Review: LG C4 OLED TV

The C4 supports Dolby Vision and other leading forms of HDR, which means you get excellent color highlights when watching HDR-enabled content. I was particularly wowed by the performance when streaming the latest Dune film, which has exceptional color grading. It also does super well with darker content, like any Game of Thrones or Star Wars episodes that you might find annoying to watch elsewhere.

Speaking of color: This TV is finally bright enough to compete with the LED displays from Samsung and others. It peaks at more than 1,000 nits, which is eye-watering stuff in most instances. You can place it in a well-lit room with no fear. I did find that the panel can get a bit wonky when viewed from extreme side angles—another reviewer called it a bit green from the side, but I see more of a teal blue tint—so I wouldn’t pick this if you plan on having a lot of seating at the edges of your space.

You’ll want to upgrade your audio. Down-firing speakers don’t sound particularly awesome on any TV, and the C4 is no exception, but the TV can sync up with soundbars (like the pictured LG S95TR) in order to help contribute to a larger soundstage. That’s a nice option for folks who like to same-brand their purchases and are doing a whole-theater upgrade. Just remember to buy a soundbar or outboard speaker system for a TV like this, or you’re missing out on the real theater-like experience it can provide.

Exceptional Picture, Normal Money

When I think about just how good this TV looks, whether I’m in gaming mode, sport mode, or filmmaker mode, I am astonished that the price starts well below the $2,000 mark. This TV would have easily been tens of thousands of dollars just a few years ago, not that the technology it uses even existed.

It used to be that you had to make compromises to color, brightness, or backlighting to get a TV that could play games as well as it could play Spielberg, but that is no longer the case. With the C4, you can plug in and play your gaming PC with equal perfection as you can with a 4K Blu-Ray player and your favorite releases. Soon enough, the differences between gaming monitors and TVs will disappear completely.

For now, if you’re looking for an excellent viewing experience and are willing to spend more than a thousand bucks for a TV—lest we forget, you can get also-great models for well under that—you really won’t find many models, at any price, that look better than the LG C4. Given how things have gone, I expect to have similar thoughts about the C5 next year.