LG OLED evo C2 Review & Rating

The LG OLED evo C2 places itself next to the brighter Samsung Neo QLED QN90B and its mini-LED technology. However, the QN95B cannot hold a candle to the C2 in terms of contrast. If you do not want to do without an Evo panel and self-luminous pixels, we recommend looking at LG’s OLED evo G1.

Last year’s model from the so-called Gallery series has a completely flat design and can be mounted on the wall almost without gaps. If you are looking for a home theater but do not want to miss out on an OLED, the Sony A80J could be another solution for you.

Once again, LG clearly hits the mark with the design of the LG OLED evo C2 and convinces us with a slim design and excellent build quality. Even the back of the panel is covered with a very thin layer of fabric that is hardly noticeable.

In our opinion, however, this didn’t necessarily have to be the case at this point. The thin shapes are also reflected in the display bezel, which we can barely see properly from the front.

Since the C2 does not have the so-called gallery design like its big brother, the G2, the electronics are located above the stand on the back, as expected. This area does not take up too much space either, but you cannot mount the TV completely flush to the wall.

If you still prefer to mount your TV on your wall, we’ll be happy to tell you in our comprehensive buying guide to TV wall mounts what you need to pay special attention to in order to securely mount your TV.

The base unit receives slight criticism. In contrast to last year’s model, it has shrunk a bit in terms of size. This also affected the stability of our review sample. The TV now absorbs shocks less well. However, this is also due to the significantly lower total weight. The C2 only weighs 18 kilograms.

Although this does not make the LG OLED evo C2 unstable, the C1’s wide stand has the edge in this field. Depending on the size, you don’t have to do without it though, because the 48 and 83 inch versions also have the base from last year. The 42-inch variant with the lateral stands is an exception.

If we look at the pure dimensions, a small base is of course advantageous, since you simply need less space and would still have room for a Blu-Ray receiver below the TV, for example. This space is larger on the C2 than on the predecessor, but it is still smaller than expected.

The space from the lower edge of the frame to the upper edge of our table is still relatively small. If you want to place a soundbar in front of the TV, this could lead to problems because you would cover a part of the lower screen.

That still leaves the numerous ports of the LG OLED evo C2. These are protected by a plastic cover in the center. To ensure proper cable routing, you can easily clip the data cables to the designated points. This way, everything can be neatly routed away from the TV through the center.

The advantage of every TV with an OLED panel is the excellent black level and the – at least in theory – infinite contrast. LG’s OLED evo C2 is no exception.

On the contrary: LG goes one better with the C2 and equips the top model with a so-called OLED evo panel that uses so-called deuterium.

According to the Korean manufacturer, this allows for more efficient LEDs that increase brightness and picture accuracy. Admittedly: This technology is not new and was already installed in LG’s OLED evo G1 from last year.

Regardless, the 120 HzHertz 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 with 10-bit color depthThe color depth is measured in Bit. 8 Bit stands for 2⁸ different values for each color channel, for TVs those are red, green and blue. By combining the 3 rgb channels 2⁸*2⁸*2⁸=16.777.216 colors are possible. HDR10 or the dynamic HDR formats work with 10 or even 12 Bit. now achieves a visibly higher brightness level, which especially benefits HDR content. Our measurement results in a value of 850 nits here.

Nevertheless, LG’s OLED evo C2 cannot really compete with the LED-LCD rivals and has to take a back seat in this area, as expected.

Of course, the luminance performance is still sufficient to display the picture with enough brightness even with a lot of ambient light. The Evo panel also handles direct illumination relatively well. However, the screen is not insensitive to this.

However, TVs with self-luminous pixels have the advantage that they do not produce any blooming effect, which often occurs in dark scenes of backlit TVs and creates an unclean display.

LG’s OLED evo C2 also convinced us in terms of unifomity, which means the clean display of colored areas. Only the gray tones lag a bit behind. We could determine slight irregularities in this regard on our test device.

As expected, we also hardly notice any losses in the quality of the display from acute angles. Therefore, nothing prevents long movie nights in larger groups.  The new 5th generation Alpha 9 processor provides enough power to ensure image optimization and navigation without problems. The Automatic Brightness Limiter, which is relatively aggressive in our eyes, received slight criticism. We noticed it in a negative way especially during fast scene changes.

Important note about the 42-inch size of the C2:

LG confirmed in April that the LG OLED 42C2, which is the version with the smallest panel, will not necessarily ship with an Evo panel based on OLED-EX technology.

Production bottlenecks prevent the production of evo panels in sufficiently high quantities. Instead, this model size can be produced with the older and less bright WBC panel. Since all TVs of the C-series are advertised with the addition “OLED Evo” from LG, you do not know in advance which panel your purchased TV has.

