LG C1 OLED 4K HDR TV Review (OLED65C1PUB)
LG C1 Series 65 "4K OLED TV
“The LG C1 remains the preferred OLED television. It just makes sense. "
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Excellent contrast
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Perfect black levels
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Improved processing
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Ideal for games
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Impressive sound
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Sluggish user menus
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Confusing picture settings
If you are in the market for an OLED TV, then you should check out the LG C1. LG's C-Series OLEDs have been among my top picks (if not one of the top picks) for our list of the best TVs since the C6 was launched about 5 years ago. LG's C-Series has changed, for the most part, incrementally from year to year, and this year is no different. However, the upgrades the C1 OLED received over last year's CX OLED are mostly significant in terms of processing, sound (yes, sound) and games.
Since I've already told you to seriously consider this TV, I would like to take this opportunity to explain why.
Historical, LG C Series OLED TVss have the same panel and the same processor as the more expensive Gallery Series or G-Series OLEDs from LG and better workmanship than the B-Series OLEDs. This year, with the introduction of the new, cheaper A-series, the C1 still justifies its slightly more expensive price. Compared to the new G1 OLED, the C1 is now considerably cheaper because the G1 has received an improved, brighter panel known as the OLED evo. All this to say: the C1 has always hit a sweet spot in LG's OLED range – this sweet spot is now a little sweeter. Now let's examine some details.
Video review
Jump to: Design | Details | User interface | Under the hood | Sound | Measurements | Image quality | Problems | Play | Our opinion
design
The LG C1 OLED looks exactly like its predecessor, the CX: Striking. I'm still amazed at how thin the panel is. When mounted on the wall, the C1 looks very elegant and modern. On its stand, the TV looks equally chic with a brushed metal shovel and offers both aesthetic and functional benefits. There are practically no bezels, which gives the C1 an "all-picture-no-nonsense" appearance.
Dan Baker / Digital Trends
Dan Baker / Digital Trends
Dan Baker / Digital Trends
Dan Baker / Digital Trends
This year, the TV remote control has undergone a design change. The new Magic Motion remote control is now a little shorter and has a flattened back. It now sits better in the hand and no longer wobbles when placed on a flat surface. The buttons are few, but far more than on the Samsung remotes or the included Roku TVs.
Another major improvement to the remote control is that it is less likely to click the center scroll wheel and accidentally unintentionally dive into an app or menu.
LG C1 OLED 4K HDR details
While we tested the 65-inch model OLED65C1PUB, our test also applies to the other screen sizes available in the series.
| Screen size | Model no | RRP |
| 48 inches |
OLED48C1PUB |
$ 1,500 |
| 55 inches | OLED55C1PUB | $ 1,800 |
| 65 inches | OLED65C1PUB | $ 2,500 |
| 77 in | OLED77C1PUB | $ 3,800 |
user interface
As with all 2021 OLED televisions from LG, the C1 benefits from a newly designed WebOS Smart TV interface. Rather than relying on a bunch of apps at the bottom of the screen as it did in previous years, LG's custom smart TV platform is now much more like Google TV than Samsung's Tizen interface. It has big tiles for apps, lots of recommended content (possibly too much), and it's easier to read thanks to its dark theme.
Dan Baker / Digital Trends
On the menu page, where users select picture presets, adjust picture settings, sound settings, etc., WebOs provides explanations of what each setting does and how it affects the experience. That's what we like about Sony televisions, too.
Dan Baker / Digital Trends
While the TV's Settings menu is easier to understand, it is now a little sluggish. I'm not used to seeing a circle graphic about loading as the TV shows different options or the next branch of the menu tree. To be fair, this is mostly only tolerated during the initial setup of the TV. Often times, those who do not surf the menu will not find this repulsive.
Under the hood
The first of three key improvements to the 2021 LG C1 OLED is its processor: The Alpha 9 Gen 4. As in previous years, the visible improvements in this next iteration are minor, but not insignificant. I noticed smoother gradients (fewer streaks of color) and possibly a slightly better preservation of bright highlight details, although admittedly the last part is difficult to measure – this is a purely subjective observation.
