OLED Green Tint

How Common Is It And What Can You Do?

Green Tint

The good news is that there's no need to adjust your set; this is, unfortunately, somewhat normal. Although this issue has been more widely reported this year, it's not new and has been noticeable on so-called WOLED panels made by LG Display for many years. These panels have found their way into OLED TVs by brands like Sony, LG, Vizio, and Panasonic.

Not much is known about this issue. LG Display confirmed to us that minor variations in the manufacturing process cause it, so it varies between each individual unit. There were significantly more reports of this issue in 2024, though, so are the latest panels more susceptible to this? We need your help to get to the bottom of this issue!

If you've purchased an OLED TV in the last few years, we want to hear from you. Using this form, we want to know what you bought, when you bought it, and how noticeable the green tint is on a scale from 0-10, with 10 being the worst. We also invite you to share pictures of your green tint by uploading them to an image-sharing site and sending us the link!

50+ OLEDs Tested

We've bought and tested over 50 TVs with OLED panels in the last few years, and as part of our regular viewing angle testing, we measured the color shift from 0° to 70°. You can see the individual results for all TVs using our table tool, but we can already see a few interesting trends from that data. First, you'll notice that none of the eight QD-OLEDs we've tested show any green shift, even at extremely wide viewing angles. It's also consistent with what we've heard from the community, as we haven't seen any reports of a green tint on QD-OLED panels.

There are also three WOLED TVs that show no color shift. Interestingly, these three TVs all have an additional MLA brightness-boosting layer. Again, this is consistent with our expectations, as LG Display also told us that MLA panels shouldn't have this issue. In this case, the community experience appears slightly different, as a quick Reddit search shows many reported issues, even with the most recent LG G4. It's worth pointing out that many of the original posters of those threads appear to be confusing standard uniformity issues with the off-angle green tint we're looking into here. Still, some of those threads appear to show this issue as well.

So, eliminating the QD-OLEDs and MLA panels from our results leaves us with ~40 OLEDs that we've tested over the last five years. What do our measurements tell us about the green shift on these panels, and is there any pattern?

The above chart shows the range of angles at which the green tint appears, sorted by year. Higher numbers are better, as it means the green tint appears at a wider angle. Looking at this chart, the data definitely shows a wider range of green tint in 2024, but since higher numbers are better, it actually looks like 2024 models are better, on average, than previous years. We only have one unit for each model, so these results are far from representative.

Real-World Results

So, if the 50+ OLED TVs we've tested over the years aren't representative, how can we determine how widespread the issue is? Well, we need your help.

If you've purchased an OLED TV in the last few years, we want to hear from you. Using this form, we want to know what you bought, when you bought it, and how noticeable the green tint is on a scale from 0-10, with 10 being the worst. We also invite you to share pictures of your green tint by uploading them to an image-sharing site and sending us the link!

The goal of this test is simple: we're looking for any pattern in the severity of the green tint issue. We'd also like to confirm if the issue is actually worse this year and if certain models or manufacturing batches are more likely to experience it. We quite possibly won't find any pattern, which would confirm LG's claims that it simply varies between panels.

It's worth noting that this experiment is far from perfect. Ideally, we'd have measurements showing the exact green shift like in our reviews. Unsurprisingly, most people don't have colorimeters and spectroradiometers at home to take these measurements, so we have to rely on your subjective impressions.

Updates

December 16, 2024 - 111 Replies

Two weeks after our last update, we've finally surpassed 100 responses to our survey! A huge shoutout to everyone who took the time to fill out the survey and reply to our post on YouTube. With over 100 replies now, there's a lot more useful data for us to work with, and we can finally draw a clear conclusion from some of the results: the green tint issue is clearly worse on 2024 models.

So, let's start with a few big-picture stats from the 109 valid responses we received:

• 57 reported no green tint (52%)
• 34 reported severe (>6) green tint (31%)
• 61 are 2024 models
• LG C4 is the most reported model (33/109)

Now that we've covered some of the high-level stats, let's break the data down and sort it to look for any trends.

By Manufacturing Date

Since the vast majority of the results we've received are for 2024 models, let's take a look at the manufacturing dates for the C4 alone and for all 2024 models:

There's an interesting spike in July, with a higher average green tint than other months. There are only a few results from that month, though (3 C4s and 7 total), so it's far from a representative sample. If we look at all 2024 models, the results from January through July show a worse green tint, with an average of 3.71 for those months versus 3.3 for models produced in August and later.

By Model Year

If we break down the average green tint reported across each model year (not manufacturing date), it's very clear now that the 2024 models are significantly worse, on average, than previous years.

Based on this data, we can make our first determination and can now confidently say that the green tint issue is worse on 2024 models. Unfortunately, we don't have much data on units made before 2021, so those results are far from representative.

By Size

If we break down all results by size, there's an interesting trend. The 42", 48", and 77" sizes appear to have the most noticeable green tint, and this is true if we look at just 2024 models or across all model years.

Summary

So, after one month, what have we learned? Well, it's clear now that the increased reports of green tint aren't simply anecdotal. LG TVs released in 2024 have a significantly increased chance of having a noticeable tint when viewed at an angle. We still have limited data on manufacturing dates, but it also seems likely that purchasing a model manufactured after August 2024 gives you a slightly better chance of getting a good unit, although your odds are still slightly worse than 2023 and older models. It also looks like 42", 48", and 77" models are worse overall than the other sizes.

If you're in a store and looking to buy an LG TV, you can determine its manufacturing date by looking at the serial number on the box. The first three digits represent the year and month your TV was built. For example, a serial number starting with "408" was made in August 2024.

December 2, 2024 - 45 Replies

After two weeks, we've collected 45 responses to our survey. Covering TVs manufactured between 2017 and 2024, the vast majority of TVs reported are made by LG, with the 2024 LG C4 being the most popular. Unfortunately, the data so far shows no apparent pattern to the off-angle tint. Nearly half of all users (21/44) reported no green tint at all.

Of the 23 respondents who reported some green tint, the vast majority (16/23) reported a severe green tint when viewed at an angle (>6), but when viewed head-on, only five people reported a severe tint. This suggests that if you get a unit with noticeable green tint, chances are it'll be very noticeable. Of the people reporting a severe tint, there's no pattern at all. Severe tint was reported in every size of TV, and while most of the TVs reported are LG C4s, there's too little data to determine if that model is actually worse or if we're just getting more data since that model is more popular.

We'll continue gathering data at this stage and update these results as we get more responses. Please share the survey linked above widely, we really need your help to get the word out and get as many responses as possible to get a better picture of the issue.

All Results (Last Updated 12/16/2024)

Below this, you can see the results from all respondents. Some of the data was too incomplete to include, missing sizes or even the model number, so a handful of results have been removed. We're also not including the links, pictures, or videos that some of you have sent. We appreciate the extra info, and we're using it internally, but we're not including it on this page to avoid potentially sharing any personal information.