LG wallpaper TV

HIGHS

• Best picture quality available
• All HDR formats supported
• Stunning, sleek design
• Solid sound quality

LOWS

Sound Bar Required

wallpaper-thin W series of 4K OLED TVs wowed us at CES with their almost impossibly slim design. And while the “cheaper” — to say that this is a relative term is a bit of an understatement — $7,999 65-inch model has been available for a while, if you’ve been holding out for the flagship 77-inch model, then I’ve got good news: it can finally be yours for the low, low price of $19,999.

The W series uses a bit of trickery for pulling off its 0.2-inch thick design: the guts of the TV, including HDMI inputs and general hardware, are stowed away inside an attached Dolby Atmos soundbar below the TV. For what it’s worth (design aside), you’re still getting a fantastic TV. The W series supports all four main HDR standards (HDR10, Dolby Vision, HLG, and Advanced HDR by Technicolor), offers full 4K resolution, and runs LG’s pretty good WebOS 3.5 smart TV software.As to whether or not a 77-inch TV is worth the price of a new Car? That’s up to you.

Striking design is just the beginning of the story here, though. Certainly, because it is an OLED TV, reviewers such as myself are necessarily going to trip over themselves coming up with new ways to describe just how much of a feast for the eyes it is, but the W7 series is part of a new breed of OLED televisions for LG – one that is brighter, more accurate, and more capable than those of the past – making the task even tougher.

UNUSUAL, BUT ULTIMATELY EASY TO SETUP

FLAGSHIP TV, FLAGSHIP FEATURES

What’s more, while the W7 itself is certainly a remarkable TV, perhaps more exciting is the fact that every series in LG’s OLED lineup this year uses the same panel and the same processing chips. That means that, depending on your demand for fancy design elements and enhanced audio systems, you can get the same stunning picture quality throughout the line, right down to the “entry-level” B7 series, expected to be unleashed in 2017.
Given the Signature W7 OLED’s unique must-mount requirement, LG opted to bring reviewers to the TVs rather than send TVs to reviewers, who likely wouldn’t be able to temporarily install a panel that uses an unconventional mounting system. I was flown to San Francisco for a reviewer’s workshop and given a rundown on what’s new for LG’s OLEDs, a fascinating tour of Dolby’s laboratories, and roughly 4 hours of alone time with a production version of the Signature W7 to evaluate its place within this year’s crop of ultra-premium TVs.

I know what comes in the box and what happens after you open it. Now is as good a time as any to address the 25-pound, silver-backed gorilla in the room.
Okay, maybe likening this TV’s requisite soundbar to a gorilla is a bit of an exaggeration, but considering how svelte the display is, it’s hard for the sizeable soundbar not to come off as a little bit imposing. It is neither slim, nor is it light. You can’t wall-mount it, and there’s no point in trying to tuck it away, either, as it is the TVs sole source of sound. Like it or not, the W7 comes with company – but at least it sounds good.

You’ll be needing a piece of furniture big enough to accommodate a sound bar measuring 57.5 × 3.3 × 8.2-inches (W×H×D) and weighing in at 23 pounds. This could be a credenza, entertainment cabinet, or a stout shelf deep enough to allow cable connections.
Not only does the W7’s Dolby Atmos-equipped sound bar serve as the system’s sonic source, it also houses the display panel’s power supply, processing, input/output jacks, and all the other goodies you would find hiding behind the bump-out on the back of a conventional TV. That hardware had to go somewhere, and since this is LG’s first go at a very imaginative product, they decided to bundle it in a sound bar.

The W7 doesn’t sport a ton of new features over last year’s 6-series models, but what is new is notable, and it all has a significant effect on the overall performance of the TV.
LG has added a “Neutral Black OLED polarizer” to the TV’s existing anti-reflective film to help keep black levels looking great in bright rooms. Previously, you’d get a little bit of purple haze when bright light shone on the TV. The polarizer works, and the screen looks black in most situations now, though if you shine a flashlight on it, you will see some purple glow coming back at you. LG has also enabled finer brightness controls so that each degree of adjustment has a smaller effect, and there is now a broader range of adjustment available.

The W7 Signature OLED TV has been improved to offer roughly 25 percent more luminance. For Cinema settings, this means the TV will max out at about 540 nits, though the TV is capable of higher peak brightness in Vivid and Standard picture modes.
Blacks have also see some welcome improvement. One of my criticisms of past LG OLED TVs has been that the TVs lacked some detail in the shadows because they would go from dark grey to pitch black a little too quickly. LG has added some finer gradation here, and the shadow detail is noticeably improved while watching content. You’ll still see it on compressed content coming from streaming services, but it’s far better than it was before. What you see is extremely close to whatever the source content produces.