Dan Baker / Digital Trends
Most of the benefits of the new processor are related to what LG calls AI picture and sound processing – AI Picture Pro, AI brightness settings, automatic genre detection, and AI Sound Pro. The first three have different effects on picture quality, while the fourth is designed to improve sound.
To be honest, I didn't find any of them necessary to get a great picture. I'm also not sure how much A.I. is really involved here. I understand that processing detects different picture elements and tries to optimize the picture based on those elements. A dark scene in a Batman movie can benefit from increasing the black levels for better shadow detail in dark scenes, while suddenly retaining the bright highlight details in a bright scene, for example. But in general, I think the C1 did a great job producing a beautiful image without the extra layers of processing and other wizardry. Ultimately, I left all four settings disabled and, as I'll show soon, got great results.
A sound upgrade
Dan Baker / Digital Trends
I don't know what LG did for the C1 OLED, but it sounds fantastic – a bit better than last year's CX OLED. Most of the discussion about sound at a briefing with LG was about AI Sound Pro, which I ultimately turned off (it works fine for adding virtual surround to movies, but I didn't like what it did to music and soundtracks) . Regardless of what improvements were made to gain, driver placement, or overall sound tuning, these were very effective. This TV sounds great! I would still recommend at least one soundbar with a sub for an upgrade.
Through the measurements
If you're not into measurements and data, feel free to jump forward, but I think my nerds out there (and I use the term affectionately) will appreciate this.
A sucker, for those of you who join us right now, is a term used to describe a measure of brightness, and since there's a bit of a sucker war going on – everyone wants a big sucker number to point out their superior HDR capabilities – I thought I would tell you what results I got when measuring the LG C1 OLED.
I started with the TV's ISF Bright picture preset, calibrated the two point white balance where I pulled out a little red, and in the standard dynamic range (SDR) the TV clocked out in 195 nits with the OLED pixel brightness to the default of 80 and peak brightness . When I increased the OLED pixel brightness to 100 I measured 233 nits, and then when I turned the peak brightness setting to High I got 335 nits.
Dan Baker / Digital Trends
Depending on how bright you want your TV to be for daily viewing of content in SDR, the C1 should be able to compete with a moderate amount of ambient light in the room.
In HDR, I had to fix the white balance a little more, but when that was done I got 750 nits in a window of up to 25% which is solid. Not as bright as the new and improved LG G1 or Sony A90J OLED TVs, but what I was expecting based on what I got from last year's CX OLED – no changes.
The color measurements were also very good, as always, and that shows in the image quality which, to put it right, is superb.
General image quality
Dan Baker / Digital Trends
Dan Baker / Digital Trends
I kind of forget how much I like this OLED range from LG. It gets me every time. If you want to see how good the C1 can look – well, I have a wide list of recommended 4K Blu-rays that I would recommend – but available to just about anyone: check out Our Planet on Netflix in 4K Dolby Vision at (required) premium subscription level). It's great recorded and mastered and looks excellent in Dolby Vision. It's a feast of beauty for your eyes.
From top to bottom, the pictures look just amazing.
This TV does almost everything right. It's bright enough to do HDR justice, it's got perfect blacks – which, as I cannot emphasize enough, has a huge impact on the overall look – and the color is deep and rich and vibrant. It doesn't matter what you see, the C1 OLED makes you look at its best, and can and does for a cheaper price than most other OLED TVs.
Dan Baker / Digital Trends
Dan Baker / Digital Trends
The upscaling is good – although not a miracle worker as we discussed earlier – the HDR tone mapping is also excellent. From top to bottom, the pictures look just amazing.
Now we need to talk about some issues that can arise with movement and shadow detail.
Inherent problems
While OLED TVs are an incredible technology, they have some inherent problems and they are incredibly tied to areas where the TV excels.
For example, OLED televisions have an instant response time of less than a millisecond. That is less than a millisecond until an OLED pixel is switched on or off or the color is changed. This is ideal in most cases for reducing motion blur and a real boon for gamers. Unfortunately, when you pair this instant response time with content with a low frame rate (such as 24 frames per second or 30 fps), you run into a problem called "stuttering".
