Computer Shopper - UK (2020-07)

TVs

ISSUE389|COMPUTER SHOPPER|JULY2020 81

ASTHESOLEmanufacturerofcommercial
OLEDpanelsontheplanet,you’dexpectLG
tobeabitofdabhandatmakingOLEDTVs.
Andyou’dberight:thepastcoupleofyears
havebeenfilledwithgreatLGtelevisions,and
theLGC9series –represented here by the
65in OLED65C9 –continues the streak.
The designstarts thingsoffonthe right
foot, withimprobably slim bezelsand, in
fact, an outrageouslyslim panelingeneral.
The bottompart of thechassis bulges out to
accommodatethe internalelectronics, but
it’s not overly bulky, andthe solid-feeling,
brushed-metal stand both looksgreat and
providesstable support.
Peer around theleft-handsideofthe TV
and you’ll discoverfour full-bandwidth HDMI
2.1inputs. Home cinema buffs will be
especially pleasedthat this upgradefrom
HDMI 2.0 brings with it fulleARCsupport as
standard, meaning youcan transmit the
lossless DolbyAtmos TrueHD audio stream
from a4KBlu-rayplayertothe TV andthen
onwards to an AV receiver.ATV like this
certainlydeserves to be accompanied by a
soundbar,although despiteits thin chassis, the
OLED65C9’s speakers arebetter than most,
kickingout some surprisingly decent bass.

CLEVER DISGUISE

As we’veobserved over thepast fewyears,
what separates the trulygreat OLEDs is not
how they dealwith true black, buthow they
handle the verydarkesttones before they
fade to black –afacet of performancereferred
to as ‘near-blackpresentation’. TheOLED65C9
displays LG’s best workyet in this area, and
it’s achieved by atechnique calleddithering:
intentionally adding visual noise to mask
other,moreunsightly issues.
This sounds counter-productive,but
viewed from any reasonable distance,itworks:
the ditherobscures that telltale
OLED flicker,and its own fuzziness
is onlynoticeablewhenpeering
from extremely close up.
This is obviouslygreat news,
and it onlygets better once you
examine colour performance.After
calibration, our OLED65C9review
unit deliveredsupremelyaccurate
colours withbothSDR and HDR
content.Restassured,you’re
seeingyour favouritemoviesand
TV exactly as the director intended.
The OLED65C9isabit of a
dab hand at upscaling, too. The
Alpha 9Gen 2processor does a

LG OLED65C9

★★★★★

£1,999•From http://www.currys.co.uk

VERDICT

Superblyaccurateimagequalitygoeshand
in hand with cutting-edge features and a
premium design

finejob of retrievingsharpdetailfrom

less-than-4Ksources, even if it does so with

atouch more ringing andfuzziness than its

Samsungand Sonyrivals.

Motion performanceisgood across the

board. Onekey differenceisthat the

TruMotion Clearsetting hasbeentweakedto

lessen soap-opera effect and interpolation

artefacts, but if you’reapurist you’ll want to

turn it off anyway. Slow panningshots in

24fpsmovies are handled correctly,however,

andthere’s not ahint of judder.Sadly, the

black frame insertion feature stillresults in

toomuchflicker to be used comfortably,and

particularly so in brighter scenes. It also

causes visible judder in 24fpsfilms, so we’d

adviseleaving it off.

TheC9doesn’t have any horrible

weaknesses, but you canfind some minor

issuesifyou go looking forthem. Forinstance,

we couldn’t notice anydirty-screeneffect on

ourgreytest slides, but pull up an all-white

screen and it’s possible to notice some

mild colour tintingifyou starelongenough.

We were hard-pressed to pick it up in

real-worldviewing, though.

SHINE BRIGHT

ForHDR, peak brightness on ourcalibrated

review unit reached700cd/m2. That might

soundunderwhelming after reading about

LCD sets that peakover 1,500cd/m2,but a

peak brightness of 700cd/m2 is still more

than enough to deliver an excellent HDR

experience.Combine this with atop-notch

DCI-P3 colour gamutcoverageof99%,and

theresults are stupendous.

Gamers, too, will benefit from low input lag.

We measuredjust 13ms in both 1080p SDR

and 4K HDR gamemodes,putting the

OLED65C9 amongthe most responsive TVs.

Furthermore, theOLED65C9 is equipped

with Auto LowLatency Mode (ALLM) –called

InstantGameResponsebyLG–which

automaticallyswitches the TV into its low-lag

gaming mode during gameplay. Another HDMI

2.1-enabled featureisvariablerefresh rate,

which reduces frame drop and screen tearing.

Using an EDID reader, we confirmed the

OLED65C9’s VRR range to be between 40Hz

and 120Hz –and, in practice,this is ahuge

boon forcrystal clear gaming performance.

It would be remiss of us to mention OLED

and gaming in thesamesentence without

talking about burn-in or screen burn. While

there’s ariskeven on the very latest OLED

TVs, fromour experience it’sextremely low;

it’s something that has been blown outof

proportion. If it is one of your majorconcerns,

then be reassured:the OLED65C9 is even

more resistant than previousgenerations. The

updated 2019 OLED panel nowemploys a

larger redsubpixel to combat the issue, and

theOLED65C9 judiciously –and imperceptibly

–dimsthe imagewhenitdetectsastatic logo.

NEXT GEN

It would be easytowriteoffthe OLED65C9 as

aC8series refreshwithahandful of extra

features, but it’s much more than that. Its

gaming prowess is considerably

improved over it predecessors,

and LG stands uncontested as the

only TV manufacturer to offer the

mostcomprehensiveset of HDMI

2.1featurescurrently available.

LG’s engineers have also proven

themselvesbytaking feedbackon

board andswiftlyaddressing any

bugs throughfirmwareupdates,

which is fantastic to see.

Factor in the outstanding

picturequality and the competitive

launch pricing andthe OLED65C9

is another OLED-encrusted jewel

in LG’s crown.