LG UP8000 TV Review

The LG UP8000 looks very similar to the LG UN8500 and UN7300, but it's much thinner, which means it doesn't stick out as much when wall-mounted. It still has wide-set feet and a plain, textured back.

The feet are set almost as wide as the TV, and there's no option to install them closer for smaller tables. They support the TV well, but it still wobbles a bit.

Footprint of the 65 inch stand: 45.8" x 10.8".

The back is almost identical to the LG UN8500's. It's plastic and plain with a textured finish. For cable management, there are built-in hooks to hold the cables behind the feet.

The LG UP8000 is much thinner than the LG UN8500 and LG UN7300, which is great for wall-mounting because it doesn't stick out as much.

The build quality is decent. It's mostly plastic, except for the feet, which are metal. It wobbles a bit, and there's a lot of flex on the back, especially where the VESA mounting holes are. That said, it still feels fairly sturdy overall.

The LG UP8000 has a sub-par contrast ratio, which is typical for an ADS (IPS family) panel. Blacks look gray in a dark room, and sadly, there's no local dimming feature to improve dark room performance. The 50 inch, 60 inch, and 70 inch models have a VA panel and much better contrast, so those sizes are a better choice for watching movies in a dark room.

The LG UP8000 has mediocre SDR brightness. It's very consistent across different content, but it isn't bright enough to combat glare in well-lit rooms.

These measurements are after calibration in the 'Expert (Dark space, night)' Picture Mode with Panel Brightness set to max.

If you want a brighter image and don't mind losing image accuracy, set the Picture Mode to 'Vivid', Panel Brightness and Contrast to max, and Dynamic Contrast Enhancer to 'High'. Those settings increase the brightness a bit, with a peak brightness of 346 cd/m² in the 10% window .

The LG UP8000 uses direct LED backlighting as opposed to edge-lit, but unfortunately, it doesn't have a local dimming feature. We still film these videos on the TV, though, so you can see how the backlight performs and compare it with a TV that has local dimming.

There's no local dimming feature on this TV. We still film these videos on the TV, though, so you can see how the backlight performs and compare it with a TV that has local dimming.

The LG UP8000 has poor HDR brightness, in the same ballpark as the LG UN8500 and LG UN7300. It's nowhere near bright enough to make highlights pop in HDR content, and there's some frame dimming in the 2% windows, which means that small objects in dark scenes appear dimmer. It's not very accurate, either, as most scenes are darker than the content creator intended. If you want a brighter image in HDR, setting Dynamic Contrast to 'Low' helps a bit and results in this EOTF plot. It makes some scenes appear brighter in actual content, but the peak brightness of the TV is the same.

These measurements are in the 'Cinema' Picture Mode with Panel Brightness and Contrast at max.

The HDR brightness is a bit higher in the 'Game Optimizer' Picture Mode than out of it, though not by much and with the same frame dimming in the 2% windows.

The LG UP8000 has excellent gradient handling. There's only a little bit of banding in the grays and greens. Setting Smooth Gradation to 'Medium' or 'High' smoothes out most of it but causes a loss of fine details in high-quality content like UHD Blu-rays.

The LG UP8000 has decent gray uniformity overall. The sides of the screen are a bit darker than the center, but this isn't noticeable with real content. Sadly, there's significant dirty screen effect in the center of the screen, which can be distracting when watching sports or if you're using it as a PC monitor, and there are large vertical bands across the screen. Note that the exact gray uniformity pattern can vary between individual units to the manufacturing processes, but the overall experience is consistent between units.

Unfortunately, the LG UP8000 has mediocre black uniformity. The entire screen is blue due to the low contrast ratio, and it doesn't have a local dimming feature to improve this.

The LG UP8000 has a very good viewing angle, making it a great choice for a wide seating arrangement. Although the image appears darker as you move off-center, the color accuracy and hue remain accurate even at wide angles. Overall, it's slightly better than many newer models, including the LG UQ9000. The 50, 60, and 70 inch models have worse viewing angles, as they use VA panels.

The LG UP8000 has good reflection handling overall, with a semi-gloss finish that reduces the intensity of direct reflections. Sadly, it's not bright enough to overcome glare, so it's not recommended for a bright room.

The LG UP8000 has decent accuracy out of the box. Most colors are only slightly inaccurate, but the white balance is visibly off in brighter shades of gray. The color temperature is very much on the cool side, giving everything a bluish tint. Gamma doesn't follow the 2.2 target very well, and most scenes are too dark. If you care about out-of-the-box accuracy, check out this TV's successor, the LG UQ8000.

Accuracy is much better after calibration. White balance and gamma are nearly perfect, and the remaining color inaccuracies aren't visible to the naked eye. The color temperature is closer to the 6500K calibration target, but it's still on the cold side, so there's still a slight bluish tint.

You can see our recommended settings here.

This TV upscales 480p content, like from DVDs, well.

The LG UP8000 upscales 720p content like from cable TV with no visible artifacts.

1080p content, like from Blu-rays, is upscaled well and looks nearly as good as native 4k.

This TV displays native 4k content perfectly.

The LG UP8000 can't display an 8k signal.

