LG QNED80 2022 TV Review

The LG QNED80 has a simple design with a silver metallic finish and two V-shaped feet. There's nothing that stands out about its design, but it doesn't look cheap, either.

The stand is two V-shaped feet that hold the TV well. They raise the screen high enough off the table that there's 3.31" (8.4 cm) of space between the table and the bottom of the screen, meaning most soundbars won't block it. You can also place the feet in a narrow position (see here) if you have a smaller TV stand.

Footprint of the 65" TV:

• Wide position: 45.9" x 11.7"
• Narrow position: 16.8" x 11.7"

The back of the TV features brushed metal and is simple-looking. The inputs are set into the TV, so they're hard to reach with the TV wall-mounted. You can route cables through the feet and clips for cable management. If you have the stand in the narrow position, you can also move the clips to the center to keep the setup clean.

The thickness measurement includes the removable cable management clips, and without them, the TV is 1.77" (4.5 cm) thick.

The LG QNED80 has good build quality. It's well-built, and there aren't any quality control issues. Although there's a bit of flex on the back panel, and the stand wobbles a bit, neither is of major concern, and you won't notice them once you place the TV.

The LG QNED80 has a bad contrast ratio. It means that blacks look gray next to bright highlights in dark rooms. Although the local dimming feature helps improve the contrast a bit, it does so by raising the brightness of the whites, so dark scenes look even worse. The higher-end LG QNED85 delivers much better dark scene performance thanks to its Mini LED backlight.

The local dimming feature looks the same in Game Mode and remains terrible.

The HDR brightness isn't bad, but it isn't bright enough to make highlights truly stand out against dark backgrounds. Small highlights do get brighter than larger ones, but because of the low contrast and elevated black levels, they don't pop like on other TVs.

These results are from after calibration to the 6500K white point in the 'Cinema' HDR Picture Mode with the Panel Brightness and Adjust Contrast each at '100', LED Local Dimming on 'High', and Color Temperature on 'Warm 50'.

The HDR brightness in Game Mode looks the same as outside of Game Mode, even if the individual windows are slightly dimmer, but you won't notice any difference. These results are with the same settings as outside of Game Mode but in the 'Game Optimizer' HDR Picture Mode.

The PQ EOTF tracking is incredible. With content mastered at 600 and 1,000 nits, which is the majority of content, it displays shadows and midtones at their correct brightness. While it doesn't display all highlights the way they should be displayed, there's a slow roll-off at the peak brightness, meaning it preserves details well. However, it isn't as good with content mastered at 4,000 nits because the roll-off happens earlier, meaning even midtones don't appear as they should.

The SDR peak brightness is decent. It's bright enough to fight glare with a few lights around but not enough if you have it placed opposite a bright window. There's some variation in brightness between different scenes, but this will only be noticeable when using it as a PC monitor, like when you're minimizing and maximizing windows.

These results are from after calibration in the 'Expert (Dark space, night)' Picture Mode with the Panel Brightness at '100'. Adjust Contrast on '80', Color Temperature on 'Warm 50', and the LED Local Dimming set to 'High'.

The LG QNED80 has a very good color gamut thanks to its quantum dot technology. It has excellent coverage of the commonly-used DCI-P3 color space, but it isn't future-proof because it has limited coverage of the Rec. 2020 color space, which more HDR content will start to use. Unfortunately, it has bad tone mapping with the tested 75% stimulus, meaning that brighter colors lose details. However, it's better with a 50% stimulus, as you can see with the DCI-P3 color space here and the Rec. 2020 color space here.

The color volume is decent. It struggles to display bright colors and can't display dark colors well either due to its low contrast.

The accuracy before calibration is good. Most colors have excellent accuracy as they aren't oversaturated, and the color temperature is close to the 6500K target. However, the white balance is off, particularly with brighter shads of gray, and gamma doesn't follow our 2.2 target for moderately-lit rooms well, as most scenes are too bright.

The accuracy after calibration to the 6500K white point is fantastic. It's easy to calibrate and there aren't any visible issues with the colors, white balance, gamma, or color temperature.

See our full calibration settings here.

The LG QNED80 has good gray uniformity. The edges of the screen are a bit darker than the rest, and there's a bit of dirty screen effect in the center, but it isn't enough to be distracting while watching sports or using it as a PC monitor.

The black uniformity is disappointing. With the local dimming disabled, the entire screen is blue due to the low contrast, and there's noticeable clouding. Although the local dimming helps deepen parts of the screen, there's still noticeable blooming due to the edge-lit dimming zones. Keep in mind that the 50-inch model has a different panel that has a higher contrast for deeper blacks, and the 86-inch model has direct-lit local dimming, so there'll be less blooming.