Dan Baker / Digital Trends
This is stuttering, not jerking – this TV does a good job of playing content at 24 frames per second from a cadence point of view. Stuttering is related to how long a television needs to hold a picture before showing the next picture. Another view is what the gap is between the response time of the television and the next picture that emerges from the content.
The effect is shown as a kind of blinking that draws your attention to it and away from the focus object. You definitely have a tendency to notice. This is where a compromise comes into play: you can either endure the stutter or use motion smoothing to reverse it, creating a "soap opera effect". As far as I know, many of you reading this soap opera effect don't mind. Whether this is a disadvantage for you depends on your personal preferences. If you don't mind the soap opera effect, turn on motion smoothing and you're golden. If you're a movie purist, turn it off and put up with the stuttering – otherwise your C1 OLED is awesome.
The next topic to discuss is shadow details. Another way of referring to it might be the term "crushed blacks" which I don't normally use because it feels misleading as it is actually very dark gray that is being crushed and even then it is not being crushed, it is just not showing up. But I digress.
Dan Baker / Digital Trends
The problem is that parts of the image that should be darker gray tend to appear black on an OLED because OLED materials don't like to light up at extremely low voltages. Fortunately, LG has compensation for what you can manipulate so you can get better shadow detail at the expense of increased blacks, or better black levels at the expense of shadow detail. This can be an issue with extremely dark films – Prometheus and the opening sequences in Captain Marvel come to mind – but it probably affects the players the most. More on that in a moment.
The final issue to address is the potential for screen burn-in. As I've written countless times (sorry, some things take a while to get old, but I know this is very important), OLED screens are based on organic materials that get darker as they age. If you overuse a particular color or pattern for an extended period of time, that area of the screen may become disproportionately dark and appear to "hang up" on the screen. A good example of this would be a station identification error in the lower right corner of a sports / news network or the ticker at the bottom of the screen showing stock prices or updates to game results.
The fact is, screen burn-in isn't a problem for most viewers. However, if you're the type of person who watches the same channel, say, six or more hours a day, five or more days a week, I would recommend you consider a non-OLED TV – maybe the excellent Samsung QN90A Neo QLED, maybe?
Play
Dan Baker / Digital Trends
Dan Baker / Digital Trends
Dan Baker / Digital Trends
Dan Baker / Digital Trends
I think I can be pretty concise here. The C1 is fantastic for most game scenarios. Only LG equips a good number of its televisions with four HDMI 2.1 inputs. For this reason alone, it's one of the most versatile TVs for gaming. You also get FreeSync and G-Sync compatibility – I don't think any other brand supports both yet. The HDR images are fantastic and the input lag is very low.
Since LG's Game Optimizer dashboard "amplifies" the reduction in input delay, the input delay is less than 10 ms. The Game Optimizer dashboard is also a great place to adjust the black levels for better shadow detail, and there are even presets for different game genres that work quite well. This is just a really comprehensive suite of player-friendly features, so it's impossible for me not to call this TV one of the best for gaming.
Our opinion
Dan Baker / Digital Trends
With its beautiful design, great picture quality, gaming capabilities, and minor improvements over the previous year's model, the LG C1 OLED is the best OLED TV choice on the market.
Is there a better alternative?
For a brighter OLED TV, the LG G1 is a good choice. I also expect the Sony A80J to be a solid competitor in roughly the same price range (though more expensive). For a non-OLED option, the aforementioned Samsung QN90A is also an excellent alternative.
How long it will take?
Due to its extended functions, the LG C1 OLED should continue to exist in the future. It's unclear now if LG's brighter and slightly more accurate OLED Evo panel is slipping down to the C-series, so I wouldn't wait for that to happen. This is a good year to buy.
warranty
LG provides a one-year limited warranty on the C1-Series OLED when purchased from an authorized LG dealer.
Should you buy it?
Yes, if an OLED TV is right for you and it doesn't require intense brightness to display in bright rooms, the LG C1 OLED is currently the best value for money OLED TV.
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