Hello, my name’s Tom and this is Proper Honest Tech.
We recently purchased an LG G1 OLED TV, which now takes pride of place on our living room wall.
We’ve been using it as our main home TV now for about three weeks,
and so in this video, I’m going to review this absolutely fantastic TV.
I’ll talk you through my experience of getting it installed, tell you what I like about it,
tell you some of the things that I’m not so keen on, and give you my general thoughts.
The exact model that we bought is the LG G1 55 inch, the smallest of the available models,
this does come in a 65inch and 77 inch panel as well. The price difference between the
panels is staggering, certainly here in the UK. We purchased this model for £1,599
in a bank holiday sale, a price that I’ve noticed is still currently available,
but that price shoots up to £2,500 for the 65 inch, and then £4,500 for the 77 inch,
so I can’t help but think that most people are going to find this 55 inch model the sweet spot
in terms of bang for your buck. For what it’s worth, in our pretty large living room, it doesn’t
look so large as to look silly or overwhelming, but I’ve not once felt that it’s not big enough.
Unboxing the TV was straightforward, although I do think that unboxing and setting up this TV is
a two person job, if you live alone you should really rope in a friend to get this hooked up.
In the box is of course the TV itself, the remote control which I’ll talk about separately,
some paperwork and the included mounting bracket. This is super important because, by default,
this TV is designed to be wall mounted, not put on a stand. It doesn’t come with a stand included,
if you do wish to put this on a stand, you’ll need to purchase it separately.
Also do keep in mind that as the legs sit right at the very left and right of the TV, you’re going to
need an extremely wide TV unit for this to sit on, basically the width of the TV again. And that’s
because LG quite simply don’t want you to put this TV on a stand, they want you to wall mount it,
and for good reason. Once mounted, this TV sits almost entirely flush against the wall thanks
to some clever design on the rear of the TV, and looks absolutely incredible in doing so.
All of the cables channel around the back of the TV and then poke out of the rear, and you
could either hide those cables in your wall, or if you’re like us and that isn’t an option,
some simple PVC conduit painted to match the wall keeps everything looking nice. The TV is
staggeringly thin, and with bezels of just under 1cm all the way around, you really do
feel like you’re looking at one massive piece of high tech glass, rather than a TV here.
And speaking of installation, getting this on the wall was actually a piece of cake. You
simply line up the included bracket wherever you want it, and mark out the holes wherever you plan
on drilling in rawl plugs or wall anchors. Once the bracket is on, pull the levered section out,
release the two locking clips, then have a friend help you guide the TV on and lock it into place.
You can then attach your HDMI cables as needed, before pushing everything back against the wall.
Speaking of connections, you’ve got loads on offer here, and all at the bleeding edge
of TV technology. All 4 HDMI ports support HDMI 2.1, and eARC is supported here on HDMI port 2,
so if you want to connect this to a compatible soundbar for example
and use your TV for the other connections, that is an option. You’ve got 3 USB ports,
digital optical audio out, analog audio out, an ethernet port and an antenna or cable input.
So, let’s power it on then and talk about how this performs with content. The first thing that will
happen when you power on is a setup process, getting the TV connected to your internet
and running any updates that need to happen. With that done, you’ll be greeted by the latest version
of WebOS, which now appears as a full dashboard, rather than the banner that I’m familiar with from
previous years. This for me, is one of the few areas where I feel that this TV falls down a bit.
The User Interface is easy to use, but is, if I’m honest, a bit clunky, and packed with far more
information and options than I think you actually need. Realistically, all I want here is to be able
to quickly change the input from either my Sky Q box to my PS5 or back again, or access an app,
anything else is just noise. Unfortunately, with the user interface feeling cluttered,
this is often more difficult than it needs to be. I’m used to using the latest Apple TV 4K, which is
blisteringly quick and to the point, and that’s perhaps why I find this a bit disappointing.
It does get the job done, don’t get me wrong, just not as smoothly as you might want it to.
All of the apps you’re likely to want here are catered for, and I was quickly able to get
Netflix, Prime, Disney Plus and Apple TV+ setup and running, as well as UK apps like iPlayer,
ITV Hub and All4. The app versions all look really good too, you’re not being fobbed off with low
quality ports, everything looks slick and smooth and runs well once you’re in the apps themselves.
