Smart TVs have gotten better, while prices have dropped significantly. Today, a 4K TV costs a lesser than it did a year earlier. The market is full of 4K TVs, from all kind of brands. While TVs from prominent brands are still a bit expensive, lesser known brands may not have the technology to deliver the best picture quality. That’s where LG’s UK63 series tries to fit in. You don’t normally find an affordable TV that is premium, but it looks like LG may have a winner on its hands. LG’s UK63 series of TVs looks like a major improvement over the older Smart TVs line-up. It promises a fresher look, LG’s latest WebOS and a ton of smart features. With prices starting from Rs. 48,990*, it’s quite an appealing package but is it any better from the affordable 4K models in the market? Let’s find out!
Design and Build
The UK63 series starts from a 43-inch model, followed by 49, 55, and 65-inch models. The TV we tested was a 43-inch model - 43UK6360PTE, which is a reasonable size TV for most Indian homes. It comes with a plastic body, both at the front and back. The bezels are not the slimmest, but they don’t look too shabby. There is a small LED indicator at the bottom sitting just under the LG logo. We feel the design could have been a tad better, considering the many better-looking TVs in this price range. Fortunately, the TV’s build quality doesn’t disappoint. The TV is neatly assembled with no loose ends and the hard-plastic body frame provides a good sturdy feel.
On the connectivity side, most of the ports are placed at the back. You can easily access two HDMI and an USB port, placed towards the left. An additional HDMI port is placed near the centre, along with a USB, LAN (RJ45) and optical-in port. You might face difficulty accessing these ports, if you choose to wall-mount your TV.
Rating: 7.5/10
Features
The LG UK 6360 4K TV plays strong on the features front. It runs LG’s WebOS 4.0, which is a major improvement over its predecessors. The UI looks fresher, quicker to use and it also comes with a dark theme. We also tried LG’s Bean Bird cursor, and found it much fun to use than the older red-dot pointer.
One of the strongest element of the LG UK6360 is its ThinQ AI features. LG says the TV support more than 800 offline voice commands. We tried some on our unit to control the volume, open apps such as Netflix and even to switch channels. We were quite surprised to discover most of the voice commands worked well. Apart from Netflix, there are many local, video streaming apps such as Zee5, ALTBalaji and Hotstar which can be controlled using the voice commands. There is also an option to screen mirror your smartphone screen using the LG Mobile TV Plus app.
The LG UK63 series TVs remains fool-proof on the connectivity front too. These TVs support dual-band Wi-Fi (2.4/5GHz), so you will hardly ever find yourself waiting as videos buffer over the internet. The TV also supports 3G/4G dongles too, which is useful in times of an internet outage. Apart from these, the LG UK6360 also has Bluetooth 5.0 with two-way support. This means, you can have a clean audio setup using Bluetooth speakers or a soundbar. You can also play music from your phone or laptop on you TV and channel the sound output to connected Bluetooth speakers.
Rating: 9/10
Performance
The LG 43 UK6360 comes equipped with an IPS, 4K LED-backlit panel that runs the industry-standard screen resolution of 3840 x 2160 pixels. We played high-quality 4K videos on our test unit and were extremely happy with its performance. The screen is exceptionally good at producing bright and natural colours. The picture quality is crisp and looks vibrant from all angles. The TV also supports HDR10, which helps render great dynamic ranges with compatible HDR content.
The LG 43 UK6360 delivers a top-notch picture quality out-of-the-box, however, for even more natural colours, we recommend switching the picture mode from dynamic to standard. We also turned down the contrast and brightness by a bit, to make the screen more comfortable to look at. If you prefer watching movies or TV shows in a dark room, you should try definitely LG’s Comfort Eye mode. It adds a slight yellowish tone to the display which reduces strain on your eyes.
The UI of the UK63 series of TVs run smooth as we have mentioned earlier. All the smart features are easily accessible, and you can navigate through them easily using the LG Magic Remote. We really liked the Magic Remote as it is still sleek, accurate and comes with a neat button layout. It makes navigation easier and it’s easy even if you aren’t the most tech-savvy person. The remote also comes with dedicated Netflix and Amazon Prime video buttons, which is handy.
Even the sound quality is decent. The LG UK6360 come with two, 20W speakers which are loud enough for a medium-sized room. LG boasts of its DTS Virtual:X sound feature which is meant to deliver multi-dimensional sound. We tried this feature too, but the difference in the sound quality are hard to hear. To get a true multi-dimensional sound, we still recommend using high-quality, home audio systems which too have turned affordable these days.
Rating: 9/10
Verdict
Some might find Rs. 48,990 to be a bit much for a 4K TV, especially when there so many cheaper options available today. The affordable TVs may have larger screen sizes, may even have 4K and they will look colourful too. However, being colourful is different from being accurate. The excess contrast and colour saturation can really ruin the experience, and sometimes even tweaking them won’t get you great results.
The LG UK63 series seem to be render genuinely good, 4K picture quality. The picture quality, the details and colours are great out-of-the-box and the kind of smart features LG’s UK63 series offers is just exceptional. So if you just want a larger screen and can compromise on the picture quality, an cheaper TV could be an option. For top-notch picture quality and the latest smart features though, the LG UK63 4K Smart TVs are really something.
Rating: 8.5/10
*Prices are subject to change. Kindly refer to the product catalogue for latest prices and details.
