T3 - UK (2022-06)

JUNE 2022 T 3 69

LG C 2

shame.We’re seeing some aggressive
prices this yearfrom next-gen
mini-LEDLCD TVs, and these may be
better suited to more people’s budgets.
So whatdoes the LG C2 have to
offer?It’s astonishingly slim and
surprisingly light, a resultof a change
in materials that bringsrigidity to the
back panel without excessiveweight.
e panel itself has a whisperthin
border, so there’slittle todistract you
from its images. e screen sits on a
central pedestal, which looksa lot
better than the wide lipused last year.
It’salso more practical when it comes
to fitting it onto AV furniture.
Hailed as the brand’s most powerful
chip yet, the Alpha 9 Gen 5 has serious
processing chops. Its AIobject
enhancement separates foreground
elements from the background, for a
greater sense of visual depth and
dynamic tone mapping.
Upscaling has enjoyed a big boost
too, thanks to improvements made
possible by smartermachine
learning. Normallywe try toavoid SD
channels at all costs, but the C2 does
such an impressivejob of making

them watchable, wemight actually

start paying attention.

ere are fourHDMI 2.1 ports all

supporting VRR/4K120Hz/ALLM,

which is excellent.It means that

however manygaming devices you

haveor will havein the future, you’ve

definitely got enough next-gen ports

for make the most of them. It’speace

of mind for gamers and this makes

the C2is one of the best TVs for

next-gen consoles. Plus, there’s an

optical digitalaudio output, and

Ethernet in addition to Wi-Fi. e TV

has both a terrestrial aerialinput,

supported by Freeview Play for the

UK and a generic satellitetuner.

LG’sMagic remote control has

slimmed downtoo. It feels like a more

conventionalwand in the hand, but

stilluses LG’s cursor-based pointer

system. e remote comes with

dedicated buttons for Netflix,Disney+,

Rakuten TVand Prime Video.

e TVis also compatiblewith

Google Assistant and AmazonAlexa.

ese smart assistants allow you to

changechannels,search content and

controlsmart home devices with

voice commands,working intandem

with LG’sinQ smart platform.

LG has tweaked the full-screen

webOS software to include Profiles

for familymembers, so there’sthe

promise of more tailored curation for

each individualperson, pulled from

the various services you personally

use. It’salso pretty nippy to operate.

ere’sa new Always Ready mode,

which allows the set to displaydigital

art when inStandby mode,if you’re

one of the few not worried about

energy bills currently.

Go big,go bright

Here’sthe real headlinenews: the LG

C2 delivers a significant advance in

picture quality over itspredecessor.

But as wementioned before it’s more

significant at some sizes thanothers.

e model wereviewed – 65-inch

• is brighter for one thing,making it
  an watch during daylight,because it’s
  more likelyto breakthrough
  reflections and ambientlight. e
  uplift in average picture brightness is
  most evident inStandardand Eco
  picture defaults. ese come with

The LG C 2 delivers

a significantly

better picture than

its predecessor

BRIGHT THINKING

Thanks to a seriously smart

algorithm that boosts the

brightest parts of the picture,

the C2 can hit brightness

peaks of 810 nits – impressive

for an OLED. Sadly this

feature is absent from the 42-

and 48 -inch versions.