Topic: Worth the 'Upgrade' to QLED?

Hey all.
This probably isn't the most ideal place for such a discussion but Reddit keeps deleting my posts, so here goes.

So, I've got a 4KTV with HDR, a 2017 LG model, 49UJ635V. I mainly only use it for PS5 gaming and occasional films.

The HDR in GAME mode has always been very dark, even after applying RTings advised set up, to the point where it can be hard to see anything in dark areas. True, the colours appear more natural, albeit very dark

I was told a few years back that 'this is how HDR is supposed to look' even by LG themselves when I thought something was wrong because I was sure it was supposed to be bright, vibrant and colourful.

I lived with it none the wiser, that is until my brother got his QLED. it's a lower end model but THE DIFFERENCE IS NIGHT AND DAY!
His is very bright, very colourful and very detailed in HDR GAME mode on PS5. Now THIS is how I thought it was supposed to look.

Right now, Argos have the 49" Q80T for £849 and I'm trying to justify if it's worth it.
I mean, I can live with the current LG, but after seeing my brother's Q60R it feels very underwhelming and lifeless in comparison.

I can afford it, but I'm trying to justify it given I have a 'working' 4 year old TV.
I don't care much for 120Hz, just the colour accuracy in HDR, oh and ALLM would be a nice touch.

Any opinions?

Thanks in advance.

I've got a cheap 4k JVC TV and never really noticed an issue with colour - each game allows you to adjust the HDR settings and all seems fine.

I too could 'afford' a better and bigger TV but its always good to have some money set aside for emergencies (we're all only one paycheck away from being homeless and all that) and as a homeowner there's always something else more worthwhile spending money on.
So I guess only you can answer the question whether you should purchase a new TV based on your current living and financial arrangements. If its disposable income, why not

@MatthewJP
It's more about the HDR brightness that dulls the colours which causes the lackluster reproduction. I get what you mean about financial priority, although it is disposable income in a sense, I kind of don't need it but it might come in handy for something more important eventually, although it's far from my only savings I have available.

I mean, I don't 'need' a new TV and I am the kind of person that feels if something is working acceptably then I won't replace it until it is not working acceptably.

I was just awakened to how lackluster and underperforming my HDR reproduction is.
Even after LG told me that's how it's supposed to look, but his and some others are far better and he paid around about the same price I did.

I also considered that there will likely be something better in a few years as technology always drip feeds you new features.

Earlier I had to put my current TV into standard mode and turn on the PC mode for the input to force an identical low input lag in game mode, this made it slightly brighter but not much.

As for the in game settings if I put the HDR brightness too high to see better it ends up washing the colours out.

The game I'm playing at the moment is Assassin's Creed Valhalla, the PS5 version.
Off topic but it's good so far.

Thanks for the response contribution.

@GADG3Tx87 to me this sounds like you just have an early-ish model that supported HDR. But not all HDR is created equally.

I had a Sony Bravia 4K/HDR screen from 2015 and therefore was one of the first to support HDR, and whilst it was decent, it's nothing compared to the LG OLED 2020 screen that I have now. The HDR is no way near comparable from that early set. Huge upgrade in quality which you can really benefit from on new games and 120hz support too.

Generally you get what you pay for and the newer screens support for HDR is far better, especially screens with OLED or QLED (full backlight, not edge lit).

If you can afford it OLED is probably even better than QLED, but really depends how much you are willing to pay. I don't regret paying extra for OLED, and you will notice the difference on a daily basis.

Got the 2021 LG C series a couple weeks now and have no issues with HDR and dark scenes. Played RE8 and it looks really amazing. Had a Philips The One before and always hated dark scenes on that tv, couldn't see anything either. I would go for OLED aswell, i wouldn't want anything else anymore, that's how satisfied i am with the LG.

@antdickens @WizzNL
Yeah, I only paid £400 for the LG I have now and have never paid over £550 for a TV in my life.
I'm not sure about OLED, while I know the colour saturation of those is second to none I worry about the possibility of screen burn in, which the Plasma's from the past suffered with.

According to RTings most OLED's have this problem under certain circumstances where QLED does not.

Oddly, my brother's QLED is an edge lit and while I know they are supposedly awful for response time due to the positioning and lack of lighting his seems fine, that being said it's only a 43inch so it doesn't suffer from dark spots in the centre or edges.

Last night I changed the picture to standard and changed the input icon to PC mode to supposedly get the same response time as game mode but the brighter image for HDR. It certainly is brighter but still no where near the brightness of my brother's QLED. I did wonder if his HDR affect was oversaturated. Out of the box it was washed out and the white contrast was far too high. I adjusted it as per RTings specification and it then looked far better but still some 'blooming' in certain areas.

I can afford the £849 asking price but I just don't know if it's worth it. The LG works, just underwhelmingly now I've seen the difference. I have read that as of last year the Q80T was one of the best TV's for gaming, which is pretty much all I use a TV for, I don't bother with watching actual TV outside of the occasional Netflix film.

