LG UM7300PUA 4K HDR TV Review

LG UM7300PUA

65UM7300PUA 60Hz Smart LED TV

Review Summary

Product Name: UM7300PUA

Product Description: 4K HDR featuring LG's tone mapping technology for picture adjustments | Direct-lit LED backlighting for increased contrast and more uniform panel lighting | IPS panel for good wide-angle viewing performance | webOS smart TV platform | Google Assistant & Alexa voice control

Brand: LG

  • LG 65UM7300PUA
3.5

See full review below

Model year: 2019

Screen size reviewed: 65”

Bottom Line: LG’s UM7300 is a good and solid performing 4K TV. Its picture quality excels at detail, clarity and sharpness, and does a very fine job with color reproduction. But on the downside, it does lack in contrast and black levels in a dark room setting. But on the contrary, it will deliver an overall fine performance in a well-lit room.

Dimensions:

With stand: (W x H x D) 57.6″ x 36″ x 10.6″
Without stand: (W x H x D) 57.6″ x 33.5″ x 3.5″

Weight:

With stand: 47.6 lbs.
Without stand: 47 lbs.

Warranty: One year parts and labor

Pros

  • Very good picture detail, clarity and sharpness
  • IPS panel ideal for wide-angle TV viewing
  • Very low input lag – 1080p signal @ 60Hz approx. 11.0 ms | 4K signal @ 60Hz approx. 10.0 ms, great for gaming
  • Great value – very affordable

Cons

  • Lacking deep black levels when viewing TV in a dark room
  • Limited peak brightness output when viewing HDR content

Intro

LG’s entry-level 4K HDR TVs are a very affordable option from a name-brand manufacturer with prices ranging from $299.99 to $679.99. Screen sizes are available in 43”, 49”, 50”, 55” and 65” variations. This review is based on the 65” model. But it can be applied to all other sizes with the exception of the 50” model. The reason being is that the 50-inch display uses a VA panel, while the other sizes use IPS panels.

These two-panel variations affect picture quality in a different manner, with the VA panel delivering much better contrast and black levels, whereas the IPS panel will not produce strong contrast and black levels. The IPS panel, however, will render much better wide-angle viewing and will have minimal contrast and color saturation loss.

That being said, if you’re concerned about not having deep black levels while watching dark content (movie scenes, for example) in a dark room environment, I suggest you choose the 50” model if that screen size suits your needs.

On the other hand, if you plan on doing the majority of your TV viewing in a well-lit or moderately lit room, then the UM7300 models that use IPS panels will be less affected by the display’s lack of contrast and black levels, and these deficiencies will mostly go unnoticed under these conditions, as the room lighting will affect the appearance of these picture metrics and cause them to appear much better than they actually are.

LG UM7300 Side View

Side View

Design/Features

The UM7300 is well designed and sports a modern look that isn’t flashy, yet has a nice aesthetic appeal. The overall build quality is decent and doesn’t appear or feel cheaply made. The bezel or borders of this TV measure just over a ½’ in width at its thinnest points. I’ve seen bezels that are much thinner than the UM7300’s on more expensive TVs and even other TV brands that are in their price class that has much slimmer borders.

The display’s screen surface has a semi-gloss finish and uses direct-lit LED backlighting for illumination. The panel depth is a bit thick when compared to many other flat-panel TVs and measures almost 3-1/2” deep. So if you’re considering wall-mounting this TV, plan on it not having a small flush-mount footprint as it will noticeably protrude from the wall.

The stand (feet) are of typical design for many of the flat-panel TVs I’ve recently encountered, and provided good support for the TV and only allowed minimal wobble when I gently rocked the panel back and forth.

Feature Highlights:

  • LG ThinQ AI – The ThinQ AI system is designed to provide enhanced personalized entertainment and control for your compatible smart home devices.
  • Quad-Core Processor – This processor is designed to improve images by reducing video noise and motion blur, enhancing sharpness and portraying accurate colors.
  • 4K Active HDR – LG’s tone-mapping technology provides scene-by-scene picture adjustment and supports the HDR10 and HLG formats.
  • TruMotion 120 helps reduce motion blur (60Hz refresh rate)
  • High Dynamic Range HDR10 and HLG formats are supported for extended picture contrast and brightness when viewing HDR content (this TV does not support Dolby Vision HDR)
  • Direct-lit LED backlighting
  • IPS (In-Plane Switching) LCD panel provides good off-axis viewing
  • 4K Upscaler upconverts standard-def and high-def video to near-4K qualityLG 2019 Magic Remote

The supplied Magic Remote has become one of my favorites to use. It has remained mostly unchanged over the years and offers very good functionality. I really enjoy using its “point-and-click” feature which uses an on-screen mouse pointer to control certain TV functions. It also uses voice recognition via the remote’s built-in microphone and enables voice command for live TV, internet apps, web browser, input selection and volume control.

