LG SM9000 TV Review

The LG SM9000 is one of LG's top 4k LED TVs from 2019 and is the replacement to the LG SK9000. The SM9000 is nearly identical to the LG SM9500, but has a less powerful local dimming feature, and isn't as bright. The main competitors are the LG SM9500, LG SM8600, and VA TVs like the Sony X950G, and the Vizio P Series Quantum 2019.

The LG 55SM9000PUA has an excellent design, nearly identical to the LG SM9500. It has a central stand and the back of the leg can be used for cable management, which is convenient. It has a sleek and modern design, the TV is very thin, and it looks great wall-mounted.

The stand of the TV is simple, with a similar design to the LG SM9500 and LG SM8600. Due to the curved feet, it might not be possible to place a very large soundbar in front of the TV.

Footprint of the 55" TV stand: 33.1" x 10.4".

Some of the inputs are back-facing, but the most commonly-used inputs face to the side, which is great as they're still accessible when wall-mounted. The back of the stand is hollow, and can be used for cable management.

The TV has thin borders that aren't distracting.

The LG 55SM9000 is very thin and looks great wall-mounted. It's about the same thickness as the LG SM8600.

Decent build quality. The stand wobbles quite a bit, more so than 2018's LG SK9000. Also, the screen sits on top of the borders, which makes the TV fragile when carrying it around.

Note that we had to exchange our TV twice, as the first two units we purchased were physically damaged in the box. We don't know if this is at all indicative of an issue with LG, or if it's isolated to that particular retailer, so we didn't include this in our scoring.

Disappointing contrast ratio, which is expected from an IPS panel TV. Blacks appear closer to gray when viewed in the dark, and even though it has a local dimming feature, it doesn't improve the contrast ratio by much. Note that the contrast ratio can vary between individual units.

Update 07/22/2019: The 75" and 86" versions of the LG SM9000 have the more advanced Full Array Dimming Pro found on the SM9500. We didn't find much difference between the Full Array Dimming on this TV, and the "Pro" version found on the SM9500.

This TV has a full array local dimming feature, but unfortunately, it's disappointing. It has fewer zones than the LG SM9500, and there's a lot more blooming. When displaying small, bright objects, the TV overcompensates and dims them too much. Zone transitions are slightly more noticeable as well.

The 'High' setting crushes small objects even worse, so we recommend the 'Medium' setting.

Okay peak brightness, but the LG SM9000 is significantly less bright than the LG SM9500. Small windows are aggressively dimmed by the TV, as shown by the significant decrease in brightness with the 2% window. This is especially noticeable in dark scenes with small, bright highlights.

We measured the peak brightness after calibration, using the 'ISF Expert (Dark Room)' Picture Mode, with Backlight set to '100', LED Local Dimming set to 'Medium', and Color Temperature set to 'Warm2'.

If image accuracy isn't as important to you, the 'Vivid' Picture Mode is brighter. We were able to momentarily reach 1069 nits with the 10% window using the default settings of the 'Vivid' Picture Mode and LED Local Dimming set to 'Medium'.

Mediocre peak brightness and it doesn't get bright enough to truly bring out highlights. When displaying small bright objects, the TV gets bright but quickly fades, as you can see by the difference between the 2% peak, and 2% sustained measurements.

We measured the peak brightness before calibration, using the 'Cinema HDR' Picture Mode, with Backlight set to '100', LED Local Dimming set to 'High', and Color Temperature set to 'Warm2'.

If image accuracy isn't as important to you, the 'Vivid' Picture Mode is brighter. We measured a peak brightness of 1042 nits with the 10% window using the 'Vivid' Picture Mode, and LED Local Dimming set to 'Medium'.

Okay gray uniformity. The edges of the screen are visibly darker and there's noticeable dirty screen effect in the center, which could be distracting during sports. In near-dark scenes, the uniformity is much better. Note that gray uniformity can vary between individual units.

Like most IPS TVs, this display has good viewing angles. The image remains accurate when viewing from the side, ideal for wide seating arrangements.

Poor black uniformity. There's noticeable clouding throughout, and because of the low contrast ratio, the screen looks more blue than black. With local dimming on, the screen becomes more black, but there's more blooming around the center cross. Note that black uniformity can vary between individual units.

