LG OLED evo G2 Review & Rating

LG’s OLED evo C2 looks even brighter this year thanks to the evo panel upgrade and is the lower-cost alternative if you can do without a thin design and some less luminance. The direct competition by Samsung is technically on a somewhat more advanced level and has been equipped with so-called Quantum Dot OLEDs.

This provides even a bit more power in terms of brightness. The LG OLED evo G1 also features the evo panel, has a gallery design and is a great lower-priced alternative to the C2. Furthermore, this model comes with the Gallery Design, just like the G2.

LG already used the so-called Gallery Design for last year’s OLED spearhead. This design idea has been continued with the LG OLED evo G2. However, if you take a closer look at the specifications, you will notice some differences.

As we already noticed in our review of LG’s OLED evo C2, the G2 has been slimmed down as well. This is not quite as significant as in the smaller OLED brother – probably also due to the installed Heat Sink – but it is still worth mentioning. After all, the G2 saves 6 kilograms. The additional heat dissipation is probably also responsible for the fact that the OLED flagship has gained 4 millimeters in build depth. Thus, the G2 now measures 2.4 centimeters, but it still remains over 2 notable centimeters thinner than the C2.

The manufacturing quality is at a usual high level and gives the TV a high-quality feel. The screen bezel is pleasantly small, but still visible to the eye. In contrast to the C2, the black backing of our test model is uniformly flat and allows you to mount it on a wall with practically no gaps via the VESA standard.

This is ensured by the included wall mount. Thus, the G2 fits impressively tight to your wall – its ultimate talent. To make sure you can securely mount the slim TV on the wall, we offer additional information on wall mounting and wall mounts in our buyer’s guide.

If you do not want to mount the OLED or this solution is not possible at the moment due to your current setup, you can use the stand option as an alternative. But beware: The LG OLED evo G2 does not come with a stand. Accordingly, you will have to calculate the purchase of a separate stand for the conventional method. The original from LG costs about 200 Euros extra and gives the TV a slight tilt backwards.

Although this tilt cannot be adjusted, it does not have a negative effect on the picture or the viewing angle in our opinion. In return, you get the option to turn the LG OLED evo G2 to the sides.

Do I absolutely have to buy the original LG stand? No! Basically, you can use any VESA-compatible stand. Of course, you should still check whether your desired model is actually suitable for the G2 in advance.

Thanks to the narrow, centrally mounted stand and the height from the surface to the upper edge of the TV, there is enough space underneath the panel to comfortably place a compatible soundbar below the screen.

The heat sink installed in the G2 helps the self-illuminating pixels in 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 OLED to achieve more maximum performance in terms of luminance. This additional heat dissipation allows the screen’s pixels to become brighter without taking damage.

Overall, the LG OLED evo G2 achieves a value of 1170 nits with a feature called Brightness Booster Max. That is an extremely respectable value for an OLED TV and places LG’s top model very high on the tablou of self-luminous TVs. Although this mark cannot really compete with the high-end LCD-LED TVs yet, the gap in this field is getting smaller and smaller.

In reality, however, the difference is somewhat smaller than on the spec sheet and is therefore not quite as significant. As expected, the OLED also scores in terms of black level and has a theoretically infinite contrast – as is common for TVs of this type. The benefit of this is especially visible in dark surroundings and creates an impressive picture performance in combination with HDR content. This is exactly what the LG OLED evo G2 does in practice. Great contrasts and impressively good colors.

The flagship can make use of an extensive range of formats, such as the in-house HDR10HDR10 Media Profile – HDR with a color depth of 10 Bit in the Rec. 2020 colorspace Pro feature, HLG or the dynamic color space simulation Dolby Vision IQ. This means that image content can be output depending on the room brightness and thus automatically optimized for an optimal viewing experience.

We did not notice any surprises in the viewing angle stability either. According to our expectations, the LG OLED evo G2 does an excellent job in this area and does not allow for any quality losses even when viewed at an angle. Thus, you will always look at a good picture even in larger groups.

Although the new Gallery model is a bit more reflection-resistant compared to the predecessor, visible reflections are still visible on the panel of the G2. Compared to high-priced LCD-LED TVs, this is a disadvantage of the OLED TV. However, the gray uniformity makes a completely different impression – one of the qualities offered by OLEDs and a real selling point for sports entertainment fans. Accordingly, the flat color reproduction is no problem for the LG OLED evo G2 and offers a clean look without spot islands or darker corners.

Thus, you do not have to deal with a dirty screen effect. Like the former model, the new 2022 version also has a pinkish tint on the display. Apart from a few thin vertical lines in very dark scenes, the screen is not affected by any other phenomena. Since TVs with organic pixels do not need any backlight, blooming is not on the list of undesirable side effects either.

So you don’t have to worry about that at all. However, the Automatic Brightness Limiter attracted our special attention. Like in the C2, the ABL of the G2 also darkens large, bright areas noticeably. This is quite a disadvantage for an OLED TV. However, LG allows you to adjust the settings to a certain extent, but you cannot completely disable this protection feature.

The 5th generation Alpha9 AI Processor ensures precise image optimization in motion handling and the necessary performance reserves. The processing unit is assisted by the evo panel, which has an enormously low response time of just 0.2 milliseconds.

As a result, scenes look clean and consistently sharp. If you leave the interpolation enabled, the G2 once again faces the well-known risk of seeing the soap opera effect.

