LG 65QNED93 review: this mini-LED TV delivers maximum picture performance

Introduction

LG is quick out of the blocks with its 2025 ranges of 4K TVs, and this QNED93 is our first taste of what the company has to offer this year.

Remarkably, this 65in model is the smallest in the QNED93 range (which for some reason is called QNED92 in most other territories) – 75in and 85in versions are available. But size, as a wise person once said, isn’t everything – so what, apart from plenty of screen, does £1799 buy you if you put it LG’s way?

Design & build: the best kind of bland

No one buys a new TV on the basis of its design, do they? Unless you’re spending very big money indeed, the design of one television is very much like another. LG has done the sensible thing with the QNED93; it’s basically all screen, with four very narrow bezels around the edges.

On its pedestal stand the 65QNED93 is an unremarkable 1445 x 902 x 340mm (WxHxD) – and the pedestal itself is neatly compact, so doesn’t need a huge surface to stand on. The stand doesn’t swivel, though. If you’d rather wall-mount, the QNED93 is Vesa-compatible (good news) and weighs 19.8kg (not especially good news for partition walls). The standard of build and finish is good, even if some of the plastics that make up the chassis don’t look or feel anything special. 

Features: four the gamers

The 65QNED93 incorporates LG’s nanocell and quantum dot technologies, and uses a Mini-LED backlit panel – so it really ought to have the brightness, contrast and colour volume advantages this tech combo promises. It’s compatible with the firm’s usual trio of HLG, HDR10 and Dolby Vision HDR standards.

On the sound front, a down-firing 2.2-channel speaker array is driven by a total of 40 watts of power. An Alpha 8 AI Sound Pro algorithm gamely tries to turn that output into a virtual 9.1.2-channel presentation, and is will endeavour to do what it can with Dolby Atmos soundtracks.

People who take their home cinema sound seriously will be pleased to learn it’s compatible with LG’s WOW Orchestra feature; if you choose an appropriate LG soundbar, the 93 can join in with, rather than be overridden by, its efforts. Or if a full surround sound system is in order, the QNED93 can wirelessly connect to a couple of speakers via aptX Bluetooth to generate rear channels of sound.

There’s also Wi-Fi 6 connectivity onboard, along with Apple AirPlay. Apple Home, Google Home, and LG’s own ThinQ smart home system also make an appearance.

Physical connectivity is covered off by four HDMI inputs, one of which is eARC-enabled and all of which are at HDMI 2.1 standard. That continues to put LG ahead of those nominal competitors that consider two full-fat HDMI sockets to be sufficient. There’s a couple of USB-A 2.0 slots too, a pair of aerial binding posts, a digital optical output and an Ethernet socket.

This impressive HDMI line-up, along with some lightning-fast response times in Game mode, means the QNED93 continues LG’s tradition of being as player-friendly as possible. Each of the HDMI sockets supports 4K@120Hz, VRR (up to 144Hz), ALLM, AMD FreeSync, HGiG and QMS – and the LG is also compatible with Dolby Vision Gaming (at 120Hz). A pop-up GameBoard interface offers real-time info without the need to open up a full-screen menu, too.

Interface: the five year service

The 65QNED93 uses LG’s entirely fit-for-purpose webOS25 as a smart TV interface. It’s maybe not the most visually attractive example anymore, but its layout is simple to navigate and almost as simple to customise. LG’s commitment to offering upgrades for the five years of the TV’s life also means that your QNED93 will be up-to-the-minute all the way to webOS30. 

There’s plenty of content available, from plenty of sources; all the worthwhile catch-up and streaming services apps are available. LG’s own ‘Channels’ service has more than enough stuff available to keep you entertained for quite a while, too.

Navigating the smart TV interface, the set-up menus and so on can be done in one of few different ways. LG’s long-serving remote control handset is back for another year – or rather, it is in countries that legally mandate TV remotes retain their number keys in the name of accessibility. Aside from a couple of new buttons (or more accurately, new features taking the place of old ones), the refreshed remote will be familiar to European LG owners everywhere. Other countries get an entirely new controller that’s much more minimal.

The hybrid Home Hub/input selection button gives access to a helpful page where your IoT and smart home gadgets can be displayed, AirPlay 2 devices accessed and HDMI devices swapped to.

