LG C5 OLED  TV Review

The LG C5 has great HDR brightness and has a nice uptick in brightness compared to the 2024 LG C4 OLED or the Panasonic Z8BA OLED. Small and medium-sized highlights really stand out in dim and moderately lit scenes, so this TV displays most highlights in real HDR content mastered at 600 and 1000 nits. HDR scenes that are entirely bright are noticeably dimmer, so you do notice a decrease in brightness when bright elements are taking up the majority of the screen, but not so much that they lack impact.

Our results above are with the TV set to Filmmaker Mode with 'Dynamic Tone Mapping' disabled. Below are the results with DTM turned on, which increases the brightness of some highlights at the expense of accuracy.

• Hallway Lights: 1054 cd/m²
• Yellow Skyscraper: 868 cd/m²
• Landscape Pool: 477 cd/m²

Results with 'Expression Enhancer' set to 'Brightness'.

• Hallway Lights: 1112 cd/m²
• Yellow Skyscraper: 708 cd/m²
• Landscape Pool: 328 cd/m²

Results with 'Dynamic Tone Mapping' enabled and 'Expression Enhancer' set to 'Brightness'.

• Hallway Lights: 1038 cd/m²
• Yellow Skyscraper: 822 cd/m²
• Landscape Pool: 474 cd/m²

Unfortunately, the LG C5 is dimmer when using Game Optimizer. You still get an impactful HDR gaming experience, with highlights that stand out well, but you do notice the dip in brightness when switching from another picture mode. If this bothers you, the Samsung S90F OLED doesn't lose any of its brightness in Game Mode.

Fortunately, firmware 33.22.65 improved the TV's brightness in our landscape pool test scene, so some highlights are brighter than they were when the TV launched.

Our results above are with 'Dynamic Tone Mapping' disabled. Below are the results with DTM turned on, which increases the brightness of some highlights at the cost of accuracy.

• Hallway Lights: 1182 cd/m²
• Yellow Skyscraper: 689 cd/m²
• Landscape Pool: 381 cd/m²

Results with 'Expression Enhancer' set to 'Brightness'.

• Hallway Lights: 1110 cd/m²
• Yellow Skyscraper: 517 cd/m²
• Landscape Pool: 323 cd/m²

Results with 'Dynamic Tone Mapping' enabled and 'Expression Enhancer' set to 'Brightness'.

• Hallway Lights: 946 cd/m²
• Yellow Skyscraper: 748 cd/m²
• Landscape Pool: 523 cd/m²

The LG C5 OLED has very good SDR brightness, especially for a WOLED model, and receives a pretty significant increase in SDR brightness compared to the 2024 LG C4 OLED. Bright elements that take up small and medium portions of the screen have great brightness, but there's a noticeable decrease in luminance during entirely bright scenes. Still, this TV overcomes glare in a well-lit room with most content.

The TV has a nearly infinite contrast ratio, giving it perfect contrast. Due to OLED's self-lit pixels, it displays bright highlights next to perfect inky blacks, making it very impressive in a dark room.

Since OLEDs don't use lighting zones and instead have individual pixels that can be lit up to their maximum brightness next to pixels that are turned off, there's no blooming when bright elements are surrounded by deep blacks.

The LG C5 is an OLED without a backlight, so its self-lit pixels give it the same performance as a TV with perfect local dimming and no zone transitions. We still film the zone transition video so you can see how it compares to an option with local dimming.

There's no difference in dark scene behavior when the TV is set in Game Optimizer.

Because OLEDs can turn off individual pixels, the TV has perfect black uniformity with no blooming or halo effect around bright objects.

The TV has excellent SDR color volume. Like almost any TV, it has full coverage of the most commonly used Rec.709 color space, but it also covers close to the entirety of the DCI-P3 color space. Its coverage of the widest BT.2020 color space is just adequate, and here, it struggles to cover most shades.

Still, this TV is a good choice to watch the odd SDR content that's mastered in these wider color spaces, and it's also a solid choice if you like to force Rec.709/sRGB content into a wider color space for increased saturation.

The TV has very good HDR color volume. Due to its perfect contrast, it displays dark, saturated colors very well. It does an amazing job displaying bright whites, and most other bright colors are displayed well. However, it does struggle a bit more with bright reds, magentas, and yellows. These results are in Filmmaker Mode, but you can see the TV's HDR color volume in Game Optimizer below. Fortunately, there's barely a loss of color brightness when using the gaming mode.