Of course, all of this is irrelevant if the TV can’t perform once you start watching content,
and thankfully that isn’t the case here at all. I’m not in a position to give you super detailed
test results here, this like all of my reviews, is a practical one based on real-world usage,
but I can tell you that this TV looks incredible. With HDR content, whether it’s HLG, HDR10 or Dolby
Vision, this panel really does have to be seen to be believed. I’ve deliberately captured this in
HDR to give you as accurate an illustration of the quality of this TV as I can, but even this
won’t do it justice. Colours are bright, bold and rich, with nature content in particular
looking like it could jump out of the screen. Blacks are about as black as they can get, thanks
to the OLED screen’s ability to individually power pixels, which also means no blooming at all.
If dark, edgy thrillers are your vibe, you’re really going to enjoy watching on this screen.
The Viewing Angle is very good, our living room is setup with us looking directly at the TV,
but if we have guests, they’ll be viewing from the side, and it does still look good,
even from there. Reflections are minimal, we’ve got a light in the centre of our living room
ceiling which does pickup when we’ve got it switched on, but it’s not hugely noticeable.
Direct sunlight hasn’t been an issue at all, with the screen able to get more than
bright enough to keep us watching if we do happen to be watching on a bright afternoon.
As with all modern TVs, you’ve got tonnes of visual presets to choose from, and loads
of calibration options if you want to dig into the menus and play around with some tweaking.
So, 4K HDR content looks phenomenal, as you’d expect from a TV like this. But what I’ve also
noticed is just how good non 4K content looks as well, the content that the TV is upscaling.
We subscribe to Sky Q, and a lot of the content there is still in HD 1080p, sometimes much lower
resolution than that on some of the more obscure channels. The G series isn’t a miracle worker,
but it’s bloomin’ impressive just how good it can make even this content look thanks to upscaling.
Yes, where possible, I’d always choose to watch in 4K HDR, but the performance of the G Series in
this regard means that I don’t miss it as much as I thought I would when it’s not available.
Another area where this TV performs exceptionally well is actually in the sound department.
By default, the TV is set to LG’s smart audio setting, which we found to be really tinny.
Switching it back to regular sound improves things drastically, with an impressive
audio range and more bass than you’d expect from such a thin TV. It can get loud if you want it to,
dialogue is clear and cuts through the mix, and musical scores are rich and punchy.
It’s not going to be a replacement for a soundbar or home cinema setup, which is
something we do plan to add in the future, but for now, this is more than good enough.
OK, gaming. The G1 comes with LG’s Game optimizer settings, allowing you to quickly configure the
panel to work more effectively for the kind of game that you’re playing, whether that’s
a First Person Shooter, a strategy game or an RPG. Through these settings, you can do things
like reduce blue light, prevent input lag, turn on variable refresh rate and switch on AMD Freesync.
The end result is a simply breathtaking performance with the latest gaming consoles.
I’ve got my PS5 connected, and everything, and I mean everything looks better on this screen,
even down to the user interface of the console. Games that have been adapted to run at 4K 60
or even 120 frames per second look just amazing, with the smoothest animations possible along with
those vivid, high definition colours. If you’re a keen gamer, particularly if you’ve managed to get
hold of one of the current generation consoles, I really can’t recommend the G Series enough.
The last thing to talk about is the remote control, which is good,
although not great. Pictured here next to my previous LG TV remote,
you can see that the overall theme of the design has remained the same, but has been redesigned
to be rounder and smoother, and I do really like that. My only gripe, and again it’s fairly minor,
is the choice of buttons at the bottom. You’ve got Netflix, Prime and Disney Plus,
which I can get onboard with, but I find Rakuten an odd choice as the 4th service.
If you’re a Rakuten power user, drop me a comment and let me know what you think of the service,
I’ve not used it personally and don’t know anyone who has. Below that are the voice assistant
buttons for both Amazon and Google, so if you use either of those, you’re covered with this TV.
So, in conclusion, no prizes for guessing that I really, really like this TV. I was
coming from a more budget range HDR LG TV that I picked up around 2017,
so I’m aware that even an equivalent mid-range TV bought today would feel like quite the step up,
but I’m still blown away by just how good this TV is. Absolutely everything that we’ve watched
on this, from regular TV on Sky, to the latest 4K HDR content has looked absolutely sublime,
and gaming is a next-level experience on this TV, it really does feel like the perfect
addition to the PS5 or the Xbox Series X. Not only that, it looks great in our living room,
not taking up too much space at all, and sitting perfectly flush against the wall. All in all, this
TV is an absolute gem, and if you can find a good deal for it, I really can’t recommend it enough.
What about you? What are you using at the moment? Are you planning on upgrading your TV soon?
If so, what are you thinking of getting? Drop me a comment, and let’s talk about it.
And as ever, if you found this video useful, do please consider leaving me a like,
and subscribing to my channel for more content like this in the future.
See you on the next video.