LG UT91 Review: Great Entry-Level 4K TV

The LG UT9100, also known as the LG UT91, is the entry-level 4K TV in LG’s 2024 TV lineup. It’s the successor to the LG UR9100, which is LG’s highest-end budget model, positioned above the LG UT8100 and below the LG NanoCell and QNED series. It’s a basic model that lacks support for most of the advanced features found on LG’s higher-end models.

It is powered by LG’s α5 AI Processor Gen7, which is a cut-down version of the α9 AI Processor Gen7, designed to provide AI-powered audio and video upscaling. The TV is limited to a 60Hz refresh rate, so it does not have variable refresh rate (VRR) support.

It also doesn’t support Dolby Vision or HDR10+. It comes with the same LG Magic Remote as all LG UT models of the year, and runs on a proprietary version of LG’s webOS 24 smart interface with all the usual streaming apps. In our LG 55UT9100 Smart TV 4K review, we’ll try to identify the pros and cons of the UT91 series.

Design

The LG 55UT9100 TV has a very nice design with thin bezels on three sides, except for a thicker bottom edge. The design does not look as premium as some of LG’s more expensive models. The TV has a central stand that supports the panel well. Due to this, installing such a TV does not require a very wide furniture surface.

The back of the LG UT9100 is fairly simple. The inputs are recessed into the back panel, making them difficult to access when the TV is wall-mounted. There are removable cable management clips on the back panel. The LG UT9100 has decent build quality, especially for an entry-level TV. If you want to mount this TV on the wall, there are four holes on the back panel for a VESA 300 x 300 mm wall mount.

Equipment

The LG UT9100 runs on the 2024 version of LG webOS. While it’s generally very good on this TV, there are times when the OS doesn’t work very well. It gets slow and choppy at times, and some apps like Netflix start to glitch and even freeze in some places. Unfortunately, there are ads all over the smart interface.

It can’t be turned off completely. However, you can limit ad tracking and remove ads from the Home screen using the Home Promotion and Content Recommendation settings in the Home Settings menu. However, there is no way to remove ads from the Apps page. The UT9100 comes with a large selection of additional LG apps.

Therefore, the consumer is sure to find their favorite content. LG UT91 series TVs come with the LG Magic Remote. You can use it as a pointer, which makes it easier to navigate the menu. The remote also has a built-in microphone, which works well. You can use voice commands to ask the TV to open certain apps, search within apps, ask the time or the weather.

Sound quality

The UT91’s frequency response is mediocre. It can’t produce any bass. At low volume levels, everything is fine. However, when you approach the TV’s maximum volume, the frequencies deviate significantly from what they should be. Compression and pumping artifacts appear.

The distortion characteristics of the TV are far from the best. Intramodular distortions, frequencies, hissing and tones have nothing to do with the original frequencies. On the other hand, this is a common phenomenon for most TVs with a 2.0 CH sound scheme and a total power of 20 watts. It should also be added that this is less noticeable in real content compared to isolated measured samples.

Image quality

The LG UHD UT91 4K 55″ Smart TV lacks contrast. Blacks look grey, and dark scenes lack shadow detail. Unfortunately, the local dimming feature doesn’t deliver the expected results either. It improves contrast a little, but at the expense of heavy blurring. The cheaper version of this model, the LG UT8000 , has slightly better native contrast.

With local dimming set to Off, there is no blurring as the entire backlight is always on at the same intensity. There are also no local zones to speak of. Contrast and dark details in Game mode look the same as when watching movies. The UT9100 has mediocre HDR brightness.

Due to poor contrast and inadequate local dimming, bright highlights in HDR content are not highlighted even in a dark room. You can gain some brightness by setting the local dimming to High, but this brightness will come at the expense of image quality due to significantly increased blurring.

HDR brightness in Game Mode is almost identical to Cinema mode. The LG UT9100 has mediocre brightness in SDR. In this mode, the TV is bright enough to overcome a small amount of glare. But it’s not optimal for a bright room. Brightness is consistent from scene to scene, with no dips, which is great.

The PQ EOTF tracking on the LG UT9100 is decent. Content at 600 and 1000 nits is severely clipped when the TV reaches peak brightness. This results in a loss of highlight detail, although this TV doesn’t really show highlight detail anyway because it’s just not bright enough.

