LG OLED55C14LB 55 inch 4K UHD HDR Smart OLED TV (2021 Model) with Advanced α9 Gen4 AI processor, SELF-LIT OLED, Dolby Vision IQ and Dolby Atmos, built-in Google Assistant and Alexa, Black

Product Information

The CX looks practically identical to last year’s C9. It’s always disappointing when a manufacturer doesn’t update the styling for a new generation model, but this design is more elegant than most, thanks to its sleek pedestal stand.

But the sonic performance is otherwise rather good. There’s good clarity to dialogue and effects, and the Dolby Atmos mode creates quite a large and spacious soundstage. By the standards of the class, the sound is punchy and dynamic, too, although the Sony A8 is superior and better ties the sound to the picture, thanks to its clever actuator-based set-up. The C1 also delivers lovely, naturalistic HDR. Peak highlights were measured at 750 nits using the Standard image present and a 5% measurement window (better reflecting how highlights typically appear on screen). This isn’t as perky as the new 'OLED Evo' panel on the G1, but it’s not far off at all.Percentage Luminance drop at 35 degree horizontal angle from the centre of the screen with 50% white output This is why when you read online people refer to the TVs as only C1, because the other differences are not important. The only important bit is the model range and model year. It's not possible to buy a TV with a different region from the UK, for instance...unless you're importing it from abroad. The major image changes in the LG C1 compared to 2020's LG CX are in the processing, which uses a year's worth of advancement in so-called 'AI' enhancements, which enable the TV to recognise more specific types of scenes, and to make custom adjustments that make the images look as good as possible depending on what's being shown. LG gets around this to a certain extent by using virtualisation. AI Sound Pro enlarges the soundstage and sharpens dialogue for standard content. Dolby Atmos decoding is switched in when it's detected, a virtual height channel offering faux immersion. The set’s latency performance is very good for gaming. We measured input lag at 12.6ms (1080/60) with Game mode on. LG C1 review: Sound quality

Percentage luminance drop at 20 degree vertical angle from the centre of the screen with 100% white output And finally, if you're looking for the absolute best-of-best OLED quality then take a look at the LG G2 instead (2022's flagship). It's a step up in the range and in evolution, delivering the brightest OLED image to date. It's not nearly as cheap though! The LG C1 didn't disappoint at launch in any way –and even a year on it's a stellar OLED option to consider. The way the set combines excitement and realism is its greatest strength. It’s sharp and detailed without ever giving the sense of over-enhancement, and colours are bright and vivid when they need to be (the contrasting blue and red light strips on the floor and ceiling of the plane’s interior at the start of the film, for example) but also effortlessly balanced and natural. You never question the CX’s interpretation of the source material, and that’s one of the greatest compliments that can be paid to a TV. Max light output HDR (high dynamic range) while displaying a live scene and white square taking up 60% of the screen (measured in Nits)

Conclusion

if you are new to OLED or looking for an excellent all rounder, the C1 is hard to beat at the price point. Having already tested LG’s 65in GX and 48in CX models, we knew what to expect from this 55in CX: a superlative performance that isn’t vastly different from last year’s C9 but does improve upon it in a few important ways. Max light output HDR (high dynamic range) while displaying small white square taking up 60% of the screen (measured in Nits)

The brain of the TV is the 2020 version of LG’s Alpha 9 (a9) processor. This ‘Gen 3’ chip brings with it, among other things, a feature called AI Picture Pro, which LG says will “enhance the resolution and sharpness of contents by an algorithm learned via a LG Deep Learning technique”, and AI Sound Pro, which “provides the optimal sound or Virtual 5.1 surround, depending on the watching genre”.

Design, Connection and Control

The C1 delivers lots of ‘wow, that’s better than last year’ moments. Motion handling is particularly noteworthy, courtesy of some clever new image interpolation techniques. LG’s AI Picture Pro picture system has had a deep learning performance bump this season which allows it to better optimise and analyse images in real time; it seems HD upscaling is also a beneficiary.

LG’s webOS smart platform was once the gold standard for smart connectivity, but it became increasingly unwieldy as more and more functions were added. Here we see the fruits of a radical full-screen reimagining, and it’s largely successful.Switching to standard HDR10 with The Hunt from the Apple TV app, and while there’s the inevitable slight drop in crispness when compared to watching a disc, the picture is still undeniably lovely. That’s exactly what we’ve got. Compared with its predecessor, the CX offers more dark detail, richer colours and better motion and, when added to an already exemplary performance, that makes for an astonishingly capable all-round performer. The 55in CX’s sound system is the same 2.2-channel, 40W affair as seen in the 48in model we’ve already tested. Predictably, then, it sounds similar, albeit with a slightly fuller balance that’s typical of a bigger TV.