The LG QNED80 2022 is the entry-level model in LG's 2022 mid-range QNED lineup. It sits below the LG QNED85 and combines quantum dot technology with LG's proprietary NanoCell technology to display a wider range of colors compared to lower-range models. It's available in a wide range of sizes, from 50 to 86 inches, but not all sizes perform the same. It's missing features you would expect from a mid-range TV, like Dolby Vision and Dolby Atmos support. It also doesn't have Mini LED backlighting like most of the QNED lineup. Luckily, it has many of the same gaming features as higher-end models, like a 120Hz panel, HDMI 2.1 bandwidth, and variable refresh rate (VRR) support. It's been replaced in 2023 by the LG QNED80 2023, but there's almost no difference between them.
The LG QNED80 2022 is a decent TV for mixed usage. It's best suited for watching shows or sports during the day because it can handle some glare in a moderately-lit room. The TV has a nice wide viewing angle, so no matter where you or your friends sit during the game, no one has to deal with a degraded image. The TV provides a responsive feel thanks to its very low input lag and comes equipped with VRR support and 4k @ 120Hz support on two of its HDMI ports. Unfortunately, it's not a good choice for gaming or watching movies in a dark room, as it has a very low contrast ratio, and the local dimming feature performs terribly.
The LG QNED80 2022 is good for watching shows during the day. The built-in webOS smart interface comes loaded with a huge selection of streaming apps, so it's quick and easy to find your favorite shows. The TV has a wide viewing angle that allows you to walk around with the TV on and still enjoy a consistent image. It also has decent reflection handling and good enough peak brightness in SDR to fight off a bit of glare in a bright room. Unfortunately, the processing features on this TV are just okay, so if you watch lower-quality streams or shows on DVD, they aren't as smooth and sharp as they could be.
The LG QNED80 2022 is a good TV for watching sports during the day. It has a great viewing angle, so you and your friends won't fight over the best seat during gameday get-togethers. The TV has a great response time, so fast motion is clear and easy to see, with very little blur around fast-moving balls and players. It also has decent peak brightness in SDR and good enough reflection handling so that visibility isn't an issue in moderately lit rooms. The built-in speakers are mediocre at best, so you'll want to pair it with a good soundbar or home theater system.
The LG QNED80 2022 is a decent TV for gaming. It has a very good response time, so fast motion in games is clear, with very little blur or ghosting behind quick-moving objects. The TV has incredibly low input lag that provides a very responsive feel, and this model also supports advanced gaming features like VRR. It supports 4k @ 120Hz but only has two ports capable of HDMI 2.1 bandwidth, so you are limited with the number of HDMI 2.1-capable devices you can plug in. Unfortunately, the TV is a bad choice for gaming in the dark due to its low contrast ratio and truly terrible local dimming feature. The backlight also flickers at a fixed 120Hz in the lowest latency 'Game Optimizer' Picture Mode, which is distracting and causes image duplication when gaming at 60Hz.
The LG QNED80 2022 is inadequate for watching HDR movies in a dark room. It has a very low contrast ratio, so dark scenes are washed out. The TV does have a local dimming feature, but it's terrible and causes a ton of blooming without making the blacks look any deeper. It has a very good color gamut, so colors in brighter scenes are vibrant and realistic, but the TV doesn't get bright enough in HDR to make specular highlights stand out. Overall, HDR is dull and adds next to nothing to this TV.
The LG QNED80 2022 is decent for gaming in HDR, mainly due to its gaming features, as HDR adds very little. It has incredibly low input lag for a very responsive experience and a quick response time for minimal blur with fast-moving objects. It also supports VRR and 4k @ 120Hz gaming from the latest consoles. On the other hand, it has a low contrast ratio, a terrible local dimming feature, and low peak brightness in HDR, so bright highlights don't stand out, and colors don't pop. The backlight also flickers at a fixed 120Hz in the lowest latency 'Game Optimizer' Picture Mode, which is distracting and causes image duplication when gaming at 60Hz.
The LG QNED80 2022 is a great TV to use as a PC monitor. Due to its very low input lag and great response time, cursor movements are smooth and responsive, with little motion blur. The TV displays chroma 4:4:4 signals properly, which is essential for clear text from a PC. It has great uniformity, and thanks to its wide viewing angle, the sides of the screen stay uniform when you're sitting close to the screen. It also has decent reflection handling and good enough peak brightness that glare isn't a problem in a moderately-lit room.
