- Table of Contents
- Intro
- Design
- Picture Quality
- Motion
- Inputs
- Sound Quality
- Smart Features
- Sizes and Variants
- Compared
- Conclusion
- Discussions
LeEco Super4
TV REVIEW
The LeEco Super4 is a 4k LED TV. It has above average picture quality and will be best suited in a darker environment. Unfortunately, the picture quality degrades when viewed from a slight angle. On the upside, both motion and input lag will suit most people's needs and the aluminium frame has great build quality. It is also known by the model codes L434UCNN, L554UCNN and L654UCNN depending on the size.
| Design | 8.5 |
| Picture Quality | 7.4 |
| Motion | 6.2 |
| Inputs | 7.0 |
| Sound Quality | 6.5 |
| Smart Features | 7.7 |
- Excellent contrast ratio
- Fully featured and snappy smart platform
- Very narrow viewing angle
- Peak brightness is below average
Update 8/10/2017: Converted to Test Bench 1.1. Learn more about our new versioned test bench system here.
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Design
The design of the Super4 is great, and the TV feels high quality. The wide stand provides good support but requires a very wide table. The build quality is great, and the aluminium frame is nice.
The bottom of the TV gets noticeably warm to the touch after it has been on a long time, however this shouldn't be a problem during normal use. The backlight appears to be edge lit from the bottom as that is where it is hottest. The bottom is lined with vents to help keep it cool.
Picture Quality
- 11% Contrast
- 6% Local Dimming
- 6% SDR Peak Brightness
- 6% HDR Peak Brightness
- 6% Gray Uniformity
- 7% Viewing Angle
- 4% Black Uniformity
- 6% Reflections
- 4% Pre Calibration
- 1% Post Calibration
- 6% 480p Input
- 9% 720p Input
- 11% 1080p Input
- 5% 4k Input
- 4% Color Gamut
- 4% Color Volume
- 2% Gradient
- 1% Temporary Image Retention
- 1% Permanent Burn-In Risk
The LeEco Super4 LED TV has an overall average picture quality. The high contrast ratio and the good black uniformity provide good dark room performance, but when set in a very bright room, the average SDR peak brightness will limit the amount of glare the TV can handle. The Super4 won't be the best choice if you have a wide seating area since the viewing angle is terrible. It won't be the best option for sports fans too since the gray uniformity is below average and dirty screen effect is present, even if it can handle fast motion without too much motion blur. The lack of local dimming and the low HDR peak brightness really hurt the HDR performance of this TV, even though it can display a wide color gamut and 10-bit content without banding.
The contrast ratio is excellent for this LeEco TV. When set to our calibration goal of 100 cd/m², blacks are very deep and will provide a good movie experience, especially when placed in a dark room.
There is no local dimming feature on the LeEco Super4 TV. The video is for reference only.
- 64% SDR Real Scene Peak Brightness
- 5% SDR Peak 2% Window
- 5% SDR Peak 10% Window
- 5% SDR Peak 25% Window
- 5% SDR Peak 50% Window
- 5% SDR Peak 100% Window
- 2% SDR Sustained 2% Window
- 2% SDR Sustained 10% Window
- 2% SDR Sustained 25% Window
- 2% SDR Sustained 50% Window
- 2% SDR Sustained 100% Window
- 1% SDR ABL
Decent SDR peak brightness. The TV remains a constant ~300 cd/m² regardless of the content shown, which is good. This is bright enough for a moderately lit room, but in a bright room the TV may appear too dim.
- 63% HDR Real Scene Peak Brightness
- 5% HDR Peak 2% Window
- 5% HDR Peak 10% Window
- 5% HDR Peak 25% Window
- 5% HDR Peak 50% Window
- 5% HDR Peak 100% Window
- 2% HDR Sustained 2% Window
- 2% HDR Sustained 10% Window
- 2% HDR Sustained 25% Window
- 2% HDR Sustained 50% Window
- 2% HDR Sustained 100% Window
- 2% HDR ABL
Mediocre HDR peak brightness. While the measurements are nearly identical to the SDR brightness, HDR content features 1000-4000 cd/m² highlights, so a brighter TV is required to get the best experience. While this TV can't come close to producing the full brightness of those highlights, most of the scene in HDR content is below 200 cd/m², so the brightness of this TV is still passable for watching HDR.
- 40% 50% Std. Dev.
