Guaranteed to cause drooling over design.
Just like car manufacturers come out with new models every year, so do TV manufacturers. And like car manufacturers, sometimes the focus is on design, sometimes on the technology underneath or sometimes just a matter of taking what is already present and tweaking it enough to make a difference. The 55” LG LM9600 Smart TV that we are looking at today has a bit of all three. With LED panels almost reaching their best quality levels last year, this year’s LG high-end models focus on the design along with making it more Smart and introducing a magic remote that actually works quite well.
While I received the 55” version of the LM960 series for review, it is available in sizes of 47 and 87 inches which I’m assuming look breathtaking. I had gotten the TV delivered at home for testing simply because it’s easier to test in there than at the office because all my media as well as my eVision cable box sits in my TV room. As soon as the guys from LG left after delivering and installing the unit, I got a call from my wife asking if we can keep this unit. I knew that this TV had be pretty good looking for her to immediately accept a piece of technology in our home.
The LG 55LM96 is certainly stunning as far as looks are concerned. I have seen some impressively thin displays but what makes the LG stand out is the almost non-existent 5mm bezel around the TV. It almost seems that the reason it’s there is to stop the picture from popping out of the display. The edge to edge display adds quite a bit to the experience of watching your movies.
While LG has managed to keep the 55LM96 impressively thin, they have not skimped on the technology and connectivity present on it. With four HDMI inputs, you should be all set to connect all of your devices. Out of these four ports, one of them supports ARC (Audio Return Channel) for using an external audio device while another HDMI port, along with a 3.5mm input jack can be used with a device with DVI output such as your PC. This port also accept an MHL (Mobile High-Definition Link) device such as your mobile phone equipped with this technology. Other than HDMI ports, you also have a DSUB, a composite and a component connection for connecting “older” devices. Finally an optical output TOSLink port is also present for connecting a sound bar or another audio system.
Other than the A/V ports, the LG 55LM96 also has three USB ports that can accept hard drives, memory cards etc. One of these USB ports can be used as an expansion for your TV’s storage thus allowing you to download more apps than your TV is capable of storing internally. The unit is capable of playing DiVX and DiVX Plus HD formats which means that .MKV movies play back just fine in all their high-definition glory. Wired and wireless connectivity is also present allowing you to connect the xx to the Internet as well as your home network to stream music and movies.
Almost all of these connections are present on the back on the left side which makes it easy to get to them. On the right side of the back, LG places buttons for turning the unit on as well as controlling volume, channels and inputs. This is certainly a lot smarter of a design than some other TVs I’ve seen that love putting connectors in the middle making them extremely hard to reach once the TV is in its place.
