For me a home office isn’t just a place where I work but of mixed usages from studying,
relaxing with some videos and playing video games. This is why I’m so excited for products
like this new LG C10 48 inch TV. A smaller TV that still that has all the latest and
greatest display technologies. You get a gorgeous OLED panel for that infinite contrast and
perfect blacks. Next generation specs like 4K 120Hz support, VRR, G-Sync, Freesync support;
Low Input Lag, and HDR. This display is as good as it gets for gaming on the upcoming
PS5, and Xbox consoles. And it’s even small enough to use as a PC monitor for casual everyday
use. Hi, I’m David and this is the LG C10 48
inch TV. The ultimate small TV, big gaming monitor for the home office.
So just a disclaimer, LG sent me this TV to test and I’ve been using it for just over
2 weeks now as my main display across a variety of use cases. I’ll start with my thoughts
and experiences using it for watching videos and movies, but you can also skip ahead using
the timestamps in the description. And no surprises here, the image quality of
OLED lives up to expectations. Vibrant colors and bright highlights when watching standard
def or HDR content. Wide viewing angles so even if you’re viewing from off axis the
image still looks really good. Playing 4K content over the built in apps like YouTube
and Plex, or external devices connected via HDMI looks super crisp. But the biggest benefit
to this OLED panel is thanks to those self-lit pixels. Meaning Perfect blacks, no distracting
blooming or halo effects which can commonly be noticed when watching more dark space and
stars type of scenes on other displays. The other feature that movie watchers may
enjoy with this TV is the updated Alpha 9 processor, which is suppose to help with improving
the picture with color processing, sharpening and smoothing algorithms.
But I’ll be honest I don’t really like using those features. What I do like is that
I can easily turn off all that stuff by choosing the “Film Maker Mode” picture profile.
This is essentially like going into all those menus and turning off all the enhancements
that can make a movie look a little artificial, but it’s quick and easy. If you do want
to dive deeper into tweaking the advanced settings I’ll link to a couple resources
on that from HDTVtest and Rtings in the description. Next let’s talk console gaming. And this
is where it starts to get really exciting with this TV but at the same time it’s a
little wait and see. I’m waiting for the next gen PS5 and Xbox Series X coming later
this year, but until those are available, we can’t fully test and take advantage of
those capabilities that this TV has to offer. But spec wise, this LG C10 is stacked to be
the dream gaming display. HDMI 2.1 with support for 4K, 120Hz refresh rate at 10-bit. And
supporting Variable Refresh Rate as well for smooth tear free gaming. I’m hoping the
next gen consoles take full advantage of all of this for the cleanest, smoothing gaming
console experience. But even if you’re just gaming on a current
gen console, gaming still looks great. And input lag feels really low regardless on the
resolution, refresh rate, or HDR setting you use. You just need to make sure you’re using
the Game picture profile for minimal input lag.
There are also some other tidbits that I want to highlight about this TV that I really like.
Such as the 4 HDMI inputs. All of them have the same full support for HDMI 2.1 40gbps,
which is great especially with all the devices in the near future that will take advantage
of that. The built-in speakers are also another high
point. I think especially for this target market of users needing a small TV, space
for dedicate speakers isn’t always going to be an option. While, they don’t have
good low-end bass, and they aren’t going to replace a full home theater speaker setup.
Compared to small computer speakers, I think they’re decent enough to use in place of
those. And you can always use a pair of headphones when you need to be a little more critical.
In terms of physical design, I like the simple design of the stand and it has nice thin bezel
So overall it has a clean minimal look. And I can’t forget to mention the price.
At $1500 USD it’s not cheap but there’s nothing else in the market that compares to
this with its OLED panel and HDMI 2.1 support for gamers at this size.
And that’s the other big news here. Being 48 inches, this is the smallest TV in the
market with all these premium features. While that sounds a bit weird with TVs getting bigger
and bigger, and yeah, I like having a big screen for my main home theater. But not everyone
has the room for such are large tv in their place. And for places like my bedroom or office,
a smaller 48 inch TV works out to be a great size to use at distances like 6 or 7 feet
and still feel very immersive. But what I’m most excited about with this
smaller TV, is that it’s getting to the size to replace and be my main PC monitor.
All those same features I mentioned earlier that make this great for Movies and Console
Gaming. I also want on my PC setup. So is 48 inches still too big to use as a
PC Monitor? And that really depends on how far away you’re sitting from it. I had to
switch back to my IKEA Gerton tabletop that has a longer depth of 75cm for better comfort.
