LG UK7700 vs Samsung NU7100 Review (55SK7700PUD vs UN55NU71000, 65UK7700PUD vs UN65NU7100)

Tweet

LG UK7700 is the mid-model of LG’s 2018 4K HDR LED TV lineup while Samsung NU7100 is also the mid-model of Samsung 4K HDR LED TV lineup. Since each of them use different panel technology, for this case UK7700 uses IPS panel while NU7100 uses VA panel, this makes them have different characteristic and also advantages and disadvantages to each others. In the market, NU7100 comes in many screen sizes options including 40 inch (UN40NU7100), 43 Inch (UN43NU7100), 50 Inch (UN50NU7100), 55 inch (UN55NU7100), 65 inch (UN65NU7100), and the largest is 75 inch (UN75NU7100). While on the other hand, there are only 2 screen sizes options for UK7700 those are 55 inch (55UK7700PUD) and 65 Inch (65UK7700PUD). With the same screen size (55UK7700PUD vs UN55NU7100 and 65UK7700PUD vs UN65NU7100), LG UK7700 is sold tens to hundreds dollar more expensive than Samsung NU7100, depending on the size. But of course, their prices certainly are not fixed and could still change at any time. So, which is superior and better choice between them?

LG UK7700 vs Samsung NU7100 Key Specs

LG UK7700 vs Samsung NU7100

Picture Quality

SDR Performance

For their class, overall, both Samsung NU7100 and LG UK7700 have good picture quality. But compare between them, this is depending on the light condition of a room where they are used and from which angle the viewers watch TV. Since UK7700 uses IPS panel, this makes it has low native contrast and cannot produce deep black level. Although it has local dimming technology, but its local dimming technology is not effective to boost the contrast and black level. Additionally, black uniformity of UK7700 is also not so good. The impact will be noticeable when it is used in a dark room. Since UK7700 cannot produce deep black level, in dark room, blacks of images displayed on its screen will tend to look grey than really black. Additionally, this also makes darker colors cannot be produced fairly accurate. And since its black uniformity is also not so good, dark scene looks unnatural and not so good. But even so, once it is set in a bright room, the picture displayed on its screen with looks far better due the impact of high contrast ratio is less noticeable. This certainly makes UK7700 is not suitable to be used in a dark room. On other hand, the native contrast ratio of Samsung NU7100 is far stronger than UK7700 and strong enough to produce deep black so looks really black in a dark room. Additionally, NU7100 also has excellent black uniformity. Combination of deep black level and excellent black uniformity certainly makes dark scene displayed on its screen looks excellent, even when it is in a dark room.

Meanwhile, LG UK7700 and Samsung NU7100 have almost identical peak brightness and their peak brightness is only bright enough to be used in a moderately bright room or dim room. While when they are used in a very bright room with much light, their peak brightness is not bright enough to fight the glare, makes the picture displayed on their screen will be hurt by the glare. This means, both of them are not suitable when used in a very bright room like outdoor or showroom.

Both Samsung UK7700 and Samsung NU7100 may not support wide color gamut, but their color gamut is good enough to show colors SDR contents in Rec.709 fairly saturated. The result, when playing SDR images, colors of the picture displayed on their screen will look fairly good, make the picture look natural.

Overall, Samsung NU7100 have better SDR performance than LG UK7700, particularly when set in dark room. While, when set in a bright room, the picture displayed on their screen will look equally good. But as we have discussed above, this is only a dim room or a bright room with medium-light, while in a bright room, their picture will be hurt by the glare.

Winner: NU7100

HDR Performance

As we have know, the main purposes of HDR technology is for revealing more information in a dark scene and bright scene, so makes shadow details and bright scene of images looks clearer and more details. And for this case, this is required strong performance of each aspects of picture quality like contrast, brightness, colors and others. With mediocre performance, surely we cannot expect impressive HDR performance from them. Nevertheless, at least, for their class, what offered by them can be said fairly well.

