Which is the best choice for flagship OLED TV LG and Sony

preface ：

The unique imaging principle and simple physical structure of OLED TV have created the image quality and shape advantages of other display technologies. It has become the preferred specification for high-end user groups, especially for those who have strict requirements for visual experience and middle class users who have artistic requirements for product industrial design, OLED TV is almost the only choice.

In 2019, in addition to continuing to expand the brand camp and improve the penetration rate in the terminal market, OLED TV market has also repeatedly achieved breakthroughs in technological innovation. 88 inch 8K resolution OLED TV and flexible OLED TV products that can be curled and stored are expected to be launched this year to meet global consumers. On the other hand, The upstream panel supply problem of OLED TV has been improved in 2019. The new 8.5 generation line capacity of LG Display, the world's only large-sized OLED panel supplier, has been completed in Guangzhou, becoming an important historical coordinate for leveraging the new era of OLED TV.

In such a historical stage, it is particularly meaningful to help consumers understand the performance of OLED TV and evaluate the standards of OLED TV. Today we choose LG  OLED65C9PCA (hereinafter referred to as LG C9) and Sony KD-65A9G (hereinafter referred to as Sony A9) Two flagship OLED TVs show you the picture quality level and actual experience of top OLED TVs through comparative testing.

Why LG and Sony?

1. LG OLED TV comes from LG Electronics, which is the brother enterprise of LG Display, the only manufacturer of OLED panels. Its unique resources make LG Electronics the first brand enterprise to invest in the research and development of OLED TV. Over the past decade of continuous research and development and precipitation, LG OLED TV has already become famous around the world, and has been contacted by many people Users who bought OLED TVs rated LG OLED TVs as "the best OLED TVs".

2. Sony has always been a giant in the TV market. It is Sony TV's constant pursuit to pursue and achieve the most perfect audio and video experience. On many occasions, Sony TV executives have expressed that OLED is the most important weapon for Sony to capture the high-end market. In particular, in recent years, Sony has launched OLED TV products, which not only achieve the highest level of audio and video quality, but also achieve amazing growth in sales, Become the leading brand in OLED TV market.

3. We hope that by comparing the latest flagship models of the two brands, we can help consumers understand the audio-visual quality of the current top OLED TV products and how you should decide when you decide to purchase an OLED TV.

▲ Part I: Instrument test results

In this instrument test, we used Spyder X spider for screen performance test. The core indicators are still the measured values of color gamut and color restoration accuracy.

88% of the measured NTSC gamut value of LG OLED65C9PCA (as shown in the figure)
The measured result of NTSC gamut value of Sony KD-65A9G is 87%

NTSC gamut value test results:

The gamut value represents the number of colors that the TV panel can express (that is, the ratio between the color area that can be covered and the standard area in a color space standard). The measured results show that the NTSC gamut value of LG C9 is 88% , NTSC color gamut value of Sony A9 is 87% 。

The measured result Delta E of LG OLED65C9PCA's color restoration accuracy is 1.51 (as shown in the figure)
The measured result of color restoration accuracy of Sony KD-65A9G Delta E is 1.63

Color restoration accuracy Delta E test results:

The accuracy of color restoration expresses the deviation between the actual displayed color and the original color after the TV manufacturer has adjusted the display panel. The test results are expressed in Delta E values. The smaller the value, the higher the accuracy of screen color restoration. The measured results show that the color restoration accuracy Delta E of LG C9 is 1.51, and that of Sony A9 is 1.63.

Summary of instrument test results:

LG C9 and Sony A9, both flagship OLED models of their own, were launched in 2019, and their sizes were also 65 inches. Therefore, in the process of instrument testing, it is understandable that the actual results presented had a small deviation. From the test results of the two core parameters of color capability, we can see that both LG C9 and Sony A9 have the excellent color capability and restore capability of current top TV products, fully in line with the expected performance of flagship OLED TV.

▲ Part II: Image live shooting test

Next, we selected a series of static pictures that are characteristic in color composition and have high requirements for display fineness. In the live shot, LG C9 is on the left of the lens and Sony A9 is on the right.

LG OLED65C9PCA and Sony KD-65A9G Compare the effect of live shooting (click to enlarge)

In several groups of live shots, it is obvious that the LG C9 is more transparent in the overall picture performance, and the visual experience is more pleasant, which is related to the higher screen brightness; The picture of Sony A9 is boring, but after careful discrimination, we think that Sony A9 has a very rigorous grasp on the accurate restoration of color details.

