LG NANO90 2020 TV Review

The LG NANO90 2020 is an upper-mid range 4k LED TV in LG's 2020 NanoCell series. It replaces the LG SM9000, and it sits above the LG NANO85/NANO86 and below LG's 8k Series. The LG NANO91 in Europe appears to be the same TV but with a center-mounted stand. Its main competitors are the Sony X800H, Samsung Q70/Q70T QLED, and the Hisense H8G.

The LG 75NANO90UNA has an excellent design that's different from 2019's LG SM9000. It looks a lot like the LG NANO85 and it has thin bezels on three sides. It has two wide-set feet as its stand, somewhat of a downgrade from the stylish center-mounted stand on the SM9000. Overall, it's a simple-looking TV that doesn't stand out much.

The stand is different from its predecessor, the LG SM9000. Instead of a center-mounted stand, it has two feet that sit at the edge of the TV, so you're going to need a wide table to place it on. There's enough space to put a soundbar in front of it too.

Footprint of the 75" TV: 56.9" x 14".

Update 08/17/2020: We confirmed the back panel is made out of metal, and not plastic, as we previously stated. The review has been updated.

The back is made out of smooth metal and it has a simple design. There are downward and side-facing inputs, and there are hooks on the feet that serve as cable management.

This TV has thin borders that aren't distracting.

The LG 75NANO90UNA is fairly thin and if you wall-mount it, it won't stick out much, if at all.

Update 08/17/2020: We confirmed the back panel is made out of metal, and not plastic, as we previously stated. The review has been updated.

This TV has a decent build quality. It's made out of metal and plastic that feels cheap and there's nothing premium about it. Still, the overall build is solid and the TV is held together well. There's not a lot of wobble, especially for a TV of this size. Lastly, the inputs flex a bit, but this shouldn't be an issue for most people.

The contrast ratio isn't bad for an IPS panel TV, but this may vary between units. It's similar to other LG TVs we've seen in the past, but it's not as good as the LG NANO85. Still, blacks appear closer to gray, which is noticeable in a dark room. It has a full-array local dimming feature that improves the contrast ratio. If you want a TV with an exceptional contrast ratio, see the Samsung Q70/Q70A QLED.

The LG 75NANO90UNA has just okay peak brightness in SDR, very similar to the LG NANO85. It quickly loses brightness when large, bright areas cover the screen, which is likely caused by its Automatic Brightness Limiter (ABL). If you want a similar-performing TV that gets much brighter, then check out the Samsung Q80/Q80A QLED.

We measured the peak brightness after calibration on the 'Expert (Dark Mode) Picture Mode, with Brightness and Contrast set to 'Max', and Local Dimming on 'Medium'. The brightest the TV got was with these settings, as seen in the 10% peak window test.

Update 07/19/2021: We've added two new videos demonstrating the local dimming feature with real content.

The LG 75NANO90UNA has a full-array local dimming feature, but it's quite disappointing. When there are small, bright objects moving across the scene, the dimming zones don't transition quickly, and you see the transitions happening, which could be distracting. Also, since it's an IPS TV with a low contrast ratio, blacks still look gray. On the upside, it handles subtitles well as there isn't noticeable blooming. We recommend setting Local Dimming to 'Medium', but even with this setting, there are still issues as small light sources don't pop at all, and it crushes dark scenes.

Update 07/19/2021: We've added two new videos demonstrating the local dimming feature with real content.

Update 07/19/2021: We retested the local dimming feature in Game Mode based on user feedback. We found that the local dimming feature is disabled whenever FreeSync is in use from a native FreeSync source, like an AMD graphics card, but it works fine when connected to a G-SYNC source. This is most likely a bug, but we don't know for sure.

This TV has unremarkable peak brightness in HDR. Once again, the LG 75NANO90UNA loses brightness with large areas, as seen in the difference in brightness in the 10% and 100% peak window tests. This TV doesn't get bright enough to truly bring out highlights in HDR. If you want something brighter, check out its replacement, the LG NANO90 2021.

We measured the peak brightness before calibration on the 'Cinema' Picture Mode, with Brightness and Contrast set to 'Max', and Local Dimming on 'Medium'.

If you want the brightest image possible, use the 'Vivid' Picture Mode with Local Dimming set to 'Medium'. We were able to get 692 nits on the 10% peak window test, but even this peak brightness only lasted a few seconds before it dropped to about 320 nits.

The gray uniformity is just okay, but this may vary between units. The edges of the screen are visibly darker and there's some noticeable dirty screen effect in the center, which could be distracting while watching sports. The uniformity is much better in dark scenes.

