cracking at high volume. For the panel, LG used high quality sound from Harmon/Kardon. The result, an all immersive sound experience enough to carry a theatrical feature without a sound bar or separate active woofer.
If you don’t have the money to buy both the TV and sound system in one go, the audio system by Harman/Kardon is a blessing, pushing a balanced sound performance with good mid-range and crystal clear conversation.
For even better quality sound, we would still recommend a multipoint theatre sound system or Dolby Atmos capable sound bar. This is after all a super thin TV with limited room and space to push the low range.
7. WebOS and Magic Remote
We are still getting used to the system as there are still many features we have yet to take full advantage of. The smart software supports Netflix, Prime, Now TV, iPlayer and FreeView hub service (also known as Freeview Play), Youtube, Web browsing, TV guide, USB content (music or video) and more. YouTube browsing and viewing is great. The interface doesn’t take up the entire screen but only a sliding launcher bar at the bottom of the display. This lets you quickly access frequently used apps without much effort. The current vision is WebOS 3.5.
WebOS supports direct 4K streaming from Netflix, Amazon and YouTube so you can take advantage of the Ultra HD panel’s capability immediately given the right 4K HDR content.
The Magic Remote combines normal buttons, voice and on-screen pointer navigation. With the buttons, we use mainly the directional and scroll wheel the most to navigate and click on the option we want. Voice search using the remote is a bonus, saves one from typing. The system is smart enough to search across all streaming sources and offers it as a keyword search for the browser as a last resort.
iOS and Android app available should you prefer to type. Smartphone and table apps also let you share your media to the TV. We tried 4K and Full HD video content from iPhone streaming via the app straight to the big screen and it worked really well. The family can relive the moments with videos capture during our holiday together without a computer.
The voice remote with motion control and cursor makes browsing the Smart OS easy. Some users have complained that the remote is confusing and it takes time to understand but we don’t think so. I get it, the disconnect between the motions sensor for pointing and clicking does take a little getting used to. The dedicated Netflix and Amazon button is handy for us as streamers.
8. Cheaper
We mentioned this point before and will make it here again. LEDs are still ultimately cheaper. If you are on a budget but still want a panel that can hold a candle to OLED panel, only the Samsung QLEDs or mid to high end LEDs will do. And, the LG SJ810 is not one to let us down. Considering the price of the LG, when compared to OLED TVs, this really is the sensible choice.
Caveat: We don’t watch live tv anymore so cannot comment on the tuner or broadcast TV quality.
What Could Be Better
Two things we noticed with the panel, when the system is loading WebOS, the smart TV software, with the pointer or cursor moving over the screen, you can’t help but notice a light glow around the cursor and sometimes a long vertical streak. LG has since corrected this with updates using a light grey background in the load screen for Netflix or Amazon Prime. the colour bleed and this is especially prevalent especially when the whole screen or scene is black. Local dimming can be hard to achieve with the aforementioned issue with some areas insufficiently dimmed.
We also picked up juddering with fast motion scenes but this could be lack of frames or video data from the source. We don’t always see this so it doesn’t bother us much. When you do see it, especially where there are sudden panning or movement, you can sense a skip frame or two. Still some games are pretty happy with the result and can voice that even with a high motion game, the response time in game more is close to 15ms.
We have fairly bright living room with natural light during the day from the windows, and soft lighting in the evening, the panel performs well and with the right tweak, these flaws are not noticeable.
One last thing, we picked up a little lag in audio output between the optical output and the on-board Harman Kardon speakers. It is not enough to call out or make the video and audio stream seems out of sync. We just mute the sound from the TV’s onboard speaker and use the external multi-channel surround sound sound. A dedicated AV receiver with Dolby Atmos surround that supports high resolution audio and 4K passthrough will alleviate this issue.
Specifications
| Display | |
| Display Type | LED with IPS |
| Size | 60-inch |
| Resolution | 3840 x 2160 |
| Audio | |
| Audio Output | 20W |
| Speaker System | 2.0 channel |
| Harman Kardon | Yes |
| Surround Sound | ULTRA surround |
| Magic Sound Tuning | Yes |
| Hi-Fi Audio | Yes |
| LG Sound Sync | yes |
| DTS Decoder | Yes |
| Audio Codec | AC3(Dolby Digital), EAC3, HE-AAC, AAC, MP2, MP3, PCM, DTS, DTS-HD, DTS Express, WMA, apt-X |
| Smart TV | |
| WebOS 3.5 | |
| Magic Remote | Included |
| Natural Voice Recognition | Yes |
| Universal Control | Yes |
| Web Browser | Yes |
| Music Player | Yes |
| Freeview Play | Yes |
| Connectivity | |
| HDMI | 4 |
| ARC (Audio Return Channel) | Yes |
| USB | 3 (1 x 3.0) |
| LAN | 1 |
| CI Slot | 1 |
| RF In | 2 (RF, Sat) |
| WiFi | Yes |
| Digital Audio Out (optical) | |
| Headphone out / Line out | 01-Jan |
| WiDi (PC to TV) | |
| Miracast (Mobile to TV mirroring) | |
| Simplink (HDMI CEC | Yes |
| Network File Browser | Yes |
| Broadcast System | |
| Digital TV Reception (Terrestrial, Cable, Satellite) | |
| EPG | 8 days |
| Digital Recording | Yes |
| Power | |
| Energy Saving Mode | Yes |
| Energy Efficiency Class | A+ |
| Standby Power Consumption | 0.5W |
| Dimensions and Weight | |
| Size without Stand | 1344 x 774 x 64 |
| Size with Stand | 1344.x 835 x 313 |
| VESA | 300 x 300 |
| Weight (TV) | 20.8 kg |
| Weight (TV + Stand) | 22.3 kg |
