LG 47LW6500 Cinema 3D LED TV
LG LW6500 review: A high quality LG panel with great 2D video, but 3D is a mixed bag
Pros
- Cinema 3D is smooth
- Great 2D detail and excellent colour
- LG's Smart TV is great
Cons
- Poor 3D resolution and detail
- Blacks look slightly grey
Bottom Line
The LG 47LW6500 has a high quality panel that's able to display good quality video in 2D mode with plenty of visible detail. LG's stand-out approach to 3D, in its passive Cinema 3D panels, is smoother and less troublesome than 'active' 3D, despite a lower effective resolution. LG's Smart TV is every bit as good as Samsung's implementation, too -- this is another TV that does far more than just display free-to-air TV and movies.
-
Price
$ 2,499.00 (AUD)
The LG 47LW6500 is the first 'Cinema 3D' panel we've had the chance to take a look at — LG is the only manufacturer in Australia opting for passive rather than active 3D in its LED TVs. The technology promises to get rid of headaches while offering a cleaner and better tri-dimensional experience, and it has cost advantages as well thanks to much cheaper glasses. We loved the 2D picture quality of the LG LW6500 — it's a great TV for watching Blu-ray movies, although digital TV did seem a bit noisy at times — and 3D has some legitimate improvements over a Samsung or Sony 3D TV. It's not all perfect, though, with a significant deficit in 3D detail compared to other 3D TVs.
LG LW6500: Design, connectivity and setup
The LG LW6500 is a reasonably attractive LED TV, but its build quality is noticeably inferior to a Sony or a Samsung. The television's plastics just feel a little cheap, although when you're looking and not touching this isn't a big deal. Thankfully the screen of the LG 47LW6500 is not as glossy as previous LG TVs or current competitors, which makes viewing in a bright room or in direct light less of an ordeal.
Being a reasonably high-end TV the LG LW6500 has a comprehensive range of digital and analog video connectors — we used HDMI for all of our testing, but the TV also has single component and composite video inputs. There's also VGA for connecting older PCs, and a digital audio output for connecting a set of home theatre speakers. Two USB 2.0 ports mean you can connect a portable hard drive or USB flash drive to play back a range of video, audio or image files — DiVX HD, JPEG and MP3 files are officially supported.
Running through the setup of the LG 47LW6500 is a simple procedure — connect power and antenna cables, turn the TV on, run through a (quick) TV channel scan, and you're ready to go. We also took the extra time to set up the LG LW6500's integrated Wi-Fi networking, so we could use the TV's Smart TV Web features. You can also use the LW6500's wired Ethernet network port to access the Internet, but Wi-Fi cuts down on tangled cables without compromising connection speed.
LG LW6500: Picture quality and performance
We were really impressed with the picture quality of the LG LW6500 when it came to watching 1080p Blu-ray video. For a panel costing several hundred dollars less than an equivalently sized Samsung LED TV like the Series 7, the LG 47LW6500 was able to display a good deal of fine detail in our Terminator: Salvation and The Dark Knight test Blu-ray discs. Being an edge-lit LED TV we found that if any bright white areas were being displayed on-screen, blacks tended to be a little bright and grey. However, this issue is common to almost all LED TVs. Similarly, the screen's colour accuracy is reasonably realistic without sacrificing vibrancy or outright brightness.
Brand Post
Most Popular Reviews
- 1 Dell U3223QE review: A winning debut for an IPS Black monitor
- 2 HP Spectre x360 16 review: The right 2-in-1 at the wrong time
- 3 Acer K242HYL review: An affordable monitor for any occasion
- 4 GeForce Now review: You bring the games, Nvidia streams the hardware
- 5 Asus ProArt PA279CV monitor review: The go-to for content creators on a budget
Latest News Articles
- Friday Night Baseball on Apple TV+ will be free for the first 12 weeks of the season
- Apple TV+ makes history at wild Oscars ceremony
- If you pay for extra iCloud storage, you may have a refund coming
- Apple reverses course, now blocks Apple TV purchases on Android, Google devices
- tvOS 15.4 lets you finally log in to captive Wi-Fi portals on Apple TV
Resources
Macworld
What's new, plus best mac-related tips
and tricks
Business Centre
The latest business news, reviews, features and whitepapers
Videos
Watch our video news and reviews from around the world
Guides
Comprehensive buying guides, features, and step-by-step articles
PCW Evaluation Team
Pedro Peixoto
Aruba Instant On AP11D
Set up is effortless.
Cate Bacon
Aruba Instant On AP11D
The strength of the Aruba Instant On AP11D is that the design and feature set support the modern, flexible, and mobile way of working.
Dr Prabigya Shiwakoti
Aruba Instant On AP11D
Aruba backs the AP11D up with a two-year warranty and 24/7 phone support.
Tom Pope
Dynabook Portégé X30L-G
Ultimately this laptop has achieved everything I would hope for in a laptop for work, while fitting that into a form factor and weight that is remarkable.
Tom Sellers
MSI P65
This smart laptop was enjoyable to use and great to work on – creating content was super simple.
Lolita Wang
MSI GT76
It really doesn’t get more “gaming laptop” than this.
Featured Content
- Which Lenovo Laptop Should I Buy?
- Every TV in Samsung's 2022 line-up: OLED, Neo QLED and more!
- Top 10 best Android and Apple phones for under $600
- Everything you need to know about Smart TVs
- What's the difference between an Intel Core i3, i5 and i7?
- Laser vs. inkjet printers: which is better?