Since LG UK7700 cannot produce deep black level, this certainly also makes it cannot show shadow details of HDR images like the intended. As we know, to show shadow details of HDR image like the intended, a HDR TV must have 0.05 nits of black level or darker, while with about 1000:1 of native contrast ratio, its black level is not dark enough to reveal details of HDR images in a dark scene like the intended. On the other hand, with more than 5000:1 of native contrast ratio, Samsung NU7100 can produce black level darker than 0.02 nits that means it is great for showing shadow details of HDR images like the intended. The result, separated from its color performance, shadow details of HDR images can be shown excellently on its screen, makes dark scene of HDR images looks excellent on its screen, makes it is very suitable when used to watch HDR movies with a lot of dark scenes like thriller or horror.

Meanwhile, when playing HDR contents, peak brightness of Samsung NU7100 tend to similar to when it is playing SDR contents and also tend to similar at any window size, except very small window size. At very small window size, its peak brightness even dim below 200 nits that means it is not so good. The impact, when showing a dramatic highlight of HDR images, it will looks dimmer. Like when playing SDR contents, HDR images will looks fairly good only when used in dark room or dim room, while on bright room, it is still far from what required. On the other hand, performance of UK7700 may be not far different to NU7100, but when playing HDR images, its peak brightness is a bit increase. Additionally, since it has local dimming, it can also brighten small window brighter for a short time, makes highlight of HDR images can be shown brighter and better than NU7100.

As we have mentioned, both LG UK7700 and Samsung NU7100 doesn’t support wide color gamut. The impact might not too noticeable for SDR images, but will be very noticeable for HDR contents. Since HDR contents is mastered in DCI P3 color space where its color coverage is far wider than Rec.709, it need wide color gamut to show colors of HDR images so looks fairly accurate or at least 90% of DCI P3. Color gamut of both might be still less than 90% of DCI P3 color space, makes them cannot show colors of HDR images like the creator’s intended. But at least, their color gamut can cover most of colors in DCI P3, so most colors of HDR images still can be shown fairly accurate.  Meanwhile, compare between them, LG UK7700 has a bit wider color gamut than Samsung NU7100. Additionally, although it cannot show darker colors fairly good, its color volume is also still better than NU7100, particularly in showing bright saturated colors. The result, colors of HDR images displayed on the screen of UK7700 will looks a bit more accurate than NU7100, particularly when showing bright scene like bright outdoor scene or in a sunset.

Their HDR performance may not so excellent and doesn’t meet your expectation to be able to enjoy HDR experience like the creator intended. But keep in mind, their price is far cheaper than premium TVs which can meet your expectation in enjoying HDR experience like the intended. Overall, for their price level, what offered by them is fairly well.

Winner: NU7100 is superior in showing dark scene, UK7700 is superior in showing highlight of HDR images and on color reproduction.

Side Viewing Angle

The uses of IPS panel may make LG UK7700 has poor native contrast ratio, but on the other hand, this makes it has better side viewing angle coverage than Samsung NU7100 that uses VA panel. The colors might look shift at less than 25 degrees off center and front on both of their screen. As well as peak brightness, it also will start to decrease at about 30 degrees off center and front. The excellence of UK7700 is about its ability in maintaining black level where its black level looks consistent at any angle, even from extremely wide viewing angle. On the other hand, black level of NU7100 will degrade dramatically started at less than 15 degrees off center and front. This certainly will make the picture displayed on their screen will degraded, and from the wider viewing angle it is viewed, the picture will look worse.  On the other hand, although brightness and color also degrade started at less than 30 degrees, but UK7700 is able to maintain its black level up to extremely wide angle. The result, when viewed from an angle, the picture displayed on the screen of UK7700 will look better than NU7100.

