The first thing you might notice when viewing a movie or television program on an LG LE8500 Series television is that the black levels are phenomenal. This television is up there with some plasma screen televisions and absolutely can hold it’s own against just about any other LCD on the market. Superior black levels are obtained through the LED backlights with local dimming. A common problem with this new technology is that the LED’s being the LCD often cause uneven lighting (uniformity issues) and also “bloom” effects on the screen.
This just seems to be part of the trade-off in order to obtain deeper blacks. They cannot even come remotely close to having one LED backlight per pixel so each LED backlight serves a neighborhood of pixels and not every pixel in that neighborhood will want to be lit the same way, but they don’t have a choice. Also problematic are the pixels that live in between neighborhoods and depend on two or more LED’s for their lighting. Depending on how many of those LED’s are on, the lighting will vary. The problem sounds far worse than it looks, but it’s noticeable to those who look closely. That doesn’t necessarily mean it will bother you as an individual, but some people do find it distracting.
LG has actually managed very well with the bloom effects, though. Although the uneven backlighting seems about the same as other LED backlit LCD’s with local dimming, the bloom effects are less pronounced and it looks like LG engineered a way to minimize the problem, giving them a leg up against their other high end competition. It’s a shame that the adjustable dejudder feature doesn’t seem to work as well as some other models, because otherwise it would be really difficult to make the case for any other LCD other than this one being top dog on release.
The LE8500 Series also offers spot on color accuracy, which is something many of the other high end television can’t always seem to get. Viewing the television from an angle reveals it to be superior to many of its peers in this respect as well. Overall, the picture quality on this set is nothing short of phenomenal. There is no LCD with a “perfect” picture yet, but this definitely is at the head of the pack for trying to come close.
Cosmetically the LG LE8500 Series looks really sharp and impressive. At only 1.4 inches deep front to back it is an extremely thin television, and also very lightweight. Both of these are due in large part to the LED backlighting system, and so is the energy efficiency. Not only does this television deliver a picture quality on the verge of rivaling plasma televisions but it uses only a fraction of a fraction of the electrical energy, and therefore cost to have it turned on.
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You’ll also find an entire suite of interactive features built right into this television. With internet connectivity it can provide access to sites like Youtube and services like Netflix. You can stream movies, videos and even use the Yahoo! Widgets feature to display the latest news, weather or stock quotes right on your televison, live while you watch something.
LG’s LE8500 Series is expensive, but it has got everything conceivable all rolled up into one great package. It’s imperfect, but there isn’t much out there that is any less imperfect even at this price point. For a high end television with fantastic picture quality and all the bells and whistles, this is definitely worth a look, and perhaps a purchase.