The G2 takes Judder rigorously to task and does not allow such picture distortions to occur in the first place. Unfortunately, a fast response time makes the panel more sensitive to so-called stutter. LG’s top model is not completely immune to this. All in all, the 120 Hertz panel provides really smooth image movements and does what is needed quite well.

If you think that the LG OLED evo G2 is just a lifestyle TV due to its thin design and that it has to take a back seat in terms of gaming performance, we strongly disagree. What LG’s C-series has to offer in terms of gaming equipment, the G2 definitely has to offer as well – just a bit brighter.

In detail, we’re talking about an input lag of about 6 milliseconds in gaming mode, VRR, AMD FreeSyncVariable Refresh Rate with AMD graphics cards or consoles and Nvidia G-SyncVariable Refresh Rate for Nvidia graphics cards support in addition to the four HDMI 2.1 ports and the great response time.

The Auto Low Latency Mode helps the OLED to turn into a full-fledged gaming TV on a very high level and thereby meets all requirements that are necessary for a decent gaming session nowadays.

Of course, the display of 4K at 120 hertz and Dolby VisionDynamic HDR-format with a color depth of up to 12 Bits and Mastering of up to 10,000 Nits Gaming for supported content are not missing. The latter will especially please owners of an Xbox Series X|S. The Game Optimizer allows you to keep an overview of the functions at all times and to manually change the settings.

Additional brightness improves the presentation of game content and ensures an even more brilliant color and contrast reproduction.

You are not a console gamer? That’s no problem! You can also play your favorite games on the screen via cloud gaming. Besides GeForce NOW, the game streaming service Stadia from Google is available to you as well.

The sound quality of the LG OLED evo G2 is on a good level and has no problems with mids and highs in normal use. The 4.2 sound system with a total of 60 watts does what is possible. 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 mimics the expected weakness and can’t really round off the overall picture well in terms of sound reproduction. Two subwoofers with an output of 10 watts each don’t help either.

Our clear recommendation for a TV in this price range is: If you are looking for a really good sound experience at home, don’t rely on the internal sound solutions of TVs. Depending on the usage, internal speaker systems quickly reach their performance limits, even in high-priced models.

The main problem here – as described – is a punchy reproduction of the bass. Modern flat-screen TVs like the LG OLED evo G2 have HDMI with an eARC connection. This allows you to output uncompressed Dolby Atmos to external sources like soundbars or large home theater systems. If you have not yet been able to find a suitable sound solution for you, we recommend our buying guide on soundbarfindr.

The so-called WiSA function might also be interesting for some users. You can easily connect compatible speakers to the G2 wirelessly. Using AI Sound Pro, the TV can adapt the sound to the room.

For this purpose, sounds are played in advance and analyzed with the help of the Magic Remote. This way, the G2 calibrates the sound virtually on its own. You do not have access to the support for DTSMulti-channel-sound-system (Surround Sound) competing with Dolby Digital codecs unfortunately.

Of course, you do not have to do without numerous Smart TV features in the LG OLED evo G2. But let’s first look at the probably most obvious change. From now on, the in-house operating system is called webOS 22 and no longer webOS 6.

LG thus breaks with its own nomenclature and orients itself on the current year. Thanks to the processing power of the fast central processing unit, you can navigate through the menus of the G2 quickly and without significant delays. From now on, you can also create your own user profiles and customize them. Recommendations are now displayed according to the profile.

Switching was easy and fast. However, you need an LG account to use this feature. Voice commands can now be transmitted to the TV without further ado.

The direct communication is called Hands-Free Voice Control and is handled either by LG’s ThinQ AI, Alexa or Google Assistant. Long searching for the Magic Remote is therefore no longer necessary.

If that still seems too complicated, you can still physically navigate through the menu of LG’s OLED evo G2. The familiar Magic Remote with its cursor is available for this. LG has also provided a large selection of streaming providers. All known services are available on the photo frame TV.

Another feature that we would like to point out is the Gallery Mode. It allows you to display real works of art by well-known artists on the TV. These are then barely distinguishable from a real painting.

Recordings are made via a built-in twin triple tuner or the USB recording function. Users of Apple devices can also use Apple Airplay 2 and Apple Homekit on LG’s flagship to display content easily on the screen or manage other Apple devices.

Before we put the LG OLED evo G2 through our calibration process, we check – as usual – the current state in terms of brightness reproduction accuracy and color fidelity. To our surprise, the G2 is already comparatively well adjusted out of the box and already indicates the luminance levels quite precisely. The target values on the EOTF curve are also already within the bounds.

However, this observation does not apply to the color reproduction. The G2 still has some room for improvement with a maximum error of 4.5 points and deviates especially in green and red. The mismatch in yellow and cyan is correspondingly high. The color balance differs especially in the bright areas and is thus not displayed quite accurately anymore in this area.

The G2 did not offer much potential for improvement in terms of displaying individual brightness levels, but it can still reduce the maximum error by 0.8 points to exactly one point with the help of our calibration. Thus, brightness gradations in gray and white areas are now reproduced even more accurately by the panel.

If we now take a look at the RGB balance, we notice that LG’s OLED evo G2 has improved significantly in accuracy over the entire range here as well. The color reproduction, which was previously considered to be a problem child, has improved enormously after our adjustment and is now on a truly great level across all color zones with an irregularity of no more than 1.1 points.