Our Verdict
The picture quality of the LG LB5600 LED is inferior even to other entry level TVs. It reflects a lot of light and has a low contrast ratio. If you are looking for a budget TV, go for the Vizio E Series or the Sony W600B instead.
- Great color accuracy at an angle.
- Low contrast ratio. In a dark room, the blacks are gray.
- It reflects a lot of light. The picture in a bright room gets washed out by the reflections.
- Very low input lag. However, it suffers from a little bit of inverse ghosting with fast-moving objects, so it isn't ideal for gaming.
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We buy and test dozens of TVs yearly, taking an objective, data-driven approach to deliver results you can trust. Our testing process is complex, with hundreds of individual tests that take over a week to complete. Most of our tests are done with specially designed test patterns that mimic real content, but we also use the same sources you have at home to ensure our results match the real-world experience. We use two main tools for our testing: a Colorimetry Research CR-100 colorimeter and a CR-250 spectroradiometer.
Test Results
The LG LB5600 LED TV has the same design as all LG TVs in the 5 series. The borders are matte gray and the TV is slightly thicker than average.
The stand is a big problem with the 2014 LG TVs. It is stable, but it is as wide as the TV itself. You will need a wide table, even for the 42".
In a dark room, the LG LB5600 LED TV isn't great. The contrast ratio is low, which causes dark scenes to appear dull.
The black uniformity isn't bad, but because the blacks are gray, any small issue is more apparent.
All IPS panels in the low and mid level price range seem to suffer from a significant dirty screen effect. You won't see it under normal footage, but it could bother you with sports or panning shots.
The viewing angle is excellent for an LED TV. When watching from the side, you won't suffer from a significant loss of picture quality the way you might with most other LED TVs.
The LG LB5600 reflects a lot of light. Even a normal room with a few lights causes issues with this TV. The semi-gloss screens of other brands perform a lot better.
Don't buy this TV for a room full of windows. You will see virtually nothing. It doesn't get very bright and the TV has a yellow tint under bright conditions.
This TV has effective backlight flickering, but the motion blur trail is longer than average. It has slight inverse ghosting; the trail appears brighter than the moving object. Is you watch sports or play video games, you will prefer another TV.
The LG LB5600's input lag is great. It doesn't get much better than this. You won't notice any lag in fast video games.
