Looking for a new OLED TV? Eager it's the latest model possible? Heard good things about LG?
Then myself and the What Hi-Fi? home cinema reviews team have good news for you – we’ve got a new recommended set for you.
Specifically, we’ve just added the LG C5 OLED TV to our best LG TV guide as our recommended new set.
While we feel the LG C4, at its freshly reduced price, is better value from a performance-per-pound / dollar perspective – hence its ongoing place as our “overall” recommendation – the C5 is the best you’ll find for magpies that insist on only buying the latest model each year.
There are two reasons for this.
1. It retains the strengths of the LG C4
The LG C5 is not a massive technical upgrade on the C4, instead it’s an incremental step forward that builds on the line’s already strong foundation.
This means the TV features the same flawless app support, which includes all the common services you’d expect, ranging from Netflix to specialist ones like horror-focussed Shudder, and anime hotspot Crunchyroll, that made the C4 great.
There’s also the same flawless gaming features, with the set featuring four full-fat HDMI 2.1 inputs. These are all capable of handling up to 4K/144Hz signals with Variable Refresh Rate (VRR) and Auto Low Latency Mode (ALLM).
With one doubling as an eARC input, this means you have all the bells and whistles you need to run a modern gaming PC, PS5 or Xbox Series X/S and Dolby Atmos soundbar at full throttle without any cable swapping.
Very few other OLED TVs we've tested can do this.
2. And offers a few key improvements
Specifications aside, the TV delivers solid improvements to one key area at the heart of all our home cinema buying advice: picture quality.
Though we’d have liked to see a heatsink added, or even the outgoing brightness boosting micro lens array (MLA) tech seen on last year’s LG G4 trickle down to the C-series, the improvements LG has made to the C5 are positive.
The two biggies are the inclusion of a new Brightness Booster engine and Alpha 9 Gen 8 processor. The primary does what it says on the tin, while the latter brings with it a number of AI processing improvements designed to refine the set’s picture quality.
During testing, while the upgrades on the C5 aren’t mind blowing, they are impressive as the C4 remains a great performer in its own right. During our peak brightness stress test, a scene from Pan mastered at 4000 nits, the C5 retained more detail in the brightest part of a sunset than rivals.
Moving to our grim, dark Blade Runner 2049 test disc, characters’ skin tones looked warmer and generally a smidgeon more realistic. Improved colour volume also helped colours look more alive, and the picture retained details usually lost in the darkest part of the picture.
This makes the C5 a wonderful performer and the best C-series TV currently available from a purely picture quality perspective.
Hence it’s our new recommended new set in our best LG TV guide. Our only minor word of caution is that its inbuilt speakers are fairly weak.
During testing the low end was particularly thin and they lack the finesse to add any sense of directionality to movie audio. So you will want to budget for a soundbar if you don’t already own one.
MORE:
These are the best OLED TVs money can buy
We rate the best gaming TVs
Our picks of the best Dolby Atmos soundbars