The black uniformity is mediocre, but this may vary between units. Without local dimming, there's clouding throughout and visible backlight bleed in the corners, especially at the bottom left, which is a bit hard to see in the picture. With local dimming on, the entire screen is more black but there's more blooming around the center cross.

The LG 75NANO90UNA has okay viewing angles. This isn't as good as most IPS TVs, as the image quickly loses brightness when moving off-center. However, you still get a fairly accurate image when viewing from the side so it's a decent choice for a moderately-sized room.

This TV has impressive reflection handling. It performs well in moderately-lit rooms, and even with direct light on it, the reflections don't get too distracting. You shouldn't have any problems placing the LG 75NANO90UNA in a bright room.

The out-of-the-box color accuracy is decent, but this may vary between units. Most colors are a bit inaccurate and the color temperature is a bit warmer than the 6500K target, giving the image a red/yellow tint. Sadly, white balance is off and gamma also doesn't follow the curve very well, so most scenes are too dark.

After calibration, the LG 75NANO90UNA has outstanding color accuracy. Any remaining inaccuracies aren't visible without the aid of a colorimeter. The gamma also follows the curve almost perfectly. Sadly, the color temperature is a bit too cold, giving the image a blueish tint.

See our recommended settings here.

480p content, such as from DVDs or old video game consoles, is upscaled without any issues.

This TV upscales 720p content, like from cable boxes, well without any artifacts.

1080p content looks almost as good as native 4k content.

The LG 75NANO90UNA displays 4k content perfectly, without any issues.

This is a 4k TV that doesn't display an 8k signal.

The LG 75NANO90UNA uses a BGR sub-pixel layout, different from the LG SM9000. This doesn't affect the overall picture but may have an effect on the way text is displayed. Read about it here.

The LG 75NANO90UNA has a very good wide color gamut, similar to the LG SM9000 and a bit better than the LG NANO85. It has excellent coverage of the commonly-used DCI P3 color space but it has limited coverage of the wider Rec. 2020 color space. The EOTF follows the curve well until it rolls off at its peak brightness, but most scenes are still a bit over-brightened. The EOTF in 'Game' mode is very similar.

If you find HDR too dim, set the Picture Mode to 'Vivid', Local Dimming to 'High', and both Brightness and Contrast to 'Max'. This results in a noticeably brighter image, as seen in this EOTF.

The LG 75NANO90UNA has alright color volume. Due to the low contrast ratio, it can't display dark colors well and like most LED TVs, it can't display bright blues.

The gradient handling is decent, but sadly, not as good as the LG SM9000. There's noticeable banding in red and even more so in gray. Enabling the Smooth Gradiation doesn't affect the test pattern but it makes real content look better.

There's some very minor temporary image retention immediately after display our high-contrast static image for 10 minutes. This could vary between units and it has nothing to do with the permanent burn-in associated with long-term exposure to static images.

While some IPS panels like this have some temporary image retention, this doesn't seem to be permanent as the IPS panel in our long-term test appears to be immune.

The LG 75NANO90UNA has a great response time. There's some overshoot in the darker transitions, but overall, motion looks smooth. This is a significant improvement over the LG SM9000.

The LG 75NANO90UNA is flicker-free only when the backlight is at 100% brightness. Otherwise, it flickers at 960Hz, which is so high that it shouldn't be noticeable for most people. The backlight flickers at 120Hz when TruMotion is enabled and at 60Hz with the Black Frame Insertion feature enabled.

The LG 75NANO90UNA has a Black Frame Insertion feature to help improve the appearance of motion. It flickers at 120Hz with TruMotion enabled in 'Game' mode, and it flickers at 60Hz, with the Motion Pro setting enabled. The BFI feature doesn't actually doesn't clear up motion blur as much as other TVs.

Find out more about the NANO90's Black Frame Insertion feature here.

The LG 75NANO90UNA can interpolate motion up to 120fps, known as the 'Soap Opera Effect'. To turn it on, set De-Judder and De-Blur to 'Max' in the TruMotion settings. It does an okay overall job with motion but in action-packed scenes, there are some artifacts. However, it's not very distracting and shouldn't be noticeable with most content.

Since the LG 75NANO90UNA has such a fast response time, there's some stutter as each frame is held on longer. You can reduce the amount of stutter by enabling the motion interpolation feature.

The TV can remove judder from any source, such as Blu-ray players or native apps. To remove judder, turn on Real Cinema.

