CNET ran their People's Picks survey again and LG took the overall win, plus the categories for picture quality, fast-moving content and OLED/QD-OLED. The numbers behind it: 61.7 percent of readers who own an LG rated bright room daytime viewing as excellent, 65.1 percent reported inky blacks with no light bleed, which they combined into a 63.4 percent picture quality score. Sony came second at 49.8 percent. On motion, 71 percent of LG owners called fast content perfectly smooth and 59.8 percent said gaming felt flawless.
I own an LG and I still think this measures the wrong thing. Every one of those percentages comes from owners of that brand rating their own set. Nobody in that sample put a C series and a Bravia side by side in the same room off the same source. What you get is an ownership satisfaction score, and satisfaction is downstream of what you paid, how long you researched, and whether you want to feel good about the decision.
The Sony gap makes the point. Sony's lineup is a mix of OLED and LCD, so a survey that averages every Sony owner is averaging in mini LED sets against a pool of LG respondents who are mostly holding OLEDs. Of course the black level number is lower. That is a product mix artifact, not a panel verdict.
Where this data is genuinely useful is the boring stuff nobody tests properly: does the set still work in year four, has the OS got slower, did the panel develop anything. Survey a thousand owners on that and you have something no review lab can give you.
What would you actually ask readers to get a number worth reading?
I own an LG and I still think this measures the wrong thing. Every one of those percentages comes from owners of that brand rating their own set. Nobody in that sample put a C series and a Bravia side by side in the same room off the same source. What you get is an ownership satisfaction score, and satisfaction is downstream of what you paid, how long you researched, and whether you want to feel good about the decision.
The Sony gap makes the point. Sony's lineup is a mix of OLED and LCD, so a survey that averages every Sony owner is averaging in mini LED sets against a pool of LG respondents who are mostly holding OLEDs. Of course the black level number is lower. That is a product mix artifact, not a panel verdict.
Where this data is genuinely useful is the boring stuff nobody tests properly: does the set still work in year four, has the OS got slower, did the panel develop anything. Survey a thousand owners on that and you have something no review lab can give you.
What would you actually ask readers to get a number worth reading?
