There are few units that scream ‘gaming TV’ fairly just like the LG OLED48C1, however don’t let that put you off if all you’re after is a modest-sized display with top-notch image high quality. That’s very a lot LG’s MO too.
LG has been certainly one of a contented few main the best way with OLED know-how for a few years now and, even earlier than 2021, the corporate has had its C-series units in a extremely good place, providing some very credible darkish element to accompany these usually deep OLED blacks. And don’t get us began on the wealthy, vibrant colors – not less than not but.
What makes the LG OLED48C1 so particular for players are two components that additionally make it a terrific TV to personal, irrespective of your leisure of selection. First is the very manageable dimension, whether or not that’s for a solo-gaming second display for the bed room, or as the primary TV in a smaller room.
Maybe extra important, although, is LG’s tacit promise to its prospects: purchase certainly one of our units, and we’ll be certain to maintain it up to date with all of the apps, companies and movie processing applied sciences as quickly as they’re obtainable. And, sure, that features all of the very newest next-generation gaming requirements. If it’s on the market, and may be delivered to you by an OTA (Over The Air) replace, then LG tends to make it occur earlier than anybody else.
Value
The LG OLED48C1 worth is £1099 within the UK, the place you’ll seemingly see it listed because the ‘LG OLED48C14LB’. Within the US the ‘LG OLED48C1PUB’, because it’s identified, prices $1297. These in Australia ought to look out for the LG OLED48C1PTB for AU$2095. It’s additionally obtainable in 55-inch, 65-inch, 77-inch and 83-inch sizes.
Construct
The packaging suggests that you simply want two individuals to construct and place the LG OLED48C1. That’s actually good recommendation contemplating that is no low cost buy, however such are the scale and weight of this dinky 48-inch set which you can fairly simply get your arms round it and shift it by yourself, and with out a lot hazard of pulling something troublesome to get well from both.
The sting-to-edge glass panel has solely a small bezel of black bordering the image. So, with no extreme body bulking up the construct, you may properly discover that it takes up little extra space than an outdated 42-inch flat display TV. All the identical, finest get the measuring tape and ensure.
As ever, the precise OLED panel is millimetres skinny however there’s loads of additional depth to deal with the electronics and audio system down in the direction of LG’s central plinth-style stand, which has held its prime finish TVs in place for a few years now. It’s actually a sensible design and one which hasn’t actually modified a lot in the previous couple of generations of LG OLEDs.
LG OLED48C1 tech specs
Show kind OLED
Decision 4K
Working system webOS
HDR codecs Dolby Imaginative and prescient, HDR10, HLG
HDMI x4 (all HDMI 2.1)
4K@120Hz Sure
VRR Sure
ALLM Sure
Optical out Sure
Dimensions w/o stand (hwd) 62 x 107 x 4.7cm
What has modified for 2021 is the LG Magic Distant, which has now been squared off and made to look a bit extra conventional than the actually curvy ones of the previous. You possibly can nonetheless use gestures to maneuver its little cursor across the display. It’s nonetheless voice-enabled and we’re nonetheless not solely in love with the best way that the scroll wheel doubles as a barely unstable choose button, however let’s not choose nits right here. It’s an excellent, ergonomic and extremely useful distant management, and that’s all it must be.
As for the sockets and connectivity, you actually couldn’t need for something extra, and LG likes to maintain it that approach. All 4 HDMI sockets are 2.1-enabled, there are three USBs, headphones, optical-out and there’s Bluetooth for wi-fi audio. It’s Freesat suitable too.
Options
One of many nice causes to purchase an LG TV is that it comes with nearly each characteristic obtainable. In actual fact, just about the one compromise you must make is that it doesn’t assist Samsung’s HDR10+ customary. However, what with Dolby Imaginative and prescient nonetheless being the market chief within the dynamic HDR house, we don’t see that as a lot of an issue. There’s additionally Dolby Imaginative and prescient IQ, which you allow by turning on LG’s AI Brightness Setting whereas watching Dolby Imaginative and prescient content material. This adjusts your display’s output in response to the ambient gentle within the room.
That’s all managed by the brains of the TV, the most recent incarnation of LG’s Alpha 9 processor, the quad-core Alpha 9 Gen 4. With this new delivery comes a couple of image and sound upgrades. Object Enhancement is now refined sufficient to recognise complete our bodies in addition to faces, animals, automobiles and different issues. Sound can now be upmixed to an Atmos-virtualised 5.1.2.
There’s additionally a few model new programs to take pleasure in akin to Scene Detection, which can optimise the image on-the-fly in response to what sort of scene it thinks is being introduced, and Auto Quantity levelling, which can be sure that the sound ranges are constant between sources. Meaning no extra having your ears blown off if you swap again to reside TV from Netflix.
It’s the gaming options that can likely be the most important draw for a lot of, although. All 4 of the HDMI 2.1 ports are rated at 40Gbps and are able to 4K@120Hz, VRR (in all present codecs) and ALLM. Enter lag, in the meantime, is lower than 13ms. eARC is supported, too.
Final however not least is LG’s up to date TV working system for 2021 – webOS 6.0. It’s stacked with apps and companies (BT Sports activities, Apple Music and Tunein are the one important absentees), handles mirroring over AirPlay 2 and is usually fairly straightforward and nice to make use of.
The house web page is a bit busier than we’d like and a bit too centered on what’s trending and what’s reside quite than what we really wish to watch, however it actually does the job higher and extra intuitively than most.
Image
LG must be praised for its properly calibrated image presets for 2021. The Commonplace and Cinema modes provide real out-of-the-box choices for 2 totally different however equally legitimate tastes, with the previous on the contrasty facet and the latter very pure and plausible, even when the movement processing wants pulling again.