- 40% 50% DSE
- 10% 5% Std. Dev.
- 10% 5% DSE
The gray uniformity of this LeEco is average. The top half of the screen is a bit darker than the bottom, and two large dark vertical bands also go from the top to the bottom. The bottom edge of the screen also seems a bit brighter than the rest of the TV.
On the 5% gray uniformity picture, you can see more easily that the bottom edge is brighter than the rest of the screen. You can also see that both right and left sides seem to be more bright, but this is due to the relatively narrow viewing angle of this TV.
- 20% Color Shift
- 40% Brightness
- 40% Black Level
The viewing angle of the Super4 is bad. Its picture quality worsens rapidly at an angle, even for a VA TV. Blacks become grayer and colors change after only a small angle, although the brightness change is not as bad.
- 75% Native Std. Dev.
- 25% Std. Dev. w/ L.D.
The black uniformity of this LeEco TV is ordinary. Some clouding can be seen in the bottom of the screen where the edge backlight is situated, but this is mostly visible while displaying our black uniformity test pattern. When watching regular TV content, almost no clouding can be seen.
The TV is quite good at handling reflections. For an average room it works well, but for a very bright living room it may be an issue. It has a semi-gloss finish which works to diffuse light directly on the screen.
- 46% White Balance dE
- 45% Color dE
- 9% Color Temperature
The pre-calibration color accuracy is good on this LeEco TV. The white balance is a bit high, though, but not as bad as seen on other budget TV. The gamma is not flat, but it still has an overall value of 2.2, which is still good. Finally, the color reproduction out of the box is not bad, and overall, for most people, this TV could be used as is, out of the box when set to the right picture mode.
- 46% White Balance dE
- 45% Color dE
- 9% Color Temperature
The post-calibration color accuracy is excellent, and the calibration process was fast and easy to do. The TV as a 2 points and 10 points white balance calibration. Both were responsive and provided good enough control to make it a simple process. Even though it does not have a more advanced 'Color Management Systems', we ended up with a pretty accurate calibration.
You can see our recommended settings here.
- 25% DCI P3 xy
- 25% DCI P3 uv
- 25% Rec 2020 xy
- 25% Rec 2020 uv
The Super4 can display a wide color gamut, so deep colors in HDR content will be shown properly. However there is a problem with the tone mapping of very bright highly saturated colors, they sometimes clip and become a totally different color. This is shown in this color gamut test done at a higher brightness, the extreme blue point turns orange. Because of this we performed the color gamut testing at a less bright stimulus value of 70 rather than our usual 75, though this should not affect the scores very much relative to other TVs.
Update 05/08/2017: The color gamut has been remeasured with the newest firmware update. The tone mapping has changed slightly (and the clipping error still exists) but the results remain about the same.
This TV has a decent DCI P3 color volume, so HDR colors will be properly represented at various brightness levels. The TV's high contrast ratio allows it to show very dark colors better than most TVs. However this TV has poor Rec 2020 color volume so HDR content that uses the Rec 2020 color space will not have accurate deep color.
Update 05/08/2017: The Super4 has been tested with the newest firmware update and the color volume remains about the same.
- 25% Red (Std. Dev.)
- 25% Green (Std. Dev.)
- 25% Blue (Std. Dev.)
- 25% Gray (Std. Dev.)
Overall, the Super4 TV can display our gradient test pattern pretty smoothly. There are only some imperfections in the dark greens and in the darker grayscale portion, which is not bad.
This TV does not present any image retention at all. Even right after the 10 minutes burn-in scene, no remnant of the static logo could be seen. This is in line with other VA TVs, which are usually retention-free.
We don't expect VA panels to experience permanent image retention, as the VA panel in our long-term test appears immune.
Motion
- 53% Response Time
- 11% Flicker-Free
- 3% Black Frame Insertion (BFI)
- 5% Motion Interpolation
- 12% Stutter
- 11% 24p Judder
- 5% Variable Refresh Rate
The motion handling of the Super4 is passable. Fast movement appears quite good due to the fast response time, but the TV doesn't have any options to modify the backlight flicker pattern, and can't play movies without judder. This is not an issue for most people as it generally isn't noticeable. The TV has a 60Hz panel which can interpolate lower frame rate content.
- 50% 80% Response Time
- 50% 100% Response Time
Motion blur is great. The response time is quick, resulting in only a short trail following moving objects. Transitions to the 20% level take longer than the other transitions, but this is unlikely to be an issue.