I have to also consider that with technology being drip fed to us and changing all the time something better might come along within the next year. The new model Q80a is already out at an asking price of £1099 on Argos but there aren't many reviews and the verdict is still out.

I am going to give it some more thought throughout the day. I keep moving between 'pull the teigger' or 'don't bother' in my head.

@GADG3Tx87 there will always be something better next year, you just have to take the plunge when you feel right — by next year you'll have had a year using the new one anyway. I'm not concerned about screen burn really — it's no way as bad as plasma and the screens have burn reduction built in. Unless your playing with the same HUD for 10s of hours at a time it's a bit of a non issue to be honest. Had mine a year now and not had any issues what so ever.

@GADG3Tx87 I have a QLED (Q77T?) and am really happy with my screen. I was doubting getting one a lot of the time, because QLED's description makes it sound like a low budget OLED. After having used it for a year, I feel like I can safely say QLED is just a great offer value wise.

I guess response time is supposed to be its biggest downside, but I don't notice it myself. It certainly is better than the response time on my previous tv.

(That being said, not all games implement HDR brilliantly either. RDR2 is the most infamous example.)

@GADG3Tx87 I have a QLED and really enjoy it. It’s a base model Q60R which amongst the Samsung TV has some of the weaker HDR but I think it’s good most of the time. I do have to mess around with the settings from time to time as the dark scenes can be difficult to see, mostly in movies. Haven’t had any trouble in games yet. Playing Returnal now and found I had to increase the in game brightness one or two notches from the baseline to really see all the darker areas well with all the fog, but it’s pretty good now. I have my TV’s brightness cranked a bit to take advantage of the beautiful array of colors. A lot of my TV is sports and it’s fantastic for that since they are always brightly lit. I’d say when watching shows and movies in medium or high lit scenes it’s really, really good but dark scenes is only average and I’m sometimes switching over to the ‘movie mode’ settings which enhances the dark scenes a bit better and that usually suffices. That’s my only real complaint about it — the deep blacks are probably not as sharp as the OLED and higher end QLED models, but the bright scenes are quite beautiful. I think the Q80 series has better HDR than the Q60, so I think you’d be fine there.

Also, it doesn’t have Dolby Vision and instead is Samsung’s version of HDR10+ which means Netflix and some of the services will occasionally have drastic changes in brightness which I think would be better suited to watch on a TV with the DolbyVision. If you watch a lot of Netflix you may want to consider that and look at Sony or LG (or TCL, Vizio, etc). I use my TV about 50/50 gaming and non-gaming and it’s been fine, but this is my first 4K set so I’m just thrilled to have the visual fidelity I have. You may be more accustomed and be looking for a more substantial upgrade.

I’m no expert, but the Samsung TVs also have really good latency for gaming, if you’re into that. My model doesn’t do 120 Hz but does do VRR, I think. I’m mostly a single player gamer so that’s not as important to me as just how it looks but supposedly it’s some of the best in class for latency.

I do think my next TV might be to splurge on an OLED to try that out, but I’m in no hurry to upgrade.

@Th3solution
My brother's is also the 43inch Q60R and after calibration I was quite impressed with the HDR performance, that should say something about how underwhelming mine is.

My model is an LG 49UJ636v from 2017.
In RDR2 I had to turn HDR off because that was definitely unplayable. The game I'm playing right now is the PS5 version of Assassin's Creed Valhalla, good game so far but I don't know if it's perhaps a similar story as RDR2 as to its implementation.
The in game brightness is disabled when HDR is on and you can only change the nit rating, (mine is around 300) and the light exposure which just ends up washing out the colours.

I have the PS5 HDR balance set correctly at the system level, and most games are just about acceptable but AC Valhalla is particularly dark and detail is non existent. When I turned standard mode on I was seeing things that weren't there before, darkened text, the lines in the skill upgrade path, the detail on the armour/robes.
Everything was way too dark before and under water you can't see a damn thing.
It's still quite dark in standard but not as much and more detail can be seen. The response time, in which my TV is 21ms seems mostly unaffected when the input icon is changed to PC mode, which disables all post processing effects to simulate a near game-mode experience.

As for the response time to compare the Q80 is around 11ms, ab improvement but I manage just fine at 21ms which is still quite good for a 2027 model.

I appreciate all the opinions guys, I wasn't sure what to expect asking here since this is strictly a gaming PlayStation centric site. But as I said, Reddit and their strict rules kept deleting my posts to the point it was stated I had to massively simplify my post which didn't get to the point.

@GADG3Tx87 I wouldn't worry about burn-in too much, like antdickens said they got built-in reduction like pixel refreshing. And you ll have to use a HUD or have a static logo on screen for a very long time to get burn-in. As for the price, i also doubted for a long time if it was worth it, but those doubts were gone the moment i turned on the tv for the first time. Its so much better coming from a LED tv, not a single regret. If you can afford it, then treat yourself, you'll only live once after all

@WizzNL
True, you only live once, and I'm 33 so not getting any younger. If I went for an OLED I'd probably look towards Sony, I've heard some LG's, particularly the CX doesn't play nice with the PS5. Atleast according to Rich, ReviewTechUSA's testing around launch of the console.
He sent his back and went for a Sony 900X or whatever they're called. Though those can be upwards of £2k which is a LOT of cash.
I'll think about it though.

