LG OLED55GXPUA TV

I was initially waiting for the 48 inch CX model to be primarily used as a PC monitor for programming and gaming but I didn’t want to wait any longer.

The PC monitor I was using before the GX was a 43 inch LG 4k 60hz monitor(LG 43ud79b). I thought 55 inch might be too big as a desk PC Monitor So i went my bedroom and took down Samsung 55 inch KS8000 TV from the wall and moved it over to my office desk. Initially, it was overwhelming and felt too big. However, after 3 days, i was getting used to the size and felt more comfortable.

Only issue i had with the setup was it felt too close from where i was sitting since the TV was not mounted to the wall. I looked at the CX specs and it looked as it will not be flush against the wall as bottom portion of the TV in the back is quiet thick and the TV mount will also add more space between the wall and the TV.

Then I looked at the more expensive GX model and whole back of the TV is very thin and it comes with a flush mount which can be used to mount the TV on the wall with 0 gap so it sits flat on the wall.

Long story short I bought the 55 inch GX model at 2299 which is excellent price since it also comes with the actual mount. However, it does not include a TV stand. For my case, it was going to be wall mounted anyway so I did not care for the TV stand. If you can’t mount the TV, you will need to buy the stand from LG separately.

I was able to mount the TV in about 20 min using the included screws(4 screws) on 2 studs. Keep in mind that the included mount is only about 16 inches so placement on the wall will be very tricky unless you have those two studs at the perfect location. Cable management system is very well implemented behind the TV and it will route through back of middle of the TV. cables will not bulge your TV out and it will stay flush to the wall. Just add a cable raceway and you are good to go. I turned on the TV and I was impressed over the picture quality especially the black level compared to the IPS LG monitor next to it. I am primarily using it as a PC monitor and do not watch cable TV or bluray/uhd on it. My face is about 3.9 feet away from the TV and it feels very comfortable.

PC Monitor Usage as a Programmer and Gaming 4k 60hz + GSync + HDR (on/off) (using 2080 ti)

1. Great Big screen. All text looks clear. I am using it in PC mode. Need to change label or icon to PC to make it into PC MODE
2. Set the TV to Game Mode
3. In Nvidia Control Panel. I set the color format to 422, 12 bit color depth, and output dynamic range to limited.
4. You can use HDR with above settings at 60hz when using 3840 x 2160
5. Gaming is awsome at 60hz with HDR and GSYNC. I tried Gears Tactics and Shadow of Tomb Raider. Both games look awsome. GSYNC range will be 40 to 60hz.
6. I only turn on HDR for HDR supported games. for desktop it looks awful.

PC gaming at 4k 120hz without HDR + GSYNC

1. for this mode, you will need to select the 4k resolution under PC in nvidia control panel.
2. You will be able to select 100hz and 120hz.
3. You can enable GSYNC however you will not be able to use HDR due to HDMI 2.0 Limitation with current generation of video cards. Once, HDMI 2.1 supported video cards come out, we will be able to use 444 120hz 10bit and HDR at the same time. However, LG CX and GX and all other 2020 oled models will be limited to 40 gbps for HDMI 2.1 and not the 48 gbps so we will not be able to use 444 120hz HDR 12bit. On a side note last years model is capable of using full 48 gbps but currently it cant to 120hz at 4k unlike the CX or GX model over hdmi 2.0.

Overall I am very impressed with this TV and I am glad I went with the GX model over CX as it allows more space between my eyes and the TV since it sits flush against the wall. As for the Size, you get used to it and it feels right. I don’t think I will ever go smaller. I think 55 inch is sweet spot for me.

Updates:

I got RTX 3090. Below information also applies to RTX 3070, 3080

Using HDMI 2.1 cable, Now I am able to select 3840 x 2160 Resolution, 10bit and Full RGB, GSYNC on, HDR ON and 120hz.

Initially there were some bugs such as screen blacking out, however, LG has already fixed this issue with a firmware update.

There is one remaining issue, where it can stutter when FPS is between 100 and 120 fps. This has been confirmed By LG and the fix should roll out soon with a firmware update.

For now, you can limit the max FPS in NVIDIA control Panel and limit the fps to 99 FPS to avoid the stutter when fps goes over 100.

I am enjoying this screen even more with the RTX 3090 and playing games on this LG OLED GX is out of the world.

Thanks LG for great support and getting things patched up so quickly.

Updates 2

Stutter issue when FPS is between 100 and 120 fps while using GSync is now fixed with a new firmware. I Just received the OTA update 3.11.30. I can confirm the issue is now resolved.

FYI: Included bolts are fine for mounting the tv on the studs. I have pulled out the TV countless times to upgrade HDMI cables and test different HDMI cables. I used 4 included bolts with the TV. before the TV arrived, I bought stronger bolts from HOME DEPOT but I did not ending up using them because it would not fit the holes.

Overall this TV is an excellent tv I have purchased the samsung frame 50″ for my living room and the lg 55″ frame. the picture quality of the LG without any doubt is much more superior than samsung. The flush installation is easy and much more slimmer than the samsung one. if your room is bright forget amount the samsung, even if you turn the intelligence brightness mode off and choose the vivid mode, you will still have problem seeing the screen sharply. the lg works great in bright room specially if you live in an apartment with a lot of windows and natural light glare.
Automation: the samsung only uses compatible in terms of voice recognition with Alexa only, by holding the mic button. everything else ie apple, youtube, etc… you need to use a device iphone/ipad for mirroring to the tv.
LG you can use alexa for voice recognition and you can do search with you tube, opening different apps, and turning the tv off without using the remote. In addition, you can link google assist to the tv as well, which is more power full than the alexa but in order to engage with google you need to hold the mic button. I was told that you can use the LG AI as well, but can’t figure it out… i believe once you turn the google assist on that over rides the LG AI…. I have been using the LG TV fore a month and so far no issues.
TV Speaker: the LG has much better sound quality as well as a better base than the samsung frame… linking bluetooth speaker with the LG is flawless and I have not notice any Lag in sound so far…
overall if you are looking for a frame style tv, LG is the way to go no doubt !

