Up until last year I was hesitant to purchasing a Smart TV. My thought was it was always better to have something like a Roku that way I didn't get stuck with a bunch of software in a TV that I either didn't like or was neglected by the manufacturer.
This changed last year when I bought a TCL with the built in Roku. Everything was pretty straight forward. I receive updates fairly regularly, and the interface is familiar as it's Roku.
When going to purchase a new TV for our living, I found very few TV's that weren't Smart TV's. At least any with decent reviews. It was down to this TV or 2 others, and I ended up going with this one.
I'm quite happy with the TV itself, especially the picture. The one thing that bothers me is LG's implementation of it's Smart system. I thought at first it was just from coming from Roku-based products, but it's really not intuitive. I had accidentally installed an app because of this, and found it was twice as hard to uninstall it. Instead of having an option on the app page to uninstall the application, where you have the ability to install and update the app, you instead have to know to hit X button at Y to get presented with the uninstall option. I honestly had to do a search on the Internet for how to do it, and the worse part is there was 3 different solutions provided because if you have the Smart remote it's one way, and then older models do it another way, and then the newer models yet another way. After having it for a few weeks now it still doesn't seem any better, and the limited number of applications available is frustrating, because I still find myself having to use my Roku stick to watch some of the channels simply not offered on this device. I would imagine something like Watch ESPN, or HBO Go would be available, but both aren't, and they aren't the only ones. I understand in most cases it's the provider who has to make the apps, but it's frustrating when you're so used to having access to these.
In summary, the TV itself is great. The smart aspect of the TV has some shortcomings, and is the reason for the 4 stars.
I'm not dinging anything on the rating for the pickup experience as it has nothing to do with the product, but it was terrible to say the least. I have a local Best Buy warehouse in my area that was presented in a way online that it could save all of this time. Having had some issues when picking up from the store before, I thought I could see the benefit.
Unfortunately, when I got to the warehouse, there was no clear direction on where to enter. What seemed like the obvious entrance ( large glass windows in front of the parking lot ) is for employees only. You'll walk into a vestibule where a security guard will inpolitely tell you you're in the wrong place and need to go around the side of the building. He'll just point, it's up to you from there to figure it out. I don't blame him, for whatever reason Best Buy doesn't put up any signs. Around the side of the building where he points are multiple doors. Rest assured, while they're all flat metallic and look like they won't go anywhere, one of them does. I won't ruin the surprise, you'll have to keep pulling one at a time :-) . From there you'll enter into another vestibule. Once there, I had a woman tell me someone would be with me in a few minutes. I waited at least 7 minutes while this woman and a few other employees all huddled around a cubicle to watch some goofy video they were all laughing at ( see attached pictures ). All while ~10 feet in front of me, as if somehow the glass with open areas to talk was somehow making it so I couldn't hear everything.
Then once the woman finally came over to help me she took my receipt and walked away for another 5+ minutes. When she finally came back, it wasn't with a TV, but rather with an explanation of how I basically needed to drive 350 degrees around the building to basically 10 feet from the door I went in, but on the other side of a fence ( basically doing a long circle around the warehouse ). And from there I would need to park in front of door X, where my TV will be waiting. Okay, so now I'm over 15 minutes into this and I still don't have a TV. Clearly, I'm wishing I would have chose the store pickup, but it gets better.
After doing the drive, which takes another few minutes because of the distance, speed at which you can drive, and the fact you have to check in with a security guard, the only place to park in front of this door has the irrigation system running ( again see pictures ). I go up to the door and knock, thinking by now the TV should be there, but no one answers. I go down a few doors to one that opens, and about as soon as I walk in I get yelled at by someone who says I'm not supposed to be there. I explain how I'm picking up the TV and that person says where I need to go, which I explained that's where I was, and then I was told the TV isn't ready yet, and I just need to wait longer, when it's ready someone will open the door. Finally, a few minutes later someone finally does, and I get the TV into the car and can finally leave.
Obviously, I will never pickup from the warehouse again.