OLED is a much-desired screen tech thanks to its deep, accurate black levels, rich contrast and seriously punchy colors – and image quality has only improved with the introduction of new tech, such as LG’s Primary Tandem RGB OLED, or ‘four-stack’ OLED.
The TV LG has chosen to introduce this new panel tech on is the LG G5, one of its flagship OLEDs for 2025. We’ve fully tested the LG G5 and it’s already one of 2025’s best TVs, earning a full five-out-of-five stars in our LG G5 review, thanks to its full feature-set, snappy performance and most importantly its superb picture quality.
We here at TechRadar have been using a Panasonic MZ1500 OLED TV, released in 2023, as our reference TV for a while now (it’s a trusty assistant in my monthly Blu-ray Bounty feature), thanks to its brighter-than-average panel, super-accurate colors, and natural image processing.
And this got me thinking; how does the MZ1500’s OLED EX panel (a brighter version of the standard W-OLED) compare to the G5’s ‘four-stack’? I put the two side-by-side and played the same movies on each one, using our trusty Panasonic DP-UB820 4K Blu-ray player, one of the best 4K Blu-ray players around, with the output mirrored to both TVs.
I know the MZ1500 was a great TV – that’s why we kept it around – but I was surprised just how well it held up to the latest and greatest model.
Filmmaker Mode; a close contest?
Although the G5 has a significant brightness increase over the Panasonic MZ1500, with the G5 hitting 2,260 nits and the MZ1500 hitting 1,000 nits peak brightness respectively (measured on a 10% white HDR window), I found that the two both showed similar pictures in Filmmaker Mode; both Dolby Vision and HDR.
Watching a 4K Blu-ray of Wicked, an extremely bright and colorful movie, in Dolby Vision Filmmaker Mode (and Dolby Vision Dark on the MZ1500) looked excellent on both sets (as expected), but the MZ1500 showed essentially as vibrant and vivid colors as the G5 to my eyes.
A scene where Elphaba enters a colorful room showed glossy HDR highlights on both screens, with colors showcasing a nice, vivid punch.
Switching to a 4K Blu-ray of La La Land, again in Filmmaker Mode, the MZ1500 demonstrated excellent color reproduction and accuracy with colors as visually striking as the G5. There was a boost in peak brightness in some areas on the G5, but not to the extent I expected.
Naturally, both these screens demonstrated their superb handling of high contrast, dark scenes as well, showcasing deep, accurate blacks. In The Batman, any scene with bright lamps against dark skies or gloomy surroundings was displayed effectively with true-to-life accuracy.
Shadow detail was also incredible, with no visible loss in textures or details in even the darkest of scenes. Again, I expected the brightness to be boosted on the G5, with maybe higher contrast demonstrated – but was surprised when this wasn’t the case. To be fair, this movie was only mastered at 400 nits, so perhaps similar performance is less of a shock in this mode with minimal processing.
Finally, in Oppenheimer, both TVs displayed brilliant, bright whites and inky blacks, while showing a full range of gray tones on the black-and-white scenes, such as Admiral Strauss’ tour of the University with Oppenheimer early in the movie.
Although, in this, where the sunlight shines through into the white reception room was one of the first hints of the G5’s higher fullscreen brightness (331 nits on the G5 to the MZ1500’s 186 nits, measured on a 100% white HDR window pattern).
Needless to say, I was surprised at just how close the two TVs were matched in their respective Filmmaker Modes; I anticipated a much higher jump in brightness on the G5 that would lead to bolder colors and brighter contrast.
The G5 shines in other modes
However, a switch to other picture modes on both screens was where the G5 really shone. Switching both the G5 and the MZ1500 to their respective Movie/Cinema modes is where the G5’s new OLED panel got to flex its brightness prowess.
In Wicked, when Elphaba sings on a clifftop after running through a field of wheat, the G5’s peak and fullscreen brightness increase over the MZ1500 is evident. The sun, clouds, clifftop (also white) and the wheat itself all have a punchier, brighter look thanks to the G5’s brightness boost. Even Elphaba’s green skin is given more perceived depth thanks to the higher brightness and richer contrast.
During the bomb test in Oppenheimer, with the close-up shot of Oppenheimer’s face reflecting the brightness of the bomb, in the same Cinema/Movie modes on both screens, once again the G5 demonstrates how much brighter its panel is.
Even during The Batman’s darkest sequences, such as the opening crime scene investigation, the dim, warm lamps had more of a shine against the murky surroundings and dark wood interior on the G5 when it was in Dolby Vision Cinema and the MZ1500 was in Dolby Vision IQ (a brighter mode than Dolby Vision Dark).
The increase in brightness also meant small details such as the whites of Batman’s eyes were more visible against his black mask when viewed in these picture modes.
Reflecting on progress
Although I was surprised by the results of these two OLED powerhouses in Filmmaker Mode, it was encouraging to see just how far OLED has progressed, especially when it came to reflections. The best OLED TVs now have a much better handle of annoying mirror-like reflections.
Seeing the G5 and the MZ1500 side-by-side, it was hard to look past just how obvious reflections were on the MZ1500 in comparison to the G5. The G5 wasn’t free from reflections, but it was certainly an improvement.
And with other sets such as the Samsung S95D introducing OLED Glare Free anti-reflection measures to OLED, which has been further improved in its successor the Samsung S95F, OLED now has started to nullify its main weakness. But for this test, this was one area where the G5 couldn’t be matched by an older, dimmer OLED.
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james.davidson@futurenet.com (James Davidson)