We tested the 65-inch LG QNED80 2022, and the results are also valid for the 55 and 75-inch models. The 50-inch version has a different panel type, while the manufacturer advertises that the 86-inch model comes with direct LED backlighting instead of edge-lit backlighting like on the other models. The exact model code varies between regions and retailers. The QNED80AQA variant sold at Costco has a remote that supports NFC and a much longer warranty, and it has a NEXTGEN TV (ATSC 3.0) tuner.
In Europe, it's known as the LG QNED81, and the main difference is that it comes with a center-mounted stand. However, we don't know for sure if models outside the US perform differently.
Size | Panel | Backlighting | North America | Costco | Europe |
50" | VA | Edge | 50QNED80UQA | 50QNED80AQA | 50QNED816QA |
55" | IPS | Edge | 55QNED80UQA | 55QNED80AQA | 55QNED816QA |
65" | IPS | Edge | 65QNED80UQA | 65QNED80AQA | 65QNED816QA |
75" |
IPS | Edge | 75QNED80UQA | 75QNED80AQA | 75QNED816QA |
86" | IPS | Direct | 86QNED80UQA | 86QNED80AQA | 86QNED816QA |
The unit we tested was manufactured in May 2022, and you can see the label here.
The LG QNED80 2022 is an okay TV with good gaming features, but compared to the competition, it doesn't offer anything special, and there aren't many reasons to buy this TV. It has a low contrast ratio that makes blacks look gray in the dark, and it has limited HDR performance. You can easily find other similarly-priced TVs with much better performance, like the TCL 6 Series/R646 2021 QLED or the Hisense U8/U8H, if you don't mind spending a bit more.
Also, see our recommendations for the best TVs for bright rooms, the best smart TVs, and the best 65-inch TVs.
The LG QNED80 2023 is nearly identical to its predecessor, the LG QNED80 2022. The 2023 model is slightly brighter and supports DTS audio formats, so it's a better choice overall, but the differences are extremely minor.
The LG QNED85 is a significant step up from the lower-end model, the LG QNED80. The QNED85 has much better contrast, with a Mini LED backlight that delivers deep blacks with just a bit of blooming around bright objects. The QNED80 doesn't have any blooming with local dimming disabled, but its contrast ratio is so low that the screen is washed out in dark scenes. The QNED85 also gets significantly brighter, so it can handle more glare in a bright room, and bright highlights in HDR stand out better.
The LG C3 OLED is better than the LG QNED80 2022 in every way. The C3 has significantly better black performance, so it's much better suited for a dark room. The C3 also has better color volume, a wider color gamut, and gets brighter in HDR. This leads to HDR content having more vibrant and realistic colors and gives bright highlights more pop. Both TVs support modern gaming features like VRR and 4k @ 120Hz, but the C3 has a much faster response time, so it's also a better option for gaming. On top of that, the C3 is better at handling reflections and has a wider viewing angle.
In most ways, the LG QNED80 2022 is a bit better than the LG UR8000. The UR8000 does have better black uniformity and can display deeper blacks in a dark room thanks to its higher contrast ratio. On the other hand, the QNED80 gets brighter in both SDR and HDR and has a much wider viewing angle. The QNED80 also supports VRR and 4k @ 120Hz, so it's a better choice to pair with modern gaming consoles.
The Samsung Q70C QLED is better than the LG QNED80 2022. The Samsung has a higher native contrast ratio, so it looks better in dark rooms, with deeper blacks and better black uniformity. The Samsung also gets brighter, and HDR content looks better in general.
The Samsung Q60C QLED is better than the LG QNED80 2022 regarding overall picture quality. The Samsung doesn't have a local dimming feature but has a much higher native contrast ratio, so it looks better in dark rooms, with deeper blacks and better black uniformity. The Samsung also gets brighter, and HDR content looks better in general. The LG does have a much better viewing angle, which can be useful if you regularly watch content in a group setting. The LG is also more compatible with modern gaming consoles, as it supports VRR and 4k @ 120Hz.