Update 06/16/2021: We retested the TV with our RTX 3080 PC and confirmed that VRR works up to 120Hz in 4k, including with G-SYNC. There aren't any issues with it and it's tear-free across its entire range.

Update 12/10/2020: We updated the firmware to 03.21.10 and tested the FreeSync support. It works properly and there aren't any issues. We tested it with our Radeon PC, so we couldn't test if 4k VRR goes up to 120Hz.

Update 11/27/2020: We retested the TV with a HDMI 2.1 source.

The LG 75NANO90UNA has a high 120Hz refresh rate. It supports HDMI Forum VRR and FreeSync natively, and it's G-SYNC compatible. It doesn't have any issues with the VRR support at any resolution and there's no screen tearing.

Update 12/10/2020: We updated the firmware to 03.21.10 and measured the VRR input lag.

Update 11/27/2020: We retested the TV with a HDMI 2.1 source. It displays 4k @ 120Hz, but there are some issues. It crashes with VRR enabled when connected to an NVIDIA RTX 3080, but works fine with the Xbox Series X. We couldn't measure the VRR input lag because of the way it kept crashing.

The LG 75NANO90UNA has an excellent low input lag, as long as you're in 'Game' mode. It has an 'Auto Low Latency' mode that detects when a compatible gaming console is connected, and automatically switches to 'Game' mode to ensure the lowest possible input lag. For this to work, turn on Instant Game Response.

If you want to use it as a PC monitor and get the lowest input lag possible, set the input icon to 'PC' and use 'Game' mode.

Update 11/27/2020: We retested the TV with a HDMI 2.1 source. It had issues when connected to our NVIDIA RTX 3080 and couldn't display chroma 4:4:4. We had to keep restarting the TV for it to display 4:4:4, but we consider 4k @ 120Hz @ 4:4:4 unusable because of these problems. However, it didn't have any issues displaying 4k @ 120Hz with our Xbox Series X.

The LG NANO90UNA supports most common resolutions, including 4k @ 120Hz on HDMI inputs 3 and 4. It can display proper chroma 4:4:4 at all resolutions except 4k @ 120Hz, as it doesn't properly display it until we restart the TV and play with the settings. To get chroma 4:4:4, set the input icon to 'PC' from the home dashboard. For full-bandwidth signals, enable HDMI ULTRA HD Deep Color from the settings menu.

Update 11/27/2020: We retested the TV with a HDMI 2.1 source. HDMI 3 and 4 support HDMI 2.1 and 4k @ 120Hz, but have trouble with 4k @ 120Hz with our RTX 3080. However, there aren't any issues with the Xbox Series X.

The LG 75NANO90UNA supports 4k @ 120Hz on HDMI 3 and 4.

This TV supports eARC, allowing it to send high-quality uncompressed audio to a compatible receiver through an HDMI connection. For this to work, go to the Sound Out page in the 'Sound' settings menu, open HDMI ARC, turn eARC on and set Digital Sound to 'Passthrough'. Unfortunately, LG removed DTS decoding from their TVs in 2020.

This TV has decent frequency response. It has a fairly good bass for a TV, but to get the best bass possible, you should get a soundbar with a dedicated subwoofer. It has a fairly well-rounded sound profile, resulting in clear dialogue. It doesn't get extremely loud, so it's not ideal for noisy environments, and there's compression at its max volume.

The distortion performance is decent. The total harmonic distortion is almost inaudible at moderate listening levels but it gets significantly more noticeable when listening at its max volume. However, this depends on the content and not everyone may hear it. If you want a TV with speakers that cause less distortion, check out the Samsung The Sero.

The LG 75NANO90UNA has LG's WebOS, which is a slightly upgraded version from the LG SM9000. It's easy to use and there aren't any noticeable issues with it.

Sadly, there are ads on the home screen and app store, and there's no way to disable them.

LG's app store has a great selection of apps available to download and you can also cast content from your phone.

Like most LG TVs sold in 2020, the LG 75NANO90UNA comes with LG's Magic Remote. You can use it either as a traditional remote with its navigation buttons, or you can use it as a point-and-press remote, like a computer mouse. It has shortcut buttons to Netflix and Amazon Prime Video. It also has built-in voice control that allows you to search for specific content in apps, change the source, or ask for information like what the weather is.

There's a single button underneath the center of the TV that allows you to turn it on/off, change inputs, volume, and channels.

• Remote
• Batteries
• Composite in adapter
• Hooks and strap for cable management
• Clip
• Manual