2022 LG QNED91 Mini LED TV Review – An absolute stunner

If you walk into a major retail store, or browse online, you’re going to find a LOT of choice – and that does make it hard when buying. LG’s QNED range adds quality and a touch of confusion with the naming, but grab the right one – like the QNED91 Mini LED we’re reviewing – and you’re in for a treat.

My issue with the QNED range is that they are not all Mini LED, so if you want the latest lighting tech, you have to be specific looking for it, however – safe to say the Mini LED range are the most expensive of the bunch.

Q stands for Quantum Dot, and N stands for NanoCell, two technologies that LG uses across the screen to enhance the colour and viewing angle of the screen.

Mini LED as we’ve described before is the latest lighting tech which uses tiny LED lights in groups across the screen to increase the contrast between the blacks and colours on the screen.

Now, before we get into thoughts on this specific TV, some market clarity for you. The QNED91 we’re reviewing is a 75 incher. Looking at $4999 retail.

The comparative Samsung Model with Mini LED is what Samsung call Neo QLED – shock horror they are the exact same price. Also, for those that know their stuff, you know that OLED is the best picture quality and sets the absolute benchmark across TVs. And has done for years.

An OLED at this size is going to set you back probably $1,500 more, so you can see perfectly why all TV brands wanted a better picture quality in a pricing window below OLED to maintain a premium market and spend on TVs.

And it works.

I think quite possibly the LG is the star of the Mini LED market. But again let me assure you that OLED is still better, by a long shot – and for people who really jump into their movies or gaming that might be the bridge you want to cross.

For me, someone who can spot the difference, but is happy to game and watch movies on TVs without all that tech, it’s really a question of balancing the budget.

So with all that in mind, knowing that you’re happy to stump up the $5k for a 75 inch TV (the 65 inch is $3900 and the 85 closer to $7k) then you’re in for a treat.

LG’s setup process is a breeze, really simply guided through and I loved not scanning for TV channels given I have no antenna – so many TVs make you scan only to find nothing. This one gives you the option of just no:)

Setting up an LG account seems like overkill, but it will give you a lot more like their smart-home link and smartphone management. Given this hefty investment is probably the cornerstone of your family room – that’s a win.

LG’s smart home hub is a great way to use the remote to control things like lights in your home while you’re chilling on the lounge – you want the movie mood to be reflected with the lighting right?

Nothing on the market yet matches the power of the LG Magic Remote and that just makes things like text entry or selecting options on other corners of the screen in a menu easier than ever. While the technology is available on WebOS TV’s from other smaller brands, in the premium TV market this is the best remote out there.

“LG Channels” is a built-in app for IPTV channels but it’s a massive let down, just no comparison to the hundreds of channels on Samsung TV Plus, which now feature GBNews, Mythbusters, Baywatch and plenty more.

App wise, I can’t think of one you can’t get direct from the LG App store. Stan, Disney+, Kayo, Foxtel you name it. LG has really caught up on the app game here.

I will say, and this is like Samsung too – the whole WebOS is losing its shine. Such a great operating system, so may apps, but if you’re watching TV and press the home button the whole damn screen is populated with apps, ads, recommendations and IF you were watching a HDMI source or free-to-air TV then that will appear in a small box.

The glory days were about 4 years ago when a gentle lower third home bar would appear, one you could customise with your apps and shortcuts, but today it’s all about the full-screen of recommendations. Give me back simplicity.

Leaving all that aside, just how good is this TV?

It’s amazing. I pulled the blinds down, turned off the lights and fired up Yellowstone season 5.

Quality of picture – even a 4K stream is amazing. And for this show there was plenty of contrast there too – darkness being the primary part of the scene with colour filling the rest.

Looking at “photos” of a TV screen really will never convey the quality, I get that, but let me show you the “reverse” of this.

This is a bright picture with strong darks in it too, but there’s a great consistency between the edges, definition without any extreme blooming of colour into the black.

Again, photos don’t do it justice but the colours on this TV just pop so beautifully, and I’m watching on the complete raw default settings.

Really beautiful and vibrant too.

I appreciate that OLED has improved its brightness over the years, but this Mini LED may be the perfect compromise to get the best bright picture along with a solid black level and contrast.

This is a zoomed in pixel level shot of a menu on the TV and you get a great sense of the TV’s ability to light in smaller zones, but remember this is a static screen so it’s not in the process of trying to light a moving picture.

Speaking of which, doing a test with moving white spots, there’s just one criticism I have – and that is that the lower third of this TV seems to struggle more to eliminate blooming around white on a black screen. I thought I was seeing things, but it did it consistently with a spinning white line where the bottom of the line would suffer far more blooming than the line stretching to the top of the TV. Interesting, but not something I noticed when watching actual video.

The TV sits on a sleek curved stand if you’re using an entertainment unit, but it’s also well engineered for wall mounting.

The QNED 91 is no where near as thin as an OLED, but using recessed mounting points it can be mounted closer to the wall and that’s going to give it a great look.

Overall, there’s little to fault about this TV and I can’t imagine any buyer being upset by this one.

I suspect that pre-pandemic by this time of year we’d see more discounting of prices, so you are paying more than you might otherwise have thought but that’s the times we live in.

Be careful to look for the Mini LED not just QNED, because that’s where the quality is.