LG BX OLED TV Review

The LG BX has an outstanding style with a center-mounted stand, much like 2019's LG B9 OLED. It's also very similar to the LG CX OLED, with the only difference being that the BX's stand is smaller, and it's made out of plastic. All in all, it's a great-looking modern TV.

This TV has the same stand as the LG B9 OLED. It's a center-mounted plastic stand that holds the TV well, but it has more wobble than the wider, metal stand on the LG CX OLED.

Footprint of the 55" stand: 22.1" x 9.1"

The back of the LG BX is nearly identical to the LG CX OLED and LG B9 OLED. The top half that holds the panel is metal with a smooth finish, and the bottom half where the inputs are housed is made from solid plastic. There's a clip on the back for cable management.

The borders are thin and aren't distracting.

The LG BX is very thin, and it won't stick out much if wall-mounted. It gets thicker with the stand attached, but it still doesn't take up a whole lot of space.

The LG BX has an excellent build quality. The plastic stand isn't as sturdy as the metal stand on the LG CX OLED, but it still holds the TV well. The plastic part near the inputs flexes a bit and makes a clicking noise as if it's not connected to the panel properly, but this could be an issue with our unit only. Besides that, there aren't any obvious problems, and it's a well-built TV.

Like all OLED TVs, the LG BX has an infinite contrast ratio since it can turn off individual pixels, resulting in perfect blacks.

The LG BX has just okay peak brightness. It's significantly less bright than the LG B9 OLED and doesn't get bright enough to combat glare in most rooms. It has an aggressive 'Automatic Brightness Limiter' (ABL) that dims the screen when large areas are bright, as seen in the dip in brightness in the 100% sustained window test.

These measurements were taken post-calibration in the 'Expert (Dark Room)' Picture Mode with Peak Brightness on 'High' and OLED Light on 'Max'. Originally, we had to run a Pixel Refresher because the screen seemed too dim compared to the LG B9 OLED, but the screen didn't get much brighter after the refresh. Before completing the Pixel Refresher, most scenes were between 334 to 394 cd/m², and we got 116 cd/m² in the 100% sustained window test.

If you want the brightest image possible, we were able to get 428 cd/m² in the 2% peak window test in 'Expert (Dark Room)' Picture Mode with OLED Light and Contrast set to 'Max', Peak Brightness on 'High', and Dynamic Contrast set to 'Medium'.

Update 07/12/2021: We've added two new videos demonstrating the backlight behavior with real content.

This TV doesn't have a backlight, so it doesn't have a local dimming feature. It can dim pixels individually, and subtitles are displayed perfectly, with no visible blooming.

Update 07/12/2021: We've added two new videos demonstrating the backlight behavior with real content.

This TV has mediocre HDR peak brightness. It doesn't get bright enough to truly bright out highlights in HDR, and due to its aggressive ABL, the screen gets less bright as large, bright areas cover the screen. If you want a similar TV that gets brighter in HDR, look into the LG GX OLED.

We measured the HDR peak brightness on the 'HDR Cinema' Picture Mode with Color Temperature set to 'Warm 2', Peak Brightness set to 'High', and OLED Light on 'Max'. Like with SDR peak brightness, we ran a Pixel Refresher and the screen got a bit brighter after. Before the Pixel Refresher, most scenes were between 358 to 534 cd/m², and we got 117 cd/m² in the 100% sustained window test.

If you want the brightest image possible, set the Picture Mode to 'Vivid', Dynamic Contrast to 'Medium', OLED Light and Contrast to 'Max', and Peak Brightness on 'High'. We were able to get 706.8 cd/m² with a 10% peak window.

The replacement of this TV, the LG B1 OLED, gets brighter in HDR if that's what you prefer.

The LG OLED55BXPUA has excellent gray uniformity, but this may vary between units. There's very little dirty screen effect in the center, which is great for sports fans. Uniformity is improved in near-dark scenes, but like some other OLED TVs, some faint vertical lines are visible in near-dark scenes in very dark rooms. Unlike the LG B9 OLED, the screen doesn't appear to flash in near-dark scenes.

Since this OLED TV can turn off individual pixels, black uniformity is perfect.

The LG BX OLED has excellent wide viewing angles, which is expected from an OLED TV. The image remains accurate when viewing from the side, great for wide seating arrangements.

The LG OLED55BXPUA has outstanding reflection handling, similar to the LG CX OLED. Even with direct sunlight on this TV, the reflections shouldn't be too distracting.

Update 12/09/2020: We remeasured the accuracy after calibrating our spectroradiometer. The review has been updated.

The LG BX has amazing out-of-the-box color accuracy, much better than the LG B9 OLED. There are minimal inaccuracies with colors and shades of gray, but since the color temperature is a bit cold, the image has a blue tint. Gamma follows the target well, but some scenes are a bit too bright. Note that out-of-the-box accuracy may vary between units.