The Super4 uses PWM at 180Hz to dim the backlight, starting at 99/100 backlight setting. Lowering the setting shortens the duty cycle, while amplitude lowers slightly. Backlight PWM helps clear up motion slightly, but results in duplications following moving objects. We haven't seen any other TVs with a frequency of 180Hz, but it provides good performance at an even multiple of the 60Hz frame rate but high enough not to be noticeable for most people.
The LeEco has no options to reduce its flicker frequency, although its 180 Hz PWM backlight does help somewhat to make motion clearer.
The Super 4 has a 60Hz panel, and can interpolate lower refresh rate content.
The LeEco Super4 is great at displaying content without stutter. Although the response time is quick, it helps to blur the transition between frames to reduce stutter. It may be noticeable for movies (especially for slow panning shows) but isn't an issue for sports.
The LeEco Super4 TV is not able to display movies without judder under any of the tested frame rates, unfortunately. Movies playing from a 24p source like a Blu-rays player or a native streaming app, and from 60p sources like cable box all suffer from judder. Note that few peoples can notice judder, though, so this is more important for people that are sensitive to it.
- 25% 4k VRR Maximum
- 25% 4k VRR Minimum
- 25% 1080p VRR Maximum
- 25% 1080p VRR Minimum
The Super4 doesn't support variable refresh rate (FreeSync or G-Sync) and has a 60Hz panel.
Inputs
The input lag of the Super4 is low for all resolutions in game mode which is good, however the TV cannot display chroma 4:4:4 properly which makes it a bad choice as a PC monitor.
- 35% 1080p @ 60Hz
- 3% 1080p @ 60Hz + HDR
- 37% 4k @ 60Hz
- 19% 4k @ 60Hz + HDR
- 3% 4k @ 60Hz @ 4:4:4
- 3% 4k @ 60Hz @ 4:4:4 + 8 bit HDR
When in game mode the input lag is lower than average and should be good enough for all but the most competitive gamers. All three HDMI ports have the same input lag. The input lag varies by +/- 5 ms every time the TV switches to and from the HDMI input.
Note that when the TV switches to HDR mode it retains the settings from the previous mode it was in, so when gaming in HDR be sure you are in game mode before playing HDR content as you will not be able to switch into game mode once HDR mode is activated.
- 17% 1080p @ 60Hz @ 4:4:4
- 17% 1080p @ 120Hz
- 17% 1440p @ 60Hz
- 17% 4k @ 30Hz @ 4:4:4
- 16% 4k @ 60Hz
- 16% 4k @ 60Hz @ 4:4:4
Although the TV could accept 4:4:4 color as an input it did not display it properly. This test image shows how the TV was unable to show all the gaps between the lines for some color patterns. However this is only a concern when using the TV as a PC monitor while displaying text.
To play 4K @ 60 Hz the HDMI input in use needs to be set to 4K@60Hz Compatible in the TV's Input settings.
The TV also includes a PC input (VGA with 3.5mm AUX). One of the USB ports is located on the top of the TV for a webcam.
All three HDMI inputs support HDR and HDMI 2.0 at full bandwidth which is good when using multiple HDR capable devices.
Sound Quality
- 75% Frequency Response
- 25% Distortion
The sound quality of the L554UCNN is poor. The TV doesn't produce much bass and can't get very loud. There isn't too much distortion but a cheap soundbar is still an improvement over the TV speakers.
- 30% Low-Frequency Extension
- 5% Std. Dev. @ 70
- 20% Std. Dev. @ 80
- 15% Std. Dev. @ Max
- 20% Max
- 10% Dynamic Range Compression
Poor frequency response. The Super4 produces very little bass and doesn't get very loud either. The low-end cut-off of 180Hz and maximum volume of 85.5dB SPL are both quite poor, even for a TV. On the plus side, there doesn't seem to be much compression and pumping happening even under maximum load.
- 40% Weighted THD @ 80
- 25% Weighted THD @ Max
- 10% IMD @ 80
- 25% IMD @ Max
Average distortion performance. The overall amount of harmonic distortion at 70dB and 80dB SPL is quite low. There is, however, a little bit of rise in distortion under maximum load, but remaining within an acceptable range.
