The LG UN6970 is an okay overall 4k TV. It's a variant of the LG UN6950, but it's only available in a 75 inch size and sold exclusively at Best Buy. The picture quality is decent, and it displays 480p through 4k content without any issues. It has an IPS panel with wide viewing angles, but that comes at the cost of its contrast, so blacks appear closer to gray when viewed in the dark. HDR content also doesn't look good on this TV because it fails to display a wide color gamut and has low peak brightness, so highlights don't pop how they're supposed to. Casual gamers should be happy with its low input lag and quick response time, but it lacks many extra gaming features and is limited to a 60Hz panel. The LG WebOS interface is easy-to-use, the menus have smooth navigation, and there are a ton of apps available to download through the app store.
The LG UN6970 is an okay overall TV. It performs best in wide seating arrangements as it has wide viewing angles. It displays lower-resolution content, such as from cable boxes, without any issues. It's good for gaming thanks to its quick response time and low input lag. However, it doesn't perform well in dark rooms due to its low contrast ratio. Also, it has low peak brightness and doesn't display a wide color gamut for HDR content.
The LG UN6970 is disappointing for watching movies. It has an IPS panel with a low contrast ratio and lacks a local dimming feature, so blacks appear gray when viewed in the dark. It also has disappointing black uniformity. Luckily, it upscales 1080p content very well and removes judder from native 24p sources.
The LG UN6970 is decent for watching TV shows. It has wide viewing angles so that you can walk around while watching your favorite series without losing image accuracy. It also upscales 720p content, such as from cable boxes, without any issues. Sadly, it's not the best choice to use in well-lit rooms as it only has decent reflection handling and doesn't get bright.
The LG UN6970 is decent for watching sports. You can easily watch the big game with a large group of friends because it has wide viewing angles. It also has a good response time, but there's still some image duplication with fast-moving content. Unfortunately, it doesn't get bright enough to combat glare and has only decent reflection handling if you want to use it in well-lit rooms.
The LG UN6970 is good for video gaming. It has a good response time that results in smooth motion and the input lag is incredibly low. However, it has a 60Hz panel and lacks variable refresh rate (VRR) support. Its IPS panel means it has a low contrast ratio and doesn't display deep blacks, but it has wide viewing angles if you want to use it for co-op gaming.
The LG UN6970 is disappointing for HDR movies. It has a low contrast ratio, disappointing black uniformity, and lacks local dimming, so blacks appear closer to gray when viewed in the dark. It also doesn't get bright enough to make highlights pop in HDR and fails to display a wide color gamut.
The LG UN6970 is okay for HDR gaming, mainly due to its good gaming performance. It has a quick response time and incredibly low input lag. Sadly, HDR content doesn't look all that different from SDR content. It has a low contrast ratio, low peak brightness, can't display a wide color gamut, and lacks local dimming.
The LG UN6970 is great to use as a PC monitor. It has wide viewing angles, so the image remains accurate at the sides if you sit too close. Also, it has low input lag, a quick response time, and it displays chroma 4:4:4. However, it doesn't get bright and has only decent reflection handling, so it doesn't perform well in bright rooms.
The LG UN6970 is an entry-level 4k TV in LG's 2020 lineup. It's a large variant of the LG UN6950 that's sold at Best Buy in the United States for Black Friday. It competes with the Hisense H6510G, Samsung TU6980, and the TCL 4 Series 2020.
The back of the LG UN6970 is exactly like the LG NANO80 with smooth metal. Sadly, there's no cable management.
The LG UN6970 is somewhat thick, and like the LG NANO80, it may stick out when wall-mounted because the bottom portion bulges a bit. It seems that our unit tilts back slightly, but it isn't noticeable, and your experience may vary.
The LG UN6970's contrast ratio isn't bad for an IPS panel, but blacks still appear gray when viewed in the dark. Also, contrast may vary between units. The 50 inch LG UN6950 variant of this TV that we tested has a VA panel and a much better contrast ratio.
The LG UN6970 doesn't have a local dimming feature. The video above is provided for reference only.
The LG UN6970 has mediocre peak brightness. It's extremely consistent across different content, but it's not bright enough to combat glare in well-lit rooms. It gets brighter with the test patterns than the LG UN6950, but it doesn't get as bright in real scenes.
