LG is a top name in the TV world for good reason, with the company dominating the OLED TV subcategory, and offering sets with some of the best picture quality, sound and smart features of any 4K TVs you can buy. From the great webOS smart TV platform to the excellence offered by OLED panels, LG offers some of the best TVs you can buy.
LG's not just a prominent TV manufacturer. The company's selection of OLED, NanoCell and LED TVs mean that LG also has a larger range of offerings than many manufacturers. From the ultra-premium to the affordable and entry-level, LG TVs have found a regular home on our best TVs list for years, and the company offers a great selection for every budget and need.
What are the best LG TVs?
While LG offers a handful of different TV models, we have found the LG OLED TVs are consistently some of the best TVs on the market. From the entry-level LG BX OLED to the premium LG GX OLED TV — or even the giant 88-inch LG ZX 8K OLED — LG's best TV aren't just a good value, they're some of the best TVs on the market.
Our top recommendation is the LG CX OLED TV, which offers the best mix of premium features and superb performance with a fairly reasonable price. For a really budget-friendly option, the LG BX OLED TV is extremely affordable when you realize that it still delivers OLED quality. And on the opposite end of the spectrum is the LG GX OLED, which puts the same OLED quality into a super-slim premium design.
The best LG TVs you can buy
The LG CX OLED is our favorite LG OLED TV, thanks to fantastic performance, a rich collection of smart features, and a fairly reasonable price for such a premium product. The OLED panel delivers superior performance, with the added benefit of powerful video processing and excellent HDR performance with Dolby Vision IQ, and it even sounds great with AI-powered audio tuning.
But there's still so much more to it, with built-in Google Assistant and Amazon Alexa support, webOS 5.0 and smart home controls that make it the center of your connected home. More than just our favorite LG model, the LG OLED TV has been our favorite TV regardless of the brand. The mix of performance and features and overall value makes it the TV to beat.
Read our full LG CX OLED review.
For a less-expensive way to get an OLED TV, it's hard to beat the LG BX OLED. Boasting LG's excellent webOS software and a ton of smart TV capabilities, it matches the undeniable picture quality of OLED with one of the best 4K smart TV experiences around. It's not the only affordable OLED TV on the market, but it's an incredible value that delivers nearly everything we love about LG's more expensive models in a highly affordable OLED 4K smart TV.
With a price that starts at $1,299 (or less, during sales events), the LG BX OLED TV supports all of the major HDR standards (Dolby Vision, HDR10 and HLG for streaming and broadcasts) and boasts convenient features, such as support for Amazon and Google’s voice assistants. And with HDMI 2.1 connectivity, it's also the most affordable gaming TV for anyone that wants an OLED display to match their new PS5 or Xbox Series X game console.
Read our full LG BX OLED review.
The LG GX OLED is the most expensive of LG's 4K smart TVs, putting the same category-leading OLED technology into a 20-millimeter-thick chassis that can hang flat against the wall. The flush mount uses a proprietary LG wall hanger that is recessed into the back of the TV. The result is one of the most polished-looking home theater setups you can get without paying for in-wall installation.
In fact, the only problem we had with the LG GX is that it's pretty much identical in performance and picture quality to the less-expensive LG CX OLED – which makes perfect sense, seeing as they use the same OLED panel, same video processor and same smart TV software. But the undeniably slick design makes the GX more premium than 95% of the TVs you can buy today, and is well worth the higher price tag when you want to get top performance and a luxe setup for your new TV.
Read our full LG GX OLED TV review.
The other LG OLED TV you might see on sale is the LG Signature ZX 8K OLED, a giant 8K model that comes in 77- and 88-inch sizes. We had the chance to test the previous LG Z9 OLED, and the ZX is nearly identical, save for an updated processor. The giant OLED screen sits on a stylish integrated base, which also houses the TV components and speakers, and the use of LG's display-on-glass design in such large sizes is genuinely stunning. The resolution is obviously a full order of magnitude beyond anything the best 4K sets can produce, but thanks to the OLED panel, it also offers near perfection in pixel-level brightness and contrast.
The whole thing is an impressive feat of sights and sounds, and the best 8K set we've gotten to test so far. But it also comes with all of the caveats around 8K TV, such as the lack of 8K content and the enormous expense of the set – which sells for $19,999 in the smaller 77-inch size and $29,999 for the 88-inch model we looked at.
Read our full LG Signature Z9 88-inch 8K OLED TV (OLED88Z9) review.
How much do LG TVs cost?
Our favorite LG OLED TV is the LG CX OLED, with the 55-inch model selling for $1,349 and the 65-inch model going for $1,949. The entry level BX OLED, on the other hand, sells for less, with the 55-inch model selling for $1,299 (tied with the Vizio OLED TV for the most affordable budget OLED on the market), and the 65-inch model for $1,799.
At the higher end, the LG GX OLED is the most expensive 4K model LG has, with the 55-inch model selling for $1,899 and the 65-inch set for $2,299. And even that seems downright affordable compared to the prices of the LG ZX 8K OLED, which goes for as much as $30 thousand.
