March 2025 ertonline.co.uk


Left & below: Pansonic’s Z95B LG’s QNED TV


This innovative new tech is able to boost brightness by 33 per cent, giving a peak HDR brightness of around 4,000 nits. The practical benefit for premium OLED buyers is dynamic viewing, even in daylit rooms with high levels of ambient light.


The innovation also improves colour accuracy by expanding colour volume, most notable in reds and greens. The technology even reduces power consumption by 20 per cent. That’s a win-win in my book.


The only catch is that these benefits are very much going to be the domain of flagship screens. LG Display’s four stack panel technology will debut in LG’s G5 model, Panasonic’s Z95B, and Philips’ OLED+950 and OLED+910 premium models. Not to be outdone, Samsung’s latest QD- OLED panel, as featured in the upcoming S95F, similarly increases peak brightness by 30 per cent, complemented by the NQ4 AI Gen 3 processor for enhanced depth and clarity. Gaming is a major driver of TV sales, and manufacturers are delivering improved refresh rates, lower latency, and AI-powered enhancements.


While home cinema remains a perennial


interest of buyers shopping for a flagship TV, gamers are increasingly being well catered for. 120Hz minimum refresh rates have become standard for upper-mid-range and premium models, and should be recommended to PS5 and Xbox owners, while PC gamers are increasingly expecting support for top-tier GPUs, including Nvidia GeForce RTX 4090 and AMD Radeon RX 7900 XTX. Those aforementioned AI-driven enhancements are also improving motion clarity and reducing input lag. Samsung and LG TVs currently excel in this space with a wide range of screens optimised for gaming; TCL’s T8C-UK Series has also introduced a 144Hz panel, with 288Hz Game Accelerator, and FreeSync Premium support.


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Mini LED goes mainstream Mini LED, last year’s hot pick, continues to shine. LG is bringing its Evo brand across from OLED to QNED in 2025. The new range will offer a flagship model with a wireless 4K 144Hz connection, the QNED9M, alongside enhanced AI picture and sound processing, powered by an advanced8 AI Processor. Picture improvements will stem from an


improved colour gamut, courtesy of a new proprietary wide colour gamut technology, dubbed Dynamic QNED Color Solution, which replaces the previously used quantum dot filter. 2025 QNED evo range topper, the QNED9M, will also feature True Wireless 4K technology, previously exclusive to the brand’s OLED evo model (M Series). The TV itself requires only a power cord. The wireless solution utilises a separate Zero Connect Box to transmit high- definition video at up to 4K resolution and a refresh rate of 144Hz. The screen will also boast AMD FreeSync Premium certification.


2025 LG QNED evo models are equipped with the Alpha 8 AI Processor, said to offer ‘close to 70 per cent improvement in AI performance compared to the previous year’. Improved AI capabilities include more advanced upscaling, able to analyse images to adjust picture noise and presenting faces, objects, text and backgrounds more naturally. Dynamic Tone Mapping Pro breaks down each scene to fine-tune HDR effects and brightness for each zone – “this is one of the reasons we’re not interested in HDR10+,” I was told. Another selling point for LG’s new smart


screens is the latest Magic Remote control (below left), which now features a dedicated AI button, which when used as a Power On button, takes the viewer back to the last used personal profile. It also offers content curation and customised TV picture and sound quality modes. A short press on the AI button guides users


to relevant keywords and TV features, while a long press enables personalised searches. Interestingly, LG’s AI Auto picture mode only works in the Vivid setting. The brand, however, tells ERT that the optimal picture setting is Filmmaker Mode with Dolby Vision. “Our renewed 2025 LG QNED evo line-up inherits OLED’s differentiated picture quality, along with a true wireless viewing experience and ultra-personalised solutions to deliver an outstanding super-large viewing experience that no other LCD TV can offer,” explains Hyoung-sei Park, President of the LG Media Entertainment Solution Company. >>


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