@GADG3Tx87 I’m the same as you, in that I was coming from a non-HDR 1080p set to this, so I’m quite impressed with the picture and colors. I was surprised to see some reviews stating that the HDR was only average to disappointing to some reviewers. So you’d likely be quite happy with it and you’ve already seen it in action with your brother. For the money I spent it’s not a huge deal if I wanted to upgrade in a year or two. But I can see how with the Q80 it’s a little more of a commitment, so you don’t want to put they money into unless you’re convinced.

For a little cheaper you could look at Vizio and TCL’s LED models. I was tempted to try a base TCL which seems to have above average ratings for the most part, yet runs on the cheaper side so it’s less risk if you don’t like it.

I hated TV shopping. It’s so complicated and there are so many opinions floating around; I am just happy to have it over with and have a TV I enjoy. 😅
That’s worth it in and of itself.

@GADG3Tx87 Unless you are a Pro gamer or play a lot online FPS games, I wouldn't worry too much about latency either. My TV is not supposed to be great in that area, but I've not noticed anything when playing games on my PS4 or PS5. As it performed well in virtually every other area, I went for it and not been been disappointed with it.

I did have to mess around with settings to get movies and games to look right when I had my ps4, but only altered them for Cyberpunk since I've had my PS5 as that had a weird implementation of HDR.

@Th3solution I might be wrong but I don't think Vizio screens are available in Europe. Also many brands - especially with their cheaper models - have different line-ups on different continents (because they're actually made locally by manufacturers like Vestel in Turkey and sold as Toshibas and Sharps and possibly others )
The top models will probably be the same though.

@Voltan Ah, that’s a good point. There is definitely regional availability issues, even within major brand models. When I was shopping, I did online research and came up with some brands and models to check out and then when I’d go to the large electronic retailers I’d find that they don’t even carry a lot of the models in store. So it made it hard to know whether to buy something ‘sight unseen’ from Amazon like that. I didn’t have confidence to buy a TV strictly from online reviews without seeing it in person, so that limited my pool of TV candidates.

I still use my “old” 2014 Bravia and am still happy enough with it 🤷🏻‍♂️

@Th3solution
Yeah, I'm really, REALLY tempted to go for the Q80. At that price, currently in a clearance and last year it was £1199 It's quite the price cut, I'd imagine soon it will be discontinued which is another factor to decide ASAP.
I don't like to get rid of something that 'works' I'm not normally that way inclined until it stops working, I've just had my eyes opened to the potential of the QLED.
The Q60R isn't available anymore or I'd go for a 49" of that model.

@JohnnyShoulder
Nah, I'm no 'pro' gamer but I do spend a lot of time in fast paced games and I am a bit susceptible to motion blur, that being said the 21ms seems fine to my eye and that is considered average by some standards.
I don't play online much either, only co-op these days if any, I can't keep up with all the 10 year olds anymore lol.

@Voltan
Yeah, Vizio isn't a brand here in the UK but MAN do I miss Toshiba. I used to ALWAYS buy Toshiba, they were a safe bet, until Sharp bought them out and what little is available is kinda crap.
I loved Toshiba's laptops too. I still have my 2014 Satellite Pro, I don't like a lot of the modern ones, particularly the audio sucks on them which is something quite important to my needs.

@Thrillho
I had a Sony Bravia LCD in 2010 and it was fantastic. Great for gaming on the PS3 and Xbox360. Alas I gave it to my mother when I bought the LG for 4K with the PS4 Pro.
She only uses it in her dining room to watch Judge Judy. 😪
Although she passed away in February and my step dad got her entire estate.
I'm going through that and miss her terribly. Off topic there so apologies.

@GADG3Tx87 Often you find when an item gets discontinued, the retailers will reduce the price quite significantly to clear the stock for the new models. When I was looking for mine

@Th3solution I think going to a store is a bit over stated for televisions as the settings they have setup on are not a good reflection of what you have at home, plus there are mostly in a brightly lit area which does replicate most people's home viewing habits. Don't think I've been into a store to view anything electrical for well over 10 years. And then I don't trust the sales people in the stores as most of them would be on commission, so don't think their advice would be genuine.

@JohnnyShoulder
Yeah that is my thinking too, once this stock is clear, which it states on Argos it's clearance stock I think it'll be gone for good.
The Q80A is the successor, I have only seen RTings do an in depth analysis so far and in several instances they think the Q80T is superior because the 'A' is using a different inferior panel type, and Argos are asking £1099 for it and supposedly in a sale. Another alarm bell considering it's only recent.

I'm tempted to go and pick up the Q80T on Friday. I've got the cash to hand. I'm going to play some more AC: Valhalla tonight and see if I am unsatisfied with the current performance.

If I do, not sure what I'll do with the LG yet. It it cost me £409 so I doubt it's worth much. I might give it away, or stick it in the bedroom.