49UK6090PUA Review: An LG 4K Television for Gamers

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49UK6090PUA: At First Glance

When it comes to the production of 4K television, LG has been at the top of its game in recent years. With an impressive collection of high-performance 4K televisions, the brand has to be one of the top manufacturers in the market.

So, in 2018, to add to its excellent collection of 4K televisions, LG released the 49UK6090PUA. This television, like most LG 4K televisions, offers a decent picture quality and overall performance.

Also, as an LG smart television, it features webOS which gives it access to major streaming services. However, there are some areas where the LG 49UK6090PUA falls short.

Are these shortcomings something that can be overlooked or will they make potential buyers second-guess purchasing the TV? The answer to that question and more are what is in store for you in the remaining sections of this article.

Thus, kindly read on!

49UK6090PUA: Design, Dimension, and Weight

To start with, the LG 49UK6090PUA comes with an elegant design and features slim bezels that surround its display. To give more details, these bezels are just 0.40 mm wide and are entirely made out of plastic.

Also, the bezels have a matte-black finish which gives them a bold and flawless look. However, the bottom bezel is slightly thicker than the sides and top bezel.

This is due to the “LG” logo that sits at its center. This logo not only beautifies the front view of the television but also serves as a means of brand identification.

Moving on, in case you have no plans of wall-mounting the LG 43UK6090PUA, it comes with a pair of V-shaped legs. These legs are quite similar to the bezels; they are made of plastic with a matte-black finish.

Interestingly, despite being made entirely out of plastic, these legs are very sturdy and solid. As a matter of fact, they support the television to stand firmly with a minimal amount of wobble when nudged.

However, the legs are situated near the edges of the TV. Therefore, a large table or desk will be required to place the LG 43UK6090PUA if not mounted on the wall.

In case you decide to wall-mount the LG 43UK6090PUA, you can utilize the 300 x 300 mm VESA mount holes on its back panel. Speaking of the back panel, this television’s back panel is made of plastic with a matte-black finish.

However, the back panel is somewhat thick. As a result, when wall-mounted, the LG 43UK6090PUA will protrude out of the wall and look awkward.

To make things even more complicated, there seems to be no form of a cable management system on the television’s back panel. Hence, you will need to manually arrange cables attached to the LG 43UK6090PUA to ensure a tidy setup.

In terms of size and weight, this LG television measures 1109.9 x 81.2 x 650.2 mm (W x D x H) and weighs 11113 g. Compared with one of its closest competitors (Sony XBR – 49X900F), the LG 43UK6090PUA is thicker but weighs less.

Specifically, the Sony XBR – 49X900F weighs 13600 g and measures 1093 x 69 x 629 mm (W x D x H).

In summary, the LG 43UK6090PUA offers a great design, with an all-plastic build and slim bezels. However, the television is somewhat thick and lacks a cable management system.

Hence, I will rate the LG 49UK6090PUA an eight of ten in this design features review section.

49UK6090PUA: Display Features and Picture Quality

Now that you know pretty much everything about the LG 49UK6090PUA’s design, let us talk about its display. To start with, the television features a 49-inch LCD display with a 4K UHD (3840 x 2160) resolution.

As a display with 4K UHD resolution, this television’s LCD display should be able to deliver crisp and realistic picture quality. This is because the 4K UHD resolution has around 8 million pixels, which is about four times the pixels found in the standard HD resolution.

Hence, it is safe to say a 4K UHD display should offer better and sharper picture quality than a standard HD display. Unfortunately, the LG 49UK6090PUA’s display offers a poor contrast ratio of 1163:1.

In case you are curious, contrast ratio is the ratio between the brightest white and the darkest black a display can render. Furthermore, the contrast ratio of a display majorly determines the display’s black level.

Basically, if the display has a contrast ratio of 3000:1 or higher, it should be able to render deep/rich blacks. On the other hand, if the display’s contrast ratio is below 3000:1, it won’t be able to produce deep blacks.

Apparently, the contrast ratio of the LG 49UK6090PUA’s display is far less than the recommended 3000:1. As a result; it won’t be able to render rich blacks.

In other words, blacks on the display will tend to look grayish. Therefore, the LG 49UK6090PUA isn’t ideal for watching movies or TV series with lots of dark or shadowy scenes.

That’s not all; the television isn’t good for dark room viewing. To make the situation worse, the LG 49UK6090PUA doesn’t support local dimming, which would have compensated for its display’s poor contrast ratio.

To be more specific, local dimming is a technique that involves dimming the backlight zones of LCD/LED displays so as to enhance their black level. Thus, with this technique, blacks on the display will look darker than they would without it.

Sadly, despite its display’s poor contrast ratio, the LG 49UK6090PUA fails to support local dimming. On a positive note, this television’s display is made with an IPS panel which enables it to offer wide viewing angles.

Hence, pictures and colors on the display should remain accurate when watching the television from the sides or off-center. As a result, the LG 49UK6090PUA is ideal for a large room setting.

Moving on, the LG 49UK6090PUA’s display offers an average maximum brightness of 311 nits. Although this display’s maximum brightness is adequate for moderately-lit areas, it will struggle to keep up in extremely bright areas or outdoors.

That said, the LG 49UK6090PUA supports HDR (High Dynamic Range) in 4K Active HDR format. Therefore, whenever you are watching HDR-supported content on the television, the picture quality and colors will be more realistic and lifelike.

By the way, HDR-supported content can be found on streaming platforms such as Hulu and Netflix. Apart from supporting HDR, the LG 49UK6090PUA also comes with a 4K upscaling engine.

This upscaling engine enhances the quality of non-4K, HD, or SD content to near 4K quality. Therefore, literally every content you will be watching on the LG 49UK6090PUA will either be in 4K quality or near 4K quality.