What is OLED?
LG's best TVs are all OLED, and it's easy to see why. They offer superb color and brightness, best-in-class contrast and sharpness, and offer slimmer designs than even the sleekest LCD-based smart TVs. But what is OLED, exactly?
OLED is an abbreviation for Organic Light Emitting Diode, a display technology that uses organic compounds in its pixel structure. (Lest you think you've got a petri dish of bacteria cultures in every OLED TV, the organic compounds in question are electroluminescent materials like organometallic chelates, p-phenylene vinylene and N-vinylcarbazole. No living cultures involved.)
These materials are printed onto glass with a pixel structure that uses red, green, blue, and white points of light to create the individual pixels that make up the 3840 x 2160 pixels that make up a 4K screen. Each one lights up when current is applied, meaning that each pixel lights up individually, a major difference from LCD TVs, which use a larger backlight behind an LCD panel.
Thanks to the unique per-pixel nature of OLED's self-illuminating technology, the displays on LG's best TVs offer infinite contrast with true blacks, delivering sharper looking images, better HDR performance and great overall performance. The latest OLED models also deliver superb color and a wide color gamut, routinely exceeding the sRGB standard, with higher-than-100% scores in our color gamut benchmark tests.
The result is the best TV technology you can presently buy, offering dramatically better picture quality than LCD TVs and even a step up from the best quantum-dot (aka QLED) models being sold.
What is LG webOS
One of the defining elements of LG smart TVs is webOS, the software platform that delivers all of the apps and smart features. LG has some of the smartest TVs on the market, and webOS is what makes it all work. From the LG Content Store's 200+ apps to the MagicRemote's motion controls, there's a lot to love about LG smart TVs.
Some of the most distinctive features of webOS include support for both Amazon Alexa and Google Assistant voice assistants, a control dashboard for smart home devices and LG Channels, an aggregated list of free streaming services and movies.
LG's webOS may be best known as proprietary software, but it's being licensed to new manufacturers this year. Unlike the still-proprietary Samsung Tizen or Vizio SmartCast, which are only found on TVs from its respective manufacturers, LG will be partnering with manufacturers like RCA, Polaroid and Konka, making webOS a more common sight in the budget TV section of your local Best Buy or Walmart.
Are LG 8K TVs worth buying?
Like competitors Samsung and Sony, LG has a handful of 8K TVs in it's lineup of models. The selection of 8K sets ranges from ultra-expensive OLED models, like the LG ZX 8K OLED, there are also non-OLED 8K models, like the 75-inch LG Nano99, which sells for a much more reasonable $3,999, and the smaller 65-inch model, which sells for $2,799, making it one of the most affordable 8K sets on the market.
But even with both impressive 8K OLED models and affordable NanoCell 8K sets, we don't recommend you buy an 8K LG TV – or any 8K TV, for that matter. Without any real 8K content available, the higher resolution of a 7,680 by 4,320 screen isn't worth the extra expense. LG's 8K sets look fantastic, but we're not recommending anybody spend their money on an 8K TV this year. (Find out more in our article Should you buy an 8K TV in 2021?)
How to choose the best LG TV for you
When shopping for a new TV, settling on your brand of choice may answer some questions, such as your choice of smart TV platform or preferred voice assistant, but it's only part of the decision-making process. Once you've decided that you like LG smart TVs, you'll still need to determine which model you want, with questions of features, performance and pricing that still need consideration.
Thankfully, our in-depth reviews dig into the specifics of each model line, helping you to understand which LG models have certain defining features, and which offer the best value for the price.
Here are the defining price and features of the different LG OLED models to help you decide which best fits your needs and budget.
| Model | Price range | Screen sizes | Features |
|---|---|---|---|
| LG Signature ZX OLED | $19,999 - $29,999 | 77, 88 inches | 8K resolution, integrated floor stand, webOS 5.0, Alpha 9 Gen 3 processor, 120Hz refresh rate |
| LG Signature GX OLED | $1,899 - $3,799 | 55, 65, 77 inches | 4K resolution, Gallery design, webOS 5.0, Alpha 9 Gen 3 processor, 120Hz refresh rate |
| LG CX OLED | $1,499 - $3,299 | 48, 55, 65, 77 inches | 4K resolution, webOS 5.0, Alpha 9 Gen 3 processor, 120Hz refresh rate |
| LG BX OLED | $1,299 - $1,799 | 55, 65 inches | 4K resolution, webOS 5.0, Alpha 7 Gen 3 processor, 120 Hz refresh rate |
Our coverage has focused on LG's OLED TVs, because they represent the best performance of any LG smart TVs, even at different price points. And while LG's non-OLED models are still decent quality 4K sets, the OLED models deliver the better picture quality by far.
Of the models listed above, our favorite may be the LG CX OLED, but both the LG Signature ZX 8K OLED and the LG Signature GX OLED are more premium sets with objectively better features (and a higher price to match).
The Link LonkApril 15, 2021 at 02:00PM
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Best LG TVs in 2021 - Tom's Guide
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