The LG OLED55BXPUA has remarkable color accuracy after calibration, and any remaining inaccuracies can't be spotted without the aid of a colorimeter. Gamma follows the target almost perfectly, and the color temperature is extremely close to the 6500K target.

We measured the color accuracy after completing a Pixel Refresher, which only slightly improved the color accuracy. Unlike the LG B9 OLED, we didn't notice any black crushing during calibration. There was some in the 'Standard' Picture Mode, but there wasn't any in 'Expert (Dark Room)'.

You can see our recommended settings here.

This TV upscales 480p content well, with no obvious artifacts.

The LG BX upscales 720p content, such as from cable boxes, well with no upscaling artifacts.

1080p content looks almost as good as native 4k content.

The LG BX displays 4k content without any issues. Even though it has an RGBW pixel structure, all four sub-pixels are never on at the same time, so there's no loss in color resolution.

This is a 4k TV that can't display an 8k input.

The LG BX uses an RGBW pixel structure with four sub-pixels, but all four are never used at the same time. The above image shows the red, white, and blue sub-pixels. You can see the green pixel and other pixel structures in these three photos: Photo 1, Photo 2, Photo 3.

The LG OLED55BXPUA has an excellent color gamut, very similar to the LG CX OLED. It covers almost all of the DCI P3 color space used in most HDR content, and it has decent coverage of the wider Rec. 2020 color space. Before we ran a Pixel Refresher on the TV, the DCI P3 and Rec. 2020 coverage were only slightly better, but the differences are insignificant.

The EOTF in 'Cinema HDR' mode follows the curve almost perfectly until it rolls off at its peak brightness. The EOTF in 'Game' mode is very similar, except the roll-off is a bit more smooth.

If you find HDR too dim, set the Picture Mode to 'Vivid', and you can see the EOTF here. Enabling Dynamic Tone Mapping makes the image brighter in our EOTF test, but it changes the brightness according to each scene, so your experience may vary.

This TV has good color volume. Due to its infinite contrast ratio, it displays dark colors extremely well but struggles to display brighter colors.

Note: Before performing a Pixel Refresher, it had a better DCI P3 color volume and slightly worse Rec. 2020 color volume, but most people won't notice the difference between the results before and after the refresh.

The LG BX has decent gradient handling. There's banding in every color, especially in the dark shades. Enabling the Smooth Gradation feature doesn't improve the test pattern. It slightly smooths out gradients in real scenes, but not by much. We ran a Pixel Refresher to see if it would improve the gradient handling, and it only improved a bit, but not significantly. If you want an OLED with significantly better gradient handling, look into the Vizio OLED 2020.

Sadly, the LG OLED55BXPUA has some temporary image retention after displaying a high-contrast image, similar to the LG C8 OLED or the LG CX OLED monitor we tested. This varies between units, so you may experience something different.

Note: The image retention after six minutes shows 0.0%, but this is an error on our end and there's indeed some visible image retention after six minutes.

Unfortunately, like all OLED TVs, the LG OLED55BXPUA isn't immune to permanent burn-in. However, we don't expect people who watch varied content to have any issues, but rather it's a problem if there are constant static displays, like if it's used as a PC monitor.

This TV has three features to help burn-in risk. Enabling Screen Shift option, and setting Logo Luminance Adjustment to 'Low' may help with this. There's also an automatic Pixel Refresher that can be run manually if needed.

You can read about our investigation into this here.

The LG BX has an incredible response time, but it's not as good as some other OLED TVs like the LG CX OLED. It has overshoot in the darker transitions, which may lead to motion artifacts in dark scenes.

There's a slight dip in brightness every eight ms, which coincides with the 120Hz refresh rate and isn't noticeable.

Update 02/17/2021: We retested the BFI feature to confirm the flicker frequency.

The LG OLED55BXPUA has a Black Frame Insertion feature to improve the appearance of motion. For it to work, set TruMotion to 'User' and change OLED Motion according to the content you're watching. Set it to 'High' if you're watching 60fps content because it flickers at 60Hz, and 'Low' or 'Medium' with 120fps content because it flickers at 120fps. If you set it to 'Medium' or 'Low' with 60fps content, there's noticeable image duplication. You may also notice some image duplication with 'Medium' with 120fps content, as seen here. Lastly, you can't use G-SYNC when the BFI feature is enabled.

This TV can interpolate content up to 120Hz, known as the 'Soap Opera Effect', which helps the appearance of motion. Motion looks alright with this feature and it doesn't stop interpolating in busy scenes, which results in some artifacts.

See here for the settings that control the motion interpolation feature.

Due to the TV's extremely fast response time, there's noticeable stutter with lower-frame rate content as each frame is held on longer. Enabling motion interpolation or the BFI feature can help reduce stutter.

