LG UT80

50/50 On A Good Day – First - fair disclosure - I am a Malfunction Magnet. This LG Smart TV has a brilliant picture, just fantastic, but for me that's about where it ends. Its slow......very slow. Get used to silly circles spinning for eons every time you ask it to do something like TV guide, wait awhile, wait a little while longer (hey like my circle spinning endlessly?) wait a bit longer, oops too late missed the program I was trying to find out about.

Its shockingly slow. I guess a decent CPU means they make less money so its rubbish for me...except now I'll never buy an LG TV ever again...oops less money for you LG! And its upset me enough to come on here and write about it....maybe even less money for you?!

Here's a tip, make decent products. Sure it looks decent, shame about the software/hardware.

Changing channels, you thought TV guide was bad? Press the channel change button.....nothing happens, wait a bit... nope nothing, ok press again....still nothing....geez man, press again (I'm only trying to go up 1 channel) and now it suddenly goes up 3 channels (for the 3 presses it was ignoring). Infuriating. Now I have to go back 2 channels to get to where a normal good TV would be because it would change channel when I requested instead of ignoring my channel presses. (Which I must of pressed correctly or it would not suddenly go 3 channels if I was not pressing properly).

It updates itself quite often and I think oh good maybe they've sped it up and fixed it .....NOPE.

The stupid remote mouse function, another infuriating thing about this TV. Do the people who come up with these ideas ever actually use them? A millimeter wobble from me at my end is a 300mm wobble at the TV end which means I have no hope of getting the stupid pointer onto the item I'm trying to select, its ridiculous that I have to brace my arm against my legs or the lounge to steady the remote to be able to try to hit the mark. My son has to do the same with his LG. Utterly ridiculous.

Why is it that the manufacturers now want TV's to turn on onto a home screen full of rubbish more than half of which I will never use? Its a TV first and foremost, turn on on the last TV channel I was watching. If I want something else I'll ask for it (shame it'll take 3 ignored presses of the remote to get it.....very slowly). In fairness here LG have a turn on on TV setting which I have set and was very glad to find, only for the TV to ignore that setting about half the time. Especially if I was watching a DVD or using the computer I have hooked up to the TV.

I would not buy another LG TV I'm afraid. Its not a patch on my old Panasonic Plasma for user friendliness. Shame Panasonic appear to not be making TV's anymore.

THE best quality 4K UHD picture of any TV I've ever owned! – This without doubt, is THE best quality 4K UHD picture of any TV I've ever owned! The ability (as with any brand) to fine tune the picture to one's liking is there, but some of the unique LG features enable me to see movies I've watched many times, in a whole new way – The fluid motion (not the proper name) ability when selected, bypasses the 'filmmaker mode' frame rate and set adjustments, so that it's viewed as if you were watching it in person. As with all LED TV's, if you are watching anything filmed in letterbox mode, you will see random patches above and below that are not true black (if you really want that, then pay thousands more for QLED etc), but on any other format, like in full screen – the blacks are very close to pure black (subject again to how you fine tune to your own liking), and the colour saturation gives very real-life skin tones etc. The sound quality when using the inbuilt speakers is fine (watching TV news etc), but obviously much better if using an external surround sound system etc. The biggest and only real downside in my opinion; are 2 main things: The STUPID pointer option of the remote controller – which CANNOT be turned permanently off (although it only takes a click or two of the up/down buttons to remove it from the screen) and point two: which applies to just about every brand of TV now, is the ULTRA SLOW menu speed! - I use my Amazon 4k Firestick instead, which is instant. Also, I suppose if you watch free to air TV; it would be handy to have an extra button on the remote to quickly switch to TV from whatever else you're watching. Remote control aside: Picture quality is absolutely A1. When tailored to your liking, which includes brightness / contrast / colour etc IN YOUR LOUNGEROOM, not the showroom mode; I don't think you'll realistically find ANY justification to spend thousands more on a different technology – LED TV's have been around for many years now, and have gone as far as they can to bring everything up to where they are. I recently did a full review of this TV on my youtube channel 'Steve Mack Australia', where I go through such points. After my previous junk brand of TV, I'm HOPING that this LG will still live up to it's much acclaimed lifespan of previous models...Although I rarely buy any extended warranties, due to coverage of Australian consumer law (which I also made a video about) – The store manager Mitch, did me a great deal on it as well as the TV, so it means that should anything fail; it's going to be a lot simpler process to either have the set repaired or replaced, rather than buy another TV at a discounted price. I therefore highly recommend this brand and model – as always, best wait for sales for the better price, or speak to your store to see how much they can offer. My FULL review of The Best & Worst Budget 4K TVs, is on my YouTube channel 'Steve Mack Australia' at;https://youtu.be/1Ue5OiPMd-I?si=UE2LKtzD8V3XWKLD