Cinema House is the one to go for, although, for the easiest that this TV can provide. Fantastic tune with the sharpness slider and regulate the color temp to the look you want and also you’ve obtained all of it inside a matter of minutes.
Watching Guardians Of The Galaxy 2 on 4K Blu-ray, we’re delighted with how properly LG’s OLED processing reveals darkish element within the fireplace scene on Berhert. The flickering facet lighting from the campfire is dealt with properly sufficient to be delivered with an excellent tonal variation throughout the faces of Ego and the Guardians. Particulars within the shadows are nonetheless clear too. We will choose up the textures of Gamora’s black leather-based clothes and the bark on the bushes round her as she takes Peter Quill apart for a chat, and all with out wrecking black depth.
It’s equally spectacular as we head inside Ego’s craft. The sculpted white curves of the egg-shaped vessel’s inside look splendidly three-dimensional as long as you don’t get drunk on the punch energy that’s obtainable with the distinction enhancer. With Peak Brightness on Excessive and the HDR Tone Mapping filter at work, the image finds a superb stability between dynamism and subtlety.
Quill’s oxblood coat appears hanging and shiny with out us dropping the finer touches of the scene such because the faint freckles on Mantis’s pores and skin or the strands of hair in a collection of gray shades. And, as promised, the colors are beautiful, from the yolk colored partitions to the kaleidoscope of hues on Ego’s planet.
For movement, Cinematic Motion is the only option of preset. Watching the intro to Jack Reacher on Blu-ray, there’s nonetheless a contact of judder because the digital camera sweeps over Pittsburgh however the motion is essentially easy and devoid of any cleaning soap opera feeling or processing artefacts because the shooter’s automotive drives below bridges and cables on the best way to his automotive park killing spree.
The Alpha 9 Gen 4 does a good job of upscaling a movie that may come throughout as fairly noisy. The filters deal with the worst of that whereas leaving some spectacular pores and skin particulars within the close-ups. Tom Cruise’s battle-hardened Reacher is full with pits and scars and all the things you’d count on.
Blacks keep good and deep, after all, and the colors maintain properly, trying on the overhead shot of the crime scene. The foliage is plausible and there’s a pleasant indigo tinge to the paving slabs of the riverside stroll.
Apparently, it’s the preset referred to as ‘Eco’ that provides the quickest entry to the suitable SDR image. That’s as a result of the viewing is finest with out too most of the brightness boosters that will in any other case blow out the entire element. Add in only a small degree of the distinction enhancer, modulate only a contact with the distinction slider and also you’ll just about have all of it.
The outcomes are properly value it too. Check out the two-shot of Cruise and Rosamund Pike in profile within the cafe scene and the whites look terrific. Pike’s pale pores and skin and hair, her lilac shirt, and the white crockery on the desk are all properly produced shiny shades with the proper really feel of every materials from gloss to matte, porcelain to material.
Taking a fast take a look at BBC Information 24, we’re comfortable to report that this LG’s efficiency at SD is typical of any 4K set requested to upscale such an enormous quantity. The colors don’t jar and faces look fantastic in close-up, although they’re understandably smooth and detail-light. There’s a contact of ghosting on the sting of the time and ticker on the backside of the display and objects look a bit tough from distance, however that’s SD viewing for you.
Sound
The audio efficiency of LG’s C-series has come on leaps and bounds over the previous couple of years. Gone is the muddy fudge of rear-firing audio system in favour of a 2.2ch 40W set-up on the underside fringe of the TV. It’s the same association to the CX-range from 2020 however a unique presentation. Readability appears to be the watchword for this yr and that seems like the suitable determination, even when which means sacrificing a way of impression right here and there.
Again to Guardians Of The Galaxy 2, there’s a way of element that simply wasn’t there a couple of LG OLED generations in the past. The dialogue within the argument between Peter and Gamora on Ego’s planet is delivered in a clear, clipped vogue and the sound made when the 2 ears of ‘house corn’ rub collectively afterwards is each bit as rasping and worsening appropriately.
When Nebula flies in to assault her sister, the LG’s 5.1.2 virtualiser does a really spectacular job of including a superb really feel of unfold to the sound. The bullets appear to hail down in the suitable locations and the craft wooshes by properly past the confines of the TV body itself.
Whereas there’s sufficient dynamism to really feel a few of these blasts hit the bottom at Gamora’s scampering ft, the sense of pleasure may positively be bettered. It’s usually fantastic however there’s the odd second when an impact appears misplaced within the soundtrack altogether. Just a few hits of Nebula’s crash touchdown within the cave don’t appear to match the onscreen motion for energy.
It’s attainable to get a extra persistently impactful really feel in the event you swap off the Dolby Atmos processing, and a few extra quantity too, however the bass isn’t dealt with brilliantly and tends to muddy these clear waters that LG has labored arduous to make pond weed-free this yr.
One of the best answer is, after all, to purchase a soundbar or devoted house cinema system. However you knew that, proper?
Verdict
The LG OLED48C1 is a terrific all-round TV and one which’s straightforward to suggest to anyone. The Philips 48OLED806 is perhaps higher for pure cinematic efficiency however this LG is extra usable and considerably simpler to get the very best out of.
Even in the event you’re not that excited by all of the next-gen gaming options, the truth that LG is so eager and fast so as to add them when obtainable bodes properly for any new app, service or characteristic and for extra common movie and TV viewing. LG has a observe document of retaining its TV updated whereas a lot of its rivals don’t.
SCORES
- Image 5
- Sound 4
- Options 5
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