50 T3 AUGUST 2020State of the Art
LG CX
ll OLED TVs are in the ‘not-cheap’ end of the
TV spectrum, but LG’s trick has been to offer
every ounce of picture perfection that it can
for a truly reasonable price overall. The LG CX
continues this trend, delivering subtle but compelling
picture-quality improvements on anything LG OLEDs
have delivered before. Which is really saying something.
LG seems to have worked very hard on the balance
between achieving truly inky blacks and retaining
shadow detail. So black levels look slightly deeper
than they did on the C9, while shadow detailing is
significantly more satisfying than it was on last year’s B9.
Dark scenes thus look much more consistently natural
and immersive.
Its colour performance also improves on that of the C9.
Vivid hues such as blue skies and green forests look more
naturally toned without looking any less intense. Skin
tones look more natural in a wider range of movie lighting
situations, and completely free of any plastickiness or
forced shading.
The set’s native 4K pictures look pin-sharp this
year too, and hold onto that sharpness better when
there’s a lot of motion to contend with. The Cinema Clear
mode is a very good preset option, gently taking the edge
off the most jarring judder TVs can suffer with when
playing 24p content.
The CX also continues LG’s aggressive push to attract
gamers. For starters, its four HDMIs can handle 4K atThe CX continues LG’s
aggressive push to attract
gamers, with great results
120fps with 10-bit colour, which is what the PlayStation 5
and Xbox Series X are promising to support. And, in
Game mode, the TV only experiences just over 13ms of
input lag. This is a superb result. There’s also support for
auto low-latency mode and variable refresh rates over
HDMI, not to mention for the Nvidia G-Sync platform –
and the AMD Freesync system used by the Xbox One X
(and AMD graphics cards) is slated for later in the year.
Audio is unfortunately more of a mixed bag. In the plus
column, its AI Sound Pro mode can deliver a huge wall of
sound that projects far beyond the TV’s edges. Audio effects
are believably placed, and nothing becomes either too
pronounced or lost in the sound expansion process. But the
big problem with the TV’s sound is that heavy bass can
cause its speakers to crackle and drop out quite severely.
Despite this, the picture quality and gaming features
put together add up to a set that makes more consistent
and dramatic use of OLED’s strengths than last year’s
already fantastic LG OLED TVs did. And the results really
are glorious.LG CX
PRODUCT 02:
Impeccable image quality and PS5-
friendly gaming features at a lower priceBlack levels and shadow detailing are more impressive than on earlier
models; dark scenes look much more consistently natural and immersiveA