The Hisense U7K is significantly better than the LG QNED80 2022. The Hisense looks much better in a dark room thanks to its higher native contrast ratio and highly effective local dimming feature. The Hisense gets significantly brighter, especially when displaying HDR content, and HDR looks much better overall.
The Sony X85K is better than the LG QNED80 2022. The Sony is much better for watching movies in HDR or SDR because it displays much deeper blacks. It also gets brighter in HDR, allowing colors to look vibrant and highlights to stand out. While both TVs support modern gaming features like VRR and 4k @ 120Hz, the LG has lower input lag for a more responsive feel, so it's the better overall choice for gaming.
The Sony X80K and the LG QNED80 2022 are similar TVs, apart from their gaming capabilities. Both have very low contrast ratios and middling black uniformity, so neither is great for watching content in a dark room. The LG is a much better choice for gaming, as it supports HDMI 2.1 bandwidth, VRR, and 120Hz.
The Sony X90K/X90CK is better than the LG QNED80. The Sony is much better for watching movies in HDR or SDR because it displays deeper blacks and its local dimming feature is significantly better. It also gets brighter in HDR, allowing colors to look vivid and highlights to stand out. While the Sony is better overall for gaming due to its faster response time, the LG has lower input lag for a more responsive feel.
The Samsung QN85A QLED is better than the LG QNED80. Although they each use IPS panels with wide viewing angles and low contrast, the Samsung uses Mini LED backlighting that lets it provide a better local dimming feature with a lot less blooming than the edge-lit local dimming on the LG. The Samsung is also better for HDR because it gets much brighter, has better gradient handling, and displays a wider range of colors.
Although the LG NANO85 2021 and the LG QNED80 are from different lineups, they're very similar TVs. The main difference is that the QNED80 displays slightly more colors thanks to its quantum dot technology, and it's a bit brighter too. They have many of the same features, but the NANO85 supports Dolby Atmos passthrough and supports Dolby Vision for HDR, both of which the QNED80 doesn't do.
The Hisense U8/U8H is significantly better than the LG QNED80. The Hisense delivers much better picture quality in dark rooms thanks to its higher contrast and better local dimming. It's also much better for HDR because it supports both Dolby Vision and HDR10+, which the LG doesn't support, and it gets much brighter for better highlights and more vivid colors.
The Samsung Q80B QLED is better overall than the LG QNED80. Although they both have the same panel type with low native contrast, the Samsung has a much better local dimming feature that helps improve the picture quality in dark scenes, and it has less blooming than the LG. The Samsung also gets brighter, making it a better choice for well-lit rooms and making highlights pop more in HDR.
The TCL 6 Series/R646 2021 QLED is much better than the LG QNED80. The TCL delivers significantly better picture quality thanks to its higher contrast, better local dimming, and improved black uniformity. It also gets brighter than the LG, meaning it's the better choice for watching content in well-lit rooms and makes highlights pop more in HDR.
After nearly two years now, the scorch marks are increasingly noticeable along the bottom edge, but the LG QNED80 2022 now has a worse problem, as roughly half of the backlight has failed. The center of the screen now measures a nearly 85% drop in peak brightness. The TV is still on the test, but it'll probably fail completely in the near future.
After 14 months on our accelerated longevity test, the LG QNED80 2022 has developed multiple serious issues, similar to the Samsung AU8000. There are scorch marks around some LEDs along the bottom edge, which has caused cracks in the light guide plate. These cracks, in turn, cause light to seep through. Unlike the AU8000, the LEDs haven't completely failed yet.
As part of our two-year test, which has so far subjected 100 TVs to over 10,000 hours of accelerated testing, we found that edge-lit TVs like this one have significant durability issues. These issues range from warped reflector sheets and cracked light guide plates to completely burnt-out LEDs. You can read the full results of our investigation here.
The stand has two V-shaped feet that hold the TV well. They raise the screen high enough off the table that there are 3.31 inches (8.4 cm) of space between the table and the bottom of the screen, meaning most soundbars won't block it. You can also place the feet in a narrow position (see here) if you have a smaller TV stand.
Footprint of the 65" TV:
The back of the TV features brushed metal and is simple-looking. The inputs are set into the TV, so they're hard to reach with the TV wall-mounted. You can route cables through the feet and clips for cable management. If you have the stand in the narrow position, you can also move the clips to the center to keep the setup clean.