We measured peak brightness in the 'Expert (Dark Room)' Picture Mode with Backlight at its max and all other image processing disabled. If you want a brighter image and don't care about picture quality, we reached 317 cd/m² in the 2% window using the 'HDR Effect' Picture Mode.
The LG UN6970 has disappointing HDR peak brightness. It's similar to the LG UN6950, except it's more consistent between scenes. However, it's not bright enough to make highlights pop how they're supposed to in HDR.
We measured HDR peak brightness in the 'HDR Cinema' Picture Mode with the Color Temperature set to 'Warm 2' and Contrast and Backlight at their max by default. We got the brightest image possible using these settings, as seen in the peak 100% window.
This TV has decent gray uniformity, but this may vary between units. The edges are visibly darker and there's dirty screen effect in the center, which can be distracting during sports. The uniformity is much better in near-dark scenes.
The LG UN6970 has good, wide viewing angles, which is expected from an IPS panel. The image remains accurate when viewing from the side, so it's a good choice for wide seating arrangements. The 50 inch LG UN6950 variant of this TV that we tested has a VA panel and much worse viewing angles.
Our unit has disappointing black uniformity. The entire screen looks blue and there's clouding throughout. There's also backlight bleed along the edges, which can be distracting when watching movies in dark rooms. Note that black uniformity may vary between units.
The LG UN6970 has decent reflection handling. It performs fairly well in moderately-lit rooms, but combined with its low peak brightness, it's best to avoid placing it in a room with direct sunlight.
The LG UN6970 has mediocre out-of-the-box color accuracy. Most colors are only slightly inaccurate, but it has a cold color temperature than results in a blue tint. White balance is off and gamma doesn't follow the target well, so most scenes are too dark, and really bright scenes are too bright. Note that out-of-the-box accuracy may vary between units.
The LG UN6970 has exceptional color accuracy after calibration. All color and white balance inaccuracies can't be spotted by the human eye, and gamma is almost perfect. The color temperature is closer to the 6500K target, but it's still on the cold side.
You can see our recommended settings here.
Like the LG UN7300, this TV uses an ADS (Advanced Dimension Switching) panel, which behaves like an IPS panel.
Similar to the LG UN6950, the LG UN6970 has a decent color gamut, but it's not considered a wide color gamut for HDR content. It has very good coverage of the DCI P3 color space used in most content, but it has limited coverage of the wider Rec. 2020.
The EOTF follows the target PQ curve fairly well, but some dark scenes are too bright. The EOTF in 'Game' mode is nearly the same, except the image is slightly less bright.
If you find HDR too dim, set Dynamic Contrast to 'High' and enable Dynamic Tone Mapping in the 'HDR Cinema' Picture Mode. This results in a noticeably brighter image, as you can see in this EOTF.
This TV has a disappointing color volume, mainly because of its lack of a wide color gamut and low contrast ratio. Also, it doesn't display colors at a wide range of luminance levels well.
The LG UN6970 has good gradient handling, similar to the LG UN6950. There's noticeable banding mainly in the darker shades, especially in dark gray. The Smooth Gradation feature doesn't do much on the test pattern but helps smooth out gradients in real content. However, setting it to 'Medium' or 'High' results in a noticeable loss of detail.
There are no signs of temporary image retention after displaying a high-contrast static image, but this may vary between units.
Although some IPS panels can suffer from temporary image retention, this doesn't appear to be permanent as seen in our long-term test.
The LG UN6970 uses Pulse Width Modulation (PWM) to dim its backlight at all brightness levels. It always flickers at 120Hz, exactly like the LG UN6950.
This TV doesn't have a Black Frame Insertion feature.
There's some stutter with lower-frame rate content due to the good response time, as each frame is held on longer. Turning on the motion interpolation feature helps smooth out motion and reduce stutter a bit.
The LG UN6970 can remove judder from native 24p sources such as native apps or Blu-ray players. To remove judder, simply enable Real Cinema.
This TV doesn't support any variable refresh rate technology.
The LG UN6970 has an incredibly low input lag as long as you're in 'Game' mode. It's slightly better than the LG UN6950, but it's almost impossible to notice any difference. It has an 'Auto Low Latency Mode' that automatically switches into 'Game' mode when you launch a game from a compatible device. For it to work, simply enable Instant Game Response.
If you want to use this TV as a computer monitor and want the lowest input lag possible, set the input icon to 'PC' and be in 'Game' mode.