The LG QNED80 has a good viewing angle. For the most part, the image remains consistent when viewing from the sides, but you'll notice the screen looks darker at a wide angle. Unfortunately, the 50-inch model has a different panel with a worse viewing angle.

The reflection handling is decent. It's fine if you have a few lights around, like a lamp or dim pot lights, but it isn't ideal to place it opposite a bright window with direct sunlight.

The gradient handling is disappointing. There's visible banding in most colors, especially the grays and greens, and you'll see this banding in scenes with shades of similar colors, like a sunset. It has a Smooth Gradation setting that helps smooth out the gradients.

It doesn't have any issues upscaling lower-resolution content from DVDs or SD cable channels.

Like most IPS panels, this TV has an RGB subpixel layout, which is better for PC use than BGR panels because it improves the text clarity, which you can read about here. However, the 50-inch model has a different panel type with a BGR layout.

The LG QNED80 has a very good response time. Motion looks smooth for the most part, but there's still some smearing due to a slower response time with darker transitions.

The LG QNED80 uses pulse width modulation (PWM) to dim its backlight at all brightness levels. The flicker depends on the picture mode you use, and you can see the differences below. The 120Hz flicker can be noticeable and cause image duplication with 60 fps signals, like when you're gaming as it flickers at 120Hz in Game Mode.

Picture modes with 480Hz flicker:

• Expert (Dark space, night)
• Expert (Bright space, daytime)
• Cinema
• FILMMAKER MODE

Picture modes with 120Hz flicker:

• Vivid
• Standard
• APS
• Sports
• Game Optimizer
• All HDR modes

This TV has an optional backlight strobing feature, commonly known as black frame insertion, to reduce persistence blur. It can flicker at either 60Hz or 120Hz, and while it does a good job at reducing blur, there's still some image duplication. Note that the BFI score is based on the flicker frequencies at which it works and not the actual performance.

There's an optional motion interpolation feature to bring lower frame rate signals up to 120 fps. Like most TVs, it works well with slower scenes, but there are artifacts like haloing when there are a lot of fast-moving objects.

Despite the fast response time, there isn't too much stutter, even with 24 fps signals. If it bothers you, try enabling the motion interpolation feature.

The LG QNED80 removes 24p judder from any source, which helps with the appearance of motion in movies, especially if you're watching them from a source that sends 60 fps signals, like a cable box.

It supports all three common VRR formats to reduce screen tearing. It supports Low Framerate Compensation for the VRR feature to continue working even at low frame rates.

The LG QNED80 has low input lag for a responsive feel while gaming, as long as you're in Game Mode.

The LG QNED80 has HDMI 2.1 bandwidth that lets it support all signals up to 4k @ 120Hz, as long as you're using HDMI ports 3 and 4. It also displays proper chroma 4:4:4 with any signal, which helps it display proper text with PCs. If you're using HDMI ports 1 and 2, you're limited to HDMI 2.0 bandwidth, so you can't use it for 4k @ 120Hz signals with chroma 4:4:4 and 10-bit color depth.

This TV works without issue with the PS5 as long as you're using HDMI ports 3 and 4, as they support the full HDMI 2.1 bandwidth.

Like with the PS5, there aren't any issues with the Xbox Series X, but you need to use the HDMI 2.1 bandwidth ports 3 and 4 to take full advantage of it.

The TV doesn't support Dolby Vision, so you're limited to watching HDR content in the basic HDR10 format. One of the HDMI 2.1 bandwidth ports also serves as the eARC port, meaning you can only have one HDMI 2.1 device connected if you have a soundbar or receiver.

The power input is on the back left side of the TV.

Although it has an eARC port, it doesn't actually support any lossless audio formats that require eARC, as it can't pass Dolby Atmos to a compatible receiver.

This TV has an okay frequency response. It sounds alright with moderate listening levels, but there's more deviation and compression at its max volume. Sadly, like most TVs, it doesn't produce much bass, if any.

The distortion handling isn't bad. It's decent with moderate listening levels, but the distortion is worse at its max volume.

The LG QNED80 comes with the 2022 version of the webOS smart platform. It's easy to use and it has a few more features compared to past models, like the support of user profiles so each member of your household can customize their profile how they want.

Like most smart platforms, there are ads throughout the interface, and there's no way to disable them.

The app store has a ton of apps you can download, so you're sure to find your favorite content.

The included Magic Remote has a point-and-press feature that makes it easier to navigate through the menu. It has a built-in mic that you can ask to switch inputs, open apps, search for content, or adjust the settings. The remote that comes with the Costco version of this TV has an NFC feature that lets you tap your phone against the remote to cast content, and it's symbolized with the NFC logo on the remote.

There's a single button underneath the middle of the TV to turn it On/Off, change inputs, adjust the volume, or switch channels.

• Remote
• 2x AA batteries
• Power cable
• Cable wrap
• Stand covers
• User guides