There are many exciting new TVs on display at IFA 2010, but none more impressive than LG's brand-spanking new LEX8 'nano LED' effort.
Using a new kind of LCD panel, the LEX8 has a super-thin film in front of the Direct LED backlighting. This film is covered in tiny pinpricks which are designed to disperse the light from the LEDs more evenly. This is designed to create a better viewing experience by making the screen brighter and more colourful.
It's the first TV of its kind, and LG has signs up at its stand proclaiming it to be the 'world's first nano LED TV'. While that is strictly true, it's unlikely that any other manufacturer would ever use the term 'nano LED'. Some of the big telly companies like to give their tech slightly different names to make them sound more special – LG calls its Direct LED TVs 'full LED', for example. Philips calls them 'LED Pro' TVs.
The LEX8 is certainly a striking set – it's just 8.8mm thick, which LG claims makes it the thinnest direct LED TV ever built. Until now, this kind of slimness has only been achieved using Edge LED technology, which places the LEDs around the edge of the screen, thus sacrificing brightness, contrast and colour reproduction.
The LEX8 is stunningly bright, even on the bright showroom floor of LG's IFA hall, with colours popping out of the screen.
The TV also includes a new anti-reflection panel which is designed to minimise the distraction of light bouncing off the TV's screen. It works, too – compared to a TV without such tech, it's a much more comfortable viewing experience. Most of the top-end TVs on display here have similar anti-reflection efforts.
The LEX8 also includes localised dimming – a de facto feature on Direct LED TVs these days, which means contrast levels are excellent. Blacks appear deep and rich, although it's hard to truly test this aspect of a TV's performance when viewing in such bright conditions.
And the other feature-of-note is the inclusion of LG's new 400Hz TruMotion tech, which smooths out fast-moving pictures to eliminate motion blur and judder. Again, it works a treat. The test footage being displayed looked breathtaking.
When it goes on sale, the LEX8 will include LG's NetCast IPTV service which will offer various web TV access, similar to the offerings of the other telly bigwigs. It also comes with what LG is calling the Magic Motion Remote which is able to control a cursor on the screen – thus making it easier to surf the IPTV services as well as play games etc.
We're genuinely excited about this 3D TV – it's certainly LG's best telly to date and we'll be giving it the full TechRadar review treatment in due course – stay tuned!