The picture quality on this GX TV is excellent and in comparison to the Samsung Frame TV is far superior. The color, the blacks and the detail really do separate this set from many other TVs on the market. This is even more notable when off axis either horizontally or vertically. If all of this is true, you are probably wondering why a 4 star review.

I purchased and will probably be returning the Samsung Frame TV equivalent (65″ flat wall mount TV). I have had the opportunity to compare each and frankly, neither is perfect. Anyone purchasing either of these sets is paying a premium for two features. The first of these is the aesthetics of being able to wall mount them such that they are flat and thin against the wall and appear as a painting rather than a black shiny mirror on the wall. And the second reason is the ability to display art when the TV is off to give the illusion of a photo or piece of art mounted on the wall rather than a TV set.

A few things to note about wall mounting either of these sets (I have done both so I know the difficulties). Samsung removes the majority of the electronics from the TV and packages them in a separate box then uses a very thin cable to connect the display to its electronics. Power and data are all passed to the display via this one thin cable and it has two rather large connectors on each end. All of the inputs to the TV are located on the box which you then have to locate somewhere near the display in a cabinet or wall box behind the display. Frankly, the suggestion to place it in a box behind the display defeats one of Samsung’s big advantages in mounting.

The LG has all of its inputs on the back of the display like a traditional TV. With 4 HDMI, 3 USB, one optical, one ethernet and power, this can be a lot of cables to be hidden in a raceway or in the wall. If you use the new HDMI 2.1 cables that are considerably thicker it makes it harder yet. If you don’t pre-run at least 3 HDMI and one USB, adding them later can be very hard, probably requiring removing the TV and remounting it as there is no room to work behind the TV even when fully extended. And for reasons only known to LG, they hard wire the power cable to the TV making running power much more difficult as you can’t opt for a shorter power cord and then have to figure out how to stuff the extra cord into the same small box you have to run your other cables. In my install this was very difficult because our home is concrete block and there is only 1″ between the block and the drywall. The box will only recess 1.5″ from the surface.

Burn in of static images is of concern to manufacturers and more so for OLED than QLED panels. LG takes this concern to extremes that flies in the face of the testing I have seen done on line by YouTube reviewers and even LG themselves. Essentially, that testing shows that it takes about 4,000 hours at high brightness with a static image to create permanent burn in. This is without doing anything to ameliorate this problem such as pixel shifting, reduced brightness, etc. LG translates that data into about 10 seconds of static display. Samsung manages to either ignore the issue or to deal with it by turning off the display if no one is present (no movement detected) and turning it off if no light is present (night time).

What all of this means is that LG does not allow for the static presentation of art nor does it allow for adjusting the time to display a piece of art. It changes the art every 10 seconds ready or not. This turns it into a slide show instead of an art display and is very frustrating. The Samsung Frame TV lets you continuously display the selected piece of art until there is no movement in the room or the room is dark. Additionally, the Samsung Frame TV lets you customize the matting, the mat color or to select no mat or a 3 image frame set for 3 vertical images. LG offers no options. You must display its gallery the way they created it and as a slide show. Frankly 10 seconds is just too short a time. Had they done 10 minutes or allowed you to choose like Samsung does in its slide show format it would have been a far more effective gallery mode. LG needs to up their game on the gallery software to allow more options to better compete with Samsung in this aspect of the TV.

Where Samsung falls short in its gallery mode is in the fact that the OLED display fails to render the colors of it mat selection properly, the limited palette of colors and the off axis viewing of colors. In its preview size display shown when making selections the colors appear correct but when the full size display appears the colors shift and no longer match the preview. Additionally, black matting appears as blueish-grey, not black. Navy does not look navy, etc. In both the LG and the Samsung, the white mat appear blue-white and do not look like paper matting that is typically warmer.

When it comes to TV watching, there simply is no comparison. No matter how I tried to set the image processing, on the Samsung Frame TV skin looked artificial and smeared this was in contrast to the significant 3D detail in its presentation of paintings in art mode. All the detail was removed and pictures looked soft when watching a broadcast like a news show. It was very disconcerting, especially as you got near the set but was noticeable even at a distance. In contrast, the LG images are sharp and highly detailed but it doesn’t render art in as good a 3-D fashion. You can see the Samsung when it first shows the piece of art, it looks like a photo and then it does some processing on it and suddenly it looks like 3_D art with paint strokes and brush marks popping off the image.
I hope all of this information will help you in your decision.
A few other things I should mention. The Samsung HDMI/ARC port appears to have issues with several soundbars. I tested the Sonos Arc and the Bose 700 and there are connection issues where the Samsung will lose the connection and the only way to restore it is to disconnect it and reconnect it and hope it finds it (doesn’t always work). I spend many hours with Samsung support and with the sound bar companies and each blamed the other and Samsung also blamed the cable. Nothing appeared to resolve the problem. Even when I let Samsung technical support take over control of the TV they could not fix it. I have seen others have had this problem so you need to be aware. If you use their sound bar you would probably be ok. The LG does not appear to have the same issues with the Enclave wireless 5.1 system I currently have connected but it did have the problem to a lesser degree with the Bose 700.
The bottom line is if your primary focus is displaying art, the Samsung does a better job and is easier to install. If you want the best TV picture and a slide show presenter, the LG is the better choice.