LG Smart TV

LG’s smart TV platform uses webOS 4.5 on its 2019 TVs which brings a new look and added functions. The on-screen menu has improved, adding a second contextual row to the app menu that pops up when you select an app. In this second row, you’ll see recently watched content, along with movie recommendations and trending content.

Smart home enthusiasts will be pleased to learn that the latest version of webOS also includes a feature called Home Dashboard. This dedicated tool lets you manage all of your connected home devices, from smart doorbells to thermostats, right from the TV.

LG’s webOS now supports voice control of compatible apps – Built-in Google Assistant controls basic TV functions and works with Google Home-compatible voice control assistants. The TV also works with Amazon Alexa-compatible voice control assistants.

webOS 4.5 will continue to bring together all of the most popular streaming video apps, including Netflix and Amazon plus many more, some of which offer content in 4K and HDR.

Additionally, webOS 4.5 uses your content choices and puts together entertainment options that neatly organize your recent viewing history, what’s on Live TV, what you might like to watch next, and the latest movies, TV shows, apps, and games from the LG Content Store.

Connectivity

  • 3 HDMI 2.0 inputs (HDCP 2.2 compliant)
  • 1 Composite/component video input (shared)
  • 2 USB inputs – version 2.0
  • 1 Ethernet input
  • 1 RF input for antenna/cable/satellite
  • 1 Digital optical audio output
  • Built-in 802.11ac Wi-Fi
  • ARC (audio return channel – HDMI 2)
  • Bluetooth 5.0 wireless audio streaming to a compatible speaker or set of headphones
LG UM7300 rear panel

Rear Panel

Performance

Although the UM7300 is an entry-level 4K model, it was able to produce very good detail, clarity, and sharpness, especially when compared to certain other entry-level brands. For example, while viewing a nature scene of a small animal, a close-up shot revealed very fine detail and crystal clear clarity, which enabled me to see the individual strands of fur on the animal’s body; this particular image as well as others, always stayed sharp and crisp.

The UM7300 also did a good job at producing color. I never felt the overall color palette was lacking in saturation or accuracy, even though the TV does not have a wide color gamut capability which would have increased the color range and intensity when viewing HDR content. To get the best color accuracy as well as the most accurate picture images in general from this display, use the “Expert Bright Room” or “Expert Dark Room” picture mode and the Warm 2 color temperature setting. For an entry-level model, color reproduction was very good on this TV, delivering rich and vibrant colors.

As mentioned earlier in this review, contrast and black levels will suffer when viewing dark content in a dark room due to the TV’s use of an IPS panel. That being said, images viewed in a dark room containing dark content will still appear black but will have a grayish tone instead of deep solid black. And as noted above, this will be less of an issue when viewing this TV in a well-lit room.

IPS panels typically produce mediocre black screen uniformity as was the case with the 7300 which revealed clouding (light bleed) spread across the screen. This will be most noticeable when viewing dark content that fills the entire screen in a dark room setting. But on a positive note, the clouding was not very intense.

With SDR (standard dynamic range) content, the 7300 had plenty of brightness to display this type of content adequately and will not pose a problem visually when watching this TV in a room with natural/bright lighting. However, with HDR content, this TV has mediocre peak brightness output and will not be able to show HDR content at its best in certain scenes, especially the ones containing small highlights. On that note, you will still be able to discern a difference between SDR and HDR content depending on the quality of the source.

This TV has good wide-angle viewing performance, with minimal loss of picture accuracy when viewed from wide angles.

The UM7300 has decent motion handling and did a fine job overall with the fast action content I viewed during the review process, with no noticeable motion blur thanks to the TV’s fast response time. This display also has a motion interpolation feature that will help motion appear smoother, but this feature may only be somewhat effective since the TV uses a 60Hz panel.

Furthermore, you may also experience some motion judder (jerky movement) with 24p content that is processed at 60p or 60i refresh rates which are common with streaming devices as well as cable and satellite TV.

The UM7300 has mediocre sound quality which was no surprise and is quite common among flat-panel TVs. And as expected, deep bass output was lacking having no solid punch, leaving audio output lean and thin sounding. However, dialogue was clear and distinct. The TV can also play very loud.

Conclusion

LG’s UM7300PUA is a good 4K Ultra HD TV. It has received good customer reviews that you can check out here. It is also a great value and offers a lot of performance and features for its price point, and the 65” model reviewed here can be had for just under $680.00. Now that’s what I consider very affordable for a screen of this size.

Although the UM7300 does offer good performance, just don’t expect it to deliver the best in picture quality, but do expect overall good picture quality from this fine performing entry-level 4K TV.

UM7300PUA

You may also like this review of LG’s SM9000PUA 4K LED TV.

42 Comments

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