LG 50PW450 review

A keenly priced plasma that is fatally undermined by truly dreadful 3D performance

LG 50PW450
The 3D performance of this TV is one of the worst we have seen

TechRadar Verdict

Pros

  • +

    Aggressive price for a 50-inch 3D TV

  • +

    Decent HD 2D pictures

  • +

    Good calibration tools

  • +

    Exceptional build quality

Cons

  • -

    Awful 3D pictures

  • -

    Average standard-def performance

  • -

    General picture noise

Why you can trust TechRadar We spend hours testing every product or service we review, so you can be sure you’re buying the best. Find out more about how we test.

LG's 50PW450T is a remarkably affordable, 50-inch plasma TV with active shutter 3D technology. Its eye-popping value credentials are underlined by a built-in 3D transmitter and the fact that it ships with a pair of 3D specs, putting plenty of its more expensive rivals to shame.

The 50PW450 also squeezes in a Freeview HD tuner and a USB port capable of playing back photo, music and video files. DLNA streaming is not supported, though, and there is no online capability beyond whatever may be possible with the Freeview HD tuner in the future.

The 50PW450T's resolution is 1,024 x 768 pixels, meanwhile, which makes it merely HD ready, rather than full HD.

If 50 inches is too large for you, LG also makes a 42-inch version, the 42PW450T. If you'd rather step up to a 3D LG plasma with a full HD native resolution, you're looking at the PZ250T range, while if you want to add THX 3D certification you need to go up further to the PZ550 series.

John Archer
AV Technology Contributor

John has been writing about home entertainment technology for more than two decades - an especially impressive feat considering he still claims to only be 35 years old (yeah, right). In that time he’s reviewed hundreds if not thousands of TVs, projectors and speakers, and spent frankly far too long sitting by himself in a dark room.