An additional highlight is the so-called Brightness Booster. This feature provides 20% more luminance. However, this function will only be available for sizes from 55 inches upwards due to excessive heat development in connection with the pixel density.

The 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 of the LG OLED evo C2 masters even fast picture movements on a high level thanks to the good motion handling. Thus, you can expect a smooth viewing experience.

Despite all the image corrections, you can’t avoid the Soap Opera Effect on the C2. This side effect occurs when the interpolation is enabled and makes people and objects stand out unusually from the background.

If interpolationArtificial calculation of more frames than the source material has to offer is turned off, however, slow camera movements can lead to image jerks – also called stutter – due to the so-called pulldown problem. Once again, the TV reliably filters out judder.

Due to an excellent response time, image blurring is hardly noticeable. Accordingly, our measurement resulted in a value of only 0.15 ms, which is in line with the manufacturer’s specifications.

If we talk about gaming, the LG OLED evo C2 offers a comprehensive equipment package this year as well. Strictly speaking, you can hardly ask for a better TV in this context. Four full-fledged HDMI 2.1 interfaces should be enough to cover at least the current consoles and one or two additional devices.

Thanks to the immensely impressive input lag of about 5 ms, the screen reacts as fast as lightning and transmits your inputs to the C2’s panel almost immediately. This additionally rewards gamers with a good response time.

Furthermore, the so-called Game Optimizer brings many additional functions like ALLMAuto Low Latency Mode – Automatically detects connected consoles and keeps input lag as low as possible., Variable Refresh Rate or AMD FreeSyncVariable Refresh Rate with AMD graphics cards or consoles to the screen in a compact and easy-to-understand way. G-SyncVariable Refresh Rate for Nvidia graphics cards compatibility has also been implemented again. Ugly screen tearing is therefore not a problem.

Especially owners of a current Microsoft console will get their money’s worth. Dolby Vision Gaming is once again part of the package and makes your favorite game look even better. In addition, LG’s OLED evo C2 of course offers 4K@120Hz.

Although sound reproduction is not an absolute foreign word for today’s TVs, it usually fails to provide a powerful bass. LG’s OLED C2 is no exception.

The 2.2. sound system with the 20 watt woofer and 10 watts per channel provides a clean and clear sound quality, but cannot pull anything off the ice in the low 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 and is affected by strong fluctuations in the range between 50 and 150 hertz.

The narrow design makes things worse and simply doesn’t allow for any resonance. Dialogs and voices, on the other hand, are reproduced cleanly and clearly, and trebles are additionally emphasized. However, even the C2 reaches its limits during action scenes and loud music at the latest. Altogether, however, the C2 has a sufficient overall sound that is quite suitable for daily use.

Generally, you will use a different solution for an LG TV in this price range anyway, in order to physically integrate the virtual 7.1.2 soundscape of the sound sources into your room and take full advantage of Dolby Atmos.

However, if you still have doubts about whether you want to get the big home theater experience at home, we will be happy to help you in our buying guide about soundbars as a cheaper alternative solution.

LG did not hit the jackpot with this year’s feature set of the LG OLED evo C2, but the top model still has one or two innovations for you.

To start at the beginning, LG has changed the naming policy of its digital TV control center. The reference to the version number was removed in the process. Thus, webOS 6.0 becomes webOS 22.

Under the refreshed name, LG now integrates personal profiles into the in-house interface for the first time. You will be able to create your own favorites and set up personalized content recommendations from now on. The created users can then be changed easily via the interface.

The voice function called “Hands-Free Voice Control” is also new. The highlight: You no longer have to reach for your remote control when using C2, but can speak directly with the LG ThinQ AI of the TV. If you prefer to communicate with Alexa or Google Assistant, you can do that as well.

Alternatively, you can use LG’s Magic Remote to navigate through the menu structure and the extensive app selection in the usual way. You will not only find the most important streaming services, but also many additional applications.

A twin triple tuner for parallel program recordings, a USB recording function and the two Apple functions “Air Play” and “HomeKit” can also be found on the LG OLED evo C2’s spec sheet.

In terms of the precision in color reproduction, the device we tested was not quite as color-accurate out of the box. But the error was kept within limits here as well. We were surprised that the Filmmaker mode performed better than the ISF modes on the whole.

Using the Calman software and a colorimeter, the LG C2 OLED could be calibrated excellently, so that there are now no recognizable errors in color or brightness reproduction.

With a delta error of 0.9 and 1.1 for the color space, the content is reproduced very precisely, so that it can almost keep up with professional monitors that are actually intended for image analysis.

This shows that a professional calibration can still pay off even with already very well adjusted TVs.