LG 47LS5700 Review

47" 1080p LED HDTV with Smart TV

by Jack Burden, Reviewer

The 47LS5700 is the top tier, non 3D LED television from LG. It is a 1080p, 120Hz LCD panel with LED edge lighting. It has the full Smart TV online suite and the Magic Wand remote control.

Picture Quality Rating: 8.7/10

The LS5700 series is similar to the two LED series above it although it lacks the Cinema 3D feature that higher tier models have. The non 3D picture is just as strong as the models above it with good color and black level performance and good off angle contrast.

Color

Colors on the 47LS5700 are displayed well with a nice, realistic look. Colors are not oversaturated and warm tones and flesh tones look particularly good.

Black Level and Contrast

Contrast and black level perfomance on LS5700 is above average, the black bars on the top and bottom of movies are a dark inky black but in dark scenes the black can overpower some detail in the picture. The dark black does give the 47LS5700 its strong color rendition.

The LS5700 did a nice job with motion processsing.

Side Angle Viewing

LG's LED televisions have had good off angle viewing performance in the past and the 2012 models are no exception. Compared to many LED edge lit models the LM5700 still looks good at angles around 35 degrees off center where the other will start to have the contrast degrade at 20-25 degrees.

TruMotion 120Hz

The 47LS5700 uses LG's 120Hz TruMotion, after much testing, we recommend locating this feature in the settings, tuning to the User setting and changing the Judder Reduction component completely off to 0, and Motion Blur at level 9 with the exception of sports programming or fast action in broadcast programming for which the feature actually adds quality. This tradeoff will produce lots of jerky judder but it's worth it.

Features Rating: 8.6/10

LG Smart TV (Internet) Via Built In Wifi

The Apps Menu on the LS5700

LG's Smart TV suite is also available on the 47LS5700 and includes the more than 1000 Apps the company now has along with the typical premium content channels some paid and some unpaid like Netflix, Hulu Plus, YouTube, MLB.tv, Facebook and Twitter. It's overall a very complete solution and enables lots of play time with unusual little Apps that users may or may not find worth the 3.99 cents to $5.99 that they usually cost.

Since the 47LS5700 is not 3D compatible, the included 3D Apps like 3D World and Kpop Zone are not useful. Here's a commentary on some of the other Apps aside from your premier paid choices:

NBA Game Time:This App is found in the LG Smart World section and has mixed reviews scoring 2.5 out of 5. My guess is that many of those negative votes came from those that were not able to find the video highlights - which is not that easy. If you are into NBA basketball the App is very useful as you can access video highlights and statistics from every game played for the past week. MLB.tv is much the same format but has not been included yet. Rating: 3.5 out of 5.

Youtube:Not only was the volume level excellent on many of the LG Smart TV offerings, we enjoyed this App a lot because once you select an artist you can just let the App roll through all that artists selections on You Tube. It's a nice App to have on as background music. Rating: 4 out of 5.

LG Smart Apps Education - Worthless - Robinson Crusoe, Animal Farm: I downloaded two free Apps from the LG Smart Apps section - recommended ones at that - Robinson Crusoe, and Animal Farm. They are both farcically bad and useless. They are both readings of these popular books - and not only is the reading poor, it's obviously not even a native English speaking person doing the reading. To make matters worse, the user has to use the remote control to click to the next section every paragraph or two. To compound this worthless effort, LG's menu lists Animal Farm several different times because each App only has a couple of chapters. Robinson Crusoe is split up into 8 different Apps. Obviously, this is just a ploy to be able to claim more Apps than they really have. Rating: 0 out of 5

Appearance and Design

Though it does not have the super thin almost non-existent frame of the Cinema Choice lines, this is still a nice looking TV with a half inch wide framing bezel of a rich black/charcoal color.

Magic Wand Remote (A Definite Plus)

Included with the 47LS5700 is LG's innovative Magic Remote, also called the Magic Wand Remote. This secondary remotes operates using motion control. To interact with your TV you point the remote at the screen and move a crosshair with you wrist to select items on the menus or in the Smart TV suite.

We think it's a fantastic little gadget and are glad to see it being included in more of LG's series in 2012. The biggest advantage of this remote, having tested all manufacturers Smart TV functionality is speed when browsing the Internet (typing on the keyboard).

LG's Magic remote speeds Web Browsing considerably but lacks an input select button

Product Specifications

• Resolution
  • 1920 x 1080p
• Dimensions
  • Screen Size: 47" Class (46.9" diagonal)
  • Without Stand: 42.9" x 25.8" x 1.4"
  • With Stand: 42.9" x 28.4" x 10.6"
• Key Features
  • Edge LED
  • Triple XD Engine
  • TruMotion 120Hz
  • Resolution Upscaler
  • Full HD 1080p Resolution
  • Smart Energy Saving
  • Intelligent Sensor
  • Clear Voice II
  • Picture Wizard II
  • Slim and Narrow Design
• Smart TV Features
  • Magic Remote
  • Home Dashboard
  • Smart Share
    • Intel Wireless Display (WiDi)
    • Network File Browser
    • Wi-Fi Screen Share
• Inputs
  • RF In (Antenna/Cable) 1 (Rear)
  • AV In 1 (Rear)
  • Component Video In 1 (Rear)
  • (Y, Pb, Pr) + Audio
  • Digital Audio Out (Optical) 1 (Rear)
  • HDMI/HDCP Input 4 (Side)
  • RGB In (D-Sub 15 Pin) - PC 1 (Rear)
  • PC Audio Input 1 (Rear)
  • USB 2.0 3 (Side)
  • LAN 1 (Rear)

Bang for Buck Rating: 9.2/10

The 47LS5700 is very attractively priced for the feature set and quality at around $900. Sony's KDL-46EX640 is a good comparison as is Samsung's UN46ES6100 both LED TVs in the same price range. I like the LG's clearer coat screen than the semi-matte finish on the other two. LG's Smart TV and Magic Remote function is better than Sony, and faster than Samsung.

Overall Rating: 8.8/10