LG OLED B2 Review & Rating

With the Sony A80K, you not only get a better sound system, but also a great picture optimization for your movie fun at home. However, you will have to do without Dolby Vision IQ. The Samsung QN85B offers more brightness and better reflection resistance including QLED technology.

However, this model cannot keep up with the contrast and viewing angle of the LG OLED B2. If a refresh rateHertz is the derived SI-unit of frequency with 1Hz=1/s – When talking about TVs this means how many different pictures a TV can display in one second. of 60 hertz is enough for you, but you still don’t want to do without a high-contrast OLED TV, the LG OLED A2 could be an additional option for you.

When our 65-inch test device, the B29LA variant to be exact, was first assembled in our test lab, the first thing that caught our eye was that there wasn’t much that caught our eye at first. In fact, the LG OLED B2 and the LG OLED B1 are amazingly similar. The frame and the casing’s dimensions only differ marginally from each other and add one millimeter to the width and depth.

The design of the stand was borrowed from the predecessor model.  The styling and the choice of colors also match. Only when looking at the back does one notice that the lower casing area including the port positions has visibly changed or been reduced in size.

However, a closer look at the B2 from the front reveals a comparatively tiny feature – the infrared sensor in the center. You will also find this on the B1, but the sensor is less conspicuous there.

Unfortunately, the few design changes also mean that nothing has changed in the height to the bottom edge of the TV. If you use a soundbar placed directly in front of your TV – which will be the case for some of you – you could cover a small part of the bottom of the screen with it due to the height. Unpleasant! However, this is more of a deduction in the B grade, which does not make much of a difference, but is still worth mentioning.

Although the rear part of the case is now slimmer, you can’t mount the TV on your wall without gaps. For that, the B2 would have to have the consistently flat gallery design of LG’s OLED evo G2 – a dream of the future. By the way, the TV is mounted via the standardized VESA 300 x 200 standard. All in all, the manufacturing quality is on LG’s familiar good level.

In contrast to the models from the G and C series, the LG OLED B2 has not changed quite as much in terms of panel and picture quality. The mid-range OLED gains brightness performance by LG adjusting the screen’s control.

With the help of this, the peak luminance was adjusted and is now almost on the level of the LG OLED C1 from 2021. Expressed in bare numbers, this is an increase in luminance of about 100 nitsSI unit of luminance: 1 nit = 1 cd/m² – The best way of measuring and comparing a TVs brightness   for the OLED TV from the 2022 lineup.

A brighter screen is generally advantageous, but you will hardly notice the difference in everyday use. Compared with LED-LCD TVs, we can therefore only conditionally recommend the B2 for particularly bright rooms. However, this is also due to the panel’s high sensitivity to reflections, which can sometimes spoil the viewing pleasure. Particularly bright lights that hit the display undiminished have a disturbing effect.

Therefore, the B2 is particularly suitable for darker and dimmable rooms. Here, the OLED can show its full strength in the form of a great contrast paired with a perfect black. In contrast to models with a permanent backlight, the pixels typically simply turn off completely.

Although the HDRHigh Dynamic Range – image/video with more dynamic range (contrast range) experience does not reach decisive best rates, it still invites to full-length TV entertainment. The wide viewing angle, which is typical for this panel technology, allows this even in larger groups without significant quality losses.

In addition to the company’s own HDR10HDR10 Media Profile – HDR with a color depth of 10 Bit in the Rec. 2020 colorspace Pro feature, Dolby Vision IQ and Cinema HDRHigh Dynamic Range – image/video with more dynamic range (contrast range) are available for the OLED to show highlights to their best advantage. The color space is rounded off by HLGHLG or Hybrid Log Gamma facilitates the transmission and reception of signals by combining the SDR and HDR signals. If the device supports HDR, the HDR part of the signal is used, otherwise the SDR part.. The B2 performs similarly well when displaying color areas that fill the screen.

The mid-range TV manages this cleanly and without dark corners. The Alpha 7 processing unit from the 5th processor generation that LG installs in its flat-screen TVs ensures sufficient performance and possible optimizations.

In addition to the calculation of intermediate images and sound playback, automatic brightness adjustments can also be made. However, a small drawback is the relatively hard-tuned brightness limiter, also known as Automatic Brightness Limiter.

Primarily, this protection mechanism is supposed to prevent permanent damage to the self-luminous pixels due to overheating. In return, the feature reduces the brightness noticeably, especially in large bright scenes.

The B2 has good prerequisites in terms of interference-free picture reproduction. Like its predecessor, this model also has a responsive 120 HertzHertz is the derived SI-unit of frequency with 1Hz=1/s – When talking about TVs this means how many different pictures a TV can display in one second. panel that manages with just 2 milliseconds of switching time. This means that feedback is almost instantaneous and ensures that blurry pictures are a rarity.

