LG 50 PG 7000 50″Plasma Review

What Hooked Us:

Great value for money, considering the screen size.
Natural picture with excellent motion clarity.
Photo playback via USB.

Why We Grumbled:

No headphone output.
High power consumption.
External light sources brighten the screen significantly.
Flat-looking picture for bright images (in ski tournaments, for example).
Gray side bars for 4:3-format pictures cannot be switched to black.
Factory preset shows a slight green tint (can be rectified manually).
24p pictures appear with a slight judder.

The Final Verdict:

If you’re looking for a cheap plasma TV with a respectable, 50-inch picture, you can’t go wrong with the LG 50 PG 7000. Unfortunately, however, the high power consumption bitters the taste of the budget price.

Test results in brief

The strengths: Thanks to plasma technology, this 50-inch LG renders a vivid, organic picture from every viewing angle and hardly blurs, even during fast motion. It’s an appropriate choice if you primarily watch movies in the evening, and you can’t argue with the market price of just about 1,100 GBP.

But, this TV isn’t among the market’s best: Compared to the latest plasma screens, from Panasonic or Pioneer, for example, the LG’s blacks look more like dark grays – particularly if some external light is hitting the screen. For a plasma TV, the contrast isn’t especially spell-binding, given that even average LCD TVs can now achieve similar values. Of course, unlike this LG plasma, those LCDs only have good picture depth when viewed front-on.

The LG also exhibits some shortcomings with 24p signals from a Blu-ray player, which it displays with a slight, irregular stutter. Its colors also show a slight green tint. The high power consumption is another disadvantage: If you run the LG every day for around three and a half hours, you’ll pay your power company 45 GBP more per year than with an LCD of the same size.

So if you and the whole family like to gather around the living room for an evening flick, spread across the sofa like a herd of buffalo, and you can live with less than stellar performance from your plasma, then the LG 50 PG 7000 is a good fit that will not break the bank.

Design

Manufacture:

The solid-looking, semicircular swivel-pedestal is 76 centimeters (30 inches) wide and is perhaps the most obvious feature of the LG’s design.

Classy finish, but also high-maintenance: The LG’s high-gloss frame shows up every fingerprint.

The materials used for the casing and pedestals complement each other well and are both made of black, high-gloss plastic, but the finish picks up fingerprints easily and is sensitive to scratching.

Swivel Pedestal and Speakers:

The pedestal’s vertical section and slender side-panels shimmer with a matte-chrome look. The speakers sit on the underside of the screen, which tapers backward and has a light, silver-bronze color, slightly masking the TV’s stature.

Attractive and well thought-out: The transition between the wide screen bezel (65 millimeters) and the screen itself is seamless, eliminating irritating reflections from the frame. The bezel and the display reflect incident light at significantly lower intensity, but with clear definition.

This is not only attractive; it also gives a more radiant picture impression – the effect is similar to comparing a glossy finish with a matte finish in a photo print. Unlike plasma displays from Pioneer, however, the LG’s front panel is hardly blackened at all, so the screen looks light-gray in daylight.

Connectivity:

Comprehensive and easily accessible: The LG’s connections panel.

The rear of the unit reveals much about the TV’s inner goings-on; generous ventilation holes allow the TV to dispense with excess heat, without the need for fans. The connections are easily accessible thanks to their horizontal arrangement. But, since these are hardly recessed, the TV hangs a little in front of the wall when wall-mounted, which will not be to every potential buyer’s taste.

Remote Control:

Not exactly the best-looking piece of kit: The remote control is functional and easy to hold, but could be a bit more attractive.

There’s little to gripe about with the remote control’s manufacturing, but the lower group of buttons looks as if the developers added it as an afterthought, which doesn’t do the appearance any favors.

Full Specifications