Winner: UK7700

Motion Handling and 24p Playback

The pixel response time of LG UK7700 is nearly half of the pixel response time of Samsung NU7100. As we know, the lower pixel response time of a TV, it can do a better job in handling motion blur. This makes UK7700 can do a better job than NU7100 in handling motion blur when they are playing fast moving images likes sports or fast movies. A ghosting trail following fast moving object might equally noticeable on their screen, but since pixel response time of UK7700 is far lower, ghosting trail also looks far shorter than on the screen of NU7100. But overall, although not as good as UK7700, performance of NU7100 in handling motion blur is not so bad, even most of blur that may be visible is more due to the duplication caused by backlight flicker than pixel response time.

Meanwhile, to dim a backlight, both LG UK7700 and Samsung NU7100 equally use PWM Dimming System. But for this case, as default, they use different dimming frequency where NU7100 dims its backlight at 240 Hz while UK7700 dims its backlight at 120 Hz. Since NU7100 uses higher dimming frequency, this certainly makes backlight flicker is less noticeable on its screen than on the screen of UK7700. The advantage offered by NU7100, it has an optional BFI (Black Frame Insertion) Mode where when this features is enabled, this will dim the backlight at 60 Hz. This feature is very useful particularly for clear-up the motion when it is playing 60 fps contents like video games or sports. But since it dim the backlight at 60 Hz, this certainly makes backlight flicker is more noticeable. To enable this feature, you just need to set “Auto Motion Plus” to “Custom” and enable “LED Clear Motion”. On the other hand, LG UK7700 doesn’t have this feature. But, since its dimming frequency is 120 Hz, this already help to clear-up the motion, though not as effective as 60 Hz.

Additionally, discussed about their performance when playing 24p videos, LG UK7700 offers better performance than Samsung NU7100. No matter the frame rate of video source, NU7100 cannot remove the judder completely, even for native 24p videos like Blu-ray or DVD’s movies. On the other hand, performance of LG UK7700 in handling 24p videos is depending on the frame rate of the video source. It can remove the judder only if the source is native 24p videos like DVD or Blu-Ray movies and 24p videos from streaming apps like Netflix, YouTube, Amazon Videos, and others. While when the source is 24p videos via 60i signal like movies from satellite TV or via 60p signal like movies from streaming devices, its performance is not far different to NU7100. To remove the judder, you just need to enable “Real Cinema” on its picture setting. But even so, although their performance in handling 24p movies is not so good, but this should not be a problem for them. This is caused most people are not sensitive to judder, so they will not see it.

Winner: UK7700

Inputs/Outputs

As their major connectivity, LG UK7700 is equipped with a bit more HDMI ports where it is equipped with 4 ports while Samsung NU7100 is only equipped with 3 ports. Nevertheless, what supported by their HDMI ports are similar. All of their HDMI ports already support CEC, HDCP 2.2, and HDMI 2.0 Full Bandwidth. Additionally, both of them also have one port that supports ARC (Audio return channel) that is HDMI 2 for UK7700 and HDMI 3 for NU7100. Meanwhile, the excepting of the number of HDMI ports, they have similar inputs outputs. Both NU7100 and UK7700 are equally equipped with 2 USB ports (USB 2.0), 1 RF IN (Antenna In), 1 Composite In (AV In), 1 Component In, 1 Ethernet port, and 1 Digital Audio Out (Optical). For their wireless connectivity, both of them also equipped with built-in Wi-Fi. But for this case, Wi-Fi of UK7700 already supports 2.4 and 5 GHz, while Wi-Fi of NU7100 only supports 2.4 GHz.

Discussed about their input lags in PC and Game Mode, although UK7700 has a bit better input lags than NU7100, but overall, their input lags are equally excellent. With less than 15 ms, their input lags are great for playing any games. No matter you play causal games or fast paced games, this will feel responsively without laggy.

