LG NU85 Nano 55NU850BPUA 55"

Great smart TV software and upscaling trapped in a body with a mediocre picture. Get it cheap for a bright living room, but movie buffs should look at Mini-LED alternatives.

The Nano Detail Enhancer and 4K upscaling are the real heroes here. Watching 1080p streams, the processor cleans up the image surprisingly well, adding sharpness without making things look artificial. But the direct-lit backlight is the bottleneck. HDR content feels a bit flat, and the picture quality sits in a disappointing 37th percentile in our database. It's fine for a bright room, but movie night in the dark reveals its limits with uneven blacks and no local dimming to speak of.

The competitive field has shifted. The TCL QM8K and Hisense U8 Series are now the budget Mini-LED champs to beat, both delivering quantum dot color and far better HDR impact than the NU85. The LG C5 Series OLED is the new picture quality king in this range, with perfect blacks that make the NU85's direct-lit panel look ancient, though it costs a lot more. The Sony BRAVIA XR A95L and Samsung Neo QLED QN100QN80 are also in the top tier, but they're priced for a different buyer entirely. The NU85's only real edge remains the polished webOS experience and LG's brand reliability, but against this crowd, it's a convenience pick in a field of performance picks.

With a price spread from $400 to $550 across vendors, the value proposition shifts a lot. At $400, it's a fair deal for a feature-rich smart TV. At $550, you're dangerously close to better-performing Mini-LED options from Hisense and TCL. If you can snag it at the low end from Best Buy, it's a reasonable buy for a secondary room.

The LG NU85 is a solid mid-range 4K TV that gets the smart platform right, but its picture quality holds it back from being a true standout. If you're deep in LG's webOS ecosystem and want a reliable 55-inch screen for everyday streaming, it's a decent pick. Just don't expect it to blow you away with deep blacks or vibrant HDR pop. The α7 AI Processor Gen9 does some heavy lifting to make lower-res content look crisp, which is its best trick.

If you're looking for a cinematic experience with deep blacks and punchy HDR highlights, this isn't it. Go get a TCL QM8K or a Hisense U8 Series instead. Their Mini-LED panels will make a night-and-day difference for movie watching in a dark room, and the LG C5 OLED is the real endgame if you can afford it.

The LG NU85 is a smart TV that's smarter than its picture. Buy it for the excellent webOS platform, the solid upscaling, and the gaming features if you find it for around $400. If picture quality is your top priority, the TCL QM8K or Hisense U8 will give you a visibly better image for not much more, and the LG C5 OLED is the real upgrade if you can stretch the budget. This LG is a convenience pick, not a performance pick.