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Usability
The LG 47LM860V is pretty exemplary in the usability department, handling its extensive suite of features in a way that shouldn't alarm even the most technophobic of users.
A particular highlight is the latest Smart Hub on-screen menu. This provides a handy, beautifully presented (in Full HD) way of both seeing and quickly accessing all your sources, including the multitude of game/streaming/information/entertainment apps available through LG's app store.
The layout of the Smart Hub seems logical and does a pretty good job of emphasising the most useful stuff, while keeping the more niche apps tucked away only to be discovered by those who can be bothered to seek them out.
It's also impressive how the TV's menus effectively put multimedia sources on an equal footing with more traditional video ones.
The TV's calibration/set up menus are pleasantly presented too, and reasonably logical in their organisation. Again, it's pleasing to find that the most complicated options are tucked away sufficiently well that relatively unsophisticated users won't accidentally stumble across them.
One final positive of the LG 47LM860V's operating system is the second, 'magic' remote it ships with. This clever little gizmo is sculpted to fit very comfortably into your hand, and can be used instead of the traditional remote to point directly at options on the screen you want to select. We are confident that many people will find this approach more intuitive than the usual remote control.
It's a nice touch, too, to find a menu scrolling wheel on the magic remote, so that you can quickly move up or down extended menus in the TV's set up areas.
For the most part the LG 47LM860V is an example for other operating systems in the smart TV age to follow. Really our only serious complaint is that LG ought to exercise a bit more quality control over the apps it puts onto its system, since all of our experience of smart TVs to date suggests that app quality easily trumps app quantity.
Sound
The LG 47LM860V's audio is slightly better than you might expect, considering how little bodywork there is for speakers to squeeze into.
That said, while the mid-range sounds reasonably clean and credible with relatively restrained footage, there isn't really any headroom in the speaker system for action scenes to expand into, leaving them sounding a bit flat, bass-light and muddy.
Value
LG could reasonably argue that £1,599.99 (around $2,567) isn't a horrendously high price to pay for a feature-laden, gorgeously designed and in many ways strong performing TV.
However, it's impossible to ignore the fact that Sony's superior (where picture quality is concerned) 46HX853 is routinely available for at least £250 (about $400) less, while LG's own 47LM660T also costs around £250 less, despite still carrying much of the spec sported by the LG 47LM860V.