The UT91 has an acceptable color gamut. It can’t display a wide color gamut, so HDR content looks washed out. Tone mapping isn’t great either, as the TV can’t maintain accuracy when trying to produce the brightest images possible. The TV does a much better job in darker scenes.

The UT91’s HDR color gamut is very narrow, so it can’t display a wide range of colors. It also can’t display very bright colors or dark, saturated colors well due to its weak contrast ratio. The device has excellent pre-calibration accuracy in SDR. There are some minor white balance errors in grays and bright whites.

Dark scenes are also too bright for a moderately lit room. Otherwise, colors are accurate. Once calibrated, the LG UT9100 shows fantastic accuracy. The TV is easy to calibrate. There are no visible issues with colors, white balance, or gamma, although the TV’s color temperature is still a bit cool.

The TV also has good gray uniformity. The black uniformity on this TV is average. The entire screen has a bluish tint with white spots, almost like a dark blue cloudy sky. Dark scenes are uneven. This is a bit distracting from viewing. It is recommended to turn off the local dimming function to avoid distracting blurring in dark scenes.

The TV has good viewing angles. The picture stays level when viewed from the sides, although it is noticeably darker at wider angles. The TV’s anti-glare coating can handle some glare, but because the TV has a low peak brightness, it’s not suitable for a room with a lot of light.

The LG 91 has good anti-aliasing of low-quality content. There is very little visible macro blocking in dark scenes, which is very good. The UT9100 uses an IPS panel , which is great for PC users because Windows ClearType handles RGB very well. The device also has a fairly low response time.

However, there is some blur on fast moving objects. When coming out of a dark state, the transitions are slower. This results in visible blur. The UT9100 series uses pulse width modulation (PWM) to dim the backlight at all brightness levels. It flickers at a frequency of 480 Hz or 120 Hz, depending on the picture mode.

The user will probably not notice flickering at 480 Hz. Flickering at 120 Hz is noticeable. It causes image duplication with 60 fps signals. The TV does not have an additional backlight-strobing feature, commonly known as black frame insertion (BFI). There is an additional motion interpolation feature.

This has a positive effect in slow-motion scenes. When the action picks up, this feature introduces noticeable artifacts into scenes. The LG UT9100 eliminates judder from 24p sources such as Blu-ray and DVD players, or streaming devices with Match Frame Rate, such as Apple TV.

To eliminate judder, you need to enable Real Cinema in the TV settings. Unfortunately, the TV does not eliminate judder from 60Hz sources, such as cable TV. Also, this TV does not support variable refresh rate (VRR) technology, as all models are limited to a 60Hz refresh rate.

There is also no way to take full advantage of the PS5 and Xbox Series X or S. It automatically switches to Game Mode when it detects a PS5, which ensures the lowest possible lag while gaming. This TV is limited to HDMI 2.0 bandwidth on all three of its HDMI ports. It does not support HDR10+ or ​​Dolby Vision. It only has HDR10.

Connections

The 55UT9100 supports lossless Dolby audio formats via the eARC port . Unfortunately, it doesn’t support any DTS audio formats, which is disappointing for movie buffs. After all, many Blu-rays and DVDs use DTS for their audio tracks. If you plan to watch such content, connect the media player directly to your home theater system for the best sound.

The switch panel has three HDMI 2.0 ports, two USB ports, an Ethernet port, a digital optical audio output, a C+ slot, and a tuner with connectors for connecting two antennas. Wireless connections include Bluetooth and Wi-Fi.

Conclusion

To sum up the LG UT9100 review, it’s safe to say that it’s a solid TV. It’s great for watching TV, sports, or using as a PC monitor in a room with moderate lighting. This is all thanks to its decent SDR brightness, good viewing angles, and effective reflection handling. However, it struggles with glare from bright light sources due to not being bright enough. It’s also not ideal for dark rooms because of its poor contrast and local dimming feature causing blurring in dark scenes. The average HDR brightness and lack of contrast result in HDR content appearing dull and lackluster. On the bright side, the UT91 has excellent input lag, making video games and using the TV as a PC monitor feel responsive and smooth.

Specifications