Here's Why We Think LG TV Is The Best Smart TV For Office
We just moved to a bigger office recently. We have meeting rooms of various sizes for discussion and conference calls. As a software development company that primarily develops software for enterprises in Malaysia and Singapore, we often have discussions internally and also externally with clients. Hence, we were contemplating buying either a Smart TV or a projector for office meeting room.
Our goal was to look for a display solution primarily used during the discussion and brainstorming sessions as well as conference calls. We wanted an option that could easily support wireless casting as we try to avoid connecting using HDMI cable, have a short boot time and also be cost-friendly. Colour accuracy isn’t our main concern because we believe most smart TV’s colour reproduction would not be that bad.
We previously used an old LG smart TV for our old office that served us well for years, but we decided to evaluate other TV brands and projectors first. After a little research, we end up purchasing the LG UR75 55″ TV model 55UR7550PSC for our 4-person discussion room and the LG UR90 65″ TV model 65UR9050PSK for the boardroom. Both the TVs we own are 4K smart TVs. However, we only bought the 2023 model as LG only announced the 2024 model shortly after our purchase.
This article is not sponsored by LG, by the way 🙂
The LG Smart TV Experience In Our Office
1. Apple AirPlay 2 Support
Over half of our team members use MacBook Pro, MacBook Air, and the iPhone. And, thanks to AirPlay 2 support, our team members can effortlessly cast their content from their iPhones and MacBooks. AirPlay also supports mirror or extended modes (used as a separate display).
The LG 65UR9050PSK smart TV boot-up time takes around 5-6 seconds before we can start casting. Connecting to the TV via Airplay is also unbelievably fast and takes only around 3 seconds. This means our team members can cast their devices in a very short period and increase their productivity!
AirPlay support is particularly beneficial for our mobile developers and UI/UX designers, enabling them to easily display their work and mock-ups directly on the TV.
2. Windows Wireless Display
The LG smart TV supports Windows Wireless Display allows our team members who use Windows to wirelessly display their screens. Unfortunately, there are many times when they often fail to cast through wireless display. Bummer, right?
We end up purchasing a Type C HDMI wireless transmitter to be used by our team members who use Windows laptops. And the best part? It is super easy to use with the LG smart TV! Just plug the HDMI transmitter into the Type C port and wait around 10 seconds for the screen to appear on the TV.
Step 1: Buy a HDMI Transmitter
Step 2: Connect the cable to the LGTV and plug-in the transmitter to your laptop
Step 3: Select HDMI 1 on your screen
Step 4: Voila! You can cast your screen now!
3. LG Magic Remote With Cursor Functionality
One thing that stands out to us: LG Magic Remote. The on-screen pointer or cursor functionality on the Magic remote allows us to point easily through the slides, design and documents during discussions! This eliminates the need to purchase traditional laser pointers too!
It’s useful during meetings where we can just pass the magic remote to other team members to be used as a pointer to speed up the discussion.
We noticed that if you use Windows Wireless Display to cast our screens, the magic remote can turn into a mouse. It allows us to interact by clicking and controlling our screens using the Magic remote! Of course, this option can be disabled before connecting to the wireless display if preferred.
4. User-Friendly webOS
LG TV is powered by webOS and it’s extremely user friendly. When paired with LG magic remote, navigating the OS is very simple. We can switch input sources and access to settings fairly quickly.
Home users will appreciate the straightforward interface of the webOS home screen, which offers recommended content and provides easy access to streaming apps such as Netflix, Apple TV, Hulu, and more.
5. Support For Chromecast
LG has announced that webOS 24 will add support for Chromecast. We believe it solves the shortcomings of Windows Wireless Display. Our team members with Windows laptops (and even Mac users) have an extra option to cast the screen on the TV.
To cast a screen using Chromecast Google Chrome browser. The option is located in Chrome Browser, where users will just have to click the Kebab menu (also known as the 3 vertical dots menu).
The webOS 24 is currently only available for 2024 LG TV models. However, we brought the 2023 model before 2024 was released. Moreover, LG did announce that the webOS 24 is coming to older TV models. Unfortunately, it will take about a year for our 2023 LG smart TV to support it. We believe this is more of a marketing decision to perhaps encourage users to upgrade to the 2024 model.
Image via tom’s guide
We anticipate that once support for Chromecast arrives, it will become the primary method for our Windows users to cast their screens, replacing the need for the wireless HDMI transmitter.
6. Colour Accuracy
Our UI/UX team uses MacBooks and they have adjusted the colour depth to 60 in advanced settings to match the colour saturation of the TV to the MacBooks. We also chose the ‘cold’ colour temperature and set it to 20 to get the perfect white colour balance and fine tune the colour to ‘user selection’ options after adjusting the saturation and tint.
With this, whenever our UI/UX designers present the app interface, they achieve the same colour reproduction on the smart TV as well. However, we didn’t adjust the RGB pixel percentage as we have already achieved the colour reproduction settings that we want.
Although we adjusted the colour settings according to the MacBook, our team members who use Windows said that colour reproduction on the smart TV is more or less the same when they cast their screen.
7. Cost
After doing some market research, we found that the LG smart TV with so many wireless display options is cheaper but it comes at a cost. It isn’t as portable as a projector. Projectors are not only portable, but we found that projectors supporting Airplay and Windows wireless display are slightly more expensive than smart TVs. Apart from that, a cost-friendly projector’s resolution is often limited to FHD, 1920×1080 only.
Further reading:
Conclusion
In summary, the seamless support for Airplay and the intuitive webOS have made wireless casting and navigation effortless. Though there have been some colour accuracy and Windows Wireless Display difficulties that have affected our UI/UX presentations, they have been overcome by workarounds and advantages like the Magic Remote’s pointer functionality.
Both the LG UR75 55″ and LG UR90 65″ smart TVs are effective for our presentations, video conferences, and collaborative work sessions. Based on our positive experiences, we have planned to acquire another unit for the third meeting room!
We hope our opinion helps if you are looking to buy a smart TV for your office just like us. Remember to always weigh the pros and cons before making a purchase!
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