• 1,000 cd/m² DCI P3 Coverage ITP: 88.2%
• 10,000 cd/m² BT.2020 Coverage ITP: 39.6%
• White Luminance: 1381 cd/m²
• Red Luminance: 132 cd/m²
• Green Luminance: 444 cd/m²
• Blue Luminance: 45 cd/m²
• Cyan Luminance: 487 cd/m²
• Magenta Luminance: 173 cd/m²
• Yellow Luminance: 576 cd/m²

Even though firmware 33.11.35 drastically improved color volume in SDR, the TV's HDR color volume remains unchanged.

The TV has great SDR accuracy before calibration. Its white balance is very good, but there's too much red in most shades of gray, which contributes to the TV's slightly too warm color temperature. Gamma is very close to 2.2, but most scenes are a bit too dark. The accuracy of colors is excellent, with only minor inaccuracies in whites and very light shades of cyan and yellow. This is a TV that mostly stays true to the content creator's intent out-of-the-box.

If you're after the most accurate SDR image possible, the TV is easy to calibrate and has outstanding accuracy after the fact. Any minor issues with white balance, gamma, color temperature, and color accuracy are gone, leaving you with an image that's about as accurate as you can get.

The TV supports AutoCal through Calman using a 1D and 3D LUT, which is great if you want to simplify the calibration process.

See our full calibration settings.

The LG C5 has excellent HDR accuracy before calibration. Its white balance is outstanding, with only some darker grays being noticeably inaccurate. Still, its color temperature is very close to the industry standard 6,500K. Colors have very good accuracy overall, but there's some mapping errors throughout, with reds and magentas being undersaturated. Despite these inaccuracies, this TV respects the filmmaker's intent without needing calibration.

Calibrating the TV is easy, but it doesn't do very much to further improve accuracy. Its white balance is a bit better now, but dark grays are still inaccurate. Color temperature is a bit better, but the difference is barely noticeable. Color accuracy has improved the most, and most colors look very accurate, but reds and magentas are still a bit undersaturated. 

The LG C5 has excellent PQ EOTF tracking. Some near blacks and midtones are a bit brighter than intended, but the TV follows the curve very closely overall. There's a roll-off with content mastered at 600 and 1000 nits to help maintain detail in highlights, but the TV is bright enough to display most highlights without needing to tone map. With content mastered at 4000 nits, the roll-off is a lot more gradual, since the TV needs to rely on tone mapping to display very bright highlights without a major loss of detail.

If HDR brightness accuracy matters to you, the cheaper LG B5 OLED is a bit more accurate than the C5.

The LG C5 does an excellent job of cleaning up artifacts in low-quality content. Most artifacts are completely eliminated from the image, with very good detail preservation.

The TV does an excellent job upscaling DVDs, standard definition streams, and other low-resolution content. Some fine details are hard to make out, but the image is sharp enough for a pleasant viewing experience.

Firmware 33.11.35 was supposed to improve upscaling performance, but we didn't notice any major difference.

The LG C5 has excellent HDR native gradient handling in Filmmaker Mode. There's some very minor banding in some colors, but it's barely noticeable with real content.

When this TV launched, there was more noticeable banding due to an issue with HDR10, but that was fixed in Filmmaker Mode as of firmware 33.11.35. Other picture modes, like Game Optimizer, were still affected by the issue. However, as of firmware 33.21.67, the excessive banding has been fixed in all picture modes other than Standard and Vivid.

The TV's input lag when using Game Optimizer is very low across the board. As your refresh rate increases, input lag lowers, which is great for gamers chasing the best performance possible. At 120Hz and 144Hz, it's especially low, giving you a very responsive gaming experience.

The TV's input lag is a lot higher outside of its gaming mode, so you do feel a bit of lag when doing things like pausing movies and scrolling through menus.

Below are some additional input lag measurements.

4:3 @ 60Hz:

• 640x480: 27.0 ms
• 800x400: 34.4 ms
• 1024x768: 26.6 ms

Filmmaker Mode with Game Optimizer Enabled and the Input Label Set to 'PC':

• 60Hz:  23.1 ms
• 120Hz: 13.4 ms
• 144Hz: 11.3 ms

Filmmaker Mode with Game Optimizer Enabled and the Input Label Set to 'HDMI':

• 60Hz:  47.9 ms
• 120Hz: 39.2 ms
• 144Hz: 32.9 ms

The TV supports all common resolutions up to 4k @ 144Hz, and it supports chroma 4:4:4, so it has great compatibility with gaming consoles and PCs.