This TV uses an ADS panel that performs similarly to an IPS panel. The RGB subpixel layout helps ensure text from a PC is clear and easy to read. The 50, 60, and 70 inch models use VA panels, which likely have BGR subpixel layouts, which causes text clarity issues when used as a PC monitor.

The LG UP8000 has limited coverage of the DCI P3 and Rec. 2020 color spaces used by HDR content. This results in dull and muted colors in some HDR content.

The LG UP80 has a poor color volume due to its limited color gamut, poor contrast, and low HDR brightness. It can't display dark saturated colors very well, and colors aren't as bright as pure white.

There are no signs of temporary image retention on this TV.

Although some IPS panels can suffer from temporary image retention, this doesn't appear to be permanent as the IPS panel in our long-term test is immune.

The LG UP8000 has good response times overall, much better than the newer LG UQ9000, but it's slow in some transitions, causing motion to appear blurry in dark scenes. There's also some inverse ghosting due to overshoot, and the backlight's 120Hz flicker causes some image duplication. The 82 and 86 inch LG UP8770 has a 120Hz panel and likely has a faster response time.

The LG UP8000 uses pulse width modulation (PWM) to dim the backlight, causing it to flicker at 120Hz at all brightness levels. This causes a double image when watching 60fps content and can cause headaches and eye strain in people sensitive to flicker.

This TV doesn't have an optional backlight strobing feature, commonly known as black frame insertion (BFI). The backlight always flickers at 120Hz, which reduces the appearance of persistence blur, but bothers some people.

The LG UP8000 can interpolate low frame rate content up to 60Hz to make motion look more fluid, also known as the 'Soap Opera Effect'. It works fine in slow scenes, but as soon as the action gets intense, there are a lot of artifacts, including some tearing and stuttering.

The LG UP8000's relatively fast response times cause low frame rate content, like movies, to stutter a bit. If it bothers you, enabling motion interpolation reduces stutter but introduces other motion artifacts.

Like the LG UN8500, this TV can remove judder from all sources, which is rare for a 60Hz TV. This ensures a clear, jitter-free image when watching low frame rate content like movies.

The LG UP8000 doesn't support any variable refresh rate technology to reduce screen tearing when gaming. The 82 inch and 86 inch model, the LG UP8770, have a 120Hz refresh rate.

The LG UP8000 has incredibly low input lag as long as you're in the 'Game Optimizer' Picture Mode. The Prevent Input Delay setting in the Game Optimizer menu is supposed to further decrease input lag, but it's only available on the 82 and 86 inch models.

The LG UP8000 can display most common resolutions at 60Hz, but you have to force 1440p through a custom resolution on a PC. It can display proper chroma 4:4:4 in all supported resolutions, which is necessary for clear text from a PC, but you need to label the input in use as 'PC'.

This TV only supports up to 4k @ 60Hz + HDR on the Xbox Series X and PS5. When connected to the Xbox, the Xbox indicates that the TV supports 1080p @ 120Hz; however, it skips frames. The TV is advertised to have Dolby Vision support for the Xbox, but only on the 82 and 86 inch models. It supports Auto Low Latency Mode, which you can enable by turning on Game Optimizer. This puts you in the 'Game Optimizer' Picture Mode automatically when a game launches from a compatible device. The Prevent Input Delay setting is supposed to further decrease input lag; however, it's only available on the 82 and 86 inch LG UP8770.

LG advertises HDMI 2.1 support on their website, but it appears it's only available on the 82 and 86 inch models.

This TV supports eARC on the HDMI 2 port. This means it can pass high-quality, uncompressed audio to an external home theater system or soundbar over an HDMI connection. To use it, enable eARC support in the Sound tab's Advanced Settings. Unfortunately, it doesn't support DTS, which is disappointing, as many UHD Blu-rays use DTS for their lossless audio tracks.

The built-in speakers sound just okay. Like most TVs, they simply can't produce that deep, rumbling sound because they lack bass extension. On the upside, they get decently loud without too much compression at max volume.

Distortion performance is alright. The amount of harmonic distortion at moderate volume levels is relatively low. It's higher at max volume but still not that bad. The amount of distortion present depends on the content, and some people may not hear it.

LG's webOS interface is fairly smooth and easy to use. It has a new layout as LG has removed the banner at the bottom and made the home page full-screen.

There are ads and suggested content on the home screen and within the app store. There's no way to disable them.

LG's apps store has many apps available, and they run smoothly for the most part.

Like other 2021 LG TVs, there's a slightly redesigned remote. It's still a Magic Remote, which means you can either use it like a traditional remote or as a pointer, like a computer mouse. It can also act as a universal remote for other devices. There's a microphone built-in for voice control, as well as dedicated buttons to summon the Google Assistant and Alexa. You can use voice control to change some of the TV's settings, search for content, or ask for general info like the weather and time. If you don't need the Magic Remote, the LG UP7000 comes with a basic one.

There's a single button below the LG branding at the center of the bottom bezel. It acts as a power button, and you can also use it to change the channel, the input, and adjust the volume.

• User guide
• Remote control
• 2x AAA batteries
• Power cord
• Cable tie