In the first group of colorful pictures, LG C9 pictures are more powerful, and Sony A9's visual sense is more soft and natural; The contrast between the sky and clouds in the second group of images shows that the visual effect of LG C9 is more pleasing, while Sony A9 has a red overall feeling; In the third group, the light on the frog and the ground in LG C9 pictures is more vivid, while Sony A9 shows a good depth of field; In the last two groups, the LG C9 is still more likely to bring pleasure in visual effects, and the red output of Sony A9 is obviously too full. Sony A9 showed obvious restraint in the presentation of colors. Although many groups of pictures were dull after shooting, it had certain advantages in the depiction of some picture details.

Next, we selected several 4K HDR videos, played them on two TVs at the same time, and took some pictures. In the same way, LG C9 is on the left and Sony A9 is on the right.

LG OLED65C9PCA and Sony KD-65A9G contrast live shooting effect (click to enlarge)

The playback of ultra-high definition pictures requires heavy work such as video decoding and frame by frame rendering. The consumption of TV core function chips is extremely high, and the 4K HDR video picture details we use are countless. LG C9 is equipped with AI audio and picture chip α 9 Gen2, and Sony A9 is equipped with 4K HDR image processing chip X1 flagship. Let's take a look at their performance in the playback process.

LG C9 is equipped with AI sound and picture chip α 9 Gen2

Sony A9 is equipped with 4K HDR image processing chip X1 flagship

First of all, both products perform very smoothly in the process of playing video. The conversion of overall and local pictures in 4K HDR video and the processing of different lens speeds are accurately presented on both TVs. Then let's compare the details of the pictures: in the first group of live shots, both products show excellent depth of field. The shadow rendering of locally independent small tomatoes reflects some differences. The overall feeling is that LG C9 has a better grasp of the details of the transition between colors; In the second group of live shots, the author focuses on the display of a cloud of smoke at the lower left. In terms of the embodiment of the sense of hierarchy, Sony A9 is obviously inferior; In the third and fourth groups, LG C9 obviously has more advantages in the control of brightness and contrast; In the fifth group of live shots, if we pay attention to the shadow on the left side of the mountain, we will find that Sony still has a strong advantage in the reflection of dark details.

Here the author also wants to make an extended introduction. Today, the two TV products we compared support the restoration of 4K HDR content, but there are differences in the support of different versions of HDR content. LG C9 supports four main HDR formats: Dolby Vision, HDR 10 Pro, HLG Pro and Special HDR; Sony A9 supports three HDR formats: Dolby Vision, HDR 10 Pro, and HLG Pro, but does not support the Teyi HDR format launched by Teyi (the world's largest film production company).

Playing content captured in special HDR format on LG C9 will give you a better visual sense

Summary of live image test:

In fact, the actual performance of LG C9 and Sony A9 in the process of static or live video shooting should be said to be equal. Different people will give opposite answers according to their visual preferences. This is only from the perspective of the author. The image presentation of LG C9, which is evaluated from the overall perspective, is transparent and fresh, and will give the audience a pleasant feeling easily captured. In terms of details, LG C9 brings exquisite and memorable, and the color transition is very smooth; The overall performance of Sony A9, like other products of Sony Pictorial Series, honestly shows everything in the original picture. Whether it is color or dark, it can always surprise us when we carefully observe it. However, it has to be said that for ordinary users, these advantages of Sony A9 must have a high awareness of color technology to understand and understand, But more people will only get satisfaction from the visual pleasure.

▲ Part III: TV game experience

Host game is one of the few growth scenarios in TV applications at present. What aspects do game console users focus on for TV product performance? First of all, it is still the picture quality performance, brightness, contrast between light and dark pictures, which are the visual feelings that have a direct impact on the user experience in the game scene; Secondly, it is the response time. Whether the high-speed moving picture has drag or delay directly affects the player's operation judgment. However, the two products we tested this time are both OLED panels, and the response time of OLED is almost zero due to the electroluminescent characteristics, so the second concern can be ignored.

Before the test, we adjusted the display modes of the two products to "game mode" respectively
(Left: LG C9, right: Sony A9)

The game test with obvious differences but different strengths officially started
(Left: LG C9, right: Sony A9)

Never entering the main interface of the game, you can clearly feel the different picture styles of LG C9 and Sony A9. LG C9 prefers to highlight the real picture through a stronger contrast; The obvious low color temperature of the game mode screen of Sony A9 makes people feel that some levels are not clear.

·Horizon

Live shot of Horizon game screen (click to enlarge)

In Horizon, the scene design is realistic. We can see that the stronger the contrast is, the more obvious the difference between the two products is. In the second and fourth pictures, the blue and white clouds should be, but in Sony A9, we can see a significant red halo; The third photo focuses on the flame. It is found that the flame level and halo of LG C9 are not as soft and true as those of Sony A9; The last picture of the starry sky is a live shot with the smallest difference between the two products. On the display of the details of the night sky and the starry sky, the visual effects achieved by the two products are amazing.

