The home cinema reviews team, especially our senior staff writer, Lewis Empson, have been busy recently.
This is because not one, but two, massive OLED TVs from LG passed through our viewing rooms and got given the full review treatment in the past four weeks.
Those OLEDs are, of course, the LG C5 and LG G5 – and the experience of testing them was a full-on rollercoaster ride with a surprising ending.
Rather than the cutting-edge LG G5, which we pegged as one of 2025’s most interesting TVs when we saw at the Consumer Electronics Show (CES), it was the LG C5 that impressed us enough to earn a place in our best OLED TV buying guide.
There are two reasons why. The first stems from a software bug we encountered while testing the LG G5. The bug makes streaming Dolby Vision content a horrible, noisy, pixelated experience during challenging dark scenes.
The second is that despite the LG C5 not being a huge on-paper upgrade on its predecessor, the LG C4, it offers palpable performance improvements in real-world testing.
Though the C5 has a 'standard' OLED panel, rather than the latest fourth-generation tech seen on the G5, we saw improvements to its peak brightness, colour volume and holistic low light performance.
Hence staff writer Lewis Empson’s glowing conclusion:
“[The LG C5] is probably the best TV for most people, as its exceptional picture quality and uncompromising feature set are certified crowd pleasers. It remains an excellent choice for gamers, too, and its Dolby Vision Filmmaker mode is a major bonus for film buffs.”
Which is why when we had our latest pow-wow to discuss which sets we should be recommending in our OLED TV buying guide, we chose the LG C5, not the G5, as our latest “best new” entry.
But, before you go rushing for your wallet, be warned, this may change in the not-too-distant future. LG has since been in contact and sent our TV and AV editor, Tom Parsons, a pre-release update for the G5, which after re-testing the unit we can confirm fixes the bug.
This means that once the fix rolls out to the general public and we can confirm it works better than the early version we tested, our verdict on the G5 could well change.
Outside of the bug, the G5 is a fantastic performer – so much so that Lewis, Tom and I were all blown away by how much brighter it is and how much more natural its colours look than its predecessor.
So, minus the Dolby Vision bug, it could be the flagship OLED to beat this year.
Watch this space.
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