Smart Features
- 42% Interface
- 2% Ad-Free
- 37% Apps and Features
- 16% Remote
- 3% Remote App
The LeEco Super4 runs Android TV with a skin called eui, Ecosystem User Interface. It comes preinstalled with many popular apps such as Netflix, YouTube and Hulu, and many more apps can be downloaded from the Google Play Store. The TV supports Google Cast so content can be cast to the TV from other devices such as smartphones. The TV has several USB ports that allow content to be played from a flash drive. The included remote is fairly simple but it does include a microphone for voice recognition which works well. The TV supports using a webcam and has a USB port located on top of the TV to make it easier to connect a webcam, though none is included with the TV.
There's little lag when navigating through the interface, but the animations are often choppy, especially in the home screen. We also experienced some picture glitches during normal use. Most were solved by turning the TV off then back on, but one glitch with the YouTube app required the TV to be factory reset before it was fixed.
No ads appear in the interface of the TV, although the top row of the homescreen contains featured content from sources such as Google Play Movies and YouTube, some of which is not free. Apps downloaded from the Google Play Store may contain ads, but they can be prevented from showing personalized ads by changing the ads settings in the About section of the Super4's settings.
Lots of apps come preinstalled such as Netflix, YouTube and Hulu. Many more apps can be downloaded from the included Google Play Store. Also included are LeEco Ecosystem apps like LeZone and My LeEco.
The included remote has all the standard TV buttons as well as a Netflix button that switches to the app, a LeEco button that switches to the "Le" app, and a microphone button which activates voice control. The remote needs to be paired with the TV for some of its features to work, such as voice control.
Differences between Sizes and Variants
We tested the 55" (L554UCNN). For the most part, we expect our review to be valid for the 43" (L434UCNN) and 65" (L654UCNN) .
If someone comes across a different type of panel or if their LeEco Super4 doesn't correspond to our review, let us know and we will update the review.
| Size | Model | Alternative names |
| 43" | L434UCNN | X43 |
| 55" | L554UCNN | X55 |
| 65" | L654UCNN | X65 |
Compared to other TVs
While the LeEco Super4 TV isn't a bad TV, it faces fierce competition in its price range that is most often a better choice.
The TCL 6 Series R617 is much better than the LeEco Super4. The R617 is much brighter and has a local dimming feature that is great for dark room viewing. The R617 is able to consistently remove judder from all 24p sources, great for watching movies, and the R617 has a better black frame insertion feature that improves the clarity of motion. The R617 also has much lower input lag, which is great for gamers.
The Samsung NU7100 is a bit better than the LeEco Super4. The NU7100 has better black uniformity that makes dark room viewing more enjoyable. Motion looks clearer on the NU7100 due to the much better optional black frame insertion feature, and the NU7100 has less input lag. The LeEco Super4 has slightly better reflection handling, and a faster response time.
The TCL 5 Series S517 is a bit better than the LeEco Super4. The TCL S517 is able to completely remove judder from all 24p sources, whereas the LeEco Super4 can't remove judder from any source. The S517 has much lower input lag, great for gaming or for use as a PC monitor.
The Sony X900E is much better than the LeEco Super4. The X900E is brighter and has better reflection handling, making it a better choice for a well-lit room. The X900E has a local dimming feature that improves dark room viewing, and the X900E is able to remove judder from all 24p sources.
The Vizio M Series 2016 has been our top pick for a mid-range TV all year. It provides excellent picture quality in a dark room at a low cost. While it doesn't have as high a native contrast ratio and as wide a color gamut as the LU554CNN, it trumps it by having one of the best local dimming we've tested as well as having excellent response times and input lag. In most cases, it will be a better pick over the Super4.
The Samsung KU6300 performs very similarly to the LeEco Super4. It has a slight advantage for video games but is a bit worse for watching movies in a dark room. It's also more suitable to be used as a PC monitor since it supports chroma 4:4:4.
The Sony X700D uses a different type of LCD panel (IPS) that has worse picture quality when viewed directly in front but maintains it much better at an angle. This makes it a better pick for those looking to watch TV shows or sports in a wide setting. Both input lag and motion are better than the Super4, so that also makes it a better gaming pick.
Provided you can find it, the H8C is a few hundred dollars cheaper than the rest of the competition. Its color gamut is a bit narrower than the LU554CNN so the LeEco is a step above when it comes to picture quality. Smart Features are also quite limited in comparison. It's not very far off everywhere else, though, so it offers equally good value if your budget is tighter.
