It should go without saying, but earning a spot on our list of the best TVs isn't easy. A TV has to fight past several dozen contenders in more than 10 different categories like color saturation, color accuracy, brightness, contrast, motion handling and more.
Over the last few years, the top spot has been owned by some truly awesome TVs like the LG C3 OLED, Samsung QN90C, Sony A95K OLED and, currently, the Hisense U8N. But, according to our latest lab tests, the crown could be returning to LG with the LG G4 OLED.
We've recently put the G4 OLED through our testing process and its results are wildly impressive. It has some of the best color accuracy and vibrancy of any TV we've ever tested, and thanks to its LG Display META 2.0 OLED panel with micro-lens array technology, it's putting out Mini-LED levels of brightness.
We'll still need to see how the TV holds up in an everyday viewing environment, but going by the lab results, it looks like the LG G4 OLED is a shoo-in for the best TV of 2024.
LG G4 OLED testing data compared
What you're looking at here is the LG G4 OLED up against the two flagship TVs from Samsung and Sony, the Samsung S94D OLED and the Sony Bravia 9 Mini-LED, respectively. These are, in my professional opinion, the three top-performing TVs of 2024 — and you can see just how close of a competition it is between the three.
What stands out to me, looking at the test data, is the LG G4's color saturation, SDR brightness and out-of-the-box color accuracy.
What stands out to me, looking at the test data, is the LG G4's color saturation, SDR brightness and out-of-the-box color accuracy. HDR brightness is a category that will always be won by Mini-LED TVs (though hats off to Samsung's flagship QD-OLED here for putting out such a high number), but the G4's 1487.61 nits is more than double what we saw from the LG G-Series three years ago.
What this should prove to you is that LG Display's MLA technology is the real deal. Yes, Mini-LED and QD-OLED are still brighter but they're making trade-offs either in color accuracy or contrast. The G4 OLED is the middle ground that should deliver high brightness, good contrast and high color saturation.
So will the LG G4 OLED be the best TV of 2024?
If you've read one of our many, many TV reviews before, you'll know that our lab tests play a major role in how well a TV scores, but they're not everything. We still look at a half-dozen other factors like the usability of the smart platform, the sound quality of the TV's built-in speakers, the motion processing and upscaling precision, and the gaming performance alongside minor details like remote control design.
We also consider price-to-performance ratio when deciding which TV deserves the crown as the best TV — not everyone has several hundred thousand dollars for MicroLED TVs, so we only give the award to TVs with a realistic sticker price.
Based on all of these factors, however, I think Samsung and Sony have every reason to be worried about the G4 OLED. We'll need to continue our anecdotal testing before we can make any final decisions, but our test data shows that the G4 OLED has the right stuff to take the top spot.
Stay tuned for the full LG G4 OLED review, posted right here in the coming week.
