LG UN6970 TV Review

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 LG UN6970 has a decent style. It looks like the LG NANO80, except the feet look similar to those on the LG UN6950. It's a simple TV made out of plastic and metal. The borders are thicker than most TVs in 2020 and may be distracting to some people but shouldn't be an issue for most.

The stand is almost as wide as the TV itself, and the feet can't be moved inwards to accommodate smaller tables. It holds the TV fairly well, but there's still some wobble, which is expected from a TV of this size.

Footprint of the 75" TV: 60.4" x 13.2".

The back of the LG UN6970 is exactly like the LG NANO80 with smooth metal. Sadly, there's no cable management.

The borders are thicker than most TVs we've tested in 2020, and may be distracting for some people.

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 has a decent build quality. It's mainly made out of metal and there aren't any issues with it, but there's nothing special about it. The metal on the back panel flexes a bit, including near the inputs, and the TV wobbles a bit, but it's not too noticeable.

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.

480p content such as DVDs is upscaled well and without any issues.

Upscaling of 720p content such as cable TV looks good and there are no visible artifacts.

1080p content such as from Blu-ray players is upscaled very well.

The LG UN6970 displays native 4k content perfectly and without any problems.

The LG UN6970 is a 4k TV that can't display an 8k signal.

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 has a good response time. There's a bit of overshoot in darker transitions, so you may notice motion artifacts in dark scenes. Also, you may notice image duplication due to the 120Hz flicker.

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.

The LG UN6950 interpolates lower-frame rate content up to 60fps, known as the 'Soap Opera Effect'. It works fairly well, but there are a lot of artifacts in fast-moving scenes.

Learn more about the motion interpolation settings here.

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.