Moving forward, the LG 49UK6090PUA’s display offers a decently-fast response time of 24 milliseconds. Due to this, there will be minimal blur trails, ghosting, and black smearing when watching fast-motion content on the television.

Hence, the LG 49UK6090PUA is good for watching sports, action movies, and any other fast-motion content. Briefly, response time is the time a display’s pixels take to change from one color to another.

In addition to its fast response time, the LG 49UK6090PUA’s display comes with a low input lag of 11.8 milliseconds. As a result, this LG television is good for playing video games.

In case you are wondering, input lag is the time it takes a display to register signal input from external sources.

Putting everything discussed in this display features review section into consideration; I will rate the LG 49UK6090PUA an eight of ten.

49UK6090PUA: Sound Features

For the sound department, the LG 49UK6090PUA employs a pair of 10-watt speakers. Even though these speakers deliver decent audio quality, they are not loud enough to fill a large room with sound.

Nevertheless, they should be able to comfortably fill a medium-sized room with sound. Sadly, the LG 49UK6090PUA lacks a built-in subwoofer, meaning it won’t be able to produce an adequate amount of bass.

For this reason, bass-heavy movies or movies with lots of rumbling and thumping sounds might not be enjoyable on this LG television. Nevertheless, to get adequate bass production, you can consider buying a soundbar.

Obviously, that would cost extra bucks. Looking on the bright side of things, the LG 49UK6090PUA’s speakers are able to deliver clear, understandable, and audible dialogue.

In brief, dialogue means the conversation between multiple people in a movie or TV show. Apart from producing clear dialogue, the speakers also generate minimal distortion even when the LG 49UK6090PUA is at the max volume level.

For clarity, distortion in this context is the deformation of a speaker’s or sound system’s original sound frequencies. Thereby making the sound system produce unwanted noises and disturbing sound quality.

That aside, the LG 49UK6090PUA comes with two sound technologies called DTS-HD and Ultra Surround Sound. These sound technologies enhance the loudness, quality, and surround sound production of the television’s speakers.

Doing so allows the speakers to deliver an immersive and cinematic sound quality.

All things considered, I will offer the LG 49UK6090PUA a much-deserved rating of eight out of ten in this sound features review section.

49UK6090PUA: Ports and Connectivity Features

Port-wise, the LG 49UK6090PUA offers a decent amount of ports. Moreover, some of the ports are directly on the television’s back panel, while the others are left-facing.

Thus, when the TV is wall-mounted, accessing the ports directly on the back panel might not be easy as you imagined. Having established that, let us move on to discuss the varieties of ports that the LG 49UK6090PUA offers.

Starting with the left-facing ports, this LG television features two HDMI ports and a USB port. It is crucial to mention that one of these HDMI ports actually supports ARC (Audio Return Channel).

Hence, with the help of the ARC-supported HDMI port, users will find it easy to connect a soundbar to the LG 49UK6090PUA. That said, among the ports directly on the television’s back are another HDMI port, a USB port, and a digital optical out.

That’s not all; there is also an Ethernet port, a composite video input, and an RF connector on the television’s back. Meanwhile, when it comes to wireless connectivity, the LG 49UK6090PUA comes with a built-in 802.11 ac WiFi.

However, the TV doesn’t come with Bluetooth.

Moving on, the LG 49UK6090PUA features a standard AKB75375604 remote control. Design-wise, this remote has a plastic body with a matte-black finish.

Furthermore, due to the long stature of the remote, it comes with quite a number of rubber buttons. Some of these buttons include dedicated buttons for easy access to Amazon Prime Video and Netflix.

Also, you will find a plus-shaped navigation button as well as a full number pad on the remote. Additionally, the remote comes with a horizontal volume rocker and channel rocker.

Besides, for brand recognition, there is a white “LG” logo sitting at the bottom of the remote. However, unlike high-end remote controls, the LG 49UK6090PUA’s remote lacks a built-in microphone.

Hence, it doesn’t support voice input.

All in all, I will offer the LG 49UK6090PUA a rating of seven out of ten in this ports and connectivity review section.

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49UK6090PUA: Smart Features

As one would expect from an LG smart television, the LG 49UK6090PUA uses the webOS as its operating system. This operating system comes with a user-friendly, smooth, and lag-free interface.

Hence, navigating around and exploring the OS should be seamless and easy. Besides, there is a horizontal bar at the bottom part of the operating system’s interface.

This horizontal bar houses the vast collection of pre-installed streaming services and applications that the webOS offers. Some of these pre-installed streamings and apps include Hulu, Netflix, Sling TV, Prime Video, YouTube, Disney+, and so on.

As a matter of fact, the operating system comes with the Channel Plus TV. This streaming service is exclusive to the webOS and gives users access to over 180 free movies and TV shows.

Apart from its pre-installed streaming services and apps, the webOS also comes with a built-in apps store called LG Content store. Through this app store, users should be able to download additional streaming services and applications of their choice.

That aside, it might interest you to know that the webOS comes with an in-built browser. Consequently, you will be able to surf the web at will using the LG 49UK6090PUA.

After thorough consideration, there is nothing stopping me from rating the LG 49UK6090PUA a nine out of ten in this smart features review section.

Frequently Asked Questions

Conclusion

The LG 49UK6090PUA is a smart television that offers a 4K UHD display and a sleek all-plastic design. Moreover, the television’s display has a low input lag, making the television ideal for gaming.

That’s not all; the TV features a decent number of ports, supports HDR, and comes with a brilliant operating system. However, this television disappoints in some major areas.

For example, it lacks Bluetooth, and its display has a poor contrast ratio. Nevertheless, if you need a TV for casual viewing or gaming, the LG 49UK6090PUA is worth considering.

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