Costco Members: 86" LG UQ8000 Series 4K UHD LED TV + $75 Streaming Credit EXPIRED

Update: This same deal is back in stock at Sam's Club and BJ's. Both offer the streaming credit and 5 year Allstate coverage.
https://www.samsclub.com/p/lg-86-.../P03012544
https://www.bjs.com/product/lg-86...0004229247


120 HZ Native Refresh Rate, HDMI 2.1, VRR

A significant difference between this TV and the Samsung TU690T (also $1000 right now) is panel type. The LG has an IPS panel, which allows for a wider viewing angle. I believe the Samsung will have a VA panel, which provides a higher contrast ratio, most notably blacker blacks, and with it better dark room performance. Most people will be wise to take their seating arrangement into consideration when deciding between these two.

Update: The Samsung, it appears only has 60Hz native refresh rate. While 120 Hz is prized by gamers it's actually desirable for watching any fast motion content such as sports or action movies.

I've owned this TV for about 2 months now (picked it up as part of Costco's Black Friday deals) and here are my impressions:

- Backlight bleed: There is some, and it will vary by each set, but mine just has some noticeable in the upper-left corner, and it was annoying at first, but I've learned to ignore it.
- Colors are muted, especially when compared to OLED (but that should be obvious; they are completely different technologies), but there are many different settings you can change to get the color, contrast, and brightness set to your liking.
- There is some light-banding noticeable when watching movement in bright scenes (think ice hockey or soccer/football), but it's not horrible.
- I don't use the built-in speakers, so I have no opinion on the sound.
- 120hz VRR gaming is possible and works, but depending on the game you could see some flicker, which is apparently an issue with many 120hz panels, from what I have read. I have tried it with both the Xbox Series X and the PS5, and the flicker is more prevalent on the latter. I had to switch God of War Ragnarok back to 60hz because it was too distracting at 120.
- This TV weighs about 100 pounds, so if you are going to wall-mount it, make sure you have a strong mount, anchor it into studs, and get lifting help. Actually, get lifting help regardless of whether you are mounting it or not.
- Upscaling on this TV is not great, so if you use it primarily for streaming HD content, you will notice artifacts and some blurriness. I primarily use it for gaming, 4K Blu-Rays, and 4K streaming, and for those uses it works well.
- Glare/reflection handling: I have it in a fairly dark room, but as others have said, any light source that is a point (like a light bulb) will diffuse into a star-like pattern. Unless you are watching a lot of dark scenes, you won't really notice.

I briefly also had the 85" Sony X80K in the house when it was on sale for $500 more than this set (I think it currently is still on sale for $1500), and the one that I got had horrible backlight bleed, right in the center of the screen. The color on that set was better than this LG and I liked the Google TV interface more than I like WebOS, but for $500 more it wasn't worth dealing with the annoying backlight bleed, which was completely glaring in any dark scene.

TL;DR version: For $1000 at this size, if you keep your expectations in check, it's a good deal. :-)

Good luck, shoppers!

Seriously, what do you actually expect? It's 86" for a lousy grand. $700 of which was getting it from China to your shack. It's even 120Hz native with variable rate refresh and HDMI 2.1. Is there something vastly better than this for the price? You can get the Samsung TU690T for the same price with a VA panel instead of IPS. There is still going to be that trade off between viewing angle and contrast ratio. And for anyone who places a higher value on viewing angle, rtings numbers are less relevant as the methodology favors head on viewing.