The LG C1 OLED continues LG’s tradition of producing some of the best televisions available. That dominance is built on OLED technology, which has been the best TV screen technology on the market for several years. However, our LG C1 OLED review demonstrates how LG has built on that foundation to deliver a fantastic 4K smart TV with advanced features, a smart platform that supports a variety of popular apps and unique features, and a robust (and growing) gaming feature set.
The LG C1 OLED is less expensive than the premium LG G1 OLED and more having capability than the low-cost LG A1 OLED, which drew a lot of attention during Black Friday. As a result, we have one of the best OLED TVs we’ve seen all year, and it’s easily the best gaming TV you can buy right now.
The LG C1 OLED is one of the best TVs on the market thanks to its excellent performance, improved feature set, and interface, and superior future-proofing.
What we will see here?
Specs
- Price: $1,499
- Model number: OLED55C1PUB
- Screen size: 55 inches
- Resolution: 3,840 x 2,160
- HDR: Dolby Vision, HDR10, HLG
- Refresh rate: 120 Hz
- Ports: 4 HDMI 2.1 (1 with eARC), 3 USB
- Audio: 40W, 2.2 channel sound
- Smart TV software: webOS
- Size: 48.3 x 27.8 x 1.8 inches (w/o stand)
- Weight: 41.7 pounds (w/o stand)
Price and availability
LG’s OLED TVs are now available in a wider range of sizes than ever before, and the C1 OLED offers the full range of 4K OLED options, from a compact 48-inch model to a massive 83-inch set that will be far too large for most homes but ideal for a large home theatre.
We’ve listed the regular retail prices below, but sales prices have made these TVs more affordable than ever before – which is why we purchased one ourselves. This is also the best time to buy these sets because prices are at their lowest point of the year, though they fluctuate a lot as major sales events like Black Friday begin and end, and prices drop in anticipation of new models coming into Effect in January.
Design
The look is indeed stunning, thanks to OLED displays’ incredible thinness and LG’s display-on-glass design. It’s significantly smaller than any other premium TV, such as the Samsung QN90A Neo QLED TV, which is only 1 inch thick. The LG C1 is 0.1-inch thick throughout the top half of the screen. There’s simply no comparison in terms of a polished, almost futuristic appearance.
The stands that come with the LG C1 are fine, but if you want to mount it on the wall, it will fit any 300 x 200 millimeter VESA mount, including several models that appeared on our list.
Audio Performance
- Dolby Atmos audio at 40 watts
- A system with 2.2 channels.
- It’s easy for dialogue to get lost in the shuffle.
- With eARC, Dolby Atmos passthrough is possible.
Because of the C1’s OLED display panel, we expected excellent picture quality. Self-illuminated pixels with the ability to brighten or darken individual pixels are available with OLED technology, resulting in exceptional contrast, perfect inky black levels, and superior HDR capability. LG, on the other hand, takes it a step further by pairing this display with the Alpha 9 Gen 4 AI 4K processor, the most recent version of LG’s advanced video processing devices.
LG’s C1 OLED doesn’t just offer great picture quality this year — it also offers AI Sound upscaling, which turns stereo tracks into virtual 5.1.2 Dolby Atmos audio with a fair amount of verticality, which makes it sound a whole lot better than your standard TV speaker.
If you have the same problem, you can fix it by changing the default sound profile to Enhanced Dialogue or enabling volume leveling. Both may require sacrificing some of the booming basses, but the end result is a more balanced sound that is easier to listen to for long periods of time.
If you have a soundbar or plan to get one in the near future, the LG C1 supports ARC and eARC via one of the four HDMI ports. You’ll be able to pass Dolby Atmos sound from the TV to the soundbar and control the volume with a single remote. It’s extremely convenient, and you should use it if you haven’t already.
Smart TV features
Because of the improved webOS 6.0, the LG C1 OLED has excellent smart TV capabilities. The new interface is cleaner, with multiple rows of apps and content suggestions, similar to the Google TV interface rather than the single ribbon menu of apps seen in previous webOS versions.
It’s smarter in unexpected ways, with features like Sports Alert, which allows you to get updates on your favorite sports and individual teams, such as event start times and match results while watching other material.
Another nice feature for gamers is LG’s excellent support for cloud gaming services. Even if you don’t have a game console or PC connected, it’s a superb gaming TV thanks to Google Stadia and Nvidia GeForce Cloud.
Conclusion
The LG C1 OLED is a fantastic television that comes close to being ideal in many ways. The image quality is outstanding. The gaming performance and features are unrivaled in the industry. The sound quality might use some fine-tuning, but with AI optimization and personal preference changes, it soon goes from decent to fantastic and will sound much better when connected with a nice soundbar or speakers. LG’s WebOS is better than it’s ever been, and it’s a genuinely intuitive and powerful smart TV experience when combined with the enhanced remote and dual-assistant voice control choices.