The LG QNED80 2022 has a terrible contrast ratio. This means that blacks look gray anytime there are bright highlights present. Because the local dimming on the TV generally does more harm than good, our test results are with local dimming turned off.
Although the local dimming feature helps improve the contrast a bit, it does so by raising the brightness of the whites, so dark scenes look even worse. The higher-end LG QNED85 delivers much better dark scene performance thanks to its Mini LED backlight.
With local dimming set to 'Off', there's no blooming, as the entire backlight is always on at the same intensity. Here is what the same scene looks like with local dimming set to 'High'. Again, it slightly improves the contrast, but at the expense of severe blooming in almost all scenes.
With local dimming set to 'Off', there are no zone transitions, as the entire backlight is always on. For comparison, here's what lighting zone transitions look like with local dimming set to 'High'; there's severe blooming, although it does make contrast a bit better. The local dimming does more harm to the image than good, so we recommend users keep it turned off.
The contrast and dark details look the same in Game Mode with local dimming disabled. The image and videos above are with local dimming set to 'Off', but here's what the contrast in Game Mode looks like with local dimming set to 'High':
The HDR brightness isn't bad, but it isn't bright enough to make highlights truly stand out against dark backgrounds. Small highlights do get brighter than larger ones, but because of the low contrast and elevated black levels, they don't pop like on other TVs.
These measurements are after calibrating the HDR white point with the following settings:
Enabling local dimming significantly increases the peak brightness of smaller highlights, but the overall picture quality is worse, and there's distracting blooming around bright highlights. Here are photos and measurements of the TV's HDR Brightness with local dimming set to 'High':
The HDR brightness in Game Mode looks the same as outside of Game Mode, even if the individual windows are slightly dimmer, but you can't notice any difference. These results are with the same settings as outside of Game Mode but in the 'Game Optimizer' HDR Picture Mode.
The PQ EOTF tracking on the LG QNED80 2022 is okay. While it doesn't display all highlights the way they should be, there's a slow roll-off at the peak brightness, meaning it preserves details well. However, it isn't as good with content mastered at 4,000 nits because the roll-off happens earlier, so bright highlights are quite a bit dimmer than they should be. When it comes to shadows and midtones, they are displayed dimmer than they should be, regardless of what brightness level the content was mastered at. On the other end, blacks are displayed brighter than they should be, so perfect blacks are unachievable on the TV no matter what the content was mastered at.
The graph above is with local dimming set to 'Off'; here's what the PQ EOTF tracking looks like with local dimming set to 'High'. It's significantly more accurate than with local dimming disabled, but unfortunately, it comes at the expense of massive blooming and distracting lighting zone transitions.
The SDR peak brightness on the LG QNED80 2022 is decent. It's bright enough to fight glare with a few lights around but not enough if you have it placed opposite a bright window. There's some variation in brightness between different scenes, but this is only noticeable when using it as a PC monitor, like when you're minimizing and maximizing windows.
These measurements are after calibration with the following settings:
With local dimming set to 'High', it gets a bit brighter, especially when displaying small, bright highlights:
The LG QNED80 2022 has a very good color gamut thanks to its quantum dot technology. It has excellent coverage of the commonly-used DCI-P3 color space, but it isn't future-proof because it has limited coverage of the Rec. 2020 color space, which is becoming more popular with HDR content. Unfortunately, it has bad tone mapping with the tested 75% stimulus, meaning that brighter colors lose details. However, it's better with a 50% stimulus, as you can see with the DCI-P3 color space here and the Rec. 2020 color space here.
The color volume on the LG QNED80 2022 is not bad. It struggles to display bright colors and can't display dark colors well either due to its low contrast.
With a few quick setting changes out of the box, the LG QNED80 2022 has good accuracy. Most colors have excellent accuracy as they aren't oversaturated, and the color temperature is close to the 6500K target. However, the white balance is a bit off, particularly with mid shades of gray, and gamma doesn't follow our 2.2 target, as most scenes are too bright.
The LG QNED80 2022 is very easy to calibrate, and the results after calibration are nearly perfect, with no noticeable issues at all.
You can see the full calibration settings we used here.