The TV supports FreeSync and HDMI Forum VRR and is certified as G-SYNC compatible, ensuring a nearly tear-free gaming experience from any VRR-enabled source. It works well across the TV's entire refresh rate range and supports sources with Low-Frame-Compensation (LFC), which ensures your games remain nearly tear-free even when your frame rate drops very low.

The TV's CAD at its maximum refresh rate of 144Hz is fantastic. Pixels transition to their target RGB level almost instantly, so fast motion is very sharp.

The TV's CAD at 120Hz is outstanding. It displays fast-moving objects without noticeable blur, so fast motion is clear.

The TV's CAD at 60Hz is fantastic. Most transitions from one RGB level to another are nearly instantaneous, but there's some minor overshoot when pixels transition from black to brighter shades. There's also still some noticeable persistence blur.

The LG C5 is fully compatible with everything the PS5 offers, like 1440p @ 120Hz and 4k @ 120Hz, as well as HDMI Forum VRR. It also supports Auto Low Latency Mode, so you don't have to worry about switching to Game Optimizer to get the lowest input lag.

The LG C5 is fully compatible with everything the Xbox Series X|S offers, including 1440p @ 120Hz, 4k @ 120Hz, HDMI Forum VRR, FreeSync Premium Pro, and Dolby Vision gaming. It also supports Auto Low Latency Mode, so you don't have to worry about switching to Game Optimizer to get the lowest input lag.

Unfortunately, due to the nearly instantaneous pixel response time of the TV, there's stutter with low frame rate content, which is most noticeable during slow panning shots.

The LG C5 OLED does a decent job of interpolating 24fps content to 30fps. The motion interpolation feature has fantastic consistency, but motion still lacks fluidity. The TV's nearly instantaneous response time causes stutter that minimal motion interpolation can't fully eliminate. As a result, motion in low frame rate content still looks choppy, especially in slower panning shots.

The LG C5 OLED removes 24p and 25p judder from native apps and external devices that send a 24Hz or 25Hz signal, like an Apple TV with the 'Match Frame Rate' feature enabled. The TV also properly removes judder from 24p content that's being sent to it in either 60p or 60i. However, it doesn't remove 25p judder from 60p signals, and frames are held for an inconsistent duration, which causes motion to look jittery.

To remove judder on this TV, the Real Cinema setting must be enabled. Unfortunately, this setting is locked when OLED Motion Pro (BFI) is enabled, so movies and TV shows aren't judder-free when BFI is enabled, since the BFI feature only flickers at 60Hz.

This TV is completely free from micro-judder with all 24p and 25p content, so motion in complex scenes is mostly smooth.

The LG C5 has a nearly instantaneous response time, resulting in incredibly clear motion with almost no blur behind fast-moving objects when watching content. Due to the sample-and-hold nature of OLED technology, there's still some persistence blur at 60Hz, but it's not very noticeable when watching movies or shows.

The LG C5 OLED is free from any transition artifacts when watching movies, shows, and sports. There isn't any ghosting or unwanted intermediate colors during transitions, so colors remain consistent and pure, even during fast-paced scenes and sports.

The LG C5 doesn't have a traditional backlight and doesn't use pulse-width modulation (PWM) to dim each pixel, but it's not completely flicker-free. There's a slight dip in brightness that corresponds to the TV's refresh rate. This is very different from the PWM flicker on TVs with LED backlights and occurs on every OLED we've tested. It's not noticeable, and most people won't be bothered by this, but it can still bother people who are extra sensitive to flicker.

The LG C5 has an optional black frame insertion (BFI) feature known as 'OLED Motion Pro' that reduces the appearance of persistence blur at 60Hz. Unfortunately, it can only insert black frames at a 60Hz refresh rate, and there's still some blur present.

The LG C5's direct reflection handling is alright. It reduces the intensity of direct reflections a bit, but reflections from lamps or windows opposite the screen are still distracting.

The LG C5 has exceptional black levels in a bright room. Black levels are barely raised in a room with ambient lighting, and they remain deep and punchy.

The TV does a great job with total reflected light. Direct reflections are a bit spread out and cause some minor light banding, but the TV does an excellent job reducing the visibility of indirect reflections.

