LG C4 OLED review: everyone should have one

LG C4 OLED

MSRP $1,600.00

Score Details

“This LG OLED EVO C4 is so good, we think that everyone should have this TV.”

Pros

• Excellent contrast
• Rich color
• Very good upscaling
• Great for gaming
• Accurate out-of-the-box settings

Cons

• Weak audio system
• Slight green tinge off-angle

Every time I have something complimentary to say about a TV, I challenge myself to find a fresh, unique way to pay that compliment in a fun, punchy way. I found myself wrestling with what to say about the LG C4 OLED. I mean, it’s a great TV. In fact, it’s one of the best you can buy.

Then, while chatting with my videographer, Zeke, it just came out: “Man, ya know … I just wish everyone could have this TV.”

Is this TV perfect? Nope. No TV is or will ever be, and I have a few gripes to share. Is the LG C4 the right TV for everyone? No. There are several reasons you might not want to buy the LG C4.

But, with all of that said, I really do wish everyone could have this TV in their home. I think that’s one of the best compliments I can pay a TV. But first let’s take a look at what this TV offers, what it costs, what TVs it competes with, and how well it performs.

Video review

The specs

All the OLED most folks need …

The LG C4 is the second-best OLED TV LG makes. As an OLED, it’s got a leg up on mini-LED TVs in terms of contrast, black levels, and color richness. It used to be that OLEDs had a tough time competing in terms of raw brightness power. But with each year that passes, that is less and less of a concern. Today, an OLED TV like the C4 is plenty bright enough for most viewing situations.

The LG C4 is available in a broad range of sizes, including 42, 48, 55, 65, 77, and 83 inches. As a premium OLED TV, the C4 is going to be a little expensive, but not nearly as expensive as the overachieving Gallery Series G4 OLED. The C4 here competes most directly with two other OLED TVs, the Sony Bravia 8 and the Samsung S90C. In terms of price, it’s on par with the Samsung S90C and, like the Samsung S90C, is a bit less expensive than Sony’s Bravia 8.

The top portion of the C4 is superthin — thinner than your phone — and there’s a little bump-out toward the bottom to house some of the bulkier guts like the power supply and processing components. The TV has a centralized pedestal stand that comes in two pieces and is put together and attached to the TV with eight screws.

You get four HDMI 2.1 inputs with this TV, one of which is an eARC port. Around the front, you have very effective anti-glare and anti-reflection treatment, but the screen still has a glossy luster when lit up and showing a picture.

The C4 comes with LG’s Magic Remote, which is loaded with buttons and motion control — you can just point and wave at the TV to move things around. I’m not a fan of the motion control that most apps use to make it very easy to log in using your phone. However, LG offers this sort of home-office interface where not only can you browse webpages, but you can view your email, Google Docs, messenger, calendar, etc. And if you use that stuff on your TV, the motion control is essential for moving the on-screen cursor, as clicking your way around would be a pain.

This is all thanks to the webOS operating system on LG’s TV. And, yes, LG has sneaked ads into that user interface. That’s not a new thing. And to LG’s credit, the only ads I’ve seen are for content or games you can enjoy on the TV — no retail or product ads, though there is a shopping channel if you like the idea of shopping on your TV.

You can easily access free internet TV — or FAST channels, as they’re called — as well as all of your usual apps. I just don’t like the layout. It’s a bit too busy and filled with stuff I’ll never use and can’t remove. I just wish I could clean this mess up, but outside of moving apps out of the way, I can’t really do that.

The LG C4 has a great automatic game mode that engages when playing console or PC games. It supports all the variable refresh rate (VRR) formats, has super-low input lag, and is otherwise an awesome choice for gaming. If you’re worried about burn-in, LG has processes built in to mitigate that risk. And while LG doesn’t offer a burn-in-specific warranty for this TV like it does for the G4, I’m confident all but the most hardcore gamers need not worry about gaming-triggered burn-in.

A quick word on the sound quality: It’s not as good as I want it to be for a TV at this price. The Roku Pro Series is a TV that proves it doesn’t take a ton of space to fit in a solid sound system. The sound on this TV is not poor, it’s just not as awesome as I want it to be.