The TV has very good gray uniformity. The edges of the screen are a bit darker than the rest, and there's a bit of dirty screen effect in the center, but it isn't enough to be distracting while watching sports or using it as a PC monitor.
The black uniformity of this TV is unremarkable. With the local dimming disabled, the entire screen is blue due to the low contrast, and there's noticeable clouding. Although the local dimming helps deepen parts of the screen, there's still noticeable blooming due to the edge-lit dimming zones. For comparison, here's what lighting zone transitions look like with local dimming set to 'High'.
The gradient handling is mediocre. There's visible banding in most colors, especially the grays and greens, and you'll see this banding in scenes with shades of similar colors, like a sunset. It has a Smooth Gradation setting that helps smooth out the gradients.
Like most IPS panels, the LG QNED80 2022 has an RGB subpixel layout, which is better for PC use than BGR panels because it improves the text clarity, which you can read about here. However, the 50-inch model has a different panel type with a BGR layout.
The LG QNED80 2022 uses pulse width modulation (PWM) to dim its backlight at all brightness levels. The flicker depends on the picture mode you use, and you can see the differences below. The 120Hz flicker can be noticeable and cause image duplication with 60 fps signals, like when you're gaming, as it flickers at 120Hz in Game Mode.
Picture modes with 480Hz flicker:
Picture modes with 120Hz flicker:
This TV has an optional backlight strobing feature, commonly known as black frame insertion, which you can enable to improve the appearance of motion. It can flicker at either 60Hz or 120Hz, and while it does a good job at reducing blur, there's still some image duplication.
Due to the quick response time, there's some noticeable stutter when watching low frame-rate content like movies. It's especially noticeable in slow panning shots or wide landscape shots.
The TV removes judder from any source, including 60Hz sources like cable boxes. For a smooth movie-watching experience, enable the Real Cinema setting.
The TV supports variable refresh rate technology to reduce screen tearing. It supports all three VRR formats across the TV's entire refresh rate range.
The LG QNED80 2022 has incredibly low input lag, ensuring a responsive gaming or desktop experience. It's a bit slower than the latest high-end LG TVs like the LG G3 OLED, but still low enough for most users.
The LG QNED80 2022 has HDMI 2.1 bandwidth that lets it support all signals up to 4k @ 120Hz, as long as you're using HDMI ports 3 and 4. It also displays proper chroma 4:4:4 with any signal, which helps it display proper text with PCs. If you're using HDMI ports 1 and 2, you're limited to HDMI 2.0 bandwidth, so you can't use it for 4k @ 120Hz signals with chroma 4:4:4 and 10-bit color depth.
Like with the PS5, there aren't any issues with the Xbox Series X, but you need to use the HDMI 2.1 bandwidth ports 3 and 4 to take full advantage of it. The TV doesn't support Dolby Vision, so you can get all the green checkmarks except that.
The TV doesn't support Dolby Vision, so you're limited to watching HDR content in the basic HDR10 format. One of the HDMI 2.1 bandwidth ports also serves as the eARC port, meaning you can only have one HDMI 2.1 device connected if you have a soundbar or receiver.
The TV supports eARC to pass audio formats from a connected player to your home audio system or a soundbar. It supports the vast majority of Dolby audio formats, except for the lossless Dolby TrueHD 7.1. It also doesn't support any DTS audio formats, which limits you if you like to watch DVDs or Blu-rays, as they regularly use DTS for their main audio tracks.
This TV has an okay frequency response. It sounds alright with moderate listening levels, but there's more deviation and compression at its max volume. Sadly, like most TVs, it doesn't produce much bass, if any.
The distortion handling isn't bad. It's decent with moderate listening levels, but the distortion is worse at its max volume.
The LG QNED80 2022 comes with the 2022 version of the webOS smart platform. It's easy to use and it has a few more features compared to past models, like the support of user profiles so each member of your household can customize their profile how they want.
The included Magic Remote has a point-and-press feature that makes it easier to navigate through the menu. It has a built-in mic that you can ask to switch inputs, open apps, search for content, or adjust the settings. The remote that comes with the Costco version of this TV has an NFC feature that lets you tap your phone against the remote to cast content, and it's symbolized with the NFC logo on the remote.