LG OLED evo G1 – Just a Gallery TV or the best Gaming Screen 2021?

Because LG’s G1 OLED is advertised as a picture frame TV, the design of the TV is elegant and slim. It is just 2.1 cm thick and truly seems to rest on the wall like a picture. The edges are also kept incredibly thin, which really makes it seem like you have a large display on the wall.

Stands are only available separately, as the picture frame TV is designed to be wall mounted. There are either two small, silver stand feet that attach to the far outside of the TV, or a large, three-foot Gallery stand that attaches to the center of the TV. This gives the G1 a secure stand on the floor, making even a sideboard obsolete and making the TV look like a painting on an easel. However, a corresponding wall mount is included, which disappears into the TV after mounting so that the TV still lies flat on the wall.

Clean cable management is also taken care of, as there are corresponding cutouts in the TV, allowing you to route the cables. The ports are aligned to the side or downwards, so the G1 retains its flat shape. If you want to move something around, you can easily swivel the TV and its mount forward a bit.

The gallery mode can be used to present famous artworks from LG’s archive or your own photos. The gallery mode can be started very easily via voice command.

The special feature of the G1 Evo OLED is probably the built-in Evo panel, which allows the self-luminous LEDs to become warmer and therefore longer-lasting. Thus, a higher brightness of up to 850 nitsSI unit of luminance: 1 nit = 1 cd/m² – The best way of measuring and comparing a TVs brightness   can be achieved right from the start. This is possible due to an additional green layer, as well as the new material deuterium, which makes the two blue layers in the subpixels more heat resistant and efficient. This also makes the OLED even more power efficient, and presumably the burn-in risk is even lower than before.

Furthermore, the 10-bit OLED Evo panel offers a perfect black and a theoretically infinite contrast, which makes HDRHigh Dynamic Range – image/video with more dynamic range (contrast range) content in particular look spectacular in dark rooms. The OLED has fewer problems in brighter rooms due to the increased brightness, but the luminosity still does not come close to a QLED, which is much better suited for illuminated rooms. However, details are displayed even better due to the increased brightness, and Dolby Vision IQDynamic HDR-format with a color depth of up to 12 Bits and Mastering of up to 10,000 Nits, which can adapt to the ambient brightness provides that little extra on top, which optimizes HDR content once again. Colors look wonderfully vivid, even though the OLED has to do without HDR10+License-free, dynamic HDR-format in competition with Dolby Vision.

The viewing angle is very wide as usual, so you do not have to sacrifice picture quality even at a very oblique angle. For this reason, the G1 Evo is so excellently suited as a picture frame, even if the different pictures should only be displayed for a short time in order to keep the burn-in risk as low as possible. The OLED can also handle reflections quite well, although you should still not expose it to direct light. Only the Automatic Brightness Limiter has to be mentioned negatively here, since it can be noticeable when quickly changing from large dark to bright scenes.

In addition, the G1 Evo uses the powerful Alpha9 Gen4 AI processor, which gives the OLED enough power to optimally display and optimize images.

Motion blur has long been a thing of the past for LG and the G1 Evo is no exception. The 120Hz display has an almost instant response time, which means motion blur doesn’t even occur. This makes the TV the perfect choice for fast-paced games like shooters or racing games, but also for sports events where every second counts.

Unfortunately, such speed also has its downsides, because stutters can occur especially in very slow movements like camera pans. However, these jerks can be removed as far as possible by interframe calculation, even if this can result in the not-so-popular soap opera effect. JudderInconsistent time frame due to the input frequency not mismatching the TV’s frequency (e.g. 24p via 60Hz) can be removed from all sources without problems.

The G1 also has a Black Frame InsertionProcess that inserts black “blank images” as intermediate images. This makes movements appear finer and clearer. function that can further reduce motion blur. However, it should be noted that this reduces the brightness somewhat.

The outstanding motion handling already reveals that the G1 Evo is also a great TV for all gamers. Thanks to the low response time and an input lag of 5.5ms at 4K@120Hz and ~13ms at 4K@60Hz, the OLED reacts lightning-fast and is therefore a wonderful candidate for fast-paced games. Namely, they run smoothly and without any input lag. Furthermore, games from the PlayStation 5 or Xbox Series X look great thanks to the OLED panel. The Xbox Series X additionally benefits from Dolby VisionDynamic HDR-format with a color depth of up to 12 Bits and Mastering of up to 10,000 Nits gaming at 4K@120Hz, which is currently the cherry on top.

Four HDMI 2.1 ports are waiting to be used with consoles, without having to change the connections unnecessarily often. Thus, nothing stands in the way of gaming with a 4K resolution at 120Hz. The Auto Low Latency Mode also ensures that switched-on consoles are immediately detected and the TV immediately switches to game mode. This keeps the input lag as low as possible and you can immediately jump into the next adventure. To ensure tearing-free gaming, VRRVariable Refresh Rate – synchronizes the display’s refresh rate with the output refresh rate of the graphics card is supported via FreeSyncVariable Refresh Rate with AMD graphics cards or consoles, HDMI Forum and NVidia G-SyncVariable Refresh Rate for Nvidia graphics cards, which means that PCs with an NVidia graphics card can also make the most of the G1 Evo. And who can claim to be able to play on a picture frame?

A 4.2 channel sound system with a total power of 60 watts has been installed in LG’s G1 Evo OLED. The sound seems to come directly from the screen and is quite sufficient for everyday use. However, the TV lacks bass in particular, which cannot develop due to the flat design in the first place. Especially with such a flat TV like the G1, a cinema-like sound can’t be produced, since the volume is simply missing. You should definitely think about buying a soundbar here.

Dialogues are reproduced clearly and distinctly, but action movies simply don’t have the right atmosphere because the bass isn’t present. At least uncompressed Dolby AtmosObject-based surround sound format with 3D-Sound from any direction can be supported via the existing eARC port, which really makes a noticeable difference in combination with a soundbar. Unfortunately, you have to do without DTSMulti-channel-sound-system (Surround Sound) competing with Dolby Digital on the G1.

LG has even developed the special G1 soundbar for the OLED, which can be seamlessly attached to the wall under the TV.

The LG G1 Evo works with the latest WebOS 6.0, which can be controlled intuitively and smoothly. The dashboard is very neat and can be customized, even though you have to live with ads that you cannot turn off. However, the app selection is huge, which means you do not have to do without any game, streaming service or other apps. Additionally, common services are already preloaded and even the remote control now has more buttons to start services like Netflix, Prime Vide or Disney+ immediately. Unfortunately, this also makes the remote a bit bigger, but it can still be used as a Magic Remote to control the menu via hand gestures.

Of course, the TV can also be controlled via the well-known Google or Alexa assistants; this even works without a remote control at all on the G1. The exchange with Apple devices works with Apple Airplay2 without any issues. Your smart home can also be controlled via the TV thanks to LG ThinQ. A twin tuner is also available, which allows using functions like timeshift and USB recording.