LG 55UB950V review

LG's debut UHD TV for 2014 ticks all the key 'first impressions' boxes. It looks lovely with its ultra-thin frame and polished finish, it costs substantially less than its key UHD/4K rivals, and it sets the perfect user-friendly, futuristic tone with its superbly designed Smart+ TV (webOS) interface.

Many aspects of its performance are tiptop too. It excels at delivering the full impact of UHD sharpness and detail, even when there's motion in the frame, colours look bold but always entirely believable, and its sound is powerful enough to do justice to its next-gen images. However, problems getting a convincing and consistent black level response out of the IPS panel mean it's not as well equipped for movie viewing as the best of its UHD rivals.

We liked

The set looks lovely, is aggressively priced and features the most user-friendly operating system to date thanks to webOS. UHD pictures look ultra-sharp and richly coloured, too.

We disliked

The IPS panel's native contrast performance isn't great, leading to some occasionally crude light inconsistencies from the local dimming system. Input lag is high for gamers, too, and it would be great if LG could get 4OD and the ITV Player on its roster of video streamers.

Final verdict

LG's spirit of design and feature innovation is fully on show with the 55UB950V, and fits handsomely with the futuristic feel of the set's UHD technology. There are times when its pictures look sublime too – especially with bright, colour-rich native UHD material. Finally in the plus column its price is super-aggressive for the burgeoning UK UHD marketplace.

Its potential market is ultimately limited, though, by problems matching rival screens in the key picture performance area of contrast and input lag levels too high for gamers.