Fast movements can be captured accurately. This makes for a great overall impression in movies, series and sporting events and consequently puts a stop to so-called judder.

However, a fast response time of the display also has disadvantages. Experience has shown that the picture can jerk especially in slow scenes.

You will often stumble over the Soap Opera effect when the interpolation is enabled. This is not noticed directly by everyone, but it can be perceived as an annoying factor while watching over time.

Since LG generally puts a lot of emphasis on gaming, we expected the B2 to be equipped accordingly. To be more precise, the mid-range OLED hardly has to make any concessions compared to its big brother.

The South Korean manufacturer only spares two HDMI 2.1 ports. Thus, the LG OLED B2 only has half as many sockets of the current HDMI standard at its disposal. In return, you will find a lot of other features on the feature list.

AMD FreeSyncVariable Refresh Rate with AMD graphics cards or consoles and Nvidia G-SyncVariable Refresh Rate for Nvidia graphics cards compatibility effectively counteract ugly staircase effects on the panel. The extremely short input lag of 6 milliseconds is almost on the performance level of the C2 and transfers commands on your controller to the screen within the shortest time.

Xbox Series X and S owners can also generally make use of 4K at 120 frames per second and activate Dolby Vision gaming in parallel. You can also use the integrated Cloud Gaming feature to play numerous games directly via streaming on the LG OLED B2’s screen.

You will then need a compatible Bluetooth controller, which you simply connect to the TV, and an active subscription to Google Stadia or GeForce Now. To be able to stream games in 4K resolution and HDRHigh Dynamic Range – image/video with more dynamic range (contrast range), your bandwidth should be at least 35 Mbit per second.

Compared to the predecessor, LG was not as “generous” with the B2 in terms of playback performance. The 2.2 sound system with subwoofer from the B1 gave way to a comparatively simple stereo setup and was thus cut again in the lower frequencyHertz is the derived SI-unit of frequency with 1Hz=1/s – When talking about TVs this means how many different pictures a TV can display in one second. range.

The processor performs a virtual adaptation to 5.1.2 via AI Sound Pro, but this cannot be compared with a soundbar or even a full-fledged home theater system.

Even though the voice reproduction is clean, we cannot really recommend the B2 for movies, series or music in terms of sound performance. Therefore, you should use an external solution for a much better sound impression up to native Dolby Atmos via eARC.

If you don’t have any ideas yet or want to know what you have to pay attention to when buying, we recommend using our soundbarfindr buying guide.

Note: If you want to connect speakers wirelessly to the TV via the WiSA standard, you should steer clear of the B23 model, since LG does not offer this feature in this sales variant.

Like all models from the 2022 series, the B2 comes with a webOS 22 interface. However, the Hands Free Voice Control is reserved for LG’s top TV segment. Nevertheless, you can navigate through the menus in a pleasantly familiar manner and use your Magic Remote to activate one of several voice assistants. You can choose between Amazon’s Alexa, Google’s voice assistant or LG’s internal solution called ThinQ AI.

For the first time, you can also create your own profiles and individualize them if you like. The comprehensive range of apps and streaming services offers a wide range of options that you can browse through.

If you want to record something, you can simply access the program via USB recording. Did you miss something? No problem! Rewind and watch again is easy via Timeshift.

Features like AirPlay 2 for transferring your screen content from the iPhone or HomeKit for controlling SmartHome devices are also available. The situation is a bit different for the B23 variant.

LG only installs a single tuner in this model. It is therefore not possible to record a program while watching another one on this model.

The precision of our test device leaves a lot to be desired ex-factory. If we look at our measurements on the EOTF curve, we see that brightness levels are almost consistently reproduced too intensively on the screen.

Nominally, the deviation is an average error of a comparatively high 3.2 points. Colors are also too bright overall and thus not displayed correctly. The B2 has quite a bit of catching up to do here.

Off the norm is also the color fidelity. Apart from an overbright output, there is a deviation especially in red and green. This in turn has an impact on yellow and cyan tones.

A maximum error of 3.6 points makes it clear that a recalibration is also sensible with a view to the color values. This is also confirmed by the fluctuations in the RGB balance.

Following our adjustment, a lot has happened and the process has ensured that the B2 can now exploit its potential much better. You can already see that in the more homogeneous ETOF curve.

Our test device could improve by a whole 2.5 error points in the maximum range. The aforementioned brightness gradations are now displayed darker over the entire luminance and thus much more precisely.

The same applies to the color space. We were able to reduce the error tolerance from a maximum of 3.6 points by 50% to 1.8 points. This means that the color values are now almost at the specified target values and are thus reproduced more evenly by the B2.