·Ares 2018

Live shot of Zhanshen 2018 (click to enlarge)

In the live shooting of this game, the author clearly felt that the two products had opposite favorable feelings in terms of the performance of the distant view and the close view. In terms of the display of distant mountains, sky and other distant contents, the transparent and bright effect of LG C9 was obviously easier to achieve immersion; In the close shot, Sony A9 brings more details and more moving displays of the hero's armor, weapons, body shape, and the enemy's action details.

·Marvel Spider Man

Live shot of the game "Marvel Spider Man" (click to enlarge)

The fast-moving scenes in the game are very frequent. In the screen, there are too many color, light and shade switches. During the game experience (both editors have jumped to the point of dizziness), the two products have no bad problems such as stuck, delayed, torn, and the author believes that the performance of the picture quality is still different. In the bright scene with abundant light, The soft color transition of Sony A9 will give you a good impression, while the highlight and high contrast of LG C9 are also attractive in the bleak picture link.

Summary of game experience:

Different from the previous live shooting of static pictures and 4K HDR videos, the content style of the host game itself is quite different, and the colors are rich but follow their own methods. After the game mode of the TV product is turned on, there are obvious brightness and contrast enhancement actions, and the color adjustment is completely based on the TV manufacturer's preference for the host game style, Today's two products, LG C9 and Sony A9, are obviously on two different paths, and it is not easy to evaluate their advantages and disadvantages. The LG C9 with strong visual coldness or Sony A9 with "global warming" can only be determined by you.

▲ Part IV: Operating System Experience

·System and interface introduction

In the previous image quality test, we have concluded that the LG C9 has achieved better results in most scenes, and both products are impeccable as representatives of the peak image quality of OLED TV. So what else will affect the final product experience of users? Let's start with the operating system:

The operating system adopted by LG C9 is LG's exclusive webOS system, which is similar to most exclusive systems, WebOS is quite independent. From interface design to function implementation, it is somewhat different from the popular operating system, but this does not affect the quick start of the author, because the operating logic of webOS is basically the same as that of most TV control systems. On the contrary, the aesthetic quality of LG webOS makes the author even a little reluctant.

LG C9 adopts webOS operating system

After the webOS operating system interface is called, a horizontal floating layer like a caption bar will appear at the bottom of the screen. Common modules include: "LG Content Store", "Home Control Panel", "Common Applications", etc. More than 90% of the actual operations in the experience process are directly solved here. Most importantly, LG C9 is configured with "Dynamic remote control" It is like holding a mouse or a laser pen and "pointing where to hit".

Sony A9 uses Android 8.0 operating system, which is the same as most intelligent TV operating systems. The advantage is that the learning threshold is low, and users can quickly get started. However, dark color matching and limited content partitions are really not surprising.

Sony A9 adopts Android 8.0 operating system

There is not much content displayed on the main interface in the Sony A9G operating system, mainly the common film and music applications, and most applications will be opened first download For installation, the author thinks that APP with high application frequency can be pre installed into the system, which is convenient for users to use directly.

·Introduction to setting function scenarios

Many of the users who buy top products at a high price are enthusiasts. Whether they are game enthusiasts or movie enthusiasts, they will have certain requirements for the openness of TV settings. Let's take a look at what functions are available for these two products:

LG C9 screen mode options

Image output options of Sony A9

Sound related options for LG C9

Sound related options of Sony A9

Other setting options for LG C9

Sony A9 provides expert panel settings

In terms of the openness of the setting menu, LG C9 provides more functional dimensions, and some functional designs are also very targeted, even for special people, it also has extremely humanistic considerations:

LG C9 can be said to provide subtitle services for hearing impaired people

In contrast, the openness of the function menu of Sony A9 is much more conservative. We believe that the setting menu should be as open as possible so that you can customize your own audio and video mode as much as possible, which also shows the respect of manufacturers for consumers to a certain extent.

·Introduction to practical application

Scenario 1: Play free movie resources in APP

We open the film and television application that comes with both TVs“ Huashu TV ”, and find the same free film resource: Japanese film "Asahiro".

Live shooting of movie playing (LG C9 on the left, Sony A9G on the right)

Live shooting of movie playing (LG C9 on the left, Sony A9G on the right)

Two obvious problems can be found from the two live pictures. The LG C9 maintains the content proportion of the original film during playback, while Sony A9 automatically stretches the picture to the full screen 16:9 ratio for playback; In addition, the image of LG C9 is obviously brighter and clearer, while the image of Sony A9 is very turbid.