There’s Amazon Alexa built in, and the QNED93 works with Hey Google too. It’s a reliable and responsive way to get what you want from your TV, and working this way allows the AI concierge to learn your preferences in order to make suggestions about content, keywords and so on. And if you’re not sure what it is you want to do in the first place, an AI Chatbot is ready to answer your enquiries with what I would describe as an impressive level of accuracy.

Naturally enough there’s also an app for iOS and Android – and, rather like the TV it controls, it’s not the most visually exciting. Still, it’s more than adequate in the way it performs.

Performance: the bright and the bold

Image and sound quality is under the control of LG’s Alpha 8 AI Processor 4K Gen 2 processing engine, which surely lets you know it means business. It operates in conjunction with a quad-core CPU, and is ready to bring any number of exciting-sounding features to the pictures you see.

AI Picture Pro is chief among them. Engaging it turns on a whole host of image enhancement features at once, so if you’re not the sort of person that enjoys investigating every single one of your new TV’s clever features, this is the setting for you. Otherwise, dig down for Dynamic Tone Mapping Pro, Motion Pro, Precision Dimming Pro and all the rest. Along with 10 different picture presets (including the most convincing implementation of Filmmaker Mode I’ve seen so far), getting the QNED93 to look as you like it is most certainly achievable. 

The LG 65QNED93’s talents don’t begin and end with native 4K HDR-assisted content – but there’s no two ways about it, this TV looks its best when given the best stuff to deal with. And it doesn’t matter if that’s a Netflix stream of Renfield or a UHD 4K Blu-ray disc of Dune featuring Dolby Atmos and Vision. The 93 does tremendous work in almost every picture quality respect.

It maintains a convincing colour balance throughout, never letting vibrant become garish and making skin-tones as natural as can be. The Mini-LED backlighting allows the LG to be bright but not ill-controlled, and the screen’s attempts to generate meaningful black depth means contrasts are wide and quite dynamic. Only in the most testing moments of black and white coexisting on the same screen does the LG betray its backlighting – and even then, the little amount of blooming or haloing it indulges in can’t be described as fatal.   

Detail levels are high, and there’s decent insight even into the darkest scenes. It’s only when the screen is mostly bright and/or mostly white that the impressive amount of detail falls away and the image becomes slightly uniform. The 65QNED93 draws edges confidently, and it’s equally capable when it comes to describing complex, tight patterns or textures. Once you’ve got the screen set up properly it’s very good indeed where motion control is concerned. Sudden, unpredictable movement, slow motion with objects in opposition to the movement of the camera… none of it can throw the LG. It is extremely impressive in this regard.

The news is just as good (and, let’s be fair, quite predictable) where gaming is concerned. The 93 makes the very most of the clever lighting effects and painstaking rendering of Gran Turismo 7, maintains impressive contrasts and detail levels, and doesn’t even hint at tearing, stuttering or any other console-game nasties. It’s super-responsive and thoroughly absorbing.

The LG turns out to be a very capable upscaler too – or, at least, up to a point. 1080p and even 720p content looks good, the predictable drop-off in fine detail and edge-definition rigour notwithstanding. It’s never less than composed and watchable, giving good variation to colour tones and temperatures, keeping contrasts believable and gripping motion with its customary fanaticism. You have to feed in some really lo-res stuff if you want to make the 65QNED93 look a bit of a mess – and there are very few TVs around that can make a silk purse out of a 480i sow’s ear. 

It’s not going to come as any great surprise when I tell you that the LG’s sound quality is not a patch on its picture quality. It’s not the first TV to look great but sound mediocre, of course, and it won’t be the last – but nevertheless, the insubstantial and rather breathless nature of the 93’s audio system is underwhelming.

LG 65QNED93 verdict

Somehow it’s no longer enough to be a well-specified, nicely built, easy-to-use and good-to-watch television in order to get the full five stars – that’s how tough the TV market is right now.

The 65QNED93 is an admirable device in almost every way, but its humdrum audio system and some minor issues where backlighting and bright-tone detail are concerned mean it’s not quite the no-brainer LG was hoping for… 

LG 65QNED93 technical specifications