LG has been quietly demoing the LG C5 OLED TV at CES 2025 – it announced the LG G5 and LG M5 flagship TVs in flashy fashion, but the LG C5 went more under the radar. However, I got to see it in person at LG’s demo suite, with the LG G5 nearby for comparison, and I could ask LG for more information.
The headlines are that the LG C5 will be a lot like the LG C4, but with improved processing, a slightly brighter display, and new webOS features.
The brightness increase is obviously the juiciest part there, but LG wouldn’t be drawn into details – unlike the G5, which it says is up to 40% brighter compared to the LG G4 from last year and is three times brighter than the LG B5, LG just said the C5 would be somewhat brighter.
There doesn’t seem to be a new OLED panel in the C5 – there was no mention of it getting the microlens array panel that was used in the LG G4, and its refresh rate hasn’t risen to 165Hz, unlike the G5 – so I suspect that the brightness increase will come just from improved power management of the screen by the processing. This might make a significant difference, but my best guess is that it will be a very small increase.
That’s partly based on LG’s reluctance to talk about it, and partly based on what I could see – the LG C5 looked beautiful and bright, but not very different to the LG C4. Last year, when I saw the LG C4 at CES, I could see instantly that there was a major jump in brightness over the C3. It didn’t look the same this time.
LG also didn’t offer many details of what would be different in the processing, but did focus on the new features of webOS, including voice recognition and personalized profiles – including switching profiles based on your voice, and having custom picture and screen layout settings per person.
Another great-looking set
Okay, so it doesn’t look like we’re getting many changes in the LG C5. It’ll also be available in the same sizes: 42, 48, 55, 65, 77, and 83-inches.
But that means it’s still a great-looking TV. LG was demoing the moody trailer for Apple TV Plus‘ Wolfs, which has lots of dark scenes with occasional neo-noir splashes of light. The C5 handled it all great, with deep, spacey blacks where they should be, and subtly lit element poking up if they should.
Any bright highlights or white blocks that do appear have a strong, clear brilliance to them, and colors look natural and convincing – even when stylized.
It’s clearly going to be another very high-quality set from LG, but the Samsung S90F – the equivalent model from Samsung – is set to raise its brightness again (and deliver some good image processing upgrades), the question of whether the LG C5 is going to pick up the LG C4’s mantle as the best OLED TV for mid-range buyers will come down to the price.
If LG can be aggressive about the price (especially considering it’s cutting the cheaper LG B5 range down to just two sizes), then the fact that the C5 hasn’t changed much year-on-year won’t matter. If it’s great value, it’s great value.
But there’s no pricing yet for the LG C5, so we’ll probably have to wait until closer to spring to find out how well LG is hitting the balance. I’m really looking forward to getting this in our test room to find out.
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