Dialogue is reasonably clear, but voices seem disconnected from the picture. There’s enough bass to round out the sound, but it carries little weight. The sound also gets a little compressed at higher volumes. LG does provide an AI sound Pro feature that aims to bolster the audio, but I’ve never been a fan and the C4 doesn’t change my stance.

One more thing to mention even though I totally do not think this needs to sway anyone’s decision on a TV purchase: LG doesn’t do ATSC 3.0 tuners right now. So, if for some reason you have to have that — even though I would argue it is of little to zero benefit to anyone, at least right now — just know you’d need an external box to do ATSC 3.0 over the air (OTA) broadcasts.

For the nit nerds …

OK, now it’s time to talk picture quality. This is a section where we get into some technical measurements, so if you don’t care what the peak brightness, electro-optical transfer function (EOTF), and BT.2020 coverage specs are for this TV, feel free to skip to the next section where I’ll talk all about the real-world picture quality capabilities for this TV.

Here’s the tea: Absolutely zero surprises, no real disappointments, and there’s even a slight measurable boost in brightness.

In Fillmmaker mode, SDR brightness peaked at just shy of 300 nits for me. You can, of course, drive the TV much harder to brighten it up. Two-point white balance and grayscale are excellent — perhaps not as perfect as the G4 measured, but I am still mighty impressed. I mean, I’d knock a few points off the red channel across the grayscale and this would tighten right up.

Color performance is excellent. You lose a bit of saturation in the dimmest colors, but based on the measurements, these readings are outstanding.

And that trend continues in HDR, where I got just over 1,000 nits peak from a 2% window up to 25% before it drops down. We know to expect this from non-micro lens array (MLA) OLEDs, where full-screen white comes in at around 200 nits. So, if you watch a lot of hockey or a lot of snow-filled scenes and you want your eyeballs seared, well, you may wanna go elsewhere. For all but the brightest, most sun-soaked rooms, this is going to be just fine, thank you very much.

The TV tracks EOTF perfectly here. Gamma is solid.

HDR color matching was top-tier. P3 color was right at about 100% and BT.2020 at 75%.

Like I said, zero surprises.

The bottom line

I will note that HDR mode is not quite as bright as some of the other picture modes. Not once did it ever bother me, but I’m not gaming with sunlight pouring in here. The lighting in here is always moderate, so while the measurements don’t lie, it was tough to notice any degradation in brightness during actual gameplay.

So the picture quality takeaway for this TV? It’s outstanding. This is the OLED TV tier most people should buy. The processing is very good. It’s maybe not as pristine as Sony’s, but most folks won’t notice the difference on-screen like they’ll notice the difference in their bank account should they choose the Sony Bravia 8 instead.

I also feel like the processing here is better than Samsung’s in a couple of areas based on prior experience with the S95D, but I’m going to hold off on making a final call until I’ve reviewed the S90D QD-OLED TV. Really, if you buy the Samsung S90D QD-OLED, you’re doing it because you want the higher color saturation at the brighter end of the spectrum. It’s a tight, tight race, folks. I’d say if you have preexisting brand loyalty to LG, just buy the C4.

The perfect blacks, the excellent color, the instant pixel response time, the powerful processing, the solid upscaling, the excellent gaming performance? The only reason you should pay more is if you crave the very, very best there is and you’re willing to pay handsomely for it.

Most of the difference between the C4 here and the G4 is going to be in the HDR highlights. It’s a difference you can see when we look at scenes like this one in Mad Max, where the LG G4 makes those flames searingly bright, rather than just sparkling on the C4.

Now, if you do watch TV in a super-bright room fairly often? I think you need to look at a more powerful mini-LED around the same price. And if you really want an OLED, you’ll need to step up to something like the LG G4, the Sony A95L, or the Samsung S95D.

But if you’re coming from an LED TV from four or  five years ago, or any mid-tier TV from that time period, the LG C4 is going to be a serious upgrade in picture quality.

I’m telling ya, this is your TV right here. Get it.

If you were expecting a longer, more drawn-out review — hey, I’m sorry. The thing is that there’s very little this TV does that isn’t awesome. Get yourself a nice soundbar, get a Roku or an Apple TV, and get this TV.

The C4 is just rock-solid, reliable, and impressive. It’s gorgeous. I wish everyone could have one. It’s just that good.