The LG SM8600 is a decent overall 4k TV that uses an IPS panel. It has fairly wide viewing angles, but that comes at the cost of a low contrast ratio, and it has poor black uniformity and a bad local dimming feature, so its dark room performance isn't good. However, most gamers should be pleased with the quick response time, low input lag, and black frame insertion feature to improve the appearance of motion. It's able to remove judder from most sources, like Blu-ray players or native apps, and it upscales lower resolution content well, with no visible artifacts. Unfortunately, it doesn't get bright and fails to make highlights pop in HDR. Luckily, its interface is easy to use and LG's Content Store has a large selection of apps available.
Our Verdict
The LG SM8600 is a decent TV for mixed usage. It's a good choice for gaming, watching TV shows, or sports. It has a low input lag and a quick response time, resulting in minimal motion blur. It also has excellent reflection handling and fairly wide viewing angles. It's not a good choice for watching movies in dark rooms since it has mediocre native contrast, poor black uniformity, and its local dimming feature doesn't further deepen any blacks. It's also a great choice to use as a PC monitor since it doesn't have any risk of permanent burn-in.
- Excellent low input lag.
- Image remains accurate when viewed from the side.
- Sub-par dark room performance.
- HDR doesn't add much.
The LG SM8600 is mediocre for watching movies. It doesn't have good dark room performance as it has a low contrast ratio, poor black uniformity, and a bad local dimming feature. However, it upscales 1080p well and it's able to remove judder from most sources, like a Blu-ray player or native apps.
Good for TV shows. The LG SM8600 has fairly wide viewing angles if you want to watch your favorite show with the entire family. It also upscales 720p content, like from cable boxes, well with no issues. Unfortunately, it doesn't get very bright, but it has excellent reflection handling, so you shouldn't have any issues placing this in fairly bright rooms.
The LG SM8600 is good for sports. It has wide viewing angles, so you can watch the game with a few friends, and it has excellent reflection handling. Unfortunately, it doesn't get very bright and it has some uniformity issues, which could get distracting during sports. Luckily, it has a great response time, so fast-moving content has minimal motion blur.
The LG SM8600 is a good choice for video games. It has a low input lag, a great response time, and a black frame insertion feature to help improve the appearance of motion. It has an Auto Low Latency mode that automatically switches the TV to 'Game' mode so you save some time instead of doing it yourself. Unfortunately, it doesn't support any variable refresh rate technology and it's not good for dark room gaming as it has a low contrast ratio and poor black uniformity.
Mediocre for HDR movies. Even though the LG SM8600 displays a wide color gamut for HDR content, it doesn't get bright enough to bring out highlights in this mode. It also doesn't have good dark room performance as it has a low contrast ratio, poor black uniformity, and the local dimming feature is bad. Luckily, it removes judder from most sources and it has excellent gradient handling.
The LG SM8600 is decent for HDR gaming, mainly due to its good gaming performance. It has a low input lag and quick response time, and it has a black frame insertion feature to improve the appearance of motion. Unfortunately, it doesn't get bright enough in HDR to bring out highlights and blacks appear closer to gray due to its low contrast ratio.
The LG SM8600 is great to use as a PC monitor. It has a low input lag, resulting in a responsive desktop experience. It's able to display proper chroma 4:4:4, which is important for reading text, and it has fairly wide viewing angles. Unfortunately, it doesn't get very bright, but it has excellent reflection handling. Like any LED TV, you won't have to worry about permanent burn-in with static displays.
Changelog
- Updated May 21, 2020: Converted to Test Bench 1.5.
- Updated Feb 21, 2020: Converted to Test Bench 1.4.
- Updated May 29, 2019: Review published.
- Updated May 27, 2019: Our testers have started testing this product.
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Differences Between Sizes And Variants
We tested the 55" LG SM8600 (55SM8600). For the most part, we expect our review to be valid for the 49" model (49SM8600), 65" model (65SM8600), and the 75" (75SM8670) model.
There is a European only variant, the SM8500, which has a slightly different design, but we expect its performance to be almost identical.
If someone comes across a different type of panel or if their LG SM8600 doesn't correspond to our review, let us know and we will update the review.
| Size | US | Canada | UK |
| 49" | 49SM8600PUA | 49SM8600AUE | 49SM8600PLA |
| 55" | 55SM8600PUA | 55SM8600AUE | 55SM8600PLA |
| 65" | 65SM8600PUA | 65SM8600AUE | 65SM8600PLA |
| 75" | 75SM8670PUA | 75SM8670PUA | 75SM8610PLA |
The 55SM8600 we reviewed was manufactured in March 2019.
Popular TV Comparisons
The LG SM8600 is a decent TV with good gaming performance. See our recommendations for the best TVs, the best 4k TVs, and the best HDR gaming TVs.
The LG B8 OLED and the LG SM8600 use different panel technologies, each with their strengths and weaknesses. The B8 uses an OLED panel, which delivers outstanding dark room performance and crystal-clear motion, thanks to the nearly-instantaneous response time. Unfortunately, the B8 also has a chance of permanent burn-in, which is not an issue on the LG SM8600.
The LG SM8600 and the LG NANO81 are similarly performing TVs and have a similar design with a center-mounted stand. The SM8600 has a 120Hz refresh rate, a much quicker response time, a BFI feature, and it removes judder from any source except 24p via 60i. However, the NANO81 has wider viewing angles, better reflection handling, and it has a lower input lag.
The LG NANO85 2020 is a bit better TV than its predecessor, the LG SM8600. The NANO85 2020 gets much brighter, the viewing angles are improved, it has better out-of-the-box color accuracy, it's able to remove judder from any source, and the built-in speakers are better. On the other hand, the SM8600 has a better overall style due to its sleeker, center-mounted stand.
The LG SM8600 and the Samsung TU8000 perform similarly but each is better suited to different uses. The LG uses an IPS panel which gives it much better viewing angles, good if your couch is to an angle to your TV, or if you watch a lot of sports games with a large group of people. On the other hand, the Samsung uses a VA panel which gives you much deeper and uniform blacks, making it better for dark room viewing, but also has narrow viewing angles so the image looks washed out from the side.
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 use 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
Older Test Bench: This product has been tested using an older TV test methodology, before a major update. Some of the test results below aren't directly comparable with other TVs. Learn more
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