The LG C5 has decent color vibrancy in a bright room. Colors barely lose any vibrancy, and they remain well-saturated in a room with ambient lighting.

Like all OLED TVs, the LG C5 has a very wide viewing angle. This makes it a great choice for a wide seating arrangement, as the image doesn't lose brightness and blacks remain deep when viewed at an angle.

There's a noticeable green tint on the C5 we bought and tested. It's a widespread issue that impacts almost all LG OLED panels but varies widely from unit to unit.

The TV has great gray uniformity. There are some very faint vertical lines on the panel during near blacks scenes (5% gray), but these aren't noticeable from a normal viewing distance.

The TV uses a WOLED panel with a RWBG pixel structure where all four pixels are never lit at the same time. Due to its subpixel layout, it has minor issues with displaying text on Windows since ClearType isn't well optimized to non-RGB subpixel layouts, but most users won't be bothered by this.

The white subpixel does an excellent job helping the TV display bright whites, but it dilutes the color purity of greens and reds.

Unfortunately, there are diagonal lines that appear as a result of dithering. These lines are quite apparent when watching content or playing games if you're sitting close to the screen, but the lines aren't nearly as visible from a normal viewing distance.

The LG C5 supports the full 48Gbps bandwidth of HDMI 2.1 on all four HDMI ports. This allows you to take full advantage of multiple high-bandwidth devices, such as if you own both current-gen consoles and a high-end gaming PC.

The LG C5 OLED TV passes through all Dolby Digital options. However, it doesn't support any DTS audio formats commonly used on physical media. LG has supported DTS on all of their 2023 and 2024 OLED models, but they've dropped support across their entire lineup in 2025.

When the LG C5 OLED launched, there was an issue with HDR10 that made dark scenes look ugly, but those issues have been fixed in all picture modes except for Standard and Vivid as of firmware 33.21.67.

The LG OLED65C5PUA has a very sleek and modern design. It's very similar to 2024's LG C4 OLED, except the unique stone-like finish on the back is a darker shade of gray. The TV's bezels are incredibly thin, so you barely see them while using it.

The included stand holds the TV well. It only lifts the TV about 2.8 inches, but this is high enough that most soundbars fit underneath without blocking the screen. Note that the width of the stand depends on the model size, and the 42-inch model comes with two feet instead of a center-mounted stand.

Footprint of the 65-inch stand: 18.55" x 9.1".

The back of the TV is pretty much identical to the LG C4 OLED, but the stone-like finish is now a much darker shade of gray. The inputs are on the far left side of the TV, which makes them easy to access if you have the TV on the stand. However, they're hard to reach when the TV is wall-mounted. There are channels on the back of the TV and on the stand to help with cable management.

The LG OLED C5 TV has outstanding build quality. There's barely any flex on the back panel, and the TV feels very sturdy on its stand. There are no issues at all with quality control.

The LG C5 OLED TV runs the 2025 version of LG's proprietary smart interface, webOS. The interface supports user profiles, so you can customize the home page for different users. LG promises at least four years of webOS updates on their TVs, and you get updated versions of the operating system once a year.

Sometimes, the TV doesn't properly switch out of the Game Optimizer setting, so you're locked out of settings that should be available in other picture modes. To fix this, you can turn Game Optimizer on and disable ALLM and VRR. When you do this and switch to a different picture mode, everything works as it should. To avoid this, it's best to use a dedicated input for gaming and a separate input for your other devices.

There are two settings in the 'Home Settings' menu, namely the 'Home Promotion' and 'Content Recommendation' settings. These settings remove the top banner ads and suggested content from the home screen. This gives your home screen a clean look, but there's no way to remove ads from the apps page.

The TV comes with LG's new Magic Remote. Like the old version, it can be used as a pointer, or you can use the traditional buttons to control the TV. Unfortunately, LG ditched the number pad on this new remote, so you can't assign quick launch shortcuts anymore. There's also no dedicated input button, so you have to use the home dashboard to switch inputs.

• Remote (with 2x AAA batteries)
• User manuals
• Cable management clip

The TV consumes a maximum of 331W of power, which is a lot more than the 215W maximum that the 2024 LG C4 OLED consumes.

The TV has a decent frequency response. Bass isn't super deep, but it's not non-existent, so you feel a bit of rumble. The sound profile is well-balanced at most volume levels, but as you reach maximum volume, dialogue becomes a bit difficult to understand. Unfortunately, the TV's speakers don't get very loud.