So the TV has been installed. The engineer hadn't worked on OLED TV before, but mostly it was fine. One big problem is that even though these guys have been told to keep the TV straight in the box and attach wall mount, he wanted to place it flat, which is something that I have seen unboxing video guys do too, but it creates a complication of lifting the TV again. So please get the TV installed without doing this.
First impressions are solid. I have attached uniformity pictures. They are pretty darn good right out of the box. Note that the white patch on the right is reflection of white curtains that I have. White uniformity is also good, but not perfect. The center is just a tad warmer. Nothing that's distracting though. Pretty pleased with this.
Of course, it's a lottery still, but now we know that it's not like Skyworth/Metz have shoddy workmanship that can create issues. The TV has heftier build than B8/C8. Plastic used behind is good. Better than Panasonic ones and B8, on par with C8. Remote is plasticky and average though.
First relief on turning on the TV was that the Metz logo remains off by default. Didn't want that distraction. This TV can get bright! Really bright. I have OLED light at 25, and it's bright enough for day time viewing in my bedroom, which doesn't get too bright even with curtains open.
I'm coming from an Iffalcon HD TV. Panasonic one before that. The iffalcon one has a major problem with stuttering which I couldn't remove with any setting. Panasonic OLEDs also suffered from this. Any slow moving head or shot, and the TV apparently can't decide between displaying 24fps or 60fps with 3:2 pulldown. Ideally, 120hz OLED panel should be doing a 5:5 pulldown with none of this stuttering, but it was a problem in Panny OLEDs till last year. This is year it's mostly solved. This TV had none of it. I rewatched an episode of Better Call Saul that we just watched last night, which had a lot of slow moving heads along with this series having many dark scenes which brought forward the flashing problem that was happening in LG and Sony sets, and infact is still there in A9G sets too. Check out Vincent's review of that set. This set looked amazing without any of these issues.
I did notice one problem. On fast motion, there was smearing. I had turned everything off. So I checked which setting can remove it. MEMC adds soap opera effect on every setting, so just keep it off. DI film mode got rid of this smearing. So that's good to know. No apparent panel problems now. Awesome!
So is it all positive? Nah. Biggest issue is that I'm not able to access the TV settings when on home screen or YouTube or Netflix or any app. Have to go to some source like HDMI or DTV and then access it, which is no good. I need this to be accessible to use AVSHD patterns to set at least gamma, contrast and saturation accurately. Of course, can't really correct a lot of color imbalances with those, but cinema mode with standard color temperature looked alright to me. Without having a calibrated set next to it, should be fine for most.
I have complained about this to Metz. As they have a firmware update coming, this needs to be sorted. Will send mails too.
Also, the home screen of the TV, Android one, is in HDR. I would prefer SDR, but don't know if that can be done. Need to search more. The software is a lot snappier than iffalcon one, which is also Android 8.0
Upscaling and noise reduction performance is also good. I have set DNR and MPEG NR to low for now, and 1080p and 2160p content looks stunning. Sharpness was too high on default though, so I reduced it to 40 from 50, and that looked more natural. There's also a super resolution setting, which sounds like de-aliasing, but I haven't tested that yet. Just turned it off. 720p played from YouTube was only so so. Lots of compression. Need more NR for sub-par content. I will also watch content via hotstar and review that too, as I feel hotstar's streaming isn't as good as Netflix.
HDR also looked fantastic. Highlights get plenty bright! 4k demo videos immediately got attention of my cat too, who got up on her hind legs as if she's staring out of a window, and looking at Peru. Critters on screen got her chattering! Now I hope she doesn't break the set trying to catch them. I'm glad the TV has a heftier build compared to LG because of this reason.
Of course, I need to watch more content to give a better opinion of that, including movies like Mad Max Fury Road and Life of Pi, which a lot of reviewers use to compare other sets too. That will give some base for a comparison. However, since I'm not able to access picture settings while playing content, I'm not able to play around with that, which is a bummer.
The sound is also pretty darn good compared to iffalcon one. That one has hardly any bass, and it is unable to control volume top. Dialogues sound teeny and music sounds too loud, even after custom EQ settings to enhance voice. This one is great for casual viewing right out of the box. It can get pretty loud and the bass is good. Auto volume control does its job and keeps the music from getting ear piercingly loud. DTS trusurround is turned on by default, and I definitely hear an improvement with keeping that one. Front facing speakers also add to immersion. Great for bedrooms and small living rooms. Giant living rooms might need higher-qyality audio set ups depending on your preferences.
Overall, here's my current opinion. This is not an enthusiast level set. If you want in-depth settings and lots of modes, not for you. I will try to voice this aspect to Metz, and see if anything improves with the new Android version and firmware.
For regular and casual viewers, this seems to be a great deal! Image quality wise, LG B series does seems inferior as they are held back in brightness. This one doesn't seem to have that. Infact, there's a hi-bright mode too. I don't even want to test it. It's bright enough as is for me. It might be too much actually at night. Will find out soon. Comparing it with C9, similar image quality with some minuses, but big money savings. Enthusiasts might not like missing out on things like DV and lots of settings to tinker, but those who don't look that deep, just enough this beautiful set. Even though I'm a video editor, I know when to disassociate and stop nitpicking. I guess subpar HD sets have trained me for that. So I'm really happy with this set as of now, inspite of the shortcomings. That unifmority is such a relief! It'll only get better once the set has run 100-200 hours. Super satisfied considering the money saved too. I had ordered an LG B8 earlier. Even compared with that, I have saved 16k, got a newer panel most probably, better peak brightness and great uniformity. You can compare it with Jonammafia's LG B8 which he ordered from Flipkart the same time as I did. Manufacturing date was also same.
Images attached. You can watch videos on YouTube for showcasing of the set. It looks pretty nice. Do note that if you're going to place it on a cabinet, the base stand is solid, heavy and metal, but the placements tilt back like Sony's master series.