LG 65EC970V review

Usability

Thanks to the superb user-friendliness of its webOS interface, finding content to watch in today's complicated times is exceptionally easy on the 65EC970V. Even Samsung's new Tizen operating system can't quite match the simplicity and approachability of webOS.

The only bumnotes are that webOS runs slightly sluggishly on the 65EC970V (it will be interesting to see if this issue is fixed when the webOS 2.0 upgrade comes along) and that the remote's point and click system feels fiddly using the default sensitivity settings.

It's also a pity that the TV's picture and sound set-up menus aren't presented in the same friendly way that the webOS content menus are - though I guess most people won't have to spend too long delving around in these menus once their 65EC970V is all set up.

Sound Quality

While the 65EC970V is no rival for the very best-sounding TVs around, such as Sony's X9005B series and even some of LG's own LCD models, its Harman Kardon four-channel audio system produces a much more listenable sound performance than we'd expected.

Voices sound believable and well rounded, there's a striking amount of treble information which helps movie mixes sound detailed and involving, and while bass isn't deep at least it's smooth and free of distortion.

Value

There's no disguising the fact that precious few people will be able to find £6,000 to spend on a television. So for the vast majority of people, even though LG has made 4K OLED a reality the 65EC970V still lies in the realms of fantasy.

That said, the 65EC970V does deliver pictures which are, in some ways - especially for people previously enamoured of plasma TVs - unprecedentedly good. And you can hardly expect such prowess to come cheap.

Also, given how many manufacturing innovations LG has had to come up with just to deliver a viable 4K OLED TV, the £6,000 price isn't actually as high as we'd feared.

The 65EC970V's price also, though, puts it up against Samsung's JS9500 TVs with their high dynamic range support, 'Nano Crystal' wide colour gamut technology and new high-brightness panel designs.