First look: LG's 55-inch curved OLED has great build and picture quality, but the curve is all hype

LG made a big deal about its curved OLED screens at CES this year, but the first generation curved OLED from the Korean company has only now come to India. We got our hands and eyes on the 55-incher and were immediately floored by the build quality and the dramatic curves. Here’s what we took away from the experience. But first, check out the unboxing of the TV as well as as brief tour of it. Appearance First and foremost it is ridiculously thin. At just 4.3 mm thickness, it’s thinner than a pencil. The design is so refreshing and palpable that we spent a good five minutes just admiring it. The sleek OLED panel is mounted on a strengthened carbon fiber frame to make it stable. Now it is stable for sure, but the extreme thinness might lead you to believe that it is not firmly built. The TV frame is so thin that you can actually bend in slightly with just two fingers. Surprisingly our first impression was that the TV feels heavier (17.2kg) than expected especially in the ‘fat-free’ avatar. The entire set sits on a transparent case stand that looks like it is made up of acrylic/ plastic. It is this curved acrylic base that actually accentuates the curved form factor of the TV.  The speakers are built into the base, which also looks very cool and futuristic. The speakers proudly flaunt their name as “Clear Speakers”, which indeed they are. We’ll go briefly over their performance shortly. All-in-all the TV is a complete stunner in terms of looks and if aesthetic value is what you are looking for, then there’s really no match at the moment. Ports All input and output ports are found on the back. There are 4 HDMI ports and some of the old analogue inputs like composite and component video. In terms of controls there is a neat touch control arrangement on the TV that is activated only when you touch it. Once you do that a neat round dial comes up on the centre-bottom of the screen and prompts you to take action as required. It takes a little getting used to, though. Accessories This one does not come with a flurry of accessories, which might disappoint some of you – particularly for the price that they are asking for it. The accessory box contains a pair of stylish 3D glasses, specially designed by Alain Mikli for LG. And they have also provided the clamp-on 3D glass attachment for users who wear spectacles and can’t part with them. Picture quality We must say that we were pretty impressed with colour rendition on this new TV. The images look absolutely stunning due to impressive, vivid, and accurate colours and amazing contrast. Blacks are satisfyingly deep and well-defined, which also means that other colours look extremely vivid and rich. When compared to standard LCD panels in a dark room, the OLED panel will definitely stand out like a Michelangelo painting. Furthermore the viewing angles on this LG’s OLED TV are also extremely wide. Colours maintain intensity even from extreme angles, and the same is true for contrast. Some tiny colour deviations do occur, but these are only visible on critical viewing and are extremely hard to notice. Black is still pitch black when looking at the TV from the side. It was interesting to notice that, once you sit down and start watching a movie you rarely notice that the panel is curved, but it becomes apparent when sitting or standing higher than the set. In fact we saw no real advantages of the curved panel, at least not on this relatively small 55-inch panel, and we hope that very soon we get to see LG’s larger curved flat panels to see the real impact. Sound LG’s “Clear Speaker” implementation is unique, and so is the sound coming out of it. We have to understand that the speaker technology in thin TVs is still limited by the dimensions. Though we could not complain about the sound we would not want to praise it either. In our humble opinion, the speakers are around average or slightly above average compared to the general TV market. The speakers deliver a bit more than you would expect at first glance (they look quite impotent), but we still would recommend separate speakers for anything but casual viewing. The bottom line LG’s curved OLED TV looks impressive. No matter what we feel about curved panels at this stage, we were definitely amazed by the build and the picture quality. Despite being so thin, the TV packs all of the features of LG’s other 2013 TVs, including the Smart TV platform with TV apps.  Then there’s the fantastic picture quality. Prima facie, it can reproduce perfect blacks, vivid colours and also has wide viewing angles. We will talk about the ‘curved’ aspect of the TV in our in-depth review very soon. Until then, feast your eyes on the curved beauty in our video above.