The LG BX can remove 24p judder from any source, such as native apps or Blu-ray players. To remove judder, simply enable Real Cinema. With OLED Motion set to 'Medium' or 'Auto', it removes all judder. On 'Low,' there's still some judder, but it reduces it, and it doesn't remove judder at all when set to 'High.'

Update 08/19/2020: We confirmed that it supports HDMI Forum's VRR. With the Xbox One S connected, we disabled the FreeSync setting and enabled the G-SYNC setting on the TV. The Xbox showed VRR as still working, meaning it was working with HDMI Forum VRR.

The LG OLED55BXPUA has a 120Hz refresh rate and it has VRR support to help reduce screen tearing. With G-SYNC enabled, there's some minor glitching with 4k @ 120Hz content, similar to the LG CX OLED. FreeSync works with 4k @ 60Hz and not 4k @ 120Hz.

For G-SYNC to work, simply enable Instant Game Response in the settings menu and set the Picture Mode to 'Game'. For FreeSync, you also need to enable the AMD FreeSync Premium setting for the input you're using. Learn about our recommended gaming settings here.

Update 11/03/2020: We updated the TV to firmware 3.11.20 and retested the input lag with an HDMI 2.1 source, including 4k @ 120Hz.

The LG BX has excellent low input lag as long as you're in 'Game' mode, similar to 2019's LG B9 OLED. There's an 'Auto Low Latency Mode' that automatically switches the TV into 'Game' mode when you launch a game from a compatible device. For it to work, Instant Game Response must be enabled. When we connected an Xbox One S, it automatically enabled Instant Game Response, so the 'Auto Low Latency Mode' was turned on too.

If you're using this TV as a PC and want the lowest input lag possible, set the input icon to 'PC' in the Home Dashboard. Learn more about the PC settings here.

Update 11/03/2020: We updated the TV to firmware 3.11.20 and retested it with an HDMI 2.1 source.

The LG OLED55BXPUA supports all common resolutions. It displays chroma 4:4:4 with a 4k @ 120Hz resolution and any resolution at 60Hz, but it can't display it with 1080p @ 120Hz. For it to work, set the input icon to 'PC' in the Home Dashboard, as it doesn't display 4:4:4 outside of 'PC' mode. HDMI ports three and four are the only ones that support 4k @ 120Hz, and to achieve full bandwidth, enable HDMI Ultra HD Deep Color from the settings menu.

Update 07/09/2021: We updated the TV and Xbox to see if the TV can play 4k @ 120Hz games in Dolby Vision. It can't and can only do up to 4k @ 60Hz as long as FreeSync is disabled. LG fixed this issue on their 2021 TVs, like the LG G1 OLED.

Update 11/03/2020: We updated the TV to firmware 3.11.20 and retested it with an HDMI 2.1 source. We confirmed HDMI 3 and 4 support HDMI 2.1.

HDMI ports 3 and 4 support HDMI 2.1 but not full-bandwidth HDMI 2.1. The LG BX only has 40Gbps ports capable of 4k @ 120Hz @ 4:4:4 10-bit instead of 48Gbps ports, which would be able to reach 12-bit, but we don't expect this to make any noticeable difference.

The LG BX supports eARC when connected to a compatible receiver, so it can send a high-quality Dolby Atmos via TrueHD signal over an HDMI connection. For this to work, enable HDMI Arc and turn eARC on.

The LG BX has a decent frequency response, but it's not as good as the higher-end LG CX OLED. Its bass gets low enough to have some punch to it, but it still doesn't produce any rumble or thump. It has a fairly well-balanced sound profile, which is important for dialogue, and it gets loud enough to use in noisy environments.

The distortion performance is just okay. There's some minor distortion at moderate listening levels, but it gets more noticeable when playing at its max volume. However, this depends on the content, and not everyone may hear it.

The LG BX has LG's WebOS built-in, which is easy-to-use and fairly smooth to navigate. We experienced one bug during testing when the Peak Brightness didn't work properly, even after turning the TV on and off again. However, after leaving the TV off overnight, the problem fixed itself.

Unfortunately, there are ads on the home screen and app store, and there aren't any ways to disable them.

LG's app store has a great selection of apps available to download, and you can also cast content from your phone.

The LG BX comes with the same LG Magic Remote as 2019's LG B9 OLED and 2020's LG CX OLED. You can use it like a traditional remote with its navigation buttons or use it as a point-and-press remote, like a computer mouse. It has shortcut buttons to Netflix and Amazon Prime Video. It has built-in voice control that allows you to change inputs, search for content, or ask for the weather, but some settings can't be changed through voice control.

There's a single button underneath the center of the screen. It allows you to turn the TV On/Off, change inputs, volume, and channels.

• Remote and 2 x AA batteries
• Composite adapter
• User manuals