This TV has impressive reflection handling, but the semi-gloss coating isn't able to fully diffuse reflections across the screen. This shouldn't be an issue in most rooms, though.

With our pre-calibration settings, this TV has okay out-of-the-box accuracy. There are some noticeable inaccuracies in most colors and more noticeable errors in shades of gray, and the gamma doesn't quite follow the curve, with some scenes appearing too dark. The color temperature is a bit too warm, but this is relatively minor. Note that color accuracy can vary between individual units.

After calibration, the LG 55SM9000PUA has exceptional accuracy. The white balance is almost perfect, as is the gamma, which tracks 2.2 perfectly. Most color errors are corrected, but there are still some noticeable issues with blues. Unfortunately, after calibration the white balance is worse, and is now a bit too cold.

You can see our recommended settings here.

480p content, like DVDs, looks great on the LG SM9000. There are no obvious upscaling artifacts.

720p content, like cable TV, looks great.

1080p Blu-rays and older game consoles look excellent, almost as good as native 4k content.

4k content is displayed properly, with no obvious issues.

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

This TV has a great wide color gamut, very similar to the LG SM9500. The EOTF follows the PQ curve extremely well, before it rolls off near the TV's peak brightness. In 'Game' mode, the EOTF is nearly identical, as shown here.

If you find HDR content too dim, check out our recommended settings here. With these settings, HDR content is noticeably brighter in some scenes, as shown here.

Decent color volume. Due to the limited contrast ratio, this TV can't display dark colors very well, and like most LED TVs, it can't display bright blues well.

The LG SM9000 has excellent gradient handling. There's some banding in grey, red, and green, especially in the darker shades. Enabling Smooth Gradiation doesn't affect the test pattern but makes real content look better.

There's some minor temporary image retention. This isn't uncommon with IPS TVs and does vary between units.

While some IPS panels can 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.

Good response time. There's a bit of overshoot in most transitions, although this shouldn't be noticeable for most people. Due to the TV's 120Hz flicker, there's noticeable duplication in motion, which could get distracting.

Unfortunately, this TV uses Pulse Width Modulation (PWM) to dim the backlight. It flickers at 120Hz at any backlight level below 100, resulting in noticeable duplications in motion.

This TV has an optional black frame insertion feature that can be used to help improve the appearance of motion. This causes a slight decrease in brightness. With 60Hz content, the backlight flickers at 60Hz automatically. When playing 120Hz content, the flicker frequency changes back to 120Hz automatically.

Find out more about the black frame insertion feature here.

The LG 55SM9000PUA has an optional motion interpolation feature. This feature can be used to increase the frame rate as high as 120 fps, known as the Soap Opera Effect, which some people don't like. The motion interpolation feature is decent, and even busy scenes are very smooth. When there's too much action the TV sometimes stops interpolating, causing artifacts.

Find out more about the motion interpolation feature here.

Due to the relatively fast response time of the LG 55SM9000PUA, there's some stutter when watching 24p content, as each frame is held on longer. The amount of stutter can be reduced by enabling the motion interpolation feature or the black frame insertion feature.

This TV can remove judder from any source, which is great. To remove judder, simply enable Real Cinema from the Picture Mode Settings menu.

Update 07/27/2020: Updated the firmware and retested the VRR range.

Update 06/10/2020: We've received multiple reports that the 75" and 86" models don't support VRR at all.

Update 11/28/2019: Although not officially supported by NVIDIA, the LG SM9000 works with NVIDIA's new G-SYNC compatible mode when connected to a recent NVIDIA graphics card. Unlike officially supported TVs, like the LG C9, this must be manually enabled from the NVIDIA Control Center.

This TV has a 120Hz native refresh rate. Like the LG SM9500 rate and the LG C9 OLED, the LG SM9000 supports the new HDMI Forum VRR technology, which helps reduce screen tearing.

Update 09/17/2020: Changed '8k with VRR' from 'Untested' to 'N/A'. This didn't change the final scoring.

The LG SM9000 has an excellent low input lag, as long as you're in 'Game' mode. Like the LG SM9500, it has an 'Auto Low Latency Mode', which automatically switches the TV to 'Game' mode to achieve the lowest input lag possible. To enable this, turn on the Instant Game Response setting.