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Sound quality
The LG 50PZ950T is a robustly built, seriously weighty TV – facts that seem to serve it well where audio is concerned. For starters, it produces surprisingly good stereo definition by flat TV standards, with an unusually wide soundstage that still manages to sound coherent.
When the going gets tough there's a slightly dense feeling to the mid-range that means voices just start to creep into distortion, but treble effects always remain very clear, and there's even a passable amount of bass – something you hardly ever get with a flat TV.
Value
If LG's 50PZ950T had the picture performance to go with its looks and features, its £1,100 price might well have looked like a bargain. Unfortunately, though, when you can get clearly superior 50-inch 3D plasma performers such as Panasonic's TX-P50GT30B for more or less the same money, LG's flagship no longer looks like such a great deal.
Ease of use
Impressively, the LG 50PZ950T ships with two completely separate remote controls. The standard remote control is effective enough, feeling comfortable and ergonomic to use, and enabling you to navigate through LG's very attractive and legible on-screen menus without needing to expend significant amounts of brainpower.
But it's the other remote that's really cool. This so-called Magic remote enables you to point it at the options on the screen and select them that way. It also delivers a degree of gesture control, enabling you to drag, flick and select things without using multiple buttons and arrow keys.
This sounds a bit gimmicky on paper, but actually it works startlingly well – especially if you're one of those people who persistently struggles to get your head around the way traditional remote controls relate to on-screen menus. Mind you, the design of LG's on-screen menus is actually first rate.
There is room for improvement with the LG 50PZ950T's operating system, though. For starters it would be great if the rather slow and flaky Smart TV system could be sped up and made to work consistently!
The instructions manual is dismal too. Arriving on eco-friendly CD rather than in the more convenient paper form, it unfortunately turns out to be one of those horrible manuals that covers a large range of different TVs, leaving you having to pick out the bits that are relevant to the LG 50PZ950T. Annoying. And it's badly translated too.