Winner: UK7700

Smart TV Platform

As their smart TV platform, LG UK7700 is featuring WebOS 4.0 while Samsung NU7100 is featuring Tizen 2018 that powered by a quad core processor. Both of these platforms equally have intuitive layout design and also equally easy to navigate. The shortcuts of apps, menu, and setting of both are equally placed on the bottom across the screen. Both of these platforms also equally provide a lot of preinstalled apps such as VoD Service like YouTube, Netflix, Amazon Videos, and others, Web Browser, Games, Live TVs, and many more. Both of these platforms also equally have an app store, WebOS 4.0 comes with LG’s apps store while Tizen OS comes with Samsung’s apps store. But for this case, Samsung apps store provide a lot of more games, apps, contents, and others than LG’s apps store. Otherwise, in term of performance and response, UK7700 with its WebOS is more responsive and faster than NU7100 with its Tizen OS. The advantage offered by WebOS, now it has been integrated with LG ThinQ AI that allows you to do a lot of more with your command. Additionally, it also allows you to control your ThinQ AI compatible device like Dish washing, Laundry Machine, and more with your voice command. Not only ThinQ AI compatible device that be supported, but also other devices that compatible with Amazon Alexa and Google Home Assistant. On the other hand, Tizen OS actually also have its own voice assistant app called Samsung’s Bixby and its own Home Assistant called Smart Thing. But since NU7100 only uses basic remote that not equipped with voice navigation, it lacks these features.

As the controller, Samsung NU7100 is only equipped with a basic remote. Its remote is not too large but also not too small. It has a lot of buttons that can cover most of basic functions like change channel, set volume, and others. But it doesn’t have universal ability and voice navigation ability. On the other hand, LG UK7700 comes with LG’s magic remote as its controller. As we know, LG’s magic remote is excellent and has a lot of smart features. In addition to its have basic buttons, dedicated buttons, and some quick access buttons for common settings, this remote is also equipped with built-in microphone for voice navigation. Work together with LG ThinQ AI, this allows you to do a lot of things with your voice commands. Not just that, this remote also has a universal ability, allows you to control other CEC compatible devices connected on LG TV via HDMI ports with a single LG remote. And the excellence, it has “point and click” feature. In addition the navigation pad, there is also a scroll wheel at the center of the remote, make the navigation is easier. Not just that, this remote also has a feature like on the remote of WII Nintendo, allows you to move the pointer on the screen by moving the remote.

Winner: UK7700

>> Please click here to check the latest price of UK7700 on Amazon <<

>> Please click here to check the latest price of NU7100 on Amazon <<

Summary

Conclusion

As we have discussed a lot above, which picture quality is better between them is depending on the light condition of a room where they are used. In a dark room, since Samsung NU7100 has stronger native contrast ratio, this certainly makes the picture displayed on its screen looks better than what displayed on the screen of LG UK7700. On other hand, in a bright room, since it has a bit wider color gamut and brighter peak brightness, for this case, the picture displayed on the screen of UK7700 looks a bit better than NU7100. But keep in mind, their peak brightness is equally not strong enough to fight the glare, so both of them are also equally not suitable to be used in a very bright room. Meanwhile, side viewing angle becomes the major advantages of LG UK7700, makes it is more suitable when used in a wide room with viewers watch TV from multiple angles than Samsung NU7100. Additionally, in term of performance of other features like motion handling, 24p video handling, input lags, smart TV and others, LG UK7700 actually also offers a bit better performance than Samsung NU7100, bit its excellence is not too significant. On the other hand, the excellence of NU7100 is when they are showing dark scene, particularly when playing HDR contents where it can show shadow details of HDR images like the intended, while for UK7700, its black level is not deep enough to do that.

So, which is a better choice between them? This certainly is depending on your own preferences. If you often watch TV in a dark room or often watch movies with a lot of dark scene like Horror or Thriller, NU7100 certainly is a better choice for you. Otherwise, if you don’t often watch TV in a dark room or you need a TV with better mixed usage, KU7700 is better choice for you. But as we have mentioned above, with the same screen, KU7700 is sold tens to hundreds dollar more expensive than NU7100, depending on the screen size.

>> Please click here to buy LG UK7700 on Amazon <<

>> Please click here to buy Samsung NU7100 on Amazon <<