Also keep in mind the TV and stand does protrude out back a little over 20cm, so that eats
up a lot of desk space as well. You could also put it on a monitor arm which will allow
you customize the height and tilt, but it will still stick out forward just as much
as the original stand. In my normal siting position, seat up, tucked in and arms on the
desk. My eyes are about 60cm away, which I find is a little too close, and sharpness
definitely takes a hit with the low 92 pixel per inch of this screen. Pulling the keyboard
to the edge and leaning the chair back to where my eyes are about 80 or 85cm away feels
more like the ideal distance for me to target. So, I think a wall mount would probably work
best for most people. But regardless in this current setup it’s still comfortable and
usable on a daily basis. But I’d be all for a 43 or 40 inch size screen if it were
available instead. Keep in mind that’s me using it with applications
tiled across the screen to multitask, which is great for people like me who have multiple
windows open at the same time. But if you want to just full screen a single application,
I think it’s way too big to run anything in dedicated full screen and hunt your eyes
all over the display. If do decide to use it as Monitor. When you
first plug in the TV to your PC, you’re going to want to switch it to PC mode. It’s
not the easiest setting to find. You first go into Inputs, then Home Dashboard, the Settings
Icon and Edit, Click on the Icon next to the input you’re using, and then Select PC Mode
and Save. Choosing this feature does two very important
things: 1 it puts it into its low input lag setting, similar to choosing the Game Picture
profile. This means you can switch between any picture profile while in PC Mode and still
stay super responsive. And 2 it removes some chroma subsampling blurriness. So choosing
this setting helps with sharpness of text. The other settings I like to change are more
personal preference. I’ll switch to one of the more neutral picture profiles like
ISF Expert Dark, I’ll turn off energy savings and reduce the OLED Light down to around 40
or lower in a dark room. For PC Gaming with a mouse and keyboard, again
I find is way too big to be this close up, especially for fast paced shooter. You can
play unscaled or in windowed mode which actually works quite well when supported and if you’re
okay with the lower resolution. But when possible, I’d rather plug in a controller to my PC
and push back a couple feet for a more comfortable gaming experience and take full advantage
of the screen. But my based on my limited experience PC Gaming
on this screen, I think it looks great. Again this TV is ahead of its time, and I’m waiting
to purchase a next gen GPUs to take advantage of that full 4K @120Hz 4:4:4 experience, but
for now on my 1080 Ti, I can choose between 4K 60Hz or my preferred 1440p 120Hz for smoother
gameplay. This TV also support GSync on Nvidia cards,
and FreeSync on AMD cards for variable frame rate support to eliminate screen tearing.
My Nvidia GPU doesn’t support GSync over HDMI, which is only available on the latest
gen GPUs, so I didn’t get to test those features out.
And finally there’s BFI, Black Frame Insertion. You can find this setting under the TruMotion>User>OLED
Motion Pro setting. This can help improve motion clarity for fast paced games. But keep
in mind it does adding flickering so it’s best used at 120Hz. And it will lower the
overall picture brightness. But it’s a nice feature to test for yourself.
So overall PC gaming just like Console gaming is really nice on this display. But I’m
waiting on the next gen GPUs to take full advantage of it.
There are some minor limitation that are important to consider if you’re using this as your
main monitor. And you can’t talk about OLED TVs without mentioning burn in. I’ve only
had the TV for 2 weeks now, so I really can’t say how much of an issue it will be using
it as a PC display. The TV does have some built-in burn in protection features like
Pixel Shift, which will shift the entire screen once in a while. And logo luminance adjustment
that sometimes dims regions of the screen that it detects as a static logo.
But regardless I still recommend taking some basic precautions like using a dark color
theme, hiding desktop icons, hiding the taskbar, and using a screensaver.
I’ve also noticed some minor color fringing that is most noticeable around solid Yellow
objects. For example, highlighted text in Microsoft Word will have a red and green border
on the left and right edges. I ran some custom test pattern and captured an upclose shot
of the pixels just to be sure it wasn’t an optical illusion. And compared to my 43
inch IPS TV you can clearly see the fringing is much more noticeable on the LG OLED. To
be clear, while watching movies or playing games, which is what this TV is specifically
designed for, I don’t think anyone will ever notice. It’s only noticeable up close
while using it as a PC monitor, and even then, it’s limited to certain solid color objects,
and is pretty minor being just 1 pixel wide. But if you’re working on color critical
work it is something to consider. This TV also has an auto dimmer when the screen
is static, which you can’t turn off. This is different from the logo luminance adjustment
option in the menu. Basically the entire screen will dim after around 3 or 4 minutes of idle,
which makes sense to prevent burn in. But static tasks like typing a word document or
even just moving your mouse around is also considered static and will trigger this feature.
So once in while I need to wake screen up by moving some windows or more easily, I just
double press the Windows Tab keys to wake it back up.
In conclusion, this is a great premium TV that’s uniquely small at 48 inches, which
is great for those with small spaces. For movies watchers you get those perfect blacks
with OLED, and for gamers you’ll get low input lag and support for HDMI 2.1 features
like 4K 120Hz and VRR on the next gen consoles. While it’s not perfect as a PC monitor,
still being a little bigger than I’d wish, and the burn-in protection features can be
noticeable during static tasks like word processing and excel. But If you need a single display
to do it all; and big screen gaming and movies are your priorities, this is as good as it
gets in my opinion. But hope you guys enjoyed this one. You know what to do. And I’ll
see you in the next video.