When I unboxed this TV,
I put it out there that I made a gutsy call at the beginning
of the year and posed the question, did I get it wrong?
Well, I think we have the answer.
Welcome back, everyone.
I'm Caleb Denison, and today I'm going to talk to you about the LG A1 OLED TV.
Yes, it's technically a review, but this I think, is going to be more like
a conversation than other TV
reviews that I do, because, frankly, I think that's what you all deserve.
I mean, this TV has really gotten into my head over the past few days.
I've been thinking about where it sits in LG's lineup.
I've been thinking about the value of OLED TV and where that sits.
And I've been thinking a lot about the money we invest in our TVs.
And when it's worth saving money, when you spend it,
and when it's worth saving up before spending it.
Oh, and that thing about me being wrong. Yeah, we're going to get to that.
But I might make you wait for it.
Before we dig into it I just want to say thanks for jumping into the comments and letting us know that
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and we will keep them coming.
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And, yes, chowders and stews count. Let me know in the comments.
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Thanks again. OK, let's do this.
So let's talk about a few key LG A1 OLED specs.
It has a 60 Hertz panel, not 120 Hertz,
even though the Xbox thinks it will do 120 Hertz.
More on that later.
That can mean a lot of things,
but it's mostly going to have some implications on motion smoothnes
It has LG’s A7 Gen Four Processor, not the newest fanciest A9 Gen Four Processor.
But what does that mean exactly?
This TV does not have HDMI 2.1 ports
and though it does support e-ARC for uncompressed audio,
it doesn't support variable refresh rate for gaming.
So that means no G-Sync or FreeSync.
It does have LG's game optimizer setting, though, so it's not without any
gaming friendly features.
Also, it appears the LG A1 OLED doesn't get as bright
as the C1 OLED or as it turns out, the Vizio OLED TV.
Now let's talk a little bit about pricing.
The fifty five inch LG A1 OLED, right now as I shoot this, is positioned
a couple hundred bucks less than the fifty five inch LG C1 OLED,
and about the same as the LG CX OLED from last year, while supplies last.
The difference between the sixty five inch models is about three hundred bucks.
Understand though that that could change as we near the end of the year
and get into the year 2022.
But from a product positioning standpoint, that's where we are.
So I think the question is pretty clear.
How does the savings the LG A1 OLED offers line up with its performance?
Is there such a slim difference in performance that
you should just save the money?
Or is there a big enough difference in performance that you should ignore
the slim difference in price and just save up for the better LG C1 OLED?
Also, where does Vizio fit into all of this?
Well, let's talk about that.
Before I broke out my colorimeter and spectrometer and Calman software,
I could tell this TV wasn't as bright as the OLEDs
I've been testing this year. And not just peak brightness either.
I could tell darker scenes were coming in darker than I thought they should.
And measurements confirmed that. The LG A1 sits at just under
three hundred and fifty nits peak for SDR, which is nothing special to begin with.
But the real bummer
is that it maxes out at about five hundred nits peak for HDR.
Compare that to the LG C1 OLED which can pull off
a little over seven hundred and fifty nits peak for HDR.
That's an appreciable difference, especially in anything other than a dark
or very dim room.
As for color accuracy,
the A1 is by no means bad, but the white balance is a little off.
And if you know what you're looking for and frankly, most folks don't
an experienced eye can see that as a bluish tint in the grays .
It's easy enough for a calibrator to fix, but that's not something that average
Joe can do on their own.
And frankly, I think
hiring someone for a calibration defeats the budget minded intent of this TV.
Ultimately, though,
the color accuracy with the right factory presets is pretty excellent.
Now let's talk about processing.
The difference between the Alpha Seven Gen Four and the Alpha Nine
Gen Four when watching real world content is tough to describe.
I feel like the A1 here is slower to come out of black than the C1 is.
I feel like the motion isn't as smooth, but that also has more to do
with the 60 Hertz panel than anything else.
The A1 does a decent job of tone mapping,
so it's putting the brightness juice it has in the right places.
It just doesn't have as much juice as I'd like.
And really, I think it comes down to upscaling low resolution content
and cleaning up low bit rate and low bit depth content.
And by the numbers, I'm sure the Alpha Nine is better,
but without comparing them side by side,
I can't say with any honesty that there's a drastic difference.
I think when I do put these side by side, it's going to be nuanced.
But sometimes when you add all those nuances together,
the whole ends up being greater than the sum of its parts.
And I suspect that's what we're looking at here.
I watch some 1080p SDR content and felt like it could have used some more sprucing up,
but I wasn't unhappy with the picture by any stretch.
Same with 720p SDR content off of cable.
It could be cleaner, but it was by no means bad.
So let me try to sum all of that up a little bit better.
If you take a look at the Alpha Seven Gen Four that's in the A1,
and you compare it to the Alpha Nine, Gen Four that's in the C1 OLED,
where's the real processing difference?
Well, it's in the little stuff and on their own.
there's not a whole lot of distinction.
You really have to do a side by side comparison.
But I think when you take it all together, what you get
is a slightly more enticing picture out of the C1
then you do the A1.
So at this point, it may seem like I've been kind of hard on the A1 OLED,
but it's still an OLED TV and those perfect blacks
and perfect screen uniformity go a long way.
It's still an outstanding looking TV
make no mistake. It may not have the brightness punch,
but when it comes to pixel
by pixel self illumination, those benefits are still very clear.
And on top of that, this TV is definitely far better than some off-brand OLEDs
I've seen at trade shows that simply aren't sold here in the US.
So, yeah, it could be a whole lot worse.
Cheaper. Yes, but much worse.
As for gaming, I think this TV would satisfy most gamers for now,
but the 60 Hertz native panel is not going to offer as smooth motion.
And if you have an Xbox Series X or a Series S
and you want to get the most out of it, this TV ain't the way to go
since it won't do variable refresh rate or 120 Hertz.
Also, you don't get as much HDR punch from this TV as you might like.
I did mention that the Xbox series X or S will show that the TV is capable of
doing 1080p at 120 Hertz, but it really is only a
60 Hertz panel, so it's just going to skip every other frame.
So with great input lag and very good picture quality, the TV performs
quite well for games,
but it's not the next gen gaming TV some of you might be hoping for.
So where does all of this leave us?
Where does this put the LG A1 OLED?
Look, I don't presume to tell you what to do with your money,
but I have to say that if I was in the market for a TV,
I would save up the few extra hundred bucks to get the C1 OLED.
I think LG has the right idea and that the cost saving measures they've implemented
really don't have a big enough impact to rob an OLED TV of its appeal.
But the savings isn't big enough to make those small sacrifices meaningful.
The A1 needs to be less expensive in order for it to make sense.
And that's why I was wrong earlier this year
when I said that the A1 was going to be a game changer. It almost was.
But when Vizio has an OLED that gets brighter for the same price
and LG's own C1 has what I think folks really want for just a bit more.
Well, like I said, I just got it wrong.
In the end, the A1 OLED among TVs is still a steak in
a market filled with hamburgers, but it's missing LG’s special sauce.
And in my opinion, that special sauce is worth every penny.
Thanks, as always, for watching, everyone.
Were you a little bit bummed out by the A1 OLED?
Let me know about that down in the comments.
Don't forget to click like and subscribe and here’s two other videos
that I think you'll like.