At the first meeting, I thought it was a problem with the screen mode setting, so I checked Sony A9:

At this time, the screen proportion of Sony A9 is locked, and the brightness index has reached the maximum

At this time, LG C9 still has only 50% brightness

Here we get the conclusion Not at all The LG C9 plays movies better than the Sony A9, but obviously in the movie scene, the LG C9 has much more room for a better audio-visual experience than the Sony A9.

Scene 2: Play the movie in the mobile device

In the eyes of many film and television enthusiasts, after spending money, buying members, and skipping advertisements, they found that they still saw only low configuration 4K resolution movies in the application. This experience is not as good as finding resources and bringing them to TV.

So we found a mobile hard disk with an HDR version of 4K 60 frames/second "Billy Lynn's Midfield Battle", which was originally intended to be used as live shooting material for comparison, but later we had to stop.

The mobile hard disk is successfully identified after being connected to LG C9, click Open

Select photos and videos to view all criteria

Except for two films, all of them are work materials. Work makes me happy

Play successfully

Next, we will do the same on Sony A9:

Sony A9 failed to recognize the volume label of the mobile hard disk

After the final opening, all the files could not be identified, including two movie resources

We tried three USB interfaces behind Sony A9 in turn (two of them are USB2.0 and one is USB3.0), but failed to see the film as we hoped.

Operating system experience summary:

Although LG webOS is only applied to LG products, it is quick to use and the interface design is interesting and lively; The setting function is relatively open, providing rich main adjustment functions and many considerate auxiliary functions, which can basically meet the setting needs of professional and non professional users; When you open a movie in an application or an external device, the LG C9 is extremely inclusive, and the screen display settings will automatically adjust according to the movie source.

In contrast, the system interface of Sony A9 is somewhat dull, and its function openness is low. The actual experience of screen display settings designed for the audience is also unsatisfactory. In the process of playing movies on external devices, Sony A9G failed to identify the device and resource files.

▲ Part V: Outline Design Description

The appearance design of TV has always been the link of benevolence and wisdom. Today's two protagonists, as the leaders of OLED TV market, are obviously slim. In addition, LG and Sony are the most outstanding representative brands of Korean science and technology aesthetics and Japanese science and technology aesthetics. I believe that no matter how harsh you are, one of them will be loved by you.

LG OLED65C9PCA

LG OLED65C9PCA

LG OLED65C9PCA

LG OLED65C9PCA

LG OLED65C9PCA

LG OLED65C9PCA

The picture shows Sony KD-65A9G

The picture shows Sony KD-65A9G

The picture shows Sony KD-65A9G

The picture shows Sony KD-65A9G

The picture shows Sony KD-65A9G

The picture shows Sony KD-65A9G

From the design point of view, the appearance of the two products is the same thin and simple, without too much flashy arrangement, and the elegant temperament is also clear at a glance. The biggest difference between them is the base. In addition to supporting the body, the base of LG C9 also plays the role of sound guidance. The speaker at the bottom of the screen hits the sound vertically on the slope of the base and sends it out; Sony A9 adopts the design of a pure flat base, and the screen is almost seamless with the base. Because Sony A9 has Acousitc Surface Audio+(the flagship version of the screen sound field) technology, the sound is directly sent through the vibration of the OLED panel, Therefore, the pure plane base will not affect the sound transmission (the author privately spits out a slot, because of the Sony A9 base design, the bottom edge of the screen almost directly lands, and the fingers are squeezed for many times when carrying this big guy...).

LG OLED65C9PCA dynamic remote control

Remote control of Sony KD-65A9G

The design of the two remote controls is full of texture, while the dynamic remote control adopted by LG C9 is more powerful, which can be controlled directly by keys or used as a mouse to quickly find the items you want to click. It is also cylindrical in design, convenient to hold, and can be directly erected on the desktop; The color matching of Sony A9 remote control is very fashionable, and compared with the previous Sony TV remote control, the number of keys is reduced, and the overall thickness is also good compress , ideal handle.

▲ Part VI: Which one should I choose?

After several days of experience and contact, the author also has to make the final choice. Let's summarize this test first:

Both LG's OLED65C9PCA and Sony's KD-65A9G are highly rated products in the OLED TV market at present. We have also verified the excellent image quality performance of top OLEDs, which they deserve.

In the later thinking, the author believes that for manufacturers, while achieving "good looking" TV, they also need to take into account the "easy to use" experience of TV, which includes "letting professionals fully master their own TV", "letting ordinary people enjoy better results" and other aspects. From this perspective, LG C9 undoubtedly outperforms in the test.

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